Everything but the kitchen sink

Shed this

So I didn't get a chance to cook this weekend, it probably won't happen until the fridge comes (fingers crossed the end of the week, it's now been 2 1/2 weeks since I ordered it because apparently it is being "made").  But we made a lot of progress in getting rid of the junk from the backyard and hanging an old door that our friend gave to us (thanks B!).   The shed in the back had been filled with junk from the former owner.  It's taken us 1 1/2 years to go through it and finally sort out what we want to keep.  There were a few good finds in there, apparently I have been an owner of 5 shovels for the past couple years.  Who knew?  There's no dirt to shovel, but who cares!   Also found a large piece of astro turf!  Wow....that's really all that can be said there.  That was left out for trash the other day.  I kept hoping some frat boy would pick it up and intall it on his fire escape, but then I remembered there's a dirth of frat boys in greenpoint. 

It was a huge relief to get all this stuff out of the shed and sorted.  We have a lot to take to the green building place in Long Island City on Saturday.  Shed is now clear enough for  us to get stuff out from the house (gardening supplies, etc) and gives us more room to actually start bringing stuff downstairs to the kitchen.  

So as you can see the yard is a big concrete pit, we're hoping to have enough motivation to stucco over the cinder blocks this summer to create a more inviting space.  That and some seating and plants and it will look a lot different. 

As I mentioned above we also got a really cool door for our bathroom from a friend.  It clearly needs stripping - we'll do that sometime, probably when I get fed up with the pink.  For the time being it creates much needed privacy between kitchen and bathroom as well as a sound barrier for washer/dryer. This is view from the inside of the bathroom.

And a view from the kitchen.  Two colors!

Our next goals, get the inside of the cupboards lined in cork, so we can start bringing some of our cooking stuff down, then we need to sort out counters and shelving.

The last week

It's been about a week since my last update, but there's lots to show you.  First of all, our washer and dryer came last weekend and it was installed on Wednesday and I promptly did three loads of laundry.  It feels a bit decadent to have them living in NYC.  So here are some pictures - and no my photography skills haven't gotten any better. 

 

The washer and dryer stick out a bit over the door but really not enough to bug me.  We were limited on space and got the smallest front loading with decent capacity to go go there.  This is a MILLION times better than what the room used to look like.  Remember this? 

  

Yeah, it makes me feel ill too!   So we still need to get a door for the bathoom, put covers on the top hats and eventually, down the road do some back splash around the sink, that'll happen far, far from now. 

In other news, the SINK IS IN!  This is very exciting, it took a lot of work to get it in good enough shape to use, something I've documented and will post once everything is done - I still need to line the drawers with cork.  Eventually we'll have to get some backsplash for this too, but the goal is to get the kitchen up and running.  

 

Seriously, I need to figure out my new camera. 

More to come tomorrow, a lot of stuff done outside - pruning and getting ready for spring.  I also planted all my herbs.  The goal this week is to COOK.  omg.

Jielde

  This is a serious wish list item, one that I really can't imagine getting anytime soon.  There are a bunch on ebay but the pricing isn't all that much better.  At any rate, no harm dreaming. 

 

(images from Horne)

In other news, we finished the second and LAST coat on the metal sink base last night, hopefully by the end of the week we should have the sink up and running.  We need to let it dry a total of 48 hours before putting the sink on top, putting the hardware and drawers back together.   I'm also going to need to cut some pieces of cork to put in the bottom of the drawers  where there are old rust marks.    Pictures when this is all done.   

Love.

 

I die for these.

Case study plant pots from Modernica through Grey. 

Swing arm lamp envy

This is such a brilliant idea, particularly as we decided not to go for recessed lighting.  I found this through Design to Inspire's Kim who has done a kitchen remodel.  Her kitchen looks AMAZING.

Updates

Last week the plumber came and installed our toilet, utility sink (we'll eventually get a vintage one to replace the plastic one), stove and a couple other odds and ends.   The downstairs is starting to come together.  We're refinished our kitchen sink, which I'll have pictures of the whole process soon.   We have lots of little projects such as installing base board, hanging up fixtures, etc.

   

Here's the stove inserted in the fireplace, it needs a serious overhaul in terms of cleaning.  The hood isnt' going to work with the stove anymore which is why it's just sitting on the stove for the time being.

 

More pictures to come, we're at a point of slowly moving pieces downstairs.  The main focus is getting the sink up and running.  Once that is done, we'll get the rest of the cabinets in place.   Also, think I found the perfect fridge in terms of size. 

Penny rounds.

A sea of penny rounds in our laundry room.  The tiler did such a nice job.

 

Now we have to buy a washer and dryer, get the plumber in to install said washer/dryer and set up our sink and toilet.  Then it's all about finishing painting, setting up the cabinets, moving the hideous fridge back In (waiting to buy new one in a few months), and slowing moving stuff back. 

Drum roll please....

Without further ado, our new floors!

 

Okay a bit hard to see, maybe this picture?

 

Okay so we're getting close, the kitchen and the dining room are tiled, now just the laundry room.   We picked up these tiles the other day:

 

Pretty right?  I'm very happy happy with them.  Next steps...cleaning the very old and dirty cabinets we purchased off of ebay (seen in top picture). 

Halfway there

This is what the laundry room looks like with color so far.  We still need a couple coats of white on the ceiling.

Dining area with primer coat.   The final color will be a deep red.

I *heart* benjamin moore

We're in the midst of painting the downstairs right now, it's a bigger job than I remember painting ever being.  Part of the challenge is the dry wall which sucks up the primer and is think and gooey to roll on.  Thanksfully it looks good once it's dried.  It was a challenging weekend of cleaning up the downstairs from the chimney removal, getting the broken bricks hauled away, and five stops at home depot/lowes hell. 

There were some debates about tiling the bathroom with different tile from the dining room and kitchen.  We looked at Expo thinking that we may get some good porcelain tile in their liquidation, but it's still expensive and there wasn't a lot of choice.  We then checked out ceramic tile at Home Depot.  Man, after you've looked at porcelain and glass, the really cheap ceramic just isn't appealing.  So we're keeping the grey tile throughout the bottom floor which I think will look great.  Tiling hopefully starts next week. 

So for the next few days it's all about prepping, priming, sanding and painting.  A lot of work but I can't wait to see the two colors I picked finally on the walls.  Benjamin Moore has some great colors, and every time I've asked someone where they got their paint, Ben always pops up.  I checked out their website recently and they even have wall tattoos - basically a wall stencil and a very clever idea - not sure where I'd do the tattoo, but I'm keeping in mind for future paint jobs. 

(image from Benjamin Moore's website)