Kitchen

I've had a couple requests for updated pictures of the house.  So here's my confession.  I've been a little hesitant to share pictures of our remodels because, well, honestly nothing is finished.  We've been working our butts off for the last year and really things have changed a lot but we do not have one single room that is 100% finished.  I love all the awesome DIY blogs out there but it's a little intimidating to see their dramatic before and after posts.  But, let's face it, I don't get paid to blog.  This is my fun little online scrapbook really.  And, we live in this house.  Like REALLY live it in.  Most days the floors are littered with crumbs, toys and shoes.  It is never staged and ready to take those beautiful "after" pictures that are magazine-worthy, nor do I care to put forth the effort required to make it such.

It's our home.  We love it.  We are pouring our hearts into transforming it into the perfect home for our family.  We're having a lot of fun doing it too.  The kids get to help and, except for exterior door installations, we are 100% doing it with our own two hands.

So, I'm just going to take a leap and put myself out there.  It feels a little raw really to show you our messy, in-progress home but here goes:

This is the before-it-all shot of the kitchen.  

And after the new floors which took far longer than we expected but we love every inch of.  Kendal took the kids to visit his mom for the weekend and I stayed home to finish the floors.  I surprised them by starting to paint the kitchen cabinets.  We envisioned a white, bright, airy kitchen.  It just seemed so dark and cave-like in there, especially after we put in the wood floors.  And the shot above was taken during the day!

So, after some paint (ok a lot of paint) stripping off the wallpaper backsplash and finally getting to move in our appliance, here we are.

We couldn't be happier and thanks to reading a lot of blogs and talking to people for advice the cabinets really turned out better than we expected.  I was anxious painting them but everyone who sees them comments that they are surprised we painted them ourselves. The right primer and paint really helped it look close to a factory finish.  They've held up well over the past year and are completely scrubbable.

Here's our to-do list:

1. Install and paint backsplash.
2. Refinish bar/peninsula/whatever it's called.  The kids eat breakfast here and we love the extra seating.  We just can't decided what we want to do with it.  Any ideas?  We can't decide if we want something simple & uncluttered or something that makes a statement. 
3. Paint the window to match the trim
4. Replace lighting
5. Put glass-front doors on the open cabinets. 

Just finished painting the inside of the open cabinets. Little things make a huge difference!

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was my anniversary.  And, really, we spent it just like we do most every other Wednesday.  We got up at 5:30 am, each squeezed in a quick workout and started our morning routines.  Me getting myself ready for work before making breakfasts, packing lunches, refereeing arguments, and generally herding two children out the door while trying to minimize the yelling (theirs and mine).  Kendal is up and out the door often before said children awaken so that he can leave work in time to pick them up and chauffer them to their various after-school activities or just home for some relaxed play time before dinner.  I rush home just in time for dinner and then it's baths, books and bedtime.

Seems like the monotonous life of parents but when I reflected today on how we spent our anniversary I became fully aware of how deeply romantic that picture is.  Because isn't two people choosing to create a life together the ultimate romantic act?  We were two individuals leading separate independent lives when we met and now we're a family and not because we have children.  We decided to join lives, to come together as one.  And we do it not in the big, dramatic events that have happened in our lives but in the everyday moments.  Yes, we've endured a lot in our marriage but that's not what has made us strong.  What made us strong was choosing every single day to put this family above all else.  Choosing that no matter what, this family is what is important.  And choosing every day to not work on this marriage but to enjoy it.

So, it's not the 5:30am alarm clock that is romantic.  It's the choosing to start each day with a quick snuggle before dragging ourselves off to work out.  It's not the packing of lunches that is romantic but the sneaking treats in a lunchbox...just because.  It's not the leaving early for work every day that is romantic but the doing it because that's what it takes to create the life we want.  It's backyard smores, at-home date nights, stupid jokes, and looking for the beauty in one another.  It's these little things that have carried us through grief, loss, monotony, apathy and 5,124 days.  It makes us strong..a team..a unit and I'm so grateful for each moment of the last 14 years.

And if you're worried that we didn't celebrate at all, we did go out for ice cream!

Happy 14th anniversary to my best friend.  I love you.

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