Stefan and I have been trying to take a break from working on the house, while Conner and Dianne are in town visiting, but I wanted to finished the closet really bad. So, Conner and Dianne decided to help us out and finish up the last of the master closet.
They helped build the last shelf and hang the last dowel. Our closet is finally complete and I love it!
Conner and Dianne helping build our closet.
Our completed closet!
Left side of the closet.
Right side of the closet.
Fill ‘er up! Can you guess which side is Summer’s?!
We love organization!
To make this closet, we used the following materials:
~ 3/4″ cedar plywood (4 or 5 4′x8′ sheets)
~ 6 wood dowels
~ 6 sets of dowel flanges
~ Belt hooks
~ Wood glue
Tools used:
~ Circular saw
~ Nail gun and nails
~ Electric sander
~ Level
~ Squaring ruler
~ Tape Measure/ruler
The total cost to build this closet was around $300 (since we already owned all the tools) and it took us about 6 - 8 hours of labor. Although, we can probably do it a lot quicker now that we have the kinks worked out :).
Connor and Dianne are coming to visit today, so Stefan and I threw the bed back into the loft and (finally) moved ourselves into the master bedroom. The guest bed was taken out of the loft when Jamie and Brian laid some of the flooring we had left over up there. Unfortunately, Stefan and I have been so busy we havn’t taken the time to put the loft back together and we’ve been sleeping on the floor instead. Well, today (Christmas), while everyone was doing all that sappy family stuff (just kidding ;)…) I cleaned the entire upstairs and put the loft back together again. Exciting, eh?
Here is a picture of the loft so you can see the new flooring. Wooo!
Since the center shelf is floor to ceiling, we had to construct most of it inside the closet.
We measured wrong, as you can see on the top rear of the shelf. So we cut some additional pieces and fixed it. Luckly for me, Stefan is as big of a perfectionist as I am.
Day 2: Pieces for the sides have been carefully measured and cut and I am sanding the edges.
Right side has been successfully built (on the 1st try this time!).
Sides installed!
So far, I am so excited about what we’ve built! There was a bit of bickering in the beginning since neither of us has any experience building furniture and both of us are “A” personalities, but we’ve found our niches and we’re moving right along. I draw what we visualize, we work together to get the measurements right on paper, I measure and mark where the wood is to be cut, Stefan cuts the wood, I sand the edges on the cuts and we both put the pieces together with wood glue, a squaring ruler and a nail gun.
When building a closet (or furniture) it’s SO important to get your measurements 100% correct before you start cutting up all the expensive wood. All of my fashion design classes are all coming back to me now…Furniture design and fashion design are very similar when it comes to putting the design on paper, measuring, cutting and building. Who would’ve thought…:)
Today we are going to hang the dowels and build the side shelves. Off to Home Depot!
Our kitchen is finally fully functional! Here is Stefan cooking lasagna on his birthday (12/18):
The kitchen isn’t quite finished, but it works, so we are happy :). To finish the kitchen, this is what needs to get done:
~ Cabinet doors hung
~ Pantry/wine refrigerator/wetbar area to be built and installed
~ Breakfast bar to be built and installed
~ Minor lighting work (under cabinet lights and one track light)
~ Water purifier installed (we have to have someone cut a hole in the granite. Oops!)
~ Box in over sink lights
Summer and I are still working hard on the house everyday. It is funny, we moved down to Puerto Rico for a more relaxing tropical lifestyle and I am busier than I have ever been in my entire life. Ha, I guess that is just how it goes when you build a house.
Now that we have the beautiful hardwood floors in, it is really time to do something about the driveway. At the moment, it is just scraped dirt with some hard rock, but when it rains, it pretty much turns into a slip and slide. If you are parked down by the house and a good rain comes through, you aren’t leaving unless you have 4 wheel drive. For Example:
The mud and dirt from the driveway get tracked into the house by the dogs, us and our friends that come over. I mop in the morning and by the time Summer wakes up she doesn’t even notice that I cleaned the floor.
