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#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

Installing Ikea cabinets in all three of our beach house kitchens invites the question: why didn’t we use them in our home’s kitchen in Richmond?! So this week we’re diving into the answer, including what gave us pause about using Ikea back then, how it could’ve changed our final result, and what we’d choose if we had to select kitchen cabinets for our home today. Plus, we share how a simple outdoor project turned into a major plumbing issue at the duplex (yes, another one – the water curse lives on!) and why there was also an emergency call to an electrician one evening, you know, for balance.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

That is literally the text I sent Sherry when I realized one of the water shut off valves had been buried over at the duplex. You can see the exposed one in the foreground, and the other should’ve been about 4 feet in front of it, but I dug around for a while and… nada.

We always knew it was buried a bit deeper than the other, but you can see below how deeply it had been hidden when the guys were installing the pathway along the side of the house (it was around 4″ below the ground level once the path went in). You can also see how it was so close to the path that some of the plastic edging pieces actually prevented someone from removing the cover.

I didn’t take any pictures while I was digging it out because I didn’t expect this to be a moment worth sharing with anyone… and then the water line broke. But the photo below shows some of the aftermath. You can see the box (aka “margarine tub”) removed from the hole in the background. The lid to it is set off to the right side.

And here is a detail of the break itself (at the bottom of the picture). It’s not very big, but it sure did release a lot of water very quickly! The pipe wasn’t visible for hours until the water drained, leaving this lovely mud situation.

It’s all fixed now and when the plumber reconnected it, he set everything a little higher so that one is level with the ground as well. So we won’t have the issue of it getting hidden again – AND it’s further away from the path, which was also an issue.

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We’re making lots of big progress in the beach house backyard that we can’t wait to properly photograph and write a big ol’ blog post about, but for now, there’s a peek at the lights on the sheds that gave us all that trouble.

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

Our laundry room in Richmond (pictured below) – where you can see how we relied on filler pieces to make it look wall-to-wall, as well as a piece on the bottom to disguise the under-cabinet lighting.

You can read specifically about installing those Ikea cabinets here. Like we say in the episode, these were the only 4 Ikea cabinets (3 uppers and 1 lower) we had ever installed before we started planning our kitchen. The door style here is called BODBYN.

Our bonus room built-ins in Richmond were our next Ikea project, using the same BODBYN cabinet fronts. We actually shared this project on the blog before our kitchen remodel, because it came together faster… but the decision to use the local cabinet company for the kitchen was made far before we had this second go at Ikea cabinets for the bonus room. You can see how we created the bonus room built-ins in this post.

Our beach house kitchen in Cape Charles was our first actual kitchen project using Ikea cabinetry. You can see before & afters here, and read more about how we planned it and how we installed it in those posts. The cabinet door style here are called VEDDINGE.

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

One last thing on the subject of kitchens. When Sherry mentioned an “appliance garage” as one of the more customized features in our kitchen, she was referring to this area that our cabinet installers were able to put together with stock doors and filler pieces to resemble a cabinet (notice how the cabinet has no back?). We use it to store a lot of our breakfast foods and large/frequently used appliances like the toaster and the crock pot. We just leave it open when they’re in use and close it to hide them the rest of the time.

We’re Digging

If you’re ready to jump back into our unofficial Creepy Murder Book Club, here are the two books I read over Spring Break: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

Or if you couldn’t get enough of Sherry’s “sexy fairy” recommendation of the Court of Thorns And Roses series, she’s now DEEP into Sarah Maas’ other series: Throne of Glass. As she mentioned in the episode, there is a prequel (The Assassin’s Blade) but she’s started with book one (“Throne of Glass“) and just a couple of days ago has made it to book five!

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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Wanna See Some Finished Bedrooms & Bathrooms at The Duplex?

We’re working overtime (so many trips to the beach these days!) to get all of the rooms in the duplex finished and photographed so we can get our rental listing up on Airbnb for weeklong summer bookings. Don’t worry, we’ll make a big announcement when that happens – you won’t miss it! So even though we still have a bunch of rooms that aren’t quite done yet (like 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 2 laundry rooms, and 2 more bedrooms and bathrooms), it feels extremely momentous to be 100% finished with the four rooms in this post. *Please imagine every single celebratory emoji here*

So without further ado, I’ll show you around the two bedrooms and two bathrooms at the duplex that are done, done, done! *Imagine that gif of Shaq doing the happy shoulder dance here*

This is the completed master bedroom on the right side of the duplex. Each side of the house has some slightly different challenges and measurements, and this bed wall was slightly less wide than the one on the other side, which meant that hanging accordion sconces made the most of the space, and they can be flipped on or off from bed. Meticulously planning our outlets so they were placed right by each nightstand (and not behind the bed for example) means there’s a free outlet on each side for people to easily charge their phones right by the bed.

