Kitchen Renovations - Painted Cabinets

The last time I talked about my sister's kitchen, she had installed beautiful granite counter tops which you can read about here.  I also talked about prepping for the back splash here and installing the range here and the sink here.  Those were great changes, BUT the cabinets were still looking a little drab and it overpowered all the upgrades they had made.  That is, UNTIL they painted the cabinets, but before I do the show and tell, let me remind you of what the kitchen looked like when they first saw it.

 

Its cute, traditional.  There's a lot of brown, from brown cabinets, to brown walls and ceiling.  Brown tiles and even the grout is brown.  You could drown in a sea of brown in that kitchen so it really looked like a cave, BUT cave no more when you see that her kitchen now looks like this.

It is dark no more.  It is so bright when I am in her kitchen now.  The white cabinets bring the beautiful granite counter tops to life with a high contrast.  Before the white cabinets, it was lost in the sea of brown. 

Even the appliances look SO much better with the new color scheme.

 

She even has the cutest hardware on the cabinets.

I love the glass knobs she bought from Anthropologie.  

I so love how the kitchen is coming along.

What's in store now?  She's got her back splash to put up, her floors to rip out and the wine rack in the kitchen island needs to be built.  I can't wait so see it all done.

Kitchen Renovations - New Countertops

I snuck into my sister's house one day to check out her new countertops.  Aren't they beautiful?  She decided to go with the classic granite countertops.  The color is absolute black.  It's black with tiny little silvery specks.  The kitchen is slowly coming along and the new countertops makes a huge difference in this renovation.

If you don't remember what it looked like before, here's a pic.   The formica counter that was there before was neutral and functional, but too traditional in color for her tastes.

She decided to extend her island to house a wine rack on the end.  The rack hasn't been built yet (hence, the temporary 1x2 holding up the end), but the extension makes the island more grand and ideal in this kitchen, not that she needs any more counter space.  She's got plenty.

With the new countertops, the new dishwasher can be installed.  I love her selection.

It goes perfectly with her new range.

Do you see the tiny specks in the granite?

For a truly unique faucet, she chose this. 

It does carry a hefty price tag, but since her hubby demoed the kitchen himself, saving quite a bit, this splurge was definitely worth it.  You can read about the demo on her site, here. 

The kitchen is slowly coming along.  All appliances except for the microwave are in place.  The cabinets are almost ready.  Wait for the reveal.  What's left are the backsplash and the floors.  I can't wait to see the finished look.

Kitchen Renovations - Prepping for new backsplash

The last we left off of my sister's kitchen renovations, she installed a new sink and new cooktop,

The backsplash, while nice for this traditional kitchen, wouldn't do in her new kitchen.

She wants the classic white subway tiles, but to get those babies on, the old backsplash must come down.  Let's first start with one tile.

Hmm...although pretty as that was, trying to remove all the tile would prove to be a little more messy.  The original tile sat on top of the drywall.  That's a no-no in my book.

Therefore, it must come down.  Also, coming down is the microwave.

 That's much better.

 

After clearing out all the dry wall, the studs are clearly visible.

Next up, is attaching the hardiebacker.   Hardiebacker is moisture and mildew resistant which drywall is certainly not.  Therefore, it is a much better solution for the backsplash.
 

Before the demolition:

After the clean-up:

The walls are now prepped for the tiles, but up next are the counter tops.  There are more pictures on my sister's site here. 

Kitchen Renovations - Installing a New Farmhouse Sink

My sister has been renovating her kitchen.  She's always wanted a farmhouse sink.  It's interesting because I consider her design style leaning towards modern rather than country designs, but she simply loves the white farmhouse sink so much she traded her stainless steel one for it instead.

You can see her original stainless sink in the picture below on the right.

Her cabinets were nice an intact until

a little cutting and framing was done.

Supports were placed under the sink to hold it up.

 

Next up, the cabinet doors will need to be re-sized, painted and installed along with a new dishwasher.  Renovations are slowly coming along.

Kitchen Renovations - Installing a New Range

My sister has been working on her kitchen for quite some time now.  This is how the previous owners had their kitchen.  It was very traditional.  With the dark wall paper and ceilings, she knew she had to brighten it up.

First came paint.   She choose a vibrant turquoise color, knowing she would paint her cabinets white.

Next came the appliances.  She replaced her wall oven and cooktop with an all in one stainless steel range, giving her a double oven.  This was a must because the oven was broken the day after they moved in!

To install the range, her hubby had to first remove the old appliances.  He removed the seal around the cooktop with a putty knife and lifted it off the counter.

 

 A saw was used to cut the outer edge of the cabinet, enabling the new range to be able to slide into place.

The old wall oven was removed from the cabinet.  

What was left was the bottom cabinet.  Since the range would sit right onto the floor, this bottom board wasn't necessary and needed to be removed.

Voila!  After the removal, a little cleaning was in order.   

 

The new range could be put into place now.

One appliance down, two more to go.  Next up, the microwave, but that will have to wait for another day.

Thanks to my sister for letting me talk about her kitchen and posting her pics.  You can check out her site here. 

The Pool Process - Completion!

