Painting the Kitchen Cabinets & Swapping Pull Hardware

One lesson learned in the cabinet/counter/backsplash renovation was that timing is everything. We tried to run both projects in parallel, which proved to be fairly difficult. This is because the cabinet painting itself was a 7 step process, and took the better part of a week and a half. Whereas, once the granite/travertine was removed from counter/backsplash, the installation of the new marble/subway tile could actually be done in about a day and a half. But we wanted to get the cabinet frames painted prior to installation of the other kitchen elements, so we inadvertently tripped over our own schedule feet a couple times. Oh well!

Regardless, the kitchen cabinet painting SEEMED like it may be easy enough (and much cheaper) for us to do it ourselves. We are so glad that we didn’t. Much like the other painting (which we found out we weren’t great at), it would have been super tedious and required many long nights. To give you an appreciation of the process that was followed, it was seven steps in all. This included removal of the doors, sanding, priming, re-sanding, priming, painting (multiple coats). See below for a couple of the “in-flight” pictures.

Once the cabinet doors were ready to re-install, we had to go ahead and switch out the knobs for stainless pulls (pictures below). The only complicated part about this was that our cabinet painter said he had never installed new pulls before. Much to my surprise, I said “ok” and decided to figure it out on my own. After sourcing the pulls from Amazon (MUCH cheaper than buying them all at Lowe’s since there were over 30 pulls in the whole kitchen), all I needed to do was drill a secondary hole to secure the pulls. The reason this was required was that the knob only had 1 screw/hole, whereas the stainless pulls needed to be anchored with two screws/holes. There is a template that you can buy in the cabinet hardware section at Lowe’s that has many of the common offsets already there. I highly recommend using one of those and a mechanical pencil to lay out your hole drilling plans.

Here are some of the pictures (without spoiling the surprise of the finished counter/backsplash):

Doors Off; Painting Frames In-Flight
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Doors Painted and Air Drying in Basement
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Drawers with Pulls Installed

Til Next Time,

Michael

Kitchen Renovation

Kitchen 1
Our Kitchen Before the Transformation

Over the next few posts, I’ll add some detail around what all we did to our kitchen. In short, we:

  • Painted the Cabinets
  • Removed Knob Hardware and Added Stainless Pulls
  • Removed Granite Counter and Replaced with Marble
  • Removed Travertine Backsplash and Replaced with Subway Tile
  • Changed Out Over-the-Bar Pendants
  • Changed Out Instant Hot Water System
  • Replaced Garbage Disposal

All in, we kept it just shy of $10,000, which I consider to be a huge success given the transformation it facilitated for the place. Stay Tuned!

Til Next Time,

Michael

White Washing the Fireplace

One of the first things we did upon move in was to paint the fireplace. In case you couldn’t tell, the town home originally had severe Tuscan vibes all throughout – with a plethora of oranges, greens, and browns. The fireplace was one of those focal points that we knew we wanted to get more updated. Our solution? White washing the bricks. The bricks in the “before” part of the picture clearly show a lot of dark and earth tones. Given that we had just gone with the Repose Gray throughout the home, we opted for a standard white wash. The process couldn’t have been simpler, actually. We used equal parts white chalk paint and water (i.e. a 50/50 mixture of the white chalk paint and water), and simply painted it onto the bricks judiciously. The only key is to make sure you clean the bricks first with a lightly soapy water solution to “clean” the bricks and rid them of any topical dirt and dust. Once dry, simply apply the white wash mixture with thick bristled brushes (and finer brushes if there are small enough crevices). Then, viola!

See below for the “before” and “after” comparison:

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Before (Top) and After (Bottom) – in case you couldn’t tell!

Let us know what you think!

Til Next Time,

Michael

Painting!

The first (and most obvious) thing our house needed was PAINT. We were somewhat disgusted with the sheer volume and weight of the oranges, browns, and greens throughout the home. So we knew we wanted to go with something more contemporary to bring some light and air to the space. We opted to do the same color throughout common living spaces, and slightly darker shades in the bedroom and bathrooms. Our main color is one of the new “hot picks” for modern home painting/design. It is called “Repose Gray” from Sherwin Williams. We knew it would still play with the lighter colored floors, also given that we knew we would be doing some updating to the kitchen as well. We were so happy with our first “big decision” on the home improvement front. It really set the stage for future success all around.

