Bathroom Vanity Makeover!

While we sadly do not have a "Master Bathroom" in the new house, but there is a bathroom right next to our bedroom.  It isn't very big.  Hopefully someday we can add on an actual master bath.  But for now we're making due.

But the bathroom had this boring, oak vanity that I really didn't care for, as well as a very small cabinet mirror.

Like I said... small bathroom.  I couldn't get a very good angle.

I also didn't like how it has a black counter top with all that wood.  It felt very mismatched.  

So we painted the walls a light gray, the baseboards got a fresh coat of white paint, and the vanity got a makeover.

Priming.

Painted.  I just used a very basic white semi-gloss.  It was extra from when we painted my son's bedroom.

I was lazy and didn't pain the inside of the cabinets...

I wanted to glaze the cabinets but I'd never done it before.  So I watched a bunch of tutorials on YouTube and after I finally found the right kind of glaze (seriously, this was way harder than it should have been.  For future reference, don't bother at Home Depot, Lowes carries it for $9 a bottle) I went at it!

The first one went pretty well!  I was happy with how it turned out.

I used a 1" foam brush and just roughly and quickly brushed it into all the bevels and details.  I left it for a few minutes and then took a damp rag and wiped it back so that it just stayed in all that detail.  It took me probably an hour to do the whole vanity, though some of that time was spent in waiting for the glaze to dry a bit.

All done!  Though not with all the hardware...

Up closer.

We got that awesome mirror for $39 at Lowes as part of their Black Friday sale!  I love it!  

The make over isn't quite done yet (still more hardware to install as well as a new faucet to find and then install), I'm really happy with how it is coming along!

Chugging along!

Sorry it has been a while since I updated!  I kept forgetting my camera over at the house and it feels pointless to update unless I have pictures to share.

So, we've mainly been working on the new addition the last few weeks.  We got everything all framed in and have all the windows put in.  We are waiting on the two doors that still need to be put in.

I wanted to share these awesome windows we got for the kitchen!  They were a miss order the hardware store on the island here had, so we offered them a low price and they accepted!  They look AWESOME when the light comes through them because of the prism shapes of some of those small squares.  Sorry for the non full view, the scaffold was in the way and I couldn't move it on my own.

We also got a new wood stove!  When the old owners found out they were going to lose the house to foreclosure, they took a bunch of stuff, including the wood stove.  With it being winter it is getting pretty cold without blaring the electric floor heaters all the time.  So we went and picked up this bad boy!  It was the second largest stove the store carried and will heat the house wonderfully.

So the plan for this week is to finish up the electrical for the new kitchen, dining room, and family room.  That should be wrapped up tomorrow, and then the insulation is supposed to get done on Thursday and the house will finally feel warm again!  Woohoo!

Downin' trees, pourin' concrete, and puttin' up walls!

So, this is the tree that was the problem:

It was hanging over the house, it was starting to rot out.  So it had to go.

And down it came!  It was a tricky removal considering it was leaning over the house.  We brought in our friend James who does this for a living.  He climbed up about half way up the tree, tied a huge rope around it, and then used this pully system around another tree.  From there, we tied the rope to not one, but two trucks to pull it away from the house.  As you can see, it all went down perfectly!

Next we set up forms to pour the concrete.

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of just the concrete after it was poured but it is 576 new square feet.

The guys started ripping out the roof and the wall that is coming out.

The inside of the house is a bit exposed at the moment, lol.  Thankfully there are 3 sections of the house: the kitchen/living room area (which is the area that is exposed), the west wing with the master bedroom, my office, and the guest bedroom, and the east wing with the kids bedrooms.  There are doors to both wings so we can close everything off very nicely.

They didn't get very far tonight with the framing before it started getting dark, but I can't wait to see it all tomorrow night!

It must come down...

We were in the process of getting the forms set up to pour concrete for the addition Friday.

And then Justin noticed a problem.

A tree.

This tree is a HUGE alder.  From what I hear alders reach maturity quite quickly and then they start to rot out.  And this one is hanging over the house.  And is already starting to rot.

So we called up a friend who takes down trees for a living and he took a look at it.

We will be cutting the tree down tomorrow and then chopping it up for firewood.  And then hopefully we can finish setting up the forms on Tuesday to pour the concrete.

Nasty grout - be gone!

We have this hallway in the house that leads off of the living room, loops past the master bedroom and bathroom, past my office, and out to the side door.  In that hallway is this tile.

