A Kitchen Face Lift

When we were looking at houses I had a very intense “must have” list. Like, Must Have: Duel vanity, granite counters, updated kitchen, three car garage, big grassy backyard, and I do NOT want to be in Mesa. Guess how many of those things I got? Not. One. We bought a small (I’m talking about 1200sq ft.) home in the heart of Mesa that was straight out of 1989, the year it was built and a year before I was born. We have a vanity in our bedroom with one sink, nasty oak cabinets everywhere, and a backyard that could double as a junk yard. I talked about that more here. We knew we had a lot of projects in the future and we’ve been tackling them one by one. In January we started the kitchen face lift. Our goal was to have it done by Nixon’s second birthday (Feb. 15). I laugh at myself now, that was just ridiculous! Jim and I aren’t exactly the ideal candidates for DIY, but I read enough on pinterest that made me completely confident that I could tackle our countertops with no problems.

 

Boy was I wrong. I had no idea what I was doing. but eventually I figured it out! Jim was so kind to build up two waterfall edges for me. I always hated that weird gap between the upper counter and the “backsplash” of the normal counter. I then started a concrete overlay. Once I got the hang of it it wasn’t too bad, but I got sick of doing it after awhile and Jim had to take over the final steps. It took about two weeks I believe, and then we had to seal it. I kick myself everyday about that process. Long story short, we didn’t put a wax seal on top of the seal we did use and so we’ve had a lot of things soak in a leave a stain (I’m looking at you bacon grease). So I need to sand it and do a few more layers, seal it, and then seal it again with wax this time!! I’ll be honest, I’ve been putting it off for MONTHS because it’s so time consuming! We bought a new sink and faucet too. Our old sink was only 5” deep. 5” people. Do you even realize how hard that is to work with? and our faucet wasn’t much better but I realize it could have been MUCH worse. We bought a nice 9” deep sink with a pretty faucet and my life changed and the amount of dishes left in the sink somehow tripled. It looks so so much better and I LOVE it.

Next up was the cabinets. I read on pinterest that a really easy way to update your kitchen with minimal effort is to replace the doors! DONE! Alas, pinterest failed me again. It was hard to find somewhere that made just cabinet doors, and forget about figuring out what kind you need! Eventually we found a place in Payson that does just that! Unfortunately because of the way our boxes were made we couldn’t use the hidden hinges that make your kitchen look that much better! I came to terms with that and we ordered the doors (in January) and they came and were perfect and beautiful! This was the kick start to busy season so I knew they wouldn’t get done for awhile. Fast forward to August and we were ready to start the process of the doors. I planned on using the existing hinges we had and just spraying them to match the pulls I found! Wrong again, these crazy hinges attach IN the door as well as ON the door. I eventually found hinges that would work with our door/box situation and wouldn’t you know they only came in ONE finish, not the finish I had in mind for the handles. My sister-in-law had the genius idea to pain the hinges with the cabinets, just like some pictures she had seen on pinterest. They looked great and it seemed easy enough!

As august kept progressing and we were getting deeper and deeper into fall busy season we began to realize that we weren’t going to be getting this project any time soon! I decided that we were not going to be able to paint them and have them turn out the way we wanted. I called a painter recommended to me by a friend and that was that! We were having the cabinets painted and it was going to take 3 days and not 3 months like if we were going to do it. We had to hang the doors ourselves and I don’t know if Jim will ever forgive me for that. It’s not that he CAN’T do it, it’s that he doesn’t LIKE to do it, and claims it doesn’t turn out right. Well he spent a Saturday tackling the project before an ASU game and I think it turned out great! All that was left was deciding on a color, and that is by far the hardest part!

Last summer as I was walking out of J. Crew at station park in Farmington I looked at the door and it hit me like a ton of bricks! THAT was the color I wanted my kitchen, with brass hardware. The door was a dark dark gray, almost black depending on the light. I went home and found a few pictures (the one above was like the one that did me in. Concrete counters and dark cabinets) and pinned them right away and I had my heart set on white counters and dark cabinets. It actually really surprised me. I’ve LOVED white kitchens for years, no shocker. My favorite thing to do is look at homes on zillow and pick apart what I hate and how I would change it before I moved in. My first thought is still “it doesn’t have a white kitchen”. But for some reason, this kitchen in this house needed to be dark gray with white counters and I absolutely love it! I picked the color “cavernous” by Dunn Edwards (the middle color) and I would pick it again and again! For now we have nickel hinges because the painter said it would chip and he wouldn’t paint them. We will remain hardwareless for awhile because of that. I want so badly to have brass hardware, I love the look of mixed metals, but I don’t think you should mix your hinges and your handles, that’s just too weird. I’m also having a hard time letting go of my brass hardware vision. I do think that nickel would look really good too though. So instead of making holes in my amazing new doors for something I’m just not sure about, they will remain empty!

