(Almost) Cooking with Gas!

Now that Christmas is comfortably behind us, I am in full planning mode on the kitchen renovation. At this point I'm just sourcing materials, but I never knew how exciting weekend trips to Ikea and Home Depot could be!

I've been buying things as I find them, so that I don't run the risk of them being out of stock (and I can pay things off as I go, instead of a huge bill at the end). Check out the mood board I put together...

I am loving those grey cabinets, but they are surprisingly hard to find. I went to the Kitchen Store in Culver City the other day, and they looked at me like I had two heads when I asked for grey color samples. I said to the guy, "Mark my words, in two years you will be inundated with people asking for grey cabinets!" Turns out it was for the best, because Lowes not only had better prices, but also threw in free hardware and a free kitchen sink cabinet! Cha-ching!

By the way, did you notice the little vintage oven, above? It was a craigslist find for only $300! And it totally works! It's estimated to be about the same age as the house, so I'm totally feeling the synergy.

I can't wait to start knocking down some walls!

A Very Vintage Bathroom

Almost as important as the bedroom, and only slightly more important than the kitchen, is the bathroom. I mean, you need a place to sleep and pee, but you can always go out for meals, right?

Fortunately, the bathroom was actually one of the smaller projects we have undertaken so far. The space is pretty well laid out as is, no need to re-plumb anything. But the fixtures were either dated, or downright nonfunctional. I think the vintage sink is adorable, but it is decidedly impractical to have separate faucets for hot and cold. Especially when the hot doesn't actually work. After 5 weeks of washing my face in cold water, I decided the time had come to do something about it.

Here, again, is the before...

The weirdly short vanity and old-fashioned sink had to go. I had wanted to add subway tile halfway up the walls on all sides, but the plaster was actually so wavy that Martin didn't think he could get a straight grout line to save his life. So we went with wood wainscoting instead. And actually (don't tell Martin), I think I like it even better.

I painted the upper half of the walls Faultline Grey in satin finish, by DutchBoy, and all the wood trim is Silver Lining semi-gloss (which is the color for all the painted trim in the house, and in eggshell for the ceilings).

The sink is American Standard, and the faucet is Kohler. I also replaced all the drawer and door hardware with satin nickel pulls from OSH, which is handily located about two blocks away. I also scraped off the yellowed window film that the old owners had applied for privacy, and replaced it with this awesome product.

I also beefed up the moulding around the medicine cabinet with some more ornate trim. And when I took the medicine cabinet door off to sand it down, I actually found a recessed mirror BEHIND the mirror the old owners applied to the top of the door. WHY? These are the mysteries that will never be solved.

Overall, I wanted a very classic look that could have been original to the house, but would function like a modern bathroom. I think I achieved that, what do you think?

Fun with Exterior Paint

Add this to the list of "Things I Didn't Know the Government Cared About" -- the exterior of my house. I financed my home using an FHA loan, which is great because they only require a 3.5% down payment (as opposed to the 20% desired by most traditional lenders). The downside is that they have certain requirements about the appearance and upkeep of your home. So if there is work that is needed in order to bring the house up to their standards, you have to do it before you actually own the house. To a novice like me, this is a little scary. What if it all falls through, and you've spent money working on a house that isn't yours??

Of course that scenario didn't happen. And it was relatively minor work that needed to be done. Basically the paint on the South side of the house was peeling pretty badly, and had to be stripped and primed before the loan could be approved. Andrea, my fabulous Realtor (here's her site - if you're in the LA area I highly recommend working with her!), actually lined up the painter and paid for the labor as my housewarming present! How generous is that?

So when I finally moved in, one of the first things I had my contractor, Martin, address was the now-patchy exterior paint. I also cajoled him into removing the bars from the front windows (we left them on the other windows, but I just couldn't live in a house that looked like a fortress!). And we replaced the mostly-glass front door with a solid wood, Craftsman-style door. I think it's gorgeous, even if Martin did have to drive into Skid Row to pick to up from the wholesaler. We also replaced the scary metal security door with a clear, tempered glass weather door. Much better.

Do you remember the before (shown here with my parents relaxing on the front porch)? White with pink trim, wowsers.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to live in a little yellow house. And now that dream has finally come true!

I painted the underside of the porch aqua, just for a little added interest.

And here it is, all dressed up for Halloween! Maybe one day I'll have time to post a tutorial on how to make the bats.

All the paint is Behr Exterior, and the colors are Banana Split, Ruffled Clam, and Aqua Spray (I'll let you guess which is which).

From Bad to Worse

I know this is not exactly revolutionary information, but I feel the need to point out that buying a house, and renovating it, is a very stressful process. It's expensive, it's hard to plan, and there is an immense amount of pressure to get things done quickly. This was compounded by the fact that my closing date went over by 2 weeks, my carefully planned renovation schedule went out the window, and I was effectively homeless. This is not how things were supposed to go!

