Little Half Bath

Our little half bath started out WHITE! The previous owners had replaced the original sink with a washing sink. The laundry room is across the hall and doesn't have space for a sink and they must have really wanted a washing sink! I'm not that fancy at laundry, so I knew I wanted it gone. Behind the sink they had a weird white plastic thing on the wall. That made the mirror move up higher which was NOT okay with me. It'd be fine for Dane, but I felt super short (I know, I am super short...), so I wanted to move it back down. They had left behind an over the toilet shelving thing that was ALSO white. Oh, and the toilet was super low to the ground and didn't flush well. Being the guest bathroom, we figured maybe we should have a better toilet. :)

First things first, I painted the walls. I used the same paint that I used in the laundry room (the $5 mistint gallon from Sherwin Williams). However, I ran out so I had to have them match it and get another gallon (not as cheap). 

I spray painted the over the toilet shelving and added a few little knick knacks on it. And we got a new toilet that looks and feels a little better! Thanks, Costco.

Dane found a great little sink at DI for around $25. It is a corner sink, so it looks a little silly in there, but I like it much better than the washing sink that shook when you touched it. Someday maybe we'll fit a real sink in there. :) I painted the cabinets white, added some new hardware, and washed it up. Good as new!

(Funny story. One day I finished painting one coat of white on the cabinets and left it to dry. I went to nurse Callie and Brooklyn was quiet for awhile. I asked her what she was doing and she called out, "Painting!!" She was being my helper and painting the white for me...ON THE WALLS!! She was so sweet about it, I couldn't even get mad because she really thought she was helping me. She had helped me paint the blue in the laundry room and bathroom. The one and only mischief she really got into while nursing the baby...)

We took down the towel bar and got just a towel ring. I like it much better. Last thing I want to do is frame the mirror. It's really boring just like that. It's on our long list of projects!

Here are the before and after shots together!

Little Laundry Room

The little laundry room on the main floor was B.O.R.I.N.G. Not that a laundry room needs to be exciting, but I figured I'd be spending some time in there and wanted it to bring me happy feelings, not lonely feelings. Laundry isn't the greatest chore, so I wanted to spice it up a bit! So it became the first room we worked on before moving in.

I figured it was small enough to paint quickly before the washer and dryer came. Sherwin Williams sometimes has mistint paints for $5 a gallon. I found a color I liked and 5 bucks later was on my way! After I painted, Dane laid down the extra flooring we had from our old place. We had just enough to fit in the tiny space.

I found an idea of shelves on Pinterest that I showed Dane and he went to town. (I LOVE having a handy husband!!)

I found the Laundry sign at Hobby Lobby, added the other decorations I already had, and threw an extra laundry basket up there for kitchen towels and wash cloths. It is just the right amount of space to store laundry supplies.

We moved in the day before Mother's Day (which was also Dane's birthday that year) and the night we moved in, Dane came home with my Mother's Day present. It has been the greatest thing ever for a small laundry room! (It folds against the wall when not in use.) He thinks he got it at Ikea, but I can't find it on their website anywhere...

Last Christmas, Dane's parents gave us a deep freezer. The only spot we really have for it is in the laundry room, so that's where it went! It's a tight squeeze, but we make it work. I love having the extra space for freezer meals (or 40 lbs of chicken when Macey's has it on sale for $1.29/pound).

So there you have it. Our little laundry room that I love!!

PS-Someday, we might move the laundry room upstairs. Our neighbors moved their washer/dryer up to their master bath (which is huge...someday I'll blog about it) and then use this room as a mud room for shoes, coats, backpacks, etc. When our kids are older, that will be AMAZING! But for now, it's our perfect little laundry room.

Closet Under the Stairs

In our old townhouse, we had most of the kid toys stored in the closet under the stairs. It was nice when we had people come over, we could throw everything in there, shut the door, and pretend we had a clean house. We knew that we wanted to do something even more fun with this space. Then I saw what Brooke Walker of Studio 5 did in hers here and was inspired to do it right then.

We started by searching through the "as is" paint at Home Depot. That's probably my favorite section in the whole store. They sell their gallon buckets of paint for $9 if it was mistinted. I was able to pull out 3 colors I liked and then choose one. Because it's such a small space, I knew I wouldn't need more than a gallon.

After painting the walls (and LOVING the color), we went to Ikea. We got two spice racks to hold books (after I painted them white).

We also got 3 frames for the wall. I'm still deciding what to put in the center frame...

At Hobby Lobby we bought a cheap chalkboard (using their 40% off coupon, it was super cheap!) and I painted it to match.

We already had the magnet board with alphabet letters, an ABC poster, and 2 map posters. We used the magnet board to hide the water turn off thing. We didn't want the kids trying to get in it, and it was ugly. The magnet board fits right over top!

We wanted some sort of seating in there to sit and read books, so we grabbed a bench and pillows I had made for an upstairs bench that NEVER gets used upstairs, and threw that in there as well.

With the little extra wall space we had, we decided to get some cheap Command hooks to hang princess dresses. Before this, they were stuffed in a box, so we thought it'd be fun to display them...and they get used much more now that they are out in the open!

