And Another Thing...

Stylin' Up the Kitchen :: Almost finished tour

Because so many of you have been asking, I'm going to give a little tour of the new kitchen.  We're not done yet, there is still one more level of shelf to go up (hopefully this weekend!) and we need to put trip and a backsplash up, but it's functional and the big stuff is done.

First, a look at the whole kitchen.  I LOVE how big it seems now!

A closer view of the "baking" shelves.  I only call them this because they are located above my baking center.  There will be one more level going in soon and then I can dig out more of my prety serving dishes and glass storage jars.

Before the re-do we had one small drawer next to the sink and now we have 6 drawers!  I can store all the baking paraphernalia, spices and utensils in these two drawers instead of in a crock, hanging on the wall or in the cabinets like before.  I love this set up.

I think this alternative to the lazy susan is one of the best kitchen inventions ever.  It's so easy to get stuff in and out.  I have 2 of these cabinets, the other is ove by the stove and holds pots and pans.

I also think these pull out baskets are a great idea!  I keep all my flour, sugar and other baking ingredients in here for super easy access.

Before, we had a stainless steel double sink which was nice, but I really needed more counter space than sink space since we have a dishwasher.  I have not regretted that decision at all.  This sink is HUGE!  I can literally store a whole day's worth of dirty dishes in this sink. 

I found this handy little guy at IKEA.  It's been great to dry out towels and wash cloths instead of hanging them over the sink or oven handle.  It keeps them from getting yucky and keeps them out of sight!

I can't tell you how much I love this space.  It feels huge after the minimal counter space I had before.  We added about 13" to the back of the stove area so that we could put the bookshelf in below and it makes such a difference.

This handy cabinet is designed to store cookie sheets and such.  I swear those IKEA people are geniuses!  I love this idea better than the traditional cookie sheet cabinet because you can pull it out and have ready access to everything rather than getting down on the floor and peering back into the depths to find what I need.

That cabinet also has 2 pull out drawers that hold all of my cooking utensil and hot pads.  So handy and again, it keeps everything out of sight!

This may not seem like a big deal, but after 4 years with noe silverwear drawer, we are all very excited about this.  Oliver especially loves it because the little forks and spoons are seperated from the big forks and spoons.

This is one of my favorite parts of the new kitchen (okay, it's ALL my favorite!).  We use our dining area as a homeschool and craft area, so having these shelves means that we can easily and prettily store not only that stuff, but also our table linens.  Love it!

So, there you have it.  A tour of the nearly finished all new Eikenberry kitchen!

Stylin' Up the Kitchen :: Thrifting Beauty

I found this lovely thing at Salvation Army a couple of weeks ago and could not pass it up.  This beautiful example of craftiness was just sitting on the shelf with a $2.99 price tag.  I don't cross stitch anymore, but I once did a HUGE wedding sampler for Ben's aunt and uncle and it took me forever.  So I know that this sampler must have taken hours and hours of work to complete and for whatever reason, ended up abandoned at a second hand store.  Not only is it perfect for my kitchen, it has just the right amount of color and whimsy to make me happy, but I also instantly recognized that it needed a home where it would be admired and loved and appreciated for the work of art and heart that it is.  So, now it is lovingly hung on the wall, waiting for a calmer time when I can properly mount, mat and frame it.  And I promise that a much better kitchen update is following as soon as I can keep it clean long enough to take pictures!

Stylin' up the Kitchen :: Great Progress!

Oliver is sanding the ceiling, hence all the dust in the picture.  He had to patch it after he scraped accoustic texturing off of it.  Then he painted it with a lightly textured paint to hide the little blemishes.

I am so happy to be rid of that counter top!  It was old and ugly and so very small.

All the cabinets have been taken out and the wall is being prepared to prime and paint.

The boys helped scrape the vinyl tiles off the floor.  That was a way bigger job than we thought it would be and took well over a day to complete.

New laminate flooring going in!  It's so pretty and light, I can't wait for the rest of the downstairs to get finished!

Here you can see the difference between the old turqoiuse paint (on the left) and the new robin's egg blue paint (one the right).  It wasn't until we were putting up the new paint that I realized how green my kitchen had actually been!  I am really enjoying the new color and can't wait to see how it looks with all the new kitchen features.

