kitchen info

I thought I’d address the kitchen remodel for those who had questions about why we were doing it and exactly what we are doing.

When we bought our house, almost two years ago, I knew at some point I’d want to do some remodeling in the kitchen.  Our house was built in 1981, and while the kitchen was actually redone about 7 or 8 years ago, it wasn’t totally my style.  I liked the style of the cabinets, which is a basic Shaker cabinet, but I wasn’t a fan of their reddish-wood tone.  The ceiling was six inches lower than the rest of the main floor.  And then there’s the backsplash.  Call me crazy, but black granite with copper fleur de lis trim and insets of copper nursing pigs just did not do it for me.  Yep, not just pigs, but NURSING pigs.  Feast your eyes on this:

When we decided to have our stairs redone, we also got a quote from the same guy for doing some work on our kitchen.  He used to build custom million dollar homes from the ground up, so he knows how to do EVERYTHING and doesn’t have to hire subcontractors.  The price was right, so we decided to plunge ahead.

So,  here’s what the plan is:

1. Remove the ceiling to raise it to the same height as the rest of the rooms.  This involves moving some electrical, plumbing, and ductwork, but I knew it was possible because our friends across the street had done it with the same floorplan.
2. Give the cabinets a facelift by painting them white and modifying the upper cabinets so that they will be a little taller, thus taking full advantage of the added ceiling height.
3. Install a new backsplash—a classic white subway tile that never goes out of style! (I did this in our Charlotte house and loved it!)
4. Complete the new look with stainless appliances.  Here’s what I have on order.  I am especially excited about the range—we are having a gas line put in, so no more electric for us, and I love the double oven!

We decided to save some money by working with the countertops we have for now.  They are Corian, which is fine, but I would really prefer quartz or even concrete at some point.  Corian stains, scratches, and you can’t put hot pots on it, which is why I am not a fan.  But for now, they will work and I think they will look so much better with the white cabinets and backsplash.

Here’s how it all looks as of right now:

It might not look like any progress has been made since the last picture, but a lot of the hard part has been done.  All of the plumbing, ductwork, and electrical wires have been moved (actually all of the electrical had to be completely redone because the people who remodeled the kitchen previously didn’t have their electrical up to code and it was pretty scary) and the new recessed cans have been installed.  Tomorrow, the dry wall should start going back up.

While it definitely isn’t ideal living through a kitchen remodel, it hasn’t been horrible.  Because we didn’t completely gut it, we still have our stove, our sink, our fridge (albeit in the middle of the eating area instead of its rightful home where that yellow ladder is sitting), and our microwave (in the dining room currently), which means we can still cook like normal.  That being said, we will all be grateful when it is DONE and we no longer live in a construction zone!

restoring balance

I haven’t been happy with the balance in our family room ever since we moved in.  For the last year and a half, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get it right.  Here’s a very old before picture (taken soon after the cabinets were put in over a year ago) so it doesn’t show our “new” blue chair, but you can understand why it felt off balance.  The window seat along the left side of the room was making furniture placement difficult (I didn’t want to block it since the kids love hanging out there), and the lack of furniture on that side made the couch on the other side of the room feel very heavy.

A few weeks ago, it was after midnight and everyone else was in bed and I was just deep in thought. . . about the room.  I was SO close to jumping off the couch and moving around all the furniture by myself. I decided to go to bed instead, but a couple nights later, I had some friends over and I asked my friend Gina (the house whisperer!) for some advice in my family room. The first thing she did was tell me we needed to move the couch. With her help, we did exactly what I almost did a few nights prior.  And I love it!  The room feels much more balanced. I guess I just needed someone else to assure me I wasn’t crazy for floating the couch there.

Now I’m on the hunt for a couple pieces of furniture.  I need a different coffee table and that way-too-small black table behind the couch is just a place holder for a long console table until I find one that I like.  Last week, Gina texted me with a picture of that chevron pouf (since I told her I was looking for one) and asked what I thought.  I told her to snatch it up and I love it in the room.   It adds to the fun and casual feel that I wanted and the kids love lounging on it (it feels just like a beanbag).  It’s easy to move around as needed and low so it doesn’t block the TV.

A month or so ago, I finally got around to working on that wall of frames.  I wanted it to be all about family since this is the FAMILY room.  The big frame in the middle is a pedigree chart.

It starts in the center with my girls’ names and fans out seven generations.  My sister-in-law Paige spent a very long time writing in all those names and mailed it me a LONG time ago.  I found it when cleaning out a closet a while ago and it was postmarked in September 2007 (I had to add Emery’s name to it—that’s how old it was)!  So, yeah… it was about time I gave it its proper place in our home!  It’s the perfect center for our family wall.

Then of course there are family pictures and the Provo Temple, which is where Patrick and I were married, and a couple frames I haven’t found pictures for yet!

I think part of the reason I’ve been working on the family room so much lately is because it has to look EXTRA good to balance out what’s going on on the other side of that space:

Complete scariness.  I’m just trying to balance good and evil over here.

Yep, the kitchen remodel has begun!

(The stairs still need touch-ups, which is why I haven’t shown those final pictures yet!)

last day of school

Emery finished her first year of preschool today.  My little girl is growing up.  Even just from these two pictures you can see she is losing the baby look!  (I’m not sure why she likes putting her arms behind her for pictures!)  And what kind of mean mom always makes her daughter look into the sun?

She’s pretty sad that school is over for the year and keeps telling me how much she’s going to miss her teacher.

Emery had such a great year and I think she loved that she was going to school  just like her big sisters!  She has made such progress—she can now recognize all her letters and write many of them, including her name.  She knows all her letter sounds, so I think we will try to work on a little reading this summer.  She can count to 39 with no help and to 100 with a few prompts.  At the beginning of the year, we were wondering if she would need a little speech therapy, but we decided to hold off, and she has made huge strides in that area as well.  She can now say all of her letter sounds correctly except for the dreaded “R” sound!

Preschool is great for both of us—it helps her to be more independent and have something that is all her own and it allows me to get a little break to get some things done.  It also makes me enjoy the time we have together even more!  I am so grateful that I am able to stay home and enjoy these years before she is in school all day long!

Kendall & Berkeley’s last day of school is tomorrow. . . and then we are taking off for NYC!

stair update

We started with this:

This morning it was looking like this:

And now it’s looking like this (notice the change?):

Still a ways to go, but I’m liking the way it’s turning out!  I am extremely glad I stuck with my gut on moving the posts back one step, even though I was told by a couple people that I shouldn’t or couldn’t do it.  The entryway feels so much more open!  I am also really happy with the way the simple but classic trim turned out on the posts.  They look just like my inspiration posts!  Next week it will be sanding, staining, and painting!

step by step

We have progress!  All of the new wood has been laid in the hallway and the new upstairs railings are mostly installed.  Half of the new stair treads have been put in as well.  Next will be finishing the stair treads, finishing the upstairs railings and then installing all of the lower railings, then sanding, staining, and painting!

Here’s what it looked like before he put the new upper railings in—a little scary if you were to mis-step!

He left the old upper posts and built our new more modern posts right around them.  Obviously, they’re not finished yet. . .

The work is on hold right now because our guy had a family vacation planned. Work will resume on the 23rd, so no more updates until then!