Category: Our First House

Our first house, a 1960 ranch home.

It’s a Hot Deal

Published on by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

Pun intended.  We’re chugging along on the kitchen renovation.  When I say chugging along, I really mean we’ve been spending money.  So far, we’ve purchased clearance hardwood flooring, ordered a custom apron front stainless steel sink, a range hood (details to come, it should be here this afternoon), and now a beautiful stove.

Because we’re knocking down the wall between the kitchen and living room, we’ll need a low profile range.  To maximize the space, we chose an all-in-one slide-in range.  At first, we thought we’d buy a GE Cafe dual fuel range, to the tune of 2700 bucks.

It has six burners, a large oven, and the lower drawer is another oven.

Ben researched ovens more and stumbled upon the KitchenAid Pro Line dual fuel beauty for $2250.

At first, I thought it was a down grade.  Only four burners and the lower drawer is only a warming drawer.  Boo.

Ever the researcher, Ben started looking around town.  A local shop gave him a price quote of $2044.40.  That’s better.  Trying to save even more money, Ben asked about Sears’ price match policy, thinking they would match and beat by 10%.  Sears can only beat competitors by 10% on in stock items.  Our range is a custom order.  However, they were happy to match the price.  So, we ordered the range on Wednesday, September 28.  We should get it October 11th.  If this were a fairy tale, we could have lived happily ever after; perfectly content by saving nearly 700 dollars.

Luck be a lady, on Sunday, I happened to check the Sears website to get a link for this post.  That’s when it happened.  Sears had a one day Family and Friends online sale, including 15% off appliances.  The list price of the range was $2204.99.  Subtract 15% and our range was on sale for $1874.24.  What?!?  I showed Ben.  We decided it was worth a shot to call Sears to see if they would honor the sale price.  After very little trouble, the sales rep agreed to credit us $170.16.  I’d say saving $824.86 over the GE, or $625.75 over the list price of the KitchenAid is no down grade.  It was fate.  We were meant to buy this range.  Let’s hope we love this baby.  No, we haven’t seen it in person…

As if that weren’t lucky enough, that same day, I went to Wal-Mart.  (That’s not the lucky part.  I loathe going to Wal-Mart)  I went to buy a gallon of cheap paint to test cabinet colors before we spent $50 per gallon for the good stuff.  I ordered Wal-Mart’s brand, Color Place and finished my shopping.  When I went back to grab my paint, I saw it was a gallon of Better Homes and Gardens paint, by Glidden.  Apparently, Wal-Mart didn’t have any satin Color Place paint, so they gave me the Glidden gallon, normally $21.97 per gallon, at the Color Place price, $14.27.

Sunday night, Ben painted some of the color on the cabinets, which I showed yesterday.  Monday morning, I checked to see if I like the color.  I did, so I went back to get three more gallons.  (We’re planning to paint the interiors of the drawers and cabinets with this paint to save a little more money.)  No new shipments of Color Place, so three more $22 gallons for $14.27 each.  That my friends, is how we saved more than $200 ($200.96 to be exact) in 24 hours.  I’d say that is better than Black Friday.

What’s your best deal?  Have you lucked out on an appliance sale?  Maybe you’ve used the same gray we’re using?  Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard, anyone?

Ben the Builder

Published on by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

Our boys are fans of Handy Manny, not Bob the Builder, but building better describes what Ben was up to.  Maybe we could call his cousin/apprentice, Sam, Handy Sammy.  Last Friday, Ben bought twelve sheets of 3/4 inch cabinet grade plywood.  You see where I’m going with this, right?  Yes, cabinets are built.  Kind of.  The boxes are assembled.  Before Ben could start cutting, we had to do a lot of measuring and some bickering.  Both indoors and out in the garage.  The measuring, not bickering.

After tons of cutting, Ben had a stack of plywood to piece together like a three-dimensional puzzle.  A line of glue around the edges first.

Followed up by several nails to hold the sides together tightly.

After each cabinet piece was assembled, Ben checked to see if everything was square by measuring diagonally each direction.

Surprisingly, building nine frames only took a few hours.  Of course, they’re far from finished, but here’s the super rough version of the peninsula, on the left, with the lower sink cabinet to the far right.  The cabinet on top will be divided into two with doors.

Just so you can get an idea of how huge these are, here’s Vincent modeling the coffin cabinet.  (Just to clarify, we joked that Ben was building coffins because these cabinet are so huge.  I have no intentions of tossing Vincent in one, other than for this picture.)  Sam (on the left) is a little over six feet tall.  Yeah, I won’t be able to reach the top shelf without a chair or stool to stand on.

And, here’s what the stove side will look like.

