Nice Knobs

I'm starting to get very excited about our impending new kitchen cabinets.  I got a superly duperly amazing deal on Kraftmaid semi-custom cabinets at Home Depot ($2000 off!), making them the same price as IKEA cabinets (and making me giddy).  I'm a little excited to finally work on the one room in this house that I've been ignoring for the past 2.5 years.  The new cabinets will effectively double the storage space in the kitchen and I'm so ready to get them organized.  In just over 2 weeks, they'll be delivered! (excuse the blurry iphone pic- I took this pic originally to text Hubby for his approval on the colors)

Inquiring minds want to know: DIY vs. Full install.  That's the million dollar question.

Because the cabinets will arrive all put together, but our floors are FAR FAR FAR from level, I opted to get the cabinets and the vent hood ducting that will be running through one run of cabinets installed by the pros.  I am able to save a TON of money, though, by doing the demo, floor protection, and all the other prep myself, so that's exactly what I plan to do.  By the time the kitchen installers arrive, the walls will be cabinet free, freshly painted, and ready for the cabinets to go up.  I'm hoping that even with all this work, the kitchen will only be out of commission for just over a week... 2 tops.  We're planning on lots of grilling and sucking up to our friends to have dinner at their places (hear that my wonderful friends?).

Until then I'm trying to get all the details ironed out so that once the cabinets arrive on Aug 7th, we'll be able to get it all installed in one fell swoop.  Which means that I need to make a decision on the hardware!

I'm leaning toward antique brass to add a little vintage pizazz (and I do have a thing for the cup pulls)

or do I do something a little more modern and traditional (that might be better for resale when we eventually move) with all chrome pulls and no knobs?

Very different options, but both could look absolutely amazing.  I'm torn- the brass are more stylized and what I'm kind of obsessing about digging right now, although the chrome might have a bit more lasting appeal.

Should I go with my gut and go brass?

Hardware sources: 1/2/3

Rescue Mission

You know when you walk into the pet store and realize that it's puppy adoption day, and you lock eyes with an adorable little guy, and you want to rescue him and love him even though he'll cost a ton and probably tear up all your furniture?  This is exactly my problem, but in my case the puppy is a house. We've been looking for our next flip for a while, and ones that only need cosmetic updates (like Clark did) are just not out there right now.  So we've found a different kind of house that we really want to flip.  I want to give this house a big hug and rescue it from its neglectful past and show it that old houses deserve love too.  What, you've never felt the desire to give a house a hug?

This house is a beautiful 113+ year old colonial that had first been neglected, then was put through a VERY bad reno.  And I mean V E R Y.  They actually were kind to part of the exterior and painted and put on a new roof, but they totally butchered the rest.  They took out the chimneys, heat, plumbing, ran rough electrical, put up a not-even-close-to-code deck, started closing up walls and installing (really really ugly salvaged) cabinets all without any permits.  Let me repeat: they took out all the plumbing and THEN closed up walls and started to paint.  If you can find some shred of logic in there, please tell me, because I can't.  There is absolutely NO plumbing in the house.  or electricity.  or heat (or even a boiler). and a failed septic to boot.  Yet I'm the crazy person who still wants to save this house.

(the picture above is from the listing... since they haven't mowed the lawn since, in reality it looks like this:)

I've been diligently getting quotes from contractors, calling the building department for info on past permits (spoiler alert: there were none), and generally trying to figure out how feasible it is to rescue this house.  If I don't save this house, I have a feeling it will either be neglected for another several years then bulldozed, or be purchased by a contractor who will put in the bare minimum work to make it liveable, but make it cheap and builder-basic and not honor any of it's history.  No me gusta.

Oh, and there's also a barn that I want to save out back...

...ya know, cuz I'm a crazy person.

At least they've left a ton of stuff that we could sell on Craigslist.  The barn is filled with dated appliances, cheap sink vanities, old hardwoods, etc.  The house is filled with cheap light fixtures (that also look cheap), tools, building supplies and more.  I could probably pay for the new kitchen with just selling the stuff left over on Craigslist.  If we can come to an agreement on the purchase price with the seller, I just may take on that challenge.

So, what do you think?  Can I rescue the puppy house or am I just bat-sh*t nuts?

At Long Last

I've been doing a lot of talking about projects and planning projects, but I feel like I don't have a lot of results lately to show for it.  It's all in the works, I promise!  I'm taking the opportunity finally to tackle some larger projects that I've been putting off for a long time. Now that the yard is ready for the summer, and I hope to get our front porch done by the end of the week, guess what the next major project in my sights is.

Yup, the kitchen!!!!!  The project that I've been dreaming about since the day we closed on the house 2.5 years ago  (I blogged about the kitchen here, here, here, and here).  I'm so excited!  Aside from new appliances and extending the countertop for a dishwasher, I have not touched this room.  It still has a non-working fan, light fixtures that I HATE are less than ideal, and cabinets that, although they look ok, are barely functional.  I'm just in the beginning phases now, pricing and planning, but I'm ecstatic that this is finally going to happen!!

I'm about 95% set on the 2-toned kitchen of dark stain on the bottom and white on the top. Like I've said before- we like wood cabinets, but the kitchen is petite.  Petite kitchens like ours can't handle all dark wood without getting dark- hence the introduction of some lighter cabinets like this kitchen:

image via pinterest via Design Manifest

Imagine my kitchen with these cabinets (ya know, minus the tile backsplash, gigantic island, floating hood, etc).  I think it'll totally work out amazing and although Hubby's not convinced hes finally smartening up and has decided to "defer to my judgement" on the colors.

We're hoping to get started on this end of July and bang it out in a few weeks or less.  AHH, my new kitchen's going to be awesome!!! (in my humble opinion)

Do you have any projects you've been dreaming about for years?