OUR POOL PROJECT

We decided we wanted to build a pool when we built our house. When our house builder said they would not do this due to warranty, we decided we would wait a little while before taking the plunge.

Three years later, we finally decided to move forward with the project. This is what our backyard started with. It was plain jane. We didn't plant anything because we knew the pool equipment would destroy it. When we built our house, we paid for extra decking which we had to rip out at an additional cost. This was our backyard.

There once was just a playset (or two):

We started gathering pool pictures that we liked and focused on a list of must-haves. We dreamt of what we wanted and had the pool builders come up with the best design to capture it all. Our main focus was we wanted a raised spa, a tanning ledge, a grotto water-slide and we wanted it to look as natural as possible. This all occurred during the design phase. Read more about the design here.

DESIGN PHASEThis is what they came up with. Once we signed off on the design, we requested all the necessary pool permits, including electrical, city, and HOA permits. Less than 2 weeks later, we were ready to get started. However, mother nature was not so ready. Rain delayed the excavation for a week.

EXCAVATION

Excavation took an entire day. They started at 9:30 A.M. and didn't leave until 6:00 P.M. Read more about the excavation or the "big dig" here. Immediately to follow the next day was adding steel.

STEEL REINFORCEMENT

I thought this process was going to take a long time, but within 3-4 hours they were done reinforcing the pool with steel. To read more about steel, click here. After steel came the plumbing and electrical installation.

ROUGH PLUMBING and ELECTRICAL

I wasn't home for this process so I don't know when they started and how long it took. It was done by the time I got home from work. To see more pictures, click here. We had an inspection the following day which we passed. This lead the way for gunite.

GUNITE

They sprayed gunite over the steel and this is what we ended up with 4 hours later. To read more about the gunite process, click here. The first four steps took less than a week to accomplish. It took longer to come up with the design. Technically, if we didn't have rain, it would have only taken 5 days. After waiting about 10 days for the gunite to cure, the next step was installing the pool equipment and finishing the plumbing.

EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION

They dug trenches around the pool to lay the plumbing. They had already laid the foundation for the pool equipment when they sprayed the gunite. It was just a matter of connecting everything now. After everything was connected, we had to make our selections for our stone and tile. Read more about that here.

STONE and TILE WORK

They spent four days cutting and placing stone around our spa and to create our grotto water slide. There was a long delay for our tile. It was not available and we waited weeks for it to come in. To read more about our stone work, click here. Once the stone and tile work were nearly complete, they laid rebar to install the decking.

RETILING OF THE SLIDE

We decided to retile the slide. We originally went with a more slick tile because we thought it would be smoother for the kids, but after we saw our waterline tiles and discovered that it was just the same as our slide tiles, we knew we wanted to change it out. It also gave a more natural look to the pool. The original tile made the slide stand out and we wanted it to blend in so we decided we would have them redo the entire slide. We love how it turned out. To read more, click here.

DECKING

I was excited about the decking. Our backyard looked horrible with all the trenches and when it rained, mud splattered everywhere. Decking cleaned up the better part of our yard and added an ample amount of space for patio furniture. Decking was a two day task, laying rebar first and then pouring concrete next. Aggregate was laid on top of the concrete and then smooth to finish. To read more, click here.

LANDSCAPING

With decking done, the sprinklers around the pool could be installed. For the pool landscaping we decided we did not want any plants that would shed leaves into the pool. We stuck with 2 kinds of palms, Indian Hawthorne shrubs, ornamental grasses and a few yaupon hollies. All of these plants are drought tolerant and can withstand the pool's salt water. To read more, click here, here, and here.

One of the last steps to the pool installation process is spraying on the pool finish.

PLASTER/ POOL FINISHING

We decided to finish the pool with an exposed aggregate instead of the standard white plaster. I wanted the pool to look as natural as possible, more of a lagoonish feel. White plaster was not going to make that statement. I chose the darkest pool surface that was available to create the natural looking pool. After they sprayed the pool finishing, they added the water. The picture above shows the color right after the application. It is much darker now. To read more, go here. After getting the chemical balance correct, our pool was ready for us to take a swim. Here is the finished product of our dream pool.

FINISHED POOL

From the time we signed the paperwork to the time they added water to our pool, it took about 2.5 months. Adding another 2 weeks to chemically balance our pool took us to the 3 month mark before we were able to actually take a swim. During that time, we decided to tackle the landscaping for the rest of the yard.

We started with none, knowing that we were going to build a pool one day. We ended up planting many different trees and shrubs. Read more about the landscaping here. I tried to create a tropical feel around the pool and a zen-like atmosphere everywhere else. Trying to cut costs down, we tackled the entire landscaping project on our own. I built a bed purely using my imagination and google and this project was no exception. We contemplated building the pool ourselves, but I am happy to say we left it to the professionals.

Taking a look at the over all appearance of our outdoor space now, I am super pleased. I have no green thumb, but ended up with a very serene place for us to sit and enjoy morning breakfast, an afternoon swim, or just an evening conversation. Many hours of hard work was poured into this project, but all well worth it.

Before and after pictures:

That concludes my 4 month pool project. As the summer heat approaches, I look forward to moving back inside and tackling the numerous projects that have been waiting for me.