It’s time to announce our winner for this week in our Before & After series. The competition is really heating up, making it tough to pick winners. If you haven’t entered your project yet, don’t despair. We need to fill up an entire summer with your projects! To learn more, visit the link above.

This week’s winner is Melissa from Living Beautifully, and what really tipped the scales in Melissa’s favor was her amazing furniture transformation. Check out how she gave an old cabinet and a chewed-up desk new life.

For winning this week’s contest, Melissa gets a gift card for $50 to Lowes, Home Depot, or Amazon, and we make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity in Melissa’s honor.

A Complete Office Makeover

The room we completed overhauled is our office. We did it ourselves and it was a lot of work, but we absolutely love it.

Here’s the before, complete with the previous homeowner’s decor.

 

And here’s the after. We worked our bums off!

Basically everything in the room was changed. Ceiling, walls and trim were all painted. Carpet was ripped out and replaced with new bamboo flooring, lighting was changed and all decor (obviously). It was the easiest room to do since we didn’t need to be in there a lot.

The desk and tall cabinet were actually purchased off of Kijiji and completely redone. When we first started looking on kijiji for furniture for our new home, we came across this cabinet:

The cabinet is made out of walnut and has dovetail joints, however, part of the cabinet is veneer and this made for a difficult time when spraying it with paint. The inside had 3 pull out drawers, and there are 2 large drawers on the bottom. Our plan was to use this piece in our office as storage for the printer, paper, etc.

We thought we could just leave the inside unpainted, but of course when I saw the outside sprayed all gleeming white, I had to paint the inside white…myself. That actually turned out ok, but it does make the drawers stick a bit, so I would not recommed doing that.

The final product:

The one thing that I desperately wanted for our office was a new desk. I was tired of the massive ikea desk we had and wanted something that I could “re-vamp”. We went to every furniture store we could think of, and the only stores that carried anything we liked were selling for around $800-$1200. Way beyond our budget. We were hoping for something in the ‘under $200’ range….wishful thinking I suppose. I searched on Kijiji for weeks in a million locations…nothing.

However, being the determined person I am, I wasn’t about to give up on my idea of my dream desk. I could invision it beautifully in that room, and I was going to find it! Finally, one morning my brilliant husband suggested I look on Kijiji in a different geographic region- one close to his parents. That way, if we did find something, we could ask to borrow their van and drive it home.

There it was. My perfect “French Provincial Style Writing Desk”…. listed at $95.00.

We drove down that afternoon to check it out. Perfect. It was in absolutely gorgeous condition- solid wood, beautifully cared for…except for the one corner which had been chewed by the dog. I looked past that. Ian was certain we could fix it would wood filler, and we were painting it anyways. Plus, for $95.00 I couldn’t pass up this deal.

So we brought it home, piled on the wood filler, sanded. Piled on the wood filler again, sanded. Did that about 5 times until the corner looked somewhat like a corner again.

Then I sanded the entire desk and had it painted white. We changed the knobs to crystal knobs and there it was. My perfect desk. For under $200.00 🙂

I love the colour on the walls (its ‘Fine Silver’ by ICI) and all our trim in the house is ‘Simply White’ by Benjamin Moore Aura. Its just a bit less warm that the popular “Cloud White” which works well with the colours we are choosing for the walls.

 

Thanks Melissa!

It is amazing how you took the desk and cabinet and made them look like new! Some paint and new hardware can do a lot. Way to see the possibilities for what these pieces could be!

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

In addition to Habitat ReStores, did you know that Habitat has an online store too? There, you can pick up some Habitat branded swag to show off your support and benefit a worthy cause. They’ve got a ton of selections–for travel, the job site, and more. Some of the items that caught my eye include a foldable water bottle, first aid kit, heavy duty tape measure, and Habitat hammer mug. These items also make for great gifts. Check it out!

Where’s Your Before and After Story?

We hope you’ll consider submitting a Before & After story. Email your pictures and a “how to” description to beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com to join in.

Help Us Spread the Word

Are you a blogger? If you’d like to support us, please write an article on your blog about the contest, and consider adding one of our buttons to your sidebar. You can find the buttons and more information on our main Before and After article.

