Hello again

Wow.  It's been a long time.  Nearly a year since the last post.  Well, much has happened at the Martin House in the past several months.  Don't worry, I won't  bombard you with all the details at once, but just thought I'd share a little kitchen update we recently finished.

Our kitchen has been a long process.  We have gradually added updates as time and funds allowed.  It is almost how we would like it, but it seems like new ideas pop up all the time.  And when are you ever really "finished" with a project when you own a house.

This last project included painting the walls (finally!!!!) and installing new cabinets.

Also, since I last posted our kitchen pictures, we have added brand new stainless steel appliances.  We found a great deal and are in love!

We decided to add cabinets above our peninsula for more storage.  I have always wanted to have some glass front cabinets in my kitchen and my wonderful Drew Babe decided it would be a good idea with this project.  He routed out the panel in the center of the cabinet doors, so there would be a place for the glass to rest.  A glass shop cut and installed the glass.  While seeded glass was my first choice, we just couldn't justify spending the $60/sqft, as opposed to the $6/sqft for the clear glass.

I am loving the glass front cabinets to display my white dishes.

I have been dying to repaint the kitchen for a long while.  We went with a Sherwin Williams color called Ancient Marble in a satin finish.  It is a grayish-sage-green color.  Drew says it looks a lot more "mature."  I guess we are growing up ;)

Drew Babe also beautifully installed a beaded board backsplash under the cabinets.  I swear he can really do anything.  All of the crazy ideas I come up with for house projects, he can always figure them out and complete them.  Poor guy, his honey-do-list is really never-ending.

Now for a little "before" and "after."

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Like I said there are still a couple things we would like to do in the kitchen, such as install new lights (maybe recessed lighting Drew Babe?;), paint the kitchen table, or possibly install a new built-in breakfast nook bench/table, and add some wall art.  As of right now we are definitely enjoying our newest update.

Next big project at the Martin House: the nursery!

Step Two....and Three....

of our flooring project.  Remember step one was mentioned several months ago in this post here.

It turns out buying our new floors was the quickest part of the project.  The 40 boxes of flooring ended up sitting in our music room for a while before we did anything with them.  When we finally got to the "Put in new floors" part of our "Things to Do Around the House" checklist, we decided to have our handy next door neighbor take care of the installation.

While our house quickly turned into a construction zone and a complete disaster, it was nice to have brand new floors in all four rooms in just five days.  We shoved most of the furniture and accessories into our room to make it easier for them to lay the floor.

See what I mean, it was a wreck!

Then came one of my favorite parts of the project.  Ripping out the hideous outdated vinyl floor and....

the brown carpet.  I don't think we were even a bit sad to see this go.

It would have been amazing, if underneath all the old flooring we found hardwood; but instead we found this hospital-like linoleum tile throughout the entire house.

After the carpet and vinyl flooring was ripped out, a moister barrier was laid.  Then came a slightly padded underlayment for cushion and to help with sound, since we are on a slab.

Of course, this is the only in-between picture I took, probably because it was a pretty quick process after the doorways were cut out.

It was so fun to come home one evening and see this in our living room!

Some people cautioned us about putting the flooring in the kitchen because of possible swelling from spills.  Well, Drew Babe decided to perform his own MythBusters by soaking a scrap piece of flooring in a bucket of water for several hours.  While our floor will hopefully never be "soaking" for several hours, we found the scrap piece had no swelling at all.

Myth:  Does laminate wood flooring swell when in contact with water?

Finding:  Busted!  (at lease with our floors)


 (side note:  I promise I don't usually decorate our kitchen table with swords:)

To give everything a finished look, we had shoe molding installed.  Drew Babe decided to go ahead and give the baseboards a fresh coat of paint because the shiny new floors made every scuff and nick on our baseboards stick out like a sore thumb.

Once I get the house cleaned and straightened up, I will post a complete "before" and "after" of The Martin House flooring project.

Break is Over

After a taking an almost 4 month break, I am finally back to blogging.....hopefully.  Since that last post in April much has happened both in the Martin House and the Martin life.

You might remember the project we began a few months ago by purchasing our new floors.  Because we had to cover the kitchen, spare bedroom, living room, and music room, we searched and waited for the best deal we could find; and jumped on it when we found "our" floors at Lumber Liquidators.  Well, that project has finally been accomplished and will soon be described here on the blog.

Also, during our 4 month break from blogging we've been on a few family vacations, I have graduated from Old Dominion University, and we have dabbled in some other projects around the house.  Fortunately I have been pretty good about taking pictures of everything that's going on, so hopefully it will be up here soon!

For now, I'll leave you with a sneak peak of one of the biggest Martin House projects:

Step One

Well, we just checked off step one of our next big project.

For the past year we have talked off and on about installing new floors in the family room, kitchen, and (if we found a too-good-to-be-true great deal) the guest bedroom and music room.  We were waiting for just the perfect deal on the color we wanted.

Our waiting and searching eventually paid off.  A couple weeks ago Lumber Liquidators (or as Drew would call it, Liquid Lumberdators) had an awesome deal on cherry laminate flooring.  The price ($0.79 per square foot) seemed perfect, yet we still couldn't decide.  After pondering on that $0.79 per square foot for a while, I decided to check the Lumber Liquidators' website another time and noticed the price had been dropped to $0.59 per square foot.

