Kitchen Reveal (better late than never)

The kitchen is officially complete!

The makeover had a hesitant start and was met with much opposition (ahem, my husband), but I pushed forward, finding encouragement from those who assured me that they would do the same if they were in my shoes (Rosanna, Andrea, Elissa... thank you!)

I've been itching to share pictures but have been waiting oh-so-patiently until the makeover was totally complete. Finally, I am ready to share the finished product!

First, let's jog our memories and look back to what the kitchen was like when we first moved in...

On first appearance, most people were pleasantly surprised by the original kitchen. The white cabinets are pretty and the space is big. And for this reason, even I was hesitant about whether I should really go to all the effort of painting. But, upon closer inspection you would see that the paint colour on the walls (and above the cabinets) had a bit of a pink-ish hue, while the brick backsplash gave an 80's vibe to the space.

The whole jagged-toothed grin from the fireplace-wall was anything but welcoming.

And a close-up of the brick. Just because.

And we can't forget the red wall. I tried to pretty it up by putting my little knick-knacks up on that white shelf, but it wasn't really helping. The fire extinguisher to the right of the closet wasn't doing much for the space either. Erik and I agreed we could still have it close enough to be safe without having it bolted to our kitchen walls.

So, I took a deep breath and the project began. Erik strongly suggested that I should prime the brick before painting it. I questioned him on this slightly, especially since the bricks had already been painted (which meant I wasn't dealing with raw {and porous} brick). But, being the submissive wife that I am, I acquiesced.

I can't remember how long I painted that first night. All I know is that I zoned out while listening to the movie Julie & Julia playing in the background from the other room.

And I wasn't getting very far.

I was still working at getting into a good brick-painting rhythm at this point - how much paint to get on my brush and exactly which wiggling technique would work best for getting in between all those deep grout lines. About 1 hour in, the fingers on my right hand were starting to cramp.

The next day I continued on for awhile and was getting more and more overwhelmed at the realization that I was going to be painting these bricks THREE times over - with 1 coat of primer and 2 of colour...

So, that's when I made an executive decision. I informed Erik that, whether he agreed with me or not, I was only going to prime the black bricks. I figured the other bricks were light enough to go without primer, and because they had been previously painted, they would take the paint better. And even though it wouldn't have mattered (because my mind was already made up), I was thankful that Erik agreed.

That meant that my priming was almost done. I only had a little more black left on the main fireplace wall, and just one row of black bricks around the kitchen in the backsplash.

So, with priming complete, it was time to move on to colour. In my original post, I was pretty confident I would go ahead with Oriental Ivory on the walls, but I decided to take Elissa's advice and put the paint chips up against my cabinets for a day before deciding. It definitely made a difference, and after doing this, I realized I preferred Shadow Dream after all.

As the first coat of colour went on the brick backsplash, I was feeling excited and optimistic. Anything was an improvement over the splattered beige and salmon I was dealing with. And my brick-painting skills were improving - I knew just the amount of paint needed on my brush and I was perfecting my wiggle-the-brush-in-the-grout-line technique.

But as the colour dried and darkened, I had that sinking feeling of just really not liking it. At all. It was like mint ice cream. A lot of mint ice cream. And the colour looked even more intense on the backsplash because it was under the shadow of the cabinets. It seemed a little tacky (which, by the way, was not the look I was going for). I went to bed feeling discouraged and wondering whether tinting the colour lighter for the second coat would make it look better.

The next day the family was at our place for Thanksgiving dinner and my sister-in-laws helped me determine that white on the backsplash would be a better choice. Luckily, I had a half-can of off-white on hand that matched the creamy cabinets almost perfectly. So, another deep breath and I began to paint over all my hard work from the day before. Erik thought I was totally nuts at this point. But, once again, my mind was made up. And as soon as I saw the white going over top of the mint ice cream, I knew I had made the right move.

I wasn't sure what to do about all the brick on the fireplace wall, but since it was already half-painted in Shadow Dream I really didn't have the courage to change it at that point. I figured, if anything, I would paint all the walls with Shadow Dream for the first coat and then lighten my paint (perhaps by mixing the white and Shadow Dream half and half) for the second coat.

