I'm a horrible liar.

Ok, so I never made an update during Spring Break. I never even made one after that and now it's about 2 weeks later and I'm finally getting to it. The other sad news? I can't find the pictures I took of the granite installation, so the only picture I have currently is the one from my phone, which you see below.

I could take plenty of pictures now, but it wouldn't do justice to the work and steps taken.. it would just show you an end result. So slowly as I find the evidence, I will put the pieces together. Things will not be posted in order of occurrence, but order of being located.

I must say I am THRILLED with my cabinets and granite. They turned out beyond beautiful :]. Both bathrooms look fantastic, as does the make-up vanity in my room, and of course my kitchen; I use all of it every day :]. My home is officially a home and I could not be happier.

We finished the landscaping on Tuesday (4/24) and it is just perfect. Every time I step outside my door, I am transported into my own private zen paradise. I have a calming fountain, adorable plants, and a vegetable/herb garden to call my own. It's amazing what creativity and brains can do with small spaces (thanks mom!!!). Even my patio is starting to shape up, now that I've gotten the chutzpah together to make something work out there.

I've been living here for 4 months now and I would say that I'm pretty much fully acclimated to living in this new home and neighborhood. I have learned to adjust to an electric stove and smaller kitchen. A good baker doesn't let anything stand in her way!

My blackberry pie :]

 Also, a good crafter only let's obstacles make things more interesting! My patio was so drab and sad it was driving me crazy.. so I decided to get creative with pots, small iron statuary, and spray paint!

Ballerina mint preview!

I can't wait to share everything with you.. even if it will not be on the best schedule. I have caught up with my schoolwork (only 2 papers left!) and will soon be done with school for the semester (May 10th!). I am hoping to be able to focus more on my home, my crafts, my blogging, and my personal life.

Promise for more posts to come! My goal is today, if not this weekend.
<3 Kathy

Holy Cow!

I have to sincerely apologize to all those who actually read this for not keeping up with my updates. At this point, I have been living in my home for about 4 months and absolutely loving it. Almost everything is how I want it, and now I'm just adding little touches here and there. For instance, today and yesterday I spent *finally* sprucing up the patio so it looks more human and enjoyable instead of cold and boring.

I'm on Spring Break this week so I promise to have time to update you on everything that has happened. Of course I will have to jump back in time to get you all caught up, so don't expect everything at once.

And as I keep doing small home improvement projects/new fun craft ideas, I will include them in here; as long as they are related to the home!

Thank you for your patience.. expect a post tomorrow!
<3 Kathy

Cabinets!

And so the cabinet installation began with the lonely refrigerator enclosure as you saw at the end of my last post. The rest of the cabinets were brought into my living room and/or brought in piece by piece off the truck for installation.

And for the next few hours, or should I say from 9:45 am to about 5 pm, they were slowly installed.

 Piece by piece they put them in. Man they were sooo meticulous!

 All of them were made to be perfectly level. If they were even a hair off in either direction, they would adjust them until they fit in like a glove.

So later that afternoon, it started to look muuuuch more like a kitchen than a blank slate!

 Hopefully when the cabinet guy comes back tomorrow to finish the rest of the cabinets, he will have the glass doors finished to install for my display cabinets.

I love how the canned lights fit perfectly with the cabinets and make them glow beautifully. And man, the granite just ties everything in together like a glove. I have to admit, and brag a little, that my kitchen is freaking gorgeous.

Tomorrow the 2nd part of the cabinet installation will commence. That includes the 2 upstairs hallway linen cabinets, my make-up vanity in the bedroom, and all final touches with trim.

 Hallway cabinet #1. This one we added into the house, so he had to build the entire compartment and face for it.

 Hallway cabinet #2. This one only required a new face since there was already an existing linen cabinet there.

And the alcove/niche to the left is where my make-up vanity will go. Also there will be a light installed above it where you can currently see a hole.

Tomorrow I'll put up pictures of the granite. It's simply stunning! The sinks look great and I can NOT wait to be able to start using them!

Back to work tomorrow as well. Ahh!! In less than a week this "work zone" will officially be my home!

<3 Kathy

Texture, Carpet, Painting and Previews!

On December 28th they started to put in the texture on the walls of the kitchen and bathroom! Finally the rooms were starting to look more like they would in the long run.

The next day, December 29th, Brian the representative, came from Empire Today to discuss our carpets upstairs. After much negotiation, and a price cut not so much in his favor, we picked our carpets! He requested that I take his picture, so his smiling face is below. And I'm not sure if you can read the names on the carpet colors, but we picked "Sandy Shores", which is the 2nd color down on the left-most column.

After this, we had a little while to wait. The texture was sprayed, finished, and dried in all the rooms. Doorways were installed in all the upstairs areas, and window sills were put in in the upstairs bathroom and kitchen.

After this, we got ahold of Pablo our painter, and he started to paint on Monday, January 3rd. He's been painting pretty much nonstop for the past 3-4 days. I mean, he was even there tonight at eleven when I went to pick-up my car! Hooray for dedication.

I would never have the guts to stand on a ladder like that and paint the walls.

I absolutely LOVE the color in the bathroom!!! The downstairs bathroom is the same color, but it hard to get a picture of it since it's so small. You can see the original swatch we used on the floor lol.

And these are picture of the now almost finished hallway and bedroom!! NO MORE PURPLE WALLS!! So exciting :]. And I love the walls in the hallway. Sooo gorgeous.