We are well into our summer Before & After series, and the weekly winners have been spectacular! For the past four years we’ve run this series to help raise support and awareness for Habitat for Humanity (be sure to check out this weeks fun fact), and this year is off to a strong start. If you’d like to participate, there are a couple different ways to get involved. We need to fill up the entire summer with before and after stories, and yours could be next. See the link above for details about submitting your project. We’d also greatly appreciate if you’d help spread the word. If you have a website of your own, consider telling your readers about us.

I am uber-impresed with this weeks winner. Vanessa from Life at our House shares a tremendous kitchen makeover, and like the headline says, she did it all for only $300!

In 11 years of marriage, my husband and I have lived in 7 cities and sometimes have moved multiple times in each city. Needless to say, I have become a pro at making each house a home. One thing I have always wanted to do, but been too chicken to tackle it- is paint my kitchen cabinets. Now, in our 7th home, I finally decided to do it. All. By. Myself. When we moved in, our kitchen looked like this:

Once I decided to tackle the project, I was pumped! I began by numbering the insides of my cabinets and making a diagram to remind myself of where each door belonged! Then I removed all the doors and began the grueling process of priming and painting! (I didnʼt sand.)

 

 

One thing I had always hated about my kitchen was the apron that connected the two cabinets on either side of my sink. This is the one part where I needed a little help. My awesome husband took down the piece along with the cabinet molding. He recut the molding to fit around the two cabinets.

It is amazing how much more light came in with that simple fix. We created another problem, however. You see that wire protruding from the wall? Well, previously there was a fluorescent light attached to the inside of that apron. We planned to add a cool aluminum outdoor sconce, but unfortunately, the wire was not centered over the window and it was impossible for us to move it because it was in a stud. We would have had to call in a professional. We came up with a solution that you will see later, however.

After priming and painting several coats, I rehung the cabinet doors and began sanding the edges. I then used some distressing oil around the corners where Iʼd sanded. After letting the oil sit on the door for a minute or so, I simply wiped it off.

I love the way the oil brought out all the little scratches in the wood and created a sealer of sorts. Once all the cabinets were distressed, I replaced all the knobs that I bought for a steal! I chose an antique pewter to be a nice contrast against the cream, but to tie in with the stainless appliances.

In addition to refinishing the cabinets, I also made new window treatments. I used a tutorial from thelittlegreennotebook.com for some awesome pelmet boards that were so easy to make!

As you can see, this is the window over my sink with that pesky light issue. Well, our solution was to mount the original fluorescent light under the window treatment!

It worked like a charm! I only use this light for a few minutes at a time when I am doing dishes. Although I really wanted a rustic sconce over the sink, there wouldnʼt have been room for my valance and then thereʼs the cost of paying an electrician. So this was the
perfect fix!

So, on to the after pics:

Source list:

• Paint- Valspar cream oops paint $5, Danish oil for distressing $11
• Primer- Zinser Oil based $14
• Cabinet hardware- Resale shop $10.50 (21 @ $.50 each)
• Valances- P. Kauffman fabric (Old Time Pottery) for $20, other supplies $11
• Accessories- Yellow step stool (Hobby Lobby) $12, small yellow pitcher (Goodwill) $1, 3 glass jars (Target) $6 each

That’s $102.50!! Woo hoo!!

I had previously painted the walls HomePlace Mushroom Taupe before starting the cabinet makeover. The kitchen chairs and blue table were both Goodwill finds that I got a new life for less than $100 for all 5 pieces. The kitchen table was a black one originally from Target that I already owned. I simply stripped it and restained it for less than $20. All the other accessories, I already owned. If you consider these previous projects in the final total, the makeover still comes in around $300. I say, thatʼs not too bad for a full kitchen makeover!

 

Thanks Vanessa!

Woo hoo is right! That’s an amazing kitchen makeover on a super small budget. I am very impressed, especially with how beautiful everything turned out.

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

Did you know that most Habitat chapters don’t spend every weekend working on homes? In fact, if you check out their calendar of events, you’ll see events like the “Voltswalk” walking tour in Americus, Georgia. Maybe you’re better at swinging a golf club than a hammer. In that case, check out the charity golf tournaments that benefit Habitat. These make for easy ways to play a part in what Habitat for Humanity is doing, and you can have some fun too.

Where’s Your Before and After Story?

We hope you’ll consider submitting a Before & After story. Email your pictures and a “how to” description to beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com to join in.