I really really really love how everything turned out! Our house isn’t very big, and because of the location and surrounding homes putting the money into a full kitchen reno wouldn’t be smart! We just wouldn’t see our money again, and we wont be here long enough to enjoy it! It’s not our forever home, but having an updated modern looking kitchen makes it easier for me to stay for a little while longer! Also, if anyone is looking for a good painter let me know! I will definitely use him again in the future!!

May and June Catch Up

So May was a pretty important month, Nixon FINALLY started walking! He took probably 10 steps two different times while we were in Utah in April, but never tried again. Then after lots of moral support he started getting more confident and just took off!

We also lived at the park! When the weather wasn’t too hot us moms would plant our butts in the shade and the babies (and dogs) would run (or crawl) like wild men! Nixon ALWAYS took the best naps after that. Sigh… soon enough fall. Soon enough. We also were lucky enough to drag those husbands to the park too! They made for some of my favorite “date nights”.

If we weren’t at the park, you were sure to find us enjoying the splash pad. I’ll be honest though, Nixon really hates it. He just sits and eats snacks for like 2 hours and I occasionally drag him in the water when I’ve over heated. But its gated in so I know he isn’t going anywhere and for that reason alone we continue going back.

Nixon didn’t really understand that you don’t eat the stick, and apparently really didn’t want Calvin to share with him

Preston also turned 4 in May! And LUCKY FOR US Tay was able to stop by for a half a second, and that was one of the best moments of my life. I just really miss her! Sisterwives reunite!

This was also about the time I took away Nixon’s Morning nap. Truly bittersweet. He went from 2 2hr naps, to one 3-4 hour nap. It really opens up my mornings! buuuuuuut that means I NEVER shower before 2. like ever.

 

June! What a month. I can’t tell you just how many times a day Nixon hits his head. Literally like 10, at least. And he cries every. single. time. There is usually at least one time that I would say is cry worthy, but every other time its just him being clumsy letting that big ol’ noggin get in the way. But this time really took the cake. Face plant into the dresser knob. It didn’t bleed, but it was a HUGE pump that almost had a hole in the middle? Even now 2 months later when he scrunches his nose you can see the dent. It was dramatic and traumatic for sure. So funny that I took this selfie (Clearly he loves a good selfie) right before it happened, and then right after. It gives you a nice idea of how huge it really was. I’m shocked no one called CPS!

Probably my favorite part of June however was the transformation our backyard took! When we moved in I can not exaggerate how descusting it was out there. I wouldn’t go out there. Ever. Not to take out the trash, not to even envision where I wanted it to go. Never. One afternoon shortly after we moved in Jim spent all day out there just clearing out crap (literally. Stale old dog crap) and creating piles of garbage, and trimming the few bushes we had. He found an old Christmas tree (or two??) some weights, a wheel barrel a fire pit and even a pipe and lighter inside the outlet cover! We knew we had to do something with the nasty broken hot tub still, but what a difference! It gave me hope! And then busy season came and kicked our butts and all projects took a back seat until after the Holidays, and then busy season was here again, and before we knew it it was 110 degrees outside and we still had a useless backyard. In January we had the hot tub removed, a few months later removed the pavers, and scooted all the rocks to the side of the yard. I have to give my husband major props! He did 99.9% of the work by himself! I did however move some pavers and rake gravel around all night, but that’s about it. Once he started digging the trenches and I saw things really moving I think I put the pressure on him… SORRY! But it was so exciting! I could actually SEE things changing! After the trenches were in it was about a week until we had a completed backyard. Every night after work he would come home, go to home depot, eat dinner, put Nixon down and head outside. We (mostly HE) would work until about 11 and then go to bed. But every morning I would go outside and just be thrilled with the progress. $500 later I’d say we made a huge improvement and it was well worth his effort, even if it was 10,000 degrees outside! Unfortunately I don’t have very good before pictures, these were from January when it was looking pretty dang good.

June was a good month! I just wish it wasn’t so dang hot so we could enjoy our backyard! July was extra fun too, a trip to Utah and some exciting news! But we will leave that for another day.

