A new pantry door

One of the many reason I love to blog is because I know some of you get excited about the little projects that I get excited about too. Or at least you act like you do. (That is so nice of you.)  ;)

I was so happy about this one, I couldn’t wait to share it with you. I even took NIGHT pictures. Which means I REALLY wanted to show you, cause you know that’s just asking for horrible pictures. (Which with the new camera are not nearly as horrible, by the way. Kisses to you Canon Rebel.)

I have a warning though – so far in our mini kitchen redo, there are now two DIY projects I suggest you hire out for if at all possible…the sink/faucet installation and hanging a new pantry door.

Both were just insanely annoying and full of issues, one right after the other. Maybe not for most people, but for me. Because that is how I roll.

I’ve been dreaming of a glass paneled door to our pantry for years now. I don’t know why – I’ve just wanted to do it forever. I think it’s because I always see them on those fab, walk in pantries you see – it seems like there’s always a cute glass door. Our pantry is TEENY – so I just want it to feel good about itself. ;)

When I got the opportunity to work with the free Amex points, I knew my day had finally come to get the pantry door of my dreams.

I went straight to Home Depot and got it!

And it sat in our dining room for six months. SIX. You can tell how excited I was to install it, huh?

Well, in an effort to get more of the redo wrapped up, I called my Dad last week and asked if he could help me out. Dad to the rescue (again!!). The first issue we had to deal with – the door was too big (wide). Buy a millimeters, really.

Of course it was. :)

My sweet Dad loaded the door in the car and took it to the woodworking shop who cut the butcher block for our island. They whipped it through their machines and got it planed down in less than ten minutes.

Have I mentioned how awesome this shop is?? When I was there last, they had built an 18 foot butcher block counter for a butler’s pantry in a mansion. Eighteen feet. For a butler’s pantry. It was GORG. Stunning. HUGE.

Anyhoo, we got it home and Dad started the process of installing the hinges in the door – he got them all screwed in and issue number two was realized – the door was upside down.

Of course it was.

He fixed the hinges, we hung it up, and even though the door had been cut down plenty, it still didn’t fit.

So…I had to do what we were trying to avoid – mortise the hinges:

(That would be issue number three, if you are counting.)

It’s actually quite easy to do – it’s just time consuming and messy. If you’re interested, I’ll show you how to do it in an upcoming post. Heck, I’m going to show you even if you’re not interested, so booyah.

I borrowed a knob set from a friend that locks into place and shows you just the spot to drill into the door:

Issue number four came when I was trying to drill the hole – I kept telling Dad something was stinking bad…and as I was drilling it was getting worse and worse.

And then I saw the smoke coming from the drill. Lots of smoke. The smell was the insides of the drill burning.

Of course it was. :)

It was thisclose to bursting into flames. Dad thinks I exaggerate just a bit, but seriously…thisclose.

So…off to Lowe’s I went for another drill. YAY!

The new one got through in no time, and then I did the side hole for the latch as well:

The kit pictured included both hole saws you need – I would definitely recommend it if you are going to hang more than one door!

I installed the knob again, and it was finally hung:

And it only took two days! Sheesh.

I couldn’t decide between black or white paint for the door – I was leaning toward black because I knew the white would look too similar to the windows and door in the bay area next to it.

I wanted it to shine!! :) So I asked my friend Layla to do her Photoshop mojo on a the picture above, and the black paint version looked AWESOME.

One coat of tinted primer and two coats of black later…

I am in luuuurve!! OH, I am so thrilled. It looks JUST like I’ve pictured in my head for all these years.  :)

Oh I forgot to mention my least favorite part of the whole project…taking the plastic off the glass:

OH dear LORD…I think I lost my mind just a little bit. It was insane. I mean…like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I will be pulling itty bitty bits of plastic off of the windows for months.

Reason number 88,348 I love my husband – he walks into this mess after working for 12 hours straight and doesn’t even bat an eye. We were meant to be, my hubby and me.  ;)

My plan was to put some window vinyl stuff over the glass panes:

But the kind I got wasn’t the frosty look I was going for. Then I wondered if I could just use the frost spray paint – has anyone tried that? My only concern would be how it holds up – I figure it would scratch easily. I wonder if I just spray the windows from the inside, maybe it would hold up better?

I gotta tell you though – once I rearrange my shelf labels so they are centered (yes, that’s giving me hives) and clean the pantry a bit, having it open doesn’t really bother me.

Crazy? Maybe. But I’m allowed – it’s my pantry.  :)

My little glass pantry door dream has always included a soft light shining down inside. I tried sticking an LED light inside just to see how it looked and it accentuates the mess just a tad:

So that may not be happening. :) I would use a softer, non LED light if I did it, but we’ll have to see if I cover the windows first.

