Office Remodel

We remodeled the office this summer and it took a little longer than planned. Guess when you do some of the work yourself that will happen. Turned out fabulous though and we are super happy. I won't share a lot of pictures and I did take a lot, oh my goodness. 

The room had carpet before and some store bought bookshelves and a desk my husband and father in law made. We removed the carpet and put in engineered hardwood floors doing the work ourselves. Then we had a professional desk and bookcase combo installed. The room is roughly a 11 X 12 in size so it is a larger room that fits both our offices comfortably. Here is the photo of the finished room without anything in the shelves. The chairs roll so nice on the flooring too which we like. hee hee

We have french doors that are regular doors on the office right now. My plan is to get window pained doors so that more natural light comes into the room from the dining room and hallway later. You can see part of the nook to the left has a double matching bookcase that holds all my stamps in the bins. It is behind the door so you can't see it. Might have to figure out how to make it look better with window pain doors. This side shows John and his stand up desk he has, should of lowered it for the picture.

This is my side with the longer desk for my crafting. The drawers are so deep and hold so much of my crafting stuff its awesome. I like the added cubbies we put on both sides also. We did have to pair down our books quite a bit which was harder to do than I thought it was going to be. However we like how it looks and feels. 

This was a lot of time and energy waiting to get complete. But it turned out just how we wanted so it was worth the wait. Now to get some crafting time in is what I need. haha!  Have a wonderful day!

Kitchen complete

Afternoon! Finally sitting down to get these pictures loaded of the new kitchen counter and back splash. If you look at the renovation post below this one or look HERE it shows the counter as it was which was what we had installed when we built the house years ago. Slowly we have been upgrading sections and excited with each new upgrade. 

This is the view as you walk in from the living room. I took these pictures right after they left so nothing is back on the counter. The wall behind the sink is changing decor as well. Their is only one seam in the entire counter and it to just to the left of the stove there about 12 inches over. The rest is one big slab of the Quartz Coronado design. We LOVE it! 

 If you walk to more towards the dining room you can see the other part of the counter and the back splash. Under the counter on the left we had these decorative pieces that were secured to the counter. Now that the counter is a little bit higher we had to re-attach them and re-stain all the parts that the counter didn't cover. You can see more of those in the below picture. They weren't hard to remove and reinstall but the painting was a pain. ha!

 The first under mount sink that I have had and I truly am in glad we choose this design. Super easy clean up on the counter and oh do I like the matching stainless steel. Yippee!!!

The back splash is actually two different pieces that we matched together so that it was 6 inches above the counter. We didn't go all the way up to meet the cabinets (which I really wanted to do) because it would of looked odd with the area here and no cabinets. So they suggested we do a higher tile and pick two designs and I am glad we did. This is a little bit wider than the counter we had by an inch and about 3/8 of an inch taller than the previous counter. Which doesn't seem like much but it really does seem bigger. I liked washing dishes before but now I REALLY like it. hee hee  

We are done with home upgrades for a bit as I am tired and well it costs a whole lot to do. :-)  Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our newest upgrade. Have a wonderful day. 

Kitchen Part 1

Good morning! The past two weeks have been quite busy with the first part of our kitchen project that we are under taking. I promised I would share some pictures of our project with you. Some of you may remember summer of 2014 the renovation part of our home we started. We also changed some room placements around when we installed new carpet in the house and added a bunch of tile. You can see the changes under the Renovation tab along the side bar. We built this house 13 years ago, it was very exciting and planned to only stay about 10 years. Being that we decided to stay longer we knew a few improvements would need to be done. Our microwave started the change for us by chance when it died on us and we were forced (hee hee) to get new appliances last year for Christmas. I went from white to the beautiful new stainless steel designs. Below is a picture of the appliances with the new tile. 

The cabinets are beautiful and we really do like them as they are solid oak and in great condition but need a fresh new look. They sure did get a fresh new look.... check it out. 

Gaps right! You wouldn't believe the difference this is in real life to the kitchen. Here is a picture of your first glance into the kitchen from the living room. The tile now looks so different. We had to take all the doors off and drawers out and sand them completely down in the garage. The inside we had to take everything out of the cabinets so we could sand down the base of the cabinets. What a mess! A fine layer of dust was everywhere but worth the trouble now. 

This is a view from the side of the dining room. All the base under the bar had to be done as well and what an area that is to sand. My shoulders and arms are sore after this little project. The bar stools my in laws gave us at Christmas and they inspired out color choice. Did you know that when you add a clear Polyurathane or whatever it was called layer onto a stain you actually sand it off a little and layer it on again? Not knowing what we were doing we watched several videos on Gel Staining and clear coating for this project. One of the biggest things we learned is when they suggest an even temp of 70 degree they mean just that. Our garage was about 90-95 which means your margin of error is a LOT smaller. ha!  But we worked with it and it turned out fine after the "tester" door. 

Over all it is complete and we now have the fun of picking out our new counter top, back splash, faucet and sink. Oh the joys.... ;-)  Thanks for stopping by and seeing our latest home update. Have a fabulous weekend! 

Merry Christmas to me

Good morning! Well the turkey is in the oven and cooking away for hubbies work party today. I thought I would finally get the pictures of the new appliances posted since I am wide awake!  ;-)  If you are standing at the edge of the kitchen looking in you can see all the stainless steel. ooohhhaaahhh... This dishwasher is so QUIET! Oh my word, it is awesome. That is a pizza on the stove top that we cooked last night to try it out. This oven is a Dual Zone (double oven) that is like having the two but in one. A warming drawer on the bottom and all the fabulous options on the top. I am feeling spoiled I tell you. It makes the cabinets in real life darker than they were with the light flooring.

