#StapKitchenReno - Update #5

Phew! What a busy few weeks it's been around here! Apologies for going dark around here, but we had a pretty big party to prepare for so it has been all eyes on the prize with this kitchen!

It's actually starting to be a functional space, which couldn't have happened fast enough!  Our party went off without a hitch and made us realize even more what a great entertaining space we have created!

We still have some small details left to do, like texture the ceiling from our drywall repair, and build small custom wine storage... as well as one or two bigger details, like getting rid of that archway over the entrance to the kitchen and the big back splash tiling job... but at least we have a usable kitchen again at long last!

Here's how our list is looking at the moment... (look at all of those items crossed off!!)

• Remove partition wall between dining room and kitchen
• Dismantle existing kitchen cabinets & island  
• Remove dishwasher, range and microwave (and sell!)
• Remove tile flooring in dining room 
• Remove and/or reroute electrical from partition wall   (we still have some electrical to finish up, as well as some lighting design to decide on.)
• Assemble new kitchen cabinets 
• Have wood floors extended and refinished (hired out) 
• Repair drywall on ceiling and wall from wall removal
• Install new cabinets, hardware, drawers and doors  
• Have new countertops installed  
• Install new sink & cooktop
• Install hood over new cooktop 
• Tile wall above sink & cooktop 
• Put toe kicks, moulding, and other finishing touches on the space 
• Demo archway on dining room entrance, and replace with beautiful custom moulding!

Now, you'll have to excuse me while I go stare at my kitchen...

Kitchen Evolution

Last summer during a particularly creative spell, I found myself daydreaming about expanding our kitchen. I had no idea that one year later we would be doing just that.  

While the overall design has evolved, the concept remains the same: knock out a wall, move the formal dining room to the front room and make an enormous kitchen.  It has been just a few short weeks (7, to be exact) and our kitchen is coming along quite nicely.  

Just for fun, here is a little look at it before, after a cabinet paint job, and a few progress photos of our current renovation.  Enjoy!

#StapKitchenReno - Update #4

Well, it certainly took longer than I thought it would, but we officially have a kitchen island! I will save you the story of all the roadblocks we encountered while trying to place that island, and just tell you that we did it. :) You have no idea how proud we are of that beauty!

We are still without a sink, cooktop and oven but are starting to see real progress which helps keep us motivated for the time being.  We are hoping by late next week that we have a working kitchen again, which is - of course - dependent on the electrician coming through for us.Who knew electricians were so popular?!

Here's how our list is looking at the moment...

• Remove partition wall between dining room and kitchen
• Dismantle existing kitchen cabinets & island  
• Remove dishwasher, range and microwave (and sell!)
• Remove tile flooring in dining room 
• Remove and/or reroute electrical from partition wall (hired out) 
• Assemble new kitchen cabinets 
• Have wood floors extended and refinished (hired out) 
• Repair drywall on ceiling and wall from wall removal (after the electrical + inspection)
• Install new cabinets, hardware, drawers and doors  (the island is done, hoping to get the rest done in the next few days!)
• Have new countertops installed (hired out) - measuring this week, hopefully install next week!
• Install new sink & cooktop (once countertops are in)
• Install hood over new cooktop (once countertops are in)
• Tile wall above sink & cooktop (this one will be delayed until we live with the space a bit and decide which type and color of tile to go with here.)
• Put toe kicks, moulding, and other finishing touches on the space 

It is all starting to come together now, which is a huge relief!  When you convince your husband that demolishing a wall is a good idea, and you have measured and designed the kitchen without seeing the space opened up first, you cross your fingers and hope it all turns out okay!  I am happy to say that we are both very pleased with how it is turning out so far!

#StapKitchenReno - Update #3

Thought I would pop in and share a bit more progress that has been made on the kitchen.  What a transformation having these new floors in and having the existing ones refinished.  We love how the finish turned out!

#StapKitchenReno

As you may have gathered from the title of this post, our kitchen renovation is off and running!  We have a lot to do in a relatively short amount of time because we made the silly decision to finish it in time for a big veggie potluck group dinner we are hosting at the end of August!  Crazy?!  Probably, but it will also push us to get as much done as we possibly can before then!  Fingers crossed that our dinner guests don't have to wear hard hats when entering our house come August!

