EXTREME KITCHEN RENOVATION EP 4 | Custom French Doors & Restoring 90-Year-Old Windows

a month and a half into our kitchen

renovation and we are already entering

what I like to call the pretty stage

this week we are designing our custom

French doors to lead out to our pool

area and restoring our 1930s windows so

after Decades of being painted shut they

finally

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open hello guys welcome back to our

kitchen renovation episode 4 for now so

you guys have seen in episode one we did

all of the design work I worked through

the must haves that we wanted for it the

renovation if we were going to tackle it

and then we started the demo and

structural phases the guys in my

contractor have been amazing they are

working incredibly fast on a very tight

timeline before this baby comes so they

have made huge progress we added the

skylights which was a huge musthave that

I wanted for this space to really invite

all the natural light in tackled all of

the plumbing all the electrical they've

put the insulation in the walls in the

ceiling and done drywall we're getting

to the pretty phase officially so we've

had a little bit of downtime with the

guys and trades been coming in and out

working on projects here and there while

we wait for Cabinetry and custom items

so this week is going to be an exciting

week because I am finally going to be

doing a DIY I'm going to take it slow

and safe but I'm itching through this

process watching them use crowbars and

to me get to do all the fun stuff and I

have to take it easy has been hard it's

okay it's been super exciting to see

this process move so quickly but I

really want to dive into a DIY project

this week and that is restoring our old

windows our windows are older but when

we moved in they had painted the

majority of the Windows shut and and

that I haven't ever seen in a house that

you buy I've only seen that done in like

apartment buildings uh where they just

like you know paint over walls and

things every time a tenant moves out

I've rarely seen that in a house and it

has been something that's bothered me

throughout the house but specifically in

the kitchen where I'd love to open these

windows and let some fresh air in or if

you're cooking in here and you know

maybe it's like gotten a little bit

Smoky you know you can open your windows

so we've always resorted to opening the

doors instead when we've been cooking a

lot so when I was designing the new

kitchen floor plan and layout I really

took into consideration where our

existing windows and doors were to

figure out how I could incorporate them

into the design which ones we could keep

and which ones kind of had to go so in

the design I was able to keep one of the

windows that were in our kitchen there

were two one here one here we had to

close one up cuz you got to put your

your cabinet somewhere uh so I opted to

close this one because this side of the

house doesn't get any sunlight it has

nothing happening for it it's basically

just a walk through to the side of our

house so it wasn't going to lose too

much so I opted to get rid of this one

we kept the door going out to the patio

in the front um so that was perfect I

mean we needed a a door here anyways and

also we kept the Box windows over the

sink used to have a door here going out

to the pool so we were we closed that up

so that we could introduce two double

French doors into the space where the

windows

were hi Hi how are you I'm good how are

you okay nice to meet you nice to meet

you so that's the idea so not the lights

on the side but double of these and then

you want the panel on the bottom yes

instead of having the four looking like

a four line I would just want to match

like this just so that it looks good

with the house just the two okay the

same kind of panel but not this tall you

know I want them real low to the ground

I want as many windows as possible as

many lights as possible that's the open

you have you're going to have seven 7

and A2 opening yeah I need 80 almost 80

yeah I want skinny French doors well so

the two will open in this way two will

open in that way so four doors toward so

so no side light four panels okay so you

want two units then four two units four

panels you can do your own your own

structure mightly Above This yep I love

it flash so indoor outdoor yes so you

have a small little transition but not

cuz if you see it on top of here then

you're going to have then it'll be we

like the idea we like the idea this is

your finished War you're not adding yeah

so I think you should just come down

here yes and maybe you can just add

another when you do your your your pan

and your

weather poofing it'll bring it up about

an 84 80 your doors are going to be 7 5

and A4 so 5 and half so kind of the same

yeah yeah so it'll look it'll look good

yeah so you you have 78 in St just like

this one over here yes so I'm thinking

we're probably going to go with this one

I love that window that's what I was

going to tell you like I love that and

then go with the 4 in

here and then yeah basically this is the

the same height 24 in down I'll do the P

the my rail and my panel and from there

up it'll be glass so it'll kind of mimic

that window almost that would be

beautiful and you can do that same kind

of profile yeah yeah we can which door

do you want to open you want these this

one and this one to open or you want

this one and this one or you want this

one and this one first you

mean the right one on both of

them the right one and the left one so

you want the far

okay what what is what is the real I

mean what is the St they're

custom I mean cuz this if you open this

one it's going to open into this one if

you open the sides yeah so these exactly

so I can open the sides and keep the

centers Clos correct yeah

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M so I figured since we're doing the