So there you have it – one of the most annoying DIY projects I’ve encountered. But, yes, grumble – it was totally worth it. I absolutely love it.

One of the little things I love about the new door is that it allows SO much more light in the pantry – even during the day, when the old door was open it would block the light from the window. Now the light shines right through and we can see our food! (And I can find my cheddar and sour cream chips soooo much easier.)

Do you see the little extra project (above) I started while I had the paint out? I primed and painted some of the base on the table and OOHHHHHH, it’s going to look FAB!!

I was too tired to finish the table today, cause our kitchen was a disaster area – this is what you don’t see in the pictures:

Paint tarps wadded up and tossed out of the picture. Little pair of jeans on the floor. Island covered with things I took off the table:

Our dinner still on the stove. Dishes everywhere. Popcorn popper from four nights ago. A massive bag of Dum Dum suckers on the counter. (Why?? I don’t even know.) Bag of supplies from True Value (from a week ago) that I haven’t put away yet.

I told you I chuck stuff out of the pictures. The clean house is all an illuuuuusion. ;)

So, do you have a glass pantry door? Do you have a pantry closet? Or a itty bitty one like us? Do you even have a pantry? (Bless you who are pantry-less.)

 

P.S. Why does spell check still not recognize “booyah” – helloo??

P.P.S. I did some organizing in our pantry last year – to see that post, go here.

 

Thanks to this week’s sponsor!:

Spooky in the house

Well, it’s about time for some Halloween decorating up in here!

At least that’s what the Bub said – without the “up in here” lingo. OH my goodness – he is SO exited about Halloween this year! He’s been decorating all over the place. Which in his way is pulling everything out of the bins and lining it up along every. single. surface. in the house.

Adorable. :)

It feels like I just put the fall mantel together yesterday – I never know how to do the whole fall/Halloween decor. I usually pull fall out, then do Halloween, then put fall back out on November 1. Seems like so much extra work, so next year I think I’ll just start with Halloween. Decor is so confusing.

Our spooky mantel hasn’t changed much from last year when I ended up taking a few Goodwill frames:

And spray painted them black, then filled them with various graphics I printed out:

This year I added some height by adding my $3.50 (originally $20!) sparkly haunted house to the middle:

It’s stacked up on box you can’t see. Sneaky, I am.

Do you see the adorable addition Stink Eye Sis added?:

UGH! I could DIE from the cuteness!!

Then I just continued to layer the frames:

I showed you how I made these cutie little spooky votives here:

  

I absolutely love those little eyes. ;) I used my LED candles again – you can find them just about anywhere now!

They’re all nestled in black tulle and a string of lights. Just wish they made black Christmas tree lights, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Would it be wrong if I spray painted the white cord black? Nah…even that’s a little much for me.

Maybe.

The glass jar is filled with some netting and a glittery skull – both from the Dollar Tree:

The sparkly spiders were from Pier 1 – I think eight for $1.50? Ewww…they are so grody.  But cool.

And of course, the crows are from the Dollar Tree too. That place rocks!

For a little finishing touch, I cut out some bats with my Silhouette and placed them here and there:

    

My friend Jen did it on her mantel and I just had to copy it. How fun is that?

It’s got a lot more going on than I would usually do – but Halloween is the one time of year I’m OK with that. And it’s only up for two more weeks anyway – when the fall decor comes back out. Gah! (At least I didn’t say Christmas decor – wink wink.)

I’m also working on our foyer as well – it started with a little friend on the mirror:

He’s just a cut out made of the vinyl texture stuff for windows. ;) I’ll show you the foyer when the Bub’s I’m done decorating it. ;)

** I’m linking this up to Beth’s Halloween mantel party –- uhhhh…my mantel is child’s play compared to some of these. Gorgeous!!

Thanks to this week’s sponsor!:

My nekked kitchen windows

Sooo…do you remember that little bitty kitchen project I started ohhhhh…five months ago? With the help of some free Amex points, I was able to take the simple changes I had planned for the space and amp them up just a tad. :)

Well, the summer-o-lazy hit, and then the closer we got to fall, the more obsessed I got with decluttering, so the kitchen has had very little DIY action lately. I’m finally getting the urge to get it finished up – especially since there’s not really that much left to do anyway.

I do have one thing I’m stuck on though – our window treatment-less windows. My plan has always been to redo the no sew roman shades I had up before – I absolutely LOVED them, but the fabric was a bit heavy for the updates I made to the kitchen.

But the further I got into the changes to this space, the less I wanted to cover the windows again!