One lesson learned though: definitely pay a professional to paint. Not only will they be able to buy the paint at wholesale prices, they’re just flat out better than you will ever be. We actually opted to paint the guest bedroom/bathroom upstairs ourselves because it ended up being almost $450 cheaper (we got a very good rate on the common areas + master bedroom, which made a “small bedroom” seem like a ripoff at that price). After investing around $150 in our own materials, and the better part of 1.5 days apiece, we decided that it would have not only been less stressful, but way more clean to just leave it to the pros… We still have a few touch-up areas we need to finish in that bedroom we painted ourselves, too. “One of these days” I suppose 🙂

Take a look and see how much of a difference the new paint makes, though!

Front Room 2
Before – an Invasion of Tuscan Oranges/Browns!
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After – Much Better!

Til Next Time,

Michael

Home Improvement: “Before” Pictures

Before I add detail to the mountain of work we have done to clean our place up, I wanted to provide some context with a set of “before” pictures. Fortunately, our house was very clean upon move-in. Especially considering it was a townhome constructed in 2006. Most mid-2000’s townhomes were build with good-but-not-great materials, and start to show serious signs of wear 10 years in. Not ours, though! The pictures below were actually part of the original realty listing, and are very representative of the overall cleanliness we saw upon purchase and taking possession.

Without further adieu, the “before” shots:

Breakfast Nook
The Kitchen and Dining Area (stay tuned for major updates!)
Family Room
The Family Room (also stay tuned for major updates!)
Front Room 2
Front Room
Kitchen 1
Alternate Kitchen View
Master Bedroom 1
Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom 2
Bonus Master Bedroom Nook (AKA – the “Woman Cave”)
Upstairs Bedroom
Upstairs Bedroom
Downstairs Bedroom
Downstairs Bedroom (AKA – the “Man Cave”)

Til Next Time,

Michael

Home Renovations

Exterior

I’ve been preoccupied lately with (work and personal) travel, wedding planning, and home renovations. I decided the latter would be a good series to run here, mostly so that I force myself to get back in the habit of documenting the journey we’ve been on. A few months back, we purchased our first home, and are really happy with the decision. We knew coming in, though, that there would be a boatload of things to do. Not because the (town)home was in bad shape (it was in fact in great condition)… But because we knew we would want to make it our own. And we were both used to living in one bedroom. As such, we were void of a mountain of things required to make a house a home.

So far, here are some of the things we’ve done or purchased in the last three months that I’ll try to document in greater detail in the coming weeks:

  • Replaced Kitchen Backsplash and Counters (with Subway Tile and Marble, respectively)
  • Painted Kitchen Cabinets
  • Painted Common Living Spaces and Bedrooms
  • Carpeted Downstairs Bedroom
  • Replaced Main Floor Fixtures (Ceiling Fan, Pendant Lights, Dining Room Chandelier)
  • Replaced Garbage Disposal and Instant Hot Water System
  • Purchased Farm Table (sourced locally from a boutique rural craftsman)
  • Purchased Couches, Coffee Table, and End Table
  • Purchased Leesa Bed
  • Purchased and Mounted TV Above Fireplace
  • Whitewashed Fireplace
  • Purchased and DIY-Styled Entertainment Console
  • Created and Installed Wine-Cork-Backed Dartboard
  • Re-Upholstered Barstools

The good news is, we did most of this at very reasonable rates. Which is the main reason I think documenting this will be so fun, and possibly a learning experience for others in similar positions. In retrospect, we are so happy with the things we’ve done, and are eager to do more. The HGTV aficionado in us has helped guide us along the way, and even the most intimidating tasks actually proved to be rather simple (and only in some cases, a huge pain). Stay tuned for more!

Til Next Time,

Michael

Tulum (Part 2) + Buying a House

So I’ve clearly been slacking lately. No posts, no material, not even any good infographics. Well, there’s a reason…

About a month ago (one month to the day in fact), I turned 30. In Mexico. Back in Tulum. So I know I have a ton of posts and pictures to update from that trip. Again – not that it is directly related to “Corporate America” – but it’s a close enough tangent to have a space in this blog. I think?

Then – about two weeks ago – I closed on a house with my fiancee. Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind with loads of stress, a severe lack of “free time” to blog, and a ton of clean up and renovation work to make the place HOME. But, the great thing about it is that I’ll have plenty more material to share here. I think that documentation of our polish/renovation duty will add a different layer to this blog. It’s more of the “life” side of the “work life balance”, but really puts into perspective some of the skills and lessons I’ve learned over time.

Stay tuned; it should be fun!

Til Next Time,

Michael