Let it snow….

I was right about our little house in the snow… I had predicted early on that our long back lot with the little shed would look just beautiful with a little snow on it.  Mother nature has just proven me correct.  Our desk is situated against a large window that allows me to look out over our beautiful back yard.  Right now, I’m watching the snow and sleet fall in torrents, covering everything with a sheer, pearly gloss.  But the birds don’t seem phased. So far, I’ve seen two turtle doves (which seems especially appropriate today of all days) and a bright red cardinal- my favorite.  Looks like we’ll be having a white Christmas after all. The first I can remember in my lifetime.  I do hope you’ll stay cuddled up nice and warm inside with your family and loved ones.  Merry Christmas, friends.

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Christmas Decor

Want to see our house all fancied up for the holidays?! Visit The Vintage Chair to see all the holiday hullaballoo!

Painted Fireplace

We've revealed our kitchen re-design, and now it's time for another Thank-god-we-are-industrious-DIYers reveal! I'm sure you remember our wavering back and forth about painting the fireplace. Finally, we decided to just take the plunge with some good stone primer and white paint.
We'll be honest, it took A LOT more effort than we had anticipated. The stone wasn't your average fireplace stone. It was a rock frontage, which basically means it is comprised of real rocks that were cut to be flat on the back and adhered to the wall- sort of like tile. The rocks had the texture of large lava rocks, and it appeared to have been coated in a fake moss-like substance to add what I'm sure they considered "character" back in the 70s. This made it really difficult to get primer and paint in all the little nooks and crannies. It took some hard work to press the paint all the way down into the cracks, but by golly we did it!
Let's refresh our memories with the "before":


And now let's take a look at our fantastic AFTER:


Two coats of primer and one coat of paint later, we've got a clean, bright, white fireplace! We LOVE how it opens up the room and makes the whole space feel so much lighter! We haven't had a chance to actually use the fireplace, but it sure is pretty to look at, no?
If you've been wavering about whether or not to paint your brick or stone fireplace, we definitely recommend it!
Here, the living room is decorated for fall, but pretty soon, we'll have all our Christmas cheer spread about the house. Stay tuned!
So what do you think? Is painting stone or brick a project you would ever take on?

Kitchen Re-Design Diaries: The "Final" Chapter

It's finally here... we're ready to show you the outcome of all of our hard work! We put a lot of time, energy, and love into this kitchen re-design, and we've learned A LOT along the way!
Let's take a walk down memory lane. Let us remind you what our kitchen looked like before we took it by the hand, and led it to a brighter place.... children under 12 may want to leave the room.

Mmmm.... oh dark, greasy wood panelling... grungy carpet... century-old appliances and counter tops that were nothing if not um... sticky. We don't miss you at all. and p.s. old washer, you just don't belong... you never did....
But you know what? It's all okay now. We have officially conquered mold, re-routed our washer line to the garage to hook-up our brand new front-loaders, purchased tools most people won't ever need (anyone need to borrow our wet saw?), and learned that cabinets aren't always as sturdy as they look, but anything can be saved with a little elbow grease, can-do and know-how (thank you, Google and DIY Network). Ladies and gentlemen.... without further ado.....we give to you..... the new and improved Ahlgrim Kitchen:


Isn't it sparkling? Radiant? Fantastic? Illuminating?!?! SPLENDID?!
We certainly think so.
So let's start at the beginning. Remember when we purchased new counter tops? Well, you couldn't really tell from the picture, but we extended the counter surface on the left side of the kitchen to create an open "desk" area by using fence posts (purchased at Lowes and cut down to the correct height) as legs on the end.

Looks at those biceps.....


You may notice that we have left the space beneath the counter unpainted. This was due to a project that went awry. Now we simply can't decide if we should paint it green like the rest of the kitchen walls, or keep it white like the surfaces surrounding it... your thoughts? Leave them in the comment section!


Next, we installed a new sink, faucet, and garbage disposal... and when I say "we" I mean we hired a plumber to install it. The plumbing in our kitchen is rather (VERY) old, and we weren't willing to risk a great flood on our still-bare plywood floors (the tile had yet to be installed). Part of being a good DIY-er is knowing when to say 'when'.

