{ Cabinets Are Back }

The cabinets have all been put into their new places in the kitchen. These guys have been  all over the house and beyond. 

Initially the doors were taken off and put in the barn for sanding and priming. (Yes, that's grass in that photo below. I hardly remember what the stuff looks like since we are having the never ending winter here in Michigan this year)

While the doors were drying, I went back inside and applied one coat of primer to the cabinets. 

Then they were completely removed . We relocated them all over the house depending on what room we were working on at the time. They've camped out in the living room, the nursery, our master bedroom, and now they are finally back where they belong - in the kitchen!

If you follow me on Instagram @kaseyrawson you already saw this photo. The base cabinets were put in first. 

The arrow is pointing to where the dishwasher will be. The flooring didn't go all the way over because we knew we would have that wall lined with cabinets but we have extra flooring that will go down in the gaps where the stove and dishwasher will be, it just isn't in yet. 

Mark just put the uppers back in last Saturday.

There's a very small gap between the upper on the left and the wall. I'm still debating if I want to do a few small open shelves for cook books and such or if I want to have a filler piece of wood placed in there to close it off. I'm leaning more on the filler piece than the shelves but who knows, these days I change my mind a million times before making a decision.

It's exciting to see the kitchen going back together. In the scheme of things, this is a small accomplishment but each small step leads to a finished product and for this I am happy. 

I still have to prime a few spots. Since I primed while they were still on the wall a couple of the sides didn't get done yet. I bought the paint for the cabinets on the wall. So I am hoping to fit that in very soon. As for the island, I'm going to paint it grey. Have you guys heard of Cabinet Transformations? My friend had purchased a kit and ended up not using it, so she gave it to me. I am looking forward to trying out this kit. There's a lot in the box even an instructional DVD, so I'll be watching that soon to learn all about how to use it. I'll be sure to post my thoughts. Have any of you guys used Cabinet Transformations? 

For the sake of before and after comparisons the kitchen is looking a million times better than what we started with!

Lots to do in here but it's getting closer and closer! Next up after painting will be the counter top installation, after that new sink and faucet, and after that we can move our appliances back in! Sounds so easy right?!

{ Carpet Is In! }

We are crazy excited over here with new carpet in our upstairs!

A whole lot of running and dancing went on the night we came to see the completed carpet installation. It was a happy night for sure. The kids are so excited because now they have a place to play while Mark and I work. I am excited too because this room has been a BIG undertaking for us and now we are finally feeling closer to saying it's 100% done. 

We started this room 6 months ago. Originally it was just going to be a quick - paint the old paneling, get new flooring and call it good kind of job but that is NOT what ended up happening. At all. Sometimes I think it would have been so much easier if we just stuck to that original plan but then we wouldn't have the gorgeous, amazing space up there that we have now and I am SO SO happy that we decided to totally remodel it. 

If you are just joining us on our journey, here is a quick run down of where this room started, full of wood paneling, old linoleum flooring, old drafty windows, and some pretty crazy electrical work going on up there.

This post gives you a run down of what we (meaning Mark) did to get it to where we are now. I'll just give you a few quick photos of the changes over the last 6 months. 

Then the big rolls of carpet pad arrived

put down

and covered up.

Side note: did you happen to drive by while the carpet was getting hauled into the house. Apparently they went the non-traditional route of going on top of the carport and through the window. I wish I could have got a photo of that! The things Mark comes up with...

The kids asked if they could sleep there that night, hence the pretending going on in the photo below

Even Chase was a happy guy! 

It was a fun night. Finally something feels "done" around here. We hired a guy named Chris Carson from Kent City Floor Coverings to do our installation. He's also the one that installed the laminate flooring in the kitchen too. This isn't the first time we used Chris, he did all of our flooring in our first house that we built back in 2005. He is a great guy and does a great job. Obviously we thought so because we hired him again. I've had a few friends use him too and they all have nothing but good things to say about his work. Chris does carpet, linoleum, tile, and hardwood installation so if you are in the market for some new floors you should definitely give him a call. His number is 616.299.6703. 

The new carpet is so soft. We knew we wanted something on the darker side when it came to color since this will be the kids space and you all know how kids and carpet mix and if you don't, I'm sure you can imagine. The color is perfect. The kids are happy, and that makes me happy. 

