Kitchen Island

Okay, so remember our kitchen before????

There, in the middle, is Rainman's skinny little dresser trying hard to work as an island.....

And then, wonderful, fabulous, Mark gave me a temporary island to try out?

And, now, my actual island.....even though it is still a bit of a work in progress...because I still need to paint the bottom.  But, look!

Isn't it fantastic?  

I was originally just wanting plain boards and a pseudo-butcher block look. As Mark and got to talking though, I explained that Rainman (despite there being cutting boards available any direction you turn in the kitchen) still continues to cut on the countertops....including his old dresser/island.  That lead us to conversations about having to sand and seal the wood top a few times a year.

Well, I am sorry, but my plate of noodles doesn't not have room for one more noodle that has to remember to sand and seal the island....and allow it time to dry before people start using it again.

So, Mark went to the store, planning to research sealants that I wouldn't have to do so often and found.....floor tiles.....that look like wood!

Yes......these are porcelain floor tiles!

He mounted them without grout lines and just did a bead of silicone in between the planks so there won't be any damage if liquid leaks between.

We can put hot pans right on them and even  cut on these (yes, hard on knives....but Rainman doesn't know where my good knives are).

It looks and feels fabulous.  Even though it looks rough, like weathered wood....it is smooth.  Crazy.

I painted the trim around the edge a grey that I thought blended pretty well with the top, so it doesn't look like it is floor tiles mounted in a case.

Now, I just need to figure out what color I want to paint the bottom.  But, I suppose I need to figure out what I want to do about the cupboards......first

I am still thinking something like this....for the island....and maybe the cupboards too.


Image

By the way, have you heard about the "Chip It" thingie available from Sherwin Williams?  After you download the app (like you do when you want to pin things on Pinterest), if you see a picture you like, you "Chip It" and it does those nifty little things, on the side, that tell you approximate paint colors for what you are seeing in the picture.

Anyway, I obviously went with a different island top than this warm wood one (that was more my original thinking for the fake butcher block)....so, does that change my look?

Or, here is a softer colored island that I like too.


Image

But, this one has the white marble top.

Any opinions?

I want bright and fun.....and, sort of Scandinavian.....sort of like this one.  I couldn't find pictures of these on-line, so, I went old-school and took a picture of a magazine for your viewing pleasure.

I love this look.  Happy. Bright.  Fun.  But, do I want green cabinets for the rest of my life?  I would take that stove for life though.....

In my inspiration pictures, I am just a bit afraid of too much white.  I want it to be bright and happy and sunny, but not....blinding. I don't want it to get outdated.  I want to be able to change things when the mood strikes (we all know my mood will change)......and I don't necessarily want to have to paint EVERYTHING all over again.

I also have decided that I do want to go ahead and do something with my backsplash.

Right now, it is just a sheet of laminate countertop material on the wall.  SUPER easy to wipe down and keep clean.....but it is creamy/beige and boring.

So, do I put in a colorful backsplash with my white cabinets?  Will that get old and go out of style quickly?



Image



Image


I am getting happier and happier with my kitchen changes, but still have a ways to go.

Anyone want to share their opinion?  Ideas?  Pinterest pages that I MUST go look at?

Kitchen Progress

You probably remember that the kitchen was my least favorite part of our new house.  It was sort of dark....even with the big huge windows....there wasn't much counter space....and I am not in love with the shiny wood cabinets.

So, I have been working on changes.....thinking and trying out other changes.....

Here is where we started:

The white cabinet that the microwave is sitting on was from a closet we ripped out at our Minnesota house. (Make note of the stuff on top of the microwave for later in the post.)

The middle island is Rainman's old dresser.....because it was the right height and I figured out at my last house (the one with the beautiful, but small kitchen), that I really like drawers for stuff, rather than cabinets.


So, I painted the kitchen and took down the wallpaper border and curtain thingies.

It was happier and brighter, but my "island wasn't cutting it.  So, I started looking up ideas and plotting and planning.  My friend's hubby is in commercial construction and is between projects right now, so when he finished up her "to do" list, I asked if he wanted to take on a few of my projects too.

I won't say that he jumped at the chance, but he did agree to it!

So far, he has built me a temporary island, so I can try it on for size and see what I think....before it becomes permanent.

So far, I am LOVING it.

The other change I am considering is with the microwave thing in the corner.

I had already painted the bottom unit my fun, citrus green.....but the top of the microwave just ended up being a junk pile filled with stuff that people didn't know where it went....or stuff we thought we would need quick access too...maybe.  You know, coupons, batteries, fly swatter, various plastic parts that we weren't sure what they went to, but didn't want to lose. (See the above before picture of the kitchen.)

Anyway, my friend, Betty, recently remodeled her kitchen and got new cabinets.  She had her old ones put in her garage for storage options....but, her microwave cabinet wasn't needed, so she passed it along to me.  

The funny thing is, the little cut out parts of the doors perfectly match the little cut-outs in my cabinets, so once it is painted, it will seem like it was always part of the kitchen.

