Kitchen Makeover Finale!!!

Hi there.

How's everybody?

It's been a busy Monday here.

So I'm gonna try to make this quick.

Wanted to get some pictures up of where we are at now in the kitchen.

Last Thursday morning our kitchen still looked like this...

I left to take Claire to speech and pick Hannah up from school.

We grabbed lunch, and when we came home, our kitchen looked like this...

 That night I decided I'd set our coffee up in the bathroom.  But as a joke I laughed to myself while I took this picture of the pot right next to my bed. 

I posted this pic on instagram and facebook and said "Well, when the kitchen is out of comission... I may be onto something GENIUS here!"  
I cracked myself up.  Mr. Hass saw that and asked me if I was even planning on getting out of bed the next day at all.  hee hee hee.

So Friday morning the girls had school, and I ran errands and stayed out of the house until it was time to pick up the girls.  When we got back home I couldn't wait to step inside and see it...

 But, I couldn't really do more than peek at it because moments later we were off to Hannah's first Daisy Scout field trip at the bank.

 I'm so glad we were able to find such a great troop for her to join.
She's been having so much fun, and I've gotten to know some really great women and I think I'm having so much fun with it too.  :)
Later that night once we finally got the girls fed and bathed and to bed, we were able to tackle Operation Put The Kitchen Back Together...

 Only problem is, 
it was Friday, 
the end of a loooong and bussssyyy week.
And we were both exhausted.
Still sick from our darn blasted colds that we still have.
But, it was now or never so we put on Pandora and got straight to work.

 Mr. H was a real trooper.  Poor guy has had a sinus infection and had to go to Urgent Care last Wednesday for some antibiotics, but he still helped me get the job done.  He is a MASTER at measuring out that sticky contact paper.  A pro I tell you!  I hate that kind of thing.  All that measuring, and numbers.... blah blah blah!  He was my man.  Thanks for that Mr. Hass.  

After a couple of hours work,
we had to clean out the debris from everywhere below the countertops, and then had to decide where things were going to go because we decided to re organize the whole entire set up in every cupboard,
and just when I started to feel like we were getting somewhere,
the kitchen island still looked like this...

 And this is a picture after the couch had been somewhat cleared, but I'm tellin' ya, stuff was EVERYWHERE!

 And if you know me, that just makes my OCD brain go crazzzzy.  
It's like I can't even think with that much clutter around my head.

So we finally got all that jazz put away.
But, still no running water from the faucet until Saturday.
So, Saturday morning, this is how I rinsed the dishes from breakfast...

 It was a little cold outside, but it worked. 
Mr. H had to work on Saturday and Sunday, so he had our go to handyman guy show up at 9am to hook up the plumbing and install the new faucet and garbage disposal.

 He finished just moments before we had to run out the door to sell Girl Scout cookies for a cookie booth outside of our new Chipotle.

 Hannah had so much fun.  
Mr. H swung by to pick up Claire.
And we stood out there until 5pm trying to sell cookies.
Only sold 34 boxes.
People kept saying "You guys are everywhere!"
Ha.

 So it was pretty darn exciting once we had running water IN the kitchen again!!!!!
And HOW MUCH BETTER does that new sink look huh???
Remember the nasty old one...

and now my nice new pretty one...

And I LOVE love love my new big fat sink!!!! 
It just seems so much more functional!!!

By the way, sorry these are all iphone pics.

I've been so bad about pulling out my big camera.

The iphone is SO easy!

Especially with the new app I bought called camera+!!!

SO anyway, what do ya think?????

 The rest of these finished pics are taken in the evening.
Sorry folks, but that seems to be the only time I can find a second to myself these days.

 I just love being in my kitchen now.

And a little peek into our newly organized and re papered kitchen storage...

We couldn't be happier with the end result!!!

We've talked about and dreamed about getting granite for so long.

I love to cook.

I love that our family so often congregates in the kitchen.

And now I love that we have a beautiful space to enjoy together.

Life is good.

Happy Monday.

Our Weekend Haps.

