Random Kitchen Stuff

We are still working on this kitchen of ours, and next week we should have some photos and something to say about our back splash. 

We've been working on a few non-kitchen things now that a big part of it is functioning pretty darn good, but we are still plugging away at the little things. It might be a few months before we can say "All done!" - Scout camps, band camps, driver's ed and a few other expenses need to be taken care of first. 

But it's all good - We love what we have done so far!

I thought I would share a little more of what went on around here during the marathon week of getting this kitchen on it's way to fabulous.

One of the things we did was paint the floor.

Oh, wait. No we didn't. 

We painted trim.

We painted the ceiling.

We painted walls.

We painted edges.

We took relaxing paint breaks on the ladder.

We pulled about 735,022 nails and staples out of a very small area of the floor. That will happen when there are 3 layers of old floor to pull up.

We tried different techniques at staple and nail removal. Colin demonstrates the pulling out with your bare hands method.

 Liam shows off the cutting method.

Brenden working hard at the prying method.

See how much joy and happiness comes from ridding an old floor of staples and nails? You should try it sometime. If you want, I can let you know when we get on the rest of the floor - There should be enough for everyone to share!

We installed this awesome new light for over the table. 

How it looks off.

And on.

Tricky stuff going on here.

Speaking of tricky, we squeezed a kitchen appliance into a space that was too small for it. This box contained our new dishwasher. See the space behind it? Next to the fridge? The dishwasher has to fit in that spot.

A closer look. No way that was going to fit in that little, tiny space.

It must be an optical illusion. Really - That is the exact size space. Crazy.

We are getting closer to "done", but sometimes those little projects can take sooooo long to finish up. We are determined to not have this linger for the next several years in an "almost done" state. But there are lots of little projects 

One of My Hobbies....

One of my very favorite things to do is organize something. 

Anything.

But you already knew that.

With a new kitchen, it kind of feels like you just moved in and have to figure out where to put all your stuff. It usually takes a little shuffling and tweaking - as most organizing projects do.

Something really new for us are the drawers. Not that we haven't had regular, shallow drawers before - Of course we have lots of experience with that craziness -

The new part is the drawer divider inserts that fit EXACTLY. I love these:

I try really hard to not get frustrated by little things, but if I did, it would be the silverware or utensil dividers sliding around in the drawer, back and forth, flopping all around, banging and shifting.

But I don't let that bother me.

And now, I do not have to. Yay!

Everything corralled and nothing sliding around. Or flopping all around. Or banging. Or shifting.

It is the little things in life.

And an even bigger bonus are these deep spacious drawers. We have never had these before, but I love them. If you ever have an opportunity go get deep drawers instead of a lower cabinet - Get them!

It is kind of funny to put things that you have always put into a cupboard into a drawer, but we are embracing funny. 

When this drawer is open, you can see everything easy. You can get to everything easy. You can put things away easy. What's not to love about all that?

I have never put flour in a drawer. Or rice. Or all these other containers. But it is AWESOME!

I just printed up a bunch of cutie labels and slapped them on the tops so we can see right away what is in each one. 

I cannot believe how much these babies hold. Really!

And something so fun to organize.

We Love the New Counters!

We are doing the happy dance here!

For the last four weeks, we have been using the old counter tops just plopped down on our lovely new cabinets.

We also had a rigged up half sink with the goofy faucet.

What we started with:

But just look what we have now!

We are in love. 

All that uninterrupted, no seams anywhere counter space.

Yay!

Here is the hole for the new sink, which the installers brought with them. It looks tiny, but it's not. The sink that fits in here is one big bowl and is bigger than one side of the double bowl sink, so it will be super functional 

And look at this little treat they brought - A granite Lazy Susan from the leftover pieces of our counter.

It spins.

Actually not sure what to do with that yet.

Holy cow, that looks awesome!

Even our new little counter to the left of the back door is sporting the new look.

Next up will be getting the back splash installed. Then the floors. Then replace the back door.

But we are just so excited and grateful for the stage we are at now. 

Love!

Another Something Clever with Old Windows

While we were waiting for our counters (They came home today - update on those later this week!), we tackled another fun project for the kitchen. 

Ever since we moved to the small house, I have had a stack of cool, old, wood windows just waiting to be re-purposed into something clever. We finally had the opportunity to do something about that.

I tried to find another photo of these windows, but this is it:

See way back in this photo of the big house great room? In the opening over the fireplace? The windows?

Yep. Those windows. We had a plan for those little beauties.

See way back on that blank wall? Right behind the awesome new light? The gray space?

Yep. That wall. The wall and the windows are going to be great friends very soon.

Hero got those windows all set up to be functional. No, not as windows, as in letting in light and fresh air, but  to be an awesome display place for serving platters.

What?

For whatever reason (okay, I tend to collect things. This may or may not be one of them.), I have 12 platters. A few are so big and do not fit anywhere, but I love them. I received a few as gifts, a few I found along the way and several are family hand-me-downs. 

My plan is to get eight up on the wall. Something fun to look at, easy to get to and easy to use.

Hero is in on the plan, as usual.

See these nifty frames built up all around? Scraps from the garage that has most everything. 

(This is just another one of the 748,398,534,801 reasons that I love Hero. He almost always has what we need hiding out in the garage for projects. If he doesn't have it, he was wanting to get it.)

The windows needed to be built up for a little more support for the platters. It just took some thin boards, a few little nails and lots of glue.

And clamps, to hold it all together while the glue dried.

I painted the whole thing the same color as the trim in the house (I have lots of it), and then rubbed just a little bit of glaze over them to make them not too matchy and help them to look like they have been loved for a good long time.

Got one up. I am such a pro with the measuring tape now after my drafting class last semester.

We put them up high for a few reasons - One, so no one totally walks into them, and two, we may do something with the lower part of the wall.

The funny thing is, with all the measuring, we realized that one of the windows is just a little tiny bit taller than the other one. 

It's all good. We just worked with it.

Are you seeing how this is going to work out?

Um, exactly as I had envisioned!

I just tossed some of the platters up in there to see how it all worked out - And it all worked out just swimmingly!

Before:

And After. 

They are awesome! 

Now all the platters are handy for using, instead of ignoring them because they are too hard to get to. And a bonus, they look so great.

Love getting some of these fun projects done that uses stuff we already have, reduces a pile of project supplies, creates something useful and something cool, and we spend time together making our house our home.