Our December Kitchen

I had planned on doing an awesome 2 part post on our lovely kitchen makeover. But all that I managed to post was A Tiny Peek at Our Kitchen Makeover. No part 1. No part 2. No big kitchen reveal. Just a peek and not much of one.

I'd like to say that it's because I'm just too busy but that wouldn't really be true. I am super busy but the real reason I've haven't posted about my kitchen makeover is- I don't know if we'll ever really be "finished". It appears to be one of those projects (like every other project) that will take us years and years to actually complete. So I'll just try to post an update every now and then :) 

 

Let's start this kitchen post with a quick reminder of our kitchen last year.

Leaky dishwasher. Rotted floor. Bad wallpaper.  

 

 

 

 

Ugly huh? We really didn't change very much. Just the floor, backsplash, and color. There is still sooo much to be done.

And to be honest, the floor isn't finished, the backsplash isn't finished, and the paint isn't finished. I still have plenty of trim and caulking to do. Not to mention a few tiles that need to be repaired already.

So try to see past the dirt on the floor and stools, the rubber bumper on the corner of the counter, and the bad lighting, and just see how far we've come.

 

 

 



 

Thanks for stopping by :)

A Tiny Peek at Our Kitchen Makeover

I guess we'll start with this crazy awful embarrassing picture. The right side is the dirty old green cabinets and the left side is the clean new grey cabinets (obviously). I actually like the old green color and seriously considered repainting them the same exact color. But then I thought, if I'm going to go through all the trouble of painting my entire kitchen, I may as well change the color.

 

What do you think about the grey?

 

 

I went back and forth after painting this one little section. I never really decided if I loved it or not but I didn't want to repaint what I had already finished. I'm really lazy and I can't work on any one project for very long. I usually have at least four things going at once. I like to hop around and have the choice of what I feel like working on. I like change, so I just keep on moving around and changing.

 

I know this is not much of a peek but I don't want to spoil the big reveal :)

 

 

Happy Tuesday Friends!

Sunday Harvest and August in the Garden (Don't get excited)

 

 

 

This is the gorgeous Sunday morning harvest from our garden. And technically, aside from the strawberries, this is the only harvest from our garden ALL year.

 

I really hope you enjoyed that pretty picture. Now get ready for some not-so-pretty pictures from our August garden.

 

Yes, that's Buster's tail bouncing around in there. He was looking for something edible. He didn't find anything, except maybe a rabbit :(

 



The fence is basically covered in vines.

 

Now check out some of last year's garden activity. It was the opposite of this year. It was awesome!

 

 

 



 

Fermented salsa! I would slap someone for some of this right now.

 

This is what our cucumber harvest looked like every other morning!



The pickling was endless.

 

The tomatoes were gorgeous!

 

Below is our only living and happily thriving tomato plant of 2015. Notice that it's not even in the garden. I should probably mention that we didn't even plant it!! It just sprouted up in the front flowerbed all by itself :)

 

So we tied it to a pole and it's totally content.

 



Homemade Wide Plank (Plywood) Hardwood Floors {Bedroom Makeover}

It's a good morning today! The babies both slept pretty much all night, the weather is amazing!!!, and I'm ready to share what we'll call "phase 1" in our girls' bedroom makeover.

 

 Our homemade wide plank  hardwood flooring in the girls room!

 

 

 

So we bought 5 sheets of plywood and had the guy at Home Depot cut them into 8" wide strips. We sanded the best side of each piece.

 

Then we removed the furniture, baseboards, carpet, and padding. And played around with the layout a bit.

 

 

I painted the room an awesome griege color. You'll see through the pictures how the color changes in different lighting. All of the pictures were taken from my phone, just at different times of the day.

 

The next day we layed down a sheet of thick plastic to protect the cheap particle board subfloor underneath.

 

 

And then we pretty much mixed and matched the pieces and nailed them down with the nail gun when we had the look we were after. While he nailed, I came behind him and stained.

 

 

We started out seperating the boards with a penny to leave space for expanding but it wasnt really necessary because of the slight variation in the size of the boards. It worked out just perfectly.

 

When the stain dried, we did two layers of polyurethane.

 

 

The only mistake that we made (and I mean "I" made) was not letting the poly dry enough before eagerly skidding the box springs across. I'll have to fix that another day.

 

 

 

Paint color: Whiskers by Porter Paints

Stain color: Walnut by Porter Paints
Room size: 11x13
Floor cost: Around $150


 

Our Christmas Tree and Mantel {Journey's Decorating - Nashville TN}

  

Today I'm sharing our Christmas tree and mantel. This year we didn't buy a live tree. We had planned on buying one but the very week that we expected to get it, my in-laws said they were buying a new tree and taking this old one to the dump. Needless to say, it's perfect for our little corner in the den :)



 

 

If you're wondering why the bottom looks so bare, it is not because of my medioker decorating skills. In fact, it was decorated but we have lots of little hands who specialize in un-decorating. After a few broken ornaments I decided it was best to just put the rest of them up for another year. So I bought some ribbon and attempted to use it on the tree. I think pretty ribbon on a tree takes practice. It's clear I need more practice. This was my second attempt and I'm giving up for this year.

 

 

The mantel is my favorite thing to decorate! This wreath came from my mom a few years ago (I'm sure from a yard sale). The tall angel on the left is from Cracker Barrel a few years ago. The candelabra was a gift from my husband (from Target). I know there are lots of people who change up their mantel every year but I love mine so much that it's probably the only thing that is almost the same each Christmas. This year I added the red plate. I'll post a photo at the bottom from last Christmas.

 



 

I'm so proud of the new built ins that my husband put in this fall. These babies are completely from scratch! I designed, he built, I painted. I'm so happy with the way our den is coming together but we have a lot of work left.  



 

Here's a close up of the tree. My daughter was kind enough to notice that our snowman is falling off of the tree in this picture. Haha! See if you can find him!

 

 

Thanks to everyone for visiting :)

Here's a shot of last year's tree and mantel.

 

 

Leaky Dishwasher Remodel

 

About a year ago it became apparent we needed to replace our kitchen floor. The peal and stick tiles were popping up and the flooring under started swelling in spots. We didn't know what was going on. But I hated the floor and was happy to be forced to replace it with a much more appealing porcelain tile. Who knows how long we would have lived with that floor if it hadn't become a problem.

 

We had a few theories as to what was making the tiles swell. Possibly water damage from kitchen spills over the years, or maybe the people who installed it didn't know what they doing. Whatever the case, it needed to be replaced.

 

So we budgeted in the materials for the tile project. It was kind of funny how at exactly the time that we had enough money, we realized there was a bigger problem. The dishwasher was leaking!

 

Curtis took it out and started tearing up flooring to find this. Wet particle board. Moldy wet particle board. Nasty moldy wet particle board. YUCK!

 

 

After removing all of the wet particle board we put a fan on the subfloor to help it dry while we tried to figure out what to do next.

 

 

Clearly the only option was not the best option. But being that it was the only one, we decided to tear out the cabinets and see what was underneath them.

 

More nasty moldy particle board! Some mold starting up the walls and on the underside of the cabinets. It was a good thing we had no other options. Thankfully Curtis had lots of physical and informative help from a friend JR.

 

A funny thing about home improvement- you learn more than how to improve your home. For example, we didn't really know that we were "do it yourselfers" but it looks like we are. I think we always had this idea that if we had more money, we would just hire someone to do this kind of work for us. But the truth is, we like to do it ourselves and have the peace of mind knowing it was done right. Of course there are things that a professional would do better than us, but if we had more money, we'd probably just replace more and do more projects ourselves.

 

So all of the old stuff came out. We bleached, scrubbed, and Kiltz'd everything that was wet.

 

Good stuff!

 

The kids helped by watching tv for an entire weekend.

  

 

Then he laid plywood on top of the subfloor.

 

 

Put the cabinets back together and replaced any damaged wood on them.

 

 

 

 And VOILA! The kitchen was a kitchen again. Now on to the tile!