Medical Cabinet Repurposed

 Back in the spring we went to the Springfield Flea Market, and it rained the whole day...

it was soooo cold.   Hard to believe now that it's 100 degrees :) 

I spied this little wall hung medical cabinet and thought it was just a really cool piece.  I originally planned to hang it above the toilet to store our towels...

that, of course, was before we realized we were going to have to pretty much redo the whole bathroom....

 So it was pretty rough looking...we took it apart and my husband sandblasted all the metal hardware. I decided to sand it down a little bit and use a dark stain on it followed by a coat of polyurethane.  This is the only "before" photo I took...and I'd already stained it.

 So as we were working I was thinking this would make a great spot for ME---only one thing missing  right now, and that's the mirror but I've got something in mind.

 Our bathroom is small about 5x9' so this is just enough to be a spot to sit down.  I'm thinking that my fan can be mounted to the wall too ---

just haven't decided if I want to do that or not....

 This folding chair is my favorite out of all those we've bought....

I was thinking more along the lines of a small stool...maybe metal...

Not sure but I'll know it when I see it

 

 the room is coming along nicely...baseboards are in and it's all painted and floored and caulked....

 The last thing is the sink...and some storage.....but I'm loving the way this looks!!!  And feeling better about getting it wrapped up...

Allure Vinyl Flooring

The bathroom remodel continues...

My husband got all the drywall patched and sanded so I was able to paint.  

I used the "White Ballet" color from Valspar that we used in the kiddos room last year---Mostly because I had a whole unopened gallon!

If you've ever tried to pull up old linoleum you know why we decided to lay down sheets of thin plywood first :) We filled our gap between the tub and old floor with a piece of this too before laying the large sheets down.  I planned on using our Allure vinyl flooring in the Hickory color/finish.

 I was right in the middle of flooring when the storm hit and the power went out.  So I planned on getting up Saturday morning to finish it up ---only  we got a call to show the house.  After cleaning all morning they apparently didn't even show up.  

Saturday evening I got to this point ---only needed about 3-4 pieces to finish.  Which we were  expecting.  We'd specifically checked to make sure it was available before we started.  My husband went to get another box at Home Depot only to be told yes, the display is still there (and it's listed online) but they don't have it on the shelf.  You have to special order that and it takes 7-10 days to come in:)

After my husband tells me all this, I remember that my Uncle laid the same flooring in their house when we did our dining room/ kitchen, and he MIGHT have enough pieces to finish it up....He did....

I persevered!!!! It is finally all down and looks really great considering it's linoleum.  

This is definitely a great flooring option for a little bit less than a laminate or ceramic.  And we get sooo many compliments on ours.  It's one of the first things people notice in our kitchen/dining room.  

And that room gets a TON of traffic....and other abuse---see photo below :) We've had it about 3 years I think and it still looks great.  It's also very quiet....some laminate floors can be a little noisy or echo-y in large open rooms.

So all that's left is EVERYTHING :)  A new sink....caulking around the edges of the tub....baseboards...but we 're getting there...

Remodeling a Bathroom

SO what started as JUST replacing the bathtub and surround has become almost a total bathroom overhaul....we just remodeled this room about 4 years ago and this is how it looked...

We discovered a crack near the back of the tub a few months ago and knew we were going to have to replace it quickly because our home is for sale...

 So we bought a new tub and surround and my husband started tearing the old one out.  Then he and his Dad put this new one in ---on Father's Day week-end no less :)

 See that nice little gap in the flooring between the tub and the tiles?????  Yeah that would be because this tub is about 2 inches narrower than the old one....

AND you cannot buy our flooring any more...

So I'll be redoing the flooring as well...probably the same flooring we used in the dining room because we have 2 boxes left over from that project so it will almost do the whole bathroom.

It's the Allure vinyl flooring from Home Depot in the Hickory color/finish.

Which means taking the toilet out ---and then I'm thinking about redoing the floor and how I really don't like the vanity we have so we took that out too :)  Might as well go all the way right??!?!?!?

 Our bathrooms are small and I really like having the pedestal sink in our hall bathroom...

I'm shopping for a wall hung sink and something more creative for storage.
In my mind this is our bathroom!!!  Gorgeous huh?????

Ahhhh Haaaa moment

So today  I was thinking then about God being our Father.  He wants to bless us.  And I've mentally known that for as long as I can remember.  But have you ever just had one of those moments where it totally dawns on you that you didn't COMPLETELY understand it until that moment??!??!?!?!?   I just realized today how I must look to GOD ---ever been there??????  Thinking about your own kids and how sometimes you just wish they'd be a little appreciative of what they've already got before giving them something more?  GOD'S love is truly a miracle....

