Snow day!

Days like this make me remember back when I was a kid in Washington and it would snow even just the littlest bit and they would cancel school and just about everything else. When it was perfectly acceptable to hunker down and drink hot cocoa and blow off the concerns of the world while attempting to roll a snow man with 3 inches of snow. A lot has changed, I'm grown now live in Utah a place where snow doesn't work as an excuse to not leave the house (believe me I tried). Life goes on you just adjust your shoes and buy a new beanie. But some things never change... I still love a good snow day.

Cabinet Transformations...

Man they do not lie when they say "Transformation". I think this maybe the biggest project yet that I'm willing to tackle on my own but so far so good. I started in our half-bath downstairs figured if it turned out terrible it wouldn't be such a big deal. The Vanity Cabinets basically looked like this

These are actually in the kitchen, I'm not so good with "before" Pictures... but they are the same. Much like every other house built during the same time they are that "awesome" yellow-y oak and as a nice touch they used glamorous brass pulls to finish off the look. Whereas the cost of replacing the cabinets would not be astronomical it seemed slightly more cost efficient to try our hand (well, my hand) at refinishing them. Enter my new best friend Rust-oleum and their genius Cabinet kit. There are a few steps involved including: Deglossing (means no sanding or priming), bond coat (the color coat), decorative glaze and the protective top coat on all the cabinet fronts and the cabinet frames, you can get the full description here. Figure in a few hours between each coat and it's not a super quick process but if you time it right you can have it done in a few days and its worth it in the end.

Quick before tinted bond coat and after. They are looking so good. I managed to get all the deglossing, bond coats and glaze done on the bathroom vanity yesterday. This morning I got the top coat on and hopefully by tonight they will have new hardware and can get them back on the hinges for the big reveal tomorrow... stay tuned!!

Let There be Light

... and a decent one at that. So revisiting the kitchen... I'm not very good at taking before pictures if you haven't noticed but from this picture from this post you can sort of see our spaceship of a light fixture over the table.

I also was not a fan of that. After given the opportunity to change it out I jumped and the chance and while on an outing to my favorite Swedish furniture store picked up this dandy.

We had Clint's parents over for dinner the other night and had them help us instal it. The process seemed easy enough but having never really dealt with electrical stuff thought it would be best left to some one who had a little experience. After a few moments with a screw driver, some wire cutters and a flashlight we had this

I think its perfect. Fits the space just as I had envisioned

would have closed the door but the animals were too busy staring at sheep

and looks good with the yellow wall...

Next up in the kitchen... refinishing the cabinets with this

via

My mom just used it on her cabinets and they look great. Ours right now are the yellow-ey oak with horrible brass knobs. we picked up the dark kit (the light kit is shown above) and had it tinted dark brown (chocolate to be exact) This could get interesting... wish me luck (when I get around to it... though this project is creeping up the list)

New Neighbors

Albeit temporary I'm sure. Was a fun view out the back door this morning....

Someone has never seen them. he was mesmerized.

The Living Room....

So prior to me making the big move, the F-Hub (Future Husband) and I decided that because I'm coming with baggage in the form of four legged friends, one of which had already taken a liken to digging in the carpet in the living room and the other an allergy issue for family, that we would replace the carpet in the living room with wood floors (of the pergo variety). The carpet was new when the F-Hub moved in a few months ago but we thought replacing it would be a better alternative to what I was bringing to the table (oh I brought the table too) so we started with this...

Brown, not bad but...

We went to Home depot and checked out our options. We both decided on a Walnut Stain and we ended up with this...



soo much better...

I love the look of wood but it can come across cold and uninviting so of course we needed to add some sort of floor covering. We found this...once again at our local Home Depot. It was a great price for the size (8x10 ft) it wasn't my first choice but at half the price of the one I lusted over it's a close second.

and though it looks like if covers the whole floor it does not. the pattern gives it dimension and some class without being too much in the space.

 after shuffling the couches around to get the rug in we finally moved them back in, thank goodness it's a sectional otherwise it wouldn't have happened.

and I realize these are not the best pics but my phone is always

 handy, with out it I fear I wouldn't have pictures of anything.  

Pay no attention to the curtains as those are on their way out. Soon to be replaced with a set I got at my favorite Swedish store. I'm sticking with  blue/grey/neutral tones in this room. Re-using a few things from my old place with out just recreating the same space. Stay tuned for more as it all comes together, including DIY art, and furniture styling and my favorite NEW PILLOWS :).

The Kitchen...

made me so angry every time I went in. I figured since I would be in this space the most it needed to be a place that was soothing and conducive to culinary crafting. Which is why this... would ... not ... do.

never mind the mess... but this is what we started with

I am not a red accent wall kind of person. Some people are and it looks great in their homes, but I am not. The only thing it represented was my anger for it. and to add to it the half bath off the kitchen was painted to match. Anger, Anger, Anger. I'm a firm believer that colors can change your mood. and this red would not do. so... we painted. First the bathroom, we used the existing tan left over from the other 3 walls in the kitchen

no one looks good with a red background

primed and painted... and so much better!

We then moved on to the kitchen now I think the F-Hub took a risk letting me insist on the paint color... cause I'm pretty sure most men wouldn't be down with yellow, well officially it's called Tahini by one Ms. Martha Stewart herself, but this is what we did... and bless his heart he actually did most the painting since I was still technically living in Salt Lake.

we also took down a cabinet over the bar... but here is the final color

There is a lot left to do, we have plans to refinish the cabinets, change out the hardware, hang some shelves where the cupboard was, new counter tops and a tile backspash, and change out the light over the table so it is, as much is... a work in progress. but I love how the color turned out its much more inviting and warm and a place I don't mind being in. I can't wait to update on its progress.

What in the world...

have I been up to. Recap! so I quit my job. yep finally just up and did it. OK it wasn't that spontaneous but it went against my logical sense of self to do so with out something in place... turns out I do have something... an incredible loving and caring man who wants to take care of me and was willing to let me leave and have the time to start a life together. of course the trade off was moving in with him... but I think I'm living the best of both worlds.

there it goes six years all in a 10 ft truck...



So a little about my former place of employment. I HATED it. The saddest thing was that it wasn't the work that I hated, or the clients or anything of the like. It was the inner office politics bullsheesh that I grew to disdain. But the things I learned I would not change so I am increasingly grateful for the crappy environment and the people/mostly person, that I refuse to believe were motivated by anything other then personal feelings and the worst part of human nature. I'm grateful because it made me question everything I thought I knew about myself and what I wanted. I used to think I was meant to be this high functioning career woman living it up in the city, independent and resilient (well I'm still resilient) but after my taste of that kind of life I realized it didn't make me happy.I gave it all back. the job, the city traded, it in for the best thing... Love. I gave in to the most powerful emotion on earth and couldn't be happier. the quitting was easy, the packing was a pain, the moving was a whirlwind, the unpacking a breeze and setting up a home a dream. It's funny how life works out maybe not the way you planned... but usually the way it's supposed to, and i have never been more certain about my future.

Took a break from unpacking and took in the view from the backdoor... after the first "snow" of the year... didn't show up too great but on the right side there is a rainbow... how perfect.