Main Floor Bathroom Reveal... Dilemma Solved!!

So, better late then never, especially since I've been sitting on these puppies for a while (since Saturday night). Here are the after pics of the main floor bathroom (again please excuse the horrible photography):

As you will remember this is what the bathroom looked like before (after the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation) :

And check out this post to see what it looked like during it's makeover...

Here's a breakdown of how we did what, and when:

• Wednesday night, Eric mudded the walls (where the holes had been)
• Thursday night, Eric sanded and washed the walls down, and taped off all the spots he didn't want me to get paint...I'm no pro...
• Thursday night, I rolled the first coat of paint, and Eric edged
• Friday afternoon, I rolled and edged most of the second coat, and Eric finished edging the ceiling, I know my limitations lol
• Saturday we put the bathroom back together!!

And viola that is the finished product, and I love it. The bathroom is soo much brighter now, and it feels cleaner, but maybe that's just because we can actually see in there now, lol. It's a nice fresh color, and I still need to buy some art work for the wall opposite the toilet, but I am looking forward to shopping for it!!

What do you guys think? Not bad for a three day project, and compared to the kitchen it was easy-peasy!!

Amy

Budget Busters- A Breakdown of the costs of our recent reno's room by room!!

Breakdown of the supplies needed for the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Reno's

We bought 4 kits, but soo far have only used three, so I am not factoring in the expense of the 4th kit...

Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations - $79.99 x 3 = $239.97
Paint brushes - Home Depot - (2 x 2" @ $9.98 each, and 1 x 1.5" @ 5.98) = $25.94
Foam Brushes - Canadian Tire - 2pkgs of 30 (we could have only used one but since we opened both of them and can't return one I am including them both) - 2 @ $2.99 = $5.98
Drop Clothes - Dollarama - 8 x $1.00 = $8.00
Cups - Dollarama - 2 x $1.00 = $2.00
Rubber Gloves - 2 x $1.00 = $2.00
2" Painters Tape - 4 roll pack $12.99
Lint Free Rags - 4pk - $1.49 x 4 = $5.96
Labour - free we did it ourselves, and couldn't be prouder....

Total Cost for Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Product and Installation  302.84 plus 13% tax here (even though we bought the kits in the states, I am still adding tax onto it because I'm not sure what the tax rate is in the United States...)

So the grand total is a whopping :    $342.21

Now, divide that by 5, as we did 5 separate "projects" with it and you get $68.44.

Now I will breakdown the costs of the various projects:
                 
  1. Main Floor Bathroom Vanity -
      $68.44 - Rustoleum divided cost (with supplies and installation)
      $15.00 - New Handles purchased off Ebay - for 2.50 a piece

           Total = $83.44

 2. Master Bedroom Bathroom Vanity -
      $68.44 - Rustoleun divided cost (with supplies and installation) and furthermore, we re-used the handles off the kitchen cupboards, so there was no added cost
                                                                      Total = $68.44

3. Pantry, and two wooden chests (in great room) -
       $68.44 - Rustoleum divided cost (with supplies and installation) also no further cost
                                                                       Total = $68.44

4. Queen size bedroom set, with two armoire dressers, large nightstands, and a headboard
     $68.44 - Rustoleum divided cost (with supplies and installation)
     $  9.59 - Rustoleum Satin nickel spray paint-to spray paint the existing ugly brass handles
                                                                         Total =$78.03

5. Kitchen Cabinets
     $68.44 - Rustoleum divided cost (with supplies and installation)
     $60.00 - New handles purchased off Ebay for $2.50 a piece x 24
     $33.89 - Wireless undercabinet lighting purchased at Costco
     $18.08 - Casing trim mounted on the bottom of the upper cabinets (to hide lighting and achieve a finished look)
                                                                          Total =$180.41

So, there you have it my budget busters in a room by room fashion for our recent reno's. I think we did really well at keeping the costs down, and I feel like the reno's were well worth the money we spent, and the work we did too. We are very pleased with the results. Stay tuned for a breakdown of our flooring costs and recent closet and pantry makeover budgets.

P.S - I'm linking up with Paisley Passions Thrilling Thursdays, head on over here and link up...

Amy

Design Dilemma!! After Pics of Main Floor Bathroom

So, here are the after pics of the main floor bathroom (after the vanity was transformed by Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations - you can read about how we did it here). You'll remember the vanity looked like this before:

(complete with the ugly brass and porcelain handles - ugh...)

