If ever you are in the place of wanting to redo your kitchen make sure you know what you’re getting into! If anyone tells you that redoing your kitchen will be “easy” or “not that bad” those people are in fact liars. The people who tell you “it’s awful but it will be worth it” know that you can trust them because they’re speaking truth! Frequently throughout the job Scott and I would look at each other and ask “Why didn’t we hire someone?!” This kitchen project has been a true pain but we couldn’t be more proud or thrilled with the turn out of our hard work!
Scott is a true champ!! This project wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground if it wasn’t for him and his 1: vast love for me and the desire to make me happy 2: handyman ways. I’m seriously so thankful for the man God chose for me! This is just one of the many ways he enriches my life.
In the before photo you’ll notice that we had half white appliances and half stainless so we knew we would need to get them switched to one or the other. We’ve been shopping for the stainless appliances since we moved in. Scott remembered that I’ve ALWAYS wanted a double oven and found this beauty on Facebook marketplace. (I think it’s adorable that he remembered that about me.) It did not disappoint! I love the top oven because most times I’m only cooking a one pan meal and because of it’s small size it heats up crazy fast! I love being able to use both ovens during the holidays, when you need to cook many things and at different temps, or when you’re making cookies so you can bake a whole batch all at once! It’s kinda my favorite, but I’ll stop rambling on about it. Lastly we found our fridge and now it all matches! Phew!
Alright, enough about boring appliances let’s move on to the renovations!!
The first thing we had to take on were the cabinets. Sanding for days. Painting for days. That about sums up the torture.
I would definitely say this was the most time consuming aspect of the project. We decided to sand the cabinets because we plan to live here FOREVER so we wanted them to be long lasting and sanding is the best way to ensure that happens. Scott was in sanding hell and our garage is now completely covered in a nice layer of sawdust. Oh well! That’s one downside of doing this project during the colder months of the year. I didn’t want him out in the yard freezing on top of the torture of sanding, but he got lucky for the bottom cabinets with warmer weather so he sanded those outdoors. He sanded while I painted. I ended up having to do 3 coats on the white cabinets and 2 coats on the mint island. If I ever have to paint again in my entire life it would be too soon! (It will happen…just let me talk a big game.)
After the cabinet doors and frames were painted Scott added crown molding to the top of the cabinets and bead-board to the sides. I LOVE the finished look! Really ups the style and adds more interest to the basic cabinets we had before. This was a huge learning experience for Scott as he’d never done crown molding before. Thankfully my father-in-law was willing to lend his skill and experience and he walked Scott through it. I think they both enjoyed working together on this project. I just sat back and listened to them joke and laugh and it brought a smile to my face. It might have been frustrating at times but Scott will always have memories of working on it with his dad which I think is sweet.
Scott then added hardware to all of the cabinets and drawers. We chose square brushed stainless pulls for the cabinets and brushed stainless handles for the drawers. Talk about upgrade!!!! Crazy how much this changed the look.
While we waited for the next step in our remodel we swapped out the light fixture above our kitchen table. I think it creates a cute retro diner look and you all know what a sucker I am for retro vibes.
We were put on pause for about a week while we waited for our counters to be finished and installed. Both Scott and I hate half finished projects so this made us twitch a bit. (Haha.) The island was in a strange in between stage because we didn’t want to add the bead-board until we were sure where the counters would hit. Scott was gearing to go but I didn’t want him to have to redo his work if it didn’t line up properly. I was right, because he would have needed to had he proceeded.
We originally wanted granite counter tops but we were having a hard time finding exactly what we had in mind. We wanted white with some sparkle and maybe even some subtle teal color. When we expressed this to one of the guys at a granite place he immediately said “you need to look at one of our Quartz samples.” HE NAILED IT!!!!! He placed that little square in my hand and both of us knew that was it! It was EVERYTHING we wanted! White background, sea-glass teal color throughout, and SPARKLE!!! We immediately got a quote and put down our deposit. Such a relief!! Picking counters is super stressful because it’s probably the most important and used part of your kitchen. We were thankful to have all the deciding behind us!
We used Quartz Worx and can’t say enough good about them! They were quick and professional and the instal was so fast! The whole experience was pleasant and how often can one say that?! We love our counters! I woke up the next day and thought I only had dreamed about having them! Nope! It’s real and I’m so happy about them! They perfectly match the white cabinets and gorgeously pop with the mint island. I could go on and on. I only wish the pictures did them justice because I haven’t been able to capture the sparkle. The little girl in me is giddy about all the sparkle! (Haha.)