I started the window redos by reinstalling molding around the windows. I had done this once before a couple of years ago, but they never looked quite right because I never painted everything out white:

I ended up stealing that molding for a family room wainscoting project a year or so ago, so they were trimless again for some time. Nothing is safe with me – I’ll pull it right off the wall if it will save me some cash.  :)

This time, I installed the trim again, using this technique – the molding is just the right width and matches up with our window sills perfectly:

I painted out everything in a glossy white paint, to give the illusion of window casings:

It’s the thrifty man’s version of beautiful molding around the windows. :) Not nearly as thick as I’d like, but I do love the result!

My main mission with this kitchen redo was to brighten up the space. It was never really dark and dreary, but I was craving a change after six years. My original plan was to paint our bay window area an apple green to go with the accent color in the room.

But we all know how the apple green went. :) NOT GOOD. Bad. Very, very bad.

So I decided to just paint the whole area out in the wall color that goes throughout our great room – Sisal from Ralph Lauren. BEST. color. ever. (Home Depot doesn’t carry the RL line anymore, but I think they can still find the formula for it! I get it matched to Behr paint.)

It brightened up the space so much, and I swear it made the area feel more spacious too!

The before, with the olive green bay window:

The after, with the Sisal walls, trimmed out windows and a few other new additions:

But here comes the dilemma – I started making new window treatments a couple of months ago and they were a colossal FAIL. In the end, I think it was the fabric I chose. It was gorgeous, but too bland for the space. There wasn’t enough contrast -- everything was blending together.

And now that we’ve lived without treatments in this space, I have to say…I’m quite loving it!

FOR SHAME, I know! I’m usually a decorating, window treating, cover those windows, fanatic!!

But with the changes, this:

Now looks like this:

I mean, look at all that beautiful natural light! (I know, the before pic was taken at night, but just nod your head and agree with me.)  :)

Oh yeah, and the unplanted basil, honkin’ cat water bowl (with a fountain, GAH) and Halloween stickies on the window are the perfect touch. I know you’re jealous.

When I redid our backsplash, I took the beadboard up high around the window over the sink, and I absolutely love how it looks with the trim around the window:

On a side note -- since all our other herbs died, I added a little Halloween to the sill by filling my Ball jars with candy corn:

And sticking a little orange LED candle in each one:

Adorable. And I don’t like candy corn…so absolutely ZERO temptation. That is what I’m talkin’ about.

Anyhoo…I can’t believe it, but I don’t want to cover those windows! Is that crazy? Good LORD, is that even allowed?? Will the decorating police come and find me?

When we moved in, I put treatments up thinking I would close them often, but we’ve found little need to do that. Because of the way our house is situated, we don’t really need them for privacy.

I do think a bamboo roman shade would look pretty fab above that kitchen sink – especially up against all that white trim. But the bay windows are super skinny, so finding matching shades for those would be hard. (And expensive.)

So what do you think? Cover my nekked windows? Leave them alone? Just do a little somethin’ somethin’?

Are you a window treatment fool like me? Or do you prefer your windows completely uncovered? I think I may have crossed over. :)

 

Thanks to this week’s sponsor!

Our (tiny!) fall porch

We have what is probably the teeniest porch EVER. We didn’t even think about it when we picked out this house though – we loved the exterior so much. It’s another one of those things you realize later…it would be nice to have a porch to sit and rock on. And maybe to decorate.  :)

But I have found ways to make it work for each season, and fall and Christmas are of course, my favorites. It’s these times of year that I quite love our little porch, because little changes make a BIG impact.

I showed you my Dollar Tree wreath a few weeks ago:

Not many of you believed our door really isn’t blue – it just photographs that way close up. ;)

My tried and true addition to the porch are my corn husks:

I mean really – you couldn’t get more fall than these!! I get bunches of them at a local nursery and I’ve seen them sold for $5.50 to $7 a bunch. (At least around here, where the corn isn’t hard to come by!)

On a recent True Value trip, I about squealed when I saw the HUGE mums they had:

They were only $5 EACH! I could not believe it! Plants this big are at least $15, usually more.

They are just about to burst open – any day now!

One of the items I took from my father-in-law’s house was his American flag:

He immigrated to this country 60 years ago and became a U.S. citizen. I’ve always been so proud of him for that, and he was so proud to be an American.

The beautiful new flag was the perfect finishing touch for our fall porch:

Oh, and the pumpkins from our weekend trip to the patch don’t hurt! I absolutely fell. in. love. with the green pumpkins. :)

I usually plant mums in the window boxes, but this year I was taken with the kale:

We’ve gotten SO little rain over the past few months, so these beauties should hold up well. I stuck some (fake!) pumpkins in with them, and I absolutely love how full and pretty they are!

