One Year Update

Listing Photos

It all started with my Starting Point post. There I wrote my initial thoughts and ideas for this house as recorded last November. We bought this house and found many things wrong with it. We starting putting work into the house starting last October/November, and below is what we were able to accomplish so far.

Current Progress

As you can see just between the first set of photos and the second, we’ve made some big changes. We removes trees and bushes, put in raised beds, added an exterior door on the garage, and changed the accent color on the house from red to teal. Inside, we removed a lot of the latex paint off the utility room walls, we built and removed our builtin pantry, and installed a storage shelf instead. We removed the broken dishwasher and sealed the space to be used for my canning stuff. We also upgraded the light in the kitchen, painted cabinets, remove the old range microwave and added a new range-hood, as well as replaced the old leaking kitchen faucet. In the dining room, we refinished the wall after removing about 1/3 of the wallpaper in the house, and we also created a lampshade for our single handing bulb from a lantern we used at our wedding reception. We haven’t done too much to the living room yet; we added a projector screen and are mainly using it for storing some of our extra stuff until we finish the master bedroom. We replaced the light fixture in the hall, and upgraded all the light switches in the house to the rocker style. We repainted the bathroom, removed the medicine cabinet, changed the light fixture, and painted the vanity and changed the hardware. We also added a new shower curtain to match. In the original green room, due to it’s carpet color, we originally replaced the floor in the closet with vinyl planking. After seeing how easy it was, we took on the task of redoing the entire rooms floor, which was not an easy task. we remove the wood from the closet to be replaced with matching floor eventually, I also painted the bedroom the two shades of orange, we moved in, and that is the state of our orange room. Finally, our current project is the master bedroom, or our new green room. We just finished laying the flooring on Saturday. There is still a lot of work we want to do in that room before the new unveiling, but I hope this helps build some excitement for the next unveiling, which will be coming in the next two weeks or so.

A Year’s Worth of Projects

A year is so long, yet so short. We were able to accomplish so much because of the blessing we’ve received this year and from taking things in stride. We are happy for our new experiences and are content with this house even as we continue to find more problems. We aren’t sure if we’ll keep this house forever, but we are happy for all the good things this house is providing for us. This Lustron gives my husband and I something to do together, to bond over, and to dream for. We hope for nothing but the best for this house in the future, and we hope our fingerprint on this house improves the beauty of this old Lustron, rather than hinders it’s potential.

For more on our home improvement posts from this year, feel free to check out any of this posts below. If not, I’ll see you again soon!

Starting Point

New Light Fixtures

New Kitchen Faucet

Update and Mistakes

DIY Hidden Pantry

New Dining Room Light

Removing Wallpaper

Closet Work

Bathroom Transformation

Dishwasher to Storage

Kitchen Cabinet Updating

Raised Beds

New Kitchen Vent Hood

A New Big Project: Laminate Plank Flooring

Green Room Flooring

Finishing Our Guest Room

New Kitchen Shelf

New Kitchen Shelf

If you’ve been following me for a while, you may remember my post back in January or February about my DIY Hidden Pantry. This pantry was very helpful, and very convenient, however over time, the screws began to pull from the wall since we didn’t use drywall anchors. Also, the pantry was too small for all the snack foods I had and needed to store. We eventually began to store bags of chips on the fridge just because they wouldn’t fit in the space anymore.

Josh and I want to eventually put in built in cabinets around the fridge, however, we want to see how we can use our space in the meantime. So, we decided to get a shelf from target, and if it’s very useful, we’ll eventually add doors, or install all built ins. With built ins, we hope to also re-arrange our washer & dryer, but one step at a time.

The shelf we got is the 5 shelf bookcase from target, and we picked the color black. It was easy assembly, and gave us so much more space. Each shelf holds 30 pounds, and the shelf is shallow enough to not interfere with the dryer door.

DIY Hidden Pantry

The Idea

Josh has put a lot of time and energy thinking about how to do this project. He had leftover wheels from a long board he had, and we have some space between the fridge and an existing wall, so he thought this would be a nice thing he could build that would look nice and provide us with additional kitchen storage. We have an 8 1/2 inch gap that is 18 inches deep, and 63 inches until the back would hit an existing bracket on the wall, but 66 inches in the front to be level with the fridge.

The Space and Materials

For this project, we needed 3 1″x8″x8′, 12 3/8″ dowels that were 48″ long, and a set of 18″ Full extension drawer slides. We picked up the materials as home depot paying just under $14 per board, under $1 per dowel, and under $15 for the drawer slides.
We then cut the one board to 63″ for the back board, 65″ for the face board, and we cut 6 shelves at 16″ each. Josh also created a jig to help us pre-drill holes in the end of each shelf, so that when we add screws we didn’t split the wood. We also had to cut our dowels, which we cut to 18″, and drill holes for the wheels to mount. After drilling all of that, we also pre-drilled holes in the face and back, and drilled holes for the dowels to fit. Then we were on to assembly.

The Assembly

We assembled the shelves by making the slightly longest be on the bottom, and getting smaller as they go to the top. After drilling all the holes, we added wood glue to each end of the shelf and began screwing it together. When you make it, glue and screw into the face board, and once it’s dried, then attach the back. Though we predrilled holes, we still split a shelf, and we attached the back before the front, so the back is square while the front is sloped (oh well).

We attache the wheels by centering them and using screws to mount them to the board, and not the nuts and bolts that come with boards. And, for the dowels, we slipped them through the holes. The holes we were using were tight, so we didn’t, but you can also add glue here if they are loose.

Finalizing

To finish the project, I used wood putty to cover the screw heads and dowel ends, and let it dry for 4 hours as directed by the package. I then sanded the surface flat by hand. Finally, I painted the face of the cabinet with semi-gloss white paint. I had to use 2 coats, and finally, we drilled 2 holes at our desired height and attached a handle we got at Ollie’s.

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