Here are the pictures of the pantry we decided we might as well go ahead and build while we had everything torn apart.  I'm SOOO glad we did this.  I love my pantry.  It hides all sorts of craziness in the kitchen!!!

We also decided to wall in the 'old' doorway between the dining room/kitchen area...I had plans for this involving chalkboard paint.....and now on to the good part....pictures of the semi finished kitchen and dining room!  I am so glad we tore out the soffits.  It really opened everything up and made it feel really huge!

 I  painted the cabinets a creamy white color and then glazed them with my own little concoction.  I'm really bad for this.  I'm always doctoring paint to get the colors I want.  Mixing and what not....Then I sanded them to distress them a little bit.  My drawers are plastic people.  PLASTIC!  And I sanded them too...they turned out great...

Here's my chalkboard wall-- Doodlebug gets the bottom half and I used a silver sharpie to lay out a calendar for the top half.

I made the slipcovers for the chairs.  And this is also a pretty good picture of the floor.  Which I am proud to say I laid MYSELF!  Before you get too impressed by my DIY skills --it's linoleum.  Pretty cool huh????  The look of hardwood at a fraction of the cost.  I can't say I'd choose this if we were planning on staying but I have to say it looks pretty nice and has actually held up better than expected.

New side doors which both open up to screens.  This is so nice when the weather cooperates!  And the finished pantry so now the refrigerator has a place to go.  It used to just sit out in the middle of the wall.

This is a nice full view of the cabinets...and the new back door.  I decided not to put that annoying little cabinet over the stove back up....who uses that?!?!?!?  Here's another reminder of the "old" kitchen..

And this is from the back door looking into the dining room...For those of you who've seen other posts you know there is now beadboard running around the bottom half of the dining room walls.  These photos are prior to that because right about this point in our remodel we discovered a huge leak in our roof and had to reroof our house.....yeah....when it rains it pours...ha ha

just to remind you here's the before again...

And I'm sitting at the Hoosier hutch on our laptop typing this.  It makes a great computer desk since we only have a 2 bedroom home and we have two kiddos...which brings me back to the reason we have to sell it!  GOD has blessed us and we are out of space....it went on the market last week.  Stay tuned to see what happens!!!!

Go big or stay home

So as I continue the story of our humble kitchen dining room remodel I realize it is good to remember!  GOD has brought us a long way.  Looking at these pictures I realize how thankful I am that we didn't know what we were getting into when we started!!!!  Isn't everything that way?????  I mean really, if you knew what was coming you'd miss out on most of your life out of fear or intimidation....at least I think I would!

Here's my husband taking the cabinets down...bless his heart he hates this kind of stuff.  It's really not his cup of tea.  I'm proud to say we did survive!!!!  This is a better picture of those soffits...you'll notice the little "scallop y" decor is already GONE.

So this is the moment of truth....the sawzall is OUT and ready for action!!!!  At this point I'm thinking what in the heck are we thinking??!?!?!?!  And I had already spent time repairing the drywall where the bar used to be.  When I say "time" I mean it took me several days of mudding and sanding.  And now we're tearing it down....

And then the wall was down and gone and I felt like I had a new room already.  LOVE the open space! You can kind of see in the background below the chair rail on the dinning room side there is a texture on the wall.  That was something I did when we thought it was going to get torn down.....yeah.....now what????  I didn't want to just paint over it.  And of course Doodlebug was running around in his diaper because it was scorching hot and soooo humid....

Ah yes ---then it sinks in.  We have to FIX this.  And it's your kitchen so you're in it everyday...especially with a little one.  And we had NO IDEA what we were doing.....

Remodeling the kitchen/dining room

  I have trouble controlling my creative thoughts-- once I see something or have an idea I just cannot rest until I try it.  My husband understands because although it's in different "areas" of interest he's the same way.  Sometimes we drive each other crazy but in a good way....one thought leads to the next and then we start giving each other ideas...

The phrase "You know I was thinking...." strikes fear in the heart of my husband....

We have put our house up for sale.  So it has been a real balancing act when it comes to "fixing" it to sell. 

We remodeled 2 bathrooms.  But my brother- in-law does this sort of thing for work so he did those for us. Once those were done I started looking at the kitchen and dining room....and said 

"You know I've been thinking...if we're going to put a new floor in maybe I should paint the cabinets again...." and the picture below is what happened...

One thing leads to the next....this is in August people WITH NO AIRCONDITIONING.  In OHIO.  It was hot, humid and my son's second birthday was at the end of the month....

But I'm looking at pictures like this...

And this.... 

And thiiiisssss......

These are MMMMMYYYYY colors people!!!!  I adore this peaceful blue green gray feeling....and LOVE the clean white cabinets....the dark wood...the whole combination I love all of it....One more "before" picture to leave you with until I post again...