renovation we can go ahead and restore

the

windows to open they will be painted

white still because they will match the

rest of the house but we can polish them

up make them look better get them

functional polish up all the

hardware and the hinges does this one

even have hinges on it these definitely

have hinges on them so these definitely

open at one point there's three Windows

here but just the two outside ones open

so the first step is to stick them so

I've got to cut through the paint once

we get them out I think the restoration

process is going to go fairly simple

since we are just painting them I just

want to make them look really good and I

did restore 42 windows in the cottage

already so I've had a little bit of

practice restoring old windows and I

think that these are going to be on the

easier side so let's get started my

first thought was to either use just

like a box cutter like an xacto Like a

Knife you know to cut through the paint

but I also have this one has like little

teeth on it like that and it's super

flat this thing comes in so handy and

I'm thinking that this is going to save

my arms a lot I don't want to damage the

the windows that's what I don't want to

do I feel like it'll

work okay now that it that's going to

work I'm going to be overly protected

because of the baby I'm going to put on

a big mask just so that I don't breathe

in anything I got one of these big

respirator masks because feel like it's

better it's going to protect me

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all are you enjoying doing that cuz you

haven't done that in a while cuz he

knows he knows it's like my

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[Applause]

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therapy I got it all cut but it's just

budging just a little bit it's not

really giving into opening I I want to

be careful you know so I'm not trying to

like do anything crazy

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oh she's

open much better ooh we got a lot a lot

of work to do I think this kitchen used

to be yellow or like a beigy yellow like

the Cabinetry was ooh I don't like that

they nailed her shut they had every

intention on painting it and closing it

up I see a nail how sad

that's sad okay so Romeo and I were just

talking about it these over the sink

I've always wanted to open that's so

nice like to have a breeze there started

talking about these windows they don't

have any hinges which I didn't know

before so they don't naturally open

already I'm wondering if we go ahead and

convert them to have hinges and open and

stuff I feel like there's there's going

to be some pieces May missing like I'll

have to put a piece so that they close

together you know and they and they lock

really well or we were talking about it

cuz is it weird that you also have a

door

here and that would open is that weird

work on these first and then

determine that one after

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I'm going to be using this Citrus strip

stripping gel to remove the paint from

the windows I've had a lot of good

success with this one and this

particular stripper doesn't have any

harsh fumes so it's safer to use

especially if you're doing projects

indoors and I'm just going to use a

brush to paint all the stripper on and

then over the top of the stripper I'm

going to put some PL itic wrap so it

stays active as long as possible so it

really gets through multiple layers of

paint

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so the stripper's been on here for a

couple of hours now and I've already

tested a little patch to see if it was

kind of coming out up and it it is I'm

going to use a scraper and maybe

possibly a wire brush if I need it like

in the corners and things uh to get off

all this paint we're just going to start

new we're just going to start new with

new paint all the way down to the wood

so that we can really just like have a

really clean clean finished look

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I'm excited to see the progress on the

doors they're coming along we're still

waiting on the glass but at least we'll

get to see what the shape is going to be

like

so right

now are those it I don't know if that's

it I'm dead I'm

dead it's gorgeous I told um we're just

waiting on the glass at this point the

glass yeah how long do you know how long

it'll take maybe if not today tomorrow

so I can probably deliver it Friday if

not Monday the latest wow I know you

guys need fast right it's he did it gor

you built this

gorgeous they look nice actually they

look beautiful I mean it looks just like

that window that we kind of took the

inspiration from

yeah gorgeous so this is what it's going

to look like from the inside cuz they're

going to open yeah I'm standing on the

outside of you're on the inside so when

you walk out to the pool like this is

what it's going to

be literally stunning and that's what we

make it out of that lumber over there

how how we get it and then we it up

yeah that is

incredible oh that looks

awesome

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wow it's

incredible is it not it's nice

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the next day after stripping this off so

it's dry now it's not like gooey anymore

I know that you can use like mineral

spirits you know like something like

that to like get the rest of the goo off

but I didn't want to use that so I just

let it dry now this is what it's gotten

this to which has gotten the majority of

the paint off which now we can sand and

it's not a lot of work you know now

we're just like perfecting it not bad

the windows were definitely easier than

the actual box because I feel like that

has been painted so many times that

there was just layers and layers and

layers but it was so cracked all the way

down to the wooden places that I had to

get it all off you know like you you

sometimes just have to start over with a

new slate you know otherwise it would be

uneven and not perfect we're on the

right track so I'm going to sand it down

stepping up from 60 grit so I'm going to

start with 60 and then I'm going to go

up to probably like 100 120 and then up

to something finer like a 220 and it

gives us a really nice smooth surface

without having any of the circles left

over in the sanding if you've ever done

that

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oh oh my gosh you guys I'm surprised

