When your husband's second home is Lowes

"Where everyone knows your name, and they're always glad you came," would be the bar "Cheers" for some, but for my husband this place is Lowes. Literally, every person who works there knows Neal, and loves him. He's directed customers to the correct aisle, and has given advice to other customers on what supplies/parts they need, while also knowing the name of every cashier, the guys at the pro desk, the window desk (not official name), and the people in the appliances. He's a friendly guy, and all of his friends are at Lowes. 

This is evidenced in the miracle that took place in my life. Miracle could be a slight over statement, but as you'll see by the pictures displayed you'll definitely well up with tears of excitement at least. 

So, one day Neal called me and said he had been at his second home (Lowes) and his friend (one of the ladies who works there and loves Neal) casually asked him if he needed a front door. Silly Neal forgot that in fact I'm always on the hunt for everything and told her no. She said that a custom-ordered door had been returned and they were trying to sell it for $500. Thankfully since he's under my influences he did eventually remember that I had said a few billion times that our current front door needs to go.

"She's such a snob," you're thinking, "there's nothing wrong with that door," and you're sort of right. The doors were just fine. I didn't really want a double door, and we had figured out the door had been kicked in at some point before we moved in, so we wanted something a bit more secure. But, this was LOW on the priority list because I knew the door I wanted was like $3,000. Other projects were going to take priority over a door.

Since Neal usually goes home (Lowes) multiple times a day, he was back a few hours later, the door was still there, and this time called me to see if I was interested. Of course, I was skeptical. I knew the chances of a returned door being something I actually liked were slim to none. I have specific taste, and I've settled before and regretted it. He texted me this picture:

 It was the exact front door I wanted, maybe not in red, but paint is easy. I told him to break any law he needed to in order to ensure that door was mine. I was so nervous that someone would beat me to it. Thankfully no laws were broken.

And clearly I was the winner.

AND, it had been marked down AGAIN from when Neal had been in 3 hours earlier. Please notice the original price: $3041.76, and notice how badly they wanted to be rid of it: $300. Are the tears welling up in your eyes?

So, it came home and I immediately put my best crew to work to get in installed.

Neal, once again blurry in a picture because he's always moving.

My ever-helpful four year old who is using his plastic chain saw to help.

And my six-year-old who's always willing to help as long as it's not too wet, too dirty, too heavy, too hard, too loud or anything else.

The back of the door was ugly brown, and you can see the bottom of the entry light. It's on it's way out too.

It was also incredible that the new hardware we had bought and installed on the white front door after we moved in, fit perfectly in the holes that were already cut in this door.

Now, the red is fun and cute, but I think it needs to be navy blue or mint green. I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I like the red, but I feel like the color is too bright of a shade for a mellow gray house color. I tried a few mint green samples, but it was too light, so I'll be thinking on that for a while.

Inside with a few coats of Benjamin Moore's OC-17, White Dove, and trimmed out.

The outside, trimmed out. 

The moral of this story is: be friendly like Neal.

The "Glamorous Barn" Powder Room

When we moved in, there was a little closet that had been the laundry room. Because we did the mudroom/laundry room project, we had this little room that housed the furnace and hot water heater. Because the current kitchen has no storage we used that little room as kitchen storage. It was either going to be the pantry for the new kitchen or it was going to be a powder room. We decided on powder room because bathrooms always add more value to a home. 

This is the current family room that is the future kitchen. Door on the left is mudroom/laundry, door on the right is new powder room. The man working is Neal, of course, because working is what he does. And the mess is from us, because we actually live in our house while projects go on, which makes life messy, fun, dusty and interesting.

Low lights of the space before it's beautification: the carmel-colored paint that won't leave me alone (I think this literally is the last spot in the house with this color). The nondescript ceiling light. The linoleum floors. 

And it begins! The window became smaller so Neal could make a closet with bifold doors for the water heater/furnace.

Here you can see the dark charcoal tile floor (same as the laundry room for some cohesion). On the walls is plywood for some board and batten. Look how golden that lighting is from that old light. Yuck.

Here's where the project gets real. I took a design risk with BLACK paint. Oh yes. As you can see by the picture my very practical, khaki-loving husband, was NOT so sure about it. Honestly, I wasn't either, but it started to grow on me, when I picked up…..

This beautiful, amazing, perfectly-sized, I-love-it-so-much light off of Craigslist. I hear angels sing every time I look at it. 

The glamorous barn started to come together. We couldn't find a vanity we liked for a price we loved, so Neal built one. I showed him like two pictures, and BAM! I had a vanity. He's like a fairy-guy-mother.

So then inspiration strikes, and I hear this little powder room begging for pale pink (maybe it was the angels telling me) and a little bit more gold. 

This print is from one of my favorite artists, Lindsay, from Lindsay Letters. And she's having a sale in July so get on it. It says "Be strong and courageous, seek adventure and truth." Good words to ponder while going potty.

This was a little postcard from Hammerpress studio in Kansas City. I really love letterpress. Both of the gold frames game from the thrift store. I really hate buying retail-priced frames. They always seem so expensive for what you're getting. There's more excitement and potential for funky junk with thrift store frames. I didn't spray these, but a can of spray paint can transform anything, so usually I just hunt for shapes, not color.

This was a greeting card I put in a frame, but the company doesn't do cards anymore. 

I threw up a "curtain" just to add some more color, but it needs help, so at some point I'll help it.

Two wire baskets add all the storage it needs. 

And there you go, a "glamorous barn" powder room is born.

Fireplace, again.

The white brick, though I didn't mind it this whole time, looked really out of place once Neal had built all the built-ins. 

But not anymore. 

We like how it turned out, and feel like it updates and modernizes the look and feel of the room. 

Before: 

During:

and now: yay.

Phase One

You wouldn't naturally think that the beginning of a kitchen remodel begins in the living room, but ours does.  We can't do floors until the current kitchen and surrounding walls are taken down. One of the walls slated to be removed is one of the walls of the current kitchen, with four pantry cabinets, ovens, fridge, etc. This house isn't huge, and we knew we'd need a place for all the kitchen stuff in between the current kitchen and the new kitchen, so it looked like the perfect time to build built-in cabinets and shelves surrounding the fireplace. Because WHY NOT?!

Let's review what we were working with: 

Here is the living room the day we moved in. Not terrible, but lots of potential.

Here's the same space with some paint, a mantle and some many glassybabys (I'm addicted).

So we began…shelves and cabinets flanking the sides of the fireplace. Easy right? Not when the cabinets are 18" and no one makes an 18" base cabinet. Never mind then, super-Neal to the rescue.

 That was easy.

He moves so quickly that he's blurry in pictures.

In process:

Panel over the top of the brick for the TV eventually.

Strong enough for this guy to sit in them.

Now they just need to be painted:

We had to set up a plastic paint zone so the paint wouldn't get all over everything else in the room. Neal painted away while I held the plastic away from him so he could move around. The plastic was not transparent so I had to wait patiently until he was finished to see what they looked like. 

Looks better than raw wood, but I wanted more dimension to the shelves. Of course, I went with my go-to Sherwin Williams paint strip, and his is Gauntlet Grey.

I couldn't wait until the cabinet doors were installed to reveal the unit. Also, the remaining white brick will be covered up with some stone, which I'll show when it's actually finished. I'm dying to put all of my foofey things to display in the shelves, but for now, they'll be holding cereal, pots and pans, a rice cooker and snacks. That's ok for now because better things are coming!

Because I love before and afters:

And as I've been typing Neal is making the cabinet doors. More later on that!