After the flood

 

You may have remembered that I had a flood in my basement in January and after one day of a lot of rain, the window wells filled up and my basement looked like this. If you want to read about it go here!

 

We tried to save the carpet in the family room but the mud was in the padding and I didn't want that smell and it is almost impossible to get the mud out of the pad.

 

We did have some wood flooring that can get wet in my exercise room and after cleaning up the mud it looked as good as the day we installed it. After one day of rain and 4 months of work we pulled up the old carpet, repainted, installed new baseboards and  replaced the carpet with the hard wood flooring, or I should say hard wood flooring look alike. Luckily we didn't have to replace any dry wall so, I was grateful for that. Are you ready for the after picture???

 

Finally, it is put back together.

 

We replaced all of the carpet with the wood flooring and I figured when I got tired of the rugs I could just replace the rugs!  This is a big room and it took awhile to lay all of the flooring, the most difficult part was getting a seamless finish that flows into all of the rooms that connect to this room. Mr. Jones did all of the flooring and I did all of the painting. (and putting it all back together.)

 

I did repaint the fireplace mantel, and I really like it in a lighter color.

 

I had to re stain these as well because there were water marks and splashes on the bottom of them

 

I'm loving the lighter walls as well.

 

I liked these rugs because they bring more light into the basement too.

 

We redid the floor in the cowboy room and I found this fantastic rug on Overstock and knew it would be the perfect match for this room.

 

We've added some pink boots since the last time you saw this room.

 

and there are definitely some more WANTED posters on the wall. (pretty soon there will be 14!)

 

I'm loving having this floor in the play room, don't think those cowboys will be able to damage much here!

 

We put new base boards in this room so we had to make the fence a little higher, (that's okay, now the horses won't be able to jump the fence!)

 

The barbwire fence was just adjusted a little bit. (no, it isn't really barb wire, I found this after Halloween and it is really soft to the touch.)

 

The cloud room is finally put back together as well.  This was the only room that was not flooded so this room was piled to the ceiling with STUFF! ( I should have taken a picture because it pretty much took me a whole day to get everything out of there.)

 

Oh, it feels so good to have it done!

I will have to show you the 2 bedrooms later, because I haven't got the bed yet,(remember the mattress was flooded and was a big sponge for the flood.)

I have been working outside this week though trying to get rid of all of the ruts the water made through my yard. It feels great to be outside!

Have a great week!

Chevron back splash

 

While making our kitchen transform, I had seen an episode on Studio 5 that showed how to add some vinyl chevron's to your walls.  I checked it out and loved how great they looked on painted walls.  It would cost about $170.00 to have the vinyl I needed to do the back splash in my kitchen.  Call me cheap, call me frugal, but I couldn't justify that much for vinyl.  Then I had an idea! I could make my own chevron's! Did you know that is how many of my best ideas come about, (not wanting to spend the money and thinking, I could do that!)

 

I went to Home Depot and bought a roll of white contact paper.  I was going to use scissors to do this, but then had a better idea, because I knew the lines would need to be precise. So, I used my quilting ruler and rotary cutter to cut the vinyl.

 

First I made a template from paper so I could see what size I would need., I then labeled one side number one and the other side number 2.  In order to make the chevron's you need one going one way and the next going the other way, so just reverse your pattern and you will have the exact measurement, just reversed!

 

I made them as wide as my quilting ruler and first cut the contact paper into strips.

 

Then I made 2 piles and went to town!  I started at the bottom  and worked up.

 

I used the backing from the contact paper to use for spacers, to make sure they would be even.  Once I got started, I couldn't believe how easy it was.

 

 

and can I tell you?? how much I loved it when it was finished!!

 

Loved it!

 

It cost me $8.00 for the roll of contact paper, and I pretty much have enough to do 3 or 4 kitchens.

 

My visitors who have come to see the kitchen have asked me where I got the tile for my back splash?

Look closer, it is just contact paper!!

 

I think I even like my counter tops better!

 

See how being cheap makes you creative!  

Hmm, maybe I could do a whole wall of this!

