Completed Bathroom Remodel

The bathroom project is finally complete. Thanks to Eric who came over to hook up the toilet and help me hang the mirror. I finished with hanging the toilet paper holder and the towel ring. I decided to put the tp holder on the vanity instead of the wall and I am happy with that decision. I guess I didnt really want peoples focal point on the wall to be a toilet paper holder.

The only thing left is to find a picture for above the toilet and eventually put something at the top of the tiles to cap them off maybe like a border or ????

Some of the project specifics:
Color of walls: Pure Earth from Behr
Tile: Not sure of the name but I got them at Lowes. They were really cheap since the store had and abundance. Grout color is Smokey
Vanity: I got it from Home Depot and it is called Wyoming made by St Paul's. The mirror came along with the vanity and countertop
Light: Hampton Bay 3 light vanity light
Facuet, TP holder and towel ring: Are all MOEN products

So here are before pics again:

And here are a few after pics

Bathroom is almost finished

After 3 days of tiling and plumbing good progress has been made on the bathroom project. I still have to connect the toilet tank, hang the mirror, change the outlets to white and then decorate.

I want to have some type of border at the top of the ceramic tile, but I have not decided on what to do yet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I am also trying to decide what accent colors to use, with the bathroom being so neutral I think most colors would work??


Here are a few pics with....almost there!!

Bathroom Remodel

The kitchen remodel pretty much wiped me clean last year so all other projects (outside of painting) were put on hold. Last Saturday I decided to start the half bath/mudroom project. I really could not stand looking at the all white bathroom, oh except for the lovely blue ceramic toilet paper holder. Thanks to my friend Jason I was able to everything out of the bathroom including removing the toilet paper holder from the wall. We had to replace the drywall where that was, along with some other pieces that came off when removing the vanity.  Over the last week I mudded and sanded the walls and on Thursday I was finally able to apply texture and prime the walls. Finally on Friday I painted the bathroom, the color is called Pure Earth and of course it is Behr paint. Over the years I have done so much painting and I will never use anything other than Behr for paint.

On Saturday I went shopping and got all the ceramic tile, grout, vanity, light fixture, mirror, and faucet.  I will share the specifics when I post my "after" pictures just in case something doesn't work. This morning I installed the light fixture and now it is time to tile.

Here are a few before pictures and a few pics with the color I painted.

Color is Pure Earth from Behr

Post Kitchen Pictures

May 2010

Well it took 2 months for the kitchen remodel and it was the worst process ever. After this remodel I officially hated Subway. I ate so many subs in the 2 months that I actually thought I would never go back there. Anway I digress...so here is what I did with the kitchen remodel for those who are interested it is lengthy:

• Built the wall out over the fridge so I could actually reach the cabinet that was going over the fridge
• Sanded, all the walls and textured them with primer with texture. If you ever do this it is really a big mess
• Painted the walls Raffia Cream (Behr paint). It is a very neutral color and is on the light side
• Had the cabinets built by Start Right Builders. I would give them a 6/10 due to the length of time it took them to install. For awhile there I thought it would never be finished. I selected a honey maple stain and shaker style cabinets
• Installed a microwave over the stove which needed its own breaker. Thank god for good friends who helped me with this. 
• Originally I was going to get laminate counter tops because it was the cheapest, but when I went and looked at granite there was no going back. My favorite thing in the kitchen is my granite counter tops. I looked at pretty much every granite retailer in SE WI and went with Wisconsin Granite Depot. I was able to get a very reasonable price and they included an under-mount sink. I selected a 60/40 split sink (instead of the original 50/50 split) and I LOVE my sink. The granite I selected was called Tan Brown. The install of the granite went really well; however, the selection and contract negotiation was the worst. I pretty much felt that the owner of the company hated women and numerous times we got into arguments in his office. Bottom line is I stood up for myself and got exactly what I wanted, I am sure he was happy when I was out of his life. 
• Lastly I selected a new faucet Moen single handle pull down sprayer from Home Depot

This was a very costly project, but in the end I think it turned out great. I decided to wait on a backsplash and pendent lighting until I can figure out what I want to do.

Here are some post pics

New Appliances

March 2010
Thank god for employee discounts at the GE store. I was able to get appliances (stove, fridge, dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer) for an extremely awesome price. As soon as I moved in I ordered the appliances and they were here 4 days later. For the kitchen appliances I ordered clean steel instead of stainless steel because they are supposed to leave less finger prints. I actually have to say I really like the clean steel; however, you still get some prints on the fridge but I just don't think there is any way around that.

For the washer and dryer I purchased the front loaders with pedestals. I absolutely love the front loaders!! They are extremely powerful, I swear sometimes I think the house shakes during the spin cycle. If you are in the market for washer and dryers front loaders are the way to go.

The last thing I had to do before the remodel started was remove the wall paper border that the previous owners thought was a great idea. So my suggestion to anyone thinking of wall papering......DO NOT. It is the absolute worst to remove. It took forever to scrape off, I actually was hoping my arm just fell off so the misery would end. Did you ever see Christmas Vacation where Clark's fingers are all sticky after he touches the sap...yeah that is how I felt after removing the border with DIF. I also think I lost the first layer of my finger tips. Anyways here is a picture of the kitchen minus wallpaper with new appliances (microwave to be added later).
Please try not to be jealous of the green cabinets. 

Kitchen Before

Feb 2010


When I bought this house I knew the first thing I wanted/needed to do is remodel the kitchen. As much as I cherish the Green Bay Packers colors I certainly did not need that color as my cabinets. Upon walking in the house after closing I immediately started to think about what I wanted to do to the kitchen and how much I could actually afford to do.


The positives of the kitchen:
-the wood floors.........and that was about it!


I needed to remove wall paper border and paint and needed new counter tops, sink, cabinets, appliances (can you believe they did not have a microwave, who can live without a microwave).


Here are the before pictures of what it looked like from the listing.

First Year

It has been almost exactly a year since I moved into my house in Franklin and I can hardly remember what it looked like before all the remodeling and decorating. I was surfing the web the other day for half bathroom ideas and came across a blog where this blogger shared pictures of the updates she did to her home. I thought what a great way to share my projects with others (especially those who live in other states).

I am going to try and post in order what I did so far to the house and will continue to post the projects I have planned this year. Who knows what else may be in the blog we will just have to wait and see how it goes.  Here we go!!