Snazying Up a Boring Refrigerator

Like many people out there I have a boring, white, builder basic fridge.

I could replace it with a stainless steel pretty but honestly, I don't feel like shelling out cash for a new refrigerator when this one is basically new. 

A few dozen photos and some sticky tack later I had this instead.

I've been doing some major closet clean outs this month and I found dozens of extra prints from vacations and what not so I figured, why not put them somewhere I can see them.

Now my kitchen is happy! I love looking at them and reminiscing.

Even if you bought prints it would probably be the easiest, cheapest, and least damaging appliance upgrade out there. 

I've been feeling very motivated lately so things are actually getting done around here! Maybe it is this beautiful summer weather? 

Cheers!

Hook, Line, and Sinker

Oh how I wish we had a dedicated mud room. Alas, when our house was built way back in 1902, these things weren't necessary. Maybe husbands put their coats away in the closet every time back then? Who knows. People do always say life was so much simpler in the good old days. While I don't have a mud room, I do have a wall.

A wall with hooks.

Simple, easy, effective.

I got my inspiration from here. The rest was just left over 1x5, hooks and paint. Super easy and only as expensive as your hooks (mine are from Home Depot). 

Now if I can just convince someone to hang up their coats... 

Anyone else lacking in a mudroom? How do you corral your coats? We don't even have a coat closet (the shame!)

Cheers! 

TBC- To Be Completed

I have a problem. I like to start projects and then not finish them. It has gotten so bad that I currently have 14+ projects that are half done. So, in an effort to make myself accountable here they are. I'm laying it all out there. Don't judge people.

Or the trim in the kitchen Complete! 7/19/2013

This sliding door project for the bedroom? Nope, not done. Complete! 7/18/13

Apparently I don't like painting around trim. COMPLETED! 3/27/13 

Ceilings aren't much fun to paint either. 

That hole in the ceiling has been there 2 years.  Complete! 7/10/13

We moved the chandelier. Never patched that hole either.  Complete! 7/10/13

That's supposed to be a light switch (in my defense, this is a Daniel Project) COMPLETE! 6/2/13

I started the built-ins. Got hung up on sanding. 

My new porch gate still needs paint. COMPLETED! 3/21/13 

We never finished fixing the crack in the kitchen ceiling. 

The hood still isn't vented (**cough, cough 8 months later cough**)

I never installed the trim around the cabinets in the kitchen. 

I never actually finished painting the kitchen cabinets. 

Our bedroom door doesn't actually close. We should get on that. Complete! 7/19/13

I have a new light for this room that is gathering dust. 

I need to add more rocks to my newly expanded patio. Complete! 7/17/13 

I never got around to installing that rain barrel I bought last year. COMPLETE! 5/29/13 

Daniel and I have made a pact to not start anything new until everything else is finished. Things are going to get pretty boring around here for a while. On the plus side This is all slated for after the bathroom is finished (since that is number one priority) so you still have a few pretties to see coming up! 

Someone tell me I'm not the only one with a house full of unfinished projects. I swear, there has to be a support group out there for this. One that comes with people willing to paint.

Cheers! 

Tumbling Down

So a few months ago my mother was visiting and we were sitting around chatting when we heard a CRASH coming from the kitchen. 

The aftermath. 

My beautiful floating shelves apparently got fed up with carrying all of my cook books and did a nose dive. Boo!

We still aren't sure what to do with the space in the long term. Do we dare to do shelves again? For now, I shopped the house and pulled this little corner together.

It definitely holds all of the cook books (and a few other important items). I'm not loving the color it is in here so if it stays it will probably get a coat or two of paint.

I propped up our monthly calender (which I just realized needs to be changed to May) added my pompom flowers, piggy bank, and that cute bug tray for a key catch all.

Don't you love it? Cost plus is selling them right now for $1.99. I got all three styles but this one is my favorite.

What do you think? Is this a keeper? Or did you like the floating shelf better? Daniel want's the shelves back but I am skeptical we can make it work better this time. 

Cheers! 

Praise Be to Anoia!

Alternately titled: Kitchen Drawer Organization.

For those of you not familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Anoia is the goddess of things stuck in drawers (you can read about her here). As they describe her: "Anoia is praised by rattling a drawer and crying 'How can it close on the damned thing but not open with it? Who bought this? Do we ever use it?'" Needless to say I find it amusing.

I think we all have at least one of these drawers. The drawer in which everything ends up but you can't ever seem to find what you are looking for (meanwhile something is burning or boiling over). The problem begins (for me) with the lack of drawers in our kitchen. Something I didn't really think about when we remodeled but am now realizing was a mistake on my part. Drawers are the way to go. But I digress. Here's the issue; this is about the level of clutter I can take in a drawer before I begin praising Anoia.

 Not much in there right? That's about half of my cooking tools that I use on a regular basis.  But look, all of this unused vertical space. 

Of course if the cabinet maker was going to be nice he would have made it deep enough to store things standing up or made two shallow drawers. I should write an angry letter. Or become a cabinet maker.

The plan? Make a second level. I went out to our scrap pile and grabbed some 1x4s I had left over, cut them down to size and slapped some wood glue on them. Like my wooden spoon as brace?

 The ledge blends right in.

I returned everything to its place and then grabbed a bamboo organizer I had lying around.

A whole new level of storage that easily slides back and forth. 

Now I just need to come up with a goddess for perfectly organized drawers.

Even though it has been almost eight months since the kitchen remodel was basically over I am still trying to solve the organizational issues we have. Lot's of DIY projects planned so stay tuned! (you can check out my Pinterest kitchen board to see some of my inspiration).  How do you get around kitchen quirks? I thought my new blog friend The Baroness had a pretty neat solution using thrift store finds.