I gave Drew Babe a quick call at work and we decided to jump on it.  Next thing you know, we have 40 boxes of laminate wood floor stacked in our music room.

Because of the great price, we were able to get enough to cover our entire house, except our bedroom (the carpet in there is still fairly new).

Not quite sure when this project will start, but I know we are both excited to check off the first step of saying goodbye to this:

and this:

When searching for our floor, we both liked the medium wood shades.  We settled on a cherry laminate flooring:

I'll be sure to keep you posted as we tackle this project of covering nearly 1000 square feet with laminate flooring.  We're open for any thoughts, tips, or suggestions :)

Brass to Bronze

Instead of spending more $$ and buying a brand new light fixture for the kitchen, we just decided to somehow update our old brass chandelier.  Not even two weeks after our wedding, I had already begun a little revamp on the light fixture by taking off the glass globes for a more modern look.
Through perusing one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love, I came across one of their chandelier makeovers with spray paint (they painted a chandelier here and here).  Now, why in the world did I not think of that quick, inexpensive, and simple idea?!

We purchased a can of our new favorite oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, and began the transformation (we also used this spray paint on our cabinet hardware).  Before going at it, Drew Babe made sure to tape off the places where you screw in the lightbulbs (knowing me, I probably would have never thought of that important little detail, but that's why I married Drew:).

Unfortunately we don't have a starting picture to show the brass and the glass globes, but this is after the first coat of the spray paint.

Here is the finished product after 3 coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint.  Of course, we let it dry in between coats, and then Drew Babe carefully reinstalled it in the kitchen.

Originally this chandelier had the usual candle-tip lightbulbs.  For the final makeover step on our light fixture, we used small round lightbulbs for a slightly different look.

Well, there it is.  Our updated, from brass to bronze, chandelier.  Ever since our cabinet hardware project, and now this project, I am constantly looking around the house to see what else I can update with spray paint.  Have you ever used spray paint for a house project?  Sometimes I just want a quick and easy fix, and that's exactly what spray paint can do.

Progress in the Kitchen

Even before our wedding, Drew Babe started working on the kitchen.  Originally, the kitchen had faux wood laminate counters,  like in the picture here.  Actually, I shouldn't even say "faux" because that makes it sound chic, and this kitchen started out far from being chic.  I'm sure in the 1970's it looked quite nice, but we are going for a more 2011-ish kinda look.

So, our first step was to rip out the fake wood counters and install (with the help of Uncle Wayne) new laminate counters, just like these.  We also put in a new deeper black sink in place of the old shallow stainless one.  

Because we know the kitchen is everyone's favorite hang out spot, we wanted to make it was open as possible.  Originally, the counter up against the wall (now known as "the peninsula") used to be an island, sticking out into the middle of the kitchen and cutting it in half (unfortunately we forgot to take those before pics...I promise we really are working on that).  When we ripped up the island and turned it to be placed up against the wall, it was a perfect fit!  We did have someone extend the back to make it a few inches deeper, because we can always use more storage space.

To open the kitchen up even more, I asked Drew Babe if we could remove that decorative scroll-y wood piece above the window.  After he ripped that wood piece out, I immediately thought removing the wood shelves on either side of the window would make it look more modern (see why the Martin honey-do list is never ending...poor Drew).  We both loved the new open window!

Next came the daunting and tedious task of painting the cabinets.  We, actually Drew, began by removing all the doors and drawers, so we could more easily sand them down.  We sanded and wiped them clean, and then applied three coats of primer.  For the final coat of paint we went with Sherwin-Williams ProClassic trim and door paint, in a gloss Pure White color.  We had heard horror stories of people trying to cover their wood cabinets with white paint, but thankfully our cabinet project went smoothly, most likely because of Drew Babe's meticulousness and patience.

You might notice the hardware seems different as well.  I found the oil rubbed bronze knobs on Ebay for a little over $1 a piece.  Tons cheaper than the Lowe's or Home Depot price.

The hinges used to be an old brassy color.  Instead of spending well over $100 on new hinges, I suggested we try to paint them.  Drew was a little wary of this idea, because painting a metal contraption with lots of moving parts can be tricky.  We took our time and used our new favorite, (thanks to Young House Love) oil-rubbed bronze Rust-oleum spray paint, to paint all those little jaspers.  They turned out great and even after opening and shutting the cabinets countless times, the paint has stayed the same.

After we removed the scroll-y wood thing from above the window, it left a tiny fluorescent light for all the world to see.  Drew Babe used his electronic tech skills to install a new pendant light above the sink.  At night it gives off such a cozy, homey glow.

The first night of having the light installed, we both couldn't get over the beautiful glow coming from the light.  I bet we stood there for more than a couple minutes just staring at the light and pondering deep thoughts (well, maybe not that last part, but we definitely stared at it).

Drew Babe installed the white shelves above our "peninsula" as a surprise for me.

Still to do:

• New curtain above the sink.  I already have the fabric, so step one of that project is done!
• New floors.  Eventually we would like laminate wood floors throughout the kitchen, family room, and hall.
• New appliances.  The creamy stove really just throws off the crisp and clean look of the cabinets.  We are probably going to go with stainless and have already looked at some.  Still waiting for a great deal.
• I would also like to paint the wall and slightly different green color.  Less minty and more apple-y.  That may happen way down the road.