Another switch we made was going from a two sided sink to a single! We were a little nervous about making the change because we liked having the organization aspect while doing dishes, but honestly we have really enjoyed having the one big space! I washed 3 large pots in there at the same time! WHAT?! The reason we switched was purely from a cosmetic stance but honestly it’s also become a practical one. I’d recommend it if you’re on the fence!
Once the counters were in we were again full speed ahead! The bead-board and trim went on the island and I was able to finish up painting! With that….we were done!!….Wellllllll…close!
Now enters backsplash! Of course I couldn’t choose an easy porcelain tile…nope…I fell in love with these gorgeous teal glass tiles. This definitely made the project a challenge. A challenge on top of our zero experience with tile. I was honestly dreading getting to this part in our kitchen, because I just knew it would be the most difficult for us. I was completely right. Scott rented a wet saw from our local ACE Hardware because a regular tile cutter would shatter the glass. I’m sorry Scott. I love you!! Even with the wet saw it was a massive pain but Scott stuck to it. Every time a tile would shatter we would both flinch because those things aren’t cheap. He cut the tiles and I glued them and got the spacing right. Then he grouted and we both wiped after it had set. The more we wiped the more frustrated we got because the glass continued to have a “foggy” appearance. We looked online and saw one lady used baby wipes to get rid of the last of the fog so we dove into Haven’s diaper bag, used up all of those, and then had to sneak into her room for more at 11:45 pm. It was making me giggle because of how well they worked. Who would have guessed?! We then waited 3 days to make sure the grout was fully dried and then sealed the grout and put a silicone strip between the tile and the counter.
Our old counters had a lip so when we removed them there was about a 5″ strip above the counters where the paint didn’t match. Home Depot matched the color for us and I painted the areas where we didn’t put backsplash. Then FINALLY we were done!!!!!!
I was a long month of hard work but I finally have my dream kitchen and I know we will enjoy it for many years to come!! I’m so thankful that we were able to finish it before Scott returned to work because I couldn’t imagine sitting around looking at an unfinished kitchen for 3 months. Stresses me out just thinking about it! (Haha.)
We wanted to tackle the kitchen first because we knew it would be our biggest home project and all the others would seem easy from here on out! So here’s to being done with our kitchen and dreaming up our next set of home improvements to be continued when Scott returns home! I’m sure he can’t wait! ;) CHEERS!
DINING ROOM: First of all I HAD to find an amazingly large dining room table and chairs that I loved. I wanted them to be vintage and interesting. They don’t make tables like they used to and I needed something sturdy that will last us our lifetime. Since living in Florida I’ve followed this amazing furniture refinisher here in Grand Junction. I’ve drooled over her amazing furniture transformations and knew I would forever regret it if I didn’t reach out to her first. Danielle just so happened to have the PERFECT table (from the 1800’s) and chairs in her project pile. She told me her ideas for them, which I loved, and I was able to help pick out the fabrics for the chairs. I love it more than I can express! The table sits 10 and I adore it’s double legs on each corner. I’ve never seen anything like that before! Definitely checks the unique box!
I finished up the room with prints of a spoon and fork patent. I thought it was a cute nod to dining with a vintage vibe. I also found a large “gather” sign to complete the look. I wanted to keep the decor in here simple.
People always told me I would never use a dining room, when I expressed my desire to someday have one, but I’ll tell you what…we do! We celebrated our first major holiday here in this room. We had space for all of our family and it swelled my heart to see us all together sharing a meal. THIS is what we’d been missing in Florida. Family all together and to host in our new home blessed me completely! For everyday use, I love to sit at the table with my laptop and blog or even pay bills. Sometimes we bring our fast food bags in there and pig out. I want to be in there as much as possible. Who says you can’t use it every day? I’m proving all those people wrong.
When Scott was home the first time he hung the curtains that I purchased on Amazon. I chose the same curtains for both the Dining and Front Room so that the two spaces flowed together well. When Scott came home in December we hung the light fixture which was also found on Amazon. It was a pain in the tush to hang but boy was it worth it! The exact look I was hoping for was achieved. The fixture is the cherry on top! The final step to completing the space.