Yesterday afternoon, I primed the insides of the cabinets.  Afterward, I got a raging headache.  We (meaning Ben and Sam while I ‘supervised’) also cut pieces for the drawers.  I know these boxes are far from finished, but it’s a start.  Still to do:

  • Build drawers and prime and paint the insides
  • Build two by four bases for the toe kick
  • Install the drawers, then build drawer fronts
  • Prime and paint the drawer fronts and visible outsides of the cabinets
  • Install in the house, the add the face framing for a seamless look
  • More priming and painting

Speaking of painting, here’s a glimpse of where we’re headed.

Color me excited.  Literally.  We saved some money on the paint, too.  More pricing details coming tomorrow.

Do you and your spouse bicker about little details?  Have you remodeled a kitchen?  I think planning a DIY kitchen remodel should be part of marriage classes.  If you can successfully plan a kitchen together, I think you can make it through anything.  Haha.

New Kitchen Drawings and Plans

Published on by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

Remember these drawings?

We’ve made some kitchen changes since I made those lame sketches in 2009.  Here’s the new and improved 2010 model.  Side note, I hate the phrase new and improved.  How can something be both new and improved?  If it’s new, there’s no room for improvement.  If it’s been improved upon, it’s not new, is it?  Ok, rant over.  New kitchen drawings, courtesy of Lowe’s.

Notice any changes?  Well, that’s because there aren’t many.  But, 2011 brought about many changes, some major, some minor.  All for the better.  Except we’re back to my drawings.  Though, I did pull out a ruler.

Now do you see the difference?  Let’s discuss.

Big change number 1:  We’re moving the trash can.  The apron front sink is six inches narrower than our current sink, so we’ll have room for the trash to the left of the sink, not across the kitchen.

Big change number 2:  Switching up the cabinet size.  In the past year, we’ve been discussing all drawers in the lower cabinets.  Really, this isn’t that different from our current set up because we have cabinet doors with pull out drawers behind.  The small drawer stack to the right of the stove is so small that we have utensils in three of the four drawers.  Because of this, we’ve decided to make each drawer stack as wide as possible.  Instead of two drawers, we’ll have only one on each side of the stove.  One will hold our knives from the knife block.  Three cheers for less counter clutter.  Hopefully Ben can make something as cool as this.

Big change number 3:  Extending the upper cabinets to go counter to ceiling.  We plan to use the two smaller cabinets as ‘appliance garages.’  We don’t have room for a microwave to sit near the stove, so we’ll use the cabinet to the right of the sink to house a microwave.  Hopefully.  We’ll have to hunt down the world’s smallest microwave.  It may be this one.

Big change number 4:  No more spice drawers below the bar top.  Originally, we planned to build small spice drawers to double as a back splash.  This would also allow us to use a cheaper stove with a back.  Game plan change.  We’re going with a slide-in (backless) range and the larger drawers below should accommodate spices nicely.  Oddly enough, I’m most concerned about where I’ll put spices.

Small change, known as number 5:  The small drawer stack will now be part of a larger, wider drawer stack, as mentioned in number two.

Small change, number 6:  When I made these sketches, I loved the idea of legs to replace the standard toe kick.  Reality (and building issues) have set in.  Problem number one, the flooring will transition at the dining room and this will be obvious.  We could make a nice transition of the floors, but the second problem is cleaning under the cabinets.  This seems fine and good, but I think I’d get sick of it really quickly.  And, Ben brought up another good point.  We’d probably stub our toes on the legs constantly.

There’s the plan, Stan.  We’ve already made some progress.  Mostly purchasing items (plywood, studs, a sink, range, range hood, and paint) to get our ducks in a row.  Notice I said mostly.  Dun, dun, dunnnn.  Cliff hanger.

Now it’s your turn.  Do you have any of these features in your own home?  If so, love it or hate it?  Where do you store your spices?  How many planning phases have you had for one project?

Sonoma Clay, Perfect?

Published on by Our Humble Abode14 Comments

After Thursday’s discussion about new paint samples, I talked myself into Benjamin Moore’s Sonoma Clay.  I couldn’t live with the bright pink walls any longer.  On Friday, the boys and I went back to Ace Hardware to get a 16 ounce Ben Moore sample can, hoping that pint would cover the entire bathroom.  When we returned home, I compared the test sample to the paint swatch.

Nice match, but will it look good on the walls?

Right away, I loved how much darker and muted the color was.  Not wanting to leave anything to chance, I painted small areas on each wall to test the color in different lighting.

Yep, this was the right pink.  I touched up the white paint, let it dry, then taped off the edges.  I had Everett’s nap time to get this done.  Vincent watched me paint.

In one way, the ugly, bright pink helped me.  It served as a great primer.  The Ben Moore paint covered well with one coat, which means I still have half of a pint of pink left.  Wahoo, my math was right!  That’s a first, just ask my ninth grade geometry teacher.  Ha.

