October 2011

Everything, Including the Kitchen Sink

Published on October 31, 2011November 2, 2012 by Our Humble Abode20 Comments

Wednesday afternoon we finished installing the new 3/4 inch thick stained hickory floor. And we’re completely in love.

With the floor done, we started installing the cabinets Thursday morning. Because we’re washing dishes in the bathroom sink, getting a sink was a pressing matter. Rather than incorporating the toe kick in the cabinet, we cheat and build separate toe kicks. Two by fours are the perfect height and they’re durable, so Ben makes boxes three inches smaller than the overall cabinet size.

Using long screws, Ben attached the boxes to the floor.

That part went quickly.

For the next several hours, Ben drilled several holes in our floor and ran tons of wires.

Wires for what? Ben’s awesome idea. Under cabinet lighting. And not the halogen task lighting. Rope lighting under the toe kicks. A similar idea to the crown molding accent lighting in our master bedroom. We’ve had several people ask how to do this. I’m no electrician, so don’t quote me here, but Ben starts with a piece of rope light with a plug-in end. He cuts the plug off and strips the wires. Then it’s just a matter of connecting the proper wires to one another and capping everything off with wire nuts and electrical tape.

The posts we have on each side of the stove are mostly for support. In an effort to keep the posts as small and unobtrusive as possible, we decided to put our switches inside the cabinets on the living room side. We’ll have a bar top across the cabinets with a six-foot opening between for bar stools. Here’s one of the cabinets by the kitchen entrance.

Don’t follow? Here’s what it looks like from the kitchen side.

While Ben ran wires, Everett and I cheered him on. Every time Ben nailed or screwed something down, Ev would say, “Nice!”

Ben took the afternoon off to go hunting. Fortunately, he shot a deer, so he’s done for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, we still didn’t have a kitchen sink. Which means he had to clean his deer in our bathroom. To say I was displeased is an understatement. We needed a functioning sink, stat. Friday morning Ben started working again, setting cabinets.

A small kitchen requires maximizing every square inch. Even though we’re losing an entire wall of upper cabinets, we’re gaining a lot of usable space. In fact, the only wasted space is this three-inch gap between the peninsula and trash drawer. The only reason for this is drawer clearance.

Shortly before the sink could be installed, Ben brought it up from the basement.

A little more wiring for the dishwasher, which we ordered and should be here on Thursday, before the sink could go in.

Then some plumbing.

After five days without a kitchen sink, we were back in dish washing business.

Then we had a little leak. Everything worked, but the leak came from dishwasher hook up. Because we don’t have a dishwasher.

Duct tape over the hole works for now. And here’s the sink side in its current state. Oh, you’ll also see we have the trash under the sink. After buying a 10.1 gallon trash and putting it in the trash drawer we realized there would be a fair amount of wasted space above it. Luckily, it fits perfectly under the sink. Along with another can for recycling. Which means, we’re gaining a small drawer stack in the place of the original trash drawer.

In other news, we hoped the wood for the counters would arrive this past Thursday. Sadly, it didn’t. Now we’re shooting for Wednesday. Fingers crossed it comes in and we like it so we can get counters in. Though, we’re lucky because Ben built the cabinets with flat tops, so we have a solid work surface. Things could definitely be worse.

Many of you commented that we’re making quick progress. Even though we’re living with a torn apart kitchen, I have to agree. Everything is back to functioning order and it can only get better from here.

What do you think of the kitchen so far? Progressing faster than you anticipated? Just wait until you see tomorrow’s post. Yes, that is a teaser.

Compare and Contrast

Published on October 28, 2011November 2, 2012 by Our Humble Abode23 Comments

Three or four years ago a house up the street went on the market. Because we’re ~~nosy~~ curious, we went to the open house. Oddly enough, it was the same layout as our house before Ben made any changes. Several months ago, the same house went up for sale. Naturally, we had to check it out again. In the three years between open houses, a lot of changes had been made. We thought it would be fun and interesting to compare and contrast similar angles between the open house and our house.

I think it’s safe to say the renovations in this house were made with the intention of flipping. Typically that means safer, more ‘beige’ decisions to appeal to the masses. Because we plan to live here a while, we’ve made decisions that we like, without much consideration for resale. We had always planned to open up the wall in our kitchen, but saw this before we had done anything.

The stairs have also been relocated along the north wall where our entertainment center sits.

We thought it was fun to see another version of the same layout. What are your thoughts on the different takes?

Gimme a Giveaway: Celadon Home

Published on October 28, 2011November 4, 2011 by Our Humble Abode64 Comments

This giveaway is no longer accepting entries. See who won here.

It’s no secret we’re huge fans of personalized, pretty, and affordable art. Raise your hand if you are, too. Oh, good. Then you’ll love this weeks giveaway courtesy of Celadon Home.

Michelle, the creative genius, designs 12 inch square wall panels using hearts cut from assorted paper media. This includes books:

Or your photos:

Getting married soon? Michelle also offers a custom guest book alternative.

Several hearts are also customized with names, dates, and initials, suited perfectly for any occasion. The result is a completely one-of-a-kind show stopping piece everyone will ask about. And now you’re asking, “How do I get my hands on one?” Here’s how:

The Goods: One original, signed 12 inch art square, personalized to your taste. A $49.99 value!

