{renovate} a lesson in kitchen lighting

I had an interesting lesson in lighting this weekend that I thought I'd share with you all. We had our electrician wire recessed lighting in the kitchen and needed to actually install the cans and lights. Have you guys ever tried to pick out lighting at HD or Lowe's? It gave me such a headache! The display has about 50 lights, all turned on and you're supposed to pick your favorite. I couldn't tell the difference and they hurt to look at after awhile! So, we brought a couple different options home to play try.

The top one is 85 watt soft light. The bottom is 65 watt day light. I was completely shocked at the difference between the two.

The Phillips -soft light - actually turned the walls GREEN. Ew.

The Ecosmart - daylight- kept the walls the greige they're supposed to be (they look a little on the pink side in this photo, but that wasn't the case in real life).

I know you're supposed test paint under different lights for this reason, but I didn't think about it reversed. We needed to test light for the paint we chose! :) We talked to our electrician and he actually recommended the day light as a more true-to-light option in rooms. So, your quick tip of the day is that the type of light bulb plays a huge difference in the colors of your home. If you have a color that is off a little, try a different bulb. It might actually make a huge difference! 

For more information about our kitchen lights, here's the post about our lighting plan.

{renovate} the never ending-back porch-story

Friends! Hi! Happy Monday! 

While Chris worked on the kitchen this weekend (trim + concrete board!), I worked a little on our back porch, which I haven't talked a lot about -- just a sneak peek here and there. See, my original intention for the back porch was to finish it, have a super dramatic before and after, and then fill you in the details.

Well, nearly three summers after we started the project, we still aren't finished! It takes a back seat to all other projects. And, I realized that my original intentions were silly. Very few spaces in our house are actually done and part of the fun is bringing you guys along for the journey. So I'm going to back up and fill you on where we're at so far. {And please excuse the mess that is the back porch right now -- it's getting cleaner, but it's the staging area for the kitchen!}

For those of you who haven't been reading for the last couple years, the back porch is a screened in addition off the back of our house. Three sides are wall, and one side is screened windows. It's a completely amazing space, but it's needed A LOT of work. The photo above is where the back porch began. Full of crap, dark, dark, dark wood, and unfinished/missing pieces of wall.

My husband, in a move of genius and brilliant forethought, saved the old siding from when he renovated our garage, because it matched the existing siding in the back porch perfectly. So first we set about filling in the missing walls. The green boards are the old garage boards. You can see the texture of the paint in this photo. What you can't see is that the dark boards above were also treated with kind of lacquer that also gave them a lot of texture.We talked through so many options about how to treat the wall. Do we sand it all down? What look are we going for?

In the end we decided to paint the entire thing -- walls + ceiling -- white. This keeps the room, casual, bright and cohesive. And, you can still see the texture, but it doesn't look bad under the coat of white paint. The painting itself was, um ... labor intensive. Because of the grooves between the siding boards, paired with the unevenness and nails in the ceiling, we had to paint the whole room with a BRUSH. Two coats of oil primer + one coat of paint. When I say it took forever, that is an understatement. BUT, white paint was exactly what this space needed and instantly brightened it up. Painting the back porch is by far our most dramatic makeover to date. Seriously. It's even more dramatic than tearing out the wall between our kitchen and living room. {ps, we don't have a dog! We were puppy sitting at the time :)}

You can see in this photo that we also painted the foundation a dark grey to match the rest of the foundation. It also helps really ground the white. We also painted the floor, but I'll talk more about that later.

Here is the other side of the space. Again, missing siding boards, nasty old house door and jail-like and rusty screen door. Actually, if you look at the top left of the house door, you can see a space because the door didn't even fit. Our energy bills LOVED that in the winter ;).

New boards + new doors + paint make a huge difference. You can read about my painting the doors here. And, you can read more about the work that went into this wall here. We had to tear out the whole wall : |.

Clearly the porch was a late addition, because that window goes to a bedroom. Obviously ;). You can see it's broken and very poorly painted.

Aah. Much better. New window glass, new paint and messy paint scraped off and cleaned up.

Walls + ceiling + new lights.

A view of the ceiling. You can see the nails from the roof poking through. It adds ... texture.

So that is our backporch. Friends, we use this space ALL THE TIME. We LOVE it. I'm so glad we've turned it into a space we love and use :).

Why was I out there this weekend? Well a bunch of the caulk between the siding boards cracked and left huge gaping holes. Ugh. So I re-caulked and touched up the paint. It's looking awesome again :). 

From this point on, I'll make sure to keep you filled in on back porch updates. There are still a couple bigger projects up our sleeves back there and I'm excited to bring you guys along for the journey!

{renovate: kitchen remodel} shedding light on the situation

Happy Monday friends! Are you all ready for a great week? It is sunny and beautiful here -- it actually feels like summer, which is a nice change of pace! :)

Our kitchen remodel is moving right along. We've had an electrician in the house for the last THREE days. It seems like a long time, but I know it's going to be worth it. So, today I thought we'd talk about lighting plans. We don't have cable at our house, but whenever we're at a house with cable, I LOVE to watch Candice Olson. Isn't she amazing? Have you ever noticed how much she talks about lighting plans and how important they are to a room? Well, when we sat down to plan out our kitchen, we decided it needed a lighting and electrical makeover.

Before, we had two lights. That's right, TWO. See, the yellow above. A ceiling light, which was pretty good size. And, a fluorescent light, below our upper cabinets/above our stove. I had a good chuckle after the post outlining everything that's wrong with our kitchen. Someone commented on how the fluorescent light should've been included. Which is so true -- it's hideous! I didn't even think about it, though, because it was such an essential part of the kitchen. When you only have two lights you just love them both! :)

The little orange boxes above are electrical outlets. That's right, only two of those also. And, one no where NEAR a "work" station, aka counter top. Let's just say that one little outlet on the far left has done it's duty and then some. Oh, and we're no where near up to code. There are actually two more outlets in the room -- one behind the fridge and one behind the stove, but I don't count those because I can't use them for other things.

Here's what our electrician has been busy working on. First, adding WAY more lighting! YAH! We opted to install four can lights to add tons more light to the space. A couple pendants over the (new!) island will add interest and task light and then a pendant over the sink will help us make sure the dishes actually get clean! ;) All the lights switches will be on dimmers, which will be sooooo nice.

We're also adding way more electrical outlets -- you know, so the house is up to code, which is something like every 12 (?) inches? I don't know, all I really care about is that my mixer and I won't be trapped in a dark corner anymore when I want to bake something! 

Want to see what lights we picked out? We spent a good chunk of Saturday out looking at lights. First, can anyone give me tips on how to pick out a can light? I have NO idea! And, my eyes started hurting from looking into so many lights! We did decide on pendants though and we stayed really close to my original mood board choices. And it only took one trip to Schoolhouse Electric .... shocking, I know ;). I know all their merchandise is online, but it's such a fun store to go in. All their fixtures are made to order and are mix and match with the shade. They make customizing incredibly easy, which made shopping super fun!

Above the island will be two of these pendants: the Union fixture, in polished chrome and this beautiful curvy Glass shade.

Above the sink will be this guy: a Satellite fixture, in polished chrome, with a Metal cage. LOVE.

I will probably say this about everything, but adding more lighting will probably make the biggest difference in the room. It was so dim before! It was even exciting to come home on friday night and have the can lights working -- it's making a huge difference already! So, have you guys ever designed a lighting plan? And, really, any advice on picking out can lights?! 

ps. My camera card read was making weird error messages this weekend! So, I'll be back Wednesday with the line-up of bloggers that attended last week's blogger summer social, and some tips on how to maybe plan one in your city! :)

{renovate: kitchen remodel} open living

Friends, we made some major progress/changes last weekend on our kitchen remodel and renovations! 

A little back story: we'd been talking about a kitchen remodel for years, but was finally prompted us to move on this little project was an idea that came up over pancakes on Saturday morning. A brilliant idea, really. Why not tear down the wall between the kitchen and the living room? Really open up the space? And friends, that's exactly what we did.

Last week, when you walked in our front door, this was the view:

Today, that view now looks like this:

Whoa. Right? So different! 

