DIY Christmas Tree

These past couple of days have been non-stop nesting madness for my husband and myself. I have been super busy: baking some Christmas goodies, cleaning and de-cluttering all the closets/drawers and I even painted something for a last minute project. I love this spurt of energy and nesting phase that the 2nd trimester has brought on! Eric finally found the office desk that he had been wanting and on a whim - we bought it.

We have lived in our house for three years, and for the most part - two out of the three bedrooms have been untouched. Owning a home means there are always home projects that will occur and they might not happen all at once. Everything is finally coming together, and I love how our home is shaping out. We have renovated the kitchen (a couple times), opened up the sunroom, added a garden (we're planning on adding raised garden planters next season), organized Eric's man-cave garage and we finally finished furnishing our master bedroom. Cookie's bedroom has been empty for the past couple of years and I can't wait to start decorating that sweet little nursery!

I didn't even tackle the entire list of goodies that I wanted to bake for Christmas but I was reminded that the holidays are supposed to be fun and relaxing...and not stressful. So my little creative mind wanted something to work on that didn't require working in the kitchen (it was a little break from the baking madness). I had a couple of ornaments that I didn't put on my Christmas tree, and wanted something on my foyer table to display them. I had seen various ideas on Pinterest on how to use your leftover ornaments. I loved the idea of a Christmas Ornament display case and searched the stores for something simple and cute but nothing like that existed for my limited budget.

I have been making most of my Christmas goodies so making Christmas decorations seemed like the logical step. I'm lucky enough that I work with coworkers that use a buzz saw on a daily basis (my husband has one at home as well), but there were lots of scrap wood at my work to use.

I wanted something simple and small that looked like a tree that would fit on my my foyer table, similar to this tree stand but not as gigantic. We figured to cut the corners to make it very tree-like, and my coworker easily put it all together for me. I picked up some inexpensive Martha Stewart paint at Home Depot (only 50 cents) and added a couple coats.

I used some small bungee cords to hang around the tops and small clothespins to hang the ornaments. This project cost me 50 cents, but can easily cost you a couple bucks if you need to buy the wood and miscellaneous items. It's very Charlie Brown-esque and absolutely perfect for my foyer table. I loved the quirkiness of this homemade tree because I can highlight these special ornaments. This might be perfect project to have for your little ones to work on, and might be something that cookie will enjoy, too.

Make sure to take the time and enjoy the holiday season and indulge in something for yourself. Three more days until Christmas and I'm almost ready for the big day. Pin It

The Reveal - Kitchen Renovation 3.0: Part 2

After 2.5 weeks, too many lunches and dinners out and about, countless hours of DIY youtube videos and our blood, sweat and tears into this kitchen renovation - WE ARE DONE!!! I love the new look of the kitchen, it's a beautiful face lift and such a breathe of fresh air. Eric and I faced a couple mishaps during the demo process but we were able to fix everything that we encountered. The little leak from our old sink was replaced by a new cold water valve, and the crooked cabinets got "jacked" to an even level. We replaced those hideous outlets, and got some awesome new appliances. We were even able to add an additional outlet in the cabinets thus creating more space for our appliances. All in all, everything that went wrong or could possibly go right...it did, but it was all fixed because now anything can withstand this awesome gourmet kitchen.

During the last week of renovations, Eric and I had decided the final part to our renovation was upgrading the appliances. We uncovered a minor problem from not being able to move out the existing dishwasher and the solution was to replace it now versus at a later date. I thought we were only changing out the countertops and fixing the outlets. It was a nice surprise when Eric told me that I could finally get the oven of my dreams. I'm a foodie nutcase for my kitchen, and I already knew what I wanted...a convection 5 burner oven. (That translates to HEAVEN for a cook!) Nothing less, or fancier than that.
Funny story, I had nicknamed our fridge "Iron Man" because it was made out of steel and whenever you have the fridge open longer than 30 seconds - it beeps at you. So it was fitting that I would nickname my other "babies" with references to Iron Man. I nicknamed my gas stove "Mr. Sparks" (Michael Stark...almost close right?) and the dishwasher is nicknamed "Ms. Potts" (Pepper Potts). Some people have kids, and pets but I have kitchen appliances and tools. I'm a foodie nerd, that's my excuse okay!

