Kitchen finale!

Better late than never?! 

It's only been almost 2 years since this project was finished...but about the time I was ready to write a 'reveal' post, my computer crashed...I'm finally getting around to finishing this post.  We are still on the hunt for a colorful runner to go in front of the sink, and finally have the photograph I've been wanting, that I still need to frame, for the big empty spot between the windows, but we're getting there!  We absolutely love our kitchen, and are so glad we didn't wait too long after moving in to remodel it.

Enjoy a good 'before and after' show!

One of my favorite parts of the kitchen is the tv.  Now, when I'm cooking dinner and there's a Nats game or something else on, I don't have to keep shouting to the den to see what's happening!  And, we put it on a movable arm, so we can hide it. 

Now you see it....

Now you don't!  

We also connected in a Sonos speaker above the cabinets so we can have music in the kitchen, which I have on almost all the time.  

Microwave, trash can/recycling and beverage center all in the island.

We absolutely love it, and as they say, everyone really does live in our kitchen!

Source list:
Cabinets - Ikea
Island cabinets - Barker
Contractor - Moss Building and Design
Floors - Artisan Floors
Mudroom floor tile - Lowes
Counter tops - London Gray quartz by Caesarstone - Pyramid Granite
Backsplash tile - Sixth Sense, 4x8 from Mosaic Tile
Over counter pendants - West Elm
Kitchen table pendant - Crate and Barrel
Hardware - Restoration Hardware
Paint color, island - BM Polo Blue
Paint color, walls - BM Gray Owl
Stools: World Market
Kitchen Table: CB2
Chairs: Overstock

A little bit of landscaping.

Ok, a LOT of landscaping!  This spring, we finally deciding it was time to bring in some help with the back yard.

When we first moved in, we thought the back yard looked fine, but wanted to extend the small amount of grass.

That fall, we pulled up all of the vines that covered the entire back yard - it was unreal.  We were pretty proud of ourselves, and had plans to move the monkey grass and put down seed in the spring....little did we know... Spring came and dozens of perennials grew up in our nicely cleaned out yard!  You just can't imagine... we just didn't find the time to do the overhaul that year, but M cleared things a few times with the weed-wacker and ground clear spray.  So when this spring came, we decided it was time to bring in some professionals...

We asked around, and tried to get a few different quotes from different landscaping companies.  However, only one was professional enough to actually respond, show up on time, and answer all of our questions in a timely manner.  Unfortunately he was so busy, and this was a 2 day project, that we didn't get it scheduled until the first week of July.  I was literally counting down the days.

Danny and his team did an amazing job.  We took out 3 medium sized dogwoods, plus another small tree.  They limbed up our large Hickory tree, plus some other dogwoods that we kept, and trimmed back the remaining azaleas and boxwood.

Danny did the tree trimming himself.

They removed/moved all of the monkey grass that surrounded the grass, and put it along the back of the house.  They removed all of the bricks that also surrounded the grass, plus all kinds of extra bricks and rocks that the previous owners had left in the back corner of the yard.  We had already removed a ton, but there was still a lot left.  They cleaned up everything else in the back, removing plants, massive hostas, dozens hundreds of bulbs, and a ton of weeds that had joined the party.  They also moved 3 azaleas from one side of the walkway to the other and cleared out the vines along the fence.

Then, once everything was cleared and tilled, they put down new sod and planted 2 new crape myrtles.  We are planning on adding a few more bushes to the back, but couldn't even imagine how much space was actually there when it was all covered!  So we will probably add some hydrangeas next spring to fill up some of the open space.

I can't even tell you how thrilled we are with it.  The open space is amazing - Cady loves it!  She's been running all around, sniffing everything and sprinting from one side to the other.  Before we wouldn't let her past the grass cause who knew what lurked back there!!

Can't wait to enjoy the rest of the summer in the back yard!!

Danny Sharpe, Looking Sharpe Landscapes, was great.  He helped us to design the yard, was responsive while we went back and forth to decide what exactly our plan was, and then he and his guys did a great job.  Highly recommend him from our experience!

More house projects!

Last Friday was a big day in our house!  We replaced the 50+ year old fence AND the 30 year old sliding door!  

First, the door...

The old one was the original door from when the previous owners put the extension on - in 1985!  The cold air that seeped through was unbelievable, and it was heavy and hard to open.  It wasn't close to being energy efficient! 

YAY!  It looks so much better now!  And it's at least 10* warmer in the sunroom now.  It was surprising how hard a 3-panel door was to find, and how freaking expensive it was!

Then, the fence...  We had hoped to get a few more years out of the fence, but it was really starting to lean and fall in places...it was also original to the house, from the 60s!   Also, we found that doing this in the winter was much better than waiting until spring - we got better pricing and much faster installation.

It came down really pretty quickly, but lots of pieces broke off as they were loading it onto the truck to haul away...it was almost disintegrating in their hands.

We also decided that we were glad to be putting a pretty fence back up - the back yards around us aren't the prettiest...

Big new door!  We went with the 48" and I'm so glad - hauling leaves and other junk out of the back yard will be so much easier now with the bigger gate.

Finished!

 We decided to go with pressure treated wood instead of the cedar.  We just don't see us being in the house long enough to justify the additional cost.  

This is the last of the projects for a little while.  We have some serious landscaping to do in both the front and the back this spring...but I think that's going to be a lot of sweat equity!

We used MC Fence and Deck  for the fence and the door is a Soft-lite Kingsroyal.