At Long Last

I've been doing a lot of talking about projects and planning projects, but I feel like I don't have a lot of results lately to show for it.  It's all in the works, I promise!  I'm taking the opportunity finally to tackle some larger projects that I've been putting off for a long time. Now that the yard is ready for the summer, and I hope to get our front porch done by the end of the week, guess what the next major project in my sights is.

Yup, the kitchen!!!!!  The project that I've been dreaming about since the day we closed on the house 2.5 years ago  (I blogged about the kitchen here, here, here, and here).  I'm so excited!  Aside from new appliances and extending the countertop for a dishwasher, I have not touched this room.  It still has a non-working fan, light fixtures that I HATE are less than ideal, and cabinets that, although they look ok, are barely functional.  I'm just in the beginning phases now, pricing and planning, but I'm ecstatic that this is finally going to happen!!

I'm about 95% set on the 2-toned kitchen of dark stain on the bottom and white on the top. Like I've said before- we like wood cabinets, but the kitchen is petite.  Petite kitchens like ours can't handle all dark wood without getting dark- hence the introduction of some lighter cabinets like this kitchen:

image via pinterest via Design Manifest

Imagine my kitchen with these cabinets (ya know, minus the tile backsplash, gigantic island, floating hood, etc).  I think it'll totally work out amazing and although Hubby's not convinced hes finally smartening up and has decided to "defer to my judgement" on the colors.

We're hoping to get started on this end of July and bang it out in a few weeks or less.  AHH, my new kitchen's going to be awesome!!! (in my humble opinion)

Do you have any projects you've been dreaming about for years?

Accidential Appliances

So have you noticed that I never talk about my kitchen? It's been a little bit of a thorn in my side for the past 2 years.  It's a nice kitchen.  Nice.  It's not bad enough or cheap enough of a fix for it to be at the top of my to do list, but it's always there taunting me. (What, your kitchen never taunts you?  lucky).  On the surface, it doesn't look too bad.

The last time I really showed you a picture of it was right after we moved when I showed how we added a dishwasher.  We've done no other work in there.  No paint, no lights, no real design whatsoever, and it doesn't look bad.  The countertop is a nice composite stone that we're really happy with, and the cabinets look nice if you don't look too close or want to organize your items efficiently.  The key there is "if you don't look too close."  It's when you look deeper that you find issues.

Ignoring my ongoing feud with the cabinets (solid wood, laminate and veneer all within 1 square inch? what were you thinking??), the 2 greatest offenders in the space are the fridge and the stove.  There's only so many veggie-sickles you can pull out of the crisper drawer before you decide enough is enough.  After futzing with the temp for months, the final straw was a fully frozen head of cauliflower on Saturday night.  This last straw lead us to Sears the very next day.  Since we didn't want the fridge to feel singled out, we decided it was time for a new stove too.  Goodbye electric stove that can't cook or bake anything consistently!  Will it take twice as long as recommended to bake my cookies, or half as long as recommended?  Cooking roulette is not as fun as it sounds.

Hooray for after-holiday appliance sales!  In 2 weeks, our long-neglected kitchen is getting belated Christmas gifts.  It kind of feels like an impulse purchase since we weren't planning to buy any new appliances this weekend, but in reality we've been planning these upgrades since day one.

Why yes, that IS a gas stove.  We heart gas stoves.  Too bad our house doesn't have any gas line.  Solution? We're getting a propane tank put in our yard that will fuel the stove.  AND we got $300 off this stove because it was the last of an in-stock clearance.  I loves me a good deal!

I can't wait to get these in the space and start seeing a change in the only untouched room in the house.  AND as a bonus (for me), I'll take some REAL pictures of the kitchen for the first time.

Fridge source, stove source

Nixing the Shag

When we last visited the living room it looked like this:

It looks unfinished and kind of cold in this picture.  Although it did look better in person, it never really 'clicked'.

Until now.

I'm a little excited for this change.  I've been waiting for this since the day we moved in.

Check it out today!

Say it with me:  Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The room didn't miraculously get bigger, but a new rug definitely makes it feel that way!  Even Hubby agrees, shockingly.

Just to highlight how awesomely awesome this new rug is, check out what the living room looked like right after we moved.

The old rug was shag.  It was bad. Just bad.  Don't get me wrong, it looked fantastic in our previous apartment, but the living room was much larger, so a heavy rug grounded the space.  In this tiny conservatively sized space, it just weighed it down.  We got this rug before the cats were even a consideration, too.  Shag + cat hair = impossible to clean.  Even our Dyson is powerless.

I'm also over the pattern.  The living room was just screaming for something more sophisticated.  Something like this, perhaps?

I got the new rug from Joss and Main for $155 including tax and shipping.  Not too shabby for a 5x7 if I do say so myself.  I still have more plans for this room, but WOW, what a difference a new rug makes!  I'm really pleased with the pattern.  It's not so large (like the previous) that it will get dated or boring- it's just the right scale to make a statement and not compete with my planned bold patterned or colored chair.  Massachusetts tax free holiday is this coming weekend- chair shopping may need to happen.  I've already warned Hubby.

I'll leave you with one last gratuitous living room shot.

Random un-rug related thought: I am SOO happy with my big girl camera!  I know I still have a lot of technique to learn, but the difference in quality is already obvious.  I guess I'm not as bad of a photographer as I thought!  I bet you couldn't tell, but these pics were taken at dusk- you know, that time when its still light out, but completely dark inside.  The manual setting on my camera is a miracle worker.