I love our new sink from Ikea with the dish drainer on the side, and Eric gave it a "DJ" tweak by adding Dynamat to the bottom so you won't hear the thud of dishes being put inside the sink. It helps reduce the noise and it's an easy product to locate anywhere like Best Buy. Shopping for supplies for your kitchen sink at an electronics store is pretty ironic, but brilliant at the same time. We also got a single lever faucet with an extendable spout that makes cleaning dishes so much easier.

Seriously, my most favorite part of the kitchen renovation was that Eric was finally replacing those annoying unworkable outlets. I kept bugging him on when he was going to replace them...it was the only thing on my mind that I wanted to see completed before the granite and subway tile backsplash. But the granite countertops came out looking pretty fabulous and it pairs wonderfully with our cayenne pepper cabinets. The white subway tile backsplash gives a nice clean look, and I'm pretty proud of myself for doing the grout work on this area. The subway tiles were my small contribution of labor, but nothing compared to all the work Eric had done.

My beautiful 5 burner convection gas oven, aka Mr. Sparks, is my new love in the kitchen. We got a Frigidaire self-cleaning freestanding gas oven. Luckily I was able to sell my previous gas range on Craigslist, too. We bought a Frigidaire energy efficient dishwasher, aka Ms. Potts. It will be Eric's best friend whenever he is washing all those dishes and pots from the meals I'll be preparing for him. We recycled our old dishwasher and also we will be getting an energy credit for the upgrade. Luckily for us, our wonderful friends, Adrian and Monica gave us their stainless steel microwave from their newly bought house since it didn't match their white appliances. (We will go shopping for a new microwave for them in lieu of the lovely gift, too.) Shopping for new appliances was icing on the cake for this kitchen renovation.

Eric also installed blue-motion hinge adaptors to all the cabinet doors to prevent the slamming of them. He hated hearing the "thud" of the cabinet doors.  The only minor thing left is the installing the drawer slides for the three kitchen pull-out drawers. For the upcoming weeks, I'll be learning how to cook on my new babies, because its not quite like my old appliances. But I'll be cooking up some serious good eats and I can't wait to make a pot of chili/soup on the stove for some upcoming fall/winter meals. Or baking some sweet treats like cookies or fresh bread will bake evenly and possibly taste better.  I can't wait to see that beautiful golden brown from my sweet treats. I'm imagining that my roasted turkey or many casserole dishes can be prepared without a hitch in this oven.

Ahhh, the glory and love of it all after this kitchen renovation has us definitely in good spirits. This was seriously one of the hardest home projects that we have faced and completed. It was frustrating at times, but we never let this kitchen be the end of us. I was constantly cleaning the mess that we had made from concrete, paint and tiling. I'm so happy to come home to a clean house again, and to be able to use my kitchen sink without worries of a leak. I can't thank my husband enough for putting together such a gorgeous kitchen all for me. I better start working on some tasty home cooked meals for him! I wonder what home project we will tackle next, who knows?

Our Kitchen Renovation 3.0: Part 1

Happy Labor Day!! Eric and I have been working on our kitchen remodel 3.0 for the past couple of weeks, and it's been hectic trying to finish everything. We first remodeled the kitchen when we first bought the house in September 2008 and already had done major work. We added a kitchen island, refaced and resurfaced the kitchen cabinets, added recess lighting, added hardware to the cabinets, and painted the kitchen. We never fully completed the kitchen remodel to our full liking because it was a temporary fix until we were ready to tackle this major project again. Eric had always told me that he would give me the kitchen of my dreams and I was tickled pink that we would finally complete this project.

Our main goal for the kitchen remodel 3.0:

1) Refinish the cabinet doors and give a new paint of gloss to the existing cabinet doors. (Eric wasn't too happy from the first time we refinished and refaced the cabinet doors, and finally fixed his mistakes.) From the previous remodel, we used the existing kitchen structure and replaced the kitchen doors. We replaced the old kitchen window in front of the sink and replaced the front and back patio doors. We stained the new cabinet doors a beautiful Cayenne Pepper and added a nice paint of gloss to them. We added veneer to the existing cabinets to stain them as well. What a dramatic change from kitchen 1.0 to kitchen 2.0 already.

