Kitchen!!!!!

We hadn't planned to improving our kitchen anymore than we already had.  We'd painted the walls, torn out the crummy wood panel backsplash and put up some fancy tile. We thought we were done with renos while still in this townhome.  We asked a real estate agent and she said it wouldn't increase the value if we did anything else so we were happy, la fin.

This is what our kitchen looked like when we first bought it:

Oak cabinets, laminate counters, wood backsplash panels, green walls

 And the living space beside the kitchen (our family room)

After we painted the walls and put up the chalkboard paint:

When we thought we were done: new backsplash up:

Then we had a kitchen leak.  

A big one.

Floors came up, cabinets came down, counter came out and we were deciding if we should let insurance just put it all back in the way it came out...or make some improvements.

10 weeks later, approx 2000 dollars down, and after much hard work, sweat and more than enough tears....we have a new kitchen.

Cream paint on the walls, charcoal feature wall, new butcher block countertops-extended to make a little eating bar (installed professionally), cream paint on the cabinets, open shelves instead of one set of cabinets, new chairs from ikea, took down blinds and put up curtains, new flooring (vinyl), and new pictures to go in all the frames on the wall...

TA DA.

And we love it.  I mean, LOVE our new space.

Would I do it again?  Nope.  Okay, maybe.  However, now we are so blessed and so excited to share this space with people.  After being practically anti-social hermits, working late into the night (every night) we are ready to host, welcome, and invite others [YOU] into our home.  Even though it looks new and lovely, I'm kinda ready to scuff up the counters, splatter the walls with pancake batter, and get my mixer a' mixin again.  The dishwasher is humming (such a happy sound around here) and, well, here are some pictures:

Renos Continued

9 weeks and counting.  

No, I'm not pregnant.  That's how long it's been since I've had a sink, a dishwasher, cooking supplies, a family room, and a kitchen.  Unexpected kitchen leaks are not my cup of tea (or so I've found out).  

I think the 'idea' of making one's house better is great when you can prepare for it, plan it, do it in bite sized bits, and have some control over it.  However, due to insurance taking forever with their paperwork and other such delays, we are still yet without a kitchen [awaiting counters, plumbing, and we need to paint the lower cabinets].  

I've realized that my environment in chaos is the main part of this whole thing that is stressful.  I don't mind people in and out (it breaks up the day).  

I don't mind the cacophony of noises (what's more noise when I have two boys?)  I don't even mind, in some ways, the uncertainty of when the final end will be.  What I DO mind, and what has caused me the most angst, tears, and internal restlessness is the invasion of all that was in those two rooms into the rest of my home.

What do I mean? 

canning jars in my dresser drawers

toy bins in my fire place

glasses and plates on the landing halfway up my stairs

cookbooks in my bedside table

coffee table in our bedroom

and large intrusive pieces of furniture taking up desperately needed floor space for two active boys

Yuck.  Hurl.  I am a hater of clutter and chaos.

However, today, OH JOY today I said "enough is enough."  The room beside our kitchen that is essentially our family room/play room had become a storage room of uninstalled cabinets, our dishwasher and other such things.  Well, it was largely cleared out last night and so began a domino effect of greater and greater happiness.

I hadn't intended on doing it but as I started putting things back into the kitchen/family room it created such incredible pleasure that I kept going... I assembled ikea lamps, I put up newly hemmed curtains, I uncovered couches, rearranged toys and before I knew it I was purging and organizing and...

Dang.  It felt good.

For the remainder of the day, my finally toy-less living room (which had become our living space these last months) and my almost finished kitchen/family room kept capturing my eye.  I was floating around the house.  "Look how great those curtains look?!  Look how great that new rug looks in our living room!  Look!"

I know, I know.  It's just a room, with things in their intended places.  What's the big deal right?  Well, the joy it brought me just to see some chaos lifted made it pretty clear that my environment affects me.  It almost made me understand why people do renovations for fun.  

Almost.  

Not quite.

Let's just say, I'll be VERY appreciative of the final product. 

(Hopefully in 1 more week, please God, PLEASE)

Picture Overload

Where has this month and a bit gone?  Well, let me show you (not in order...)