It's blue, with tan and gray flecks in it.  And at first I HATED it.  It is not a color that I would EVER pick myself and I really had planned on carpeting over it.  But then we painted that hallway and painted the trim and I started to kind of not mind it.  The colors all worked together a bit better.  I would still not pick it out myself, but it is okay to stay now.

But the grout was NASTY.  It was obvious that the previous owners kept their dogs in this hallway.  There are doors that close off the whole thing if you'd like.  And it smelled like dog in the hallway in a bad way.  The grout was dark, black really.  I honestly didn't know what color it was supposed to be, but I was sure it wasn't supposed to be black.

So I hopped on Amazon (since we live on this secluded island, Amazon is my best friend) and looked for some grout cleaner.  I ordered this:

You can buy it HERE on Amazon

And broke out my handy scrub brush:

This was the tile before:

Yuck....

I sprayed the cleaner onto the grout.  I used the stream option, not the wide spray, this way I was able to target just the grout and not waste any.  I let it sit for a few minutes and then scrubbed it with the brush.  And lastly I mopped everything away.

Well, I can't take credit for all of this.  My awesome husband actually did about half of it!  Isn't he the best?!

I couldn't believe how well it worked!  I wasn't sure it would lift any of the stuff that was caked on but I was pleasantly surprised!

Clean!  Though not quite dry.  It will continue to lighten.  The grout takes forever to dry, that's why I only have this one little picture.  This was a section that was semi dry to show you that the grout is in fact a light gray!  

I will update this post tomorrow with a pic of the whole hallway with dried, clean grout!

For sure recommend this cleaner if you too have nasty grout!

House Overview

I thought I'd better give a general introduction and overview of our Taylored house.

This is what it looks like on the outside

Yes, it was raining.  Yes, we live in Washington.

We are planning to paint all of the outside come spring when things dry out.  We're going for something like this with the coloring:

This is the view out the front door:

Now, some specs:

5 bedrooms

2 bathrooms

2,000 square feet (we are doing an addition that will be another 500 square feet)

Sits on .42 of an acre

We live about 2 minutes outside of town

And about 8 minutes away from the golf course where Justin works

Built in 1992

And we love it!

Anything else you'd like to know?

Closed! And a LOT of painting!

We have closed on the house!  Such a relief!  But now we have a TON of work to do before we actually move into the house.

We actually closed everything on Friday, October 19th and we literally started painting that same day.  Every single room in the house needs to be painted.  I don't know what the pervious owners were doing in that house, but it was so dirty.

We've been going over to the house every day for about 4-5 hours a day to work on it.  I'll be posting pictures over the next few days, but here is a little preview of what we've been up to!

BEFORE

This is the hallway that leads from the side entryway, past my office, and the master bedroom and bathroom.  I did actually like the color on the walls but there was a lot of chips out of wall, and it was, like everything else, very dirty.  So it had to be re-pained.  And I have no idea what was going on with the baseboards.  

 AFTER

New paint on the walls, a bit lighter color.  And the baseboards got a fresh coat of nice, bright white paint.  Ignore the nasty grout, that will be getting cleaned tomorrow hopefully!

BEFORE

For a 5 bedroom house, the kitchen is TINY.  It measures 9 feet wide, 8 feet deep on one side, and 12 feet on the other.  Way too small.  So, this is the biggest project we are undertaking.  We're blowing out the wall on the right and doubling the side of the kitchen, as well as adding another family room next to it.

AFTER 

The start of the demolition!

AFTER 

You can't see it well right now, but all of the ceiling wood is ripped out.  We will be reusing it after the addition is finished.  And we're not sure what is keeping that microwave up....  For now we're just not letting the kids near that area...

This is where all the cabinets went after they came off the wall.  Yes, things are a bit of a disaster at the house right now!

Closing the deal!

We got a call from the bank last week saying that the loan for our house was going to go into closing the first of next week, which is today and tomorrow!  Let me tell you, if you've never gone through the process of getting a mortgage loan (this is the third one for us), it isn't fun.  There are a lot of documents they want to see (especially if you are self-employed, as me and my husband are), there are a lot of papers to sign.  But it sounds like we are done with that part.

We are expecting to hear from the escrow company any time now.  They'll give us a call and then we can sign the final documents and hand over a big check!

It is all very stressful, all very crazy, but will be so wonderful when it is done!  We can't wait to start the work on this new house!