It Becomes a Habit

I talked about how easy it was to create the molding effect along my staircase. We loved the look so much that we took it a step further in our family room. Creating a mission-style design was the key to balancing the more traditional details in our home with the more contemporary design in our living room. Still, the look blends in with the rest of the house while giving each area of the house a look of its own.

They say it’s a question of what comes first – the chicken or the egg – and in this case, it’s a question of whether we started the molding project or the built-in shelves first. They both happened at the same time. Regardless of what inspired which, we absolutely love our family room and the blend of practicality and design it offers.

Kitchen Project -- Take Three: The Cabinets

I don’t think we’ll ever fully be satisfied with our kitchen until we change the cabinets, so we are doing that. It will be a custom job, and we can’t wait. But we are leaving the installation to the pros. We are going to save a little on costs, however, by taking out the cabinets ourselves. We’ll then donate them to a worthy organization that can use them.

I had to take out the pantry so the cabinet company could measure the size for our new pantry (which will extend much further back than our current one), and it was interesting to see what was behind that cabinet door. 

A chimney runs through it.

Au Revoir, Mardi Gras Bathroom

Sadly, I had to redo the bathroom in the basement recently because of a massive drain issue. (We had to have the floor dug out under the bathroom and in the surrounding area.) It’s a still a work in progress, but the bathroom went from the dark red “Mardi Gras” style to a more subdued look. My wife and son say they prefer the new look, even though neither one ever uses the bathroom in the basement. Regardless, I'm just glad to have a working toilet down there again. Let the good times flush, er...roll. 

Celebrating Cedar

"I have an idea," my wife said one morning. 

Uh oh. This is how it begins. I knew what was coming next.

"How about we create a cedar closet?"

The next thing I know, we’re at the home store purchasing cedar planks.

In all fairness, it was a relatively simple project that paid dividends. The room smelled wonderful for months afterward. My wife was happy to have such a sweet-smelling place to store her clothes. And now that my older son has taken over that room, I’m sure he’ll someday appreciate the aromatic planking that lies behind his closet doors. His toys never will be the same.

A nail gun got the job done.

Got to get behind everything. 

How Kids Change Your House

We loved our hardwood stairs, but they just weren’t practical when our older son was learning to walk (and crawl up and down the stairs). So we replaced it with carpeting (installed by a professional). It changes the look of the house, but we still like it. And our son, now 3, likes it, too. 

The early toddler days