Kitchen Remodel: It's just the beginning...

I'm so excited to finally be able to show you the preliminary plans for our kitchen remodel.  As some of you know, we bought a house that was in foreclosure and the bank put in a kitchen that wasn't quite up to the neighborhood standards.  Since we got a great deal on the house, we were able to design a kitchen that I think will fit in quite nicely around here.  Plus, it's a kitchen I could only dream of having someday, so I'm thrilled!

Here are a couple shots of the current kitchen.  It's not a bad kitchen by any means, it just lacks character, and granite countertops!  :)

The double oven was nice, but it's too narrow for most of my cookie sheets.  Looking forward to a bigger double oven!

Butler Pantry!

It has been a long process, to say the least.  We started out by having a company that specializes in designing kitchens work out a plan, hoping to get a design that would help us figure out what to do with this space.  Remolding a kitchen is a huge investment, so we wanted to do it right.  We tried Kurtis Kitchens and I have to say, what a huge disappointment.  Our salesman was unhelpful and condescending, which in turn led me to be unhelpful and condescending back.  So as you can guess, it didn't go well.  After a few meetings, we determined that a trip to Home Depot was in order and were pleasantly surprised at what we were able to come up with.  Here's a peek at the plans!

This first one shows the island, which I am most excited about.  Unfortunately, I don't have a color rendering of it.  It will be a black finish with rubbed edges to give it an antique look.  Our microwave will be a drawer type in the island on the right side, seating for 3 on the left.

These next three pics show the cabinet color and style.  The countertop will be a black and tan granite, tiled backsplash and an earth tone paint color yet to be determined!

The kitchen sink base bumps out a little.

This is the butler pantry.  I got the design idea off Pinterest!  My favorite part is the wine cubbies under the center cabinet.

So that's the design.  Tomorrow I'm off to Home Depot to send in the cabinet order.  Hoping all goes well so it gets done by mid June! 

House Warming Gift Idea

Here's a fun idea for a housewarming or hostess gift that I put together for a friend.  I was struggling to find a unique and useful idea for a good friend we were visiting recently and came up with this.  A basket with homemade granola, a jar of dried cherries, raisens and a scoop.  As I was tying the bow on it, I thought this was worthy of sharing on my blog!  Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of the final product, but I did get pics of the basket contents.  

(Imagine this with a big shimmery gold bow tied across it!)

The jars and basket were purchased at Meijer.  I used a large cracker jar for the granola and pint and 1/2 pint mason jars for the dried fruit.  Ball makes a set of mason jars specifically for gifts with silver lids that matched nicely with the cracker jar.  I also included a recipe card for the granola.  

The granola recipe is pretty easy, but you'll have to play around with it.  It has multiple options for sweetener and what to put in it.  I found doing a combination of a couple sweeteners (honey, maple syrup and brown sugar) worked nicely.  I also cut back on the salt as one batch I made was pretty salty.  It's still a work in progress, but I'm getting close to a recipe I like.

First Big Project!

Well, so much for good intentions. I had planned to document the move and transition to Michigan, but shortly after we moved my mom's health took a turn for the worse and we found ourselves immersed in caring for her during her last days. It's been tough, to say the least, but we're finding our way back to routines and diving into house projects. So many ideas, but we have to pace ourselves.

So here's a look at our first big project. I say "our" but those that know us, will know that this was all Marc! Honestly, I was skeptical at first, really did we need a third room to watch TV together as a family? But Marc insisted that we needed to do this and, of course, he had a plan. Besides, this was going to be the room specifically to watch movies, so that made it different in his mind. I was thinking we already had a 60 inch TV in the basement that was perfectly suited to watching movies. So while I was off visiting friends in Illinois, he was busy working on the media room.

I have to say it turned out fantastic. I should have never doubted it for a minute. He built a nice cabinet in the back to hold the DVD player, surround sound system and projector. Eventually we plan to hook up the cable box as well. For the screen, he painted the wall white, framed it and built a shelf to hold DVDs. We had our first movie night last night and there's not a bad seat in the room. I think we'll need to do something with the plaid couches, but for now it will do.

Here's a picture with the lights out. I think we'll need to do a Harry Potter marathon soon! Marc also hooked up the Wii in this room so we can get our Glee on or race Mario on the big screen. :)

Our New Home

A good friend of mine suggested that I blog about our move from Illinois back to our home state of Michigan and I thought, "That's not a bad idea!" So here I am, attempting to chronicle the chaos that is about to take over our lives for the next unkown period of time. It will be a crazy time, and I'm sure there will be some fun stories to share!

Today, Marc closed on our new house in South Lyon, Michigan, while I stayed behind, spending one last normal night in our current house. We have had so many good times here, it will be sad to see it all packed up. I can barely bring myself to think about it. The friends and family that have visited us, the New Year's Eve parties, the backyard movies, sleepovers, the last minute invites for dinner are just a few ways that have made this house more than a home. We will miss it greatly, but more than that we will miss the people who became our Illinois family. I hope we will be able to stay in touch. :)

Tomrrow the moving company will be here to pack up the house. I'll try to capture some of the action while franctically preventing them from packing the stuff we will need for the next few days. Wish me luck!