 Cheers!

Linking Up to
  

Sometimes a Pinterest Idea Actually Works!

Pinterest can be pretty hit or miss so I thought I would share something that actually worked!

I am successfully regrowing green onions.

And it was just as easy as it seems. Just put your root ends in a bit of water and they will grow back giving you a whole new bunch in a few weeks. I don't know how useful this is long term (I'll let you know if they keep it up) but it is pretty neat to see them getting bigger and bigger each day.

Ahh the power of nature. Anyone else have any Pinterest successes they want to share? The fails can be pretty hilarious but I like it even better when it actually works!

Cheers!

When Winter Comes

You can't have too much light! One of the only things I don't love about Seattle is the darkness. Winter is ramping up here and the darkness is closing in. For those of you unfamiliar with the Northern latitudes this means that in the dead of winter the sun rises at 7:55 am and sets at 4:21 pm giving us all of 8 hours of daylight. I know others have it worse but sheesh!

End rant.

The point is, we can use all of the light we can get. This one, in particular, is all about the kitchen (though I'm still pretty smitten with our new Dining room light). With the new layout the end of the kitchen by the door wasn't getting enough light. It's been something we have been planning on fixing for a while now (like since this July 9th post) and we finally got it done.

Here's our little nook with it's brand new light.

Amazon still offers it for a mere $43.29, such a steal! It compliments the light over the sink as well as the track lighting we put in perfectly. All, in all, I'm a happy camper.

In other kitchen news. We finally started installing the rest of our molding in the kitchen.

 It still needs a few touch ups and some caulk but we are rounding the bend on the last few minute details. I'll tell you all about our process and plans when we get it finished. Until then!

Cheers!

Cooking on Display

Ever find yourself in a cooking rut? I find that between trying to stay on budget and trying to eat well I end up cooking the same four dishes all week. Turkey tacos, tortilla soup, quiche/ fritatta, and Schezwan green beans to be exact. Usually there is some roast veggie mixture thrown in there too. All tasty but very rarely different.

And yet, I have a ridiculous number of cook books. Cook books I've used, full of recipes I love. So I started thinking (since we have been moving the kitchen around), why don't I use them more often? That's when it hit me, I don't even know where they are. After a bit of searching I found them on a bookshelf down in the office (which you may remember the state of) and brought them up. At first they lived on my open shelving

It was better but I still didn't find myself just idly flipping through them like I used to. It got me thinking...

I had pinned this inspiration pic a while back from the Ikea catalog

but was always worried about how well the books would stay on the shelf. That's when I stumbled on this post from 6th Street Design School and thought, perfect! (and how cute for a kid's reading nook).

They are deep and clear (so no visual space) and kind of funky and modern (which is fun). I knew just the wall for them.

Before

After

Unadorned. You can barely see them.

Full!

I just fit all of my books but there is still room to add another shelf above.

See how little space they take up? Perfect!

I love how fun and bright they are. Like they are floating there just waiting to be used. I've already cooked three new recipes out of my Organic book and loved them! I ordered two 30" and one 24" from Clear Solutions to make the space look even. So far they are holding everything up great. I did end up having to put an extra screw in the middle of the shelves to support the weight of my cook books (if they leaned forward they would often jump ship when the plastic bent). I can also add more as needed and I love that they don't take up as much space as a traditional book shelf would so they don't get in the way of the door to the bedroom. Even better Daniel loves them! Maybe I can convince him that Lucite chair I've been eyeing would fit in the house somewhere... A girl can dream right?

Is it just me or does Fall just bring out the cook in all of us. I've made apricot bars, and soups, and have been dying to make something with squash. No wonder I gain so much weight in the winter.

Cheers!

How's this For Getting Back on the Horse?

I mean house? Okay, so I've been gone too long. Work, life, the usual. Things progresses slowly around here from time to time and I just didn't have anything to talk about. That, and the office looks like this

You'll notice the present tense. Yes, it still looks like this. Long story, no story, we've had contractors in and out of our laundry room so I dumped everything in here. I've got a system.

As usual we've got four or five projects up in the air but I wanted to show you a pretty awesome (in my opinion) before and after in the kitchen.

Before

After

Can you say wowza?

We were so not in any way ready to replace the stove but a few issues started happening. Namely, the stove top kept bursting in to flame if you tapped on the wrong part of the stove. You know how when you have a sore spot so you keep pressing it to remind yourself it hurts? Yeah, I had the same problem with the stove. We looked in to fixing it but decided that since we were planning to replace it we might as well do it now. May I introduce Bertha, our oven and a half.

So far, it is love. She is from GE. Luckily Home Depot is basically always having sales on their appliances so we got her at 10% off with free delivery and free haul-away putting the total at about $1999 all in. Not the cheapest stove but I love the half oven feature. Check it out.

She also sports a center griddle that can also be a huge burner. Pancakes anyone?

Of course, once we got the oven we decided it was high time to install the hood we had sitting in our bedroom for the last few months. What can I say, we're on top of things. 

As usual Daniel was tasked at getting the thing up while I managed things (which mostly means finding the screws he drops).

It was all covered in this white plastic, so when we opened the box I had a brief moment of panic that it was the wrong hood. Luckily it peels off really easily and protected the hood during install. The install was fairly easy and by the book. No secrets to share. Same with the electrical. I highly suggest getting a licensed electrician if you are at all uncomfortable with doing electrical work. So far Daniel has proven he knows what he is doing. (my general disclaimer)

So there you have it. Proof that we are still plugging along. I am bound and determined to have the kitchen officially done before we leave to visit family at the end of the month. I think I can do it.

So tell me, am I the only one who is having trouble keeping up with everything? To say we are behind is an understatement.

Cheers!