Kitchen Reno Reveal

The kitchen reno was finished last week!

If you put all the hours into it, I think it turns out to have

taken 20 days of work.  Add weekends and other contractor 

obligations in there and it ended up taking about 6 weeks.

 I had envisioned something much more casual when we
 started planning this reno, but I like how this
space turned into a blend of vintage and contemporary.
 It's a good balance of The Mister and me, and I have
 to tell you that he picked out most of it!
  Didn't see that one coming, but love the end result
even more than what I thought I wanted.

We sure are pleased with how it all turned out!

Here's a little slide show documenting the progression....

And a few before and after comparisons...

Had to laugh now that I'm editing this and see the cupboard

door open.  Anyone else have kids that leave them open? ha.

Our old ones wouldn't close and now that the new ones do,

I can't keep them closed long enough for a photo shoot! haha.

Even though we went from white to black with the cabinets

and white to grey on the walls and enlarged the island, the 

space feels much bigger, almost as if we knocked down walls.

We don't miss the carpet or the ceramic tile.

This floor is soft, easy to keep clean and surprisingly warm!

We didn't replace the oven.

She's a 26 year old Jenn Air and we love her

  grill with under-the-house exhaust vent.

She's still going strong and when she finally does

die, I'm sure we'll replace her with her next generation.

So, there you have it!
I'll show you the family room some time soon.
It's before and after is almost as shocking as the kitchen! 

Now...some special credits and thanks are in order...

1. Kris, our contractor, from Williams Handyman Service.
2. The Mister, and his brother, who hung the lighting.  He also installed the hardware, cabinet fronts, dimmers and did some ceiling repair.
3. Cabinet hardware is from D Lawless Hardware.
4. The cabinets black and white, sink, faucet, rug, quartz counters, and sofa table holding the ship are from Ikea.
5. Backsplash is from The Tile Shop.
6. Lighting is from Pottery Barn.
7. Window blind is from justblinds.com
8. End chairs and slip covers from World Market.
9. Flooring is Nirvana from Lumber Liquidators.
10. Copper Boot Tray in the pet station is Smith and Hawken.
11. White square dishes are from Target.

The runner, ship, bar stools, artwork and anything else I didn't

mention was already in our home, mostly vintage 

 auction finds and thrift store rescues. 

And now you can all applaud because I promise I won't

show any more kitchen reno photos! haha.

Thanks for letting me share and for all the encouragement

over the last couple of months!

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Eighteen

The backsplash went on today!

Kris said he was going to see dots all evenings. ha.  Poor guy.

The white grout will go on later this week!

I'm liking it!

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Seventeen

We've been waiting on counter tops to come and they finally

did yesterday!  Then we started in on hanging lights and Kris

our contractor put in the sink and faucet.  He's also done kind

of boring little things I didn't photograph, like some wiring, a

kick plate around the bottom of the cupboards, and moving

a furnace duct under the house.  So, I'm totaling up all those

little jobs and calling this Day 17.

We really feel like we're on the home stretch!

Next week we will get the back splash, ceiling fan in the family room,

and black wood end pieces on the cupboards and around the island!

Installing those quartz counter tops put a new layer of dust

on things. You just have to laugh by now. :)

♥

Working the Weekend

We were hard workers here this weekend!
"Bot" helped, too!  I'm loving the new floors and haven't
missed carpet for one second!  The biggest change is that
our rabbit's fur (he sheds worse than any dog or cat) rolls
like tumble weeds across the floor.  I've had Bot out
every day to take care of it.  So far, so good!

We're no longer eating on the little card table!

And we've put the drawer pulls on!

(More on these later....aren't they pretty?)

We still have a few things to happen...counter tops come

on Friday.  Then next week will be all the finishing touches

like lighting, back splash, sink, faucet, etc.

I gave my desk a fresh coat of paint and got it back in it's nook!

Today I brought in a few plants for the season.

 We'll have to see how this pot of geraniums does.

I trimmed, watered, and cleaned up the pots.

And topped them all off with some fresh potting soil.

They had been neglected since the reno started!

It was lovely here today...warm and sunny!

Felt great to have the windows open!

If it stays like this we'll have to call it Indian Summer!

♥

Beeswax Castings

I was browsing on Etsy a few weeks ago and found these 

beeswax castings made from reproductions of the

Springerle cookie molds carved as long ago as 1500.

I've always loved Springerle cookie molds, so these caught my eye!

Pure beeswax is melted, tinted black and poured into the molds.

Then they are dusted with cinnamon to bring out the detailing.

