Posts Tagged ‘Downing House’

Jan
1

Master Bath; Retro Remodel Asheville House

In Asheville North Carolina we had a really small house barely 1,000 square feet and no budget to speak of.  So, when Justin's office all but shut down and laid off over 20 people we had to find a job, and fast... which also meant that we had a ton of remodeling to do in about a month.  This project was one of them, our tine master bath it was about 5 feet wide by 8 ft long.  It seemed even smaller with the tiny 1 sink cabinet and large storage closet, so we had to do a bit of deconstruction, and I love how it turned out.

Like I said we had almost no budget and a few things got left out of the remodel, but it is still lovely.

Here are the before images:

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Aug
26

Moving on..

Well we have a little snippet of good, actually great news!
We sold our house!!!
We were going to try to put our house up for sale by owner but just didn't have the time. So, we called our realtor Tammy. She listed our house on Tuesday, and then we waited. We had one showing on Saturday. Which was quite a fiasco!
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We decided to take the cats with us so that they wouldn't escape or bug the prospective buyers. Within the first mile Kitty was so upset that she threw up. Then she crawled under Justin's seat and continued to cry (really sad meowing, every 30 seconds) for the next 30 minutes.
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Buddy at first was great, but as the time went on, we had unloaded the car (at the storage unit), and were about to go to a few other stores, he started heavily panting and hyperventilating. Any of you that know buddy, know that he is a big, rather stout boy and I was not sure his heart would be able to handle the stress. So we drove back to the house and the people were just walking out! Thank heaven! So, we parked in front of our neighbors house and as soon as they drove away I ran the cats back in and of course they were fine! I have no idea what they are going to do for 2 days in the car going to a new home that they have never seen. I am definitely going to need to get a tranquilizer.
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Anyway, we had a BBQ that night to try and get as many friends together as possible. We called a bunch of our friends from work and church and just sat around and ate (and talked of course). While we were hanging out I got a call for another showing Sunday afternoon, while I would be at church, and what is so funny is that all the tension that I had felt about selling the house just totally left my body! I was so happy, calm and so relieved. Which is funny because it was just a showing.
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Sure enough, they made an offer on the house we did some very serious haggling, and now the house is sold!
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I am so happy! Now we can really make some plans for Texas!
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Let me take a moment to be thankful-

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I am so thankful to my Father in Heaven for watching out for us so faithfully. This whole process has been hard, and more work than I'd care to think about at the moment, but a true blessing. Before this change began, I was praying to my Father that He would prepare a way for us to be able to adopt. We just haven't been able to get to that point financially here. I asked Him, if that was truly what he wanted us to do, that we needed Him to prepare a way for it to be able to happen. And then Justin got laid off. As silly as it may sound, I know that this new path is an answer to my prayers. I really feel like He has a plan for our little family. From the very beginning I have been prepared for each little bump in the road, and even the good news. The Spirit has just dwelt with me from day to day. I am thankful that I have been able to recognize so clearly the blessings in my life. I love my Father and I am so thankful for all He has given me. And I am so thankful to my Savior for bearing this burden for me. And so I will try to remember this, and hope that we all can remember those times that we have been guided.
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Aug
22

And now, the rest of the story.

I just keep not having time to post our most recent changes and thought I ought to do so now. We have our first showing tomorrow, so I am feeling a lot of relief. It is just so hard to think about what are plans are when the house hasn't sold, but that is not the point of this blog. So I will move on.

Front Room
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First of all we had to remove all the old carpeting and base molding. Let me just take the time to say that I hate staples. There are always a million staples and yuck it took forever just getting them out before we could even think about beginning.
(Buddies eyes look especially freaky, like they are bugging out of his head)

So after we had finished returning all our kitchen appliances to their original location, we moved everything from the front room to the kitchen. After it was all in there Justin was like, "See, we can live in 200 sq feet like those little houses that are set up in Ikea", uh- yeah, sure.

We had to prime the floor first and let it dry for a night. Then we got started on the gluing. Justin put down the glue and I cut and installed the wood.


We had to get really creative for weights to hold down the floor, while it set. There were bags of sugar, flour, soda, stacks of books, large cans of pinto beans... The list goes on, so I had to get a picture of it all.

The first few things go back into the space! (after about 3 full days of it all a mish-mash pile in the kitchen) Oh, and be sure to notice the new base molding we installed too.
We had to finish installing the crown molding on the front wall.

We never actually finished this corner ( I masking taped it in the mean time and painted so it didn't look awful but was a little po-dunk). When we removed the kitchen wall and opened it up to the front room we left the wall unfinished with the intentions of moving the front door over and adding a long window next to the front door.