And a cutie patootie peeking out sure helps too:

OH, be still my heart. :)

Our itty bitty porch is so easy to make over for the holidays – just a few additions make a HUGE difference:

Just in time to string the purple and orange Halloween lights everywhere!

And speaking of Halloween -- no worries, I move everything off the steps and porch that night, so there’s plenty of room for the kiddies. :)

So, do you decorate your porch for fall? Do you have an itty bitty porch like ours, or a big one? If you tell me you have a porch swing, I’m officially, totally jealous. :)

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Thank you to this week’s sponsor!:

My great fall clean up

Well, Stink Eye Sister went and messed up all my grand plans. I was all set to hire her as my assistant, and she went and got another “real” job.

WHAT-ev.

Seriously, would you rather be at my beck and call, helping my clean my house, work on house projects and running my errands, or would you rather have a cushy, well-paying desk job??

WHAT-ev. I KNOW. I would totally pick the cushy job too. But I am SO much more fun!!

Grumble.

;)

Anyhoo – she starts her new job soon, so I have taken her prisoner offered her money if she would spend her last days of freedom helping me get our house in order…for once and all.

Like everyone, when January comes around every year, I’m on a mission to to declutter and clean our whole house. I started off with a bang – earlier this year, I took three (SUV!) car loads to a local shelter.

I’ve kept going here and there throughout the year decluttering, but then something happened that quite literally changed my life.

We lost my father-in-law a couple of months ago, and the process of going through his home completely changed me. We were so overwhelmed in our mourning, but at the same time, we have had to address a house full of memories, a lifetime of things. For the past few weeks, I’ve focused on decluttering with a new outlook.

All I’ve been able to think of while in the process is how I don’t want my stepdaughter and our son to have to do go through all of the STUFF in our house when we’re gone one day. I picture them in our home, and I think about their grief, and I know the very last thing they’ll want to be burdened with is our STUFF.

Like I said, it’s changed my life. I haven’t shopped at a Goodwill for more than two months. I shop completely differently now. And it has been so much easier to let go of the things we don’t need.

You all know how much I love STUFF. I just don’t want the stuff we don’t need, use or treasure to weigh down our lives.

(And yes, God willing, it will be a LONG time before our children would have to go through our home, but that thought is still stuck in my head and it’s never leaving.)

So…with an extra set of hands for two weeks, I came up with a plan. I wanted to tackle the problem areas of our home that are kind of bigger than life – and use the help while I had it.

First up was our pit of despair ummmm…garage.

I showed you how it looked last year after I decluttered:

Pretty darn good huh?

Uhhhhh. Let’s just say it was back to this:

OK, not quite that bad, but pretty bad. Like, four carloads to Goodwill and three large garbage bins FULL -- bad.

UNREAL.

HOW in the WORLD do we accumulate so much CRAP??? It is blowing my mind.

We’re thisclose to being done with this project, and I can’t wait to show you. It will never cease to amaze me how a decluttered space seems to make our whole life go smoother. I love it.

My plan for next week is to address our deck. It was so smokin’ hot this summer, it was insane. We spent so little time out there, which really bummed me out because we so enjoyed it so last summer when we made it into this beautiful space:

Gorgeous, eh?

Well, now it looks like this:

Wha wa wa wa…wha wa wa wa wa wa waaaa…

Sing it with me!

HA! Lemme just tell you -- our neighbors LOVE US.

And oh yes, I will show you the before pictures. I’m not suffering through this alone. :)

And finally…if there’s time…I will submit my sister to the messiest space of all -- our master closet.

It’s so bad I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture to show you.

THAT BAD.

It’s so bad that when I searched “messy closets” online, I couldn’t even find a picture of a closet that was messy enough to even compare it to.

Ohhh…you think I’m kidding. Bless your hearts.

You will see. After I’m done of course. :)

So that’s my plan for the Great Fall Clean Up at the TDC house.

I only have one more week of my sis’s help. I’m under the gun. But I am determined to get our WHOLE house under control before the holidays hit. And this time, they will stay that way – I have absolutely no doubt in my mind.

And just so you don’t think I’ve completely lost my organizing mojo, our linen closets still look like this:

And the space under my bathroom sink still looks like this:

So BOO to the YAH. I still go it. :)

Is there a space that is putting you over the edge? Have you been avoiding it all year? Can you walk into your closet to get dressed every morning without risking your life?

 

**Putting Sister to Work Disclaimer**

At no time has Stink Eye been subjected to poor work conditions or held against her will. She has been fed well with McDonald’s fries and other drive through goodness. She is also being paid handsomely for her time by TDC and Mr. TDC.

No sister’s have been harmed in the decrapifying of my house.

 

Thank you to this week’s sponsor!: