Ta-Daah!

Well, we finally did it! Here is what our kitchen looked like before: 

Here is what it looks like NOW!

I never thought I would have my dream kitchen so soon... but I really do! Jared ripped out the old dishwasher and put in this new one (he has SKILLS). We still have to install the microwave over the stove and add hardware, but I wanted to show you how it came out! 

The cabinet color is "Antique White" and the background color is "Clay Pot." This spicy, terra cotta color really makes the cabinets pop... and, it makes you want to cook and eat! ;-) The cabinets were well worth all the work. I would recommend painting cabinets to anyone wanting to improve their kitchen without spending a lot of $$. Here is a pic of my windowsill, decorated with two birds my sweet mother-in-law gave me, and a lily from a bouquet my dad sent for Valentine's Day. 

I love my kitchen, thank you God for this house!!

Cornucopias and Pony Walls

This is in response to my cousin Ang, my sister-in-law Andrea and my long time friend Karisse. You wanted more pictures, you got it! It will be a while until I have "before and after" pictures, so I might as well put some more photos on here, so you know where we've moving in four days!

All of these photos were taken the day we closed on the house, so they do not reflect any of the changes we've already started to make.

This was taken while standing in the dining room, facing the big curved window, which is one of my favorite parts! Anyone need a light fixture?? ;-)

This is the view of the upstairs, while standing in the room shown above...

This is the family room, or the "den." To the left (not shown in the pic), there is a railing by which someone could look down from upstairs. I made Jared promise that we wouldn't put couches directly under there, since I did not want to re-live a childhood experience that resulted in my sister's broken wrist...

There's a big wall of windows in the den where lots of light filters in. My handy husband took down that thing that's up against the ceiling by the pony wall. He called it a corbel, I didn't have the heart to tell him it's actually called a cornucopia...

Connected to the den is the kitchen, which already looks very different than it does in this picture (will post photos soon). Below the kitchen photo is a shot of the basement:

 Bathroom connected to the den:

Master Bedroom, which at this point was unpainted. It's now "Frozen Pond." I love that "eyebrow" window (someone told me that's what they're called...) The photo below that one is of the master bathroom, which was taken while standing in the bedroom.

The outside of the house...

The end!

Progress!

We spent the entire day at the house, finishing the cabinet doors, painting the walls in the kitchen/den, and painting the master bedroom. We took a break and treated ourselves (and our helpers) to subway. Here's a shot of Bentley longing for a piece of my Italian BMT! Sorry dog, I don't share salami!

Below are the hinges from the cabinets that we soaked, scrubbed and are now spray painting. As you can see, they were once a rusty brass... now they are shiny and black! There's $50 we won't need to spend on hardware!

Here's a peak of the colors in the kitchen. The cabinets are "Antique White" and the walls are "Clay Pot." 

 

If you're itching to see some finished paint projects, we finally have one for you!! This is our bedroom, and we painted it "Frozen Pond." It's my favorite Silver Sage color that we used in our apartment in Boston. It's calming, classy, and matches the stuff we already have... score! Tomorrow we'll clear the tarp out of the there and take off that painter's tape, since they don't quite go... 

Here is our bathroom vanity, which is actually part of the bedroom (the shower and toilet are on one side, the closet is on the other). I am thankful for this set up! We will be painting the trim white sometime this week. I'm thinking I may also tackle the bathroom cabinets after we've moved in... maybe a chocolate brown color? They'll be a piece of cake compared to the kitchen!

More updates to come! Thanks for leaving comments, I love them!!!

A Food Diversion

I realize I haven't provided too many exciting photos. This is mostly because we don't live in the new house yet (move in date is next Saturday) and we are packing stuff up here at the rental. So, I thought I would distract you with pictures of food! Yummy, colorful food!

When I came home from a long day of work, sliding on icy roads all the way, the only thing that sounded really good was pizza. I had picked up some pizza dough earlier in the week, and did a quick scan of options for toppings. Once I realized that I had turkey bacon, cherry tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and avocados that were on the verge of going bad... I decided on a California BLT style pizza!


So for step one, I spread the dough out on a large cookie sheet (we like leftovers). I baked the dough for about ten minutes without any toppings.

 

Next,  I spread with one of my favorite jarred sauces by Barilla. I don't like pizzas super saucy, but you could go nuts with it if you wanted. I just put one little drop, like so.

Just kidding. Anywho, after spreading the sauce around, the next step was of course, some shredded Mozzarella cheese.

Then some crumbled turkey bacon... (I know, not the real thing... but still pretty tasty!)

Top with yummy cherry tomatoes, and end with a drizzle of olive oil.

Then I put it back the oven for about another ten minutes. Once it came out, I added sliced avocado, and voila! 

 I topped mine with some shredded iceberg lettuce bathed in a friendly helping of mayonnaise, since this is how they do it at California Pizza Kitchen.. and it's just so darn good. For my mayonnaise-averse husband, I left that part out!