Kitchen Renovations Completed

So how did I do?

Someday I’d like to replace the kitchen countertops with something a little nicer and I’d also like to swap out that hideous faucet. It’s like those ones you see in an old laundry or mud room, and I'd like to get a new sink. I’m sure we can find something nicer when it comes time to replace the backsplash.

This is how the kitchen cabinets turned out; no more Tyrolean cottage now. I went shopping and found some real life-like fake pine branches, complete with pinecones, for a really good deal, so I bought them and I put them up on the ledge over the cupboards that are over the sink. It sort of carries the pinecone branch theme all the way across. There is a fluorescent light fixture above the sink that I’d like to swap out eventually, but you can’t see it because it’s behind a plastic panel. The cup hooks are gone. I don’t feel the need to display my matching coffee mugs; I keep them in a cupboard where they belong. Some of the things in my kitchen have sentimental value: like the rooster on top of the cupboards, over the stove, and the pie tins over the kitchen sink, and the bean pot on top of my hutch. They all belonged to my mother.

These are the dishes I purchased to go with the kitchen/dining decor. I'm so Martha Stewart (as my daughter likes to say) that I couldn't just stop at the plates. I bought the whole set including silverware and the cute little salt and pepper shakers that are shaped like the chickadee on the plates. These are my everyday dishes and I love the way I feel when I can share all my efforts with friends and family. The unfortunate thing about this pattern is that Pfaltzgraff only sells it at Christmastime. I have been fortunate to find it on other Internet sites when I can't get it through them.

The flooring is made by Congoleum and it is really practical for where we live. We have two dogs and in the wintertime we track snow and dirt all over the place. This stuff is easy to mop up. The accessories on the table and hutch match my china. It's called Winterwood and it's by Pfaltzgraff.

This is how the whole thing turned out. I want to replace the ceiling fans with track lighting. They don't work anyhow and they don't give off much light. I put some of the same film on the dining room window as I put in the bathroom. As you can see it lets plenty of light in but provides a lot of privacy, plus I don't have to have curtains that would dwarf the window, and hide the beautiful border.

Kitchen Renovations - Day 3

What a diffence the trim made. It seemed to tie the whole thing together. It was a pain in the butt to put on though.


Today we started putting up the border. It's called Pinecone Branch and you can find it in the Livin' Lodge book on page 162.

Kitchen Renovations - Day 2

This is a close up of the wallpaper. It's called Pine Spot and it can be found in the Livin' Lodge book on page 98 or 160. I bought this wallpaper online from http://www.usawallpaper.com/ It's a great site with lots of wallpapers to choose from and the prices are reasonable. Their service is great. The best thing about it all is I stayed at home with my glass of iced tea and shopped in my jammies!

Today the wallpaper started to go up. We put it up right over the paneling and had no problems at all with it. I wouldn't want to try to do it by myself though. Fortunately, I had Linda to help me. She and her husband have a successful painting business, so she knew all the ins and outs of it, and I'm not a total novice at it either. I've had wallpaper at every house I've owned. You can really see the difference in the color on the trim and the paint above the paneling now. We carried the trim color all the way around the room by painting all the kitchen cabinets the same color.

Living Room - After

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

This is a part of the painting that is on the mantle. I have always told Eric that someday I'd like to go on a one horse open sleigh ride, but those are far and few to be had in Southern California. When we were back east on our vacation the tour bus stopped off in Lancaster and we got to go to some privately owned Amish run shops and what should we find in one but this painting. So he bought it for me and we shipped it home, and there it hangs. I know that if it's at all possible sometime in my life Eric will take me on a sleigh ride because he promised me and he always keeps his promises.

The fireplace is a little dirty right now because it's winter and we are burning fires almost day and night so the ashes kind of get all over the place. It's a far cry from how it used to look. Before we painted it we tried scrubbing the bricks down to see if that would help get the black soot off of them but it didn' t work; painting seemed to be our only other option that didn't cost us a fortune. So, we found a pretty chocolate color in Linda's left over paint supply that was going to the dump and we painted the fireplace. We purchased a simple mantle and hung it right above the vents of the broken heatolater so they weren't as noticeable. And we finally got the fire back into the fireplace!

This wall is directly opposite from the wall with the recliners. The TV is in the armoire, which matches our bedroom furniture, you see at one point we lived only in this room, and the bedroom served as a storage/music/craft room. When we turned it back into a bedroom we didn't have room for the armoire so it stayed out here. The bookshelves and the armoire cover up one of the windows, but the view out of it is lousy anyway.

