The Kitchen

I have learned to cook in this kitchen. When we moved in Harrison was not yet two. I was really just feeding Nathan and I mostly spaghetti and salads. Now I feed four and some weeks I feed another family because they need a home cooked meal but just can't find the energy to do it that day for themselves. We've entertained in this kitchen - I love having friends over. And in this kitchen I have enjoyed watching my boys laugh, run, ram their ride-on toys into the cabinets and so on. The best part about our kitchen are the windows, I can watch the boys play outside while I was dishes or chop up food. We took a risk by building this kitchen. I had a vision and Nathan had determination and after a little lesson in plumbing, we made it happen. And... I think I'll miss it, a lot.

When Silas was a baby we would sit him in his swing so he could watch me cook. Now, he pulls at my leg whining incessantly "up!" so he can sit on the counter and watch.

There have been evenings when I've had 5 or 6 ladies over and we've stood around, chatting over glasses of whine.

We've had young couples over for pizza.

We've had birthday parties.

We've had neighbors over for BBQ's.

Our son's built a vegetable Christmas tree with their Nana and Papa!

Our kitchen has been shared and I hope it continues to be shared. It was made to be a blessing.

Before...

Check out how small those top cupboards are! I loved the yellow and white mix... 

The dividing wall comes down. 

Michael and Nathan became plumbers and hey, the water has bee held in those pies for two years now! That's pretty good! 

These are all of the new cabinets in boxes. It was a beautiful sight! 

Small note of disclosure - I did not want these cabinets. Nathan and I chose cabinets that we thought others would like so that a potential buyer would fall in love with our kitchen and buy the house. And well... It worked! :) Our buyer actually told me that she felt like our kitchen was "just right" for her and mentioned all the other weird kitchens she had seen. So, if it had been my choice the kitchen would have came straight from the set of the Bravermen's from parenthood. Oak shakers with checkerboard tiles and some red chair at a bar! YEP! One day I'll get this. Christina and I are kindred spirits...

I did however incorporate my favorite part of their kitchen, the paint color. At least I got that in :) 

Here's what we picked. Paint, cabinet color and tile. 

Obviously I was excited about the paint... 

It took 4 friends to help Nate get the cabinets up. 

Doors... 

Then the tile (My husband is talented! I mean, really!)

Our neighbor let us use his tile saw for almost all of our tileing. Our brand new neighbor at the time! We're really going to miss them! 

Then the granite which terrified me! I was so worried about picking the wrong color but it worked out great. 

And the finished product! 

This picture turned out bad... but at least it gives you some perspective of the length of the kitchen. 

Classic, homey and inviting. Mission accomplished! 

Momma, Up! 

Love to you all! 

The beginning of the end - Oak Ct.

As most of you already know, we are under contract. What was once a dream is becoming a reality. We are selling our first "fix-up". We feel very blessed that our hard work will all pay off on August 13th, our expected closing date.

This week I wanted to take a few days to blog about each major area of the house - to show the before and after.

I thought the entry room and dining room were the most fitting to begin with.

Here's what the entry looked like when we purchased this HUD house. The entry closet blocked one of the doors from opening so we took it out. The spindle wall had to go too.

When we bought this house Harrison was just over one and a half. I can't believe how small he was and how much he's grown since! This is really the only home he knows. We talk about the townhouse sometimes but he doesn't remember ever living in it. So many memories have been made here! 

Here's what things looked like on demolition day.

 Here's what the entry looks like now, finished.

The dining room used to be to the south of the kitchen but we extended the kitchen by tearing down the wall that was in between the kitchen and the old dinning room. Then we just made the entry into a sitting room and created a space for the dinning room on the west side of the kitchen. I hope this is making sense to those of you who have never seen it... :) 

Here's the demolition of that wall on the left. The chandelier had to go too. 

We didn't have windows in the house for a night or two so we covered the openings with the old bedroom doors. I laugh thinking about it now. 

Here's my father in-law Michael working on the plumbing with Nathan. My in-laws have helped a ton! They's come in for 4-6 days at a time and endlessly work. 

Here's construction on the new window and the new drywall. The first thing we learned that we couldn't do well, quick or easy was drywall. Thankfully we were referred to Armondo. I think we've called him in to help four separate times during this whole process. 

Here's the finished product. 

And the dining area which was a full living room looked like this (note the aluminum windows that all had to go. At first when we moved in, we said we wouldn't replace them... What did we know?). 

The bare floor that had a tarp on it for months! 

The freshly painted walls. 

Then the floor! I love this floor. 

Ta da! This actually makes me choke up. Really, we're going to do this, again? I'll miss this place!  

One final note. Our real estate agent Alisa, recommended that I take down our family pictures that were  on our entry wall and put up a piece of art that really would stand out. Originally I told her to just bring something over she had and we would use it for the showings. That night though I got online and found my favorite purchase to date. I knew the moment that we saw this house and read the address that this would be our very blessed beginning. My life verse is Isaiah 61:3 "They will be called Oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor". Our street is Oak ct. So when I came across this Oak tree glass collage, I had to get it. It was the cherry on top. The reflection of the flash on my camera is distorting it a bit in this picture but when you see it in person, it's amazing. And to top it off, the description of the art included a statement of what the broken glass represented, "brokenness turned into beauty". If you read Isaiah 61:1-2 that statement sums those verses up well and it's why I feel the Lord gave Isaiah 61:3 to me, he's taking all the brokenness and making it beautiful through the cross.