July 23, 2010
larsinnh
before & after, organizing
organizing office supplies
We had an ancient printer that we finally got rid of this year. We found someone to pass it along to, so it didn’t get thrown out. It still has a little bit of life left in it.
Handy Man found this new printer on a great sale at Staples several months ago. I told him that I thought it was too “ginormous”, but it does everything we need. One of the biggest benefits was that Rob could set it up so both of our computers could print from it. We had a printer stand for the old printer, but it wasn’t big enough for this new printer.
Rob was going to buy some wood to make us a customized printer stand…but sadly, the wood to make one cost more than just buying a stand, and I admit, I got a little impatient. We looked around and found this stand at an unfinished furniture store.
Here is the link that shows how Rob refinished the printer stand himself.
I finally got around to organizing the space under the printer. Its a nice wide space, so I dug out our record albums (yes, we still have some old records), and put them there. I also bought three brown cardboard magazine holders at Walmart. We had looked in different stores for magazine holders, but I liked these simple cardboard ones the most.
Besides, these were $6 each, and I didn’t feel like buying magazine holders that cost $20 each! I used them to organize some of our office supplies.
Ahhh…now we have a place to put those old Whitesnake and Simon and Garfunkel albums…
May 19, 2010
larsinnh
How-To, before & after, outdoor stuff
How to Stain Decks
We have three decks of varying sizes attached to our house. A few years ago, the original decks had paint or stain (all not matching, of course) that were in varying stages of peeling.
Rob wanted to replace all of the decks with Trex decking. However, the cost was SO high, he decided to stain the decks with a light gray stain. That first job was a lot of work: Rob had to scrape down a lot of peeled paint on each deck, then stain the floors, and the rails, etc. When spring came this year, he knew he had to re-stain the floors of the decks. The rails looked fine, but the floors needed help.
Here’s one shot of the “before”…there were many spots even worse than this; winter and all the snow and ice can be harsh on decks:
To make the job easier, Handy Man used a roller to do most of the work. He used a small brush to get into spots he couldn’t get to with the roller.
Front steps: all done! It only took one coat.
“During” on the back deck.
Side deck and stairs.
Do you have any decks or stairs that need maintenance? It can be a huge job. Has anyone used Trex before?
February 22, 2010
larsinnh
before & after, books, decorating
painting a bookcase
Here is the new/old book case we bought at the antique store. It was painted green, was very dirty, and had a wobbly board on the back of it.
Remember what it looked like before? Handy Man put two coats of white glossy latex paint on it, and we moved it to the guest room. He also removed the board on the back of it. I started to put some pictures and trinkets on top of it, and moved some books into it. I don’t have all the books moved up there yet, but I like how it looks so far.
And yes, that is the Twilight series on the second shelf. I am still on the first book! (Don’t laugh, I have been super busy blogging, and I just got the set for Christmas. Never mind that its after Valentine’s Day now!)
We have quite an oddball collection of books. We have new and old books of all subjects. On the same shelf as the Twilight books, you may be able to see some light blue books. Those are my Little House on the Prairie books. They are paperback and I have had them since I was a child. I suppose I could buy nicer hardcover copies; but I like the worn paperbacks.
On the top shelf are books that I have already read. I bought several of them at Goodwill for 25 or 50 cents. Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to books that I want to read (as you can see, with the Twilight books!), so I like to just buy them and have them around for a while. If I don’t love a book, when I’m finished with it, I will pass it on to someone. If I love it, I’ll keep it. Most of those paperbacks are books I probably won’t read again, but I wanted to check them out.
Do you have a lot of books around?
February 13, 2010
larsinnh
before & after
before and after photos
I’ve added most of the before and after kitchen photos to the “Before & After” page. It’s kind of fun to see them all close together, so you can see the process all in one page.
I do intend to add more rooms to the “Before & After” page as I talk about them, and as time allows. I’ve heard from a few people that they really enjoy before and after photos of houses and rooms. I know I enjoy looking at other people’s befores and afters, as well.
February 5, 2010
larsinnh
before & after, kitchen
kitchen renovation
Today is the day that I’m going to share the mostly done, “After” photos of our kitchen. I say mostly done because while it looks just fine, there is one more area that we will work on as funds allow. More on that, below. (To see other “before” and “during construction” photos of the kitchen, you can click on the Before & After Category, to the right.)
Introducing: the refrigerator…which was already there, but now the side panel of bead board has been installed and painted:
Now the “false” front drawers that were under the original sink have been built, painted and installed:
This is where the sink was relocated to, and the window added. Notice that the dishwasher has been relocated to the left of the sink:
To the left of the sink area, here is where the stove was relocated:
The wall area above this section is pretty nekkid, and that’s where eventually Handy Man will be doing more work. He is going to build some upper cabinets that go with the bottom ones. We have ideas on how we want them to look, including: more bead board, and glass-front doors to show some of our vintage Fiesta Ware collection. You can see the bottom of a white shelf in this photo; we have been working on arranging some objects on two shelves above the stove, but I’m not ready to show those just yet. They are a work in progress, and just a “filler of blank space” until we can get the upper cabinets built.
Overall view from way back:
We are very happy with how it came out. Anyone care to remember where our kitchen started from?
Neither would we.
Now…let’s never speak of it AGAIN.
