Happy Kitchen Renovations, so far!

I know I haven't been posting regularly lately but we have been busy bees. So much progress has taken place in the last week in our kitchen. We still have 3 more weeks of scheduled work.

I can't give everything away now but here's a few sneak peeks.

Rene and *sorry I forgot the other dude's name* working hard so we don't have to!

I'm so happy we chose to keep the uppers. It saved so much money and they look 1000 times better!

What a difference some paint makes.

I'm super excited about the new kitchen! The next few weeks will be busy. Our demo crew starts on Monday, then the plumbing. I am sure once the plumbing is repaired we will use less water since it takes forever now to wash dishes or do laundry since the pressure sucks so bad. I'm crossing my fingers our water bill goes down significantly.

Today Ikea is delivering our cabinets. All 800lbs! We cleared some space in the living room.

We cut this pile in half, by donating, selling and recycling a bunch of junk

But the new cabinets are gonna have to chill in the garage until the floors are done. I did save some money by finding a new company to install our cabinets but I promise to post a more detailed account of the remodel experience once everything is finished. So from here on out, I'll share a few photos of progress but Antz is swearing me to secrecy until we can do a grand reveal. I am playing around with the Nikon *hello ISO levels* to make sure I get some amazing after photos.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, Liv went to her school's first Parent's Night Out last Friday. Once a month, they offer a night when we can drop her off in her pajamas at school for pizza, playing with her friends and a movie. It's funny they chose Wreck It Ralph since that's her favorite movie *at the moment*. See how awesome her school is? While she was at her slumber party, we went to a cocktail mixer hosted by the *rad* parent's of one of the boys in Liv's class. It was awesome since I haven't had a chance to individually meet the parent's from her class. I know most of the kids, but we really enjoyed being kid-free and meeting everyone. Cindy and Steve's house was incredible. Now I'm thinking of sending her to Parent's Night out every month.

Can you believe this month is almost over? I can't. Time always flies when I'm in the midst of a project.

 

Happy Sunday!

Kitchen Remodel Update Week One

Last you saw of the kitchen we were testing wall paint choices and choosing the tile for the backsplash.

Neither of these blew my skirt up.

Antz worked his butt off for the past 2 days and sanded the years of gross paint off of the cabinets. Our kitchen went from this.

To this.

I'm estimating it will take 3 weeks to finish the kitchen. I'm still not sure which wall color we will use. These cabinets are a mess. Antz said he found at least 5 layers of paint, like a jawbreaker. I can't wait until they are painted lily white.

While I was away at my Mom's house I ordered the new light fixture and knobs from Pottery Barn. Our poor mailman has been delivering boxes to us everyday now. Our living room is looking like a storage room.

The new cabinets are being delivered this Sunday, YAY!! All 800lbs of boxes will be in our living room until May, BOO!! Now is a good time to donate, sell and throw away. With all this kitchen talk,  I am smitten with Diana from Our City Lights amazingly bright pink Hello Kitty themed kitchen.

You can read more about her kitchen over at A Beautiful Mess

I love her bold use of color and all the Hello Kitty accessories *Antz would never go for it* but I think it's brilliant. Did you see the Royal Tenebaums artwork and the pink chalkboard door? She is my new blog crush.


Oh, isn't it sweet to come home to something as lovely as this?

This beautiful gem is courtesy of my hubs, our world map looks quite sophisticated!

Merci mon ami!!

A love letter

Dear Antzy,

Thank you, loving husband for all that you do. You are taking the next 3 days off of work...to work in our kitchen. You send me and the bebe to my Mom's house to have fun while you do all the dirty work that would cause us to sneeze and have itchy, red eyes. You listen to me go on endlessly about all my desires and you sweetly reassure me. You are the string attached to my balloon of ideas that keeps me grounded when I become overwhelmed with color selections, budget and light fixtures. You make possible what I think is impossible.

You are patient, kind and good.

You are one in a million and we love you so much.

We miss you!

Love,
Your Girls

E & O


P.S. I really like these knobs and pulls for the kitchen cabinets.

Everything must go Sale!!

It's been two years since we have been on the search for a *non crazy* affordable electrician. Yesterday I poached my neighbor's electrician and he fixed all our lights for less than I budgeted!! *thanks Lisa & Aaron!*

These guys nearly gave me a heart attack

Is it bad when you go to Ikea and the salespeople know you by your name? Thursday night after months of exhaustive planning we finally ordered our kitchen cabinets.

Inside this folder is our new kitchen!!