Hiyeeee.
Before I fill you all in on my weekend haps, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of the nice comments regarding my very first vlog.
I don't know why I was so nervous to do that.
But I'm glad you liked it, and maybe even learned a thing or two from it.
I will try to do one again soon.
Are there any requests for what I should do next time?  Do you want to see me style my hair down?  Or style half up? Or a video of me styling my girls hair?  You tell me.
It was also really fun to hear from some of you who I had no idea read my blog!! Thanks so much for letting me know and for the encouragement to continue vlogging.  ;) I just love my blog buds.

I did a bit more spray painting on Saturday.

A couple people asked me what kind of spray paint I use so here's a few pics of that.

 Krylon is usually about $3.47 a can at Wal-Mart which is a little pricier than some of the other spray paints, but I have really liked it so far and I don't like to mess with a good thing.  Plus I always say you get what you pay for.

We've had that little stand forever and it was looking a little sad.  So I sanded it down and decided to paint it ivory.  Mainly because I had two cans of ivory in my garage so ivory it was.

This is where that stand belongs for now.  This little nook is always getting re-decorated.  Before we had the playroom it used to house the girls play kitchen, and then when we moved them into the same room, the kitchen went into the playroom and we figured this was a sort of good spot to put the rocking chair.  That chair is the comfiest place to sit.  (the ocd in me is wanting to go rearrange that lamp cord so that you can't see it and retake this picture) 

Welcome to our entryway.  A blank wall by the front door.  Inviting no?

Well, I'm workin' on it.

I have finally figured out what I want to do with this space so now it is just a matter of finding it.

I would like to find a steal of a deal for a hutch (dual purpose so that I can store my china and fine silver and fancy things in it) and maybe a pretty lamp on top of it, and maybe a pretty chair next to the hutch.

For now, it is where we keep our basket (which I recently spray painted dark brown) full of slippers.  Which is kinda convenient I must say.

This weekend I created a little wall collage to go above my future hutch.  But of course I did not hang anything without consulting with my personal decorating assistant first (my mom-thanks mom!)

And one more view of the wall.  I took this while standing inside the half bath on the opposite wall.

What do you think?

I like it.

The pictures make me happy.

Now I need your help with something bloggy buds...

See this piece of furniture here?

 It was Claire's.  It matched her crib and changing table which are now gone.

I almost got rid of this piece, but when we converted the room to a playroom,

I sort of discovered what a useful piece of furniture this could be for storing things. 

 It holds a lot of stuff and makes for easy clean up to just throw things back in the drawers.

My problem is, I hate the look of it.

I hate the wood color.

I thought about sanding it and painting it but that seems like a really big job.

Right now I am kinda thinking about putting up a fun leopard print paper on the inside back part on the top half with mod podge or something like that and getting some fun knobs for the drawers.

What would you do to jazz that baby up a bit????

 I hung these two bulletin boards in the playroom to display the girls artwork and schoolwork. 

And just so you know, the playroom is not always picked up. ;)

I hung this bulletin board over the weekend too.  It's right by the garage door and I am going to start keeping my current favorite happy pictures on there.  Makes me smile every time I see it.

 This is my new jewelry organizer that came this weekend!

I was SO excited to get this.

My friend Jenny had ordered a couple and shared about it on her blog.  When I saw it I knew it was the exact thing that I needed to organize my jewelry.

It is from Spirit Ranch Creations Etsy shop.

 As soon as Mr. Hass hung it up for me I got right to organizing my jewelry boxes and putting my favorites out on display.

I was especially excited that this had a spot for bracelets because I have just had my bangles sitting out on my dresser and they've been driving me crazy. They needed a home.

Ahhhh.  Isn't it pretty?  I think it looks like my own little jewelry store.  :)

A productive weekend wouldn't you say?
And last night Mr. Hass and I were even able to get out of the house alone for a movie date.  I thought Moneyball was at 8:20 but turns out I goofed on the movie times.  Woops.  So we wound up seeing Midnight In Paris and had time to get a latte from Starbucks first!  We sat in the car overlooking the lake at dos lagos and chit chatted 20 minutes away while we sipped our drinks.  The movie wound up working out well.  Neither of us knew a thing about it, and we both really really enjoyed it.  And now I am dying to go to Paris.

I'm linking up with carissa at lowercase letters today!