To Enter: We ask that you please subscribe to Our Humble A{Bowe}d. If you don’t want to receive e-mail notifications, that’s fine. Let us know if you follow us through Google Reader or another form and it will also count. To subscribe, click the “Sign Me Up!” button under “Be the first to know.” Once you’ve subscribed, leave a comment, which can (but doesn’t have to) include our Just for Fun question.

Just for Fun: Tell us how you make a house your home. Splash a little color on the walls? Hang things up? Organize your little heart out? Nothing but move stuff in?

For additional entries:

1. Add Celadon Home to your Etsy favs, come back and leave a comment telling us what your favorite item is.

Contest Closes: Thursday, November 3rd at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere in the U.S.

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, November 4th . Good luck!!

All images found via the featured Etsy seller’s listing as linked above.

Pinteresting Kitchen Love

Published on October 27, 2011October 27, 2011 by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

Kitchen work resumes today with electrical. Then we’ll try to install cabinets and get our kitchen sink back. Before we started tearing apart our kitchen, I had trolled Pinterest for kitchen inspiration. Some ideas we’ve already had, but it’s nice to see it in action, like this corner cabinet, extended to the counter.

And all drawers for the lower cabinets. I love the glass storage containers, too.

Who was the genius that decided to cut a hole in a cutting board over the garbage can? Seriously, that’s better than sliced bread. I wouldn’t make the cutting board a drawer or have the hole centered, but it’s something to think about.

Another brilliant idea, toe kick drawers for thin items like cookie sheets and muffin tins. Not an inch of wasted space. But do the drawers drag on the floor?

Disguise a pull out spice rack behind a decorative pillar.

I’m a total sucker for built in dividers, and this knife block/spice rack/utensil storage is no exception. I hope to do something similar.

I would never have thought to add nail head trim to the edge of a cabinet, but I really like the look.

Always losing measuring spoons and cups? Well, I don’t, because I don’t bake, but this is a great option.

This idea really rocks my socks.

Why? We’re going to lose a lot of our upper cabinet storage when we renovate the kitchen, which means I’ll also lose my spice cabinet. Hopefully we’ll have enough room in a drawer for spices. The chalk board labeled tops is a great touch.

Again, I hope we can figure out a way to re-create this under counter pantry.

Helllllloooo organization. How I love thee.

I can’t wait to have pretty, glass fronted cabinets and paint the inside a poppy color. I mean really, what’s not to love?!

This is a pretty flush mount our stainless apron front sink.

Hopefully we’ll have a few fun “Why didn’t I think of that!” ideas to share down the road. Kitchen work resumes today with electrical. Then we’ll try to install cabinets and get our kitchen sink back.

Are you inspired by any of these ideas? Did you find any as mind blowing as I did?

That Was Hard(wood)

Published on October 26, 2011March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode22 Comments

It took more muscle and time than we hoped, but we’ve successfully pulled up the tile floor, cement board, subfloor and installed the new hardwood. The rebuilding has officially started. Ben tore out the tile on Monday night, which left us with a lovely kitchenette. Simply a stove, microwave, and one cabinet.

He took the week off to work on the kitchen. Fun vacation, right? With the tile up, Ben, with a little of my help, painstakingly tore up the cement board.

Seriously, it was a pain. The screws from the tile backing held like crazy and the nails were abundant. Luckily, Handy Sammy came to help.

Removing the sub floor took a lot of muscle. Some areas received too much muscle. The boards flexed and some broke. I’m not going to lie, I freaked out a little.

As always though, Ben had a plan. True to form, things have to get worse before they can get better. So, Ben started by cutting off the damaged boards, leaving a hole between the joists.

Actually, this happened in four spots.

Did you notice the chaos and mess? And the fridge placement? Anyway, back to fixing the gaping holes in our floor. Ben screwed pieces of two by fours on each side of the hole into the joists first.

Then he covered the holes with pieces of 3/4 inch wood material.

Before we could get started on the floor install, we screwed every board to the joists, just to prevent any squeaking. That was a pain in the butt, too. I’ve never had to use a drill for that long. Makes me want to invent a cushy drill grip. After all that screwing (haha), we laid down the rosen paper.

We had to nail one row of the wood perpendicular to the existing dining room hardwood floors. It would have been way to difficult to line the new floor up with the old floor if we hadn’t done this. Unfortunately, Ben laid this with the groove against the dining room floor.

Which meant he had to start installing from the stove side. He had a few wires and the gas line to cut around. The first few rows are always the most difficult to install, because everything is based off that.

Fortunately, the 5 inch wide planks installed quickly and easily. While Ben installs the planks, I select which boards will go where. I have a method to my madness, though. First, I pick out the pieces of wood I like best. These will go front and center. This wood had tons of pieces with large knots, so I made two more piles. One of the knotty pieces (not to be confused with naughty) and another of clean wood.

We had to remove all the trim that was against the floor, too. The new floor is 3/4 of an inch lower than the old floor, so we’ll have to lower everything.

Ben borrowed an air nailer from a friend, which made the job quick and easy.

He wanted me to show you how great of a multi-tasker he is. Here, he’s using both of his hands to nail and his foot to hold the clamp down. Ooooh, ahhhh.

And here’s the floor we finished as of a few hours ago.

And now for some detailed shots. The transition between the original flooring in the dining room and the new floor.

Toward the wall, Ben had to face nail because the other nailer can’t get that close to the wall. That’s okay though, this won’t be seen as the cabinet will cover everything.