Since we all know renovation updates are not my forte (understatement of the year!), feel free to click on the Latest Adventures tab above for quick photo updates as we go through this renovation. #stapkitchenreno

Here's a little sneak peek into what we need to accomplish in this space...

• Remove partition wall between dining room and kitchen
• Dismantle existing kitchen cabinets & island
• Remove dishwasher, range and microwave (and sell!)
• Remove tile flooring in dining room
• Remove and/or reroute electrical from partition wall
• Assemble new kitchen cabinets (yay, one down!)
• Have wood floors extended and refinished
• Repair drywall on ceiling and wall from wall removal
• Install new cabinets, hardware, drawers and doors
• Have new countertops installed
• Install new sink & appliances
• Install hood over new cooktop
• Tile wall above sink & cooktop
• Put toe kicks, moulding, and other finishing touches on the space.

I love how simple it all sounds!  Ha!  I am sure we are in for some surprises on this renovation.  But I am so excited to see how it turns out!

Kitchen Makeover

Okay, so I am aware that my master bathroom reveal is long overdue (trust me, it will be good when it finally comes!), but in the meantime, I have started another project: our kitchen!  At long last!  We are not doing the major overhaul that I had originally wanted to do, but what we did decide on is painting the cabinets to brighten up the space and get rid of that builder-grade look, as well as new countertops, sink and backsplash!  

The cabinets are not completely finished, but here is a little sneak peek anyway...

Pop of Color!

Every time Chris and I start a painting project, throwing around color ideas, he always asks 'what about yellow?'  And I have to admit, that I usually cringe a bit on the inside.  Not because it's a bad color, it's just not one that I think I can incorporate into a space and design around all that well (sort of a home decor "it's not you, it's me" if you will...).  But the final color choice is always up to Chris.  I go through this process of research, testing colors, and narrowing it down, and then he chooses the color we go with.  Seems fair, right?  Right.

Well, I have been wanting to find a way to incorporate yellow somehow, without it looking like spongebob exploded in our house (he's yellow, right?), and I am happy to report that I finally found a great solution!

While choosing the paint colors for the outside of our house, we really wanted a bright, fun color for the front door.  But none of them seemed to match very well with the red brick that we have covering majority of the front entrance.  In the end, we decided on black and absolutely love it, but the desire for a fresh, fun pop of color has not left us.  

So while Chris was in England last week, I decided to do a little surprise for him.  Check it out... I literally smile every time I walk towards the door.  There is something about yellow that just makes you happy, am I right?

It looks slightly brighter in the photo (I'll blame it on bad lighting.  No way is it my poor photography skills...)

And just for good measure, I threw a little on the back door, too!  Swoon...

I love it, and it is definitely growing on Chris!  My job here is done. #canwestoptalkingaboutyellownow? ;) #thankyouverymuch

Laundry Room Reveal - Pt. 1

I  mentioned last week that I would be spending a lot of my time making over the laundry room, and I did not lie.  I spent my Labor Day weekend doing some pretty serious DIY labor!  And look at the difference so far!  Alright, I recognize that a lot of the change was just organizing and cleaning up the room, but you have to admit it looks a million times better, right?  The paint color is brighter in person than it appears in the after photo, so in my final reveal I will take photos in daylight for a more accurate view of the color I chose.  

Who knew that a little color on the walls, brightening up the trim, adding a bench, rug and some storage could make such a difference?!  Oh, and although you can't even see the hooks in the before photos, those hooks were silver before.  Nothing a little spray paint couldn't handle!  I love the contrast of the black on white.

Oh, and that yellow basket hanging among all the black ones?  Target was out of black, so I plan to spray paint it to match the rest! In the meantime, I think it adds to the character!  I love that the room now has a bit of personality.  I don't know about you, but colorful walls makes me happy!

Once Chris gets home and is able to help me with some heavy lifting on the other side of the room, I will post the after photos of the other half.  The bright white cabinets are already making such a difference, I can't wait to see what how the rest turns out!

