Kitchen Pictures

Today is my first full day off at home without the kids being home. I feel like there are so many tasks that have piled up from working so much the last few weeks, while I had a cold, and the kids being home on snow days and delays. The kids were off on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Each day they both had a friend over and they went out to play in the snow every day, so I was quite busy when they were off! It is difficult to sneak in play dates during the school year, so I took advantage of the days off and let them invite friends who they have been asking to have over.  Yesterday, they had a 2 hour delay, so by the time I got them to school, did a couple loads of laundry, had lunch with a friend, got some groceries, and caught up on some emailing and Compassion stuff, the kids were ready to come home again.

So today, I am hoping to get in a full day of work, in addition to catching up on some rest. But I realized that I had not yet posted the before and after shots of our kitchen remodel. So for my memory sake and for those who knew and (probably had not) loved my fruit wall paper, here is the before and after.  I could not get a great picture of what it looks like now, because it has been so dreary lately. There is not enough natural light around for my cheap camera to get a good picture. The first picture was taken in the late summer when we first moved in. In addition, the colors in the kitchen are much darker, so that makes it harder to get a good picture, without extra natural lighting.

Also, there is noticeably no clutter on the fridge or counters, which makes me think it is time to do a decluttering overhaul on both! But really, the counters are a lost cause, I will be completely honest. Even if I put away the toaster and the straws and every other thing that is on the counter, for convenience sake, they would be put back eventually and remain out again!

This is what the kitchen looked like on the day we moved into the house. Notice how nice the fridge looks without any clutter? This is the only day it looked like that!

This picture is what my counters really look like, and often worse! I decluttered for the picture a little (or a lot!).

I don't have an original picture from when we moved in of this view, but the new floor is more in view in this picture.

This view shows that the wall on the opposite side of the kitchen is a bluish grey. I did this so that it wouldn't be so dark in the kitchen and also, since it is a walkway, I thought a dark color would show scratches and blemishes that the kids (or I) would inevitably put in it.

So here is a list of what we did:

• Replaced all of the appliances (over the last few years)
• Changed the handles on the cabinet doors
• Removed the wall paper and painted. 
• Put bronze tin back splash tiles over the cabinets (this was done out of necessity, because the walls behind the wallpaper up there were a mess)
• Replaced the linoleum with Duraceramic flooring.
• Got a new clock (Josh says so that the neighbors could tell what time it is, because of its size)

All the work, except the floors, we did ourselves.