Basement Powder Room - Before

We finally redid the basement powder room - YAY! Soon after we moved in, we cleaned and painted it blue then, earlier this year, we put in a new floor. By "we" I mean that my sweetie pulled up the old floor and put in the new oak plywood one. All I had to do was stain it black and add gloss poly.

This is the "before", except that you can see the new black floor and I've already painted the ceiling gloss white. Sorry the pictures aren't better, but the room is soooo tiny, I can barely get a shot of it.

Isn't our Japanese apartment sink (back of the toilet) awesome!?! Clean water for hand washing when you don't have the space for a free-standing sink.

Basement Before and After

Looking through the "before" and "during" shots of the kitchen put me in the mood to revisit our recent basement renovation. We're pretty lucky because the basement is large, has a full sized window and a full door out to the back patio an pool. When we moved in it was painted battleship grey with mustard yellow sponge-paining, had grey speckled wall-to-wall carpet and dank old drop tile ceiling. All in all, it seemed like a dungeon and smelled musty. We cleaned the carpet, repainted aqua (bad choice) and tried to ignore it.

After living in the house a couple of years we realized that we used the space more than we'd expected - our desks were there, the washer and dryer were there, we walked through it constantly in the summer to get to the powder room, to bring things down from the kitchen, etc. At least the carpet had to go. And so it did.... revealing 1950's bowling alley tile:

Once again, I was on my knees prying up tile (that's a scrap of the nasty carpet under the book shelf on the left).
Finally, it was gone!
We repainted the walls Ralph Lauren "Studio Cream" RL Number: UL01 from the "Urban Loft" collection (ironic) and selected the new flooring.

You can seen the new drop ceiling tiles too. They're a product from Ceilume that is sound baffled and fire rated. They're also very light so we can easily get to all our water shut off lines and wiring. Et voila:

Kitchen "Before"

The nice folks at Holyoke Home asked for "before" pictures of the kitchen. I'm amazed I can't really find any that show the whole, original room. We've been working on the kitchen since we moved into the house about 4 years ago (I think I wrote 3 in a comment, but that's wrong). We've been slowly changing out everything but the cabinetry, which I would love to change but it is just not in the budget.

When we moved in, the kitchen was painted forest green to match the green faux marble countertops, had putty colored stick on tile on the floor, white low-end appliances, gold knobs on the cabinets, the trim was painted beige, and to top it all off, there were dark green cellular shades on the windows with swaged fabric and dried flowers on top. This picture will, at least, show you the floor and a corner of the fridge, the countertops, and faux bead board backsplash. It was taken the morning after a big party, to things are a bit of a mess and usually the dog is not that blurry.

We repainted (twice) and switched out the window coverings and cabinet knobs immediately. The range was the next to go, since it conked out just before we were expecting 18 people for Thanks Giving dinner (isn't that always the way). We bought the GE Profile 5-burner range with lower oven and convection settings. I LOVE it. I know it is wrong to love your appliances, but the range is super. I'd buy it again and again with the one caveat that I wish it had more than once high BTU burner. Next we gave the refrigerator and dish washer to a friend and replaced them with a Kitchen Aid french door and a Bosch, respectively.

You can see the range, replacement range hood, stainless steel backsplash, and the new floor in this picture.

It took me a week on my hands and knees to get up the multiple layers of stick on tile but it was worth it. All the "experts" told us not to put down real slate but we went with it anyway and I'm very happy. It is a breeze to clean, does not show dirt (or dog fur), feels great under foot and only cost $1 per square foot.

Oh, and did you notice that piece of odd trim under the book shelf? That covers up an original window. Why, why, why?

Another low-cost/high-impact change were the cabinet knobs. First we found wonderful drawer pulls that look like twigs and round knobs that had a floral motif. Ultimately, we switched the knobs for square ones that are more "bungalow."

Now back to choosing a new backsplash. Remember, suggestions are VERY welcome.

Kitchen Counters!

I know I promised you an update on the kitchen but I've been mucking around looking for backsplash inspiration and considering sending a plea for help over to my friends at Bangor Bungalow. Without further ado, here's the update.

As you can see, the ugly backsplash (some ca 1955 is still in place), we originally planned to put in slate mosaic tile but now that all the black granite is in, we think it might be too dark. We've been pouring over options but please, PLEASE send any suggestions you have.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

An update: I'm thrilled to report that I just went outside and someone has taken the white enameled cast-iron Kohler sink we put out on the curb (see picture in previous post). It was a nice sink and I hope it will serve someone well.

Actually, Rutherford is pretty great for curb picking. All of my friends have found treasures on the street before garbage day. A few years ago, I found a beautiful antique china-cabinet. It had a piece of curved glass missing which M replaced and now good as "new." I've seen similar priced at $2,000 in antique stores!

Bye, bye, green counter

A sneak peek at what's going out of our kitchen! I'm so very happy to have to fake green marble laminate out of my house. In the unlikely event that I ever miss it, Steve & Andrea's restaurant on Park has the same on its counter.

"After" pictures to come.

Kitchen overhaul... again

We lucked into being able to buy new black granite counters at an absurd discount... it was really too good to pass up. So we're fixing up the kitchen again. This is the longest we've gone without a change (about a year) and I hope it will be the last time. As of now, the only things left from the "original"kitchen when we moved in are the cabinets, the windows and the door trim.

I'll post updates as we continue.
The Bar counter comes out

The hideous linoleum faux tile behind the faux bead board. Ironic, since this was the color of the kitchen walls when we moved in.

How did I not know that there was nothing holding up the corner of the counter????

The Rockwell Sonicrafter to the rescue.

Can I report the former owner for plaster abuse?