Just testing an app I downloaded.

Merry Christmas!

Yes, we are decorated for Christmas and we still have our pumpkin out! I realize how silly that looks, but I love that pumpkin and it hasn't started rotting yet.

 I got this neat cabinet at a vintage shop in St. Pete called Paper Street Market. I love it so so much! I've been wanting to get something like this and was so excited when I found it.

I'm still undecided on whether or not I want to paint it. I really like the character that the chippy paint gives, but I also think it would look pretty neat with a fresh coat of paint. We will see!

Kitchen Update

We installed new kitchen flooring a few months ago and I'm just now remembering to post about it!

 We still need to switch out the shelving, but I'm not 100% sure of what we want to use yet.

Here's a before and after picture (Or should I say during since it isn't completely finished?), you can click it to make it bigger. The before is from the day we moved in.



This is the box my Dad built to go over the hot water heater. Its magnetic as well as a chalkboard. What a difference it has made!

This is the best before picture I could find, its from when we first walked through the house. It makes me smile though because you can really see all the things we've done! You can click it to make it bigger.

A few weeks ago one of our neighbors was getting rid of a dresser, so we went to check it out. We really like the lines of it, but not the color! We took it home and got to work!

 This is after I had already started filling in some dents and taking off the hardware. I almost forgot to take a before picture! The dresser was a purple color with red accents. Its a Henry Link dresser from the Bali Hai line from the 1970's, obviously painted at some point as the original dressers are a pale yellowish color. I'd love to find the tall version of this dresser to replace our other dresser. Let the hunt begin! I'd even settle for the smaller/shorter long dresser.

 And here is the after! I painted it grey with yellow accents. I used an oil based paint which gave it a really nice finish.

I still want to put a coat of polyurethane on the top to give it even more protection, but for now its done! We went back and forth on replacing the hardware or giving it a coat of paint. We ended up just keeping them as is and we're really happy with that decision.

 Here's a before and after picture. You can click to make it bigger if you want.

This is part of our bedroom, its hard to get the whole room in one shot because it's pretty bigger and a little oddly shaped. Can you spot Edgar, Douglas, Henry, and even Nora? haha. Slowly but surely its coming together. Once Cash is in his own room our bedroom will look a little less cluttered, but for the time being we are happy to share the room with him! I'm not ready for him to be all on his own yet.

This was my first real furniture makeover and I'm really excited for how it turned out. It also gives me the confidence for the other dresser we have waiting in the shed! I plan on doing that one for Cash's bedroom. I also plan to build a new top for it as it has some damage on the very top.

TWO!

Cash's second birthday party!

Random House Pictures

Living Room

 The fireplace. It doesn't work, and even if it did we would not use it. I painted the inside purple and we keep the bean bag inside. The dogs really like it, and occasionally Cash will sit in there too.

This is the wall opposite of the fireplace. (Sorry for the random stuff on the record cabinet and chair)

 The back wall of the living room/dining room. I thought I had a picture of the whole dining room, but I don't! I'll have to post one  next time.

 The master bathroom

The pelmet box that I made for the bathroom, out of the same fabric as our shower curtain. You can also see the tin ceiling!

Our bedroom. We're looking to get something for the litter boxes to go inside so they aren't so in your face. Unfortunately our room is really the only room we can put them.

Kitchen Progress

Here is what the kitchen looked like on the day we moved in.
(You can click all the pictures to make them bigger)

Here's a picture of the finished cabinets! I'm so happy with how they turned out. We painted them a light grey using the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit. It was very easy, but very time consuming! We also replaced all the cabinet pulls as there were a few missing when we moved in, and also to give it an updated look. We replaced the hinges as well.

This is what the kitchen looks like now! We painted it and hung the pelmet boxes that I made.

Here's the kitchen nook area. This is where my desk is at, so we've been calling it the craft nook.

The other side of the kitchen, as well as our shiny new french door style refrigerator!

This door goes out into the laundry room. We removed the old vinyl blinds and I stapled some fabric to the inside of the window. Its Amy Butler's Lotus fabric in cherry, which is also the same fabric I used on the pelmet boxes. The door is the original back door, as the laundry room was added on to the house at some point. I'm so sad that a previous owner cut out a doggie door in the middle of the door! We're working on making something to go over it.

This is one of my favorite things in the craft nook. Its an old printer's tray that I bought in Fernandina. I use it to hold thread, stamps, and other random things.

Future Plans for the Kitchen

• Make something to cover the hole in the laundry room door.
• Re-do the counter tops. Right now we are leaning towards diy concrete counter tops. We hope to have them done sometime early next year.
• Replacing the sink with an apron sink, which we would do when we re-do the counter tops.
• Build a box to cover the hot water heater. My Dad is actually in the process of doing this right now, and we are very excited to see it!
• Install new flooring, which we are doing this weekend! I can not wait for this!
• Replace the shelves with something more our style.

What we've done so far

• Painted the cabinets
• Replaced the cabinet pulls and hinges
• Painted inside of the cabinets, as well as installed the microwave and toaster oven in one of the cabinets.
• Replaced the faucet
• Replaced the light fixture above the sink
• Painted to the walls

Oh blog, I swear I have not forgotten about you! I actually have quite a bit to blog about, I just haven't had the time. I still have not gotten the camera cord for the iPad, so I will have to head to library to upload some pictures in the next few days. Here's what you can look forward to
- Pictures of the finished tin ceiling in the master bathroom.
- Pictures of the finished (!!!) kitchen cabinets and a little bit about our plans for the kitchen.
- Some pictures of the house nice and clean for our housewarming party!

Right now we are sort of taking a break from house stuff and focusing on birthday stuff! Cash will be two next month! So we are working on some decorations for his party and his big gift. I'm very excited about his birthday present and look forward to showing some pictures on the blog as well.

After two years of no internet we are officially back online!! We bought an iPad and had Verizon installed this morning. We still need to get the cord so that we can connect the camera to the iPad though. Once we get that I hope to be updating much more often. We've been working on lots of stuff, so I cant wait to post about it!

We finished the alphabet wall for Cash's playroom wall! It was a lot of fun collecting the letters, and it turned out better then I imagined it would. I made a few of the letters, but the rest we bought at various places.

Kitchen Progress

Our kitchen is definitely in need of some love! I think most people would just gut the whole thing and start over! We can't afford a full kitchen remodel, and I actually like the old charm that it has. So we're working with what we've got and trying to spruce things up a bit.

 First we started ripping out the layers of paper that were lining the insides of the cabinets. I really liked the old floral paper, but it wasn't in the best of shape so we couldn't save it.

Then we started painting the insides a fun aqua color.

 We took off all the doors to start the painting process. We're doing one side of the kitchen at a time. For two reasons, one being that its a whole lot to do all at once, and the other is that we really don't have the space for all the doors! The picture above has the cabinet frames all painted and ready to go.

All the doors are drying! They got the last coat of the clear coat this morning so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to hang them all back on! We bought some new black hinges which really look nice on the light grey cabinet color.

 We installed a recycling bin, which I'm really excited about!

We still need to paint the insides of all the cabinets on this side of the kitchen. One step at a time!

We painted the fridge with chalkboard paint, which Cash has just started to enjoy.

We definitely still have a lot of work to do, but its getting there.