Maple Street

Oh ya, and we bought a house!

#projectsprojectsprojects

Family Room Make Over

In college I took a class called Modern Architecture and Furniture. I was a Fashion major and needed a humanities credit and thought that I’d try my hand at interior design. Guess what? I LOVED it, to say the least. It was interesting, and time consuming. Every quarter we had to compile a book of different chairs and buildings, 3 per designer. All in all, there was about 150+ different images in my book. I spent so much time compiling them, drawing some and really learning about others, I wish I could do it all again in slow motion to really soak it in. Still to this day I go goo-goo over Van Der Rohe’s Barcelona chair and would die to ever own the real thing. My personal favorite is the Eames Molded Plastic Chair. As soon as I learned about this chair I knew I had to have it! When I found out I was pregnant I debated on the rocking chair I wanted. This is a huge decision to make, you spend hours in that one chair. I thought about a glider (vomit, they are just ugly) or an arm chair rocker, but I couldn’t shake the idea of the Molded Plastic Chair. I also knew that the real deal would probably be the cause for much heart ache when my child eventually takes a marker to it, you know it’s going to happen. So, I bought a knock off, and I love it. Shhhh Don’t tell. I also want to use these chairs at my kitchen table, eventually. Don’t worry, it wont be too much of an over load because the rocking chair will live in Nixon’s room and pretty much I will be the only one that knows it’s there.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I really enjoy interior design and wish that I went to school for that and not fashion (I still love you fashion). And that leads me to my next point, and purpose of this post. Lately I’ve really been LOATHING my current family room. I haven’t ever liked it actually. We are renting our house and only planned on being here for a year… and two and a half years later we are still here. The colors are all very warm, and I like very cool colors. This has really thrown me through a loop, resulting in no effort being made and a goulash of furniture, some my style, but most, not. So as a result I’ve spent all day looking around for new furniture, decorations, etc. Here’s what I’ve come up with. Please note that I have next to no Photoshop experience, and I don’t own a Photoshop program so this is all brought to you by none other than Paint. 
I’d really love to hear what you think! I’m taking any and all suggestions because in all reality, this is going to be a process. First I’ve got to talk my husband into letting me do all this, second, I’ve got to get rid of pretty much everything I own.

The Place I Keep All The Tiny Clothes

As everyone knows from this post I painted the nursery 37.5 weeks pregnant.

Procrastinator?

We have our reasons.

But now it is 95% done

and I feel pretty dang good about it.
My sister-in-law, Winter was here this weekend and so we took some pictures of his room.
and some pictures of him in his room,
but you are just gonna have to wait for those.

Shout out to Winter's sister Spring who made the bedding! It turned out perfect!!

you could find this located in my bedroom growing up. I plan on hanging it above the shelf once everything is finished, just like it was in my room.

Some things that I love about his room is that I was able to use stuff from my room growing up.
Lot's of those books could be considered "vintage" because they were mine.
All in all, it turned out perfect.


And just to make sure I keep all 5 of my readers, there is a birth story coming soon!!

Grumpy Gills

You know those moments when you hate someone so much

and you just want to tell them to "go to hell" or "check your facts"

but the only thing you can really do is cry?

I had that moment yesterday.

And the person on the receiving end of my odd silence was someone who I truly do appreciate

and I respect him beyond this world.

Last week when I went in for my 37 week appointment the doctor told me I had lost a pound

(at that moment I nearly hugged him) 

and that I was also measuring 40 weeks.

The week before I was measuring right on at 36 weeks

so I grew 4 cm. in a week.

A WEEK!

That's a lot people.

He told me when I came back for my 38 week appointment we would need

to do an ultrasound to measure the size of this baby,

and he didn't want my first one to be "the record breaker".

and the more reasons he could find to get this baby here sooner he would use to get me induced early.

I. Was. Ecstatic.

to say the least.

When I made my appointment for 38 weeks I had to make it 2 days earlier than normal

due to my work schedule and the ultrasound tech's hours.

This meant I was going in only 5 days after my last appointment.

I was a little worried that he wouldn't tell me what I wanted to hear,

but my baby was measuring 40 cm and I was really counting on that working out for me.

After my ultrasound he told me that this baby was 8lbs.

EIGHT! I'm only 37.5 weeks and my baby is 8lbs.

He said that could be off a little in either direction, 

and I'm assuming, with my luck, this baby is bigger than 8lbs.

and then the student measured my stomach, and I was measuring 38 weeks.