We aimed for as much function as we could, and as for the actual character of the room, we loved exposing that original brick chimney that was hiding behind the wall. And adding a window behind the bed made the room feel so much brighter and more welcoming. We had to appeal to the historic review board and get their permission to add it, so it wasn’t without effort, but it was well worth it! This is a picture we took during the framing stage of that window going in. We really have come a long way, huh?

And we actually love a bed in front of a window (remember we have one in the front bedroom at the beach house!). Our tip is just to choose a bed that allows light to pass through it, like this metal one, so it feels like it layers into the room instead of sitting heavily in front of the window and blocking things off, if that makes sense.

You probably also remember that we added a small addition in the form of a full bathroom off of this room to make it a true master bedroom (another thing we needed permission from the historic review board to do – more on that process here – and you can see how that addition totally changed the back view of the beach house here). We think it’s one of the best things we did to add value and function to this house!

We’ll have to snap a few more photos when we can to capture it all (it’s a small room, so a video tour might be the best way to show you everything), but the bathroom feels airy and bright thanks to the tonal tile and the greeny-gray doors (Oyster Bay by Sherwin Williams – this entire side of the duplex has doors that color). They pair so nicely with the crisp bright walls (Spare White by Sherwin Williams, which is the wall color we used throughout the entire duplex).

floor tile | wall tile | shower floor | grout: frost | door: SW Oyster Bay

Bathrooms are some of the hardest rooms for us to tackle because we tiled all the floors ourselves, which takes significantly more time/sweat than just assembling some furniture like you do in a bedroom or a living room. But let me tell you, the final accessorizing is so easy and fun. It’s like they slowly come together for months with heavy plumbing and tile stuff and then bam, finished in a day when you’re at the “decorating” stage since they’re so small. YESSSS! We’ll celebrate that little victory!

We added a mirror, a few towel hooks, a long white shower curtain, our favorite toilet paper holder that we use everywhere, some leather pulls on the vanity, and a few frames for the wall and called it good. Oh and speaking of the mirror, we knew we’d have to find a somewhat unusual solution since there’s a window right over the sink, but we love how this cool hinged chrome one looks! It’s functional, and it still lets tons of light flood in from behind it. Oh and we frosted the glass so you don’t have to worry that someone is peeking in on you or deal with some weird blind-behind-the-mirror scenario.

I guess I should have said that all the doors on this side are Oyster Bay except for these, which were quirky old original doors that we saved! Many of the other doors, trim, windows, and light fixtures in this house had been replaced over the years, so we LOVE that we could save these doors and use them to create two built-in closets that flank the large window. The original charm that they add = priceless!

We added the cubbies on top to balance things out since the original doors are shorter than standard ones. And inside each closet there’s tons of nice storage space to hang clothes, put suitcases, etc – with bonus storage space up top in the cubbies. Sidenote: I love a wood hanger and a luggage rack, so we tucked them into each master closet for people to enjoy (there are more hangers in the other closet in here too).

dresser| mirror | baskets | rug | luggage rack

We also added a dresser across from the bed with a nice big mirror (this one that I LOVE!) for even more space to store clothes. The rug is also really cute in here – I love the beachy feeling and the soft color. It’s interesting but not too demanding, which helps the room feel serene (and the price was right!).

When I walk into that room it just feels so surreal to see it all finished! It has been a long road, and we hardly can picture what it used to look like back when we bought it. There was painted plastic paneling to hide the mold in the walls and a drop ceiling to cover rot from a roof leak that had been an issue for years. There was also threadbare wall-to-wall carpeting and baseboard heating that didn’t work (we redid the entire house’s heating and cooling systems, along with new electrical and plumbing to get everything up to code & safe). This is a before shot of the room from one of our first walk throughs (you can see the entire before tour of this house here).

The window you see above is essentially where we placed the door that leads to the new bathroom addition, and then we added a new window further over towards the chimney on that wall, which you see behind the bed below.

Since before & afters are so much fun, let’s switch gears to the front bedroom on the other side of the duplex. This is what that room looked like before. The theme of this house was definitely add-coverings-to-hide-damage-in-the-walls-and-ceilings, so once again there were drop ceilings and plastic faux-paneling on the walls. And that little front closet (with the blue door) was devoid of any natural light. We quickly discovered that they had covered a window with drywall (!!!!!) so we dug it out of the wall and exposed it again – and it was one of the ones with diamond grills!

Ripping out that crazy window-blocking drywall and exposing the beautiful diamond-grilled window allows light to flood into the room from that closet as well – and lighter walls also help things feel airy and fresh. Again, this front bedroom is on the opposite side of the duplex as the master bedroom we just showed you, which is why it has pink doors like all the other doors on the left side (White Truffle by Sherwin Williams). And the old floors look so much better since refinishing them (more on that here).