I have read horror stories about the cabinets being on backorder forever or out of stock, so I was pleasantly surprised that all our cabinets were in stock and will be delivered in ONE week! I wanted to hug Jaime and Lucy for all their help and support. It took a lot of math, problem solving and thinking outside the box to get our new kitchen planned *thanks to 90 year old kitchen measurements*. So now the fire has been turned up and we need to clear out our house to make room for all the new pretty things.

Sadly for me, this means letting go of Olivia's bebe items we no longer need. I have been holding on to them for sentimental reasons but now I'm ready to de-bebe our house. Sniff, I'm selling her gently used bebe stuff.  The prices I'm listing are firm, I don't want to spend a lot of time going back and forth negotiating. They are fair & reasonable prices and cash only por favor. Promise me they will go to a good home and you will take tons of pictures of your little ones enjoying them as we did.

Boon high chair

Liv loved her chair

I love this guy, super sturdy, rolls anywhere and very easy to clean. It comes with two clear removable trays. I'm sad to see it go, but she uses her big girl chair now. We are selling this high chair for $120.

 Bugaboo Bee Stroller with cocoon attachment

Liv's first time in the Bee *one week old*

This guy was heaven for us. The seat flips forward and backwards, the chair swivels and extends and the bar is adjustable. Folds down easily. Olivia was obviously a tall bebe so having so many options to expand the seat was excellent. She used the cocoon for about 3 months. The canopy is sold in different colors here. The Bugaboo Bee is for sale for $450 with the yellow canopy, yellow cocoon accessories and instructions included.

Babea Babycook

Cooking some kale and carrots

I'm gonna pay it forward on this one. I bought it used from an awesome lady. Ours is in good working condition, here's the easy online instructions *sorry if you find her voice annoying but she gives a thorough demonstration*, and comes with a bebe cookbook and the orange spatula/spoon you see in the photo. $25!!

Diaper Dekor Plus

This guy can hold a million diapers. We have one bag left to get you started, they last for weeks. My husband will gladly demonstrate how to add a refill bag. I buy my biodegradable refill bags from Amazon. $25.

The last item in this insane sale is this brand new Hatley raincoat.

Here's a similar version

The raincoat has detachable hood and fleece interior lining. It's a size 6 and never been worn. I'll let it go for $25.

There you have it, lovelies. Our spring clean bebe sale. Please email me if you are interested in any of our stuff, sunkissis*at*aol*dot*com.

If you are a new Mommy or know someone who needs help figuring out what they need, please check out my guide to rad new bebe!

Happy Kitchen Renovation Day!

Well not quite, but Sunday we went to Home Depot *after waiting 48 hours for a guy to come over to give us a quote but never showed up, why is it so hard to get a quote?* and did some pre-reno shopping.

Sheesh, could this kitchen look anymore dark and depressing?

I wanted to find out about renting tools *tile wet saw, floor sanders, etc*. We went to our local Home Depot only to find out we had to go to another one because they didn't rent tools from there, D'oh! Turns out I like the second HD much better. It's a bigger store, really well stocked, not crowded at all *due it the store being practically hidden* and the salespeople were actually helpful and knowledgeable! Hooray!

We got a price list of the tools for rent. It's pricier than I expected, but it's cheaper than having a professional do the work. I am really bummed that Home Depot no longer carries my Goddess Martha Stewart paint. The paint guy suggested we try Glidden as a substitute so we bought some samples to test out on the walls this weekend.

We chose Natural Wicker for the walls and Toasted Mashmallow for the trim.

We also found the subway tile for the backsplash for only a fraction of the estimated cost I budgeted. Sweet!

I budgeted $350 for the backsplash tile, now we only going to spend about $50 for everything!

The store's display wasn't impressive. I wanted larger tiles but since it's a Do-it-ourselves-on-a-budget project, I'll take it.

I shopped the knobs and drawer pulls section since Ikea doesn't have what I'm looking for.

The price is perfect but Goddess Martha is bumming me out with the dated nipple knob. I am over the brushed nickel style so I'm still on the hunt. I practically bought every style of knob to bring home to test out on the cabinets. I almost like these antique glass ones but Antz is not a fan.

Nah, these knobs are too dainty for the doors

It's understandably difficult to imagine the new knobs on such fugly cabinets. You like that paint job?? I can't even begin to think of how much work it will take to sand away years of poor paint jobs on those upper cabinets. My biggest concern is the brand new lower cabinets will make the old uppers look horrible. Oh well, if need be maybe next year we can get the uppers replaced, after we get the foundation fixed and the house painted, and the....and the....headache!

On a happier note, I picked up some strawberries to plant since the bugs ate our old patch.

My assistant gardener

The wildflower seeds we planted last year have finally filled in nicely

She's wearing her new adorable Misha Lulu skirt

 Then we headed to the park

And so begins the new life of DIY kitchen renovators!!