And now it looks like this:

BUT.... now I HAVE to paint the bathroom. That's not totally a terrible thing I always intended to paint it because the whole house was pretty much painted this same color (which I LOVE in my great room, but HATED in my bathrooms, as it is really golden looking in some lights and even depressing in no light - natural that is as my main floor bathroom doesn't have a window). But I was hoping to not have to paint for a little while longer, but I fear the color clashing we have going on in there drives me nuts everytime I go in there, and I spend a fair bit of time in there trying to potty train a two year old (more on that one some other time...) and bath nights.

It seems the expresso color of the cabinet, really highlights the blue color of the countertop (which I'm not in love with either but am not redoing), and makes the wall color look totally out of place (the old cabinets were golden oak so I guess that's where they got there design sense from when picking paint colors???). See for yourself...

I'm not totally minding the blue, I don't love it, but it's workable...

See how horrible it all looks together... way to yellowy-dingy looking for my taste....

A further complication, my flooring, matches ok with the counter, but not with the direction I'd love to go with in here...

The shower curtain I love, but it's gonna hafta go too...

See how yellowey (is that even a word??) that it is.... 

Happy accident, bath rug, piece of inspiration for new paint color.... it's a lot fresher blue in real life, excuse my photography skills (or lack there-of)

So, where the design goes in my mind is that I paint the bathroom the fresh pale blue shade of the above bathmat, that goes really well with the counters and looks awesome up against the dark cabinets, and goes with the floor as well, and find a new shower curtain. So please help me shop for a shower curtain...

Right now I am loving this one, but I don't think it meshes well with the floor, looks great with the cabinet and the rug, but not the flooring....



Found on overstock.com





And I am really liking this one I found on Bed Bath and Beyond... it resembles my current one....l



This one's kinda cute, but it is my main floor bath that any guests use as well so it might be too juvenile...

What are your opinions? Which one do you like best? Any other ideas or suggestions on what I can do with my design dilemma? Your input is greatly valued....

Thanks

Amy

The Big Reveal!!! After Pics of the Kitchen!!!!!!

So, here are the most amazing after pics ever!!! I LOVE IT!!! To see the before pics click here, I cannot even express how much I love it!! We used the rustoleum cabinet transformations, in expresso, and we did use the decorative glaze that was included in the kit (the the breakdown of how we did it - check out here). It really goes well with our floors, and decor in general, and is just what we were looking for, so feast your eyes on these gorgeous pictures, and leave me a comment and let me know what you think...

The pantry we refinished as well....

So, that crosses A LOT of things off of our spring reno list.... stay tuned tomorrow for the after pics of the vanities...

Amy

Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations!! How we did it!! and Manic Monday!!

So, this Manic Monday's post should be sponsored by Rustoleum, seeing as my weekend recap is all about one of their products, but it's not, but I will still give you the lowdown on how my weekend reno's went, and stay tuned tomorrow for After Pics!! Be sure to head on over to Life As I Know It, and link up for Manic Monday's....

So, we pretty much pulled it off again this weekend, although the after pics won't be up until tomorrow, as I have yet to even take them. But at this very moment my kitchen is put back together. So here's a breakdown of how our weekend worked out:

• Friday 5pm - Eric gets home from work, and finishes taking the cabinet doors off the hinges(we started doing this Thursday night and taping off the areas we didn't want paint to get as we knew it would be time consuming and it definitely was - all in all cabinet door removal and taping took over 5hrs). We first drew a diagram of the cabinets assembled in our kitchen numbering each cabinet door on the back with painters tape (so there was no guess work when it was time to put it all back together). I bought paper cups to put the corresponding hinges in, also numbered with the corresponding door (Rustoleum's diagram pretty much layed out how to do it so check out there web page for the specific hows to's)