Today.

Today was a good day.
Nothing spectacular happened,
it was just a really good ordinary day.
I love those.
I worked for a bit this morning.
Then went to Kirkland's and TJMaxx all by myself!
I was in search of a coat rack from Kirkland's I have been eyeing for a year that finally went on sale (and they are gone- sad face),
and for small lamps for the girls new nightstands.
I did not find lamps either.
I did come home with a new shirt for $7 though.  ;)

 Our friend Jason came over today to help Mr. Hass with this hole in the ceiling situation.
It started with a plumbing issue.
Which led to another plumbing issue.
Which led to mold growing underneath the ceiling.
The guys were able to fix the plumbing, and we will probably have someone come to fix the drywall and the hole next week.
Everytime I walk past the hole, it catches my eye as being SO out of place and I have to stop and make sure it isn't someone jumping out at me from the ceiling.
I know, I'm weird.

While they were working on the hole in the ceiling situation, I spray painted.  This shelf was one of my first finds for our house at Home Goods when we first moved in.  I was so proud of my find.  I think it cost me like 5 bucks.  I hung it above my bathtub and have always liked it there, but recently I felt it was looking a little drab.  (Along with the paint color on the walls, but we'll get to that)

I painted it oil rubbed bronze.

And no that is not my daughter's bottle of Mr. Bubbles that is mine.  I tell you, Mr. Bubbles is the best bubble bath there is.  The bubbles last forever.

(Bad lighting, I took these pictures tonight)

Today I also scrubbed the walls in my bathroom.  They might have been a little gunked up with hairspray.  That Mr. Hass and his hair product usage, I tell you.  ;)

Anyway, the walls look much better now- at least, ready to be painted.  I also spray painted the rod above the window today too.

I threw away the old valance that hung on it.  It was looking outdated and after we paint I will buy something new.

This piece hangs above our bed and I bought this at Home Goods or Marshall's for $14.99 years ago.

I was getting sick of the colors, so I spray painted that too.

(I didn't take a picture of it after because my room was a mess, but if you look at the next picture, you can see it in the background)

 (I swear I cleaned the mirror before I took this picture and it looks a mess!  I can't win.)
Spray painted this basket recently too.
I used to have my fave hair products sitting out all smooshed into a basket that was too small and I finally got smart, shopped my house for a bigger basket, and spray painted it. 

 Mr. Hass put together the girls new nightstands for me from Ikea.
For $30 each I was worried about them looking cheap, but I think they look pretty cute!  (the lamps on them are temporary, i just put some that we had on there until I find what I am looking for).  We went to Home Depot this afternoon and bought those jeweled knobs to jazz them up a bit.  I was thinking we'd get pink knobs but they didn't have any so we went with the jewels.  I put them in the cart and Mr. Hass said, "Of course you would."  I said, "Huh?  What?"  And he said, "Of course you would choose the most expensive ones they have."
I said, "Yeah.  So....?"  
And he smiled and said he loves me.  ;)

We bought a quart of "shiny pink" paint.

Hannah's choice for the wall in their bedroom.

And today I bought aqua spray paint for a few things in their room.

Fun.

I had to go to Wal Mart for all my new cans of spray paint.

i. hate. that. place. 

After Home Depot we were trying to figure out what to do pick up for dinner, and we ended up at Mi Tortilla. 

I hesitated to be seen in public because I was wearing my workout pants, and felt sweaty and gross from my spray painting extravaganza, and the girls looked like ragamuffins in their mismatched outfits and messy hair with hot pink ballet flats on.

(cell phone pic)

I'm so glad I went depsite all that.

We sat outside.

Mr. H and I had a beer.

The girls behaved SO well.

We all talked and laughed.

We picked up Golden Spoon for dessert and brought it home.

Such a fun and spontaneous evening.

Loved every second of it.

After dinner my luck continued and I managed to snap these pics of the girls which I love.

Today.
Ordinary.
Unplanned.
Spontaneous.
Extraordinary.

Tomorrow we are taking the girls apple picking at Oak Glen!
We are looking forward to it.

I am off to go relax with Mr. Hass.

Hope you had a lovely Saturday too.
xoxo