From inside the kitchen, before:

And, now:

Old house rooms tend to be very closed off, and our house is no exception. There were so many instances where we had friends over and I felt like I was stuck in the kitchen because 1. there was no seating in there for others and 2. the old little tiny door didn't facilitate conversation. So, we've taken care of the door, and next we'll take care of seating! :)

Up on the schedule this week ... the electrician. We adding tons and tons of light. YAH! :)

{renovate} back entry reveal!

Update 9/13/11: I am updating this post a bit and submitting it to Abode Love's Roomspiration party! Please pop over and take a look at all the great linked up entryways :).

It is a GREAT day! The sun is shining and over the weekend I saved all my lovely back entry photos from their hostage: the camera. Which means: BACK ENTRY REVEAL! I'm so excited about this reveal. Seriously. This has been a labor of love for both me and Chris. And, I realized this weekend, it's the first actual *construction* project we've tackled. Needless to say, it's boosted our home confidence a notch, and makes dealing with other scary house projects (I'm looking at you bathroom) a little less daunting.

Without further ado, here's a reminder of the before of all befores. What the room looked like when I moved in, circa 2008. Primer white, nasty torn linoleum, an extra fridge (?), a door that didn't fit and dirty, dirty, dirty:

And, here's our new back entry!

Light, clean, open and even a little spacious feeling :).

Here's the room just before we started the project. When we were *making-due* till we could tackle it:

And, today:

We painted the entire room, added board and batten, new tile, and painted the door for a fun burst of color. We added hooks for hanging coats and my purses and a bench for plopping things down on when we walk in the door. New artwork adds some personality and a potted plant adds some life.

The ceiling before:

A previous roof leek had bubbled and damaged the existing paint (luckily, not the plaster), and the brass chain light was falling out of the ceiling:

Ceiling now:

Newly painted ceiling, and shiny new light. You might remember that I specified a Schoolhouse Electric light on the mood board. Sadly, it didn't work out this time. Chris had found the fixture a few years ago on super discount, and we'd saved it for this room, but none of the Schoolhouse Electric shades I wanted fit into the fixture. We looked at buying an all new fixture + shade, but it was close to $200. In the end, the $5 shade from Home Depot was just too good to pass up. But, mark my words, I will one day own a Schoolhouse  Electric fixture :).

Stairs before:

The stairs at the beginning of the project. Originally, they were actually carpeted (with the same horrible blue as the hallway/back bedroom), I just don't have a picture. They sat like this, though, for a couple years, so they're an accurate before :).

Stairs today:

Details:

As I mentioned, we painted the door blue for a lovely little pop. It's by far the best part of the room. We LOVE it. The sign above the door we picked up at an adorable antique store on our annual birthday trip last year. We have no idea where E. Lake Ct. is, but we love the graphic nature of the sign, and it reminds us both of that super fun trip.

This little red tray was an afterthought. It quickly became apparent that the bench would be huge mess if we didn't corral keys, wallets, movies to return, etc. I was so excited when I remembered this tray! It was a wedding gift from someone I absolutely adore, but I'd never found the right place for it. Not wanting to get rid of it (and, that is how I roll. If we aren't using something, I usually donate it), I'd stored it away. Turns out, it was simply waiting for it's new home in our back entry! 

I didn't want to spend a lot of $$$ on art. I LOVED the art that I pulled for the mood board. I actually ordered the Kite Hill print, but Chris and I agreed that it just doesn't look right in this room. I already have other plans for it, so look for it popping up in a different room :). I framed a piece of my favorite chevron fabric, and pulled this letterpress print from the living room. It's way better here. As for the Make You Own Path art, I loved the actual letter press, but it would've been WAY too small for the space. So, I made my own using a bike map of Portland and letters printed at my local Fast Signs. I really like how it came out, but there are a few things I'd do different next time. Live and learn, right? :)

Close up of the art.

Close up of the small shelf that wraps all around the room.

I'll be honest, sometimes I just sit on the stairs admiring the room. And, the blue door. Thanks for all your support over the last 3 (THREE!) months of this project! You guys were so great and patient through all the updates and seemingly endless amount of time it took. HAPPY MONDAY!

If you'd like to read more about this 3-month project, go here, here and here.

{renovate} back entry: week by week

Bet you thought, from the title, that I'm going to show you the finished back entry?! The good news: The entry is done! For now. The bad news: The photos are trapped on my camera thanks to a faulty card reader. Boo.