• Friday 7pm - start deglossing the cabinets - this step is labour intensive, but I kept reminding myself much easier then sanding all the cabinets - you are supposed to degloss everything then wipe it all down and let it dry for an hr - but by the time I was done wiping everything down, it had been an hour
• Friday - 8:30pm - First coat of the bond coat....loving the color - need to let it dry 2-3 hrs (which is pretty much how long it took to paint all our cabinets, the cabinet frames, two vanity cabinets and two vanity doors).
• Saturday - 12:30 am - Apply Second coat of the bond coat to the backs of the doors and cabinet frames
• Saturday - 2:30 am - Apply the first coat of the bond coat to the fronts of the cabinet doors (which Eric did on his own as I had fallen asleep, what can I say I need my sleep...)
• Saturday - 9am - Apply second coat of the bond coat to the fronts of the cabinets, and start decorative glazing the cabinet frames (this step we only applied two the front of the cabinet doors and frames, and it definitely helped define the wood grain, and made the cabinets less flat). The decorative glaze needs 8 hrs to dry. So during those 8 hours we did all of the above steps to a pantry, two wooden chests, two dressers, two nightstands, a massive headboard - minus the door fronts as we ran out of workspace (so that's the 90% finished part as we still have to do the door fronts, the drawers are all done just not the fronts of the doors)
• Saturday 9pm - Apply Protective Top Coat to the backs of the doors and cabinet frames, let dry over night (or 12 hrs)
• Sunday 9am - Apply Protective Top Coat to the front of the doors and let dry 12 hrs, which we only did 10hrs before rehanging the cabinet doors (as they felt dry to the touch as seemingly were as there's no sign of smudges or fingerprints on the doors)
• Sunday - 7pm - rehang cabinet doors, and install new hardware - loving it!! Looks soooo good, our kitchen was made to be this dark.
• Monday Morning - Hubby is putting some molding underneath the cabinets to hide our new under-cabinet lighting

So, all in all I LOVE LOVE LOVE the look of my new cabinets, I was worried it would make my counter tops look super ugly, as they have a lot of green in them, but I like the counter tops a lot better now, and the new handles look amazing. So stay tuned tomorrow for the after pics.... Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

Amy

Before Pics - Kitchen Cabinets and Vanities

Ok, so here are the before pics of my kitchen. We are going to use Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations on them this weekend and transform them into cabinetry that looks nice. Our decision to do this came rather easy. Our house is only 4 years old, and the cabinets are in good working order (albeit I would love to have an Ikea kitchen again as I miss my pull out drawers) but these kitchen cupboards leave much to be desired.... like space.... they way the shelves are spaced is not what I would consider ideal, however, I would like to rehaul our entire kitchen once we are done with childlocks, and don't need to worry about little heads getting banged on the corner of my coveted granite counters (because why redo the kitchen without that little upgrade - lol). So check back Tuesday for our after pics, we have our whole weekend scheduled around the painting procedure, which I will detail Monday. We are tackling our kitchen cupboards(adding molding on the bottom of the cabinets to hide our under cabinet lighting we purchased and replacing the handles with the stainless steel ones pictured here, two bathroom vanities(and replacing the handles), our freestanding pantry, an entire bedroom set(huge headboard set and two armoire dressers) and two wooden chests (pending that we have enough to cover it all). So here are the before pics....

Sorry about the angle... the only way to get in the whole kitchen was this far back....like I've said before totally not a photographer....

Main Floor Bathroom Cabinet (already taped off...)

Master Bathroom Cabinet....bye bye ugly handles....

So, be sure to check back on Monday for the breakdown of how the weekend went down, and my review of how this product works, and then on Tuesday for pics of the finished product!! I'm sooo excited to start, and more importantly be done ....

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Amy

Spring Reno Madness!!

I am soo loving this gorgeous weather. It has us itching to start our home reno projects, we have a lot planned for the next coming weeks, but really want to hold off starting until April, but let me tell you the things we have in store.

1. Refinish our kitchen cabinets with Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations and install new hardware (we picked up super cheap on ebay!!)

2. Redo all our flooring on the main floor( Living room, dining room, hallway, Master bedroom, Hannah's bedroom and closets, including our office. (Minus the laminate in the kitchen and bathrooms)
3. Refinish our bathroom vanities with Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations (and I would LOVE to paint our main floor bathroom - but that may be pushing it lol)

4. Refinish our old bedroom suite that was moved down to the guest bedroom using the leftover cabinet transformations
5. Install closet organizers in our master bedroom walk in and Hannah's bedroom
6. Paint and old dresser white
7. Install a new medicine cabinet in the master bathroom

And I want to have all of that done by May 1st. Think I'm crazy with a 2 year old underfoot, lucky for me my hubby is super handy, so here's hoping the good weather keeps up. What projects are you planning on tackling this spring? Hope the weather's nice where you are!!

Amy