As I mentioned in my previous post, there was a fair amount of demo that had to be done before the real work could start. We're concentrating on the bedroom, but we also had to rip out about a third of the kitchen cabinets, just to get a refrigerator into that space. Oh, this is after replacing the electrical panel, and adding outlets to every room (and GFIs in the kitchen and bathroom). This is post-demo...

I know it's horrifying, but it has to get worse before it can get better!

Back in the bedroom, we tore down the ceiling (or, more accurately, we poked the ceiling and it fell down), replaced the broken window panes, and ripped out the carpet in both bedrooms and the hallway. The spare room and the hallway had pretty pristine wood floors underneath, just like in the rest of the house. Jackpot, right? Not quite. For some reason, in the bedroom, the entire floor was covered in some kind of thin green adhesive. It wasn't sticky to the touch, but it sure as hell stuck to the floor. Sanding didn't work, floor scrapers didn't work, soaking didn't work... the only thing we could do was get on our hands and knees and chip it up, bit by bit, with 5-in-1s. This is also the week I learned what a 5-in-1 is.

Little by little, we got it all done. And my bedroom is officially the first "done" room in the house. I readily admit that it's not the most polished design in the world, but with the time constraints and not having the budget to buy multiple new rooms full of furniture, I did what I could with what I had. And actually, it feels like a cheerful little island in a tumultuous sea of sawdust and joint compound.

Remember the "before"?

Here is the very yellow after..

An extra special thank you to the kind friends who are letting me take turns crashing in their spare rooms! Love you guys!

Happy House Warming! Er... demoing...

Those of you who know me personally, know how long I searched for a little fixer to call my very own. From South Central to Glendale and beyond, I left no reasonably-priced stone unturned for almost two years. My tireless efforts (and those of my steadfast Realtor) finally bore fruit last month! I am now the proud owner of a two bedroom, one bathroom, 936 sq ft cottage in Mid-City Los Angeles. Hurray for me! Now you KNOW there is work to be done before moving in. What fun would turn-key be? Check out the pics from the listing...

Not too terrible right? Well did you happen to notice there are some rooms missing? How about a kitchen, a bathroom, and maybe a bedroom or two? Here are some pics I took on the final walk through...

Unfortunately, I didn't get one without my dad standing right in the middle of the kitchen (look how distraught he looks. You can basically see him asking me, "what have you done?!"). But you can tell: a) there is NOT a lot of space b) it's basically been untouched since 1925 c) this is going to be expensive. What you CAN'T see in the pic, is that there is no refrigerator, nor is there room for one. Lord knows where the last owner put theirs, I'm guessing on the back porch. Keepin' it classy.

What a cute little bathroom, right? I don't know what I like better, the makeshift vanity that someone cobbled together from random pieces of particle board, or the electric that is run on the outside of the wall, conveniently next to a water source. Fun times! Still, this room has major potential and you have to love the original hexagon porcelain tile floor.

This is the master bedroom, measuring 11.5 x 11.5 feet. Not the Taj Mahal, but not terrible either. What you can't see from the picture, is that the popcorn ceiling is actually falling down. We tried to break off a little piece to get it tested for asbestos, and basically ended up with a whole-lotta ceiling on our heads. And yes, that carpeting is going to go, post haste. The bedroom will be my first project, as I can't (or won't) move in until I have a safe, sane place to sleep -- without a Chicken Little ceiling and vintage Mid-Century carpeting. Did you hear that bullhorn? Let the reno begin!

One Man's Trash...

Can be a clever crafter's treasure! A few weeks ago, I saw a set of dining room chairs in the dumpster near the back of the Meganplex. Someone had fun smashing them to pieces, but one of them was pretty much intact, and another was just missing the leg dowels. You can see from the "before" picture that they had really good bones.



And of course, I can't be expected to leave a project like that sitting out for the garbage collector. So, I hauled those puppies home and set to gluing, screwing, puttying, sanding, painting, and new-seat-constructing. I ordered the Waverly "Lovely Lattice" fabric from Joanns.com when they were having a 60% off sale. It took a full two weeks to get to me, but it was totally worth the wait (and the discount).



Once they were done, I realized I couldn't have such lovely chairs paired with my boring black Ikea dining room table (I have standards, you know). So I had to make that over too. Stay tuned for the results!

Afters

Remember these Befores, from approximately one million years ago? Well, I've finally gotten around to taking the After photos. Forgive the quality, I took them in the very yellow Tungsten light of my apartment.

The chair was an easy fix - a little paint and strategically placed glue and screws, an inch of foam and some pretty fabric, and Bob's your Uncle.



The desk took a LOT more work. That thing had four layers of paint that I had to chip, scrape, and sand my way through - I even burned out the motor on my old belt sander (giving me an excuse to finally upgrade to a sleek new orbital). After three new coats of of hard-wearing exterior black paint, polished nickel cup pulls, and a bonus coat of spray paint on the under side of the glass top (gives it a high gloss, lacquered look), Fanny was FINALLY my Aunt.



Put them together, and they make a cute little vignette!



Due to the extremely limited amount of space in the Meganplex, the desk (and silver dome light shown in the last pic) are going up for sale on Seedling. Happy shopping!