Cabinets

Our kitchen cabinets are for the most part finished. We are waiting on more hinges and knobs to get in and we can finish the rest of the doors. It felt really nice getting the kitchen put back together this weekend although we did get use to having the doors off for easy access.

So here is the before pic again......


And here is the transformation!

We went back and forth over our options before doing this:

• New custom cabinets $10,000- more than we were willing to spend at this house
• New pre-fabbed cabinets $2,000- still more than we wanted to spend on cabinets at this house
• Sand and stain ourselves- we attempted this but the grain of our wood made it look like Tiger stripes when we applied the stain and that would drive us nuts
• Then Matt heard about Rust-oleum Cabinet Transformations. After reading several things on it and finding out if would only cost us $120 to do our whole kitchen we were sold.

This is a kit you buy at the store and it's like painting your cabinets but they look stained and you can still see the wood grain. After we tested on the first door we knew this was the most logical thing for us. You leave all of the cabinets on the wall and just remove the doors....therefore our kitchen was still fully functional. It can probably be done over two weekends as there is a lot of drying time in between. Also it takes a lot of patience and a steady painting hand.

Now that the cabinets are done we are going to start thinking countertops, backsplashes, and paint.

Oh and I really hate my WHITE stove now!

Top of the Morning!

We are going to this beautiful place in May! I was hoping to announce the news on St. Patty's day but we were really dragging our feet with making plans but it's official now.

We are going to Ireland for 10 days and doing it on our own this time, no fancy travel group to fall back on. We still have a lot to plan but at least the flights are finally booked.

Photograph by Jim Richardson/National Geographic Stock

First

Here are some pics I was able to get of the kids at Carmen's First Birthday party. Happy President's Day......I'm going to enjoy my day off now :)

Random

Random thoughts from today:

• We got moving very early this morning so we are accomplishing a lot of things.
• We have gone back and forth on kitchen ideas but are finally diving in today.
• It makes me sick how fast money can be spent.....45 mintues of work = $600 for new tires.
• I am soooooooooo ready for summer to be here.
• We are going to our youngest niece's first birthday party tomorrow. It makes me sad that there are no more itty bitty babies around. They have all grown up too fast. Attention sis-in-laws......we need another baby in this family :)
• Ok I need to keep moving before my energy levels crash.

Under Construction

It's been really quiet around here lately, just how we have been wanting it. We pretty much spent the month of January laying low and getting some R & R on the weekends. We planned on jumping in to our next house project but some unexpected truck expenses and new car tires had me hold off for a while. After evaluating the financial situation we are good to go and are starting our kitchen remodel. This will be our biggest and most expensive undertaking which is why we are doing it last. It will take several weeks as it will happen in phases. The cabinets are up first. I know they look fine in the below photo but they are very worn and starting to show their age. This will not be a major overhaul that involves redesigning, just a kitchen update. The appliances will stay for a while longer because they work perfectly fine. Although they do not match I don't plan on buying new ones until we put this house up for sale. Oh besides the fridge seen below. We did have to buy a new fridge last fall because our old one was on the outs.

Good-bye kitchen. Please come back to me soon!

Viva Las Vegas

My best friend turned 30 this week and she wanted to celebrate by going to Las Vegas. We discussed this trip a year ago and I'm glad we were still able to go and embrace 30 with a big party. We walked around and saw the sights, lost our money gambling, but most importantly had a great time visiting with each other. I went to Vegas when I was 14 but wasn't able to do much and only have small memories of it. I had a blast playing the slots with Sara and laughing at each other when we got excited about winning a couple dollars. The boys played the tables but were unsuccessful in making us rich :(

The Strip

Our Hotel

Inside the Venetian

I was amazed at all of the different hotels and how they represented different places like New York New York, Paris, Ceaser's Palace, or my favorite, The Venetian.

The Venetian did a great job of reproducing Venice, Italy. The outside architecture was great, the ambiance inside with the Grand Canal and gondolas was romantic, and the italian food and gelato was delicious.

Ceaser's Palace

The Stratosphere

View from the Stratopshere

Happy 30th Birthday!

29 and Holding!

Ok people this is as far as the B-days go for me. For some reason I am dreading going into the next decade of my life and this birthday makes me realize it is creeping up. I did so much in my 20's and I don't want them to end. I hope to live this last year to the fullest and hopefully there is a lot planned for me.

This week was really a great week of B-day celebrations though. I got a free lunch 4 days out of 5. Plus breakfast for 2 days. Not too shabby.

We finally joined modern technology and I bought this laptop as a B-day gift. It's been 10 years since I've bought a pc and I have been using old goods since. This one is fantastic and hopefully it lasts for a long time.

I have the most loving husband who aims to please his wife on her birthday. I didn't just get one homeade cake for my birthday.....I got 3! There were three because he likes to experiment. I was pretty specific on my dessert request this year asking for whipped topping and caramel filling. Turns out homemade whipped topping is pretty challenging so the store bought stuff won.

Here's to living every day like it's your last..................(of your 20's)!