Hopefully the next time I’m blogging will be about our kitchen redo! It’s turning out just how I hoped it would and I can’t wait to share the finished look with you all!
The first thing I found for the playroom was this adorable Toucan eating Froot Loops. Nothing screams childhood like a big bowl of sugary cereal! Whenever I see Froot Loops it takes me back to all the spring breaks we spent at my Grandpa’s farm growing up. Those are some of my very favorite memories, so the Froot Loop Toucan became the foundation to my design for the playroom. I then found two similar prints of animals that I thought added to the fun of the room. I love the flamingo on a matching pink skateboard and the giraffe blowing a bubble cracks me up every time I see it. I found all three prints on 
Anyone who knows me or my home decor knows I love Norman Rockwell’s art. I have quite a few prints of his work throughout my house. I have both a son and a daughter so I was trying to think of a good way to represent them both in the room, then I remembered two of my favorite pieces by Rockwell: “A day in the life of a boy” and “A day in the life of a girl.” They’re such cute pieces documenting a full day for both a girl and a boy. I love them…so I found the prints on eBay and placed one on each side of the window.
I loved the pom-pom curtains but needed to find a way to carry that on in another area of the room. I came up with the idea of large letters spelling out “PLAY” for above the doorway and I covered them with colored pom-poms! Problem solved!
Last but certainly not least came one of my very favorite things in the playroom. I’ve always wanted a place for my kids to show off their art so this “Look what I made” board (Created by: 
For the year leading up to our move back to Colorado I kept a pretty close eye on the housing market and we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted for when the time came to buy a house. There was a neighborhood in Fruita that I had my eye on and a very specific floor-plan that was our “dream home”. I knew it was a long shot that we would ever get it but when one with the exact floor-plan we wanted came on the market and they were having an open house on Mother’s Day Scott said we needed to go look at it to see if it was even what we wanted when we saw it in person. We walked through the house and every time we rounded another corner of it I laughed and said “Oh, crap!” because it continued to be everything we had ever wanted. Soooooooo…on the 14th we got everything in order and put in an offer on our dream home. The very next day our offer was accepted and we began the work of making it officially ours! How amazing God is! Exactly a week before we woke up stressed about where our future was taking us and then Scott got the job and a week later we found our Home!! Lord, thank you for leading us to this leap! These blessings were beyond what we could have hoped for and here they were…easily and quickly falling into our lap. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
The rest of May was spent catching up with our friends we had missed so much, house closing checklists, and Scott had orientation with his new company. Oh, and Scott had to fly back to Florida to get his car and drive it here. (Not jealous of him on that one.)
The next two days we had new carpet installed and then the movers came!! I had really missed our stuff but that feeling was fleeting when I realized I would be unpacking over 7,000 pounds of stuff alone with 2 littles running amuck! (Haha.) I knew it would be worth it though so I jumped right to it! We had a family trip to Wyoming planned and I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax unless I got it all done (I hate being type A sometimes) so I busted it all out in 4 days of unpacking! I didn’t sleep much, as you can imagine, and my body ached at the end of every day BUT I was determined!!
We had a blast in Wyoming and it was just what we needed after all the chaos of moving to Colorado, Scott starting the new job, and moving into our home. Sometimes you just need to slow it down for a few days and do hardly nothing to recoup!
The last weekend before Scott came home we decided to go visit my brother and Rachel in Steamboat Springs. We always have so much fun there and it was the perfect way to speed up the last weekend without Scott.
We traveled back Monday the 6th and Scott came home that evening! YAY! I love our reunions and it’s so fun to see the excitement on the kids’ faces and this time Scott got to see Haven walk for the first time!! Oh yeah…she started walking full time while we were in Steamboat! Before that she was just taking a few steps here and there. She would take a couple steps then the second she saw you watching she would smirk and then naughtily sit down. Stinker!
We’re excited to celebrate this little bunny’s first Easter and Royal is so much more into the activities this year that it’s been such a blast.
I pray you all have a wonderfully blessed Easter with your families as well!
We’re all so happy to have Scott home but no one more excited than Royal. That boy sure missed his Daddy.
Haven wasn’t too sure about her Dada at first but has quickly warmed back up to him.
Thank you Jesus for bringing him home safely to us!!
The Dear Adventure 