Open Kitchen – Page 7

Kitchen Chronicles

Published on May 1, 2013May 1, 2013 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Oh yes, the kitchen. We’re eagerly planning a full scale remodel complete with new cabinets, double wall ovens, moving the island out a foot for more work space, and a marble back splash. But that can’t happen right now. Fingers crossed it can happen within the next 365 days. But, there have been a few minor changes since we moved in. Remember the blue wallpaper?

Vincent and I tore it down, exposing the glue backing. Already a vast improvement in the light and bright department.

Then I sprayed the glue, scraping it off. And replaced the windows. I didn’t do that, Ben did. He’s far more skilled than I am.

For months, the kitchen looked like this:

Eeeesh, not good. Scratched walls, filled nail holes, and dingy primed walls. Last weekend I got so sick of looking at the ugly walls. That’s what happens when our weather isn’t nice and I’m stuck in the house a lot. I look for things to do. To flow with the family room, I painted the walls Sandstone Cove, using Glidden’s Duo eggshell.

Ahh, the glory of solid colored walls.

Too bad the rest of the kitchen isn’t as easy to change.

Because the kitchen wraps over to my office, I painted those walls, too.

Black hole of electronics be damned. Hmm, wonder if I could spray paint them… Haha, not going to do that!

If only the paint had been a bolder color to make the change more obvious. One small step for me, one giant leap for our kitchen. Do you get itchy when the weather doesn’t coöperate? Look for something, anything to do?

P.S. Our three-year blog anniversary is coming up in a few weeks. If you have questions for us, maybe we’ll do a Q and A? You can leave comments here or email at ourhumbleabodeblog@gmail.com.

Laboring on Labor Day

Published on September 6, 2012March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode20 Comments

Nope, not pregnant. No new baby here. I’m talking about windows. Now that ~~all~~ most of the windows are in, let’s go inside to take a look at the difference the new windows have made. First, check out the kitchen in all it’s 70’s wallpapered, oak, bay window goodness.

And now with the sliding white window.

Making this window flat lets in so much more light, and the window seems bigger without dividing it into three sections. Oh, and the fact this window actually opens. Go figure. The same can be said for the breakfast nook window. Before, V and E used the bay window as their personal dance floor/kitchen/play room.

Despite shortening the window, I think it feels more open. Perhaps not having a mass of dark oak helped? Whatever it is, I’m liking it.

Just a breath of fresh air to see a lighter, brighter kitchen. Removing the ugly wallpaper definitely helped.

In the family room, we replaced the two stationary side lights with shorter double hung windows. Hooray for air flow. For some reason, I always feel guilty putting furniture in front of windows. So this arrangement works better for us.

Also, I think the shorter windows feel more intentional and less like “this is a door, but let’s just take off the handles and no one will know.” The window height actually matches, instead of looking like someone scored a lot of assorted windows on Craigslist and made it work.

Oh, and these windows and doors are so quiet to open and close. The old door squeaked and squealed. Ben is a ninja leaving in the mornings now, sneaking out the quiet door.

While window shopping, we discovered most energy-efficient windows have a low visible transmittance thanks to the UV blocking coatings. This concerned us, because about 50 or 60 percent of light makes it into the house. Luckily, we don’t see a drastic difference.

To gain egress in the bedrooms, our city requires 5.7 square feet with a minimum opening of 24 inches tall by 20 inches wide within 44 inches of the floor. The original height of the bedroom windows was fine, but our casement windows only opened about 18 inches by 4 feet.

To use the same brand and line of windows throughout, our only option was a large (4 foot wide by 66 inch tall) double hung window.

Luckily, our windows sit about 19 inches off the floor, so we didn’t have to use tempered glass. Wahoo for saving a little money.

These are my favorite windows. I love the cute courtyard feel of the back yard.

And from outside, the windows are almost the same size.

No more awkward bay windows bumping out, either.

Ben used three layers of 2 by 4s to get the windows out. When he wraps the house in insulation, the siding will sit flush with the edge of the window. Using the 2 by 4s is a simple and strong way to support the windows while extending for the future insulation layers.

Now to get the insulation on the outside and frame the windows on the inside. Of course we’ll keep you updated on our progress.

What do you think of the new windows? Have you gotten new windows recently? Did it make a world of difference? Both in looks and monthly savings?

Brothers from Another Mother?

Published on September 5, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

I hope you all had a fun and relaxing Labor Day weekend. If you didn’t, I hope you got some work done, like we did. Our weekend started with a bang, literally. Ben finished demoing the pool house wet bar with the help of his trusty hammer Meowmeow. Thor has Mjölnir, Ben has Meowmeow.

Do you see the resemblance? Sure, Ben can’t grow hair, but he can rock a mean hat. Though Ben rarely wears a cape.

{unedited picture via}

For now the doors are awkwardly low, but that will change.

A little more digging and knocking down the stone wall to go. Then we can have someone come in, cut the concrete, and we’ll have a ground level opening to install the new door and window. Ben will build a lower header to make these the same height as the rest of the house windows.

