Kitchen Part 3 & a Blog Feature

Before you read part 3 on our kitchen remodel, please head over to A Girl in Pearls & A Boy with Toys. I've been featured as a Pearly Blogger!

Thanks for featuring me, Jen! It was fun to be spotlighted!

Now back to our kitchen and our new counter tops.

Andy decided that he wanted concrete counter tops. I was okay with that and even brave enough to say okay when he stated that this was going to be a DIY project.

I should be having Andy write this post considering he's the one that did all the research and the work on it. I just watched and prayed.

First he had to build a frame to hold all the concrete.








He put 2x4's in to support the bar portion of the counter tops.



He cut the area out around the sink and put in some styrofoam to define the space where our new sink would go.


He mixed the cement outside. We chose a charcoal color. Then it was time to pour.






After leveling and smoothing the cement, it was covered while we waited for it to harden.



The edges of the wooden frame were removed after everything had completely hardened. Then the cement was sanded down to smooth the edges.

A protective wax coating was then applied over the counter that made it smooth and shiny. We then installed the sink we had chosen at Home Depot.




And voila! Gorgeous brand new concrete counter tops!


Next up- back splash! Bet you thought I'd never get there.

xoxo-Kimberly

Modest Mouse Madness

Yes, we braved the free Modest Mouse concert in the park last night. It was the first concert to kick off the Twilight Series.

We were hot, sweaty sardines most of the night, but it was mega good times for all!

Here are some pictures from the craziness that apparantly attracted more than 40,000 people.







I'll be back on Monday for some more of our kitchen. Until then...please enjoy your weekend!

xoxo-Kimberly

Kitchen Progress-Part Two

Before I dive into round two of the kitchen redo, can we pause for a minute? I just have to share Nellie's new born pictures with you.

They were taken by the very talented Jessie O'Neil, who also took Jen and Clay's wedding pictures.

I am dying, they are so flippin' cute!

Anyway, back to our kitchen...

The next step was to install the new cabinets that we had purchased. The cabinets we ended up with were probably not what we would have chosen if this was going to end up being our dream kitchen. But we were on a budget and we found them used and still in fairly good condition.

Our main goal was to just make the space look much better than what it was before. And honestly, anything was better than what we had before.

I don't have any shots of the old cabinets up on the wall but you can kind of see them sitting there on the floor in this next shot:





Dark ugly 1970's look with blue formica countertops. Yuck! None of the cabinets were tall enough to hold a box of cereal. Major annoyance.

Plus, this 'island' was in the wierdest spot ever and was the complete opposite of functional. It had to go.




Andy's dad was nice enough to take all of the cabinets to his shop and refinish them for us. He also made any adjustments or repairs that they needed and added finishing trim.

Then he came back and helped Andy install them. They really do look all shiny and gorgeous!




You can see in these pictures how Andy chose an 'L' pattern with the new cabinets/countertops and then later ripped out the old ridiculous 'island.'




This was quite the process as we had purchased these cabinets used and they were not custom made to fit in our kitchen.

Andy and his dad had to make a few alterations in order to get everything to fit just right and look like they were, in fact, made for our space.



So with the cabinets in, the next step was to install countertops. I'll save that for tomorrow because it deserves it's own post.

Hope you enjoyed my little tour!!

xoxo-Kimberly

Kitchen Progress Part 1

Let's just say our kitchen needed a lot of improvement. Andy has done a ton of work on it with some help from his dad and brothers. What he's done so far looks amazing and I wanted to share some of the progress with you this week.

I know that I said I would show you the backsplash before and afters today but I think it might be a good idea to start at the beginning.

I know Andy has some before shots of the kitchen so I'll round those up later and show them.

The first thing Andy did was to take out the drop ceiling, install can lights, reinsulate the attic, texture the ceiling and paint. Needless to say, this was a big job and we are really happy with the way it has turned out.

Step One: Take out drop ceiling, rewire, and reinsulate the attic

Step Two- New drywall and mudding







Step Three- Texture ceiling and install can lights



We also decided to take down part of the wall between the kitchen and the front room. I love how open it is now. The kitchen was very clausterphobic before but now feels very airy, especially with the drop ceiling gone.

Step Four- Remove section of wall between kitchen and front room

So there you have it! More remodel photos to come tomorrow!

xoxo-Kimberly

Some weekend pics and a meme...

From our 4th of July weekend awesomeness:





And a Meme….(for those of you that don’t know, a “meme” is basically a survey that many people do and/or are tagged to do…). Kim tagged me in this one.

1. When was the last time you played air guitar? Come on, I’m not asking you to admit you still listen to Def Leppard.

I will admit that I still listen to Def Leppard but I can't even think of a time when I've ever played air guitar.

2. What’s the oldest thing in your fridge?

There's some grapes in there that are getting mushy and probably need to be tossed, but the worst is the leftovers. For some reason no one thinks to eat them.

3. Vampires, zombies or please make it stop?

Zombies. The vampire craze is wearing thin but I'll take Zombieland any day and I could never tire of Shawn of the Dead.

4. If you had to change your current profession, and could be anything, what would you do?

I'd like to work in historical preservation.

5. Undergarment of choice?

Boy shorts

6. What is the tackiest thing you own?

Of course I don't think anything I own is tacky but I'm sure someone could tour my house and find something to prove me wrong.

7. Summer with no air conditioning or winter with no heat?

Summer with no air conditioning. I'm used to a car with no AC but I can't handle freezing to death.

8. Desert island time: Wow, there is a band that will play whenever you snap your fingers and OMG, it’s your favorite! Who is it?

This is a hard one. There's too many to choose. I think I'm going to have to go with the Beatles.

Here are the people I’m tagging to do this meme:

Kelly

Heather

Patricia

Jenn

Tomorrow I'll be sharing some before and after pics of our backsplash project.

xoxo-Kimberly

Happy 4th

xoxo-Kimberly

Ruche, Made By Girl, Three Potato Four, Jawdoc, B&N, Little Brown Pen

The Cycle

You guys know how it goes for me.

Feel like a lazy slug
Take on a crap load of extra responsibility's
Work my brains out
Stress out and break down
Start simplifying
Enjoy my simplified schedule
Start feeling guilty and lazy again

And it goes on and on.

Right now I'm in the simplifying stage. By the end of July I will no longer be working one of the three jobs I currently hold.

This makes me very, very happy.

But it also worries me. I know that feeling guilty stage will come. I'll start worrying that I'm not contributing enough to the household, that I'm not saving enough/anything, that I'm not paying off school loans fast enough, that I don't have enough saved for the wedding dress I want, etc.

I really don't want to go around this cycle again. As my mom said- "It's ok for school to be your focus right now."

I kind of know she's right. But I still feel guilty. Andy works full time and does an online masters program. I should be pulling my own weight too.

Come this fall I'll be working 15 hours in the lab and 20 hours in the archives for a total of 35 hours a week, plus full time classes. Why does that never seem like enough? Why do I feel like I have to put in more hours? Why am I always plagued with guilt about being lazy?

This time, I'm going to try hard to resist the urge to get to the point where I've over scheduled myself again. It's really not worth it and it's just plain stupid. I'd rather this 'cycle' just went away and I had a nice consistent, manageable life year round, you know?

Sigh...

xoxo-Kimberly