I always feel like before & afters skip a HUGE part if you’re doing a deep renovation because a ton happens between them. You go backwards, sometimes A LOT, before you can go forwards again. This house had so much rot that we had to strip things waaaaay back to get rid of it all and rebuild it. So just for kicks, the window you see above is almost exactly where I’m standing in this picture below. Did I mentioned we had to strip things waaaaaay back?

So that might explain why we’re feeling so good to be in the home stretch! If you walk through the bedroom door and turn to your right, you see this cozy bed that we found at Ikea and two soft greeny-gray nightstands with pretty gold hardware that ties into the wall mounted accordion lights. The hilarious thing is that we only have two sets of these lights in the entire duplex (one set per side, so someone renting one unit won’t even see the other set) but the two bedrooms that happen to be done both have them in there… which is why they’re all over this post. I promise all four of the other bedrooms have different lamps! Ha!

How cute are these nightstands though?! And the price is SO GOOD. I love that they’re super functional with three drawers each (yay storage!) and that they bring in some color. It’s actually a subtle nod to the other side of the duplex since they’re almost exactly the same color as the greeny-gray doors on the other side! #MintToBe

There’s also a nice little closet in this bedroom, complete with a dresser for folded clothing. Remember the room with the diamond-grilled window? That’s all redone and it’s such a sweet space. But we haven’t fully finished and snapped photos in there yet. Soon I hope.

Now let’s skip over to the hall bathroom on the right side of the duplex (back to the side with those greeny-gray doors). The tile in here is one of my favorites (even though it was kind of a pain to lay), and we finished the room off with some natural touches, like some leather vanity pulls and a floating wood shelf. We rounded things out with a few other classic items, like an extra long white shower curtain, a round gold mirror, a simple white vanity, and some beachy art.

Each side of the duplex originally just had one full bathroom, but the upstairs of each side now has two full baths – along with an additional powder room downstairs, which is so nice. This before shot of the one and only bathroom on the left side is yet another demonstration of the cover-rotting-things approach (don’t try this at home, folks). See how the vinyl floor is bubbled and loose? It’s because there were all sorts of water issues going on under there and they were trying to mask them with sheet vinyl.

And now for the fourth room we’re completely finished with… which is pretty dang similar to the third, ha! It’s the hall bathroom on the left side of the duplex, which has different tile floors but the same vanity and accents.

It’s kind of fun to just change one major thing and stare at both of these and try to pick a favorite. Is the bolder blue floor more your speed, or the scrolly pink & green hex? John’s favorite is the blue one and I love the pink one. Maybe when the whole duplex is done we should do a room by room duel and have you guys vote your faves in various polls (I know John’s data-lovin’ mind would enjoy all of those stats).

Oh and while we’re on the subject of sides, so many people ask me if I have a favorite side – even close friends lean in and say “whisper it in my ear, I won’t tell anyone” – and I honestly can’t choose! There are so many elements on each side that I love, so I just ping-pong back and forth. For example, I love the kitchen with the pink tile and the blue cabinets on the left side a smidge more than the wood one with the blue backsplash if you super twist my arm (it’s very very close though, you can see them both here), but my favorite twin bedroom by a sliver is the one with the oranges, which is on the right side. DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE!

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life here From buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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7 Pro-Approved Shortcuts for Nearly Any Home Improvement Project

Tackle paint jobs, prep work, maintenance, and repairs quickly and easily with these expert tips and tools. The following content is paid advertising created in partnership with Hyde Tools. Its facts and opinions are those of BobVila.com. 7 Pro-Approved Shortcuts for Nearly Any Home Improvement Project published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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15 Old Houses That Are Now Museums

House museums are an intimate, at times breathtaking, way to experience history. If your next vacation takes you near any of these 15 architectural and historical gems, drop in for some amazing stories, beautiful treasures—and perhaps a few ghosts. 15 Old Houses That Are Now Museums published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen?

What’s New

And if you’ve missed our previous water dramatics out in Cape Charles, you can catch up on it all here:

Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house didn’t have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.

Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.

Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted…

Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Started Flooding – Here’s when we removed the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house master bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.

That’s Embarassing

We used the 11″ versionss on the sides of the shed (and on the back of the house) but got the larger 15″ ones for this area near the peak.

You can’t even see the dusk-to-dawn sensor in these pictures, but if you look on the website you’ll notice a little nub at the top of the shade on the backside.

Ikea Kitchens

If you want to read more about our kitchen renovation here at our Richmond home, check out these posts:

Kitchen before & afters, including details on the cabinets we used (and a room schematic with measurements)

The renovation process, including a look at the full gut job

Devising a totally new kitchen layout

5 kitchen mistakes we made during the reno

And if you’re looking for details on the projects where we’ve used Ikea cabinetry, here they are in order of completion:

And of course, just this past winter we did both duplex kitchens in Cape Charles with Ikea cabinets again since we have grown to like them so much. The door style below is called ASKERSUND.

