Herbs, Herbs, Herbs

I tried an herb garden indoors once, and I killed everything, but I really wanted to try again.  I found this cute planter at Lowe's that matches our all-white dishes, so I had to get it to try again.  I bought Thyme, Basil, and Rosemary seeds, partially because I will use them more than other herbs, but partially for the scent.  

 

 Here is my Thyme on Day 4:

 

Here are my herbs after 1 week.  I know it looks like the Rosemary isn't growing at all, but look closely at the 2nd picture.

Thyme, Basil, Rosemary

Rosemary seedling

At this point, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.  Wish me luck that I keep these alive!

Bookcase Transformation

While we're still working on the kitchen and I don't have anything substantial to post in regards to that, I will go ahead and share a different DIY home project that I did this past fall.

I turned this:  

Shelf BEFORE

Into this: 

Shelf AFTER

That piece of "furniture" was holding a TV in our bedroom.  It was pretty much just a clutter and dust collector, so I took it out and made it into something nicer and useful.  It's up in the home office now.

 I started out by spray-painting the whole thing black (shelves first).

 

 

 This is a handy tool for spray painting,and it only costs a couple dollars.  It keeps you from getting paint on your finger, helps control the spray, thus less drips and less paint used.

 

But then I had to do something about that hole.

I got the idea from Better Homes and Gardens - cover it with fabric!  I chose a cozy wool herringbone fabric in a calm neutral.  I felt it would warm the room up a bit.  It was on sale at JoAnn. 

 

I literally just pulled off the back of the bookshelf and used a staple gun to the back to apply the fabric.  (I of course ironed the fabric first).  Then I just nailed the back back on (hole and all). 

Shelf AFTER

 Here's the shelf in the office now.  It was a quick and cheap way to spruce up two rooms in the house -- we got the ugly thing out of the bedroom and now we have more room for books and mementos in our home office.   (Ah yes, the home office is also a home gym...that is a bucket of pilates stuff there).  And that is my HUSBAND'S Giant's football there, and it's only there because I love him.  GO PACK GO.   

Installing the Cement Backerboard

Because our kitchen is on a wood sub-floor, we had to lay cement backer board down before laying our tile.  This of course came after tearing out the top layer of the wood floor and pounding down nails that were sticking up.

Cement Backer Board Installation

It's pretty easy to cut the backer board to size.  You can just score it with a scoring knife or razor blade, and then break it at that point.  For some small angles, we used a grinder.

Scoring the cement backer board with a razor (in the rain)

We made sure to stagger the seams, and we also made sure that the seam on a piece of the backer board did not line up with a seam in the wood sub floor.

Staggering the seams of the cement backer board

Backer board is installed like the tile using mortar to seal it to the sub floor.  You can also nail it down.  We did both.  Be sure to leave a little space between the backer board and the walls to account for wall shifting and expanding over time.

My dad mixing the mortar (according to the instructions on the bag)

Applying the mortar to the floor using a trowel

After laying the backer board down, we used mesh tape along the seams.  Then we applied more mortar at the seams to create a bond.

 

 

 

We weren't really sure how long you had to let the backer board set before laying the tile on top, but we decided that it was a good stopping point for the weekend once we had the backer board in.

Kitchen Inspiration

After ordering our Absolute Black granite counter tops, I started seeing black counters everywhere.  I had a feeling we were going to need to do something with our old cabinets, but I wasn't sure what.  One night, we were watching one of our favorite shows, Cougartown, and there in Jules' kitchen: black shiny counters and white cabinets with gorgeous hardware.  How had I never paid attention to that before?  Gorgeous!

Cougartown Kitchen, from this great little blog called "The Little Big House"

 

So, I started searching around the internet and found out that there are a lot of people out there who LOVE the set of Cougartown.  In particular, I found a blog, "Being Ingrid," featuring a similar builder-grade kitchen like ours turned into a stylish Cougartown kitchen:

Being Ingrid Kitchen | BEFORE

Being Ingrid Kitchen | AFTER

I even found some sites that describe the exact products and colors -- the set of Cougartown was even featured in Entertainment Weekly.

 

I continued my search of kitchens with black counters, especially since we are so nervous that we will have to repaint our beloved Caramelized Orange walls.  We'll just have to see what it looks like as it all comes together, but for now, I'll keep looking for inspiration.

Vanity and Absolute Black

After the flooding in the kitchen, we decided to tile the kitchen floor.  And while we're at it, why not put in some new counters too?

Well, after 4 stores and 3 days of looking, we finally picked out tile and ordered it from Home Depot -- with a 10% off coupon!  YAY!  We chose Marazzi "Vanity Black" porcelain tile in 24 X 24 inch squares (not shown in 24 X 24).  

Marazzi Vanity Black Porcelain Tile

We also ordered these little squares to put up around the fireplace in the living room to tie the living room and the kitchen together.  

Hey, look!  There's my dishwasher in the dining room!

 

The Fireplace (now)

As for the counter tops, we chose Absolute Black granite.  I know it's hard to tell from a sample, but you'll see it in place soon enough!  Gorgeous. 

Absolute Black Granite

 Since we bought the tile and the counters from Home Depot, we used our Home Depot Fuel Rewards, and I ended up getting a tank of gas for 23 cents, plus 60 cents off a gallon rolled over to my next tank!  A very nice incentive when you're making a lot of home improvement purchases!

Home Depot Fuel Rewards

In addition to the 10% off on the tile and the fuel rewards, we also got a free sink with the purchase of our counters!  I am so excited to have a new, deeper sink.  We also ordered a new Delta faucet from Amazon...pics to come soon! 

Leaking Fridge; Flooded Kitchen

Over the course of a few days I was mentioning to my husband that the kitchen floor was feeling saggy.  We had had problems before by the back door due to a faulty seal on the door.  The floor there had actually rotted, so we had to replace it and temporarily put down stick-on tiles in that area.  We just shrugged our shoulders, figuring we'd have to fix the whole floor at some point.

Well, after a few more days, I could feel squishing under the linoleum.  I said, "It sounds like there's water under here."  We again shrugged our shoulders.  Our kitchen is far above the ground, so there's no way the floor underneath got flooded...I must be imagining it, right?

Right around midnight, after watching a movie, we could hear the dripping.  My husband lay down on the floor with his ear to the floor, and he was certain it was an animal under our house.  I insisted it was water dripping.  Sure enough, our refrigerator had been leaking!

Could it leak onto the top of the floor into a puddle where we could see it?  NO.  It leaked into the corner and under the linoleum, creating a pool of water between the linoleum and the floor.  So what did we do until 2 a.m. on a Saturday night?

 

We spent the night sopping up excess water and using hair dryers to try and dry out as much of the wood floor as we could. 

 

The next day, we were able to rent a huge dehumidifier and floor blower from Home Depot, which totally dried up the floor, so we did not have to replace the sub floor.

 

However, in the end, we decided to tile the kitchen floor, so we had to tear off the top layer of the sub floor anyway!  Oh well!