January 28, 2010
larsinnh
before & after, kitchen, renovations
kitchen renovation
Back to the kitchen renovation. You can click on the “kitchen” category to the right to see more photos, and I’ll be expanding and updating the “Before and After” page to add these photos eventually.
As a reminder, we did our initial renovation in December of 2008. We removed everything, and laid down new wood flooring. Handy Man installed a new soffit and put the cabinets back together in a slightly new configuration. He also moved the sink. And there everything stopped, until a warm day in Spring of 2009 when Handy Man put a window into the wall above the relocated sink.
Fast forward to July 2009…when Handy Man had started painting the kitchen cabinets. He painted them a glossy white. We had white cabinets in our last house, and loved them. It brightens up the kitchen, and the glossy paint is wipe-able. (Is that a word?)
Notice the two drawers that were missing at the moment. That is because those two drawers were “false” fronts, as they were under the original sink. Handy Man took the false fronts out and built new cabinet boxes for them, so we could have drawers there. Hey, he’s not called “Handy Man” for nothing.
You’ll probably also notice that the panels on the sides of the cabinets are still bare. This was because the wood there had a very smooth finish that we decided would be difficult to paint. Handy Man decided to put some beadboard panelling over the cabinet sides, which we also painted white. It solved a problem for us and helped the cabinets to look more “finished.”
Another thing you’ll notice is that the toe-kick under the cabinets wasn’t yet painted. Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
By now, the kitchen was really coming together. Just a few more minor painting details to go, and it was 95% done.
What are we planning for the other 5%? You’ll have to stay tuned for details…!
January 19, 2010
larsinnh
before & after, kitchen
In April of 2009, Handy Man broke a hole into the kitchen wall, and put up a new window. We moved some cabinets around in December 2008, but had to wait for better weather to tear a hole in the wall. Here is a reminder about the “before”:
Here is Handy Man, covered in dust. He had to take down several rows of siding, and break a huge hole in the wall for the new window. The small hole is just the beginning, he made the hole as big as the larger opening you can see here:
EEEEEk, there’s a huge hole in the wall! Thankfully, it was a nice warm day that day:
After a long day of construction work, here is the window, from the outside:
Here is the view from the inside, taken today, on a snowy day in January (since I apparently forgot to take a photo of the inside last spring!)
January 1, 2010
larsinnh
before & after, kitchen, renovations
Here are some photos of our lovely kitchen in the middle of renovations. Handy Man tore everything out! He took off the counter tops, the sink, took down the kitchen cabinets, etc:
What a mess!!
Handy Man: What have I done?!?
Water had to be shut off, and the refridgerator and stove were moved into the living room. We didn’t use the stove, but we were at least able to use the fridge.
We used paper plates and cups for about 10 days. We set up a makeshift kitchen on a table, where we used the microwave and toaster oven for simple cooking. That, and some takeout food helped to get us through:
Once everything was torn out, the rebuilding could begin. The cabinets were in decent shape, so we put them back up, but in a slightly new configuration. Handy Man also put in hardwood floors.
Stay tuned for more pictures!
December 28, 2009
larsinnh
before & after, kitchen, renovations
Ok, so I’m kind of embarassed to show these “before” pictures, but here goes. Please remember that we started this the DAY after Christmas last year. There are Christmas decorations half up and half down, and Handy Man had started to bring tools out…dirty dishes were laying around and I said:
“WAIT! I have to take a BEFORE picture!” 
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: “The before isn’t THAT bad!” However, this is a case where from “afar”, nothing looked too bad…but up close? *shudder* The ivory colored sink was scratched up and dinged beyond belief. The cabinets, while sturdy, were grimy with cooking spills that I could not get clean for the life of me. The counter top was stained, and the caulking between the backsplash and the counter was coming out. The stainless steel appliances were brand new ones that we bought when we moved in. I don’t even want to tell you how disgusting the insides of the original stove and refridgerator were! The vinyl floor was once white, but it was so scuffed up and dirty and impossible to clean…some of the seams in the vinyl floor were starting to separate…
The layout was okay but not great for us. Look at the second photo, above, again. See that section of counter top, with the microwave on it? That was actually an island, and when we moved in, that whole island was sitting smack dab in the MIDDLE of the kitchen floor. I hated that island. I know people love islands, and it seems like any kitchen that isn’t tiny has one nowadays. But I hated it. Rob also hated it; the way we cooked and moved around in the kitchen, it just didn’t work for us. It always seemed to be in the way.
So one day, Handy Man just moved it…I didn’t want to move it until we were ready to renovate the kitchen. I was convinced that it would be screwed down to the floor and that there would be all kinds of holes underneath it in the (already ugly) floor that would look horrible if we moved it. However, Rob just got TIRED of it one day, and he moved it. He shoved it against that far wall…turns out the island wasn’t even screwed or nailed to the floor at all! That definately freed up a lot ofspace in our kitchen; it seemed HUGE in there after moving the island aside. (I wish I could find some photos of the island in the middle of the kitchen, but I can’t right now. If I do find some, I’ll post them.) There were a few small holes in the floor where the island must have originally been screwed down…however, the floor was so ugly anyway, what were a few more holes, right?
I know this is kind of a cliff-hanger…but you’ll have to come back in a few days to see more!! “During” and “after” photos to come! Stay tuned…
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