When it came time to roll paint onto the flat wall sections (which, by the way, felt incredibly fast and easy after painstakingly brushing all that brick, let me tell ya...), I fully expected to get the same mint ice cream feeling. But, as it dried, I actually really liked it. It was totally the soft and creamy blue-green that I had been hoping for from the beginning. It made me realize how different the exact same colour can look on 2 different surfaces.

Here's a comparison picture of Shadow Dream on the bricks and on the adjoining walls. Don't they look like 2 totally different colours?

One small time-saver that we discovered as the project evolved was that if we focused on only painting the grout lines with a paintbrush, we could roll the surface of the bricks with a thick roller (the kind used for textured ceilings - don't ask me for the technical name). But the best discovery was that, in the end, primer on the black bricks and only ONE coat of colour on all the fireplace wall bricks was all that we needed! What a relief after imagining the hand cramping that would've ensued from three tedious coats...

But, even with the extra work that I saved, I was still pretty done with the whole brick-painting saga. I admit there is a teensy tiny part of me that still wants to go back and paint the fireplace wall in the creamy white to match the backsplash... But, I'm drawing the line. Because if we end up renovating this house, I expect this wall will be one of the first to go.

And, much to his credit, Erik changed his tune and totally jumped on the kitchen-painting bandwagon. And he was very helpful despite his initial hesitance. He even dismantled the gas fireplace and repainted the whole thing in black.

In fact, after all was said and done, he may or may not have suggested that some new baseboards would really finish the space off well. Yep. I called it from the start. He couldn't resist the home improvement vortex.

The red wall transformation was definitely the easiest and fastest part of the process, but I think it was also the highest impact. The whole room felt instantly bigger and brighter. But that one wall stood empty and stark until this week. I was waiting for Erik to make me some coat hooks. I wasn't expecting anything too fancy - just some flat moulding with some hooks screwed on. But Erik took it a step further and fashioned these babies for me.

They look almost too pretty to hang stuff on.

And even though Erik warned me not to take any pictures until he could cover the screw holes, I did anyway. (Seriously, how many of you didn't notice those little screw holes until I mentioned them just now??)

With the rest of the wall, I debated putting up a frame gallery, but in the end I had Erik put up the white IKEA floating shelf that we already had.

I found a few things around the house to stick up there, including a picture of Micah and Keziah's feet that my sister took a few years ago. And my new favourite idea from Pinterest - putting pretty scrapbook paper into white frames. I would love to find a wallpaper in this pattern!

So now, after that very lengthy preamble, here is the kitchen before and after!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

It's Time for a House Project

It's uncharacteristic for me to post 2 days in a row. Maybe I'm making up for lost time. Or maybe I've got a lot of ideas in my brain. I think spending time browsing Pinterest is bringing something out in me - all these home decorating projects, great ideas, and new recipes to try...

So, the project on my brain these days?

Here's a hint:

I think I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna paint the kitchen.

I debated just leaving it be - because who really knows how permanent all of this is, right? But the motivation struck me last week and I decided I'd better go with it.

I'm just anxious to see what this kitchen could look like with this brick all painted out one colour. Anyone who's seen Young House Love's dark-and-dingy den to bright-and-airy living room transformation should know what I'm talking about.

(Does anyone else feel like they're being stared down by 2 black eye holes a jagged-toothed mouth?)

Up close you can see the black, white and salmon-speckled loveliness.

And don't forget the other wall of my kitchen:

I've decided I'm just not a paint-one-wall-bright-red kinda girl. It gives me a kind of unseasonal "Christmas" vibe that is really only suitable for a couple of months a year.

So, yes. I'm ready to see it go.

This part of the house also tends to be the drop-off area for shoes and backpacks and purses and sweaters since we usually come in the house through the sun room (which is just through a doorway to the left of the window you see above) and there is currently no place for all that paraphernalia to live. But Erik - who has, by the way, washed his hands of this entire painting-the-kitchen idea (though I'm secretly hoping he'll be sucked into the painting vortex once I get started) - is on jacket-and-backpack-hook-creating duty. So, we'll have some places to hang everything once it's all painted nice and pretty.