2) We would take out and demo the old tile countertops and replace it with granite and add subway tile backsplash. The existing tile countertops and backsplash were poorly installed from the previous owner, and he installed the backsplash all the way to the bottom end of the electric outlets. It prevented Eric from replacing them and they had these gawd ugly yellow outlet covers that I ripped out. Sometimes my outlets worked, and sometimes it didn't. It was a pain trying to use the toaster oven or my kitchen aid mixer and the electricity would give out because of the abused outlets.

3) Replace the sink and faucet. I love to cook and sometimes when I try and wash the bigger pots or the large cookie sheet pans...this sink was not the ideal size. Try washing a 16 pound turkey in this sink...it was rather difficult. Ideally, I wanted one large sink basin with plenty of room to wash my big dishes.

Overall, it sounded like a small renovation project to handle for the both of us. We planned on 1 week to start and finish our project. It became 2.5 weeks of constant labor for the kitchen. It got a little frustrating because we would work during the day for our normal job, and then come home and work on our kitchen until the wee hours of the night. We worked non-stop during the weekends to power through and complete the renovation. Whenever you decide to tackle a home renovation project, be open to the possibility that your timeline may change and that problems will arise and you'll need to correct it in whatever way seems possible and affordable.

The agony of demo day had scared me because Eric had started taking down the kitchen cabinet doors and realized a problem with our cabinets. They had shifted downwards and were not level. The previous owner had mickey moused the microwave and had poorly installed it overhead the oven. When he did install it, the weight of the microwave caused the supporting wood to break, and slowly bringing down the cabinets at an angle. We didn't notice it the first time we remodeled the kitchen, but there was a significant difference from one side of the cabinet to the other. Eric had a bright idea to use his tire jack to push the weight back up of the cabinets and then reinforce it with new brackets. I was scared that the cabinets would come crashing to the ground. In theory, Eric's idea sounded like a great plan...and it did work. That civil engineering degree is quite handy, and all those episodes of Holmes on homes!

Demo'ing was the easiest task and clean-up was really messy because bits and pieces flew everywhere. Luckily we wore eye protection and quickly filled up our trashbin with lots of tile bits and concrete rocks from our kitchen. Eric would hammer, chisel and break away the layers of tile and concrete. We had to remove the existing layers of plywood and install new sheet of plywood and add a layer of durock before we could lay the granite down. We did not go with a granite slab because we saved ourselves money by purchasing 12x12s tiles and laying it down like tile instead of the gigantic slab. There was no way we could afford the hefty labor tag for granite countertops but this was an affordable option as well. Granite tile countertops were purchased at 12x12s and matching chair rails at a local tile company, State College Distributors.

We came across plumbing problems when the cold water valve was leaking. Eric had to replace the valve and use a mini-blow torch to help alleviate some of the gunk off the pipes. When Eric removed the backsplash, there was multiple holes from a liquid nail gun - it looked like a gun fight across the wall. What an incredible mess of holes and they were all  patched. I painted and primed the underneath countertops to give a nice clean look. Also, Eric reinforced the bottom shelf.

We chose Black Galaxy as our granite color and it has wonderful flecks of sparkling gold. We chose simple white subway tiles for our backsplash with the grout line at 1/8 inch. We added the mortar and tiled the granite and Eric filled the grout at 1/16 inch. We got our granite cut at Home Depot for those tiles that wouldn't fit. Matt was absolutely awesome...and he charged us nothing to get them cut. The chair rails were a little impossible to keep up so we held them with blue tape. Once you are finished grouting the tile, you wipe away the excess with a cheesecloth. You wait 72 hours to let the grout set and then seal it with a tile grout sealer. The sealer also took another 24 to 72 hours to set before you could get the new countertops wet. It gave us ample time to clean, add the final touches of molding and touch up paint where it was needed.  

Finally, I'm saving the final reveal for the next post.  It's been a hectic two weeks, but we are really proud of our work. I can't wait to start cooking again in my kitchen because it feels like ages since I last prepared a home cooked meal. The only cooking I have been able to do is make coffee with my makeshift kitchen table...thank goodness for fresh coffee. Eric is my awesome handyman super-duper-iffic husband for doing this all for me. Love you!

Happy Labor day and I can't wait to show you the finished project. It looks absolutely fantastic!

