Kitchen Reveal!

   It's been almost two months since my last post, and in that time, we finished renovating our new house and moved in! I am so thankful that we had family to take us in for a few months while we transitioned to our new place, but it has been wonderful to try to get back to some shred of normalcy.  C's commute is around 20 minutes, less than half of what it was when we first got here.  We're settled into our house, and it has been a challenge and a joy to unpack and decorate to make it a home.  I thought I would start the first of what will likely be many posts about how the house that we refer to as "The 717" has turned out by showing you the room that had the most dramatic (read: time, labor, and budget intensive) makeover, our kitchen!
   As always, let's go back to the beginning so we can all appreciate how far we came.  This is the kitchen as it looked on closing day:

   And here it is today, thanks to the hard work of my grandpa, my uncle, my father-in-law, and lots of other helping hands:

   This is the best shot of the new tile.  It's an 18" square tile, which my grandfather said he will likely never install again in his life.  Oops.  Our floor was pretty uneven, and it was apparently pretty tough to get the tiles level with the added size, although he admits that they look really good.  We picked a dark grey grout to pick up some of the tones in the tile.  The best part though, is that they have a bit of grit to them, so they aren't slick!  Yay!

   Excuse the yellowish photos.  My flash has been ornery lately, and we don't have Photoshop installed on the computer yet (Chris did an overhaul recently, another reason I haven't gotten these photos up sooner.)

   I absolutely love my kitchen.  It isn't at all what I had in mind on day one, but like many things, I think it turned out even better.  Soooo much hard work (not mine, as I said in my previous kitchen post) went into this room, and I can't imagine a better finished product.  Here are a few detail photos:

   We went with an off-white integrated sink because Lowe's was running a special on them the day I ordered.  They're typically a bit more because of the labor involved on the installation.  We also had a few things customized on the countertops.  Usually they come with a standard 4" vertical lip all the way around the countertop.  That would have left me with about two inches to paint between the lip and the serving bar you can see in this photo, so we asked that they extend the surface all the way up to the bar to prevent any moisture sneaking out from the sink. Sometimes I'm a little wild when I wash dishes, what can I say?

   Here you can see our pretty new appliances, and a good shot of the beadboard backsplash.  Some folks were worried that I wouldn't like that much white all together, but I love it.  It wipes off easily (I'm a wild cook too), it's a great backdrop for my accessories, and it adds a little bit of detail without busyness.  And raising the upper cabinets givens me good work space, allows room for a microwave, and makes the room feel so much taller, although I do have to tippy-toe to reach things on the top shelf.  Worth it.

   You already saw a photo with the dust-catcher decorative ledge knocked out, but now you can see it with the pendants hung.  So much more flattering for my pretty kitchen.

   Another look at those can lights, which make my kitchen SO bright and easy to work in, and the pendant hanging over the island.  No trace of the fluorescent light box that used to be there!



   Here's a closeup of the countertops.  They're a solid-surface countertop that we ordered from Lowe's while they were running a special.  I think they're trying to clear out a few colors because only selected colors were on sale.  Luckily, that happened to include the one we liked.  This photo is reading really brown, but they seem a little cooler in real life.  It's a taupey-grey with an ivory and a dark brown and maybe even a black speck in it.  I've only had them for a month, but they seem to clean easily and the color is forgiving of anything I missed.  (Not sure if that's good or bad...)

   This is crazy, but these cabinets are the most sentimental to me.  They hold my wedding china.  In five years of marriage, I have never had all of my china in a cabinet, ever.  It's lived under my bed, in my grandma's attic, a few place settings in a cabinet in one house we lived in, but never all of it in cabinets.  I cried when I put it all away.  It finally feels like I am settled, ready to live my life, not living a temporary life until we move somewhere else or until we buy a house.  This is my home.  This is where I belong.

As promised, the best source list that I can put together from my very poor memory:
Wall paint: Olympic Icon in Stormy Weather, satin finish
Cabinet paint: Olympic One in Off-White, semi-gloss finish
Appliances: Frigidaire, Gallery collection
Door knobs: Threshold, found here
Drawer pulls: Threshold, found here
Faucet: Glacier Bay Fairway faucet in Bronze
Countertops: Allen + Roth for Lowe's in Antiquity
Tile: For the life of me I can't remember, but I bought it at Mill Creek Flooring.
Light fixtures: Hampton Bay Somerset collection

If I forgot to source something that you're curious about, let me know.  

Nursery Revealed!

As I mentioned in my last post, our families spent their Spring Break with us. However, don't be fooled. This was not a sightseeing, relaxing, refreshing vacation for them. They all very graciously volunteered to be my slave labor for a week to help us with nursery projects.  They arrived Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening was our Gender Reveal Party, and Saturday night began the work.  No rest for the weary.  All day Sunday and Monday were work days, Tuesday we took a short break to visit downtown, but Tuesday night and Wednesday night they were right back at the grind.  They were ironing, sewing, fixing, building, and primping things practically until they got back on the plane on Thursday afternoon.  I couldn't believe how much we (they) got done in such a short time, but I am forever grateful to this faithful bunch.  Our sweet Peanut has an equally sweet nursery to come home to that turned out even better than I could have imagined!  See for yourself!

Sweet little crib! When we decide on a name, there will be some sort of wall hanging over the crib. In the crib are the peanut doll from my mom and a little music box lamb that was mine.

Close-up of the recovered chaise, which is now my "Mommy Chair!"

Watering can decoration that my sister made!

Close-up of the yo-yo flowers on the walls

Window wall!  We plan to put our changing pad on the left side of the countertop.

Close-up of the lamp, which we found for a good price and "jazzed up" with yo-yos and trim.

Bulletin board on the back of the closet door.

Close-up of storage baskets under window.

 So there you have it, folks!  I love our little garden-themed nursery so much!  The colors are bright enough to make it feel happy, but soft enough that I don't feel overwhelmed in there!  As you can see, I could never thank our tireless helpers enough.  This totally would have never happened if it was up to me!

I know this post is getting long, but here's a quick list of resources that we used for our nursery:
-Fabric: The floral and stripe are part of the "Oh Baby" collection at Joann Fabrics. The yellow fabric has tiny white polka dots on it (that don't show up on camera), and is part of the nursery prints carried at Joann as well. My mom is amazing and did most of the crib bedding and curtain without a pattern. 
-The only furniture we purchased new was the crib, which I already posted on, and it came from Target.
-The lamp came from Home Goods, and then was accessorized by me.  :)
-I bought the storage baskets from Michael's. They were originally brown with a blue gingham liner.  My mom made new liners and my grandma spray painted them yellow.
-I've had the bulletin board since college. It too got painted yellow, then recovered and yo-yo'd.
-I should have taken more pictures "in the process" but I'll post a tutorial for the big yo-yo flowers on the walls soon.