Help Us Spread the Word

Are you a blogger? If you’d like to support us, please write an article on your blog about the contest, and consider adding one of our buttons to your sidebar. You can find the buttons and more information on our main Before and After article.

If you’ve been following along, you know that we’re in the fourth week of our annual Before and After series. We’ve already seen some beautiful transformations including a bathroom, bedroom and a porch.

This weeks before and after story comes to us from Brittany at Pretty Handy Girl! For winning, Brittany will receive a $50 gift card to Home Depot, Lowe’s or Amazon. Plus, we’ll make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity in her honor. If you’d like to one of our weekly winners, check out the official announcement and send us your story! Brittany’s before and after is about her screened-in-porch and I love it because of all the furniture they built / repurposed / salvaged. Let’s take a look:

So, after living here for 4 years, I finally got around to giving the screen porch a much needed makeover.

This is basically a representative “before” picture taken the month before we bought the house.

After we moved in, it stayed the same except we had a white square table and chairs for meals on the porch. Slowly I have been furnishing and decorating the porch with fixtures and accessories like: Ladder Display Shelves, Beachy Coffee Table,  Minnow Trap Lights, Bamboo Painted Rug, Dream Big Butterfly Window, and my Garden Bench. My budget for this makeover was next to nothing, which presented a little bit of a challenge.

So, are you ready? Here is a tall glass of sweet tea with lemonade. Please come join me on my porch:

The two side chairs are actually from the table and chairs set. I just dressed them up with IKEA throw pillows. Someday I want to buy some wicker rockers to put in their place.

Remember the disgusting moldy coffee table I saved from the trash? There she is!

My favorite spot on the weekend. My Dad gave me this hammock for my 30th birthday and it is still in good shape after 10 years! Thanks Dad!

My semi-famous ladder display shelves I built from a $15 rickety old ladder.

The minnow trap pendant lights add the perfect amount of light after dark.

Were you wondering where I hung my Dream Big Butterfly window? Here she is:

That chippy little cabinet is the most expensive piece of furniture on the porch! I paid $85 for it at the flea market. It used to be a table, but someone cut off the legs and nailed boards to the sides and added a door to the front.

Such a great spot for catching up on my favorite magazines: Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens and Flea Market Style (the issue Layla and Kevin were recently in.)

Can you believe a neighbor was trying to get rid of this little decorator table? I gladly sprinted over to her house to pick it up. Then I draped a clearance shower curtain from Target over it. Yup,that is a shower curtain!

{Sigh} My favorite flower, blue hydrangeas.

Remember that purple garden bench? Well, she wasn’t weathering the constantly changing weather conditions, so I brought her in the porch and gave her some TLC and a few coats of paint. I just need to sew a cushion for her.

Thank you so much for coming over. I enjoyed our time together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a hammock. Zzzzzzz.

Thanks Brittany!

I am super impressed with all the furniture you made for the porch! I especially liked the trashy beachy coffee table and the painted bamboo rug- very creative.

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

Habitat puts out an annual report that is publicly available on their website. If you look at their most recent report, you’ll find that they’ve outperformed every year since 2006. Even in a struggling economy they served almost 75,000 families worldwide in 2010, not counting the aid for land tenure and technical assistance. That’s up more than 13,000 from the previous year, and right now Habitat has a goal of serving 100,000 families in 2013.

Where’s Your Before and After Story?

We hope you’ll consider submitting a Before & After story. Email your pictures and a “how to” description to beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com to join in.

Help Us Spread the Word

Are you a blogger? If you’d like to support us, please write an article on your blog about the contest, and consider adding one of our buttons to your sidebar. You can find the buttons and more information on our main Before and After article.

We’re back with this weeks inspiring before and after story! I think it’s a lot of fun to see the creative ways people turn boring, unused, neglected, etc. spaces into real works of art, and I hope you do too. If you have a before and after story to share, send us an email! We’d love to feature your makeover, and, if selected, you’ll win a $50 gift card for that next home improvement project. Not to mention, we’ll make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity on your honor. To learn more about our Before and After series, check out the official announcement.

This weeks winner is no stranger to many of you or our B/A series. For the fourth year in a row, Rhoda from Southern Hospitality is back, and this year she shares a dramatic porch turn-around. Rhoda writes, “My parent’s 1970’s house has an ugly sunporch on the back that has never been utilized in the almost 40 years that they have lived here. I recently got a blog sponsored opportunity to turn it into a dreamy porch that we can actually use now and love how it came out. The Before and Afters are pretty amazing.”