Living Room: Before & After

I'm finally catching up on my blog, I'll admit I've been lazy about it. It's just been a busy couple of weeks since Christmas and we have put a pause on the home renovation projects. We barely finished painting the trim in the kitchen, and fixing the loose ends of painting the ceiling and bedrooms. We still want to finish the backsplash in the kitchen, but I think we're going to change the tile countertops to granite with the help of my best friend, Des. I love our house, it's perfect for Eric and me.

However, we recently purchased a new tv for my 30th birthday. It's a funny story because my wonderful husband was planning to take me to Napa Valley for my birthday weekend. We were going to visit the vineries, take a wine tour, stock up on some great wines, stay at a bed and breakfast, and maybe a balloon ride over the beautiful area...it didn't work out. Eric has a saturday class for his professional engineering license which started Feb. 7th until April 11th. I didn't want to put any time constraints on my birthday weekend so I did a little calculating for our trip. The amount we would have spent on the wine trip, flight tickets, wine tour, balloon ride, rental of a car, hotel price...would have been over $1000. Eric would have taken me on the my wine trip if I still wanted it, but I asked if we could put the money towards a new tv. We have been eyeballing them for 2 or 3 years now. Our current tv was a 32" Sony and it weighed 200 pounds, and we bought it used on craigslist. It was a perfect fit in out apartment, it looked like a smurf in our new house. We bought a 52" Samsung 1080p, 120 hz Flat panel LCD Hdtv. OMG, it's awesome, and beautiful. We also purchased new TV entertainment center at Costco that fits in beautifully with our living room furniture.

Here is the before picture of our living room, futon couch & recliner and 2 rocking chairs from Eric's parents.

After: New espresso brown leather recliner couches, new rug from BB&B, added the patio blinds, added additional bracketless shelves along the wall - all found at Lowes. Added some decor touches, we have our Unity sand bottle & cake initial topper on one shelf, a couple vases filled with my saved wine corks (yes, we drink alot of wine), some orchids that my girlfriend gave as a housewarming, and a wine cork tree that I had made, and these cute wooden flowers that I got from Costa Rica. Our Wii is tucked away inside the entertainment center, my balance board is in here as well. You don't see it, but there are side shelves that open up where I put all my games & DVDs. The entertainment stand has a swinging floater for our tv, and its not mounted on the wall. That would have been a huge hole in the wall!

We need an end table here, we're NOT adding a coffee table because we like the extra space when we play Wii.

I love the new look of the living room, but I think it needs more color but I'm searching the furniture stores, garage sales and craigslist for little decor elements. What do you think? What am I missing?

Kitchen Renovation 2.0 Update Part 2

We finally finished re-surfacing the kitchen cabinets prior to our party on Saturday night and we finished it maybe about 20 minutes until everyone showed up!! We aren't entirely down - we still have the backsplash to put up, and fix my broken top to my microwave. This will be the last step to our kitchen renovation, and we're taking a break until the New Year. We've done alot of renovations within the past 2 months, and we've only moved in at the end of September. We don't even remember the month of October...it's a home renovating blur. It's time to enjoy our house a bit, and I absolutely love my kitchen. It's everything I've ever wanted...and more. Thank you to my crazy, wacko husband, Eric, for making it happen!

Before pic with new paint and white cabinets:

After pic, with the new maple cabinetry:

My fave drawer in the kitchen, the secret pocket drawer for my sponge!

Here's a close-up of our hardware, I love how modern and simple they are!

Coming home to my kitchen is my favorite thing to do...I'm inspired to cook anything. Who's coming over for dinner now? YIPEE!

Kitchen Renovation 2.0 Part 1

I'm spicy!

That's how I feel about my cabinets. Eric chose a very unique color, Cayenne Pepper. He picked up a sample at Ganahl Lumber, he got Zar Ultra Max Wood Stain. My first thought, it's too red, and I'm scared we picked the wrong color. But after we painted a sample piece of venier wood and on the back of the doors. The color looked beautiful, but I was still uncertain of the color because it didn't look like a wood stain. It really looked like paint on our beautiful maple cabinet doors.

The paint takes 2 hours to dry, and I painted the 1st coat on Monday and a 2nd touch-up coat on Tuesday. The cabinet doors looked better...but I still wasn't impressed. Until last night, when I put the semi-gloss paint on the doors. I fell in love with the color choice times 1000!! The semi-gloss made a big impression, and it looks absolutely beautiful. I can't wait till we put these babies up, and finalize our hardware selections on door handles & knobs. I want satin nickel for the hardware. Let me know what you think of the color!

