New Chapter

Last year, I was dabbling in the real estate industry attempting to get my real estate license because I LOVE everything to do with houses.  Half way through the program I decided sales, working weekends and nights, and contracts are NOT my thing.  It doesn't utilize my more dominant artistic side what-so-ever.  Talking to my long time friend and co-worker, Wendy, she asked me why I never pursued Interior Design.

"You're so into it, it's always been your thing."

A light bulb went off.  Wow... so many signs in my life have always pointed to me that Interior Design is what I should be doing.  The books on my shelves, the magazines in my mail and email, my Instagram and Facebook feeds, are all Interior Design.  I even have a blog about it.  Hello, Carrie!!!?

I have always dreamed about the career, looking at it like a completely unattainable goal.  Why though?  It's not like trying to become the President.  (Even though it seems anyone can do that now).

I, like most people, thought I'm not naturally good enough to do well at my dream career.  But it was time to get rid of that self doubt.  That's what school and work experience are for.  I'll learn as I go.  Nobody should waste their life not reaching for what they'd really love to do. 

So right away I signed up for an Interior Design degree and certificate program at my nearest school that offered it.  I have been happily working away at my degree now for almost a year and am loving every second of it!

Last month I also applied to a position as an Interior Designer Assistant.  I got the job and I couldn't be more excited.  Each work day is so majorly fun to me.  The Designer I work for is so talented and I'm learning so much. Being entry level, I feel very grateful to have the position I am in.

The same day I was deciding to go back to school another friend posted this:

I am not a fan of inspirational quotes.  But this one spoke to me.  hahahaha!  I can do it!  It's still my desktop wallpaper.  I laugh and get my butt back in gear when homework starts slowing me down.

Pet Grooming will always have a special place in my heart, but I'm ready to work on my new goal.  You know when something just fits?

The Kitchen is DONE

We finally wrapped up the kitchen project (99% anyway).  We are absolutely in love with it.  It has been heaven to use it every day.  I feel so lucky we had the skills to get this all done ourselves.

We put in some pretty neat strip power outlets under all of the upper cabinets.  We also put in strip LED lighting.  It's really great to leave the under cabinet lights on in the evening to provide a glow in the room without every recessed light being on.

 

After we put the crown molding on, it was quite a relief to see everything come to a close.  We still need to do a back splash but I think the kitchen looks and functions perfectly fine without one for now.  That is the only thing!  Whoo hoo!

I do have my eye on this tile as a potential back splash, but I need to order a sample before I commit to anything.  I love the look of cement tiles, but they are very expensive.  This one has the look but it ceramic.  I originally wanted a subway tile but I'm feeling like that might be too boring.  No rush to decide.

Here's a link to what the kitchen looked like before our remodel if you wanted to see that again.  It's come a long way!

Swapping Dean's Room and the Office

For awhile now, the office has slowly become the dumping ground for toys and items Dean is now too big for.  He basically has outgrown his bedroom too so we decided to move him into the office and move the office to his baby room.

Before any new furniture made its way into the house, everthing was cleared out of the old office and I painted the room.  This was the third time I've painted this room so I decided to go with plain ol' white.  I really like it and I knew I wouldn't have to change it again as our son's tastes grow.

I had intended to paint the new office all white as well, but after all the work in the bedroom I got over that idea.  Navy/white combo it is!  No more painting required.

I really dislike my desk chair.  I need to look around for maybe a gray tufted chair or something like that.

Dean had already upgraded into a twin bed several months back, but with the room swap I really wanted him to have a loft bed.  I had one as a kid and remember LOVING playing underneith it like a club house all the time.  Plus it allows for even more storage and play space.  So the twin bed he was previously using got to stay in the office.  Now we again have somewhere for a guest or two to sleep.

In Dean's new room I also purchased one more storage piece.  I really prefer the Target cubes with boxes but the Ikea storage system allowed for a few huge containers for those awkwardly large toys.

Dean loves his new room and shows it off to everyone that comes over.

I love having a neat office again.

Lastly, while at Ikea I picked up this really cute shoe cabinet and mirror.  Our entryway was never very cute so I was happy to make it a lot more presentable and a nice vibe when you walk in the front door.

We've Really Slowed Down... But Still Finishing Up That Kitchen

So since the kitchen is totally functional and pretty amazing, we have totally slowed down.  We are close to done, but just a little left to do.

On the to do list is just:

• attach cabinet toe kicks
• add door trim and baseboards
• install crown above cabinets
• finish installing the under cabinet LED lighting strips
• finish installing power outlet on island 
• choose and install a back splash of some sort
• and soooome day we will open up the wall between the living room and kitchen to make a bar top, but no rush on that.

We finally put all the pulls on (except one, can you find it?).  The under cabinet trim pieces were put on as well.

The drawer for recycling in the island is up and running.  What a convenience!  This originally was designed to house our trash, but we like our old trash can that we operate with our foot and it has a nice location too.  This was a welcome change of plan.

Every upper cabinet has these awesome power strips under them instead of a socket in the back splash.  We bought different lengths depending on the cabinet it went under.  We did a little outlet overkill, but that's ok.  It's better to have too many than not enough where you need it.  Plus they are hidden, so why not?

Also the dishwasher is so cool with the built-in door panel attached.  So fancy.  ;)

I love having my little breakfast bar area for cooking bagels and making my daily iced caramel macchiatto!  These two items used to take up the entire counter in the last kitchen.  So, it's nice having their own area off to the side.

Thanks for following up!

The Fully Functional Kitchen Has Arrived!

So all the cabinets are in!  The sink, the faucet, the oven, the DISHWASHER.  Wow, what a magical machine...

The day the counter tops went in felt better than Christmas.  We love them.

It has been about a week now and I've never been so excited to wash a dish in my life.  Once Brian got the faucet and dishwasher functional I went on a cleaning and washing SPREE.  I was so excited to put everything away in the cabinets I couldn't be stopped for even a "we're almost done" blog post.

There still is plenty of work to do, but at least we finally can slow the pace down and relax and enjoy our practically done, new kitchen, a little.

Things left to do are:

• attach drawer/cabinet knobs and pulls (coming this week in the mail)
• install crown molding on cabinets
• install kick boards
• choose and install a back splash
• install under cabinet and island electrical plugs
• install under cabinet lighting

and eventually:

• open the wall between the living room and kitchen to create a breakfast bar

 A few friends have been over this week to check out the kitchen and they all have said it feels like a completely different house now because of the remodel.

I still can't believe it is ours and we did it all ourselves (except the floor tile and countertop).

 We have a contract to have our windows redone... in due time.  The missing cabinet in the island is out just while Brian finishes up the electrical plug install.

 The dishwasher has a matching cover panel, like the cabinets, but we can't install it until the pulls arrive.

 For a refresher on what the "before" of the whole kitchen looked like, click here.

IT'S ALMOST DONE!!!

Designing the Kitchen Floor Plan

First thing's first, a floor plan needed to be figured out.

Ikea's website has a really awesome kitchen designer app that anyone should be able to operate with a little effort.  Being the type of home owners we are, we like to do as much of every project ourselves. Mainly this is because we are cheap and like to save money wherever we can.

Hey!  Home improvement in expensive!

Anyway, with Ikea's kitchen app, I plugged in all the measurements of the room and worked with it for several weeks.  I think I came up with about 500 different floor plans.

Here is the final floor plan:

This is our current bad floor plan:

I highly recommend playing with Ikea's home design planner if you are toying with the idea of remodeling your kitchen.  I really enjoyed using it.   The app gives you lots of awesome 3D images that you can pan around of your ideas too, like this one: