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.

ice cubes and counter tops

today was a big day for my condo! new kitchen counters, water access to my fridge ice machine, and lots of insulation around my outside door, windows and air conditioner. as you can see in the first picture, it looks as if dad almost moved in! my entire dining room was filled with tools and such.

do you remember my original counter tops? they were light wood and kind of ugly (top photo). a while back -- think spring/summer -- dad found these dark "granite" counters at menards for a really good deal. they've been sitting in his garage ever since.

the other week dad stopped over to prepare the counter top. he measured my original wooden one and drew out a template onto a giant roll of paper of the exact dimensions and the sink cutout area.

meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen...i now have ice cubes (crushed and cubed) and water! i have waited so long for this day :)

this proved to be quite the task however. the water tube had to snake from the back of the fridge, up through the ceiling and into the pantry closet, from the top-right of my closet to the bottom-left (see photo), out the pantry closet next to the oven, and behind my counter tops into the water access under the sink. luckily the tube is clear so it's nearly invisible.

next, dad covered up my air conditioner window unit, plastic'd up all my windows, and added insulation around my exterior door to try to keep the draft out...although my snowflakes would prefer the wind so they can twirl.

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.

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.

dilly dally painting

it had to be done. but i didn't want to do it. i finally forced myself to lay out the tarp, get out the paint and brushes, and get it done. no more cat-odored cabinets! hooray!

slowly but surely

everytime i go to the condo lately i've been bringing a box or two of my belongings with me. i am slowly but surely moving in...and i finally get to use my dish set that mom bought me for my college graduation. they hadn't even been out of their original packaging yet! i didn't want to risk breaking or losing them with all my crazy roommates i've had over the years.

anyways, our main goal tonight was to get the bed put together — since this was one of the last "big" things that i would need help with. everything else i can pretty much work on at my own pace, without needing any boys or muscles.