Then we got to work ripping off the old laminate backsplash (complete with flecks of gold) and red fuzzy wallpaper. We installed backer board and tiled our little hearts out. We absolutely love the way the subway tile backsplash turned out! What do you think?

After that came paint. Remember how we convinced you that painting wood panelling was the way to go? Well, we certainly don't regret that decision at all!

Our walls are now a beautiful shade of blue-green. And yes, we left the hole in the panelling open just to show off the red fuzzy wallpaper

Sort of festive, don't you think?

Our next big step was an endless cycle of sanding, priming, sanding, priming, painting, sanding, and painting again. We purchased our own sander (one tool that Chelsea has always longed to own, as she cannot leave things looking brand new).

The cabinets weren't in as good of shape as we had anticipated. There was a ton of built-up grease, lots of knicks and dings, and some pretty gnarly etch-work, but it just took a little more effort... and a few kicking and crying fits before we finally showed those cabinets who was boss.

After the first sanding, we used an oil-based primer to coat the cabinets and cover any existing imperfections. We also chose a kitchen and bath enamel paint to ensure that our "new" cabinets would be able to withstand any steam and splatters they might encounter. We used thin foam rollers to apply the paint and sanded between each coat to ensure a smooth, shiny, professional-looking finish.

We saved money (and a few headaches, I'm sure) by re-using the existing hinges. This way we knew that the hinges would fit right back in the same holes from whence they came. Chelsea removed each set and placed it in a small zipper bag labelled with a number that coordinated with the cabinet from which it was removed. She later took them outside and gave them a good twice-over with some Rustoleum spray paint in a nickel finish.

Since the cabinets did not have any existing hardware, we were free to choose what we liked without having to worry about filling or matching any existing holes. After all was said and done, we had some fantastic-looking cabinets. Good as new!

Our final step was deciding whether to lay hardwood floors to match our beautiful, original oak floors, lay down a laminate that matched fairly closely, or stick with the more durable tile.... after hearing a few horror stories from you fine folks (broken ice makers are shockingly common by the way), we decided on tile! We chose a dark grey-brown with brown grout to accent the cool blue-green walls.

We added some blinds, touched-up the paint, and VOILA! Our kitchen was transformed from from grungy to great! It's an on-going project- these things always are. It seems that when you're dealing with the place where you live, it grows along with you. We still want to add some little touches- accent rugs, things on the wall, a bit more to the windows, etc, but for now, we're content with the beautiful outcome of all our hard work (All to the tune of only about $4,000!) and we can't wait to hear what you think! Thank you for following along with us on this adventure!

Have questions about projects from our kitchen? Ask them in the comments section! We'd be happier to give you a more detailed description of our projects!

Keep on truckin'

So we left you hanging last time. I'm sure you've been losing sleep just wondering if the Ahlgrims have a working toilet... well, fear not. Your sleepless nights are over, concerned reader. The Ahlgrims have a working toilet! But not just that. The Ahlgrims have a re-painted bathroom as well! I'm sure you're all dying to see pictures, and we're dying to show them to you, but alas, the camera is sitting on the kitchen counter and we can't get to it... why, you ask? Because the grout is drying on the kitchen floor! (!!!!!)


Wait, WHAT?! The Ahlgrims finished not one, but TWO projects?
No. The fireplace is done too. That's three! We simply cannot wait to show you the result! Stay tuned this week for our big reveal(s)!


For now, we'll leave you with a little peak at the kitchen in mid-construction:

DIY Realities

We've shown you the pretty side of DIY-ing your way threw our Mid-Century Rancher, but let's talk for a minute about our dirty little secret... the project we haven't had tackled that looms over our head. We call this this Hall Bathroom. It's that room that you clean- nay, SCRUB and douse with bleach, yet it never feels completely clean because of how old it is. Here, I'll just show you a picture that speaks for itself:

Yep. Complete with faux rock tile, dingy sink vanity, and mirrored sliding doors that probably hadn't been cleaned in at least ten years. Sick.

The good news is, we decided to do a little mini-makeover sesh while we're saving to gut the poor guy.