Pretty amazing to me that this room has come so far. The first time I walked up there, I couldn't even see through to the far window and now it's a wide open beautiful space for our littles to run and play as long as their hearts desire.

The stairs have changed a lot too

This was taken before all the steps were finished

I brought the beds up there yesterday to start painting them. Hopefully I can get those done soon so we can get this room all put together so the kids really feel like they are home when they go up there now. 

For now we continue to work away and we get to have our kids at the house more while we work so we are a happy bunch around here!

{ Struggling With Choices }

        I've always struggled with making choices when it comes to home decor. I think I can narrow the problem down to two reasons. First, I'm still trying to figure out what my style really is. I mentioned before, I feel like my "style" has changed in respect to things in my home. It's frustrating because I see all these super cute room designs on pinterest or Houzz and I think I like it and can do that in my own house but when it comes to actually buying something in the store I freeze up and cant pull the trigger. 9 times out of 10 I return the item back on the shelf and walk out of the store empty handed. 

Which leads me to my second problem, I'm a tight wad. I grab something in the store that I know I want and then as I walk to the check out I convince myself that I don't need to spend the money on the item, that the money can be used elsewhere, or maybe I could get a better deal at a different store on something I might like better. I guess it's not so bad to be a tight wad. I really like that I am a saver but when it comes to decorating my home, sometimes I wish I could just go carelessly into the store and buy with out thinking. Sometimes I do, hence the items that I currently own. But typically it takes me a couple trips to the store to look at the item, then look at it again, maybe bring it up on the internet and look at it on there and then finally go in make the purchase. 

Currently I am struggling with living room decisions. I cant figure out a paint color to save my life. I cant settle on a rug. I cant make up my mind on curtains or blinds or both. I cant decided if I should paint my existing furniture or try to look for something new. I bought pillows but I am second guessing my color choices due to the fact that I still haven't picked out a paint color. I know third world problems right?!

I want you guys to weigh in on rugs to be specific. Looking back at an old photo of our living room before the floors were re-finished and the walls were fixed, lets try to visualize. 

The photo below is a shot from our old house to show you what the color of my couch is. We would like to purchase a new couch eventually but for now, while the kids are little we are going to stick with this very basic, beige, Art Van clearance center couch. I admit, it's a very comfortable couch so we are ok with keeping it...for now. 

So back to problem. There are SO MANY options when it comes to rugs. I know for sure that the wall color isn't going to be a very dark color so I am thinking maybe I should bring color in with the rug that I choose. So then if I choose a colored rug should it be a solid color only or something with a pattern or design. The only thing that I struggle with when it comes to design is, rugs are expensive and I don't want to buy something and then not like it 6 months later and have the urge to buy something different and end up spending way more. Truth be told, rugs aren't cheap.

Here's one that I've really liked for awhile now. It doesn't have color but it does have a simple design to it. 

http://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/rugs-usa-moroccan-shag/natural/200HJMRC1A-8010.html

Here's another one that I've had my eye on for while.

http://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/rugs-usa-moroccan-trellis/spa-blue/200MTVS27C-26010.html

I also really like this one. 
(sorry, I couldn't get the photo to transfer on here with out being blurry)

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Hand-tufted-Beige-Wool-Transitional-Proton-Rug-5x7/8372477/product.html?refccid=75VT2VO3YFQK6TCDNP6U64O5R4&searchidx=45

What do you guys think? For wall color I am leaning more toward a greige color. Something a little more beige than gray maybe with a little blue undertone (if thats an option). Was that confusing enough. Ya like I said, not super confident on my choice yet. 

Anyway...what would you guys pick for a rug if this was your room if you only had these three choices?  

If you guys can just narrow it down to maybe two choices and give me your opinions on these options then maybe I can finally just close my eyes and pull the trigger on ordering one of them. In the scheme of things, picking a rug should really be the least of my worries but for right now, I'm kinda obsessing about it and I need to be done with rugs :/

{ NEW Kitchen Floor }

The kitchen is starting to feel like a kitchen again. Last week we had the flooring put in. We decided to go with vinyl flooring. A lot of you suggested via facebook after this post  to go with tile and after looking at a lot of options we knew we weren't really big fans of tile in a large area. 

The reasons behind that are 

1) It's really cold (unless you install heated flooring) 

2) It's hard on feet. 

