Ramdom Thoughts and Ideas: January 2008

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

So, a thread about ktichens got me thinking ......

What's your style? Since I haven't scrapbooked in about 9 months, this is about your house. Do you have a style? Up till we started the kitchen remodel, DH and I had never bought a "new" couch/chair or appliances for that matter. Our downstairs couch was bought from the couple across the street that was barely used. It is a burgendy leather sectional. Other than TV's, we really haven't purchased anything for ourselves. We moved into our house fully furnished, so we just kept it till we could do something else. So even though the kitchen remodel was little stressful, it was totally fun. Learning so much about countertops, tile, flooring options, making decisions that where sooooo hard at the time. Looking back, it was very worth it. BUT our "style" changed a bit during this process. I LOVE antiques and as you can tell my kitchen table (my beloved antique table) I like it pretty natural. BUT, we decided to go more classic/traditional in our furniture. I think eventually I'll sprinkle more antiques in as I can, but I like our "netural" style........... what's your style?

Christy

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

New LIVING ROOM to go with New KITCHEN

See blogs below for kitchen pictures and the story about our house. Here's pictures of the new hardwood floors, new living room furniture and my 100 yr old farmhouse kitchen table.

I bought these pieces at a unfinished furniture store that was going out of business. I knew I wanted black distressed but couldn't find exactly what I wanted. So this worked. It took me about 3 days/nights to paint and distress. I still need to seal it, but I'm not not really in any hurry. I have one more piece to paint and distress that will go by the recliner when it's bought.

I have a photobuckett account that has all the pictures in it. Before, during and after. Plus pictures of the 40 yrds of concrete we had poured during this remodeling project. Take a peek if you have some time to spare.http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee293/CABurch/

So do you want to hear the ktichen story?

Our house is 18 yrs old. My grandparents built it. Nothing fancy, about 1200 sq feet, open floor plan, full basement, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths. If I had built the house, I might have picked the same floor plan and if I would have picked it, I would have bumped up the sq ft for larger rooms, probably adding about 500 sq ft to the total design. I'd love to have a larger master bedroom/bath and a seperate laundry area, since it's at the end of my kitchen.

So, the story. We were kinda ashamed of our house. We invited very few people over. Emilee had just a few friends that I'd allow to come over because our house was kinda yuck. Not dirty yuck, just worn out yuck. Since my grandparents paid cash for it, they went with very builder quality stuff and probably really didn't think anything about it. They knew they wouldn't be in it forever. The carpet was a great color but the quality wasn't there and after 18 yrs it needed to replaced BAD. The linolum in the dining room/kitchen was okay, but kinda blah. My cabinets were the only thing that I though were of any quality and having a closet pantry allowed me to use all my cabinets to store dishes, cookare, etc. We finally decided we need to update our "common" living areas of the house. Either that or buy another house. Remodeling was a lot cheaper!!!

It wasn't any easy project and it was a tad bit stressful. DH was great and did what he could himself. We ended up paying for all the tile work and hardwood work that we did in the dining room/living room since our deadline was Thanksgiving. Needless to say, we met a Christmas deadline!!!

Here's BEFORE pictures. The next post as AFTER pictures!