Young House Love

Remember that old wallpaper we found after demoing the chair rail in our dining room turned third bedroom? Well, over the past couple of weeks we’ve uncovered some other “interesting” design choices made by the original owners. For instance, when the kitchen cabinets came down we found this toothpaste green paint under the sink: And when the floor guys took up the layers of linoleum on Monday, they revealed the original faux-brick flooring (to match the faux-brick backsplash, maybe?): I can’t even wrap my mind around how this floor and the paint looked with the knotty pine cabinets and “green monster” appliances. But the kitchen wasn’t the only room showcasing questionable patterns and colors. This

Put a fork in ’em, cause they’re done. Actually, on second thought, please don’t get anything sharp or scratchy near the new hardwood floors. It took two full days, but the floors are officially in and officially awesome. It’s mind-blowing how they (along with all the wider doorways) totally enhanced this part of the house. It looks completely and amazingly updated…well, except for the still-gutted kitchen. Here’s documentation of the transformation: Old linoleum covered in construction dust… is now glossy hardwood. 4 different foors in 4 different rooms… become only 2. There’s plenty more to share about the flooring adventure, but it’ll have to wait because right now we’re enjoying our “new wing” too much.

7:30pm, Monday- SHERRY: Floors are looking great so far, right? JOHN: Definitely. You agree, Burger? (Burger stands in silent agreement) SHERRY: Do you think it’s weird that there’s no baseboard here against the brick? JOHN: No, it’s fine. SHERRY: Yeah, you’re right. It’s fine. 11:00pm, Monday- SHERRY: I’ve been thinking, it is weird that there’s no baseboard there. JOHN: What? No, it looks fi- SHERRY: TOTALLY weird. JOHN: Okay. So what do you want to do? SHERRY: Get a baseboard and have the floor guys install it. JOHN: But the floor guys’ last day is tomorrow and we can’t buy any baseboards tonight because Lowe’s closed an hour ago. SHERRY: Can you get it tomorrow

“Not funny.” That’s what I said when a tree branch across the street fell and took out our power yesterday, a mere two minutes before Richard-the-mason and his crew arrived. Luckily, widening a brick wall is mostly manual work – and chipping out bricks and cinder blocks isn’t contingent upon electricity. When the power hummed back on about an hour later, the crew hardly noticed (picture me jumping for joy in the background while they continued to chip and hammer away). By the end of the day, the brick doorway was finally widened to a glorious 5 foot opening…and the house didn’t fall down in the process! Check out the end result of a project

HOODWINKED! As in, we did the hoodwinking. After months of having our eye on a stainless steel chimney hood for above the stove in our new kitchen, the $1579 price tag was still hard to swallow. And then something that can only be described as a miracle happened. We found one for $350. It turns out that a high-end European brand wanted to break into the US market, so they offered their swank chimney hood exclusively to Home Depot at a staggering $350 price. Home Depot gladly accepted and within weeks it had sold out. But not before we snagged one! And get this- according to the salesman, the company is so known for its

When the cabinets came out on Wednesday, we uncovered some buried treasure. Well, if you consider things stuck under 50-year old cabinets to be “buried” and tattered old papers to be “treasure.” Here’s what we found: Coupon for 5¢ off 2 bars of Princess Dial soap (“the soap with moisturizing cream right in it”) Coupon for 12¢ off two cans of Campbell’s Soup for One (expires 4/30/81 – I was less than 7 months from birth!) Coupon for 15¢ off 2 packages of Soft-weve toilet paper A dentist appointment reminder card for Mrs. Floyd Pollay for April 28, 1971 at 2pm A Beginner Bible Story dated Nov 1958 A Storytime pamphlet called “God’s Helpers” dated