Like most paints, the color varies based on the lighting, which I like.  Because the back wall gets less light, it reads as a more moody purple-gray-beige-pink.

Au revoir ballerina pink.  Helllloooo sophisticated mauve.  Eww, I hate describing the color as mauve.  It seems so old lady.

One gallon of Wal-Mart paint: $15.00.  One pint of Ben Moore paint: $7.00.  Finally choosing a color we like and don’t have to repaint: priceless.

Just to clarify, Ben has never said he hates this color.  Usually, he’s forthcoming about what he doesn’t like.  Not so much with what he does like.  I’ll take his silence as approval.

To summarize, if you’re looking for a very pale pink, check out Martha’s Pink Sea Salt.  Don’t try to make your own color.  If you want something more dramatic and moody, try Ben’s Sonoma Clay.

Did you tackle a painting project over the weekend?  Was it the first or fourth time you painted it?  Out of curiosity, what’s your favorite brand of paint to use?

Please note:  We were not compensated for this post, we simply love the Ben Moore paint we purchased and want to share with you.

Perfecting Pink Paint

Published on by Our Humble Abode20 Comments

Yesterday, I shared the process of painting our master bathroom pink.  First, I started with Pink Sea Salt by Martha Stewart.

The color was pale.  I didn’t realize I wanted something as high contrast as the original green color.  So, added 1 test can of Market Flower by Valspar and added 3/4 cups of the large basement bedroom color, to help mellow the bright colors.

We’ve lived with this color for a week, and I’m still not sold.  It’s still too sweet baby girl, not as much dark and moody adult pink as I’d like to see.  I searched my favorite blogs for pink paint colors and found Wild Aster in Nicole’s living room and Proposal in Sherry and John’s baby girl’s bedroom.

Here in Montana, we don’t have Benjamin Moore stores, but Ace Hardware does carry Ben Moore paint.  Luckily, an Ace Hardware recently opened up a few blocks from our house, so I took the boys pink paint swatch shopping.  We pulled nearly every pink pain swatch Ace had, including Proposal and Wild Aster.  Oddly enough, the colors are very similar.  No, nearly identical.  I liked how the colors showed in the pictures, but I also liked a few other colors.  Namely Desert Rose and Odessa Pink.

Proposal is a single swatch card, but Wild Aster is the lightest of seven paint colors.   I also liked Sonoma Clay, which is the third color down on the Wild Aster slip.  And, I liked the online description: A darker, never-fail neutral, this intriguing shade is a modern marriage of pink and gray. Rich and reliable, it has a sleek and sophisticated sensibility.  It had me at a marriage of pink and gray.  That’s exactly what I needed.  I taped the three swatches up on the wall in the bathroom to see what they looked like in the right lighting.

Almost immediately, I eliminated Odessa Pink because it has a heavy orange undertone.  After looking at Desert Rose, I decided the color might be overwhelming on the walls, and it might look too red.

Before I could get too excited by my single paint choice, I compared the pink and the bedroom green.

I like that the colors have a similar value.  And, I like that Sonoma Clay reads as a muddled pink.  Hopefully we won’t repeat the baby pink look with this color.  It seems Sonoma Clay is the winner.

Truth be told, I don’t know if or when I’ll repaint the bathroom.  Ben thinks I should leave the color as it is.  I’m guessing just because he doesn’t want to spend more money on pink paint.  We’ve had this color on the walls for a week and I’m still not happy with it.  I don’t think I ever will be.  I just don’t want to spend more money and my time on something if I’m not going to love it.  And, I’m starting to doubt my pink paint selecting abilities.

But, the helpful Ace paint man showed me Ben Moore 1 pint paint samples which cost about 7 smackeroos.  I just searched online to see what the coverage is.  It seems each 16 ounce can can cover two 4 foot by 4 foot walls with two coats.  So, if my math is right (which I know is a stretch) each can will cover 64 square feet with one coat.  Good news, I just measured the bathroom walls.  The wall behind the toilet is five feet tall and three feet wide or 15 square feet.  To the left of the vanity, the wall is 4 feet tall and three feet wide for 12 square feet.  The right side of the vanity is three feet by three feet, making it nine square feet.  Total that up, and it’s only 36 square feet.  I just might be able to use one small sample can for the entire bathroom.  Does this seem right?  Or am I off my rocker?

Perhaps I should live with the current color for a few more days?  Maybe I could use a sample can to paint the entire bathroom?  That would keep the cost around $20 for both paint colors, which I can handle.

Aghh, it sounds like I’ve already convinced myself to repaint, doesn’t it?  What do you think of the swatches?  Do you have a favorite?