We both are avid readers and love movies and books so our bookshelves are crammed tight with those things. There is one on either side of the piano, which is below that big picture. I got a great deal on it at a close-out store in Big Bear. It is a picture of a moose (I like moose) eating in a meadow, the frame is intricately carved and it is triple matted. Eventually I'd like to put up some more crown molding and paint it the same color as the rest and then put more border up around the whole room, but that's another project for a rainy day.

Living Area - Before

This view looks out from the kitchen over the countertop into the far corner of the living room area. Yes, those are carved wood valances over the drapes. Yuck! Once again the same dark, heavy, color-coordinating drapes.

This was taken by standing in the “office” area that became our dining room. Notice the potbelly stove and pipe? That thing was sitting on a homemade hearth that was 3x4 ft, and the darn thing took up the entire corner of the room. Next to that was the useless wall heater. The first year we were up her we took out the stove, but it left a hole in the roof that we had to temporarily patch. At this point the only source of heat we had was the propane wall heater because the fireplace didn’t work. It was currently holding our TV. Eric and I used to joke about wishing we could find a DVD that had a fire burning on it and we could play that in the TV so it would at least look like a fireplace. Little did we know that later on down the line they’d have them. Anyway, the heater wasn’t that great. It was one of those two sided jobbies, so the front room would be cold and the bedroom would be sweltering. And what is up with that kitchen light fixture? It looks like it came from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland!

That is our home inspector, what a waste of money he was! He wouldn't go on the roof to see if the roof was sound or needed repairs because it was sprinkling, he wouldn't go underneath the house to see if the plumbing was okay because it was wet, and he wouldn't reschedule because that would throw his month off. He checked the plugs but didn't tell us they weren't grounded. He ran the washing machine to see if the water was running and if it drained properly but because he didn't go under the house he didn't know that the drain wasn't connected to anything and just ran out under the house. He also didn't check to see if there was any hot water because as we discovered later the hot water wasn't connected and needed to be plumbed to the hot water tank. I can't believe we actually paid this guy any money at all.

As you can see there is more clutter to be had. I honestly believe these people went out of their way to see how much stuff they could get in there.

Kitchen Renovations Begin

The first coat of color goes on the trim. The trim goes all the way from the fireplace around to the kitchen cabinets.

The view through the doorway is the back of the front door, that's black marble on the floor with , you guessed it, pink accents! My girlfriend, Linda, is on the stepladder painting the wall above the paneling with a lovely color called Cochise. It is a creamy, white-beige color that looks like suede when it dries. You can't see it now because it's white but there is crown molding above the paneling. Here you can clearly see the loft area. We have a twin mattress on the floor up there just in case anyone needs to crash.

Dining & Kitchen Areas - Before

And the nightmare continues...
You really get a good look at the "office" area from this vantage point and with Eric standing up against the wall you can see how small the place really is. The fireplace off to the right is covered with soot because the heatolater (that's what those rectangular vents are above the screen) hadn't been working for years and people kept using the fireplace anyway. The soot ran up the face of the fireplace and on to the wood ceiling above. I discovered that the fireplace wasn't really black or gray at all...it's pink! I don't know which was worse the dirty soot-covered bricks or the bright pink ones underneath all the dirt. The area above Eric where the animal pelt is hanging is actually a small loft. It's not big enough for you to stand up in but it's a great "treehouse" for little kids. There's a ladder and access to it in the laundry room right beneath it. The carpet throughout the house was worn, stained and a dirty rose color. It went great with the pink fireplace and nasty curtains.






















The area that would become our dining room (on the right), has bookshelves up to the windowsill, which are covered by dark heavy drapes, a piano is against the back wall, a full-size desk is up against the half wall, a filing cabinet is next to the desk and their ar books on every other available space.

The kitchen cabinets have some nice tole painting on them that matches the set of of Corelle "Meadow" dishes, and the matching coffee cups are hangin on cup hooks under one of the cupboards. I suppose it's cute if you like the pattern, however I do not. My mother loved it and I remember buying her the complete set for Chrismas one year. Don't you think it's ironic that I would buy a house wit my mothers' favorite china pattern on the cupboards. That's kind of wierd. Anyway, the artist did an outstanding job of replicating the flowered pattern being and artist myself I can appreciate the talent.

The mess on the bottom right-hand corner of the picture is actually an oval dining table with two chairs, and it's covered with all that stuff that you see. The dining table sits in front of the fireplace, very close to it, and it butts up against the back of the full-size sofa that faces the windows, and door on the back wall. There is also a macrame plant holder suspended from one of the beams on the left side of the couch.