~~Thor~~ Ben and Handy Sammy started in the kitchen and worked their way down the line to the rest of the windows. Taking out the bay window wasn’t terribly difficult. Some prying, hammering, and wiggling and it came out.

After installing the kitchen window, the big window in the breakfast nook came out.

The original bay window sat about six inches off the floor. We don’t consider our patio a view, so we decided to shorten this window by about a foot. Ben built a short wall to raise the new window up to the header.

Saturday afternoon brought on an unexpected complication, this:

So many problems here. First, someone cut out the rim joist. Bad. idea. Unlike Nike’s slogan, just don’t do it. Then, some genius ran plumbing for the solar panels outside, only insulating with thin foam. And we didn’t have any support for the window. Good thing those solar panels aren’t there anymore. Ben cut off the water lines inside the house and replaced the cut rim joist. We also shortened the stationary panels on either side of the sliding door, so he built a short wall to raise these windows to the headers.

The sliding door at the back of the house is the first of six we’ll have in the house and pool house. So, it was a good learning experience. After reading the instructions, install was easy enough.

I guess the panels are crazy heavy though. Oh, we found another no no when removing the old door. Wiring for the scones doesn’t come from the floor or attic. The right sconce is looped from the left over the door. Fortunately Ben didn’t cut at that door to get it out. One more reason those have to go.

Soon, Ben will start wrapping the house with insulation. To accommodate the added depth, the new windows have supports made of three 2 by 4s.

While we love all the new windows, our favorites are the two larger bedroom windows. For egress, these double hung windows are 4 feet wide by 5 1/2 feet tall. In a word, huge. And fantastic. The guest bedroom window is about ten inches closer to the floor than the original.

And the boys’ window is about 18 inches closer to the floor.

An outlet right below the boys window was in the way, so Ben turned off the breaker, cut down for the window and added an outlet on either side. A nice little two for one special.

Now we’re really excited to get the pool house windows cut and installed. That means this whole window process is done…until we’re ready for the other three sides of the house. This is a nice stopping point as the back of the house isn’t easily seen. And it will give us enough to do before winter sets in without being rushed.

Bring on the insulation and siding. And tearing up the back yard.

Because this post is already long, I’ll share pictures of the windows tomorrow. Until then, tell us what you did over the long weekend. I saw a lot of camping pictures on Instagram.

It Started With a Four Year Old

Published on August 20, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode35 Comments

Last night, V and I had an impromptu wallpaper removal party. And he sent me the invite. Over the past few days, V had been slowly working on peeling wallpaper from the small area under my desk. Once he got that off the wall, he turned his attention to the small area by the breakfast nook window. Because I’m ~~a good mom~~ hate the wallpaper, I joined him.

Ben thought we were crazy, but didn’t object. Fortunately, it peeled off easily. Well, the design part peeled off easily. The paper split, leaving the glued paper on the walls. In many places, full sheets of the patterned parts came off quickly. And in about an hour, we had all the ugly blue paper off the walls in the kitchen and office.

I’m happy to see the kitchen lighter and brighter, but I know it’ll be a complete pain to tear off the glued paper parts.

Lucky for me, I can work on this when I’m in the mood. Hmmm, how often is one in the mood to remove wallpaper? I guess we’ll find out.

For now, we’ve got a mock Tuscan look going on.

But I guess the crazy blue wallpaper wasn’t all bad. Now the crazy things the previous owner did are completely obvious. Like these five(!) nails randomly above the kitchen window.

And three more above the breakfast nook window, because, you know, everything is better in odd numbers.

My office has a few issues, too.

Like a wall full of pin holes. Seriously, a little cork would have been better than this:

Gah, I love wallpaper…NOT! Well, at least I’ve got time to work on it. Anyone know an easy way to get the paper off without further damaging the walls? Raise your hand if you want to come over and help. Ah ha, I see you in the back. Come on, I’ll feed you and provide the booze after.

Wash and Hang

Published on May 14, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

For Mother’s Day, Ben did a few special things for me, which the title hints at. First, he took me to breakfast at IHOP. What can I say, I love pancakes, with chocolate chips. He also bought me a pretty pink orchid while at Lowe’s.

Just what my office needed, a pop of color and life to take attention off the ugly wall paper and black electronics.

Do you remember the thrift store light I bought for the breakfast nook?

Last weekend, I spray painted the inside white and the outside got a coat of Lagoon.

Yesterday, the boys and I ran to Subway to get lunch, and came home to this.

I noticed it right after rounding the corner. And I’m thrilled with the look. Especially with the family room lamps. Apparently Target blue is a perfect match for Rustoleum’s Lagoon.

Teal pops around the rooms and outside (this bird feeder hangs in the apple tree right outside the bay window) tie everything together. That concludes the ‘hang’ part of my Mother’s Day gift. Now you can see the ‘wash’ portion, which most definitely includes the older than I am dishwasher we inherited with the mountain house. Our new KitchenAid dishwasher patiently waited in the garage, and Ben found some time to haul it upstairs. After yerking the old washer out, we had an ugly hole.

Don’t ask what the stuff on the floor is, because you don’t want to know. An hour or so of fiddling and tracing unknown water lines, Ben gave me a functional, new dishwasher.