Well, life on this project is proving to be a lot of work and like everything else. The budget is something you have to work really hard to stick to. It is important to understand that things will happen that will cost you more, things that you think you have planned out completely, well you almost always forget to factor in something. With this house we had a budget and to be able to come in close to that you have to be very savvy with your shopping.
We have been working hard on the kitchen, master bath, and putting in all the floors upstairs. We have done all the work ourselves except for the flooring that has been put in the kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and the carpet. We do not have the equipment that is needed for doing carpet, and with the laminate flooring, we decided that it would be a mess if we made all the cuts and they were not correct, then we would have to pay to buy more. If the professionals cut wrong, they would have to pay to fix it. So that is what we budgeted for first. Then the money that was left we budgeted everything else that we wanted to do.
In the kitchen, you will see all the things we have done so far and it is so many of the things are really non expensive things to do if you do them yourself.
In the first picture, it was the kitchen before we began anything in changes. The few cabinets you see in this picture is all there is in the whole kitchen. This kitchen was considered to have had a small eat in area, but it was a very small area, and with the dining room right beside the kitchen, our family would just rather use the dining room and have more storage in the actual kitchen.
In the next 2 pictures you will notice that we chose some paint colors, I wanted my house to be a different color in every room. I love color. This can be a big expense unless you know how to shop. My husband works for a paint store, but what we did was purchase the paints that are considered "ready to go" paints or discontinued paints. These paints were originally about $45- $65 per gallon, but we paid $10 per gallon because they were discontinued paints and we had them tented to the colors that I wanted. A lot of people do not know about this, but it is a great way to save in the process. I had to scrape wallpaper off all the walls in this house, every single room except 1. Once all the walls were cleaned, then they were patched where needed, and then sanded and the paint process began. We cut in around the trim, ceiling, and doors before rolling the rest.
In the 3rd and 4th pictures you can see that we were having to use a table and little cabinet to try and hold some of the kitchen necessities until we could start to build the cabinets and the pantry that we wanted. The orange paint was looking so much better than the 1970's wallpaper did though.
In the next steps we took blue painters tape and placed it on the floor where we wanted our new pantry and cabinets to go. From there we took yet another trip to the Home Depot to get wood and drywall for the pantry. You can see all the cross bars that were put in place on the sides of the pantry, that was so that the shelves had something to be attached to for extra support. We didn't want them just attached to the studs in the wall because over time they would begin to droop forward. This way they can hold a lot more, and they will not go anywhere.
The drywall is up in the following picture, and it was time to tape and putty the joints, then you have to wait 24 hrs.
before sanding and putty again. Don't worry, the ugly light is going away eventually.
Looky, looky...it is a pantry and there are some base cabinets sitting beside it now. This was the way we envisioned our kitchen looking, it was all starting to come together. Notice in these pictures the flooring is different as well, and the ceiling has been scrapped (popcorn ceiling is all gone) To us it just looks so much better, and that is a free thing you can do, except for the paint and a little joint compound. You need a spray bottle full of warm water, you spray the popcorn ceiling in a section, wait a couple of minutes, spray again and take a large scrapper and start scrapping. It will all just start falling off. For easier cleanup, it is wise to spread the plastic though so you can just fold up and throw it out when you are done. It took a little over an hour to scrape the whole kitchen.
In this picture, take note, the shelves are in place and food in the pantry. YAY!!! and there are top cabinets on the walls as well. It is coming together slowly, but still finally happening.
The outlets were put in place right above the base cabinets, they were just moved up from the ones that were down on the lower level before the cabinets were put it. It was an easy fix as he just had to run the wire up from where it was and put the new plate on it. We left the one that was near the floor in the pantry area. You will see later why we did this.
These next pictures you will see a new hole being cut into the ceiling for the new light and we could get rid of the old 1970's light, and patch the hole, then paint over it.
The new light was on clearance for $78, that is a great deal if you have checked on lights lately. There is another option if you have a light that is brass or the silver color and want the bronze then you can buy the special spray paint and spray them that color, or a brushed nickle color and keep the old light, just giving it a new facelift for under $20. We have done this before many times.
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