Tell me right now how that adds up. It doesn't, but I just wanted to carry on with the appointment so I didn't ask questions about that.

He pointed out my swollen feet for the millionth time and the student Doctor expressed her concerns about

how swollen they were. 

I honestly don't think she's seen such fat feet before.

He reminded her the swelling was part of pregnancy and then she told him

I have trace amounts of protein in my urine, and I have for a few weeks.

(News to me, and I got excited about that because that means preeclampsia or toxemia, and that means get this baby out asap)

But then he said it's not enough to worry about, and everything looked just fine and I didn't have either.

He then checked me and told me that I'm progressing. 

I'm 3cm and 80%, up from 5 days ago when I was 2cm and 70%.

I know that should get me excited but it doesn't.

People dilate and efface way before they actually go into labor.

I could stay here until I'm 42 weeks along 

(but clearly we all know that I am NOT waiting that long)

This is when I got pissed.

This is when I nearly just started crying.
This may be TMI, but it's my blog so deal with it.
Then he said next week they would strip my membrane if I would like.
I did manage to say, in my most pathetic voice "Can't we do that's today"?
I think I caught him off guard, who really wants their membrane stripped?
This girl.
So he did. Now I am 3cm, 80% effaced, and -2.

He said he would schedule an inducement date for around 39 weeks

but he wouldn't tell me what day it is for until my next appointment.

In a week.

I couldn't even find the words to beg him to tell me. I was literally chocking back the tears, not from the pain, but gosh did that hurt, but because I was so upset.

And that made it even harder to breath.

How was I having an 8lb baby already? and Why am I the only one concerned about the massive size?

The longer he is in there the more weight he is going to gain.

The more weight he gains, the more weight I gain, and it's that much harder for me to do anything.

He handed me my paper to schedule my appointment for next week and said

"See you next week, hopefully sooner!" with his ear to ear smile and ever so cheery, happy, peppy voice.

So I just whispered "thank you" and like that he was out the door.

I just sat there for a few minutes and got my composure,

struggled while I tried to put my pants back on.

I even thought about calling him back in the room to have him watch how hard it is for me to get dressed

because I think that's a good reason to get induced. That and an 8lb baby.

I can't lift my feet past the middle of my opposite calf, and I can't bend down that far to pull up my pants.

Imagine that sight, accompanied by some grunting and cursing.

Needless to say, I'm done. This baby is very much big enough to survive on the outside,

and I've got the necessities prepped and ready for him.

The only thing left that absolutely needs to get done is a real good house cleaning before he gets here.

But have I mentioned I can't bend over? 

Please pray for us.

Pray that this baby comes,

and my husband doesn't kill me.

or himself for that matter. 

Poor guy.

And because no blog post is good without pictures, here's a few really flattering pictures of a whale for you.

Oh wait, those are pictures of me, on the ladder, painting the babies room. That's how much I love you baby,

37.5 weeks pregnant and I painted 95% of your room by myself because I'm impatient.

and I thought it would induce labor.

It didn't.

But at least your room isn't completely white anymore.

You are welcome.

And the last picture is Chief and I on our walk.

He is fat and lazy too and get's to lay down to wait for the lights to change color.

Lucky dog.

But this picture is to show how fat my feet really are.

I finally feel like this picture almost does it justice.

Almost.

You've made it this far?!

I'm shocked.

I've rambled on for a long long long time now.

I hope your week is much more comfortable than mine!

The One That Got Away

I only have a few hours before the sun goes down and I again become mortified to be home alone. We will see how I feel after this post if I’ll actually be able to stay and clean, or if I’m going to have to run away, haha. The sad thing is, it’s true. So here’s what happened….

Last Wednesday, February 15, I had the day off because my parents were coming in town that night. I spent all day cleaning. Literally all day, from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The house looked amazing! Jim came home from work at around 5:30 and started to tell me about what was going on at the end of the street. There were a few cop cars, and a few all black under cover cars at the house two houses down across the street. Jim said there were cops everywhere and a couple guys hand cuffed on the ground. Fast forward to about 6:45 when I went outside to tell Jim I was ready to leave because I really just HAD to go to Bath and Body works to get some “spring soap” before my parents get in town. I know, I know, I’m a soap snob and we only had Christmas soap left!! Anyway, we left about 5 minutes later down the opposite end of the street.

