never-ending cabinets

i feel like we've been working on cabinets of all sorts for...forever! slow and steady. here's the latest progress on the new bathroom closet. i envision fluffy towels and pretty decor adorning these shelves. i still need to do a little touch-up paint to cover that raw wood.

oh, and today also marked the beginning of a 4-day (okay, four days over a week's time) solo journey of painting the kitchen cabinets -- prior to installing the brand new cabinet doors that dad so lovingly made for me -- we figured it would be easier without the drawers and doors! let the painting begin!

solo painting

today i painted solo, it was a rare occasion.

but i was pretty proud of myself! i got all the door hardware off (and then back on) and now the final remaining sections of trim and interior doors have a fresh, glistening coat of clean white paint.

white on white

well, we are officially on the home stretch to get my condo up on the market and sold. so all the things i've been putting off or that were (indefinitely) on the back burner are now on my weekend "to do" list.

first up: refreshing the bathroom with a fresh coat of paint. who knew that an old "white" wall could -- in fact -- be so...unwhite?!!

(for some reason only being able to see Tim's hand and the paintbrush was absolutely adorably hilarious to me)

so tim and i got to work on painting the bathroom while dad worked on the final pieces of trim.

 

oh, and who could forget my little inset "DVD" closet nook in the living room? aka: the wall we tore down long ago in hopes to reveal more exposed brick! obviously that wasn't the case, but we made the best of it and turned the demolished wall into another space for storage or decor.

that needed a few coats of paint over the raw wood and sheetrock.

a look at the completed DVD nook...

 and a before and after view of the bathroom walls and new closet (before the shelving and doors).

inside the closets

remember that time we found a hidden "trap door" in the floor? it was actually the access port to the bathroom plumbing.

well, dad -- being the thoughtful and responsible handyman he is -- decided it might be useful to make a removable access panel in the closet floor in case any issues every come up again. what a smart guy! it's tacked down by a few screws, but easy enough to remove if necessary.

meanwhile, dad has also been making progress on the new bathroom closet. our plan is to leave the upper half open shelving, and put a closet door with shelves in the lower half.

think of all the fluffy towels these shelves will be able to hold!

a white coat for all

now that all the doors are finally in, it was time to give them all a fresh (or a first) coat of white paint.

so the gang (okay, just my parents and tim) came over to help me tackle the project.

in case you don't remember, i wanted to keep a consistent flow throughout my condo, so all of my doors and trim are painted a nice, fresh white. 

all in all we painted the double-door living room closet, the hallway closet next to the bar, the bathroom door, and the new bi-fold pantry doors in the kitchen.

i absolutely LOVE how the living room closet turned out! love, love, love!

all through the house

today was a beautifully gorgeous november day here in minneapolis. i biked home from work (in a tank top!) with my headphones on, just enjoying the unusually warm sunshine and colorful leaves still covering the ground. when i got home, i saw dad was taking advantage of the nice weather too...with his electric saw and building materials scattered about my steps and entry way.

today's projects took place all throughout the house. dad was over around 11am and worked until dinner time in the living room, bathroom and kitchen.

living room: dvd cabinet. the first project dad worked on today was adding the trim around my living room inset cabinet that i plan on using for dvd's. now we just need to add shelving and putty up the screws around the trim and i can finally get rid of my cd towers!

plus, now you all know my guilty pleasures of owning (and repetitively watching) all seasons of The OC and The Office :)

the bathroom: closet. see that board that my cabinet is sitting on? well that's my new raised floor of the cabinet. that way, if my bathroom ever floods, my closet supplies will be safe.

our plan is to create storage in the bottom half of the closet, with a single cabinet door. and then the top half of the closet will be open shelving.

the kitchen: fridge water dispenser. this project has been a long time coming, and we got about halfway today. see, the problem is that there's no water access along the wall my fridge is sitting against. so dad used the can light fixture (see photo above) as his access point. he drilled a hole through the beam nearest the fridge and another into my pantry closet, and then fished the tube through them both.

the tube connects to the fridge (you can see the clear tube sticking out near the red arrow), goes through the ceiling, into the pantry closet (more tube near the left arrow), and eventually will emerge along the floor near my stove, and snake through the back of the kitchen cabinets to connect up to the water valve under the sink. and voila, i will have water and ice fresh from my fridge!

check your check valves

as most of you know, i have had major plumbing issues for a few years now. and after much research, talking with expert plumbers (even having a few of them at my place), plus snaking my drains more times than i can even remember, we finally figured it out!

dad finally resorted to renting a video camera sewer snake so we could see what was going on down there (i apologize in advance for my lack of technical lingo).