Later we decided not to make the effort to change it, which is sad. It would have added a lot of good square footage to the front room. Right now that space can only be used as a pathway. But oh well its done right?!!
This picture may be repeat, but the focus in this one is the finally finished corner in the front room, not the kitchen.
I don't know why, but I really like to place things together randomly and do it as unstudied-ly as possible. I like it to feel like they just kind of ended up there, like someone set the thing down and it has lived there ever since. Before the remodel I had a bunch of stuff up on the armoire that I really liked but have moved most of it to make it feel less crowded. So here is a picture, but I still liked it better when it was over stuffed and a little more random.
The finished product. I will have to take a few other pictures later. For now in the opposite corner, I have a lot of boxes of randoms to pack and haven't moved them out yet. Maybe by tomorrow....
Master Bathroom
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So you've already seen the beginning of the master bath a month or so ago, here is the final project. And by the way, this project makes me the most sad about leaving this house.

Here, Justin is figuring out the wiring. He is also wearing my pink bandanna as a sweat band and I had to get a picture of his cute little head band!


The floor is finished, the wall are drywalled the new plumbing installed, the base is in, walls are painted, next the crown will be installed and then all the fixtures and wall-ah!

OH - IT IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!
More to come, (yet again I did not finish) we have got to run to a friends house for dinner!
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Aug
17

Kitchen of my dreams

Almost! Okay, so it isn't quite the kitchen of my dreams, but it is pretty much as close as our budget can get us at the moment. I won't bore you with a big long explanation, I'll just put captions under the pictures for those that want to read them.

The original before (or click on the links for the full story!)

Before
The Plans
During 1
During

So, without further adieu, I'd like to introduce you to my new Kitchen (with a capital K):

We enlisted the local missionaries for more than their share of work, but they have been a dream in our time of desperate need! Thanks SOOO much Elder Crandall and Elder Bennion! They ripped out the second layer of vinyl after my shoulder and arms were so messed up that I couldn't hold a hammer any longer (before this I removed about 2000 staples from the first layer of vinyl and plywood, and each had to be hammered to loosen then ripped out with pliers the rest of the way)

The floor all cleaned off and ready for the new layer of junk we are about to install.

Here is the view into the living room, I think it is too funny! Our best Friends in college always though that we were mad for being able to live with the mess that remodeling makes, but it is a high that can't be explained. Besides when you've lived through this for 4 or 5 days when you finally get everything in order it is like a dream come true!

About 5 or 6 hours later we had all the cement board cut and screwed in place. If you look at the pictures you will notice that it has to be screwed about every 8 inches, and I think we went through about 15 screw heads, they just kept snapping off! Annoying!

Buddy is such a good helper! I think that he really likes how cold the tile is. As soon as I laid it down he came and made himself comfortable on the tile and didn't move for like 6 hours!
I have to get proof every once in a while that I work on the house. I am the informal, not so professional, self assigned documentor of our house remodeling projects so that means I am never in the pictures unless I take one of myself or request one. This one if funny because if you notice the bottom of my shirt is soaked. The tile saw soaked me and I was freezing the entire time I was laying the tile.
This is the before picture of the upper cabinets before I tried staining them to match the other cabinets to match the existing oak.
This was almost immediately after staining. At first it looked great! But then the poplar got all wavy and irregular. (yes, I conditioned the wood before applying, but to no avail, it did nothing whatsoever)

So here we are prepping the doors for paint, actually Justin is. I sanded and painted the body of the cabinets inside, while he faced the mosquito filled tropics of our carport. But while I had to use a brush he got to use our brand spankin' new spray painter.
Oh and by the way, I got this great idea for painting the doors off of This Old House (I LUV TOH)- You put small screws in the top of the upper cabinet doors and in the bottom of the lower cabinet doors then you attach wire to the screws and you can hang them so they don't get knocked and you can paint both sides at once.

Justin rigged a rope with a hook that got more elaborate as the day went on with more and more tarps to catch the over spray from the painter.
Now please don't focus on the mess inside my cabinets. (alas, you all just looked at it again) About a week before this project, I took down my extra, sort of ghetto looking, pantry shelves from the laundry room and shoved everything haphazardly back into my cabinets and anywhere else they could fit, ah, the joys of food storage. So normally they do not look this bad, but yet again this is just another example of what I can deal with in order to get a project done!

I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures of details. I may add another post later when I have more time and more finishing touches ready to photograph in the house.

Hey Mom- check out the cool piece of pottery you bought me! I love the color!

The view from the front room of the new improved cabinetry!
The full Kitchen!
Finally it is done! I can hear the heavenly host singing!

p.s.  I thought I should give you an idea of cost.
flooring :
tile: A total score at $1.56 a box,
plus 2 free boxes (from the day before) because they couldn't find the price in the inventory
Cement board about $100 with screws, a million new screw heads etc.
Grout and thin-set : $50.00

Cabinets:
Reused master bath cabinet free.
Cut several cabinets in half, free.
boxes above cabinets, recycled wood from a local church, free.
Paint, Ace hardware water based enamel 2 gallons about $60.00
Hinges and handles, clearance approx. 100.00

Lighting:
above sink, Habitat for humanity $10.00
Above Table Lowe's Clearance 8.00 a piece

Counter tops
Prefab (ran out of time) approx $200.00

Paint on walls,
Back-splash left over from other projects
Green wall color, mis mixed 5.00 gallon

Valance:
I made from approx 1 yard of $5.00 fabric.

