Kids room.

I've been trying to keep on on this blog, plus The Salt Project and I've found it's kind of hard.  So on of my goals for this year is to always write a post on Sunday.  I can't even remember when these photos were taken, but judging on how chubby little man is, it was probably in November or so.  He was just helping dad build some new dressers.   The dresser in the kids room was the one I used as a kid.  It was done.  It was a good dresser, even a cute one, but it was time to do get something bigger.  It took me a while to plan it all out, mainly because the kids share a room, that really isn't that big, and both of them still need to be in a cage crib.

Brother is excited to show you his new dressers. 

We got them from Ikea (of course).  It seems that everything is slower transitioning over to IKEA.  It's kind of hard to beat the prices, plus you can paint your own, plus it's hard to thrift for such specific items sometimes.  We also really like wandering through the store for whatever reason too.  The only reason I started taking pictures of their room is because we were all playing in Brother's crib and I noticed how bright the whole room is.  It would make an awesome plant room, it seems to be the only room to get some much light!

These kids are kind of starting to get along,  Aiko just seems to ignore him, unless he's talking when she is trying to sleep.  She'll yell at him when he starts babbling around 7 AM from her little closet crib and say "Brother, stop it, stop, stop it!"  While it's not exactly always nice sounding, it is kind of hilarious.  Poor kid just gets bossed by her already.  (I've also been trying really hard to not say "Stop it" to Aiko as well.)

 

I had originally planned on putting two cribs up in their room, but there just isn't enough space.  My cousin sent me a photo of a dresser that someone built into a closet, but then I realized we could totally make it into a crib.  While I love these old style closets, I don't love it in the kids room, too much wasted space in the middle.  As a bed, it's awesome.  

At first, it was really sad to put my 1 year old in the closet instead of her crib, now, it's her safe haven.  She loves it.  I found a bunch of cushions at the thrift store long ago and my friend covered them for me.  I had plans of using them outside on our deck, but decided they fit perfectly into the closet crib.  The closet crib doesn't fit a baby mattress, so we had to find something different.  Derek found this mesh baby gate thing and it wedges in there perfectly.  Honestly, she could not get out unless she climbed.  She's not really keen on climbing, so she'll be in there for a while. 

Just a few random things.  I made this ceramic owl, which is a bank, that can only be open by hammer.  The little elephant is from Aiko's birthday party.  I thought the hats were so cute that I should save him!

While I these dressers were unfinished, I really hate picking colors.  I just feel like they are SOOOO permanent.  Or rather, I'm just too lazy to go and paint them again, so I wanted to find something that was neutral plus could be used for years to come and still be cool. My color inspiration came from  the Various Varieties of Vegetables print in our home.  

Isn't it fabulous?  I do love my veggies.  Especially when it's made so pretty!

So, that's how we chose the colors.  But then the what to paint and not to paint?!  Ugh.  So many choices that will forever change to world as we know it right?  Does anyone else ever feel like it's SUCH a big deal when it has no right being so?  So much color drama, but it's my life. 

I'm all for painting everything, while the husband is not so.  So we compromised and I REALLY like the outcome.  Random, yet not, colorful, gender neutral.  It's a good thing the dressers came with knobs too, because knobs are a WHOLE different ballgame of color decision drama.  I had some iron owl ones (I know, owls are so out.) but I just liked the little bit of quirkiness. 

Hopefully, the kids do too.  I hope they have similar tastes to me, because otherwise, we could have a war on our hands.  

Other random notes:
While I don't approve of dolls, because I don't like playing dolls, I did have my mom make these super cute dolls for Aiko.  When Orion was born I felt like she NEEDED them.  I thought she would be cuddling and holding them, but really, she only cares for her beloved monkey, so they make for super cute decoration. (Don't even get me started on how hard it was choosing material and colors for them.)

Also, let's talk about this cross stitch my sister Hannah did for the kids room.  SO COOL right?   While she claims to not be crafty, she certainly is advancing into a crafter at an alarming rate. 

Other posts I did on the kids room.  Here.  Here. I've noticed that I completely change the room.  All the time.

Remodeling the Kitchen. Before, In Progress and After!

Before.  

Apparently, we never took before pictures of our kitchen.

(Pictures from the WFRMLS.) 

While these pictures actually make the kitchen look nice...they are quite deceiving.  No doors, dark paint...it was kind of a dark and dreary place for a while. 

These are the true colors. 

In progress.

We did the kitchen in quite a few steps.  One day, the husband's sister was in town, she happens to love to paint.  So we painted the uppers cabinets.  I decided I don't really want doors on the uppers, so we just painted what was there.  A few months later, we were so worried that #ohniceandchubby would start pulling everything out that she could reach from the base cabinets.  So we thought we should hurry and try to get it done. 

She never did.  She still hasn't even really tried to open the cabinet doors we put on.

  

Nonetheless.  We broke the bottom part into two different, well three stages.  Right side first.  Once that was done, we moved onto the left side.  The last stage was a bar, that I need to just clean up to take a picture. 

We couldn't afford new flooring, so we just kept the slate.  The husband ripped out the old cabinets and figured all the new cabinets out.  We bought our cabinets from Lowe's.  They are the unfinished already built cabinets.  We had priced out new doors to try to keep the existing bases, but they were too expensive and would have to be custom built.  It was just ridiculous.  So we signed up for the Lowe's card and got going.  