It has sure been a lot of fun fixing up that old covered porch at my parents’ house.  It’s actually a little sunroom with windows and at 8 feet wide by 16 feet long a little bit of a challenge to get furniture arranged in there. But, I think I managed to make it completely livable and comfortable to be in, as well as pretty and functional too. We had to keep the function of this porch, that was a must.

Strategic storage pieces were definitely the answer. Storage can be pretty and I found some good versatile pieces. I spent every bit of my allowed budget and we are so happy with the outcome. I’ll be spending a lot of time on this porch now, you can believe that!

 

Let’s refresh our memories with the poor old Before pic. Tired, cluttered and not very inspiring.

The After is everything I dreamed it would be. A wonderful spot to relax and enjoy the sunshine and an occasional breeze. I got all the furniture and storage pieces at Home Depot, except for that creamy white cabinet on the left. Once I saw this vinyl wicker set with the green cushions, I knew these were it! My color scheme was born and off I went. And when I sat in that motion chair (rocker, glider, swivel chair), I had to have it. There was only room for the loveseat, motion chair, and ottoman, and it makes a complete sitting area.

My parents were real troopers and pitched in to help get this porch in shape. My dad put together every bit of this furniture and that really helped out a lot.

They are both really happy with the outcome too and I can see that we all will be enjoying this space now. It will definitely be my new computer spot. This set is by Martha Stewart at Home Depot and is Charlottetown.

My sweet friend, Sharon, in Birmingham gave me the antlers.  Her hubby is a hunter and had plenty to spare.  I love them out here.

Another of my very favorite $5 yardsale finds, this original watercolor is just perfect out here too and gives the porch a vintage feel.

At the other end of the porch, I concentrated on getting all the shoes in a huge storage bin and it will be perfect for keeping this space organized. This is an accurate look at the new wall color, Colony Green by Dutch Boy, the same color I used in my old office nook. It worked perfectly out here and I had enough left to paint this space.

There is still plenty of room to come and go with a good pathway down the middle to the back door.

My sweet Daddy fussed at first when I asked him if I could paint his oak rocking chair and said no at least twice. I kept on because I knew how good it would look and he finally relented.  With 4 women in our family, he doesn’t have a chance most of the time with things like this.  We know how to wear him down. And then he likes it!

After I sprayed it with Rustoleum’s Dark Brown spray paint, he totally admitted that it looked so much better now. A new color coordinated cushion finishes it off. There’s only room for one rocking chair now, so the other one will go up to NC to their mountain house.

NOTE: Someone asked if the other rocking chair was painted and yes, yes it was.  After I painted the first one, I was just going to leave the other one oak since it was going to the mountains.  Mom mentioned that Dad really liked the new paint job, so I should paint both of them the same.  So, I did!  I knew he would love it after I painted them and I was right.

Also, someone asked about the walls.  That is paneling on the walls that was original to the house, with cinder blocks on part of the walls.  That’s how the house was built back in the 70’s, so we didn’t do anything out there but put on fresh paint.

Inside the big storage bin are shoes and porch essentials, now neatly hidden away behind this door. Much better than leaving everything out.

The old shelf got a new coat of paint and looks so much better with Dad’s caps hanging on it. You might remember my brass lovebirds from my old porch. I was able to bring out some of my treasures to finish off this space and that made me happy.

This is a Martha Stewart storage bench in Espresso. I loved the fabric drawers that it holds and there are a bunch of colors offered in these. Loved this aqua shade to add some accent out here.

Inside one drawer, my mom tucked away their garden gloves.

My small iron bakers rack that was on my old deck pulls duty as a plant stand, holding mom’s beautiful African violets that she grows with her green thumb. Those other 2 plants are mine.  I took some regular wall paint and brushed her plastic planters with a new blue color, just to unify them all.

Live plants are perfect on a porch and I love having them out here, adding life and color.

One of my thriftstore oil paintings fits in nicely out here too. I still love this little find.

You’ll notice that I added chocolate brown bamboo Roman shades on every window and that really gives this space a finished look.

These pretty paisley pillows came with the loveseat and I just loved the colors in them. The perfect jumping off spot for my accent colors. It was hard to capture the true colors out here.