Now, we have plenty of options as far as driveway surfaces go, but I think our bank account is going to dictate what we are going to be able to do to resolve the problem quickly. Concrete is just too expensive right now, and we will be able to cover up a gravel driveway down the line with concrete when we can afford to pull the trigger on such an expensive project (maybe when we get the pool and cabana in the back yard :-).
Here is the basic layout for the driveway. Nothing fancy at all.
Does anyone have any experience with gravel driveways out there? The only thing I remember about them as a kid is they suck to walk on with bare feet. I am looking for a little deeper intellectual insight than that though. How often will we need to pour in new gravel? Do we need to build a form for the driveway or do we just dump the rocks and push them around? Will they drain well or will they all erode down the hill? Should we have a big roller come in and compress them down?
Do you guys have any insight on gravel driveways in Puerto Rico or elsewhere?
Damn you, westelm.com! I found the perfect day bed for our guest bedroom and they won’t ship to Puerto Rico.
A day bed seems like the perfect solution for our guest bedroom. Since there is a queen size bed in the loft area, we’ve been going back and forth on if we were going to get another bed or perhaps a pull out couch or something along those lines.
Cool daybed = bueno, West Elm’s shipping policy = no bueno!
We are keeping the upstairs of our house somewhat tradition when it comes to the interior design, so we decided to get a little buck wild,insane, um, creative, with the downstairs. For the downstairs bathroom, we picked out a dark gray (almost black) tile for the floors, light gray tile with oriental accents for the shower and a bold “cranberry” color for the walls. Well, that “cranberry” color turned out to be HOT PINK. Here is the progress of the bathroom and laundry room so far:
Every one that has seen the bathroom has laughed and made a “techno”, “nightclub” or “lets do drugs and get naked in here!” comment about our sexy little techno bathroom…haha. We were going for a more zen feel, but whatever, it’s hilarious. I wish we had the foresight and purchased a black toilet for this bathroom.
Before my last trip to San Diego, I wanted to get the paint done in my office. Unfortunately I was rushed, didn’t read the faux painting instructions and it wasn’t turning out the way I wanted it. So I abandoned the project, until today. Here is the base coat + partial paint that didn’t turn out:
I’m doing a faux finish that requires a lighter tinted paint (the seafoam looking paint) as a base coat, with a paint/glaze mix for the finishing coat (the darker teal color).
On my 1st try, I was rolling the darker teal paint on and then trying to manipulate the paint with cheesecloth, for a weathered look. Unfortunately I was getting roller lines and I ran out of cheese cloth about 1/10th of the way through…
So, I resumed the project today with a new game plan. I mixed the glaze and paint (4 parts glaze to 1 part paint) and cut up a terrycloth towel and used that as my paint brush.
I scrunched the towel into a ball, dipped it into the glaze/paint mix and “washed” the walls in a circular motion. It really was just like washing/scrubbing a car, and I like how it turned out (for the most part).
Here is the finished faux finish:
Now I need to paint the white walls (they’ve been primed already), and I’m thinking of adding a pearlescent additive to the white paint to give it an interesting shine. I’m also going to paint the window panes white.
After the white paint, I need to pick out baseboards, outlet covers and hang all of the dohickies that go on the wall (which I need to get right the 1st time, since I’ll be drilling into concrete to hang anything in my office).
Since the upstairs flooring has been laid, we decided to set up the living room set that was delivered a few weeks ago (and has since been sitting in huge boxes in Stefans office). Here is the dark brown leather couch and chair we got at Rooms To Go in Mayaguez:
We picked up the carpet at the Marshalls Mega Store (they have a great selection!) in San Juan and the TV came from the Costco in San Juan.
I can’t even tell you how nice it is to have a comfortable place to lounge! Before the couch, we would either be sitting at our desks, on a bucket or in the hammock, which isn’t very social friendly…
In our quest for decent furniture in/around Rincon, we’ve found the two best places to be Sears and Rooms To Go, both in Mayaguez.
