Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Kitchen is done!

The kitchen and both of my custom orders are finally done and I can move on to other things!  Here are some before and afters of our kitchen!

Our kitchen before

Our kitchen after!

Our pantry before

Our pantry after!  We moved the fridge over here and built the shelves next to it to build it in a bit.

We painted our old cart and replaced the top with some leftover countertops.

Our old dining room

Our new eating nook!  We moved the dining area to a different room to make the kitchen bigger.

This whole remodel was under $1,500...I had the help of two of my friends (also ladies with no construction experience) and we learned so much about kitchens...and building...and plumbing... :)  It was a blast though, if you're thinking of changing your kitchen don't be intimidated!  It's so much fun to change everything and you just don't need a big budget, go for it!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Sick week :(

It is so frustrating to get sick right when you have so much to do!  I have two custom orders right now of 8 chairs...eight chairs!  On top of that we have been renovating our tiny kitchen with a shoestring budget and all our own labor while the darling husband has been looking for a job.  Of course, the circulating respiratory cold has gotten me and I've been in bed for a solid week now (ick!) with all these projects mounting up.  Sigh, hopefully I'll be adding to the ranks of chairs in the shop in a week or so if this silly cold ever goes away!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Who knew???

My darling husband, VERY unexpectedly lost his job last weekend.  We were completely blindsided, so he is now among the legions of job seekers!  If anyone in the central Illinois area needs a super handsome, extra sweet, southern boy licensed in all things financial/insurancial/incredible, drop me a line!  :)

Friday, January 29, 2010

Renos and jobs...

Well, I didn't think I would ever get up the nerve but I have officially quit my job!  I should clarify...I have quit ONE of my jobs :)  I am no longer waitressing during the day!  I still run my dance studio and help my fabulously talented friend with her wedding photography business on the weekends (check her out, she's seriously awesome... www.deidrelynnphotography.com).  The big reason I quit was so I can invest more time in my Etsy shop and get more beautifully designed pieces posted more often!  I don't like doing something part way and I felt like I just had too many things on my plate.

All that being said :)  My darling husband and myself recently (about four months ago) bought a small cape cod and have spent a lot of time renovating it since the moment we stepped in the door.  On a whim (please note, I DO NOT condone this kind of behavior :) I decided to renovate the incredibly tiny and ucky kitchen.  I mean renovate as in redo everything myself and expand the kitchen area into the eating area.  To top it all off, right as this whim struck, the hubs got super busy at work and has not been available at all.  Hence, I find myself in the middle of a cratered kitchen that I have destroyed and now I have to finish...alone :(  Fortunately, aforesaid fantastic friend Deidre (owner of Deidrelynnphotography) has been helping me with the demo and painting, I'm proud to say that two little girls with no upper body strength at all were able to dissemble an enormous amount of countertop, cabinetry etc.  

The best part about this project is that it's on a budget, if any of you were ever young newlyweds in a first place (which I imagine some of you were :) you understand!  I think budgets make renos SO much more fun!  It's been crazy challenging to see what we can reuse and build and who knows what else.  We're trying to keep the whole thing under $1500!  I'll keep updates on how well we do :)  I'll try to post pictures too as we go!