Mary Hanks » DIY

Kitchen Now Open!

Mary Hanks — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:29:00 +0000

We are REALLY enjoying the new kitchen floor AND the new dishwasher! Although this project took longer than expected (isn’t that always the case?) we are now open and functioning with a punch list of details still left on the to-do list.

Here you can see the tile is laid out on the diagonal.

This view is coming in from the garage into the kitchen. The entrance from the garage as well as the main cabinet wall is a trompe l’oeil bricks that I painted and continue to work on occasionally. Thank you Rhonda for teaching me how!!!

A new faucet, compliments of Peter, Gloria, Sara and Casey was the perfect birthday gift for Scott & I and makes a huge difference in the look of the room. The counter tops still need to be redone. The house had Formica that was a yellow/tan color that I faux finished 5-6 years ago. It has stood up pretty well but will need to go asap.

The lower cabinets have been re-painted a fantastic find; an Ooops paint from Home Depot in a gray, new stainless/satin finished hardware, also from HD adds to the face-lift. I still need to paint the uppers.

Here is a view from the living room, over the breakfast bar. Behind the bi-fold doors in the laundry room and pantry space. These doors and all the trim have fresh paint and a bit of a color change. I had a bright white on all the trim throughout the house for as long as I can remember but am moving to a creamy white. This color is Whitewashed Oak from Lowe’s in a semigloss.

More on the colors I’ve used. The wall color is called Raindrop and is from Sherwin-Williams. A couple of years ago I repainted my dining room in Meander Blue, the living room in a light shade called Buoyant Blue both SW color. One of the tools on their site is a color visualizer that helps see how a room would look with various paint colors. Kind of fun!!!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little on-line tour. Come back anytime!!!

This is Vacation? or New Kitchen Tile!

Mary Hanks — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Jonathan is back in school but Scott has taken this week as “vacation” to work on installing new tile in our kitchen. The renovation is great fun when you’re a kid! We used lots of 3 day weekends to tackle projects around the house when I was growing up. What will Jonathan’s memories be of these work days? He LOVED getting right in there, helping pull up the particle board as the project got started.

This was earlier today, (above) middle of Day 5, more tile is down by now but Scott is taking his time to get it right! Look at those straight lines!!! It’s one of those rooms that was difficult to decide on what to make as the starting point (usually the center) because of the shape and flow of it all and I had to go make it even crazier by asking for the tiles to be on the diagonal. The vinyl square tiles (see last picture) looked okay 7 years ago when we 1st installed them but didn’t hold up to having appliances moved. Although we had some extras for repairs the color had changed, they didn’t stay stuck so out they went along with the particle board.

Here we are soooooooo tired but mudding the spaces between the wonderboard underlayment. What teamwork!

I found that a kitchen spatula worked best for me, like icing a cake only no licking this stuff!

This last picture is the before; the vinyl square tiles.

The old dishwasher is now G O N E, GONE. Today is our day to take it all to the curb and as we suspected, it was picked up before the trash company made their rounds tomorrow. I’m very happy to see it being recycled!!! Now, what dishwasher to get as a replacement….anyone have one you lover? or hate?

Design Sponge meets (my) Designer Daughter!

Mary Hanks — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Sara is having a RED letter day with a feature post on her favorite blog, Design Sponge. Their table, before and after pictures AND their wedding are highlighted today! You go girl!!!