Monday, October 31, 2011

Kitchen Update

 
This is how we feel most of the time. 

But we are making a ton of progress on our kitchen.  I am tempted to say we are nearing the end of the road.  We only have a few things (okay, by few I mean a LOT) left to do and we will have a fully functional, updated kitchen.  Can I get a woot, woot?

Here is a little reminder of what our kitchen use to look like. 
A crappy picture of our crappy kitchen.  Well it really wasn't crappy, it was just dated and had a lot of unused space.

And here is a picture of it now.


Looks a hell of a lot better doesn't it?  I mean we still have some work to do, but what a difference.


What we did
  • Sanded and stained the cabinets a dark walnut color using gel stain (this stuff is fantastic)
  • Painted the walls Latte (from Sherman Williams)
  • Painted the ceiling 
  • Replaced the "parquet" flooring with a new groutable vinyl
  • Took out the corner china cabinet and folding breakfast bar
  • Built a free standing counter and storage shelves
  • Painted the inside of the cabinets a dark grey color
  • Replaced the old knobs with brushed stainless ones
  • Put up a temporary pantry
  • Replaced the plate rail with a subtle trim
  • Replaced the crown
What we still need to do
  • Finish staining the cabinets
  • Replace the tile backsplash
  • Finish the bookshelf
  • Replace the lights (new light over the sink and recessed lights)
  • Paint the inside of the cabinets
  • Build a built in pantry
  • Move the refrigerator
  • Paint the trim
  • Replace the outlet covers
  • Crown molding
  • Get new appliances
  • Put up bead-board

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Ideas for fall decorating

I was going to share some pictures of our progress in the kitchen, but my pictures turned out horrible last night.  I hope I can get better ones soon because I can't wait for you guys to see what we've done.  So instead of that I thought I would share some of my favorite ideas for fall decorating.  I can't wait to get the house done enough that decorating is a priority.

A few of my favorite pumpkin ideas.

Lauren Conrad
I love the lace pumpkin.  This is so pretty and so easy to do.  I think I saw this on the BHG website, but I can't remember.  There is a link above to the blog I got this picture from.

God is Able
I also love how cute these pumpkins are.  Such a simple idea to etch little flowers in them and they are suitable decor for all fall.  Love it.  I again think I saw these on the BHG website, but the link above takes you to the blog that I pinned from.     

Sassy Bella Melange
And last but not least is this little guy.  I love this one because it reminds me of Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas.  And the pop of color with the flowers is fun. I think next year I might try something like this for the sofa table or something. Now I know it's sort or late for Halloween decorations (since Halloween is next Monday), but I love these ideas so much I thought I would share. And I just wanted to say that I'm very much enjoying Pinterest because it allows me to keep all these great ideas (as well as others) in one place. If you haven't checked it out, you should. It's a great tool for the creative; now I don't have to have 100s of pictures saved on my desktop.  And you can check out (and follow if you so desire) my pins HERE (nothing like a little self promotion).

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Tile Dilemma

Well, you've probably wondered where I've been lately, or not, I'm not sure.  But I've been hard at work the last few weeks, sort of.

Well the beginning of the month was slow because I got the FLU!!  Oh it was so much fun.  The most beautiful week of the month, and I was stuck on the couch "resting."  Blah.  The flu is really not that fun to get and I don't really recommend it to anyone.  It took me almost a week to get back into the swing of things.  And well I hate being unproductive, it's just not in my nature.
But since then (and maybe even a little bit while I was sick), I have gotten a lot of things done.  We've made tons of progress in our kitchen.  I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow of what we've done and what we still have to do.  But I promise you, it's a big change.

On of the things we're still deciding on is the backsplash.  I want to do something that is timeless, J wants to do glass tile.  Now don't get me wrong, I love me some glass tile, but I'm starting to think that maybe glass tile isn't the way to go.  I just don't want it to look dated.  And I really don't want to regret it a few years down the line.  I don't want to be regretful about something that cost us so much money.  I mean the price of glass tile is crazy high, like $25+ a square foot.  But J keeps telling me it will be okay.  We'll see.

Here are a few of our tile choices (you'll have to click on the pictures for a larger view).  We're going to the tile store (or maybe a few of them) this weekend or the next, so we might change our minds once we see them.

Here is the first one that J picked out. I like this one because it's a mix of both stone and glass.  And I love the colors.  It's a little on the high side of what I wanted to spend, $24/sq ft, but I guess I could look the other way since we saved so much redoing the cabinets.
We also want a non-square tile, so the little 1x2 in tiles are great.  I do have to admit this is a good choice.

Here is one of my choices. 
It's a hex tile, so the shape is interesting and I do love how hex tile looks in kitchen and bathrooms.
It's not glass or stone, it's ceramic.  So the price is definitely right, $5.60/sq ft.
I also like the caramel color, but J doesn't like the uniform color.  We wants a mix of different shades, that's why he likes the glass and stone mix.  So I guess not.

  I also like the idea of stainless steal tiles (or recycled aluminum tiles).  We actually discussed this when we first started talking about redoing the backsplash.  The stainless was J's idea, but now he doesn't seem to be on-board.  What's a girl to do?
These run about $20/8 pack so they middle of the road on pricing (but I did find them for cheaper on Amazon).
I think I loved the idea of a stainless tile because I love the old copper tile.  I just swoon every time I see it.  When we were house shopping we looked at a few that had the original copper tile and I was sold.  The stainless is just and updated version of the copper.  But alas, I don't think I can get J back on board for this selection.  I guess we keep looking.

 Here is another one I like.  It's light, it's pretty, and it has a simple mosaic feel.  I'm not sure if we have enough room between the cabinets and the countertop to pull off the different sized tiles.  But it is pretty.
This one runs around $12/sq foot.  So again, it's sort of middle of the road on price.
I haven't run this one past J yet, so I don't know how he'll feel about it.  I'd also love to see this one in person, the pictures don't seem to really express all the colors and lines.  So who knows maybe I'll hate this one in person.

 Here's another one that I really like.  I don't ever see us putting this in, but I sure love it.  The colors are fantastic and I love that it's made of shells.  It would be even better if I found out it was eco friendly, but I'm not sure about that.
It's in the high end of the price range coming in at $23.50/sq ft, so that would mean a lot of money dished out for our backsplash.  But it's interesting, it's a subway tile, and it's a mosaic of colors.  It really does fit a lot of our tile criteria.  But alas, this one isn't really one we're considering.  A girl can dream.

So that's pretty much where we stand on the tile situation.  We are no where closer to picking something we both like, that won't become dated.  I hope we can find something soon, or I'm going to go crazy.  I can't look at our beautiful new cabinets and blue marbled ceramic tile any longer.  I love the color blue, but I think the previous owners took the idea a little too far.

Stay tuned for some fancy new pictures of our kitchen.  It's lookin' pretty!