Office Mood Board

So my husband has been working from home a lot more lately and it seems my dining room is constantly covered with a laptop, maps, files, folders, etc.. etc.. etc.. Basically anything but what you would typically find on a table, say.. plates? forks perhaps? So anyway, I've decided to turn our front living room (which really is pointless anyway because we never use it) into an office area with a sitting / living space. I've created a mood board of my thoughts. I tried to combine my new tv room plan which was expertly planned out with the help of Holly Mathias Interiors through an online consultation along with some ideas she had for a desk and fabrics, I just put all of it together and added a few of my own ideas.

New projects are so exciting!

<3 Alison

Long over due

The kitchen has actually been done for about 2 months now and I'm just now writing a post about it! I can't believe time gets away so fast! Here is a before picture. I don't have any pics of the actual original kitchen because I was so totally embarassed of it. The original had mustard yellow counter tops (classy).

If you have been following the process in my blog, you know how much I hated those checkered floors and how much we had to go through to get them up! It's so strange to look at it now and then look at this old pic. It's like its not even the same house!

Here are the after pictures (yay!)

Counter top shot, and what's that in the corner? A sink?? I've never been so thankful for a kitchen sink after going over 3 months without one.

After I put the curtains up.

I'm still deciding what to do with that empty space above the oven. I originally wanted to put a small pot rack for utensils and things.

The island was made by old barn wood we found in our barn in the backyard. So its a real reclaimed wood table!

I'm so happy its finally done and I think I'm done with construction on the house for a while. It can get pretty stressful, but it was totally worth it.

Thanks for looking. <3

2012 will be wonderful!

Hello! Once again, I have not updated in quite a while! Things got very busy after Thanksgiving at home, work, and with every aspect of my life! I have some belated Christmas photos of the house, and a sneak peak at the finished kitchen! Countertops get installed Thursday, and DONE!

Lovely living room (chairs are a new addition!) with my Christmas wreath in the window and LingLing posing on the coffee table.

Can't believe Christmas is over already! But here are some pics of the house.

 Kitchen sneak peak!! Not done quite yet in this photo, but you get an idea on the progress! We found the lumber for the island in our barn in the backyard.

Will post finished kitchen photos soon!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today Michael and I are home and the goal was to get Thanksgiving preparations under control for tomorrow. I have already had a epic fail with a homemade cheeselog made out of goat cheese. (Never make this).

Looks good in the picture right? Wrong.

So anyway, a new game plan was planned. I will be making the following dishes and will be crossing my fingers the whole time I'm making them.

Crock pot meat balls (for my mom's get together later in the evening, we will be putting up the Christmas tree at her house tomorrow night :)

To make these you bascially throw all of the following in a crock pot and then cook on low for 7-8 hours:
1) Package of frozen meatballs
2) 1 bottle chili sauce
3) 1 small jar of grape jelly (werid I know)
Got the recipe off a food blog I found through pintrest.

Also on the list is these pumpkin goat cheese mini-pies.

These ones are a little more complicated, but I have high hopes. You can get the recipe from the food blog givemeflour

Also, I will be making a "cheesy squash bake", which is suprisingly healthy.

You can get the recipe from here.
AND last but not least, I will be attemping to make a cake from a recipe that will be adapted off of a cupcake blog. Its called the Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake. I made it with their strawberry frosting. I've made the cupcakes before will great reviews from Michael.

Looks pretty ultimate right?

A little off topic, but our kitchen is coming to a close! We still haven't painted anything, but our reclaimed wood island is in the works and I'm so excited. We actually found all the lumbar out in our old barn in the backyard. I can't wait.

Open Shelving

Ok, when I bought our house I had never thought or even considered a lot of the design elements that I'm obsessed with now. One of these elements is open shelving, especially in the kitchen. I knew when we finally got to our big kitchen project that this had to be incorporated somehow.

Freaking obsessed.

Anyway! Our open shelving wall is well on its way!

We did ours a little different with two smaller bottom shelves and then two long ones on top. That was we can add something decorative to the middle over top the stove or a little wall mounted pot rack or utensil rack. They are not painted yet (nor is anything else!) but omg I can't wait until they are painted and full of awesomeness!

Bianca Carrara

After weeks of searching, we bought our countertop today! I wanted to be sure about this purchase because its probably the biggest one we will make with our entire kitchen project as a whole. We saved a lot on the other things so we were going to splurge on the countertops. We really liked the quartz and granite styles, but I really was set on a white countertop, so we decided on quartz because it offered more white options.

Here is a picture of what it will look like, its called Bianca Carrara which is a Zodiaq brand quartz countertop. (I really want that sink too!)

I really liked how the speckled gray will go well with the gray tiled floor. yay!

We are currently working on the lighting and wiring, which is mostly done. I'm going to be putting an island int he middle with a chandelier overtop. Everyone I explain this to gives me a puzzled look, but I swear it will look right! Example:

BEAUTIFUL! I'm thinking of transfering our dining room light to the kitchen for this look and then getting a new dining room light.

Perfection. Although then the next problem is the dining room light.. ohhh welll.. guess that means I need to buy something else for it ;) Projects!

Will post more progress soon!

Alison

Long time no see

Well it has been almost a month since I made a post. We are in the middle of the kitchen project, which hopefully will be coming to an end before Thanksgiving (that's pushing it a little) but definitely before Christmas!

We figured out how to do this kitchen on a budget... like, major budget.

First, we had to figure out the kitchen layout, which involved moving the fridge and the stove around.

New stove location (featuring my new DOUBLE OVEN).

I will be adding open shelving to this wall over the oven as well, kind of like this (My kitchen will be all white too! Love Love Love)

New fridge location.

These changes made for a lot of extra space in the room. You can kind of see the begining of the custom crown molding going on top of the cabinets woo!

The next task was deciding what to do with our old, pretty much useless cabinets. We didn't want to go the brand new custom cabinets route because its pretty pricey (like, 10,000 pricey). We had considered just doing new cabinet doors for an update, but then the brilliant idea came to us: Buy unfinished stock cabinets at Home Depot, add a bunch of custom wood work to them, paint them an awesome color, and yay! Brand new cabinets for about $900. Pretty ridiculous right?

Here are some pretty awesome pictures I have been collecting on my pintrest.

Love those taupe metallic lights and the open shelving that matches. Beautiful!

I love this for a stairway wall, or an entry way like this one if its big enough (mines not).

I love these patterns and colors.

I'll be posting more pics and progress on the kitchen soon I hope! :) :)