After Bath and Body we had to pick up my parents from the air port. Jim had asked me while we were at the air port if I wanted to take my parents stuff back to the house and then dinner, or just go straight to dinner. I was starving (go figure) so I said dinner and then home. Now it’s about 9:15 and when we pulled in I could hear Chief going CRAZY in the house. Usually when we get home he knows its us and he will bark maybe once or twice, just to say hi and then he comes out through his doggy door or he waits on his bed in the kitchen for us. My mom wasn’t Chief’s biggest fan so I wanted to go in and calm him down so that my mom wouldn’t freak out when she came inside. Everything was fine when I got inside and Chief was just excited to see us. While Jim, my mom, and my dad were getting suitcases inside and getting everything situated I saw a couple things in the family room that I had forgotten to take to my bedroom earlier so I wanted to hurry and  put those away before my mom thought that I was messy.

Chief has a track record of chewing things like TV remotes, base boards, our ataman, shoes… you get the picture. We have a baby gate that keeps him locked in the kitchen, and down the hall to our bedroom. we keep all the doors in the hallway closed because he has eaten a Costco size thing of paper towels out of the pantry before too. So this is what things look like for Chief on a regular day.

And that’s what it looked like when we got home too. How was I suppose to know anything had gone on? When I opened the door to the bedroom I saw a bunch of white stuff on the ground before I even got the chance to turn the light on. My first thought was “Holy crap, Chief!! He ate a bunch of stuff out of the garbage can again!” Then it hit me. I was the one that had opened the door, Chief hadn’t been in there. Then I realized all the drawers were opened and it was my clothes everywhere. I imidiately started to scream for Jim (on the complete opposite end of the house) we met in the kitchen and down the hall Jim and my dad went. The sliding glass door was open just enough to get a body through. It’s really heavy, and it doesn’t slide really easy so you have to put your whole body into opening and closing it.

We had been coming and going all day through all the doors in the back of the house and we had left two doors unlocked. We didn’t put the bar to the sliding glass door down, and the laundry room door was unlocked too. Needless to say, they were in our bedroom and were clearly looking for fast money. They only things stolen were a couple of my watches, and a charm bracelet. On Saturday morning when Jim went to leave for tennis we learned they stole his tennis bag with tennis balls and his tennis racket. We didn’t have any cash hiding anywhere so they really didn’t get much. The things that they took were really weird, I mean I had a bracelet from Tiffany’s sitting with my watches, a diamond necklace in a box that was on the same shelf, but they didn’t take those. I kinda feel weird listing other valuable things we had that they didn’t take because well, this is the web and those creepers could be creeping my blog!!

I think this picture helps with explaining what could have happened. The gate was open just a little bit so we think that they had tried the other two doors first. I honestly can’t remember if the laundry room door to the hall was open or not, but I have been in the habit of leaving it open because I like  Chief to have more room, and I know how much he looooooves looking out windows. Either way, Chief was on the other side of the door and no one would venture in uninvited with Chief. He looks scary, a big black 100lb dog, and even if you don’t see him, his bark is alarming. I think that after they saw/heard chief and then saw that the bedroom door was unlocked and that the door to the hall was closed, it was an easy hit. Chief couldn’t get into the bedroom, unfortunately. As you can see from the picture that there is an irrigation ditch that runs right behind our house and you can get into it from either end of the street. No one knows you are back there, and it’s not very deep. It’s probably 5 feet from the top of our fence to the ground on the other side. Then with the stairs to the slide, easy easy easy.

Once the cops finally arrived they were able to find 2 finger prints, we are just hoping that they aren’t our own. We asked the officer if she thought that the incident at the end of the street had anything to do with our house. She checked the report from earlier and it turns out that the guys in handcuffs use to live in that house and were trying to get in to get the rest of their stuff. Unfortunately, she had run into the prior week and they “weren’t very good guys”. We left around 6:50 and the last officer left them at 7:11. There’s a good chance that it was them because they knew the neighborhood, but she also said it could have been as random as someone walking down the the ditch and seeing that the latch was up. Chief has graduated from being locked in the kitchen to fullllllllll range of the house. He loves it, he even treated himself to 4 boxes of girl scout cookies. I seriously couldn’t be more grateful for my dog. Had he not been here things would have been a lot worse. I’m so happy that no one was harmed and that the things that were taken were only material and can essentially be replaced. I do happen to be the biggest baby now. I’m terrified of everything, jump at the sound of ice falling in the freezer, and I have nightmares nearly every night. But we are doing everything we can to make our house safer, and I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job.

*I did not proof read this because honestly the story freaks me out*