basically, there is this section of pipe called the check valve, there in case the sewer backs up and starts coming back into the pipes. if that ever happens, this backflow valve will stop it from making its way into my place. the valve has two parts, and the back part (a rubber, circular piece) had somehow detached itself from the front piece. long story short, it was too big to get through the rest of the pipe, so it would just sit there, clogging up the drains!

once we figured that out, we had to tear up my floor and try to figure out where exactly that section of pipe was. then it was a simple walk down to ace hardware, buy the new parts, and put it together. i wish we could have figured this out a few years ago! it would have saved a lot of headaches, but better late than never!

a vanity once and for all

once upon a time a young girl and her father drove out to building materials outlet in eagan to pick out a sink top and unfinished vanity cabinet.

days turned to months as the girl waited for her new vanity, the last of the original cat-scented items in her home. but first her father had to rebuild the cabinet to fit between her shower and closet. plus, she had to buy the hardware: faucet, door handles, hinges from menards...

then one day, over a year later, her father showed up at her door with the newly remodeled vanity. painted a simple white, sink off to the side, and fitted with blackened bronzed hardware. a drastically new look, but the girl loves it.

 on a side note: i also bought matching hardware (the black with bronzed edges) for all my interior door handles, plus other bathroom items such as a toilet paper holder and towel rack.

vanity in the making

remember back to last november when me and dad stopped over at building materials outlet over in eagan? well, we picked up a vanity base and sink top. the only problem was, the two pieces were different sizes. what does that mean? not much to me, but for dad it meant a lot more work: removing the doors, cutting it down, reassembling it in its new size with new hardware, and painting it.

unfortunately my vanity wasn't at the top of dad's priority list, and the two pieces got stashed away at the other house (aka: crappy house, for those who know what i'm talking about). but a few weeks ago as i walked into the garage at my parent's house, what did i see? my vanity! dad had finished the main construction!

now i just need to get over to menards or home depot to find some cabinet hardware and a faucet and we should be good to go at getting it installed at my place.

the philosophy behind paint color

now i know that most people spend hours, days, months even when choosing their paint colors. they go to the store, grab swatches, use online color planners, paint test patches, investigate under different lighting, and repeat until they think they are happy with what the outcome will be.

not me. my philosophy is to go for it, and if it doesn't work, just repaint it. actually that's a total lie, my real philosophy is that i have no patience and im never going to get around to repainting. so whatever i decide upon is going to be there for the long haul. i didn't even decide where each color would go until in my dining room until we were already painting.

i guess i just depend on my designer instincts and tune out what everyone else says,* since all along people have been skeptical of my decisions (until they see the final product of course). case in point:

• black hardwood floors
• lawn chairs in my living room
• faux cobblestone laminate flooring, indoors

so without furth ado, here are my four wall colors:

very berry by glidden. for my largest wall i chose a really deep fuchsia hue. it might be dark, but i like it. and who says your rooms need to be light anyways? i want it to feel more of a lounge than a room anyways.

pink salmon by glidden. the name says it all, and as you know, this color has been up for a while, today we just went over it with a second coat. i originally ordered it as a sample and ended up keeping it after my dad surprised me by painting my bedroom-side wall one day while i was at work.

realm by behr. this is a rich turquoise blue. i decided to paint it on my bathroom-side wall as a gateway into the tranquility of my bathroom. even though it is probably last on my to-do list, i anticipate it being very serene and ocean inspired, so i thought this color would help set the mood.

home song by behr. if you've been a fan of my blog since the very beginning, you might remember back to my first paint task, the living room. i chose a very muted, pale green to compliment my dark hardwood floors. so we used more of that to finish off the walls flowing from the two rooms.

check out how it looks finished.


*and yes mom, i know you have always been very supportive of my choices

sink + vanity = happy girl

most of you probably know that there was a crazy cat lady living here before me...which meant that the place had a somewhat distinct odor, if you know what i mean. luckily we've already replaced nearly everything reminiscent of her (floors, walls, ceilings, closets...) but there is just one thing left. my bathroom vanity.

so tonight me and dad drove over to building materials outlet and picked out a 48" vanity and a 43" sink top. wait. 48" and 43"? that doesn't sound right. well, that's because i have only 42" to work with between the wall and the shower. and apparently 42" is not standard (unless you want a really short vanity...) it's either 36" or 48". im sure i just lost everyone there.

anyways, after exhausting all ideas of what we could possibly do (like buying a 36" and a 12" tall cabinet and putting them side-by-side) we finally decided on buying the bigger one. now dad will have to cut it down, make two new -- slightly larger -- doors, and reassemble the whole piece.

have faith, it will all come together somehow. my dad is nothing less than amazing. and plus, then i can actually use my vanity for storage. what a novel idea!