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.

Master Bathroom Progress

A few months ago I bought this little curio cabinet from a thrift store down the street from our house. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but I loved it so I just bought it anyway. We ended up deciding that it would be a cute cabinet for our bathroom wall. I painted it white, distressed it, and added a cute little flower knob.

 I need to take a close up picture, but here it is! Once we paint the walls, I think it'll look nicer because it won't blend in so much. We also finally found a shower curtain that we liked. It was on sale at Urban Outfitters, so we waited until Employee Appreciation Day and got it for an even bigger discount! We also took advantage of Employee Apprectaion Day at Anthropologie and bought the hand towel. It looks great in person, but in this picture I'm not so sure about it now.

Here is a close up of the shower curtain.

Here is a before picture of the bathroom so you can see how its coming along. So far we've added the shower curtain, changed out the shelf, and replaced the sink faucet. We still need to pick a paint color, change out the light fixture, install the tin ceiling, and decide on window coverings (plantation shutters or frosting the window).

Hall Bathroom Progress

We hung a gallery wall on one of the walls in the hallway bathroom, it really made a big difference in there! We had a few paint swatches on the walls for a few weeks, mainly different shades of green, but we couldn't decide on a color. During one of my many trips to Home Depot I picked up a paint swatch on a whim and we decided we liked it the best.

Its the bottom color, Lemon Grass by Behr in an eggshell finish.

 We love it! I like to just stand in the bathroom and look around! lol

Here is a better picture of the gallery wall. Its just a mish mash of things we already had. The only thing we added was the "L" which I bought from Joanne Fabric's and covered with twine.

Slowly but surely its coming together! We need to add quarter round to the bottom of the wainscoting, decide on a soap dispenser, install plantation shutters in the window, and then I think it'll be done! For now at least. My Dad always tells me that when you own a home you're never really done!

Our floors really need to be refinished at some point in the future, so our hallway wasn't really looking very nice. A long time ago there was a floor heater and when they removed it they replaced the boards and its totally noticeable. It looks like a big dark box and when you look into the hall your eye is immediately drawn to it. So we decided rather then buying a runner for the hallway why not paint one?!

First I taped off the area we wanted to paint and painted the whole thing white.

After the white was painted I waited for it to dry and started brainstorming how to do the chevron patterned I had visioned.

When I started I was measuring and taping, it was a huge pain! I ended up making a stencil out of cardboard and traced it on and then taped. It was still a huge pain, but an easier pain!

All taped and ready to paint!

Painting the stripes!

All finished! We love it! It really makes the hallway look so much nicer, and you can't even tell where the box is. I still need to do a few coats of polyurethane, but I'm waiting for it to dry a bit more.

Off with the fan!

I've always been pretty nervous about electrical stuff, but after talking with my Dad I was pretty confident in myself! I planned the take out the old ceiling fan and replace it with a light fixture we bought from Ikea.

Taking off the fan blades to make the removal a bit easier!

Fan down, new light going up!

Its up and its ON!



We love the new light, it casts the prettiest shadows at night.

Back yard at the bungalow!

Drippy Faucet

On our very first day at the new house before we even moved our stuff in, my Mom noticed that something was leaking. After turning the faucet on and off a bunch of times I realized it was the faucet itself. We had planned on replacing the faucet as it was pretty old and not our style, but we hadn't planned for such an upgrade on day one!

Here's the old faucet. Silver and gold? Not so pretty!

(Sorry about the dirty dishes! I'll get the hang of better before and after picture taking as this whole blog thing moves along!)

And after! Beautiful oil rubbed bronze!

Moving day!

 Moving day went much quicker and smoother then I thought it would! We were very lucky to have a lot of family volunteer to help us!

It's pretty crazy that just about everything we own all fit into our living/dinning room area!

Cash's playroom! Not a very safe looking playroom on moving day!

Our bedroom got a face lift the day before we moved in, though it took me a few weeks to finally finish it all! The color is Martha Stewart's Plumage color matched to Behr. Its very different from anything we've ever done before, but we love it.

Cash enjoyed moving day! He adjusted to the move just fine. He liked just walking around and looking at things for the first few days. One of his favorite things was listening to himself walk on the wood floors. We have a crawlspace so it makes more noise then our old house did. That's a good thing though! I love all the creaks that our old wood floors make, it makes me smile.

Bungalow Before

Here are some pictures of the house the day we got the keys!