Lamp was a yardsale find for $5 (without the shade) and this side table was also a yardsale find. My sweet Birmingham friend, Sharon, gave me the antlers, which I think look great hanging out here.

Here’s a little tip for you.  I changed out the old glass that was on this table for a large piece of tile.  The glass had been outside and had some scratches on it that didn’t come off, so I changed it out for a 14×14″ piece of tile from a local tile shop for less than $2.

This big clock will come in handy and it’s large enough for older eyes. It was a yardsale find too for $20 and is huge. The original sticker on the back is from Homegoods, where it sold for $60 retail. Quite the bargain.

I adore this space! The lattice rug is also from Home Depot, an 8×10. It’s actually gray and tan and I love the contrast it has with my other colors. Look up and take notice of the pretty new light fixture. This just about kicked both my dad’s and my butt, but we stuck it out and got that thing hung. I was not about to give up! That old light had to go.

This pretty creamy white storage piece is from Target and made by Sauder. it’s a great piece for holding all the extras out here.

Perfect spot for Mom to hide away all her essentials that need to be in reach.

I’m sure several of you still have the Target bunny weathervane that was all the rage a few short years ago. I waited until the last minute and almost missed out on getting one, but managed to score him for around $7 and he is still one of my fave pieces.

I managed to get in a couple of my bunnies on the porch and they fit right in.  If you’ll notice in the above pics, he was on the other side of the cabinet.  Thought he’d be safer on this side.  I already had to glue his ear back on from the moving mishap.

So, that is the porch! I hope it was worth waiting for. It is definitely going to be a much loved space in our family home.

Thanks Rhoda!

The new porch looks like such a great place to relax. I’m a bit envious that you have this amazing “computer spot” now. Thanks so much for sharing this great makeover with us and our readers!

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

Did you know that the average cost of a Sandtown (Baltimore area) Habitat home costs between $65,000 and $115,000- roughly half the cost for traditional development. The costs for these two or three-story houses is kept low by maximizing volunteer labor and donated materials and the required “sweat equity” of at least 330 hours put forth by the family who will own the home.

Where’s Your Before and After Story?

We hope you’ll consider submitting a Before & After story. Email your pictures and a “how to” description to beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com to join in.

Help Us Spread the Word

Are you a blogger? If you’d like to support us, please write an article on your blog about the contest, and consider adding one of our buttons to your sidebar. You can find the buttons and more information on our main Before and After article.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! My weekend was filled with backyard bbq’s, swimming and lot of fun with family and friends. That’s why this week’s Before and After is a little late.

If you haven’t heard, we’re running our summer Before and After series supporting Habitat for Humanity. This is the fourth year we’ve run the contest, and it gets better every time. Each week we’re picking a before and after story to share on One Project Closer. The winner gets a $50 gift card and we make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity in their honor. Check out the link above for the official announcement and how you can enter too.

This weeks winner is Angela from Fixing It Fancy! Angela shares a great story about renovating her master bedroom and closet. They went to the extreme, tearing out carpet, ripping out wood paneling and knocking down walls. Enjoy!

This overhaul was probably our longest and most strenuous. When we bought our house, originally built in 1900, we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. Thankfully, the structure itself was in great shape; it was just the decor. A wood artist from the 1960s got their hands on this house and covered every surface (walls, ceilings and most floors) with wood. Room by room we’ve installed new drywall, new floors and new ceilings. This brings us to our master bedroom and walk-in closet renovation.

Step 1: Demolition
We had to first rip out the carpet and remove the paneling on the walls. There was one wall shared by our bedroom with a smaller, teeny tiny room (just perfect for an adjoined closet). Our plan was to knock through this wall and create a doorway. All lighting fixtures, outlet covers and wallpaper had to go.

Step 2: The Walk Knock-Through
Before we could even think about decorating, we had to join these two rooms together first. We knocked through the wall and created a small door. Our door was purchased at Habitat for Humanity ReStore in the Twin Cities, of which I spray-painted with glass frost to create a feeling of privacy for the closet.

Step 3: Drywall Installation
With the old out of the way, it was time to install the new. We installed new ceilings and walls in the new closet and new walls in the bedroom. The ceiling bedroom was covered only 2/3 of the way with panelling so we finished off the remaining 1/3 and spray-painted it white to keep with your home’s beachy, airy feel.