When we first put it up there, I didn't like it.....because I felt like it sort of blocked the light and I didn't like the bulk of the cabinet on top.  But, now, only 24 hours later, I am sort of digging it.  It makes that corner of the kitchen seem more like it is part of the whole kitchen, you know?  Like it isn't such a wasted corner space.  The other positive thing is that the junk pile that used to be on top, is now behind closed doors, so it is our little secret, right?

I am sure once I get all my cabinets painted, I will like it even more and with the lighter color I am planning, it will reflect some of the light back, so it won't seem so dark.  I am considering using a milk paint in a white/cream for my cabinets and then a fun color...probably aqua on my island....but we shall see what I settle on.

New House Stuff

I haven't posted about our new house in awhile.

Partly because I haven't been in the mood to do much around here lately.

Partly because I was having a hard time making up my mind about what to do.

But, I have made a few decisions and once I make a decision, look out.  I was done in 24 hours!

It helped that there was a deadline for a paint rebate from Lowe's too.

Our house looked very classy on the outside.

Classy.....but, sort of boring.  And, honestly, while I am not exactly "unclassy" or uncouth....I don't really consider myself classy.  It didn't really seem like me.

The house is tan, with black shutters and a black front door.

I did not want to deal with painting the shutters, so I started looking around Pinterest for homes that had dark shutters and painted their front door a different color.

I founds lots and lots of that.....so, I started picking out paint chips.  I had the kids vote, then vote again, when I changed my mind about which direction I wanted to go.

I was thinking yellow because of this door that is next to D-man's school.

(I have a slightly better, less fuzzy, picture of the house, but, since we totally did the....drive reaaaaaallly slow and stalkerish, by their house and take a picture thingie....D-man got me trying to keep my face out of the shot face...which gave me a reaaaaaaalllly bad double chin.....so, you get the slightly fuzzy version and can keep your sugar coated version of what I look like....which is...... that I have no double chin.  Right? Right?)

But, then I started looking at yellow paint chips and A-girl and L-girl reminded me of how much yellow I already have in the new house.  Boring.  So I started looking at raspberry pinks and oranges.  I found some really pretty ones......


(via carolyn morrison on Pinterest)

Or this...


(viahttp://www.warlinepainting.ca/gallery.asp)

Or this....


To be fair, I might have liked the shape of this door and the stone work more than the orange color.  (via Hamilton Building)

But, I kept coming back to yellow.....


(via Bob Vila  )

It is just so happy and sunny, you know?

I was going to go with yellow.

Until, I saw this.....


(via http://www.athomeinlove.com/)

Yes, the house is gray, not tan...but the shutters are black...there are brick stairs...and white is there as an accent.  I like.

So, are you ready for the result?

I went from this:

I know....the reflection is bad....maybe this one will show it better..

To this:

Isn't it fun and happy?

I will admit that once I was done, I had a few days where I thought I had made a huge mistake.  I drove creepy slow whenever I was coming or going and just stared at my door.....and thought.....oh no....I don't love it.

But, now, after I have lived with it for a week or so.....I love it.  It makes me happy.  It truly is more of a reflection of what is really happening behind that front door than the classy black was.

It makes me happy from the inside too...

Our neighbor boys, 5 and 3, love it too.  More, accurately, the  5 year old said, "Hey, did you paint your door blue?  I like it."  And, the 3 year old said, "I wuv your blue door!"

I finally made a decision on my hall bathroom and am still working through possible scenarios for my kitchen island.  I will show you what I have soon.

House Changes

I cannot tell you how happy I am in our new house.

Really, really happy.

It just feels right for us.

I rejoice in the sunrises through the trees.

I rejoice in watching the deer graze in my yard early in the morning.

I rejoice in the fact that it is feeling and looking more and more like it is "our house".

I have made some changes.  Remember my color problem in the dining room? 

I loved the aqua color in small places, but it ended up being totally overwhelming on the wall.

So, I did this, instead!

So much better.  Now I will just use my aqua as an accent color.  It is a happy room now.  I am very happy.


I love it!  I even added the extra leaf in our table and it still feels like we have a lot of room in here!

I still want to figure out some new curtains....but, overall....I am super happy with it!

Oops, just realized that in this shot the bottom hasn't been repainted yet.....but, you get the idea of how open it looks, right?


I have the old door thingie that I had at the old house and want to hang this up on the wall horizontally....I just have to figure out how to do it because the studs aren't where I need them to be....so, for now, it is just leaning against the wall behind the chairs!

There is my aqua as an accent color! 

I hung this above the fireplace.

I moved a little furniture.

This holds all our school supplies and just the miscellaneous stuff we need during our day...it used to be in the dining room....but this is still close enough to be convenient and now I have room for the big table in there!

I started painting in the kitchen.  I have decided I am NOT ready to touch my cabinets yet, but I still want to.

I will show you pictures of that later.

While I was painting, I put A-girl and L-girl to work and just set them free with our family pictures.  I told them my basic ideas and that I wanted it in our main hallway....and they did it!  They did an awesome job.  It makes me feel really happy seeing their little faces when I walk down the hall every day.

This house is really feeling like home.  Like a family lives here.  Like we belong here.

