Then there was light

I can't say enough how much I love my kitchen. We have transformed this place from tiny, outdated, non-functional, and awkward to a place that I spend most of my days and nights with my family. I often stand in the unfinished kitchen just glowing at what an improvement it makes to the entire house.

That all said, there was one thing that was lacking - sunlight. With the door and the window back facing, and more importantly covered by the screened in porch, the kitchen was a dark place. The living room would be brightly lit and I'd have to come in and turn on all the lights for the kitchen.

We had an idea that a new window in the dining room could definitely transform this space. Sadly, it wasn't in our budget. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized we could do this, in budget. I knew we could probably find a used window on craigslist. Even if the window wasn't the top of the line efficient, it would be a place holder and could be replaced later. My dad and my husband would do the work, so really there wasn't much to the cost other then the window.

I found a few online, but nothing was screaming at me. So we thought we would check out the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and we scored big!!! We found this:

Brand new, in the box for $125!! After much research I found the price for this window new was $465. That's about a 1/4 of the price!

Here is the space. When I measured it, I was thinking a 4' x 3' window and that is exactly what we found. 

 

I was lucky enough to have my Dad and husband put it in. I'm not sure what the cost to hire someone would be. But, as you can tell, for $125 the change was immediate and awesome.

 

All we need is a little trim and its complete. I will say that there was a bit of challenge in the window due to the electricity. Our house, as you may have read before, was wired weird. So, in the middle of the wall there should have been nothing, we had an electrical line running right down the center of the wall. So we did have to get an electrician in here to fix that. But, luckily that was pretty cheap, a little over $100.

At night we can watch the deer in the woods. It's like a giant piece of gorgeous landscape art. And a bonus, is when I went to seed my tomatoes, I finally had somewhere out of the way to get some light on them.

Cheap upgrade part 2

After the chairs, I went for the rocking chair seen here:

Why stop there. We decided the old left over chair we were given for my son needed to match too.

Now all my furniture is matching and looks like new. The best part is the distressed look to the furniture which means that even if they aren't perfect, that is the design!

Cheap upgrade!

When we bought the house it was full of furniture and stuff. Knowing it was a second home and the previous owner was in a wheelchair. We decided to ask what would come with the house. When we could negotiate "everything" we went for it. 

First off, the furniture was from 1987. Which may get you thinking, uh outdated. I saw- SOLID wood!! Where can you find this anymore? All it takes is some love.

Check out these kitchen chairs:

Completely solid wood and the shape resembled our expensive, nice distressed chairs. A little can of spray paint:

Sand the edges and boom distressed.

A little poly and boom. Matches the rest of our furniture. Looks modern, clean. Cost: $5 at most.

Laundry Room Make Over

Our house has a laundry room. A fact that I am quite happy with. Our previous house had the laundry in the first floor bathroom and at the time, that worked for us. We had no kids and it was convenient to do laundry while doing anything. Plus, it wasn't on the same floor that we slept, so noise wise, it was great. Now, with 3 kids, a dog and the fact that we are all outdoorsy, muddy messes most of the time its nice to contain it all in a room - a room with a door that can be shut so we don't have to stare at the mounds of laundry that pile up.

But, my laundry room is in the basement and looked like this:

I don't know about you, but this is the most unmotivating room I can imagine. The almond cream walls, the oak trim, the metallic linoleum flooring, the stained laminate countertop, the almond cream appliances from 1987. It was a place of necessity and I knew that I could easily transform it.

Then I saw this:

and I thought, wow, this is a room that LOOKS clean, I can smell the fresh laundry scent coming from this room. I want this!!

After my hallway project, I was ready for a new painting project. I had the whole week with the kids and I needed to fulfill a need of accomplishing something. When I felt I had a few minutes, I grabbed the tape and decided it was time to tackle the laundry.

I did this the wrong way, let me tell you. I know I should have started by painting the trim and the wall all white. Instead I did the trim and I taped the walls. I think it was two fold why I did it this way, 1 - I didn't want to waste paint doing the entire wall and 2, I just wanted to see what the stripes would look like. This way I could satisfy my need to see progress. So, it started like this:

 

Once I started the blue, I had a slight moment of panic. This wasn't exactly the picture. It wasn't the bright, airy space from Pinterest. In reality, with that tiny little window and the fluorescent light - it never would be. The blue was left over from the boys room and the white was a half can I got off my Dad. This project was free, so, I could live without baby blue.

As we were wrapping it up, my husband and I decided that the white racks hanging off the doors to hand dry clothes may need a face lift too. I remembered a weird wooden thing we found in the basement closet. I could never quite figure out what it was for. There was a similar one in the kitchen when we bought the house, but it made more sense as just a shelf for plates.

I knew the minute I pulled this out of the garage that it would be perfect. The only problem was to find hangers that could rotate. I went through the closet and found just enough and lucky me they were wooden, so I painted those too. 

Ta da!! I actually have two more hangers and ended up hanging my door rack on there too to hold the ironing board. Its awesome, its functional, its pretty, it looks professional. One regret is that I poly'd the hangers and didn't do a light enough coat. The very bottom of the wood on the hangers has a bit of a yellow tint. In hind sight I would have made sure to do a really light coat - but, hey, its a laundry room.

 

The final touch was to get rid of the nasty table top. This proved to be a bit more difficult then I thought. Apparently, the wall is not a 90 degree angle and the table top was custom fit to the space. At first my plan was to paint the table, but honestly, I didn't want all that work. So we went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and bought a tabletop for $10. We had to make it work, but I think it adds great pop. Plus, its for putting clothes on.

You will notice I also painted the nasty brown/almond light cover. This was so much easier then I thought. I slapped on some paint and sealed it with some Modge Podge and it blends right in. If only I could paint the thermostat :)

And now I have a full functioning, beautiful laundry room. The room pops with its vibrance and no longer turns me away from the task at hand - the never ending amount of laundry 3 kids and a dog create. 

I will officially call this room complete when we are able to get some tile in here and replace the 80's dryer with a new white one, but I'm happy.