Faucet:
Lowe's approx $80.00

Sink:
Habitat for Humanity $75.00

Grand Total: Approx $715.00

I guess that doesn't include the price of the microwave, which I think was about 150.00 or less?

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Jul
23

Follow the yellow brick road.

Well, since the "permanent vacation assignment" from Justin's work happened- we have been working on our house like little bumble bees in a hive. Our house is all "a buzzz", with drills, saws and random orbital sanders (Ah!, I can smell the saw dust now).

We tore apart the entire master bath and for the first time I layed tile (is it laid? the Websters dictionary doesn't have either form of the word, in what I am meaning). Besides my obvious lack of spelling bee skills, I got plenty of worker bee skills, and I am so proud of myself!

Wait one second while I pat myself on the back-

Oh shoot!

my arms are too sore from all the demolition, and I can hardly lift them!

But seriously I have wanted to lay tile for 6 years. And I finally did it. I decided a brick pattern would look the best and hide any lines that weren't exactly straight. So, while the rest of the bathroom is in shambles - the floor is gorgeous!!(double exclamation)

Justin built the vanity base today. I have been wanting a table vanity base for years, and I finally got it 1 month before we are destined to move, but still. I must admit, I want to take it with us! I am going to paint it all white tomorrow.

We enlisted the local LDS missionaries to finish ripping out the kitchen floor! Thanks heaven for the help! While I paint and Justin works on the plumbing. Then tomorrow I will tile the kitchen floor, then it is on to laying the new oak flooring in the front room and hall! so this blog is to be continued....

Before pictures of the Bathroom (obviously we have taken out a few things)

This kind of cracked me up, so I had to take a picture.
The sun was totally beating down on us, so here is my little "tile cutting oasis".
The work begins
Done now on to grout
( a little while and a day later)
Ta-da!
Here is the vanity Justin built out of scrap wood we got from our church remodel.

All told with my awesome tile buy (1.59 for a box with 11 sq feet), a free new toilet from a plumber friend, Justin's scrap wood vanity, a free mirror from Asheville free cycle and a few regular things we have only spent about $400.00 on a complete master bathroom remodel! SCORE!

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May
27

Late Bloomers

We have a few more lovely plants to showcase.
My favorite is from our tulip tree.
This is the first year we've seen it bloom and they are incredible.
Tulip Tree Blossoms
Rhodo.
This is the fist time this has ever bloomed!
Not really sure!
Hostas
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May
27

Cooking up some fun

We have been working like mad on the kitchen the last few weekends. We wanted to have the upper cabinets done before we leave for Utah in June, but I really don't think we are going to have the time.

We still need to fill some holes, sand, add another stile to the cabinets (this is your basic building term for the vertical supports in a cabinets door, etc This will help it not look so boring) you can see what I mean in my little renderings that I drew really fast one day while Natalie, was napping.

I am really hoping to get this done by the end of the summer for sure. But who knows!

Here is one of the renderings, the line drawing then the semi-colored version. I used a photograph to get started so it was hard to get the colors right, but in the end we are planning on white cabinets, ether concrete or marble tile counter tops and a robin egg blue glass backsplash.

We are also planning on installing wood floors. There is a company called Lumber Liquidators that has an unfinished, slightly lower grade oak. Lower grade, meaning there are knots and some more waste or just plain bad pieces. But, I love the floors with a bit more character, so I am happy to pay less and get what I want.

In this rendering, I remembered to move the dishwasher into its future home on the left of the sink. The problem with its current location is that you can't be cooking and loading the dishwasher, so by moving it to the other side, I can cook dinner, while Justin cleans all the dishes I'm making - creating a perfect world, our own little Zion if you will.

We took out the cabinet above the microwave and rebuilt it. Now not only can I fit all my spices, but I can also store the tall bottles of balsamic vinegar and what not! This change also adds a nice bit of dimension, especially for the crown molding! All these seemingly small changes, with I am sorry to say a lot of work for my sweet husband, definitely makes a huge difference and equals a happy wife.

So, more recently, within the last four weeks to be exact, I saw a picture of a beautiful kitchen with display boxes above. Of course we could not afford the custom cabinets in the photograph. In fact, we cannot afford any new cabinets at all. So, of course, we just get creative.

Our church building is being remodeled, so we talked to the man in charge and he let us salvage some old, perfectly good window casings. We have already used the wood for several different projects, but my favorite project by far has to be the new display boxes Justin built for above the cabinets. It brings your eye up and helps me to store all my many, (maybe too many, but I won't admit that again) dishes! In a few weeks we will putty and paint the entire cabinet so that you can't tell they ever lived apart.

These show what happened it seems all at once. Justin cut all the boxes outside (I did help a little). then he brought them in and had a bulk of it done in about an hour. Then he finished the other side the next day or two and within a few days he had the crown put up perfectly without any gaps at all! What a MAN! Thank you honey!
This last picture is just the shelves rearranged a bit,
now that a few more things have had to be moved.
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May
13

Mail Call

  

I am sure you are all getting sick of the random projects on our blog, but hey it's our blog right?
I just painted our mailbox, it looked so bad before. And for a mere $2.96 it's brand new yet again!

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