Final Kitchen Reveal

Can you believe it? Our kitchen is done!!

Here is a flash back to what it looked like 6 months ago:

And here is our kitchen today:

Before

After

Before

After

We love the new storage bench to hold all Rebecca's art supplies.

Entry way from the garage with its new coat hooks.

Dining table and a good look at the new floor. Sorry for the window glare!

So there it is! We did all the work ourselves except installing the new counter top. The new appliances are Whirlpool and we found the best deal for them at Sears. The flooring was from Lowes. The new hardware on the cabinets was from Menards and the hinges were from Lowes. It would be great to give a break down of everything that we did, but honestly I don't want to know how much the total cost was :) What I do know is that we love the results and saved a lot by doing the work ourselves and painting the cabinets rather than getting new.

Just like when we finished our basement, we learned a lot of lessons while working on the kitchen. I'd say, "If we ever had to do this again we would do a few things differently." But honestly, who would want to do that again!? I hope if there is a next house for our family it is perfectly done - by someone else!

Linked up with Thirfty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!



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As a side note: If you are a regular reader of this blog - THANK YOU and please consider becoming a "follower" in the right hand side of the blog. All that will appears is your tiny google id picture and it will boost my ego a little if I have more than 3 followers!  THANKS!     -Sarah

a day in the life...

Just a day in the life of a farm family. Dan was working on building a new hay wagon. We all enjoyed the beautiful weather and I had fun trying new settings on the camera. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

A little shelf, A big improvement

I did a little update/finishing of the entry way from the garage that I started HERE. I liked how it turned out in both function and style, but it needed a little more. When I originally bought the moldings, I tried a lot of different pieces to create a little shelf on the top, but nothing worked right. As with most creative projects, I put it on the back burner until I was ready to tackle it again. A few days ago I was in to mood to have a go at "building a little shelf" and headed to Menards and found the pieces I needed. I picked up a 1x2 inch piece of pine and a 1/2 inch piece of quarter round. Simple, I know.

Here is the coat hook moldings before.

Here are the two new pieces are added to the top and there's painter's tape around it ready to be primed and painted.

And here is the final shot sporting some art work by our very own in house artist, Rebecca.

I love it and it's not far off from my inspiration picture found HERE.

Sesame Chicken - Yum!

Sesame Chicken is one of my favorite Chinese dishes to order (Dan and Rebecca are fans too). So when I saw an easy recipe for it HERE, I thought I would give it a try. I knew that it wouldn't be just like the takeout, but if the taste was good and it's even slightly more HEALTHY, I thought it would be a good alternative.

Verdict: it's a keeper! I steamed broccoli instead of green beans and used white rice because I didn't have any brown on hand. Overall everyone liked it, but honestly, it could never replace takeout altogether :)

Spring is here...almost

A great sign of spring on the farm is the birth of our first spring calf. I think we have blogged about it every year that we have been blogging. So in true form...here's our first calf.

Although with snow in the forecast for this weekend, spring is not quite here for good yet.

Final Reveal!

(Not of the kitchen...yet)

This final reveal is of Rebecca's "big girl" room. We started this project back in December of 2009 and are finally finished! 

Here is a flash back to Rebecca's nursery...

 And here is her big girl room (after about 20 minutes of cleaning :)...

 We started by switching out her toddler bed for twin bunk beds.  We got them from my parents and they are the same ones that my sister and I slept on as kids. With the new beds came new bedding. I found deep purple sheets on clearance at Wal-mart and the rest of the room evolved around that color. I found the same color purple poke-a-dot fabric for the bed spreads and it inspired the poke-a-dot pattern on the wall. Although I had good intentions of sewing the bed spreads and the curtains, they were a little out of my league. So with two different visits from my mom, the second of which was this past week, she help complete the room.
The other furniture is as follows:
dresser - craig's list, $20
desk - hand me down from Dan's sister
shelf - craig's list, part of an office set
fabric poke-a-dot bins (on the shelf) - Target
rocker - Babies R Us, stayed in the room from before
fabric cube storage (by the bed) - Wal-mart

I really think that this room will grow well with her and we won't have to redecorate for a long time.

Customer Service?

So I'm going to vent a little because I can. Last year during an icy storm and a subsequent "snow day" from school I spotted some gorgeous boots on endless.com. I had been looking for a great pair of boots to warm my cold feet and here they were with free over night shipping!

I enjoyed loved my boots for almost a year before the seam on the front of the right boot began to split open. I knew I could probably sew or glue it back together, but I also knew that Eastland shoes had a good guarantee policy that I had used in the past to replace a pair of shoes. I went through all the leg work to email them and ask them about replacing the boots and with a small tear in my eye, sent them off in the mail. A week or so later I got a call from Darla at Eastland customer service who informing me that my boots were indeed defective and that I could have them replace. BUT they no longer have my size in that style and I would have to choose a different style. NO GO! I went to the website and liked NOTHING else they had to offer.
So I called Darla back and told her that I was disappointed and I would just like my boots back. She said, "I can't do that, they have already been thrown away." THROWN AWAY!! I was very upset to say the least. I was about to tell her to go dumpster diving after them, but I tried to stay calm.  Long story short, I talked with a manager and let her know how upset I was with this policy of THROWING AWAY my boots. She finally agreed that although it is "against their policy", they would refund my money even thought I did not buy them through Eastland.

So the hunt is back on for warm boots to keep my toes from freezing...next winter.

Bring on Spring!