They smell like honey!

I had brought home a box of vintage picture frames from the

auction trash a few months ago and I looked through them and

found a frame that was the right size.

I used hot glue to attached foam board and cork to the back

so I could pin the castings in the frame.

The castings are made by Jane at Magpie Jane.

You can visit her shop HERE.

It was fun to browse through all the choices!

I love the vintage look and she does beautiful work, doesn't she?

I hung this in my new kitchen!

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Sixteen

This afternoon The Mister put doors on the dining room cabinets.

I continued to wash up all the dusty dishes and filled the shelves!

Hard to get some good photos as it was already getting dark,

but you get the idea.  After all the chaos, this does my soul some good.

Starting to feel organized again!

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Fifteen

Today The Mister and I have been working on the dining room side

of the kitchen.  He assembled cabinets and installed lighting.

I matted, framed and hung some vintage botanical lithographs

that I got at an auction this summer.  

Today the triplets turned 21!

Here's a peek back at them at 2 days old.

Hard to believe that 18 lbs of baby was inside me just

 48 hours before.  ha! You can imagine how uncomfortable

I was.  lol....but I carried them to 37 weeks and they

were big, healthy and able to come home right away.

I. however, wasn't as well off as they were.  The day after

this picture was taken for the local newspaper, I coughed

and split my C-Section incision wide open and had to

go back into surgery to have it repaired.  It delayed our

going home by a day, but after that we were all good to go.

Happy Birthday, boys!

We're doing the real celebrating in a few days.

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Fourteen

and a little randomness....

1. Kris got the flooring through the kitchen!  Just a little more to do in the family room and into the closets.  Can't wait to see it with baseboards!
2. Our counter tops don't get installed until the 31st.  Geesh!  The things waiting on the counter top are the sink, faucet, cupboard side panels, and back splash.  I guess we'll be running well into November before we're finished!
3. I was checking out one of my favorite interior design blogs today and Emily said that Benjamin Moore Paint's Color of the Year for 2015 is Guilford Green.  Well, it's the exact color I just painted our family room.  ha.  I guess we're 'in' and didn't even know it.  I always say I was painting rooms grey a couple of years before it caught on, too. :)  Check it out here.  It's the new neutral.
4. Tomorrow is the triplet's birthday.  21!  My, oh my.  We aren't really celebrating until next Wednesday since Taylor and Lauren are out of town this weekend.  But I sure will do some reminiscing tomorrow.  Maybe I'll dig out a baby picture or two to post.
5. The Mister works with hospital administration for our two local hospitals.  He's had two full days of Ebola meetings and briefings.  It didn't seem so close when it was in Texas, but when one health care provider who treated the patient who died flew to Ohio and then came down with it, it puts it all in perspective.
6. We saw the sun today for most of the day!  Lovely.  But dark clouds rolled back in by dinner time.
7. Speaking of dinner, we had breakfast for dinner.  Scrambled eggs, bacon, fried potatoes and onions and toast made with homemade bread.  Comfort food.  Yum.
8. The Mister and I are going to do some work in our new rooms over the weekend....hanging pictures, etc.  Can't really totally move in without the baseboards in place, but we'll do what we can.  My oven isn't completely installed yet, either, and I can't wait to have that done so I can grill...which is how we usually eat our meat!

Alright, enough rambling from me.

What have you been up to?

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Thirteen

It was fun to watch the plywood get covered up today!

Kris got about 2/3rds of the way finished, I'm guessing.

This is a laminate with the padding already attached to the back.

I like the way it already looks worn and old.

Much better than dark blue carpet, don't you think?

I can't wait to walk barefoot in the house again!

I'm wondering if we'll want a rug in the family room.

We've never lived without carpeting before and I wonder

if it will feel cold and less cozy.  Time will tell!  Any thoughts?

♥

Kitchen Reno Day Twelve

Today all the prep work was done to lay the flooring.

Carpet, padding, tacking strips, staples, baseboards and

 anything that made the floor bumpy or uneven was removed.

Slate stayed close while I cooked and guarded the recipe cards. ha.

I made bread, chicken minestrone soup and apple crisp.  

One good thing about having to remove everything in your kitchen

down to the walls and floor is that you find lost things.

I hadn't seen my dough hook in years! haha.

Had to laugh at this photo...see my legs in the mixing bowl?  lol.

No more blue walls and blue carpet in the family room.

I'm super excited about that!

But the thing that really made me smile was what I saw

through our bathroom skylight first thing this morning.

One happy little autumn leaf waving hello.  :)

♥