In case you haven't noticed, projects around this house take just this side of forever. Or maybe I'm just too close to the situation? Either way, it's hard not to compare myself to the other bloggers who whip up projects like it's their job. Even though a lot of the time it is their job :). But, our back entry reveal is a long time coming.

I'll get a new card reader this weekend and on Monday I'll share with you a full reveal! Today though, I thought I'd walk you through our process and show you  both why it took a while and a few sneak peaks :). We decided, at the beginning of this whole back entry project, that we needed project parameters. Rules, if you will, so that we weren't completely burnt out at the end. We've made the mistake before of working weekend after weekend on projects, which on top of our regular 45+ hour a week jobs, gets to be a little much. It leads to burnt out, cranky, and not very fun to be around spouses. And it's after projects like these that we usually don't touch the house again for months. So we figured, to make this project as fun as possible, plus still have energy for other projects we want to tackle this spring, we'd set rules. The project might take a little longer, but we value our sanity, and our relationship with each other.

Our rules for the back entry (and the hardwood project) was work only on Saturdays. That left me Fridays to play (I work 4-10's), and Chris and I Sundays to play. We had our good friends helping us, so we promised ourselves we'd get up early, work our tails off and then break at a reasonable hour and share dinner with them. This plan worked well! Yes, we were super tired by dinner on Saturdays, but each weekend we got tons done still had a day or two to play. At this point we're sick of the project, but not BURNT out. So, our parameters were a success!

So, let's take a look at how this process went down.

2008

This is what the back entry looked like when I moved in. Horribly ill-fitting (and completely non energy-efficient) door, spare refrigerator (obviously), bad linoleum, and walls that consisted partially of lath and plaster, partially of wood and partially of concrete. Needless to say, the extra fridge was the FIRST thing to go after I moved in.

2010

Baby steps. We had already moved the fridge out, and we replaced the door with one that fits! Yah for less draft and lower heating bills! :)

This (hilariously kindergarten-esq) picture give you a better idea of what we were working with, uneven wall wise. At some point Chris had started to tear up the floor. I can't quite remember why he didn't finish. 

2011
WEEK #1

I, ahem, tore up the linoleum and the 80+ year old tile underneath. More about that here.

WEEK #2

We heart our friends! They began helping this week. Originally I'd wanted to pull out the stairs and built new amazing ones, ala Centsational Girl's beautiful stairs. Once we got going though, it was clear that the walls and floor in the room were neither straight nor square. Awesome. Tearing them out completely was the only part of this project the boys said *no* to. Instead they tore the tops off, stabilized and reinforced them, and put them back together.

WEEK #3

The beginnings of board and batten! We had a couple things working against us in the this room: uneven wall surfaces, and less than square/even walls and floor. It took us forever to even begin working on this room because we thought we were going to have to gut it, and that sounded like SO. MUCH. WORK. One day it occurred to me that we didn't have to gut if we could just cover up the uneveness. Yah! Board and batten was a perfect choice because we could cover up as far as we wanted, and the perfect shelf height covered all the weird surfaces.

I felt pretty bad for the guys though. The internets make board and batten look like a piece of cake. But when you're dealing with uneven walls, there's a lot of piecing together, and reworking to make sure everything is level. They were such rock stars.

WEEK #4

Once the walls were up, week four was all about adding some trim and tile. Tiling was actually super easy (says the chick that didn't tile)! The square tile I picked out fit perfectly across the room.

WEEK #5

More detail work. I mean really, look at the angles we were dealing with here!

WEEK #6

Chris was starting to look like this .... so we took a week off and went to the beach. :)

WEEK #7

This was the only week we broke our *Saturday only* rule. Once I start painting, I have a really hard time stopping. HAhaha! I just realized that sounds weird. But, it's true. So, I started on Friday, Chris and I worked on it all day Saturday and I finished up on Sunday. Phew! It was soooo nice to have done though.

WEEK #8

This week we started moving things back into the space ....

Adding finishing details such as hooks ...

and art!

We love how the space came together and are so, so, so excited to show you the final pictures Monday! I hope you all have a great weekend! :)