I am blessed.

A Quick....But Messy Peak....

Okay, since I have found my camera, I am going to show you a few things at our new place.  Fair warning, I did not stage my pictures....which means, I didn't clean first.

So, there is stuff on the table and counters, but you can get the general idea.  These are my "before" pictures anyway....so it will make for a much more dramatic reveal, right?

The kitchen (that I don't actually hate as much as I expected to...although I do still hate the flat top electric stove!):

You can see it is actually a pretty large space.  The island in the center is actual Rainman's old dresser that we are using for storage and another work surface.  It is too narrow, but I love having deep drawers for my Tupperware and baking supplies.  On my wish list is a larger island with an actual countertop. 

"After" plans include:

Taking down the wallpaper border.
Painting the shiny cupboards
Painting the walls.
Eventually getting a much bigger island to work on.

 
Another view of the kitchen which shows my great windows looking into the backyard.  The white cabinet that has our microwave on it came from a built in closet we had at our Minnesota house (we ripped that out when we put in the lockers).  The plaid curtains have already come down and the kitchen already looks lighter and brighter.

Dining Room:

Again, you will see the border (that is coming down as we speak)

The lighting is a little screwy. Sorry.  You can see the sun porch behind A-girl.  This is right off the kitchen....

A close up of the border and hunter green wall.

Here is a quick picture of the sun porch (with my garage sale IKEA couch and chair that was found for $50!):

We love the swingset and you can also see we have a fire pit!  So excited!  We have already had one bonfire and roasted marshmallows on wire hangers. 

I will show you more later. I am off to remove wallpaper border!!!!

The Big Basement Reveal

Okay.

I know it really isn't that exciting, and honestly, I think you can tell a much bigger difference in person.

But, I don't hate going downstairs like I used to....so there.

To recap, the basement used to have dirty, stinky, smelly beige carpet.  It was pretty bad when we moved in, but I felt bad that the owners had to come down in their price after the appraisal, so we didn't ask for carpet or a carpet allowance.

It was pretty bad when we moved in and my little darlings made it really bad.    Lots of contraband food and drinks were spilled and left to die a horrible death on that carpet.  You see, because mom hated going down there....mom didn't really inspect a lot.  So, they could tell me that it didn't look that bad down there and I believed them.  Foolish, foolish mom.

The basement had sort of an old urine smell.  Not completely sure if that is from the previous owners dogs.....or....my children.  I hope it was the dogs....but I can't honestly say!

It was dark down there.  One side of the basement has no windows and it had one light/fan fixture in the middle of the room with only one working light bulb socket....oh and my kids managed to break the fan so that doesn't work either.

It was just bad....plain bad.  Looked bad.  Smelled bad.  Made me feel bad.

Here are some before shots.

After we got rid of some carpet...and a bit of Rainman's bachelor couch.

The other end of the room....that is Rainman's bachelor T.V. facing the wall back there.  It died about a year ago....and there it has sat waiting for us to get rid of it.  The glass is to the wall because I know my children.

A closer shot of the bachelor couch.   My kid's didn't just destroy this puppy without permission.....well, some of it was done with permission.   I wanted to keep some of the stuffing for craft projects, so, being the coolest mom in the world, I told them to have at it and get me some stuffing!  They obviously had a great time.

Okay....so, I think you get a bit of an idea what it looked like down there when the children were pretty much given free reign. 

It obviously wasn't pretty.

So, we pulled up all the carpeting and I painted the whole thing....we got a few new IKEA desks....rearranged what we had....took a trip to the dump and....here we are today!

Three of our work stations and our reading library.

This is my curriculum shelf.  I have a shelf for math, for science, for history/geography, language arts, religion/theology/apologetics, foreign language, SAT prep....you get the idea....but it is all together in one place....I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.  Since it is all here, I can't forget about what I have, so I am using more of my stuff! 

Here is the whole overview of the school side of the basement.  D-man's work area is the closest on the left side.  S-girl's desk is in the middle of the curriculum shelf (another IKEA purchase from a few years ago).

This is my reference library!  I know....I am a nerd....but it makes me happy.

Here is the other thing that makes me happy.  There was a little closet under the steps and we have stored all of Rainman's VCR movies that he can't bear to get rid of in here.  But, also all my pencils; pens; glue; tape; pencil sharpeners; colored pencils, etc.  Again, all together in one place!

This is the other side of the basement...next to the school room.  We have games and puzzles in the two tall cabinet thingies.  Obviously a T.V.  And the latest addition is one of our twin beds from upstairs that wasn't getting used (remember we have bed hoppers).  And, of course, a big heap of toys in the corner.  We need to do another purge...but I am too exhausted right now!

I kept the floors just plain concrete.  I had wanted to paint them ....but money ran out....so it is fine for now.

We had a great friend who put in some new recessed lighting for us.  I bought them for really cheap at  Habitat for Humanity Restore.  I didn't even have to pay him with money....I just made him some Polish food!  The lighting difference is huge.  It used to be kind of dark, dingy and scary....now it is light and bright......

.....and, apparently good for naps!