And in case I haven't mentioned it before, I much prefer projects I can finish in a day (or a weekend, at most!).  After that I just get bored and want to move onto another project!  Doing a small space like the laundry room was juuuuuust the right amount.

Stay tuned for the rest of the reveal next week!  What do you think so far?

Exterior Makeover - Paint Reveal

Okay anyone else as annoyed at the most dragged out makeover reveal ever, as I am at myself for dragging it out?  Well, you should be. 

Luckily, I really did keep my promise and take photos of the outside of our house, post-paint makeover!  Yay, me!  (Okay, so I was too lazy to move the car out of the driveway, but at least you can sort of get the picture!)

Okay, so a little reminder of what the outside of our house looked like before...

And.... after...

And, a little side-by-side action...

I don't know about you, but we love it!  We held our breath as the paint went on, and feel really good about how it turned out.  Though, as I was photographing it tonight, I realized that the color is very similar to the inside of our main floor.  Ha!  I must love colors that have a bluish undertone!  (though don't tell my husband... I have a surprise for a pop of color inside! But more on that later!)

Laundry Room Project Time!

Remember when I said a laundry room makeover was brewing?  Well, I dove in over the weekend!  I don't have a lot to reveal just yet, but first here is a little sneak peek at the before.  Am I an organized genius or what?  (sarcasm noted.)  

{ side note: the clothing rack is new, I was just testing it out... }

You see, the problem (excuse?) is... when you buy your first place you gradually accrue more and more. More hand tools, more gardening tools (I have no idea why those are in the laundry room!), just more.  And as you do that, your orderly system gets thrown to bits.  So, I am making it my mission on this project to have a proper place for everything.  And that includes tossing things out into the garage that have no business taking up residence in our laundry room.  Hey, the garage will be another project, another post.  I'm allowed to toss.

I don't have much to reveal just yet, but here is my first step into painting the cabinets a beautiful bright white! (have I mentioned previously that I LOVE chalk paint?  It is seriously a breeze!)

These little guys will be getting a quick spray with some black paint (I know they look black, but sadly they are brown) once I finish painting all of the cabinet doors for a fresh update and a way to tie in the rest of the black hardware in the room.

We'll see what I can come up with for the rest of it, but fingers crossed it brightens and organizes this useful space so that we stop using it as a dumping ground when guests come over!  And to think, Chris suggested we could even leave the doors off the cabinets!  A girl can dream, but we are never going to be the perfectly put together, organized sort.  A little hiding is allowed.

If you are looking for me over the next week, this is likely where I'll be.  Oh, and taking after photos of the exterior makeover I promised ages ago.  I'll do it tonight.  I hope swear. 

Exterior Makeover - Painting

So Chris and I have been busy putting a bit of time (and money!) into making over the outside of our house. There are so many reveals to come, but here is a little sneak peak at what we have been up to...

First of all, we (finally!) had sod installed in our back yard.  We actually have a back yard now, as opposed to that dirt pit filled with weeds.  (Reveal coming soon, I promise!)

Then, we decided to paint our hideously red deck.  There may be more painting involved soon, as we don't know if it will match well with the color we chose to paint the house (husband is really excited about that possibility.)  .

And finally, we are having our house painted as we speak!  I don't have any sneak peak photos of the actual house painted, but here are the colors we chose.  

Here is a little sneak peak at what the house looked like before paint...

We chose this gray for the main part of the house.  We tested out a few grays that were darker than this, as we did want it to be quite dark, but they were surprisingly intense.  This was a great compromise; dark without being overwhelming.

 { online by sherwin williams. }

We chose tricorn black as the color for the doors.

 { tricorn black by sherwin williams. }

And we went with the straight-forward extra white for the trim.

 { extra white by sherwin williams. }

I hope to share the reveal photos by early next week once it is all finished.  It is surprisingly difficult to choose colors for the exterior of a house.  It is hard to imagine how it is all going to look when it is finished. We hope we like the end result... eek!

Also, stay tuned for the back yard and deck reveals coming soon after!