Momplex

Our decking project is still on hold ... and it's still a weather thingy. But its not rain this time. It's just too dang hot to be working in the direct sun on a deck! So we took shelter inside the super inslulated Momplex, where the basement keeps everything nice and cool, and started on our first interior woodworking project! While we totally agree with you that the very first room we'll be tackling is a bathroom (thank goodness the Momplex is about a mile from our home so not havin

Can you believe that there was a time when the Momplex stairs looked like this?

And today, they look like this:

And hopefully soon ... they'll look something like this:

image from Centsational Girl

Man, there sure are a ton of steps (pun not intended here) to finishing out stairs, isn't there!

First, we built the upstairs railing -

And we painted the

Whether you buy kitchen cabinets or you DIY them yourself (I'm totally on team DIY here!) I think the biggest difference maker in how professional looking your kitchen cabinet ends up appearing is in the tiny little details.  In other words, after you hang your cabinets, you aren't done quite yet.

After installing all the kitchen cabinets for the Momplex Vanilla Kitchen, there's a few little things that will make a big difference to take care of.

The most obvious one is finis

Grandma-who-likes-to-sew got home from her trip at 1:00 AM ... and just six hours later, she was spoiling the kids with hugs, kisses and gifts .... and gushing about her new mudroom!

(For those of you who missed a post this past week, Grandma's been traveling, so we decided surprise her with a mudroom makeover in her side of the Momplex.)

Just to refresh, here's what the space looked like before we started working on the mudroom projects ...

And here's w

Truth is, we didn't hang 20 yesterday.

We actually only hung 18. 

We were dreading the last two.  Can you guess what two doors I'm referring too?

Yep, you guessed right!  

The lazy susan we built for the corner will require two doors, hinged together with multiple different hinges.

You can buy the whole kit, or buy the hinges separately, as we did.

Image from Hardware Source

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Inside the Momplex, it's pretty exciting.  The walls are finished and painted (thanks to you!) and we just can't wait to start finishing rooms out.  We'll definitely be taking your advice and focus on a bathroom first.

But before we get to any of that, we decided to tackle the decks first.  The big reason for this is with the walls completely finished out, moving things from unit to unit has become quite a task, involving going down stairs, out the garage, in the other ga

Our job has turned into a desk job.

Well, at least a job that you sit down at. 

I guess that's the good thing about working on stairs. You get to sit on them while you work on them.

Yep, sitting down on the job, figuring the stair skirts and installing them.

And we barely got to sit down to cut and install this baseboard down the stairs, it was so quick.  

The skirts and baseboard finish out the wa

We are getting to the good part. With snow threatening to stick, and noticeably less light each day, winter is fast approaching up at the Momplex. We have been blessed with a beautiful fall (THANK YOU for your thoughts and prayers for good weather!), and are still optimistic about getting a roof on the Momplex and being able to work inside over the winter. I am so desperate to work inside the Momplex because these are the projects that I love. I already have the kitchen cabinets made i

Seven sheets of PureBond plywood and $200 in popular boards.

Yep, that's what it took to take this blank space ....

And turn it into this:

Well, at least to build all those cabinets!

I'd love to know how to make a dishwasher out of plywood, but I'm going to stick to cabinets for now.

The Ram and I spent about a week building the cabinets, and honestly, the building was the easy part.  Once we got all th

Remember when we built these guys?

And then we stacked foam blocks around them?

 

And then poured concrete in the foam blocks around the boxes?

And then hung windows on the outsides of the boxes?

Well, today's the day that we are going to start finishing out the inside of the windows!

Last week, we got all the doors stained and top coated for the Momplex unit we are currently working on.

And then we hung all the interior doors.

Doesn't look like we got a lot done this week, but we did!  Did you notice the new trim?

On this side of the Momplex, we are going for a modern rustic look.  Wood doors with wood trim on a wood floor would have been way too much wood, wouldn't it have?  

So we opted for

Shall we talk kitchens? I've been promising you that we will make real kitchens for the Momplex, and blogging the tutorials and plans.  Every since the day I spent $7000 on cabinets for a 10x10 kitchen, I've been tossing and turning at nights, thinking, I could have made my own cabinets.  I've been thinking I could have made my own cabinets much easier, much simpler ... because it was quite a chore just installing the cabinets.On the Momplex, we have two kitchens, and we will be bui

In between working on the dollhouse, changing lots of diapers, and burning dinner ... we've been up to something else.

Momplex Unit A.  Man do things ever slow down when you have a baby in the house, don't they?  

We finished up Momplex Unit B and got Grandma who likes to sew moved in last winter.  

Unit B has a garage almost twice the size of Unit A, and there's storage under the landing (Unit A has the utility room in the garage and a pressure tank under

You all are just awesome. I feel especially thankful and appreciative today because I won't be calling these sono tubes "sauna tubes" today (thank you!) and because you have helped us solve the Great Gable Debate! Thank you all for you so very helpful comments, you have shown us solutions that we would never have even considered! It has taken us longer than we thought to put siding up on the Momplex, and although we are feeling confident about getting the Momplex completely sealed befor