Going From Caged Animal To Free Roaming

 

The picture on the top is the only one I got before the renovations really got started in my kitchen.  As you can see the counter top has been removed.  My kitchen and dinning room used to be divided by that ugly paneled cabinet and when I cooked I felt very disconnected from the rest of the house and in turn, disconnected from my family and friends.

The photo on the bottom right is my new kitchen layout with the cabinet and new counter top rotated and now running along the kitchen wall rather than jutting out from the wall.

The photo on the bottom left is my new view of the dinning room.  No longer am I cut off from the rest of the house while I'm preparing meals and the space is wide open for family and friends to actually join me in the kitchen and socialize comfortably without feeling cramped.

In the 4 weeks husband and I worked on our living room, kitchen and dinning room, I think my "new" kitchen/dinning room is my absolute favorite update.  It went from dingy yellow, baby blue counter tops, laminate wood flooring in the dinning room and linoleum in the kitchen and clutter on the walls to a welcoming wide open space of blue heaven, neutral counter tops (even a new set of cabinets along one wall making a nice 'buffet' style feel with extra storage in the cabinets for all my nifty kitchen gadgets and equipment), laminate wood flooring throughout the whole space, crown molding, framing out the entryway to the living room and beautiful wainscoting.

It was a grueling 4 weeks between limited hours after husband got home from work in the evenings, keeping up with getting kids on and off the bus for school, checking homework, cooking, attempted cleaning, running my regular errands along with countless trips for supplies to Lowe's and so on.  I know 4 weeks is NOT a long time for ALL the work we put into the house updating and renovating, but, throwing the day to day of life with a family it seemed like a very long time.  I wouldn't go back and change anything about it, though.  It was WELL worth the blood, sweat and tears and our house now feels like a home and I look forward to having family and friends come for visits and meals to share together with us.

Making Some Changes

So.  It's been over a year since my last post.  Not that I haven't had anything to post about.  I mean, come on, I have 3 children, a husband, wonderful family and awesome friends.  There's ALWAYS something to post about.  Anywho.  Instead of going back and trying to remember details of so many fun things my family and I did since my last post I'll just start from the big project my husband and I completed in this new year.  The picture on the left is the "Before" picture of our living room.  The picture on the right is the "After".

In the span of 4 hectic, messy, dusty, late night, debris filled weeks Charlie and I were able to soften up the look and feel of our living room.  Going from bold and in your face "Fabulous Red", a tiled corner (where a wood stove used to be), laminate wood flooring and a large area rug to a warmer and more neutral wall color, crown molding and carpeting.  We DID use some of the old laminate flooring for the entry of our house as a place to take off shoes and not muck up the new carpet as quickly.

I'm THRILLED with the new look and our friends and family who've been over and remember the "old" look have been very complimentary about the 'new' look.  It really feels like we've got a new house.  We also renovated our kitchen in the same 4 weeks we redid our living room, but, that's the next post :)