Tile is beautiful it just wasn't something we wanted in our kitchen. We looked into lumber liquidators to try to match our wood floor to continue that into the kitchen but they said that the size that we have isn't something that is carried and would have to be special ordered and with that would be hefty $$ and since this isn't our forever home we decided to not pour money into wood flooring either. We found a really nice vinyl floor that we like and decided that was what would work best for us in this house. 

Check it out!

The colors are really pretty. It's a good mix of dark and light gray with a little brown thrown in there too. It looks really nice next to the wall color that we picked and it will look great with the white cabinets. 

It's been a long journey to this point so if you haven't been following along or if you want a reminder of where this room started out and how it's changed you can see that below.

Very outdated flooring and as you can see below it was in pretty rough shape too.

Good bye old flooring

Sub floor

Then Mark put another layer down

The last layer went down right before the vinyl was installed

The photo below was taken during installation

Now we have a new beautiful floor 

The cabinets are ready to be put into their new homes. Like I said before I am painting the old cabinets. I should be able to start on those this weekend and I want to say that I would like to be done with them by next week but everything always takes so much longer than what I want it to so we will see about that. Hopefully I will be updating you with pictures of those soon! 

So, for those of you that chimed in before about the flooring, what do you think? Good choice? I'm extremely happy with the pattern and color so I am thinking YES! 

{ Wood Floor }

**Update** 
I have received so many requests for the contact of the guy that refinished our floors so I wanted to put it on here too for those of you that were wanting his information. You can find Michael at Woodsman Flooring @ 920-728-3269.

There are a few things that Mark either doesn't know how to do or doesn't want to do when it comes to renovating this house. The list is small but one item on there that we really didn't want to tackle ourselves was refinishing the wood floors. I've heard nightmares from friends. I've heard that it takes weeks and weeks if you are inexperienced (as we are). I've heard that renting the right tools is pretty pricey. 

After much consideration we decided this was definitely one job that we would rather leave to a professional. The house had a major transformation in the floor department over the weekend and I couldn't upload the photos fast enough to share with you all.

Lets get a few photo reminders of the hardwood floors...here it is during the first cleaning.

It finally was looking pretty after hours of scrubbing

It cleaned up nicely, however, we knew we wanted to refinish them because there were a few damaged spots and the poly layer was extremely thin in the living room and even worse in the two bedrooms. 

The floors got a nice coat of dust on them when the drywall was being finished and then it got even worse when the boys did the skim coating layer to the plaster walls in the living room. 

Then this happened (drum roll, please!)

(insert choir singing here)

BeeeeUtifully sanded floors.

I was so ecstatic when I walked in to see this. Literally I couldn't hardly contain my excitement!

That was only the beginning. 

Next came the top coat.

You think I freaked out when I saw that? You're right!! EEEKKK! 

So pretty, so smooth, PERFECT!

(did I include enough exclamation points to let you in on how I am feeling right now?!)

I am in love with these floors. They are absolutely gorgeous and if they weren't still wet when I took these pictures I would have layed right down on them. 

The guy we hired, who happens to be a family friend, and extremely nice guy, Michael Coxon, did the refinishing of the hardwood floors and we are beyond impressed. He did all that in four days. FOUR days! He is amazing. If you are local to the greater Grand Rapids area and want his number let me know. I may just make posters and hang them up around town for him because I was THAT impressed and I'm not just saying that because I know him. If I didn't know him I would still be saying that.

I wanted to show you the greatest transformation of the whole thing. Do you remember the dated flooring in the kitchen? When Mark tore that up there was a section that had covered the old original floors and it was a mess. 

You can see about 8 rows in that photo above that are noticeably wood floors there, but after that it got pretty ugly. This area now looks like brand new flooring was put down. The first photo below is the sanded floor and the second is with the poly coating on in that same spot. WHAT!! Amazing. 

We really couldn't be any happier with the floors. They turned out so much better than I imagined possible.

Now that the floors are done, painting can start again. I plan on attacking the stairwell and the living room this week and hopefully I can prime the rest of the trim and get that painted very soon. Mark will be working on the tile in the bathroom. Lots more to do but it's getting there. 

Hope you all are enjoying seeing these changes as much as I enjoy sharing them with you. It makes the process seem a little more fun to be able to share each milestone, little or big as they may be!