Since these were taken, we've installed the new cabinets and Oliver has put down the sub-coutner top.  I'll try to get pictures of that soon so I can post them.  We're getting so close to being done!

August??? What August???

And for that matter, I missed half of September as well!  Things have been so crazy here lately, I won't even go into all the things that have happened to keep me away from this space.  Mostly, our family life and the goings on here have been quite overwhelming for me to even process, let alone write about.  I do have several things to share from the last few weeks, but it will take a few days. 

The most exciting and stressful thing has been our kitchen rennovation.  Things look so different in that room, it's amazing.  At thid point, the wall color has been updated, the new floor is in and the new cabinets are installed.  I have pre-counter tops and Oliver is working on the bookshelf so that he can fully install the counters.  Yes, yes, pictures will be up soon!

We started our new "school" year last week and things are chugging along just fine.  I would love to say that learning happens all the time here, and it does, but we really take the summers off from anything even remotely formal because the kids have "school" friends that are off then and all my best laid plans fall apart.

Our "Steady Routine" is falling into place and is making life here much calmer and happier.  I envy those family who can fully live an unschooling life, but we really need a bit more structure to make things work here.  As much as I love to sleep in, I have found that I am a better mama if I have an hour to myself in the morning without anyone pulling on me or asking me questions.  So I get up at 7 and let the kids sleep until about 8 and then we're off with a bang!  I'm posting a scan of our routine here so you can see how it works.  I highly encourage you to head over to Steady Days and check it out for yourself.

So, there it is, you now know what we are (or should be) doing at any given point during the day.  The great part about this routine is that we can change or abandon it whenever the mood strikes us.   We're not stuck with it, but we do use it to fall back on when things are getting crazy and it makes our family groove. 

Well, now I have to go sort through pictures to (hopefully) get some more posts up here.  I'll try not to abandon you again for so long, but I can't make any promises.

Stylin' up the Kitchen :: The Pantry

One of the first things that needed to be done in the kitchen redo was converting the coat closet into a coat closet/pantry.  We basically cut the existing closet in half, making one side the pantry and the other side the closet.  We walled off the existing doorway and put the new doors on either side.

Here is a shot of the original closet.  We rarely use this to store coats, it houses our vacuum and scout uniforms instead, so it works better for us in the smaller size.

Oliver rather enjoyed himself knocking big holes in the wall.

Braidon got in on the action as well.

Hello!

The new walls are being framed.

Framing and drywall are done and the shelves are going in.

This is roughly the same size as my freestanding Ikea pantry, but I have more shelves now (they go almost up to the ceiling) and I was able to put this wire shelf thing on the door (a $1 find at our church's flea market!) for even more storage.  The appliaces will not be housed in here after the new cabinets are in, so there will be even more food storage then!

I painted the door with chalkboard paint (thanks, Kerry!) and when I get my little Ikea magnet strips (which are apparently no longer available) up, it will be a great message center!

This past weekend, Oliver got all the old tile ripped up in the kitchen and as long as the asbestos test comes back negative, we'll be taking the acoustic ceiling and soffets down this week and the upper cabinets will come out next weekend.  Progress!!

PS  I apologize for the horrible lighting, this area of the house is pretty dark and very difficult to photograph.

Stylin' up the kitchen

I've been planning this kitchen redo for nearly 2 years now and we're finally down to it.  We've been collecting materials (thank you Habitat ReStore!) and getting ready for quite a while now.  We've visited Ikea several times to plan the cabinets and we've got it all worked out.  Now, we're going to start.  Since we're doing this all ourselves, it's not going to happen overnight.  I have been steeling myself for the constant mess and disorganization and I meditate on my mind's picture of the finished project.  That being said, take a look at what I'm living in now...

Yes, that's a pop bottle and several pizza boxes laying around.  Get used to seeing them in the kitchen update pictures.  If you look in the upper right hand corner of the picture, you can see that there is a gigantic hole in the wall.  That would be the new doorway for the new pantry!  I am so excited to have a new pantry.  I think I'm going to paint it green like the family room.

Here is a great shot of our new kitchen.  Doesn't it look lovely?  Can you just picture it?  Yeah, I'm having a hard time too.

So be prepared to see lot's of kitchen updates in the next few weeks.  Hopefully things will go smoothly and this will fly by!