this thing isn't like permanently

attached to my face at this

point I have worn this whether things

are stinky or not it really didn't

matter when I set out to restore just

this box window it's essentially three

windows and I was like oh this is going

to be a breeze oh my gosh days days it's

been this is day five of working on this

project like pretty much in the

afternoons started as just kind of I

thought a simple restoration project

turned into replacing

glass I have holes in here learn from

our mistakes now twice because you

really do not want to get close to glass

glass with

sandpaper now I say that and it's like

an obvious thing but you really don't

because it scratches the glass and it

looks bad so there were a couple of

panes in two of the windows that just

had scratched glass and I just it just

wasn't perfect at Lowe's you can get

them to cut e in glass or the plastic

sheeting stuff if you need like that for

any reason you can get them to cut the

e/ in glass exactly to size and so all

the pains that I needed cost me

$20 it's not a hard fix it's just timec

consuming and we have as we were

restoring these windows we had the

glazing was cracking all the glazing has

to be replaced literally I took these

windows down to

the wood there's some paint still kind

of left into the profile of the wood on

the front and that's just because it's I

didn't want to damage the profile this

is very smooth this is paint righted

instead of going back in with another

layer of stripper which I would have

done if we were taking the paint off and

like staining these which the wood is so

pretty it's like man should I it's

almost it's almost hurting my heart to

paint it but it won't match any of the

other windows in the house

and there's going to be so much wood

detailing like stained wood in the

kitchen already that these really need

to stay the way that they were the goal

since we were just painting it anyways

was to get it really smooth Smo and get

it down as much as we could and remove

any chipped paint things like that so

this is like very very smooth and I've

been replacing the glass and we're going

to replace the glazing and then they're

going to be ready to be painted I also

stripped all of the hardware and in

painting it with this metallic gold pure

gold color that I got uh it's the

closest that I can get to Brass you know

to a really good color that I actually

like that's not like super gold and

bright

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and I have been using all of the

previous push points for these windows

too I was able to get them all out

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to create a really tight seal and a

clean finish on the outside of the

windows we're going to be using window

glazing this is white in color so you

don't have to paint it if your windows

are white but we are going to be

painting these windows anyway so we're

going to wait the 3 days and the guys

will paint all the windows so you just

want to start with a clean slate and I

always like my glazing or cocking or any

project that I do to have really clean

straight lines so I always use some

painters tape as well and I'm going to

put the painters tape exactly where I

want the glazing to stop

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[Applause]

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Happ

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there you go

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how beautiful are these stores they're

exactly what I wanted in terms of like

the elongated lights that's another name

that's what they call like the glass

panes um these are all called lights and

I wanted them to be elongated like that

one window all of the windows in our

house are a little bit different to

accommodate the space that they're in

but that one was like the prettiest to

me so when we were designing it I wanted

it to be that 13 in tall so tall and

skinny and then we put the panel on the

bottom so that it matched the rest of

the doors in the house and you know made

the house feel really cohesive they've

already started to Prime the doors too

just to protect them while we're getting

to the painting stage and now the view

of the pool from the kitchen that indoor

outdoor feeling that I really wanted for

this space is coming to life I could I

could not be happier it's truly stunning

I have a little bit more perfecting work

to do on these windows but we've made

major progress they open they're glazed

they have new glass you know me I'm just

like a perfectionist when it comes to

those details and I just think that I

can spend a little more time on them to

make them like that much better but I

got all the hardware painted it's ready

to go on after they're painted I'm not

sure if they're going to bring in the

cabinet tree first and then paint or

paint and then bring in the cabinet tree

I don't know their method I don't know

how they're going to do it but either

way we're making some major progress

this makes me very happy so now when we

put our curtains back we'll just have

curtains on the outside ones the little

cafe curtains so I can perfect those and

and cut them to size cuz I already made

the curtains for the space I hope you

guys enjoyed this episode of renovating

our kitchen if you've missed any of the

episodes I'll leave them all linked for

you there's a whole series so you can

catch up on everything that we've done

so far next up we're diving into all the

Cabinetry so you're going to start to

see that come to life and they're going

to bring in the Cabinetry soon I feel

like and this space is really going to

start to feel like a kitchen instead of

just an empty room and don't forget to

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new videos I'll see you guys in two

Sundays bye guys coming up next in our

kitchen renovation I asked for select so

it's very uniform yeah yeah it's not

meshy meshy you know like you know I was

trying to be different over here so

we're at the Mill shop to see the

progress on the Cabinetry I'm so

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excited you

know she knows

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