We removed the grimy sliding doors and replaced it with a nice white shower curtain. We've taken down the vinyl mini blinds and put up a simply tea-towel cafe curtain. We painted the vanity, shelving, and all trim white and added brushed nickel hardware, and we scrubbed (and scrubbed... and scrubbed) that nasty tile... it still looks pretty funky. Our little bathroom was starting to look a little less scary. Except for one thing: the toilet.

Now, in the toilet's defense, it's a good, clean, working toilet... okay, well, it was clean at least. It just had a REALLY nasty toilet seat. Seen here:

Did I just completely gross you out? I did, didn't I. You're never coming back... Okay, well, if you're still reading and not clawing your eyes out from this horrendous sight, I'll finish my story. I decided to replace the toilet seat. I Popped of this old green one by unscrewing the plastic bolts and nuts located underneath the toilet seat on either side. Then I just screwed in the shiny new seat and gave myself a pat on the back!

But the story doesn't end there... Oh no. I wish it did. I got the urge to scrub that crazy tile again, so I started with the hard-to-reach tile behind the toilet. While scrubbing, my shoulder knocked against the toilet tank and all of a sudden my little hall bathroom became the kiddy pool at the water park- complete with woman slipping and sliding all over the place trying to take care of the problem. It seriously looked like a scene from "I Love Lucy". Ridiculous, you guys.

But I didn't have too much time to panic. The water was a constant trickle, so I grabbed a pitcher to catch the water. I quickly located the leak: the tank bolt underneath the right side of the tank. This is the bolt that attaches your tank to your seat. Not good. I called Ryan in a panic, and luckily, he was on his lunch break and close enough to come home to help. While waiting for him, I decided to attempt to remedy the situation by myself. All I needed were some pliers, right?

Pliers? Check. Remove toilet tank lid. Check. Hold down seal inside FREEZING water of toilet tank, while tightening bolt underneath toilet tank at the same time... eeehhhhh.... not so much. I'm pretty coordinated, but I'm not THAT great. Plus, any tightening I attempted seemed to only cause MORE water to flow from the back of the toilet! The pitcher was full. I emptied it, admitted defeat, and sat and waited for Ryan to get home.

When he got there, we drained the tank, but couldn't get the water to shut off so it wouldn't fill up again! (it just keeps getting better, right?) So what did we do? We went all Macgruber on our toilet and tied the float bulb to the towel rack above the toilet using the string handles cut from my old fabric books (you're impressed, aren't you? I knew it. Or maybe just embarassed for us...) After the tank was drained and dry, we put a clear layer of silicone sealant over the tank seal. Did it work? Heck if I know. We have to wait for 24 hours to even get it wet! I guess we'll find out later tonight...

Luckily we had already planned to have a plumber out tonight to fix another unrelated problem in the same bathroom...and THAT, my friends... is the reality of DIY.

What's your DIY disaster story?

Kitchen Re-Design Salvaged

Over the past few months, there have been many things very, very wrong with our tiny little mid-century kitchen (heinous wood panelling, interesting choices in wallpaper, carpet in the kitchen, Oh, and mold) all of which are problems that can be quickly remedied. But there was one little element in this charming kitchen that gnawed at my nerves... it haunted my dreams and I feared that it would ruin all of our hard work if we allowed it to remain within the confines of our new clean, white, updated kitchen... what was this lurking monster, you ask? What was this black cloud of design death that loomed over my head as I did dishes every day? (literally) It was the dreaded wood cornice!

Okay, so maybe it's not THAT bad... but it is a very dated look that we just weren't jiving with. Well, I think Ryan could have lived with it, but I absolutely could not justify spending time and money to update a kitchen and then leaving the one little element that would STILL make it look dated! So ask me what I did.... go ahead ask me!

I made puppy dog eyes at Ryan and convinced him to lop off the vile wooden beast! It was a bit tricky because the piece actually went all the way up to attach to the crown molding on top of the cabinets, which we wanted to remain intact. But, my Bear is a skilled craftsman with an iron will and he made perfectly smooth cuts to please his (nagging) adoring wife.

He has a cute butt. Just saying. Aaaaaaand back to the finished product:

After a bit of sawing and sanding, our lines were all clean! New issue: we can now see more of the cheap over-sink light fixture than we'd like... Looks like I'll be doing some lighting shopping!