Step 4: Paint
My favorite phase of the project; painting! It always makes the rooms come to life. We chose a grayish-Tiffany blue for the bedroom and Restoration Hardware’s Saffron for the closet. I think it’s good to have some unexpected color here and there.

Step 5: Detail Work
The remaining touches were added to the room including newly painted doors, trim-work, curtains, lighting, outlet covers, etc.

Without further ado, here’s a look at the finished bedroom:

And the closet:

Thanks Angela!

This is a great story and without the pictures, you would believe it’s the same space. The complete transformation looks terrific! Congrats on envisioning what could-be through all the wood paneling. 🙂 We hope you enjoy the gift card, and you’ll put it to good use for future projects.

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

It’s inspiring to learn more about the homeowners that Habitat selects, and it puts a face behind all the hard work. To learn more about applying for a Habitat house, click here.

Rebekah Daniel shares the story of new habitat homeowner Kylie Norton who went from being a legal secretary and professional musician to a quadriplegic. Kylie was piloting a single-engine plane that crashed taking the life of her fiance. Hers is a story of rebuilding an entire life, and the Habitat house was a part of that. Click that link for the full article.

Where’s Your Before and After Story?

We need to fill up an entire summer with Before & After stories, and yours could be next. Email your pictures and a “how to” story to beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com to join in.

Help Us Spread the Word

Are you a blogger? If you’d like to support us, please write an article on your blog about the contest, and consider adding one of our buttons to your sidebar. You can find the buttons and more information on our main Before and After article.

Last week we kicked off our fourth annual Before and After series, and now it’s time to start picking winners!

If you’re not familiar with the series, every week we pick a before and after story submitted by someone like you (yes, you there). The winner gets a $50 gift card and we make a $100 donation to Habitat for Humanity in their honor. We also plug Habitat with some interesting factoids found near the end of each post. We’re doing this all summer long so there’s still time to submit your story. Check out the link above for the official announcement and all the details.

The first winner this year is Carol from Paintergals’s Little Cottage, and we think you’ll agree that her bathroom was rather scary. It had crumbling walls and metallic tape in the shower. The tiles were sea-foam green, the floor was gold colored floor, and not to mention the “dead salmon” tub. Wow! Read on to see the awesome work Carol and hubby did on this seven week reno.

When we first saw our little cottage, this is what the bathroom looked like,

 

Actually, you can’t see all the nastiness that we discovered in three years of living here.
The walls literally crumbled when we took off the acrylic tiles in the tub area. And yes, I said acrylic tiles. Seems that was the thing in the 50’s?

How about this extra faucet over the vanity?

Or the double faucets in the tub area?

Actually, we couldn’t even take a bath, since the cold water faucet refused to budge to more than a trickle. Oh, and hey- don’t you like the waterproof metallic tape that we used to hold the tiles on? Sheesh.

OK, I’ll stop. Enough images to prevent a good night’s sleep, eh?

In November of 2009, I had decided I had had enough of living with the seafoam tiles, gold floor, and dead salmon tub. Well, actually, I didn’t do anything about the tub except make an extra long shower curtain to hide it. But I did do a temporary makeover, just to tide us over until the actual one.

This is how it turned out.

Amazing what paint and a new floor will do. However, the bad tiles are still there (now just covered up in paint) and the rotten walls are still lurking.

Flash ahead to August 2010. No, make that September. All right, we’ll start in October. No really, we are starting this project NOW, in November.

It took us 7 weeks, lots of changes in plans along the way, a fall between the vanity and tub (my hubby), strained muscles as well as a strained marriage, but it is done.

The first thing we had to do was remove the window in the tub area and patch the hole.

Next, came the l-o-n-g demolition process. We totally gutted the room. Plus that lovely dead salmon (that’s the color I was told it is) tub had to be demolished with a sledge hammer and carted out. That thing was cast iron and very heavy.

Newer, better insulation and hey, a new tub! Plus, the walls are being formed. This is the only part of the process we hired out: we figured dry walling wasn’t something we wanted to mess with.

And yes, we did use cement board in the shower area.

You can’t really see in this photo, but the walls and ceiling have been painted.

Next up, the floor.

We laid this floating laminate from Home Depot, called Allure. Love this stuff.

And here are the finished photos.

We cut down the ductwork so rather than having the heat register high on the wall, it now is closer to the floor. Much better.