When I was feeling well enough (of course I'm always painting while pregnant and nauseous.) I painted the cabinets "Ridgeview," which is what we've accented all throughout the house. 

Our countertops are Beech Butcher Block from Ikea.  I almost had a heart attack during the whole process.  Ikea had just decided to discontinue their full butcher block line and was converting over to a semi-laminate butcher block.  Which, I didn't like.  So we bought what they had left, which was just barely NOT enough (as you can see just above just to the right.) We just hoped that we could think of something along the way.

A few days later, I got a wild hair and decided to call and see if they had anyone who just happened to return the same butcher block.  No one did, BUT they had just received a new order of Beech Butcher Block and it was now in stock.  Why the sales person didn't know there was another order coming in...I'll never know.  So the day it came in, I drove the truck down and bought the rest of our countertop! 



Isn't it lovely?  I told the husband we couldn't have some weird lacquer going on them, so he found some kind of nut oil that's non-toxic etc.  Our sink we found in the clearance section of Ikea.  We always hit the clearance section first, it's a must.) 




While, I much would have preferred some super nice custom cabinets or something, we realized that we may not be in this house forever, so for future rental purposes, we bought what we could afford.

Man, that husband of mine is AWESOME.  Seriously, all things are possible with him.  I really like what our kitchen looks like now.  It's such a difference.   I love it and him. 

After.

Ta-Da!  See how bright and happy it is now?  I'm not a color coordinating kind of person.  I prefer to put whatever colors I want, wherever I want, and I feel like my kitchen is the place I can do that.   I was also kind of modeling the colors and themes after this pin. 

I really like the open upper cabinets.   It's not as hard as I thought keeping it semi organized.  Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy cute thrifted containers and have everything exposed. Granted, I'm still working on some of the shelves as far as their cuteness goes.  And there is still a spot to the right that needs to be painted.  But one takes pictures when one actually has the kitchen cleaned right?!

See our magnet board on the end?  Which...apparently, needs to be painted still.  Whoops.  Our refrigerator may be stainless looking, but it's defiantly not magnetic by any means.  How lame is that?  So, the husband bought me some metal board and put it on the end of the cabinet.  I can't even tell you how often Aiko is there playing with the magnets and pictures.  We love it.   Our fridge is in a weird spot I'll admit and it's not quite finished.  We couldn't move it into a more practical spot without doing some serious remodeling.   We'll show you that one day when we finish it completely. 

I've been on an orange kick for a while, it's nice that it fits in with my kitchen too.   You may remember the slate backsplash that was in there before...well, it still is.  We tried to pry it off, but between the plaster walls and whatever the previous own put up the slate with, it will not come off.  So, instead, the husband covered it up with bead board.  I don't love bead board, it looks amazing, but was not something I would have chosen.   But it was the right price and easiest to cover up the existing backsplash. 

You'll see above the stove a space for a microwave.  I've been fighting it.  (The hippie in me would prefer not to have one at all, but I've lost that battle.)  I like hanging my pots and different things up there.  The husband even has a thrifted microwave to hang there.   The current microwave sits as far away as possible, which is shown later.  I hate appliances sitting on the countertops.   I only let the toaster oven sit out because I had to compromise. 

I do just love bright colors.  Rachel Ray has this awesome line that started my orange pot obsession.   I've never seen her show, but the pots were on clearance at Shopko and I've slowly been gathering up various colors.  The mixing bowls I thrifted the other day.  

Now, while I love my countertops, there are just a little touchy.  You can't let water sit too long otherwise it wears off the oil.  Which, it's good that it's gotten me in the habit of constantly wiping the countertops, but we've had them in 6 months and have had to refinish them again already. 

I just love it though.  Such a happy place.  I spend probably 60% of my day in here, cooking, vegging and feeding that baby!  So glad we have it done before this next baby coming!  

baby room part dos

ya know, it's true, i never knew how much love can go to a little baby.  every time she smiles, she about melts my heart. i haven't used the word "adorable" more times than these last couple months in my whole life. 

this blanket is also adorable friends.  my friend holli made it, hand picked all the material and hand quilted all of it.  how does someone know someone else so well?  i love this and for some reason this sun totally makes me think of aiko. corny i know, but i'm a mama people.

this pup i made.  

my grandma phyllis was an avid crocheter and had a subscription to some magazine.  guess who she bequeathed them too?

this little hippo was thrifted from japan's finest thrift shops.

this game is very hard....i can't remember what its called, but it also traveled from japan.

and this.

this heater plays an important part in our lives.  especially in picking it out.  with his new baby, the husband scoured over websites, comparing, researching which would be the best deal and most efficient. ;)

sweet sister hannah and the mama made this. seen on one of my pinterest boards. (sigh, you know how you pin things and then can't find them AGAIN?!?!)

thrifted

bought from etsy, i'm not even going to tell you how much i spent.  for some reason the knitted look is so much cuter than the crocheted and since i can't knit...

ikea pails from grandma walker. use them to hide all her bathroom stuff. the cute little bunny slippers i bought on a whim (i should have crocheted them but see, when you are 9 months pregnant you don't want to do anything) the doily i did crochet myself...and it was the first and last one i'll probably ever do.