Stealin' wifi from IHOP!

Well, we are all moved in. It was a trial. It still is. Blending two homes together in a small space isn’t as easy as you’d think. And right now the house is literally a cave of boxes, appliances, and painting supplies. It is a crazy, organized mess. And by organized, I mean “I remembered to label about half the moving boxes as I packed them, so I know where about half my things are and that makes me organized, right?” However, it is getting better every day.

In just the last week alone, we:

· Painted the kitchen

· Installed kitchen tile

· Moved the kitchen appliances out of the living room and into the kitchen (what a concept!)

· Hooked up the gas lines for the stove

· Hooked up the water for the refrigerator

· Got a free dishwasher (that matches the other appliances! Eeee!)

· Got the bedroom somewhat organized

· Unpacked three boxes

Ha! Three boxes is all we have unpacked. Oh well. We’ve got other stuff going on right now – like finishing everything else. Every night I lie in bed with the ceiling fan (which Alan installed for me) above me and think about how much I love that house. The bedroom is so pretty with its freshly painted walls. It is so incredibly fantastic. We have put so much love into the home, which inspires me so much to see what we’ve done with our own two hands (sometimes 4, 6, and 8 hands helping).

Unfortunately, I packed my camera away in the haste of packing the apartment, and haven’t been able to take any photos of the progress the house has taken. I will find it soon, and post some. I know you’re dying to see.

Packin' Up!

Today is packing day. Groan. If I can actually pull myself out of my comfy bed, I have to get everything in boxes today, and call the movers in on Wednesday. That's right, we'll be moving into our home this week! Woah! What's that you ask? You mean the kitchen is done, and the house is ready to have inhabitants?? No, of course not! There's not even a sink in the bathroom right now. My lease is up this week, and the house is livable - livable as in "we will be living there, and finishing everything up in a crazy rush not to have to stoop to washing dishes in the bathtub." We are entering into what a lot of home remodelers have done time and time again, which is living around the destruction zone that was once a home. This should be an interesting and tiring next few weeks.

But, in other news, yesterday was the best work day we have had yet. My mom has been coming over on her days off to help us finish things up. Yesterday we finished getting the beadboard up on the kitchen ceiling and filled in all the seams and nail holes, primed the bedroom for painting, and refinished the bathtub (something I will post about later). It was an extremely busy day with lots of hard work and lots of noxious fumes from the tub paint. But, we will have a nice home soon. It is getting exciting.

Ingredients in the Recipe for a DIY Kitchen

Our kitchen has had many design changes over the last few months, with me running through design blogs and magazines and TONS of books from the library for inspiration. I think that I have taken everything into account for the kitchen, and here are some pictures that I have saved from various blogs that piece together bits for the kitchen. Try to imagine it all together...if you can.

Here is the wall color. The ceiling will be a white beadboard, with a raw sweet potato color on all the walls.

The flooring will be a classic white and black checkered tile.

The backsplash I have finally decided on. It will be a white subway tile with the grout gapping just like these. I was uncertain about how to do the backsplash until I saw this kitchen. I practically squealed when I saw the spacing in this tile. I am fairly obsessed with this tiniest aspect.

The kitchen countertops!!! They will be made out of recycled bowling alley lane! Are you as excited as I am???

The cabinetry will be a teal/aqua blue like these to go with the sweet potato colored walls.
Btw, this is the kitchen of one, Ms. Julia Child!!! It is now in the Smithsonian. Isn't it amazing? I would kill for the space to have a pegboard pot rack!

There will be white, open shelving like this along the wall above the sink.
A much smaller version of this lighting will be made for the pendant lamp that will hang over the kitchen table. I posted this in a previous blog, but incase you didn't see it...this is made out of old eyeglass lenses. I cannot wait to have this finished and up!

So there it is! Or atleast, pieces of it. Our kitchen will one day (hopefully soon) be finished, and a place where we can hang out and eat and eat and eat (we do that well. alittle too well). We cannot wait!

*Sidenote: This is something we are over the moon excited about, but...our kitchen will be kosher. Being vegetarians, we are so incredibly excited to have a kitchen where meat was never cooked. Since we have replaced the walls, ceilings, stove, refrigerator, etc....it will be a space where meat has never been. Again, over the moon excited!

Just Checkin' In

Well, it has been about two weeks and the house is finally resembling something of, well, a house! The kitchen now has all its walls and ceiling installed, the electricity now has a new panel box for proper control, the shed in the backyard has been cleaned out, some of the trim has been sanded for repainting, the kitchen cabinetry has been painted and is ready to reinstalled, and....are you ready for it??? The floors have all been sanded down, restained, and refinished!!! Good God those floors look AMAZING! We are so incredibly happy with the floors! The house is coming together so well now, and we will soon be painting all the rooms and then moving in! Wow! Tomorrow is a big work day, with Alan, my mother, brother, Amazing Neighbor and I all working to get some stuff finished up and prepare for tiling in the kitchen and painting in other rooms. We've got two weeks until we move in, so this should be fun! Wish us luck!

Something to Leave You With

After several days of working on the house, I will be heading to Tennessee for a family wedding. I am so excited to see family I haven't seen in awhile, including my uncle who is very home remodel-savvy. I called him about a month ago to ask for some advice on flooring, and while telling him what we were working on, he said "Well, you're young and foolish enough to undertake all that..." Now I know just how right he was. We are so foolish to have started this. But hopefully, it will be done soon.

Here are some lovely photos of inerior design that I have been lusting after lately.