I obsessed over finding a medicine cabinet in this style. Finally did, at a salvage store about 30 miles away. We also bought the wall mount sink at a store called ReNew that sells items pulled from houses. We’re so green!

The light fixture was my second choice. Originally, I wanted to have sconces on either side of the cabinet, but we weren’t sure about the space involved, so we made a last minute dash to Menards and got this one for $19.

The tiling alone took me seven days. I ended up tearing out sections of one wall two times since it wasn’t lining up right. But it got done.

How do you like our curvy shower curtain rod?

Beadboard was another last minute change of plan. The original plan was to carry the tile out into the room, but after looking at the massive space I had to tile in the tub area, I decided beadboard would do just fine, thank you very much!

We added this fan/light fixture to the center of the ceiling.

And now for something fun! Original plan (again) was to create a niche in the tub wall. Since we were discouraged from doing it on the exterior wall, we thought we’d do it on the tub wall with the toilet. Alas, when we gutted the wall, we found the sewer pipe going up that wall, so no room for the niche there.

So… we decided to make a storage cubby in the room. It has a depth of 18″. Nice and deep for storage containers.
Plus, I got to use the sweet rope tile that I had already purchased.

Closet: freshly painted and now thoroughly crammed full of stuff. I now realize I need to paint the inside of all the closets in our house. Really makes a difference.

And one last parting look. Ah…

Thanks Carol!

First, this was amazing! Hats off to you and hubby for putting in a ton of work. It’s really paid off and the bathroom looks spectacular. Second, thanks for sharing this great story and photos with us!

Habitat for Humanity Factoid

The 2011 Habitat Challenge only has a few days left! If you haven’t heard, an anonymous donor made a very generous $500,000 contribution and is challenging you to give a gift by June 30. This is an exciting chance to help Habitat double its impact to provide safe, decent housing for families struggling to build a better life. Read more about Habitats mission.

To make an online donation, visit the Habitat Challenge 11 page.

Where’s Your Before and After Story?

We need to fill up an entire summer with transformations just like Carol’s, and yours could be next. Email your pictures and a “how to” story to beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com to join in.

Help Us Spread the Word

Are you a blogger? If you’d like to support us, please write an article on your blog about the contest, and consider adding one of our buttons to your sidebar. You can find the buttons and more information on our main Before and After article.

We are pleased to announce our fourth annual Before & After series supporting Habitat for Humanity! Next week marks the official beginning of summer, and with it we share one before and after submission every week. If you’re not familiar with the series, here’s how it works.

How it Works

You submit pictures and a story from a home improvement project you* worked sometime over the past year. Projects can be anything from a simple room makeover to a complete landscape overhaul. Every Sunday from June 21 – September 22, 2011, we pick the most compelling entry and post the story on our site. If your submission is picked, you get a $50 gift card to either Lowes, Home Depot, or Amazon. And, the best part – we make a donation of $100 to Habitat for Humanity in your honor!

At the end of the Summer, voting begins, and the best before and after wins a bonus $150 gift card to one of the three stores above.

*You (including your family and friends) have to have done at least 75% of the work on the renovation! No contracted jobs for this contest!

How to Participate

There’s a couple ways we are asking people to participate including entering the contest, telling your friends and readers and displaying one the badges below.

Your Before and After Story
You’ve put in the blood, sweat and tears, and now it’s time to show off your amazing makeover. E-mail us your submission at beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com. Your entry can be in the e-mail itself or attached as a Word document. Make sure to number pictures in order so it’s easy for us to reconstruct the story. Please attach the pictures as JPEGs even if you also embed them inside the Word document.

Keep in mind that good before and afters include interesting pictures (before, during, and after) and a descriptive “how to” story. Check out the 2009 winners and 2010 winners to see examples of winning submissions from prior years.

Remember, there’s nothing special about the folks who submit entries. Our previous winners generally are not professionals. They’re average folks like you and us!

Tell your Friends
This series is only a success because of the great submissions we receive, and telling your readers about it is the best way to spread the word. Please consider writing an article on your site letting everyone know about the contest. One thing is definitely true about this event: the more submissions and comments, the more fun!

If you’d like to support us throughout the Summer, check out all the badges below. If you don’t see the color scheme that will work with your site, just shoot us an e-mail at beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com with the colors you want and we’ll be happy to make one up!