Before pic: 2 coats of wood stain

After: 1 coat of semi-gloss...we still need to add one more coat! It's beautiful!

Side by side comparsion, you can tell the big difference. DIY makes you appreciate everything 1000 times more.
Now....the race begins to finish this project by Friday night. We're hosting a party on Sat night!!!!!!!!! LOL, we're crazy yes, I know. I feel like we're on Extreme Makeover...without Ty screaming at me!

Kitchen Renovation 1.0

Just when I thought the house updates were over...we went ahead with the project of re-surfacing the kitchen cabinets. Friday afternoon we started on our task of by removing the old kitchen cabinets, and of course Eric and I are fixing the mistakes in the kitchen. At first, I only thought we had to take off the cabinet doors and not unpack everything that was put away...think again. I had to move everything in the kitchen BACK into boxes, put away all my precious wine glasses, take off the shelving paper that my mom, sister and cousin helped put up. I scraped off the gunk, and primed the insides of all the shelves. Painting inside little cabinets is not an easy task, and I had paint marks everywhere on my clothes!

Here's the work so far, my kitchen is out of service until Wednesday.

Eric worked on the tacking of the wood venier. We're keeping the original wood but covering it up with the wood veniers. I feel like we're cheating...but this project is half the cost if we were to demolish the entire kitchen and get a new one. Even though this project seems a little lengthy and time-consuming, I think it will be well worth it! After I was finished with priming the cabinets, I began staining the new maple cabinets. We chose the perfect stain, cayenne pepper! It is the perfect blend of red and dark wood color that we wanted. I'll have to take a picture later to show the color, the redness of the stain will bring such a warmth to the kitchen. I'm sooooo excited about it! The glass backsplash that I've already picked out will work out perfectly, I'm jumping up and down in excitement about it!

The wood venier looks as if we had put new cabinets in...I can't wait to see the wood stain on our new cabinetry!

Adrian came over and helped out tremendously. Adrian's dad had given us his old drill press machine, and it was a gift from heaven. It helped drill the perfect holes for our hinges. The guys finished in less than 2 hours for 24 drawers! Look at the boys in our make-shift workshop!

Here's a sample of our maple cabinets, this is a classic style that I love!Let's hope this project goes smoothly! I'll post the after pics once we're done!

Kitchen 1.0 & House

Here are some recent pics of the house...it's still a working draft. But we have accomplished many DIY projects, that our house is starting to feel like "our home." I love my red accents in the kitchen, it helps accent against the black tile countertops. We aren't finished in the kitchen yet. We are resurfacing the kitchen cabinents this weekend. We are taking out all the white cabinentry and putting in new maple cabinentry . No more black and white kitchen, we're taking it back to the wood!!! Let me know what you think about it!

We got the butcher block kitchen island from Ikea, I love it because it's got these shocks for the drawers. If you tried to slam them in, you couldn't because it closes it gently....it's the coolest thing ever!! My KA mixer is my best friend, I couldn't hide her!

No more bright yellow paint, we went with a brown taupe, it sets a nice warm tone to the kitchen. We added

the kitchen island, and I found the bar stools on craigslist. I'm using a photo stand for my "Top Chef"

cookbook, I love it!! I really feel like a chef in this kitchen, cooking is my passion!

Eric took out the ugly fluroscent lights and put in recessed lighting, it makes a big difference in the kitchen!

Here's our foyer, I love this wine artwork that I found at Linens-n-Things during the start of their liquidation sales. I found the foyer table on craigslist.

Here's our fireplace, the white paint didn't accent the living room like we wanted. We found this great granite texture paint, and added some sparkly crystals to the paint, it sparkles and it looks like bricks! I love our fireplace!

Here's our living room set up so far...it's pretty bare but enough room to play Wii! When I can, I play Wii Fit in the living room, and set up my yoga mat! hehe, we have new living room furniture coming to us by the end of the month. We got espresso brown leather recliner sofa & loveseat. I can't wait to have it in our living room!! This futon will be set up in the office.

Our master bedroom...our bed looks so small in here. Eric will build a gigantic leather-ish headboard to compliment our bed & furniture...I can't wait to see how that DIY project turns out!! The faux wood blinds compliment the paint as well, I really wanted curtains...but the wood blinds will suffice for now.