Slow March to a New Recycled Kitchen

We are redoing our apartment and we are committed to using mostly recycled materials, whenever possible, but still end up with a beautiful space.  One of the first things we did was put down recycled wood floors in the kitchen. 

Here's the before.  Super ugly grey ceramic tile: 

and some more...

 

First we had to removing the kitchen:

Everyone's demos include a blow torch, right?  That's not just us, right?

sink in the back yard, very classy:

Then it began:

In its last life this wood was the set of an amazing one woman show, "Stanley Ann", written by my talented partner, about Barack Obama’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham.   

And now it’s our beautiful kitchen floor:

 

 more to come...

New Metal Artists - Design Challenge 2012

"Gates on my Journey" was made for the 2012 design Challenge 

sponsored by the New Metal Artists of Los Angeles

The Library

During the battle with The Hoard and because my dear, sweet, and amazing partner has more books than you can imagine, I gave him a Library for Christmas.  (thanks in great part to my boss for a couple of much appreciated home depot gift cards).

Here's that area of the room...

and...

and then...

 

I would ike to point out that for every book you can see, there is another book behind it.  All these shelves are double stacked because we do not have room for all the books on single shelves.  Seriously the man has hundreds, maybe more than a thousand books, WTHeck!!  

There is a little room to add more shelves and I think we will do that very soon.  But it’s so great to have this cozy nook for reading.   

Sometimes when you finish a project you end up very angry with yourself, for not doing it years ago, when you first had the idea, and this was one of those times.  Must start using the learning part of “live and learn”.

The Recycled Solarium – Things are stirring - 3

Since last we saw the recycled solarium, I have finished all that puttying, from part1, all the painting, sealing and trimming of all the windows and doors/walls.  The french doors/walls, from part 2, took 6 hours each to paint (three coats of paint) and scrape all the glass clean.  But I’m in love with them and the teal too, so yummy.

 

Then we built the sliding barn doors for both sides of the solarium, including ripping down 2x4s to get the 1x4s we needed for the project.

And because we made them really tall, we had to build the barn door rolling track thingies ourselves too, or re-built the doors.  Sooooooooo we were off to Industrial Metal Supply with a million measurements and a dream. I wish I had taken a picture, but in my defense it was pouring rain, we drove home, on LA freeways, with 2 ten foot steel track thingies sticking out the back window of our two seater Honda Del Sol.  There were red flags of course, so it was completely safe…right…that makes it safe…right?

  

And did I mention the miles of trim, made by ripping down 2x4s to 1x1s.  Some days the power of our cheapness, I mean environmentally friendly frugalness, is more work than I want to remember.  But it’s hard to buy trim wood when you have stacks for free, recycled, wood sitting in the yard.

Yard Side - Left Side
(Looking in from the living room)

Patio Side - Right Side 

(Looking in from the living room)

 

When first finished, not the final plan, but I had to sit in it and 

have a glass of wine that first night.  Exhausted, but so happy.

 

And now it’s the alfresco dining room I 

envisioned all those months ago.  WooHoo!!

 

This is one of those projects I started out saying we would “bang out” in a weekend or two.  Hello 6 months later.  But I think that’s a necessary mental game to play.  If I really thought, going in it, it would take virtually every weekend of my life from July to January would I have even started?  I don’t know that I would have.  And was it worth it?  YES absolutely YES.