So, back to those paint swatches...

The colours probably won't look true in this picture, but maybe you can envision the colour family I'm kind of going with:

I had it narrowed down to 4 possibilities (which I highlighted above). I left the swatches on the counter for about a day and gazed at them every time I walked by. After several walk-bys, I eliminated 2 more and now I'm down to 2 options - Oriental Ivory and Shadow Dream (from ICI Paints).

If I were basing this decision on paint colour name alone, it would be Shadow Dream all the way. Really, doesn't it just sound so lovely? Oriental Ivory, on the other hand, is really throwing me off. It makes me think of some fancy-pants carpet. And it gives me a red-orangey kinda feeling. But, if I can get over the name, I really think Oriental Ivory is the one. It's got a bit more green in it while Shadow Dream has a bit more grey-blue.

Erik is trying to keep me real by continually telling me how much work I'm getting myself into (besides continually reminding me that he will be taking no part in all of this). So I'm trying to be realistic about how long this is going to take me (anything done in a house of young kids has to be done in stages - I've learned that much over the years).

So with that said, it's about time I get my butt in gear.

Improvements

We've been in our house for over a week now. It still feels pretty strange. There are still a lot of boxes and piles around here. But there are some improvements happening too.

Say good-bye to the palm tree toilet seat.

And hello to this eco-friendly, low-flush (and may I add, nice and white?) toilet.

We could just leave the palm tree one out on the lawn... Maybe plant some flowers in it?

It would go nicely with some of the other motif around here.

Anyway, back to the real bathroom...

A little familiar artwork also makes it feel much more homey.

And the kids bedroom went from looking like this:

To this:

Much, much better.

I feel like I can breathe when I go in there.

And the closet isn't looking quite so nasty either. After the purchase of another set of those plastic drawer storage thingys, there's a place to throw all the random toys that didn''t have a home.

Thank you Walmart.

I think the kids are digging their new bedroom too.

Silas continued to sleep in our room for a couple of nights, but tonight we put him in his "bunk bed" (as he refers to it... and I won't correct him) for the first time. It was a bit of gong show but I believe everyone has fallen asleep.

Now to see what the morning will bring...

Erik also took down a few nasty shelves that were remaining in their bedroom and hung some other things up for me:

As for the outdoors, we found the perfect tree branch to hang the swing. And it even does double-duty -- while the kids are swinging, all ripe - but out-of-reach - plums fall easily to the ground :)

And today Mom & Dad T (mostly Dad) took on a big demolition project. It was time for this old green pig barn to come down.

Erik helped push down the final walls...

Now there's a lot of junk to clean-up, but it gives us a more unobstructed view of Mt. Baker as well as better access to the mother-load of blackberries that were hidden behind.

Seriously, look at the size of these things.

Now I should be off to bed. It's the first day of school tomorrow and I need to be up early to pack our first-ever school lunches.

And so it begins...

On the Farm

Tonight will be our 3rd sleep in the new house. It's still pretty surreal that this place is ours.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of moving day activities, Uncle Doug took the kids on a blackberry-picking expedition. There are enough blackberry bushes bordering our property to keep us picking for h-o-u-r-s. So, if anyone's looking for a good place to pick...

We've also made other great discoveries on the yard. There are several fruit trees - a few apple trees, a pear tree, a yellow plum and a purple plum tree. The plums are in full production right now and are dee-licious :)

Now, onto the house...

The living space leaves a lot to be desired, but it's totally functional for our family right now. Right now there are boxes everywhere and I feel like I'm making very slow progress. Erik's been busy doing outdoor jobs and helping renovate the downstairs suite, so the unpacking and childcare has been mostly up to me.

So, here's the first glimpse of the living space for Erik & I and the kids, which is in the upstairs of the house.

