Motivation and Renovations!

I admit - I had literally zero motivation over the weekend (4/27 - 4/28). I worked a long, hard week (close to 50 hours, which, luckily for me, hasn't happened in months!) so I was ready for the weekend when Friday came. I ducked out a little early Friday and was able to be home, make dinner and have all of us eating by 5:00pm. Love that!

We had a very low key Friday evening.

Saturday I woke up (late!) around 8:30am. I knew Steve had to go work on a car for part of the day...and for some reason, because of that, I didn't feel motivated to do much. I wanted to hit up Wegmans, but that's about it.

I went from my bed to the couch.

Kids ate cereal for breakfast (not the usual home fries, bacon, oatmeal and fruit!)

When Steve left, I was sipping my coffee and watching TV.

I moved from my spot on the couch, to his (more comfortable) spot on the couch.

I napped.

Twice.

I didn't do the 3 loads of laundry that was waiting for me.

My kids didn't burn the house down. (Thank God)

When Steve got home, I was still on the couch.

I never made it to Wegmans, so we decided to go as a family, get dinner and then do our shopping. It was lovely.

We made it home just in time to have a bedtime snack and put the girls to bed.

We called it an early night.

We woke up Sunday morning to a blizzard outside our windows. It didn't stick...but to see that on April 28. Ugh.

Steve made some jokes about "being motivated today" and I rolled my eyes at him. If I wanted to spend another day on the couch, I believe I'm allowed to do so, yes?

BUT, we really needed to paint the ceiling and get a new light fixture for above our island. We've been sans light for more than a month now.

He went to the dump to drop all of our garbage and I took that time to remove all things from counter tops so we could not only paint the ceiling, but also the walls!

So we went ahead and did that and it looks a THOUSAND times better already! We painted it the same color as upstairs and the hallway from the mudroom (close to "Seattle"), and will paint the living room a shade lighter. We can't have TOO much of the same color.

Since we decided to paint the walls, it also meant that we fixed where we took the wall down (4 years ago!) we had it mudded and sanded, but then...stopped. So, it finally looks finished :)

This is where we took the wall down and it left us with a mudded seam...that we didn't do anything about for months. Not sure why it took us this long, it wasn't that hard to do! I had also bought this sign for Steve for Christmas last year from Magnolia (you know, Chip and Jo?) well it was on sale, so I got it for under $50. It's beautiful. 

I wanted it to have some space between the wall and sign - so it didn't sit flush. With the punched out letters, the shadowing and 3D look is so cool. It's one of my favorite pieces! 

I'm very proud of this find. Our farmer neighbor across the way was having a sale - it was really his granddaughter who had a bunch of stuff out in the lawn and I pulled over right away and made a pile. I got this amazing wagon wheel for $5. I also got a beautiful old trunk/chest (think treasure chest) that needs to be refinished - for also $5!!! Unbelievable. 

It's just slightly off-center because we will be adding window treatments soon. 

While we were doing this, Steve had a genius idea - let's use the laundry room's concrete countertop "draft" (Steve measured, laid it out, poured the concrete, had it dry, only to realize he did it backwards - we have water pipes that need to fit, so the countertop ended up being backwards!) but for some reason, we kept it in our garage...and use it for our island counter top. Interesting. We had talked about concrete before, but not using that piece.

Here's the post about my kitchen inspiration.

Anyway, if we can figure out a way to get it in the house (500lbs) and up on the island cabinet, it'll work as a larger, more useful island! We are planning to get some barstools so we can actually eat here.

Here's a "before" of the island - it was too dark out to get good pics of the paint color. The island is just too small. I mean, I didn't have one before, so I love having one, but I really can't do much on it. Extending it by 30+ inches will be a pretty big difference! 

Here's a decent shot of the kitchen - again dark outside and we don't have all our light fixtures up yet! 

I came home to this! Steve started with the shiplap for the outside of the cabinet. 

I am pumped and think it's going to look great with the concrete top! But I know all of this white is going to REALLY make me want to paint the cabinets! 

We bought a new light fixture for over the island. And a new light fixture for this odd area that is over the open area in the kitchen. I think it was supposed to be an eat-in kitchen, but it's just not big enough. So this light fixture has always been a weird one for me. 

I think once we paint the cabinets white, it'll be a HUGE difference. I already feel a huge difference with just the paint and trim done. 

My next job is to paint the fronts of the cabinet doors white. I'm going to sand, prime and paint them. I will need new pulls and hardware, which I'm very excited to pick out! 

Here we go!

This primer is so sticky and it was tough to get a smooth coat on. But, I made it work. 

I already love it and it's just the primer! 

I think once it's painted, it'll be pretty good! And, I went the lazy way and didn't remove the doors and spray them. It immediately brightened up the kitchen and made me want to do the rest of the cabinets ASAP. I'm borrowing a sprayer from a friend; I wonder if we'll actually do it! It's on our list for sure, but it wasn't in the top 5. 

Steve's friends stopped over to help him move this 500lb beast.

Obviously lots of finishing work to do, but I'm loving it so far! The countertop itself will be darker, once we put the sealant on. I want to order some metal bar stools as well to offset the wood. I'm not totally in love with the legs, but I think once everything is done it'll fall together. 

I was also right in the fact that we really want to paint the rest of our cabinets white now. I think everything right now feels like it doesn't belong, so it's hard to visualize what the final will look like. 

Two coats of self-leveling sealant. One more coat to go. It won't end up this glossy.

I MUCH prefer the darker color.

3rd coat will hopefully fill in the air bubbles. 

3rd coat filled in all the air bubbles! I'm very excited for how this turned out. Now we just have to get rid of some of the shine.

We have to stain the outer wood edge still, but I'm loving this new look! It's still super glossy, and we're going for a matte look, so Steve has to get the shine out. (Now, just imagine all my kitchen cabinets white...)

I got these for Mother's Day! 

We have more finishing work to do, and our barstools should be arriving this week. I'll post a follow up once everything is finished. This post took me two weeks to write!