Supporting Habitat for Humanity

Habitat is a nonprofit that is extremely dear to us at OPC. Here in Baltimore city, we’ve seen how they transform communities. Just check out some of the pictures on our new Facebook page. We started this event three years ago as a new way to help raise awareness for Habitat, and support their mission to provide decent, safe and affordable places to live. We also commend the way they go about it (by requiring those receiving assistance to put in sweat equity into their own homes and other homes in their communities). Habitat is an international organization, and we encourage everyone to volunteer with their local chapter.

By the end of the Summer, we’ll have given more than a $1000 to Habitat. But that’s really just the beginning! We hope that you’ll partner with us along the way. Each week, we include a short fact about Habitat’s activities around the world (like their work in Haiti, for example), and we ask that you commit to partnering with them financially by making your own donation online.

The Prizes!

Along with a donation to Habitat in your honor, we’re sending a $50 gift card to Home Depot, Lowes, or Amazon for each weekly winner. Make that gift card go further with our Lowes Coupons and Home Depot Coupons to save some dough off your next purchase!

Badges

Even though our Before & After series is over, we wanted to share at least one more very impressive story. Laurie from Handy Man, Crafty Woman has a great stairway remodel that was just too good to pass up. Unfortunately, this project wasn’t eligible for the B&A series but she was kind enough to let us share it away!

Here’s the scoop:

I recently came across some photos of our stairway renovation. I can’t believe this was completed in fall of 2007. It seems like we just did it!

Some of these photos are so embarrassing! Oh well. There used to be drywall on the left of the stairs, and a low, odd looking piece of wood trim. To the right, there was a WALL that we demolished. Yes, a whole wall. We pulled that down, to make the two rooms at the front of our house more open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see Handy Man’s legs and feet here, ha ha!

What a mess it was, knocking down that wall. I guess I didn’t take any photos of that part of the project. There was drywall dust everywhere! Then we took a break from renovations and I had to look at this ugly, carpeted staircase for a while. Yuck!

It’s not that I hate carpet, but this was all dirty and worn out, and we just prefer wood floors and stairs.

Handy man started working on the treads. I was getting so excited at this point!

I painted the risers with a glossy white paint.

There was a lot of drywall patching and painting to do on this side.

And then…the handrails…Didn’t Handy Man do a great job? This would have cost a fortune if we hired someone to do it. Although the materials for this weren’t cheap, at least we didn’t have to add labor costs.

Hey, you can see our Christmas tree in the background in this one! We finished it in fall 2007, but it wasn’t until December that I realized that I needed to take finished photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t these stairs look awesome! Thanks Laurie for sharing this project with us.

What do you think? Do you like the new and improved?

Sometimes we don’t say it enough, so I wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in this years Before & After Series! I love this event, I love reading all the before & after stories, and I love contributing to Habitat for Humanity. But none of these things would be possible without all of you.

Habitat Highlights

Habitat is a nonprofit founded on the belief that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. They strive not to be a “giveaway” or “hand out” program but rather to partner alongside homeowners. Habitat seeks to address the need of more than 100,000,000 people worldwide who are homeless in addition to providing essential disaster relief.

This year, we donated $1300 to Habitat for Humanity on behalf of our winners, and helped raise awareness about Habitat’s mission with our weekly Quick Fact. If you feel moved to contribute, please consider making an online donation.

Link Love

We want to take a moment to honor everyone that promoted this series on their site.

• Lauren @ Chezerbey
• Laura @ Olive and Love
• Brittany @ Pretty Handy Girl
• Greg @ Groogsblog
• Lisa @ The Pennington Point
• Sarah @ Russet Street Reno
• Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality
• Donna @ Funky Junk Interiors
• Michael @ Better D.I.Y
• Kate @ Centsational Girl
• Traci @ Beneath My Heart
• Dean @ CalFinder
• Timothy @ Charles and Hudson

If I missed someone please shoot me an email and I’ll update the list.

The voting has closed on this year’s Before & After event, and we have a clear winner: Traci @ Beneath My Heart. Tracy submitted her patio staining project and received 281 of the 1066 votes cast.

For winning, Traci gets a $150 gift card to the home improvement store of her choice!

Here’s a picture of Traci’s B+A. You can read Traci’s full submission here.

Congratulations, Traci! And thanks to everyone who made this year’s Before & After series a success.  We’ll be back to you next week with a big thank you round-up for all of the folks who supported the event. If you’re interested, you can see the vote totals here.