Kitchen reveal

 

As you may have read in one of my previous posts we had a flood at our house and since January we have been working on restoring everything in our basement, well this post isn't about that, but what I call the "trickle effect".  I have been working for months on painting and redoing the basement and I finished the painting in the basement and I had some paint left over,(uh, oh!) I had quite a bit of paint left over and thought, I should repaint the kitchen.  Why would I want to do more painting when that is all I have done for the past several months? Because it makes everything look so fresh an clean!  Above is the before picture of my kitchen,  I don't have a lot of before pictures because I was just going to paint the walls a different color.

 

Here is a better picture of the paint before.As you notice the trim is painted a dark red rust color.

 

Here is an after with the paint, I love the white trim and how fresh and clean it looks, and this is where we come to the "trickle effect".  I loved the white so much that I decided that I should paint my cabinets as well.  If you notice in the before picture the cabinets were a dark cream with a brown glaze on the top of them.

 

A close up of the trim.

 

Well after lots of work this is the after!

 

I never have really liked what my cabinets looked like before. Before this paint treatment they were a dark oak color. I didn't like them because of this routed pattern in the cabinet. They are super solid cabinets and even thought they are old and dated, I haven't had any problems with them because the wood is solid and they were well made, so I couldn't justify ripping them all out. I saw a post and I wish I could remember where I saw it but she had refaced her plain cabinets. I loved how it changed them, but how was I going to reface mine when they had this little arch at the top. I bought some wood filler and filled in the little arch, let it dry, sanded it, and filled it and sanded it again. I then gave all of the cabinets a good coat of primer.

 

In the post I had looked at she had gone to the lumber store and had them cut a 4x8 foot piece of ply wood into 2 inch strips. Well, when I asked my local lumber store to do the same thing, they replied they couldn't  and then the other big box place said, "I wouldn't like the results because they didn't have a finish blade on there saw and it would be rough.  I do have a cabinet mill here in my little town and so I thought to call them and see if they could help. Yes! I gave them the dimensions of 1/4 inch thick and 2 inch wide strips and they even sanded them for me! I told them I would be painting them and they suggested poplar. With my husbands help he sawed and used a brad nailer to attach the strips to the drawer and cabinet fronts.

 

This is a drawer front.

I

 

Then after all of that work, the painting began. I filled the little cracks in with some putty and using a foam roller began the painting.  I actually started with the backs and did 2 coats on the back first. Then I did 3 coats to the fronts.

 

Yes, there are a lot of cabinet doors, 32, to be precise, so it overtook my dining room kitchen and hallways.

 

Aren't they looking good though, with their white coat of paint!

 

Yes, they are looking fabulous! I left the cabinets under the sink the dark oak color, because my hubby thought it would be too much white. It kind of helps blend in the dark dishwasher.

 

Can you see the little decorative arch? Nope because it disappeared!

I am going to have to give a tutorial for the chevron back splash later because I love how that turned out.

 

Love it!

 

I have a collection of Jadeite that kind of got lost in the dark oak but with this white it really pops!

 

I love this color of green,(that's why I started collecting it.)

 

 

I also left my china cabinet dark, but I'm thinking it might get a coat of a paint too,(Shh, don't tell.) I want to get rid of the little scalloped border on the bottom of the cabinet as well, it kind of dates the cabinets.

 

I have to tell you about the hinges. I did splurge and bought some new hinges but the week I bought them, my hubby was out of town for a week and I wanted to have them all finished when he got home.

When I got the hinges and tried to put them on they were a tiny bit wide and didn't fit the cabinets. I was so disappointed but knew I wanted the cabinets to hang perfectly. In the middle of the night, 3:00 AM to be precise, I had some inspiration.  Get up and wash and scrub the old hinges and give them a coat of paint! I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and did just that.  I scrubbed and dried them and I had some oil rubbed bronze spray paint just waiting for me downstairs on my paint cabinet,( I told you it was inspiration,) I gave them a light coat of spray paint and they looked better that the ones I had bought.  I took the new hinges back and saved myself $100.00!!

 

I did get rid of the scallop above the sink and love the clean straight line.

 

In this picture you can see the old style that used to be there.  When we moved in we removed the cabinets that went across the top of the counter.(It was a solid bank of cabinets that really closed in the kitchen. We also added the spot lights to the top where the cabinets used to hang.  See, the shelves with the baskets? That used to be a cabinet that opened to this side of the counter.  We removed the door and the side of the cabinet and left the shelves and I just put 3 baskets there.

We are finished!!

Ah, it was a lot of work but so worth it!