This fridge is so COOL! We have about 7 cubic feet more than the side by side we had before. This thing doesn't even look like I have groceries in it after I went to the store its so big. The boys love the freezer on the bottom for some reason and it makes me giggle. Hey they like it, so yippee! Now hubby is talking about selling the house with all the new stuff. NOT!  I am going to enjoy all this for a few years then maybe. hee hee  

The last of the basketball games are this week. Two of them are away games so travelling for those. Then we have about a 2 month break from sports, a little break which is good for all. Thanks for stopping in today. Hopefully I will have a card to share later while this turkey cooks.  :-)   Have a wonderful day. 

Renovation Reveal

Good morning! Finally... After much hard work and sweat we have most of the new house settled back together. Anyone need any boxes? ha ha!   I wanted to get some pictures for you as promised. I tried to take them in the same way as before and if you missed the "old" way check out this post HERE to compare. All the rooms have fresh new carpet or tile, it is like a new home. We are so pleased with the end result I can't even begin to tell you.

The first photo above is standing at the entry way of the front door looking in. We have so much ROOM its awesome. The couch will not stay here but for now we needed it out of the way. New furniture is next on our list, however I am really not sure what I want. Sectionals are getting some cooler designs that I have found but I do like the seperate pieces. Either way we need more of it and we have more room for it. The wall behind the TV is a blank canvas and in the next photo, the wall that used to have the hutch against it is another blank canvas. Exciting to have new walls to decorate

If you walk into the living room a bit you can see into the kitchen and more of the space we have in the living room.  You can walk behind the couch also which I really like.

If you turn around a few steps you can see Ranger and the bay window and stuff stacked in the corner waiting for their new spot. This carpet is so lush and the pile is thick with a memory foam pad underneath. You feel like you are walking on lush thick grass if that makes sense. We LOVE it all, well worth the wait I tell you.

 

Now walk over to the kitchen area and look back at all this space we have. I plan to put a small high boy it is called under the large tapestry to the right that will hold the movie and decorative stuff.

Turn directly around and here is a close up of the tile and carpet. We went with long rectangle tile squares with a thin grout line. This grout is awesome as it has a sealer already in the mix so you don't have to reseal it every year like some. My MIL is jealous as she has to reseal hers every year and its a pain.

If you look directly up you see another blank wall to decorate. hee hee  I am excited as Hobby Lobby has a sale going on this weekend so I plan to find something to fill these spaces. Look how much bigger the kitchen seems. The visual of the floor keep going I think adds quite a bit to the space of the area.
The dining room table needs to move over to the right a little bit but it still looks super small in the room.

Standing at the hallway looking in the hutch is on the wall the TV used to be on and the smaller hutch on the wall that held the movies. We have vaulted ceilings so there is tons of room above to decorate also. Those flowers were from DH for my 40th birthday on Wednesday. I hide all the balloons in the boys rooms for the pictures.  :-)  

This project was a lot of work however so worth it. We are loving the new rooms, the carpet is amazing. The kids are even keeping their rooms picked up so they can play on the floor and enjoy it. Not holding out that it will last long, Lego's will be on the floor in no time but for now its nice.  :-)  DH is talking about renovating the kitchen counter tops and the master bathroom shower next. Ai yi yi!!!
Thanks for sharing in my home renovation project. My stamp room is back together and I am done unpacking for now. Planning on getting some stamping in and hopefully some bloggin in to see what you all have been up too. Have a wonderful Saturday!

Home Renovation take 1

I promised you some pictures and here they are. This has several photo's so grab a cup of coffee and walk through my house with me.   :-) These were actually take about 2 weeks ago so the house is some what clean, I did say some what!

This first photo is what you see standing from the front entry way of the house. My sisters little baby bassinet is over by the couch for when I have my nephew over. Some of you might recognize the dining room chairs that my mom and I re-upholstered a few Christmas back. Yes that is a stuffed Olaf from the movie Frozen on the couch.

Next if you walk into the living room a little and look to your right you can see into the kitchen and family room. We are switching these two rooms around with the renovation. The old family room will be the new dining room and the front living room (where we are now) will be the new family room.

If you walk over towards the kitchen and look back at the living room you see the front bay window. That cream rose furniture we have had since we got married 15 years ago. It is still in great condition and has lasted quite nicely through the boys and the dog. :-)  We will be selling it however as we won't need two sets of furniture and I will want new furniture at some point. But for now we will stick with the one set we will keep. There will be new carpet in here of course, and this will be the new family room.

The vinyl flooring will be coming up along with the carpet you see in the back. This is where all the tile will be installed and the dining room will be the back part.

If you look up this is the view of the old family room soon to be dining room. Yea!!! Sorry for the messy counters.  All that carpet will soon be tile! We will be painting that maroon wall to a willow (light celery) color that you see on the right hand side in the kitchen. Those are sound deadning panels on the back wall. My husband hasn't quite figured out how he wants to work the surround sound now that we don't have the set up as we wired the house 11 years ago when we built it. We didn't plan on staying here or moving the rooms around. However we are excited to be making the changes and that just means he can get something new for surround. Oh boy....

If you stand at the hallway opening you can see the TV wall (soon to hold one of the hutches and the other wall for the smaller one) and the opening hall to our bedroom. The main bathroom will be getting tile installed as well since ours already has tile from original building. The rest of the house will have new carpet through out!
So that is the old home as I keep calling it. The new home will be coming in the next two weeks or so. The house is all packed except for a few things. I will show you pictures when we are all complete with the change. Very exciting and a lot of work! Thanks for taking a tour of part of my home with me.  :-)

Don't worry as I have all my Power Poppy sneak peeks done and ready to show off come Sunday 27th! We have some awesome stuff coming your way so be sure to check back in. Have a wonderful day!