Renovation Roadtrip Results

Ooo, all the words in my title started with R!  That is how you BLOG, people!  I wanted to show you all what Meryl and Chris did to our house.  Because, rest assured, I didn't do much but act goofy and take pictures.  Anywho, we originally wanted to tackle our sad storage space of a basement, but we realized that was a can of worms we didn't want to open right now.  So, we turned to a few other smaller projects.  One was installing a new storm door on the door to our deck above the garage.  Here it is the first day we saw the place, with the old storm door laying there against the house:

It has been without a storm door for who knows how long, and the bedroom leading out to the deck was always freezing in the winter.  First we ripped out the existing frame from the old door, it was so rusted the screws kind of crumbled out.

When we pulled out the frame, there were holes left in the rubber membrane roof up here, so we had to fill the voids with some GREAT STUFF!

Then Chris was a genius and got some flashing to cover the rotted parts of the door frame.  

Meryl was official direction-reciter.

In no time at all, that door was up!

Mission accomplished.

Now I just need to scrape and paint the main door.  Ew.

The next thing we needed help with, was those blasted kitchen shelves.  

I put another coat of Deft spray lacquer on the shelves....

...while Chris did some surgery to the brackets

A 1/2in glass and tile bit made some dandy holes in the subway tile for the brackets to be attached with toggle bolts, since this side had no stud.

I almost wept with joy when I saw those brackets getting attached.  

How he managed to get them all lined up perfectly is beyond me, I always mess up even though I measure twice and drill once.  

Beautiful!  

Chris was a genius and picked up these screw covers that can be stained and everything.  

I used the matching stain and also sprayed them with the spray lacquer.  

Before:

After:

After the shelves were done, Chris helped us put a vent cover on the open toe-kick vent beneath the cabinet.  That vent used to freeze the floor with A/C in the summer, so I'm happy to have a way to control it.  

He also put all the switch plate covers on the outlets and switches.  We had lots of areas where the tile needed to be notched out.  If I can't just screw it on, I sort of say 'no thanks' and leave it be.  I'm so grateful all these finishing touches are done!

I'm taking photos of the finished kitchen for the official post right now, that will come later this week.  In the meantime, check out Chris and Meryl's post on their Renovation Roadtrip stop at our house here!  

Thanks so much, guys!  

One Project Closer 'Before and After' Series!

I have to sound the alarm that my friends at One Project Closer (Kim, Fred, Jocie, and Ethan) have kicked off their annual Before and After series! If you're not aware of the contest, let me give you some deets...

This is the fourth Before and After series the team have run to raise support and awareness for Habitat for Humanity.  For the contest, people submit a B/A story with pictures and the OPC team will pick the best submission each week.  The weekly winner gets a $50 gift card plus OPC makes a $100 donation to Habitat in their honor.  Isn't that amazing??  The series runs through the summer at which point they will open up the voting for the best entry received. That grand prize winner receives an additional $150 gift card.  Yowsa!  Have you ever found a better reason to submit your project to the band of home-improvers at One Project Closer?  

Check out all the details for the 2011 contest HERE!  And check out my art room submission from last year HERE!

I'm a winner!

My friends over at One Project Closer have named me the best renovator ever picked my art room renovation as their weekly winner in their 'Before and After 2010' contest supporting Habitat for Humanity! 

The contest runs for the summer, and anyone can submit a project to the One Project Closer team at beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com.  Every week, they choose the best submission and that person gets to choose a $50 gift card to Home Depot, Lowes, or Amazon. Plus, they make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity in the winner's honor!  I always spend at least 1 day per summer sweating profusely on a Habitat build in my area, so this is a very cool prize.  Winners of the weekly contest also get entered into an end-of-summer showdown where readers can vote for the best Before and After, and the winner will get another $150 to the home improvement store of their choice.  I will be doing my best to blackmail votes out of you lovely folks when the time comes, trust me! 

I submitted the art room project because it involved a little of everything: some building...

some mitering and nailgunning (yeah, I can make up words around here)...

some staining and polying, along with some wine spilling....

plenty of sanding, priming and painting....

and of course, decorating.  Check out the post over at One Project Closer here!  And if you missed my original post about this room, be sure to click on the photo on my sidebar, all the juicy details (including a cost breakdown) are there. 

PS - definitely enter your own before and after, there are still a few weeks left in August!

Awards, winnings, mentions, oh my!

I have had quite a wonderful blogging week, my friends.  First, that blonde bombshell Kerry at First Time Fancy gave me the 'Beautiful Blogger Award!'

I've never won this award before, so I'm a happy recipient.  I'm supposed to tell some things about myself, let's just say that I'm FINALLY planning our wedding for next May.  Thank goodness!  Hopefully that explains why I haven't been a very good blogger lately....

My next surprise was that I won a $50 gift certificate for CSN from gorgeous Janice at Life begins at thirty, right?  Thanks so much, Janice - I can't wait to pick out something!

My last treat was Melissa at One Lucky Couple's shout out to my capiz light instructions from my dressing room project.  She followed my instructions and created a lovely reading room for her and her husband.  Didn't she do a great job?

Thanks for all the mentions and prizes, ladies!

I'm a Kreativ, Sunshiney Karate Master

I have been so high on poly fumes busy working on things around the house that I haven't acknowledged some wonderful awards bestowed upon me by my fellow bloggers.  Without further ado, I want to thank these ladies for mentioning my little blog as one of their favorites! 
Early this month, I got the Kreativ Blogger award from my DIY soul-sister, Meg at House Notes.

Then, I got the Sunshine award from my almost-neighbor Kristi at Life at the Chateau Whitman.

Then, I got the incredibly funny 'Master of Karate and Friendship' Award from one of my newer blog reads, Nellie at McCarthy Designs.

I also realized a few days ago that I never put out a post when the lovely Jessica from Lavender and Lilies featured me on her site.....waaaay back in February!  Please check out that post here and also check out the rest of Jessica's blog, she is a fashionable girl, from her home to her clothing style.  Thanks again for the feature, Jessica!  And thank you so much to the other bloggers for thinking of me! 

Here are some blogs I'm getting into these days:

Eat Salt and Die

Finesse Your Nest 

EFeDesigns

The Flipping Couple

Sense and Simplicity

Cottage on Rosewood

First Time Fancy

Lovely Little Nest

One Lucky Couple

The Newlywed's Paradise

Our Poverty with a View

Wild Ink Press

Thanks for the inspiration, and please consider this a 'triple-award' from me!

ps - I just noticed that Brittney at Our Poverty with a View gave me a little blog love earlier this month.  Good thing she was already on my go-to list!