The living room is actually quite spacious even if the paint colours are not quite my style (the walls are either icy blue or dark navy). The only improvement I've made is tearing down the window treatment since I took this picture.

Oh and cleaning up some of the toys :)

This is the back wall of the living room. The brick has been painted in the same lovely shade of ice blue. The fireplace is no longer functioning so somebody decided to custom build and paint that little floral insert...

She's a beauty.

This is our sunroom - a.k.a the dining room, since our table will not fit anywhere else in the house. Right now it looks like this - until Erik can find the screws that fit the table legs onto the table top... These window treatments have since been removed. I wasn't really digging the plaid and floral country motif.

This wall of cabinets banks one whole side of the sunroom. Not pretty by any means, but jeepers - are they ever practical! I've already hidden tons of stuff in there, and there's still plenty of room to spare.

In between the living room and the sunroom is the kitchen.

Yes, there is a fireplace in the kitchen.

And there is also a whole lotta brick.

I took this picture yesterday morning...

And this one yesterday evening. Did I make any progress? A little. The window treatment is gone and I think there are a few less boxes on the floor...

The kitchen's biggest downfall, in my opinion? The lack of a dishwasher. This is the first time in my 10 years of married life that I have been without one. After the amount of dishes I've been doing already in the last few days, I'm not sure I'll last too much longer without one...

Now if you were standing in my kitchen as above and did a 360, this is what you would see on the other side. To the left is the door to the sunroom, to the right is the hallway to the living room. This area was used by the previous owners for their kitchen table, but since that won't really work for us, it'll probably be the home office (a.k.a "random space to put random things").

Now, because we only have two bedrooms in the upstairs for our family of five, we decided to give the kids the master bedroom. It's a large room and it will have to double as their play space since we don't have a lot of room in this house.

I was getting tired of waiting around for Erik to help me move some heavy things, so I took it upon myself to get this area rug in here. Believe me, that thing was stinkin' heavy.

And awkward.

But, wow does it ever make it more cozy... Erik still needs to set up the kids loft beds which I hope will help with the toy storage issue in this room. I'm thinking I need LOTS of shelves.

And this is the mess I'm dealing with by the kid's closet. It's a bit overwhelming - mostly because I just don't know where to put this stuff.

Yes. Shelves are a must.

And here is our one and only upstairs bathroom. The kids were super pumped about the palm tree toilet seat cover. And the previous owners were kind enough to leave the matching shower curtain too...

Yeah. The curtain had to go.

This one from Superstore is a big improvement. The toilet seat will have to stay as-is until we put in a new toilet.

And here is the smallest room in the house - our "master" bedroom. We tried to fit our HUGE Hemnes dresser from IKEA in here and the only way it would work was to have it at the end of our bed - like one gi-normous foot board. The idea wasn't all that bad, but it was just a little weird and awkward. (This picture was taken post-dresser move).

In the end I decided to give the kids the big dresser (after all, they needed one) and create a bit more space in our room - especially since we needed a bit of room for Silas' playpen (he'll be sleeping in here until I'm brave enough to try to put him in the kids room).

And we settled for one of Mom & Dad Toews' extra dressers, which is small but pretty. The bedroom has turned out to be my favourite room in the house so far.

Probably because I don't feel the stress and panic of mountains of boxes when I'm in there.

The consensus between the 4 of us owners is that building a new house on the property might be our best option - though not in the immediate future. So, in the meantime we'll do very minimal improvements. I may decide to paint a few of the walls (namely the navy blue and the deep red) but we'll have to wait and see.

Some more extensive work had to be done in the bottom floor to make it workable for Erik's parents. I'll have to share the befores and afters of that space another time.

Really, it's the outdoor space that is irreplaceable. I don't think it's really sunk in for any of us just what we have here!

So, I hope you enjoyed your first tour of the farm. Stay tuned for many related posts to come! And now that I'm reaching the end of this post, exhaustion has hit in full-force... My ability to write anything coherent is quickly diminishing... So, since I cannot bear to keep my eyes open for 1 more minute, I'm off to enjoy a little down-duvet and memory-foam action...