Thrifty Thursday

It felt so great to go thrift store shopping Tuesday! It has been FOREVER since I have been shopping. I was trying to be good. Anything I brought home would add to this giant-mess-of-a-house we are living in, but I needed my fix and couldn't resist the temptation any longer. Here are my finds... 
(You get a sneak peak of our new floors and base board too)

This abstract painting.

I found this wooden gazelle, because everyone needs a wooden gazelle. Believe me when I say, finding one with its horns still attached is a rare find.

These candle holders will look great after a good cleaning and polishing.

I liked the cork on these votive candles. 

This wooden plant stand. Yes, I like wooden stuff. 

I loved this photograph of the train tracks by the beach. 

I already purchased some candle holders but these had me as soon as I turned them over. What an awesome homemade gift from dad in 1936. Awe, it made me think of all the awesome wooden things my father has made for me. I hope someone else is still enjoying them 70+ years later. 

I can't wait to use these items as I redecorate our house. When I say "redecorate" I really mean: drag all my belongings from the garage and put them back in their places. It might still be a few weeks before I get to do that. We had an unseen hang up with finishing our floors. That was a sad realization but we hope to be back on track by next weekend. I hope you all have a great week!

Stay Humble
Amber

Kitchen Picks

I have made a few decisions for my kitchen update. And with decisions comes the fun part...shopping and purchasing! 

We have purchased a Houzer Eston Series undermount sink.  This thing is 18 gauge stainless steel and 9"deep. The one we have now is only 5" deep. This doesn't make me jump up and down to wash the dishes by any means, but the extra depth will be welcomed! 

The faucet we purchased is a Giagni Fresco stainless steel pull down faucet. It comes with a matching soap dispenser, but we have decided not to install the soap dispenser. I read multiply reviews for different brands of soap dispensers and none of them seemed to last. People were complaining about having to replace them every few years/months. I am worried that overtime it will break and I will be left with 1.) A useless soap dispenser 2.) An empty hole in my counter top if I decide to remove it. 

We are in the process of having our counter tops replaced. We took advantage of a Home Depot Labor Day sale. 10% off any special order counter top and labor. They also gave us the "5% Lowe's match" discount after some persuasion. We have chosen Corian in Glacier White. 

(image from HERE)
I know what you are thinking...WHITE? ARE YOU CRAZY? The answer is, yes, we are going with white. No, we are not crazy. Let me tell you why. 

Corian is nonporous, so stains cant penetrate it. Even if there was a hidden spot of something (lets say spaghetti sauce) that didn't get wiped up right away, it can still be scrubbed off. Lets say, I spilled my wine and some went under the microwave and sat there for days, weeks, even months and caused some discoloration, it can be stripped out with a water & bleach concoction. Corian is white all the way through the counter, so if we meet a spot we cant remove, it can be lightly sanded out. 

Having laminate, we have always been in the habit of keeping hot things on the stove or a trivet. We always use a cutting board when chopping things so I know those wont be issues for us. We don't have children to damage them and our dogs are not allowed in our kitchen (until we are asleep, and they sneak in looking for crumbs.) I have read great reviews on them from people who have had them for 5+ years so we think they will be the perfect fit for us.

I was looking for a fun pendant light to go above my kitchen window. I found quite a few I loved but when I took the light down to paint, I discovered this little problem.

There is a ginormous hole for the lighting box fixture that is already in place. The top of a pendant light would not cover this without some rewiring and drywall installed. That's a road I don't really want to go down, and the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like the idea of something hanging down blocking my view out the window. 

So the old light is staying. But I did freshen her up with a new coat of white paint. I know, its nothing fancy and still has an 80's vibe, but I'm hoping it will blend in and not be noticeable. 

We have also picked our cabinet colors. The tops will be going Olympic One True White in a satin finish. The great thing about this paint is 1.) it is paint & primer in one (even though Ill probably end up using a separate primer to increase durability) 2.) its scrubbable and durable 3.) it has a mildew resistant coating 4.) life time warranty 5.) low VOC 6.) it is acrylic formulated for better durability and adhesion. 

For the tuxedo look, we are painting the lower cabinets Olympic One Volcanic Ash in a satin finish. 

We have purchased the Duluth Pull from Restoration Hardware for the drawers. I am still on the hunt for knobs to go on the cabinet doors.

We picked up A Samsung Over-the-Range Microwave on sale at Best Buy over the Labor Day weekend. The microwave we have now is on the counter and wasting valuable space.

So that is what we have going on so far. As soon as the counter top is installed I can move onto painting the cabinets, installing the hardware and the tile back splash. There is a light at the end of this long, never ending tunnel. 

I hope you have a great week and weekend! We will be busy installing our flooring this weekend. Cant wait to end this concrete living!

Amber

New color palette

Hi guys! As you know we have been drowning in house projects. First we scrapped our popcorn ceiling. (If you missed it, you can read about it HERE and HERE.) Next, we ripped out all our carpet and linoleum. We hired someone to refinish/paint our ceilings and now we have just finished painting our walls. I wanted to share our new paint colors!

Our living room and hallway went from Glidden Burmese Beige...

to a custom mixed grey color that's between Valspar Urban Sunrise and Hazy Stratus. 

The kitchen and dinning room used to be Glidden Cranberry Zing...

and now it is Valspar Ice Rink Blue.

The office was Glidden Pumpkin Patch...

 and now it's Valspar Sprinkle.

