I am a 30-something blogger living in Nashville, TN with my husband, J. He bought the house in September 2011 and we have been fixing it up ever since. We got married in December 2012.
I think we're pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself.
After we got all the old floors removed, it was time to prep some cabinets for our built-in desk. We went with pre-fab kitchen base cabinets because they were already built and they were 15% off at Home Depot. Why did we want to install those before we laid the floor? Well, because kitchen base cabinets have a standard height of 36", and desks have an average height of 32", and we knew that the tile floor would add about 3/4" of height, so we wanted those base cabinets to sit as low as possible when all was said and done. We also decided to lower the cabinets even more by cutting them off from the bottom. Here's a shortened cabinet vs. the original height of the base cabinet, side by side: First, we had to prep the cabinets for their "haircut": We removed all of the "brackets" that were holding the bottom boards on. I believe those boards around the bottom are called "toe kicks" or "toe strips". The toe kick in the ...
Yeah you guessed it, this is an update about trim. We finally got James' tools back after he lent them to a friend, so we were able to put up the crown molding in the entryway and dining room. We were tired of messing with figuring out the right angles for crown (upside down and backwards?? WHAT?!), so we decided to cheat and get corner blocks: No, it's not meant to be the same color as the wall, it just looks close. It will get painted white. If you're going to be hanging crown any time soon, we found that the easiest way is to find and mark your studs first, like so: Then, just start at one end with a pneumatic nail gun and work your way to the other end, putting in one nail on the bottom and one on the top at each stud. You can also use nails wherever it looks gappy. Yeah, that's an official term. The pressure from the pneumatic nail gun should suck most gaps closed. Here's the first piece all done: Much easier than the whole "upside dow...
Recently, I was inspired by someone close to me--we'll call him J--to do some heavy Spring Cleaning. I've always attempted to do this in the past, but have never been very successful. I always think, "What if I need this someday? I don't want to have to buy it again!" I think this stems from not always having the money to buy all the things I want, but that's another story... The idea for this came from J, who had recently been inspired to do some spring cleaning of his own. He is currently on a journey of finding the balance between "having" and "giving," as giving to those who are less fortunate is the Biblical mandate for all who claim to be Christians. How much is required of us? Do we need to give away everything and live amongst the poor, or are we allowed to enjoy some material possessions? I don't know the answer, and I don't know if there is one set answer for every person, but I do know that I was doing too much "ha...
Yes, You make an extremely cute couple!!
ReplyDeleteYour cousin, Dena