The Pantry

I'm going to show you my almost completed pantry because I just can't wait any longer to show you.  This little gem used to be our bathroom, but as you remember we moved our bathroom to where the wet-bar used to be.  This room works perfectly for our pantry and since I haven't had a pantry in this house or the house before.  I'm beyond thrilled.  What I was using as my pantry were some cabinets beside my fridge that were so deep that things always seemed to go missing.

We removed all the old fixtures (cabinet, sink, toilet, vent fan, mirror, light) and started from scratch.  We built the cabinet with the purpose to house an RO System that will be fed directly through the wall to our fridge. The other side of it holds our recycling bins.

Then we have shelving built for the rest of the pantry. A new light was installed in the ceiling since our previous one was mounted on the wall. The picture below shows the shelving that was built when you turn to the right. So, I have plenty of room in there.

We moved everything in even though there are a few more things to do.  We still need to texture the ceiling where the old vent fan was located, remove the toilet water supply valve from the wall and custom built spice racks have also been promised in my future.

Another floor down

 Whew, I think we are almost through with the kitchen/ utility room tile.  Of course there are always a few things left to do, but we are so close to being finished.  I was actually really glad the kitchen had holes put in it from the foundation work because there was no love lost when this laminate flooring had to go.  Bye, Bye! It's just not my style.

 Before Picture

Now, I'm all for the great properties of laminate, but it really should have never been put in a kitchen.  Let's just say after having three water leaks in the kitchen, laminate buckles and separates with water.  Tile is really the only thing you'd want in areas that gets wet.

I found a great porcelain tile that has the color all the way through it.  This was an important to me because I've seen how my little guy can tear things up. In fact he tested the tile out yesterday with a red crayon.  Needless to say, I'm almost certain that someone will chip it at one point and having the color all the way through will make that chip less noticeable. Another great thing about this tile is it is a rectified tile, meaning you can have really small grout lines.  Hurray, for less grout to clean.  Do not ask my husband what he thought of the tile.  Haha.  According to him it is pretty difficult to lay the tile level when you have to lay them so close together.  So, I guess I didn't do him any favors by just picking one size of tile for this room.  I'm not sure what he thought was more difficult, the kitchen or the entry.  Oh, and ignore the base molding in the pictures.  We haven't put the quarter round back down so you can see the previous colors of paint people have painted the molding. Once everything gets put back into place I'll get you some prettier pictures where you can see my kitchen.  The best thing about the new tiles is that it has really made my kitchen look bigger and brighter. 

The Aftermath

Well, our house survived the recent foundation overhaul.  It has left behind some big weekend projects, but I'm sure we will get them fixed in time.  Here's what we've been left with to fix. New flooring will need to be installed in my kitchen as you can see from the picture below.

Here's my laundry room.  New flooring will go in here too.

Here is my living room floor.  We just took the carpet and threw it back over so it looks nice and wrinkly.  My daughter wanted to know who cut our carpet, I had a hard time explaining that it was a seam to our carpet.

And of course there are cracks all over the house that will need to be patched and painted.

 

 Now on to the latest home repair project, re-tiling our entry way.  This is the before picture.  Beautiful 1970's tile.  I think it was time for a change and it needed it since we had that gorgeous concrete patch there.

After the tile was removed with the hammer drill.  I love this tool. If we didn't have one, then I would definitely want one.  It made taking tile out a snap.

Next step was to put down the self leveler. Here's my hard working husband putting it down.

Here's the start of putting in the new tile.  My dad and husband started putting this down this weekend.  I'm almost positive my husband was cursing me under his breath about the tile pattern.  It wouldn't be a problem except the smaller tiles are not the same thickness as the bigger tiles.  Hopefully, we will get it done to show you after pictures next week.