The bathroom used to be Behr Scotland Isle

and now it is Valspar Pelican.

Our bedroom used to be Glidden Burmese Beige...

and now it's Behr Ultra Pure White.

Our master bathroom and guest room are staying the current colors. So that is the new color palette. Lighter and brighter but still goes well with our decor. We have ordered our flooring and are waiting for it to be delivered. As soon as our flooring has been laid we can start putting rooms back together and I pinky swear promise to share lots of pics! 

Have a great day!
Amber

Kitchen talk

I am sharing my kitchen today. Be warned- it is hard on the eyes and needs allot of work. The only reason I am sharing it, is because I wanted to share my kitchen upgrade plans with you. Yep, you read that right! Kitchen upgrade plans are in the works! So here she is, in her 1988 glory. This picture was when we bought the house.

After we moved in, I painted the kitchen and dining room red. So this is what we have been living with for the past three years. It has been more of a distraction than an improvement. The yellow oak cabinets, cracked laminate counter tops and old appliances still scream at you. But I am grateful for this little space. And to show my gratitude I'm going to make her pretty. 

I have plans to refinish the cabinets. I have always loved the "tuxedo" kitchen look, so the upper cabinets are getting a fresh coat of bright white and the lowers will get a rich grey slapped on them. I also have my eye on the Restoration Hardware Duluth pull in a Satin Nickel finish for the drawers and some kind of glass knob for the doors. Something like this. 

We will be purchasing a range hood/microwave to make more room on the counter. This nasty cream laminate counter top has to go. It has held its own, considering its age but it does have a crack in one spot. 

When we get new counter tops installed, I am going to have them cut without the breakfast bar. We never use it. It is in the way of traffic to the sliding door, so it will be nice to have the counter top stop with the cabinet. I also plan to add some bead board or wood planks to the back of this cabinet. Goodbye wooden shelf brackets, you will not be missed! 

When we removed the cabinets that where over the breakfast bar, we were left with this off centered space. We will be adding some "built in" looking shelves to even the space out. 

I have been dreaming of white subway tile. Every kitchen has it, I know... But it looks so clean and polished. I am looking for something that will go with anything and still look great years to come. I will also be toning the paint color down to a soft, light teal/blue color. Good bye red! I love you but I am sick of looking at ya. 

This sink will be going bye-bye-bye. I would like a stainless steal undermount sink with this faucet or something like it. I would like to add a glass pendant light over the sink.

It wasn't enough for the florescent lighting to look ugly on its own, it had to have holes in the acrylic lighting panel. We have replaced it with LED track lighting from Home Depot. 

So that's my game plan. I'm sure it will have changes as I move forward with it. I will keep you posted on the progress. Have a wonderful day! 

Stay Humble
Amber

Not the popcorn you get to eat

Sorry I've been away. Our house in under construction. We finally FINISHED scrapping the popcorn off our ceilings and removing our carpet. It took us four weekends. My husband and I should look like the Hulk with all the muscles we built doing that job. It was HARD work! 

My husband busted out our bedroom all by himself and we finished the living room/dining room together the same weekend. We pulled up the last of the carpet before we started each room. 

TIP-Cut the carpet in narrow long strips. Roll it up and tape it. This makes for small pieces that are easier to lift, carry and fit in the garbage can. No need to roll the whole room up and break your back. 

When we removed our carpet we were left with enough sand to have our own private beach. No wonder my allergies have been horrible the last four years. This is whats lurking below all you carpet lovers. 

My environment is chaos. Unfinished ceilings above me, dusty concrete below me. In our living room sits only our love seat, the television and a billion drywall tools. Our 6 person dining room table has been downsized to two chairs. Our bedroom consists of our bed and two nightstands pushed together that I am using as my computer desk. The office, guest room and garage are so packed full of our belongings we can hardly walk into the room. And if you are brave enough to attempt it, you will come out injured, if you find your way out at all. It is crazy people! I'm surprised we haven't lost our dogs in this mess.

So after we finished scrapping the popcorn we were left with an unpleasant ceilings. This surprised me because all the "Popcorn Scrapping Tutorials" I read never mentioned this issue. They advised a "little Spackle to the holes" and then moving onto paint but that's not realistic. You are left with drywall tape damage, uneven joints and lose boards that need to be screwed back in place.

For what the ceiling had been through it was okay but not okay enough to cover with paint. I jumped on the phone to the only experienced drywall professional I know to get some advice. Not only did he give me some tips he was over the following weekend to mud the guest room and hallway. We are eternally indebted to him for that! What an awesome guy! Look at the fabulous job he did. This is before we sanded, primed and painted. After pictures to come in another post.

He tried to instruct/show us how to mud the ceiling. My husband and I gave it a go but failed hard. This is a talented skill you don't pick up over night. We were making the job a bigger mess for him so we had to retire early from that profession. Because of that, I don't have a good drywall tutorial. I am all for DIY but my advise is, if you have never done this before, then hire out! And that's what we did. 

So as we wait for our ceilings to be finished I day dream of what flooring we will install. (Stained concrete? Wood looking tiles? Vinyl planks?) I cant wait to have my house back. Its been a huge challenge for this "everything has to be in its place or I will have an anxiety attack" girl. But I know it will be worth it in the end. The ceilings look 1000 times better and they are not even finished. I'm also really happy we knocked them out before the new flooring goes in. 

Till next time
Amber