Old House. Brown Dog

Once upon a time, last week to be exact, Jose and I decided it was a cute idea to build barn doors for our closet.  Being the adult children we are, we neglected to keep in mind wood is outrageously expensive (thanks Covid) and could have built the doors out of gold or macadamia nuts for the same price. We secured a bunch of beautiful cedar and hauled it up to the cabin.  Jose did some googling and taught himself how to build doors, I bought a track system on etsy and the rest is very expensive history. measuring the space The project went super smoothly and Jose impressed me once again. I was not much help on this project since I am not allowed to use saws or the nail gun, but I supported from the sidelines by drinking beer and handing him pieces of wood. construction slippers, check! We haven't decided on stain yet, but I really love these doors. I am a fan of wood panel or log interior cabins, so they add that wood look I want to our non wood interior. We will be adding woo...

Thanks to Covid, I haven't trimmed my hair in well over a year. The cabin however is all trimmed out and ready to twirl. After installing new floors and doors things were looking a little skanky around the edges of the cabin. So a few weekends ago, we fixed that. Jose installed white trim around the floor boards in the bedrooms and hall and a wood trim in the living and kitchen.  The doors also got spruced up and we put in a wine rack that we were gifted and customized with a little spray paint and saw action. Project notes: Cost- Jose is bad at receipts, but I think this was just a few hundred dollars in total. Drinks- I helped very little so lots of wine on trim night!

Our first step in weekend two of the kitchen reno was the backsplash. After the  cabinets and counters  were in, I assumed the rest of the kitchen reno would be a breeze. WRONG.  The backsplash was a nightmare and a half. In fairness, we should have known it would be after the fireplace tile project, but I must have blacked that out. First we covered the new counters with 32954 layers of plastic and cardboard. Then we got to work. We learned a few lessons on the fireplace project so this time around I had a new job, which was buttering the tiles with glue. I did that, Jose put them in place, then I cleaned the tiles once we had a good section in. I really love butter, so it was a good job for me. constrUGGtion boots are a must The tile took a lot longer than I anticipated, about 7 hours to lay it and then a few more the next day to grout. It did go much more smoothly than the fireplace, but I would not call it our most fun project. You see Jose and I agree on most things,...

Remodeling the kitchen has been the part of the cabin reno I have been most excited and most nervous about since day one. I love to cook almost as much as I love to eat, and with only one main living area, the kitchen is really in the spotlight. When we renovated our Denver kitchen, I managed to stay within budget by removing anything that didn't fit into the budget from my project spreadsheet and calling it another line item. For example flooring moved to "general house improvements", appliances didn't count, etc... It worked out really well and I was able to get my dream kitchen right on budget. Given our entire renovation budget is less than a moderate kitchen reno for most homes, I did not have that luxury this time around.  Deciding how you want your kitchen to look is always tough, especially if you are like me and really appreciate a lot of styles. Luckily for us, there were a few decisions we made early on from a skill and budget perspective that kept me from ...