Here it is all together:

For being a fairly easy, inexpensive project, we were happy with the way it turned out! Last thing we need to do is get a little light in there to make it easier to read anytime of day. It gets plenty of light during the day with the door wide open...but it'd be nice to have a light. :)

PS. This is still the place we throw all of the toys when people come over...so don't ever ask to see the closet under the stairs. :)

Our Beloved Kitchen Island

As I mention in this post, I have always wanted a kitchen island. I told Dane when we were dating I have dreams of having the kids come home from school, sit at the island, and eat warm chocolate chip cookies while telling me all about their day. Anyone else dream about that??

This house didn't have an island. But it had the potential to have an island. It had a huge space smack in the middle of the kitchen perfect for an island. When we found the gold mine in my grandpa's basement (a whole kitchen cabinet set), I knew we needed to use a piece for an island. The best fitting piece ended up not being a rectangle and I was okay with that. All it needed was an overhang for some stools for the kids to sit at after school.... :)

We brought it home, Dane built it up a little higher, we stained it the same color as the rest of the cabinets, and added leftover beadboard and baseboard around the sides and front. Or is it the back? The flat side. :)

Dane nailed it to the floor using a concrete nailer. It was loud. Really loud. But it doesn't budge! (Let's be honest, that thing is so heavy, it wasn't moving anyway.)

We had a few connections at Express Cabinets so we used them for the granite top. They sent us to their yard with all of the leftover pieces. We picked the one we loved after looking at SO many choices. They came and measured the space, cut it, and installed it. We are SO happy with our choice.

This is my favorite space in our kitchen now. I love prepping food here. Especially prepping dinner while the kids nap and I watch Ellen. It looks straight into the family room, so it's perfect!! It adds more storage with the two deep cabinets, and it makes our kitchen feel more like a kitchen!

We had 3 barstools from our last place that we brought with us. They were originally black from a counter height table I had when I was single. Then we painted them white for our counter in the townhouse. Then I painted them to match the painted pantry door. They fit perfectly! (And yes, there are only two. The third one is in our master bathroom for me to sit at the counter when I get ready...there will be another post about that room when it's finished getting a makeover.)

And I may or may not get giddy when my 2 1/2 year old, Brooklyn, asks to eat at the island. She's still a little small for it, but it makes me happy when she tries!

Here is the side by side. We love our island!

Kitchen Cabinets

We knew as soon as we looked at the house there was so much work we wanted to do in the kitchen. First of all, the cabinets. Where were the two missing cabinets? We thought it looked kind of funny that to the right of the window and left of the fridge had no cabinets. Also, the color. We weren't a fan of the oak color. We knew we wanted to either paint them white or stain them a dark brown.

I found a tag inside one of the cupboard doors of a custom cabinet place these must have come from. I didn't even try contacting them for fear of what the price would be to get one small and one large cabinet added on. We also knew we wanted to add an island in the big empty middle space (it's my dream to have my kids come home from school and sit at the island eating warm chocolate chip cookies while they tell me about their day...Dane and I discussed this while we were dating and he knew I really wanted an island someday). 

The miracle occurred a few months after we moved in. My grandpa was getting ready to move into an assisted living center. We were in their basement looking at furniture one day and noticed an entire kitchen cabinet set disassembled. Just sitting there. It had been there for years and I had never thought twice about it. We asked he and his sweet wife what they would be doing with that entire kitchen cabinet set just sitting there in their basement and they said please take it away!! At first, I was just planning on taking a piece for each empty spot (one small, one large, and one for the island), but I sent Dane to get them and he came home with all of them. :)

They don't match exactly (the curve is a little off) but no one can tell until we point it out. We knew we wanted to change the colors of ours anyway, so it didn't matter that the color didn't match! Seriously, it saved is some major bucks and we were very happy about that!!

After Dane hung the wall cabinets, the fun began. We took off all the doors and washed them down. We were so scared of having to sand every piece that we decided to use the gel stain we had leftover from our kitchen table and chairs Dane had done the previous year. We still had quite a bit left and we loved the dark brown, so we got started!

It ended up taking two coats of stain on all of the light oak (our original cabinets) and one stain on my grandpa's kitchen set. Then it took 3 coats of the wax on top to seal it really good. We did have to buy more stain and wax, but I didn't feel as bad buying that when I didn't have to sand OR buy the cabinets!

Here is the before and after together. I LOVE my new cabinets AND my island. I am so excited for our kids to get a little older and sit at the island to snack while I cook (or help me cook). It is the gathering place in our home!

Next step is to figure out what to do above the fridge...

The Handy Hanveys

Dane and I (Janae) have been married for 3 1/2 years. When we got married, I owned the townhouse I lived in. Dane was a lucky guy, huh? We lived there the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage and decided it was time to move on. We had one little girl and one on the way and we really wanted a yard and a little bit more space to stretch and grow.

We found a house in Lehi that we both really liked and it had almost all of our wants in it. However, it also had a lot of work to be done to become our dream home. Dane is super handy and loves home improvement projects and I love Pinterest and finding ideas to make our home even more inviting and welcoming for friends and family! We are the perfect pair!

Now that we've been in the house for almost a year, I want to document all of the work we've done. I really wish I had started this on day one because I won't have great pictures of before/after or the process of getting them all done, but that's okay. I will do my best!

Welcome to our humble abode in Lehi, Utah!