Finally!!! I have a kitchen back!

It's done! I can't believe it. September 23rd we discovered we were loosing about 200 gallons of water a day under our house and we turned the water off. That started us on a long journey of holes in our house, dust everywhere, eating out and constant people in our house. Oh, and did I mention, a torn apart kitchen? Well, it was a long 78 days and I almost, just almost cracked this weekend. But, I made it and it was all worth it.

Remember this kitchen?

Not bad, it looks clean and well kept up. But it was very dark and even if it is nice maple cabinets, I LOVE white! I also didn't like the travertine in the kitchen, it's just not practical. One spill and it soaks right in. (Just wait till you see my floor choice.) I was so over the "Verde Peacock" granite. Black with iridescent green circles all over. Luckily it was so dark in there the green was hard to see. But, it did go with the lovely forest green carpet this house came with.

Remember this lovely stove that didn't fit more then 2 - 3 pots at a time?

Much better! I can actually use all 5 burners at the same time, even if I am using a big frying pan next to a big stock pot. I also like the design much better.

Ok, enough of my chatter, I will show more pictures. At least now you finally got to see my back splash choice.

This was just 5 days ago. They were putting up the back splash and I couldn't use the kitchen at all that day. Just looking at the mess sends tension up my neck.

This was Tuesday, 2 days ago. My wonderful husband took time away from work to help me put in the floor. He is much more patient with the cuts around the cabinets. I would probably get too frustrated after a while, try to rush and saw my finger or something.

Yesterday...

Finally, tonight, right when we got home, little C sat at his normal spot at the counter immediately. I feel like he and L spend half their lives right at that counter, L on the end and C right there. Any time I am in the kitchen, that's where they are. Homework... right there. Any kind of art or craft... right there, breakfast, snack or just hungry... there they are.

Ooh, under cabinet lights.

Now, I need to paint the whole house. Well, the kitchen that is attached to the dinning room and living room that is attached to the hall.

I don't know if I showed the sink before with the little tiny garbage disposal side, but I can't even tell you how wonderful this sink is. I actually like doing dishes in it. (Maybe that's just cause I was so over not having a sink at all for over a month.) I don't know if I will ever say like and dishes in the same sentence again.

Remember why I didn't like the travertine? Funny, I put wood in my kitchen. I have a very good reason, after we put wood in our entire house, we had about 500 square feet left! That's a lot of wood just sitting in our garage taking up a lot of space. So, that combined with the fact that it matches the rest of the house and it is way more forgiving then tile we decided to put it in. Also, if something happens, we have almost 200 square feet left.

Yeah, I do remember saying I wasn't going to keep chattering. But it just happens when I am so excited. Tomorrow I get to enjoy my kitchen with some friends for a meal prep party and on Sunday, I get to enjoy it with loads of family. We finished just in time!

Good night! Now, I can sleep well in a clean quiet finished house. 

Kristen

Office Facelift

Since there is so much work going on in our house, why not do a project ourselves?

Dr. C's office is pretty dated. It's been these colors for quite a few years. It has had things done to it over the years like carpet, or reupholstered chairs and tables, but those have all stuck with the same color scheme. Dr. C is ready to make this place more current. Here are some pictures of different rooms in the office...

The waiting area:

Remember when verticals were so new and exciting?

The hall way:

Lots of oak. It's a good solid workable wood, but dated.

Therapy room:

And wall paper everywhere! Remember back in the day, going to a wall paper store and seeing rolls and rolls of wallpaper in shelves that lined the isles? There was so much to choose from.

When Dr. C and I took down the wall paper, it came off in sheets and I rolled them up just like when they were bought. It took me back to those days shopping for wall paper for my room when I was a kid.

This is what I pictured as I was rolling up the old paper:

Photo Credit: https://kawaiicph.wordpress.com/tag/wallpaper/

We updated the massage room and Dr. C's office space as a start. Here are some pictures of what we have done:

It looks like someone stacked extra candles on the shelves, that looks funny. We will have to take care of that. But over the room is dimly lit an filled with soft colors. Its a place to relax, so we wanted it to have a relaxing feel. It's hard to get good pictures in the dim light with my phone which is all I had on me this day.

Now for our latest update. It only took us 2 days to remove the wall paper, paint and put all the furniture back. We also changed out a few decorative items and Craig would like to update the oak with a more modern stain.

Dr. C didn't want just simple solid walls, he wanted to give them some interest. Stripes are easy and add a lot of visual interest, but lots of stripes was too much for a small office. It also seemed more like a kids room. Maybe that's because our son has stripes on his wall.

The one stripe was enough, so he wanted to add a color that went well with his new decorations.

I love the way it turned out. Totally his style and it looks very professional. Opposite his desk is where the patients sit.

If you haven't been by the office in a while, you should drop by and take a look. Better yet, schedule an appointment with Dr. C and you can spend some time in this lovely office.

Stay tuned for the waiting area to be made over.

Kristen