finishing touches

well it's officially september, and if you remember, my goal was to get it up on the market by september 1st -- before winter sets in and minnesota buyers flee back into their homes until spring. so it's a rush to the finish line as i continue moving my belongings to tim's house (box by box), cleaning every last inch, and staging it to really wow everyone who walks through it.

new cabinet hardware. check!

and speaking about staging...notice the cute owl perched next to my knife block? my grandma actually painted that little fella long ago, and i've kept him with me as i move from place to place.

why did i swap out my Urban Outfitters statement chandelier? well, i was told to de-personalize as much as possible during the staging process. aka: take down photos and make the place as neutral as possible so anyone who walks through could envision themselves living here.

so i found a budget-friendly option at Menards that really fit well with my color scheme and wrought iron door and cabinet hardware throughout my entire place.

eleven cabinet doors

dad's newly constructed custom cabinet fronts finally take their place on each of the corresponding original cabinets.

back in 2009 when i was still a newbie home owner, i had a cabinet specialist come over to assess the cabinets. he told me that the cabinets were in amazing shape and very sturdy, which was great news because that meant i wouldn't need to tear them down. but the doors were another story, so luckily for me dad constructed new ones.

the only thing left for these bad boys is to add the door hardware.
 

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!

the cabinet door matching game

some days you don't have anything to show for your work. because some days are just spent measuring & re-measuring and checking & double-checking to make sure you get it right. that was the type of day it was today.

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!

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!

it's raining pots & pans

it was a long time coming, but we finally installed my hanging pots & pans rack...making my kitchen one step closer to completion!

as you know, i bought the rack from ikea at least a year ago (probably closer to two), and once the hanging cabinets were put it, it was time for the hanging rack. i also bought a pendant light -- that matches the lights above my bar -- to hang through the rack. dad hasn't figured out how to hook up the electrical part yet, so that will have to wait.

fridgy cabinets

finally the day arrived when dad and matthew came over to install my new cabinets. well, kinda new. if you remember back to when i moved in and found a wall of well-constructed, solid cabinets. we disassembled them and dad ended up using them to create new cabinets from parts of the originals.

this summer i painted them in my parent's garage, and there they've been until now.

now this side of my kitchen is almost complete, the nub is installed, and next up is the hanging pot rack and then hooking up the water in my fridge dispenser.

painting cabinets

the cabinets dad built. just waiting to be painted by me. once they're done they will live above my nub/fridge area. i can't wait for more storage so i can get my pots & pans off the floor of my pantry closet!

i painted them with a high-gloss white with a roller so they would be super shiny and easy to clean. dad's idea.

the finished cabinets and doors, hangin out in the garage, drying.

breakfast bar

because there's no formal dining room table, i decided i wanted another seating area to eat at besides the bar. so i invented "the nub." it's basically a breakfast nook, an extra countertop in the kitchen for help with cooking, a place to set my laptop while i look up recipes, or a place to read the newspaper (star tribune of course!) while i eat breakfast.

although it wasn't our original plan, dad and i took a stroll through ikea to spark ideas for the nub. what we could make it out of, what color it should be, etc.

we were originally hoping to find a similar counter-top as my main bar, a rectangular, dark wood counter-top that dad would then round off one side. but as luck would have it, we came across this half rounded, half straight-edged white counter-top. it was exactly the length we needed, and only off in width by 3 inches!

of course dad still had to create the bottom cupboard and paint it white to match. but soon enough, he installed it!

luckily when i bought my adjustable-height bar chairs, i bought six. i had the other two stored at my parent's. dad brought them over, and voila, perfect height for the nub! i absolutely love how it turned out, and i love the extra counter and seating space in my condo.

next up is the upper cabinets to frame in the fridge and the hanging pot rack (also from ikea) to hang over the end of the nub...and maybe a pendant light to hang above the rounded end of the nub.

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.

clink clink clink

i ordered two under-cabinet hanging wine glass racks from amazon and happily they arrived in one piece. each rack holds 12 glasses. i installed it right above my sink. perfect :)

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.

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!