So there you have it! Almost everything is painted. There are still spots that need touch-up, as well as the the inside of the closets and ceilings that need to be repainted. The cabinets were installed this morning, or well at least in the kitchen and bathrooms. The linen cabinets and make-up vanity will be installed on Monday, and granite is coming in on Saturday!!!

I know you all want to see pictures of the cabinets, but I can't show you everything at once silly. If you saw my Facebook, you got a hint of the beginning of the installation. Tomorrow I'll post more pictures from the kitchen and bathrooms. Oh and we picked out a chandelier over the dining table and outside light today too!

Goodnight!

<3 Kathy

P.s. - Ok ok, to those who didn't see it, here's the preview of the cabinets:

Grand transformations

A lot has changed since my last posting. The school semester closing off got in the way of me keeping a more steady blog, along with a few interviews and the holiday/family season. I haven't been able to keep up with pictures always either due to forgetting the camera, or early sunsets, so I apologize.

The cabinet guy has officially completed all my cabinets, so yay for that! They look absolutely stunning and I can not wait for them to be installed into my home.

The above are labeled as to the proper placement of them.

 Below are all my kitchen cabinets, including the open corner cabinet. The cabinets with the missing center panels are the display ones that will have glass in the front.

 The picture below is the new cabinet face of the linen cabinet in the hallway. Good picture for an idea of what the cabinet color will be in sunlight.

The cabinets can not be installed until the texture has been done on the walls in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the walls have been painted. After much stress, the heater has been officially fixed, so the drywall and patching could finally dry. Texture will be up tomorrow throughout all missing areas in the house. Thursday we are meeting with the painter and possible carpet installers. Hopefully paint will go in Friday, Saturday, and at latest Monday. That means cabinets can begin going in Monday, finish on Tuesday. Granite can then go in Tuesday and Wednesday.. and then I can begin moving in finally!! Oh and the kitchen appliances will be delivered on the 3rd, so yay for having a fully functioning kitchen then.

The bathroom is pretty much done and looks awesome (sans cabinets and sink of course lol)! It's exciting to see a bathtub with enclosure in the new location and walls everywhere.
First picture is the view of the bathroom from the new doorway in the hallway. The second is the view of the bathtub area from inside the bathroom itself.

 The below view is the opposite side of the bathroom view while standing in the bathtub.

Kind of exciting to see it huh?? And the bedrooms look so much nicer too! They took off the closet doors and started to tear out the poor shelving in them. Without the old closet doors, they look freaking huge. The rooms look amazing.

My future bedroom below. You can see where the door use to be and is now patched up, and the amazing closet :].

 A better view of the vanity.

 View of the opposite side of the room from inside the closet. See the lack of popcorn on the ceiling???? :]

 The other bedroom below! Once again a view of where there was no wall and now there is.

 And a view of the full room without the mirrored closet doors and new wall.

I can't wait for everything to start happening like a snowball going down a hill soon. In the next week the house will change from looking like a construction zone to a completed home. So exciting! I promise I will update more frequently now.

Much love!!!
<3 Kathy

Progress in pieces

Although it is lengthy, progress is being made. The kitchen is almost ready for cabinets and paint, which is awesome. The lights were put in last week and all the whole's were touched up. The drain behind the refrigerator was pushed back so now our painter can come in and made it look more like a room than a construction zone.

The upstairs bathroom officially has a dropped ceiling! With the recently installed lights and new air vents (we unfortunately had to replace the entire heating and air conditioning units because they were original from the home.. 31 years old and not functioning one bit), it looks pretty spiffy actually.

I'm not sure if you can see in the picture, but they started to put up the sheet rock to close off one of the bedrooms. 

 The tub is hopefully getting installed on Monday, so after that is in, it will DEFINITELY start looking more like a bathroom and less like a gutted space. Hopefully once the tub is in, everything else will start falling into place much faster.

I'll post again a little later today with the inspiration pictures I was talking about from my neighbor. Sorry for the delay! School is over now, so hopefully I'll have more time to keep you all updated.

<3 Kathy

p.s. - With every negative there is always a positive. We did have to spend more money than we had originally anticipated due to the overhaul of the heating & a/c unit. However, they replace all our vent covers in the whole house for free, and they look sooo much nicer now!

New happenings!

The demo continues in my home every day. Since I have last posted the new door placement has been cut out  for hallway access for the upstairs bathroom and the supporting wall was removed as far as demo.

First the doorway: the view from both the hallway as you approach, and then the view out of the doorway from the future bathroom entry.

Next the supporting wall being removed: now you see them, now you don't!

 One of the things to note in the picture is the lack of insulation on the wall behind where the tub used to be. The original builder of this home never put it in, which was illegal even for that time. Yay for my contractor finding this and being able to fix it.

Next I'll show a wide view of the bathroom as of now:

 The frame is being put up in the bedroom, and the second picture will probably be one of the last I'll have where I'll be able to see into the bathroom from the bedroom. You can also see in the first picture the beams that were put up for the dropped ceiling we'll have in the bathroom.

And lastly, we have light!! Or rather, lights :]. Canned lights were installed in the kitchen a few days ago, and today they installed them in the stairway and upstairs hallway. Only place left to install lights now are both bathrooms, my vanity, and the laundry room.

 Before..

.. and after!

Entry way lighting 

 Staircase lighting! You can see the hole where the previous light was.

That's enough updates for now. Tomorrow I'll post about some changes we made to our plans in the kitchen and windows. I will also include inspiration pictures from my neighbor :].

<3 Kathy