And the blue cabinets in the other duplex kitchen below are called KALLARP. You can read all about those in this post we did with all of our tips, tricks, & tools to install an Ikea kitchen yourself.

We’re Digging

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Check it her latest collaboration with artist Laura Park at annieselke.com/YHL. And get 15% off your order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? appeared first on Young House Love.

#138: Was Ikea Not “Good Enough” For Our Home’s Kitchen? published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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Wanna See Some Finished Bedrooms & Bathrooms at The Duplex?

So without further ado, I’ll show you around the two bedrooms and two bathrooms at the duplex that are done, done, done! *Imagine that gif of Shaq doing the happy shoulder dance here*

floor tile | wall tile | shower floor | grout: frost | door: SW Oyster Bay

dresser| mirror | baskets | rug | luggage rack

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life here From buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post Wanna See Some Finished Bedrooms & Bathrooms at The Duplex? appeared first on Young House Love.

Wanna See Some Finished Bedrooms & Bathrooms at The Duplex? published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

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statusreview · 6 years ago

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#137: The Next Home We’re Taking On

We’ve got a really exciting announcement this week about a new design project we’re taking on, including how it came to be, what has us most excited, and why it’s going to challenge us in some new ways (did we mention it’s out-of-state?). We’re also sharing how last week’s spring break trip reinforced our mission to minimize our belongings, even if John did bring home something very strange from vacation. Plus, a new solution we found for wrangling digital photos, a DIY tool that’s brilliantly simple, and… well… nutmeat.

What’s New

Like we mentioned in the episode, our Spring Break trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida was another reminder that all four of us are perfectly happy with less stuff and more time together.

We talked more about that first realization in Episode #45 after our first Florida Spring Break in 2017. That’s also when Sherry talks about reading the book Simplicity Parenting (which she has since reread a bunch of times).

That’s a peek at the house we rented (we found it on HomeAway). It was spacious, clean, pretty well updated, and pet-friendly. But most importantly to us, it had a great backyard pool that we basically stuffed with the floats left by previous guests (we think there was a bachelorette party there at some point, hence not one but TWO engagement ring floats).

We did a more detailed breakdown of what we did the in the Fort Lauderdale in this post about last year’s trip, but here are some highlights from this year:

Food: Rocco’s Tacos, El Camino, Milk Money, Le Tub Saloon (seen below), To The Moon (candy store), ChillN (nitrogen ice cream)

Activities: Birch State Park (that giant tree shown a few photos up is there), Water Taxi (we went at sunset and it was GREAT), Everglades Holiday Park (probably the most tourist-y thing we did, but it was a lot of fun – a wild alligator swam next to our boat!)

And since we mentioned it, here’s that Tenzi game we played every evening while we were there (you guys have heard us mention it a lot) and of course, we love Uno.

That’s Embarrassing

I wish I had taken a photo of the offending (and aggressive!) closet that “attacked” me in the dark, but maybe it’s best left to your imagination… so that you picture it much more sinister thing than a simple built in dresser. But here are a couple of photos of my unlikely injury:

The photo at left is obviously in Florida, taken the morning after the incident. The other is back in Richmond as the bruising was just past its peak.

And if you’ve picked up the April issue of Real Simple, perhaps you’ve already seen Sherry’s unforgettable quote on page 126. If not, here it is in all its nutty and meaty glory.

Real Simple Idea House

We’re VERY excited to be designing a room in the Real Simple idea home this summer in Brooklyn, NY. It’ll be happening over the next few months and will be revealed in their October issue. If you follow us on Instagram, Sherry can’t wait to share more over there as we go.

You can see photos of last year’s house on Real Simple’s website (gulp – no pressure or anything!) and I know both Jenny Komenda and Shea McGee did blog posts with more details about their rooms in the house (that’s Jenny’s room below).

Quick Tip

Here’s a link to the Gemini Photos app I like using for sorting and culling down pictures on my phone. By grouping similar shots and automatically suggesting that you keep only the “best” one (along with any you’ve favorited or edited) and then allowing you to delete the rest of them in one click, the app helps you cull down tons of photos without much stress.

We’re Digging

There’s my new StudBuddy stud finder in action during a recent project at the duplex. I took a video of it as well, so maybe I’ll convince Sherry to post it to IG Stories this week so you can see it in action.

And here’s Sherry new go-to sunscreen for her sensitive skin, Neutrogena Clear Face Liquid-Lotion Sunscreen.

And lastly, a big thank you to Agility Bed for sponsoring this episode. Use the code YHL at AgilityBed.comto get $200 off any size hybrid mattress.

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

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