1. Power to Change Staff Conference.  Week in a swanky hotel in downtown vancouver! [Sounds exciting right?  It was h-a-r-d.  Staying in a one bedroom hotel room with two kids is not ideal.  Didn't hardly get to the sessions or connect with all the people we wanted to... and Toby ended up projectile vomiting and feverish just before we sat down for the formal banquet with dresses and suits on...  but it came and went.  Not a lot of photos to share as we were busy stressing about kids' naps, meals, childcare and sicknesses but near the end of the conference we did get upgrated to a double suite on the 26th floor.  Look at the view!]

we found out later that our room would have cost us 500 bucks a night?  Wow.  

Got to go on a dinner cruise in Vancouver as part of the conference.  Silas loved the boat:

Wave!

Silas developed a crush on a particular childcare worker at staff conference and kept running up to dance for her.  What a little hunk!  How do children just know how to flirt? 

We look happy don't we?  We were incredibly sleep deprived...

"Sure Jason, let Silas-run around on the 26th floor patio, it's not giving me a heart-attack or anything..."

2. Kitchen Renos

Kitchen leak = a lot of work.  We have been staring at an empty kitchen for over 3 weeks now.  First they had to pack it up and tear it all out and dry it out, and now we've been waiting for insurance to get their ducks in a row (read: paperwork) so that they can begin to repair it.  We thought about getting new cabinets but decided that it's going to take too long and cost too much.  AND since no one is doing any repair work as of yet, we might as well paint.  Our plan (thanks to a very interior-decorator-saavy friend) is to paint the cabinets cream, walls cream, change out the floor, add butcher block counter tops, put in open shelving and do a feature charcoal wall.  

Oh by the way, we have 3 weeks left this summer to do it.

It started like this:

Upper cabinets complete! See below:

[Amazing what a coat of paint will do!]

All this has meant very frustrating meal preparation, washing dishes in the bathroom sink, lots of time spent outdoors, late nights for Jason and I painting and working and...

3. Back Patio Playing

Lots of it.  Chalk colouring, pine cone collecting, pine cone painting, sand and water play, the works.

Silas' Nana dropped off a water/sand table on the patio and it's been a HUGE blessing (thank you Sally!)

Silas is finally learning how to play a bit more independently.  It's been awesome.  Although...I don't just sit back with a coffee and watch him play, now I'm chasing a little mobile Toby who eats grass, crawls, grabs at all of Silas' toys, stands on anything, climbs...phew.  

Here he is in all his glory:

He's generally a happy kid but when he's not- he's at least still super cute.

4. Trips to the Beach

We've spent a lot of time out of the house due to the kitchen's state and since I'm cooking dinner on the BBQ most nights anyways, we often end up going to a park/beach for picnic style dinners.  Here's us at Sasamat Lake:

At City Park in Lynden- on a day trip with my Mom:

Coolest park I've ever seen

Just cause it's a funny picture: (brothers!)

5. House Sitting

We've taken advantage of those who leave on vacation and have spent time at others' homes to get away from our kitchen chaos.  These are some pictures of us 'house sitting' at our friends place:

(We swapped out their pictures on the wall with the ones of us in their home.  Fun prank! - Thanks to old friends Jeff and Ashlee for the idea when they did it to our own house!)

6. Vacation!

Vacation has come to mean a new thing for me: work!  Packing, loading, driving, trying to get babies to sleep in new places, packing again, laundry....

Oh but the memories we make together!  Thanks to Nana and Papa we got to stay at a cabin on Pinaten lake near Kamloops this last weekend.  It was HOT but oh so much fun:

 Fishing!

 Cousins having a juice box break

7. Growing

Lots of change happening around here: Toby is eating solids and going to bed at 7 pm, crawling, standing, sitting, rolling and getting everywhere and into everything.  

Silas is learning how to play a bit by himself and LOVES spending time outside.  He is often found making 'cakes' out of rocks and sticks and trying to wrestle or race us.  He speaks so well that often people think he's older and has a really spunky sense of humor emerging.  Now he says things like "Toby's bugging me mom"  Oh boy. 

He has started to lose his nap (boo) since if he does nap he's up til like 10 pm in his room still talking and moving around.  I tried today for the first time to enforce a quiet time and he played contentedly alone with lego for over an hour before he was like this:

Asleep.  Lego crash.

And a picture for kicks.

I thought the fall was going to be busy but this summer is kicking my butt!

Next up: camping with our life group, tackling the rest of the kitchen, and a trip to Ontario for two weeks (that is, of course, before the crazy busy fall begins).