Maximizing Space in the Kitchen

Our kitchen is teeny tiny, which I'm sure that you've noticed in the pictures.  So, we have gotten a little creative (but not really) in order to maximize our space.  So, some things you could do if you're in the same boat as us...

1.  Put your microwave over the oven.  This required us to shorten the cabinets above the oven, but who cares?  I can hardly reach them anyway!  Although we probably could have done this ourselves, we didn't have much time, so we paid a friend to do it.  He did an excellent job, and now we have more counter space!  Yippee!

2.  Put a basket/vase on the counter with frequently used utensils.  It looks cute and it's handy for cooking!

3.  Hang stuff on the inside of your cabinet doors.  Seriously, we have something hanging on almost all of them.  It provides easy access AND creates more space.  See above and below.

4.  Canisters - they're pretty and handy for storage.

5.  Put up a cork board on the inside of the cabinet to "pin" coupons, reciepts, recipes, etc.  Ours mostly has Zaxby's coupons from the back of our grocery reciepts.  (We go there with the youth group most Wednesday nights).  This gets rid of some clutter by creating a place to put little slips of paper.

6.  Use a pantry!  We had a coat closet near our kitchen, but we didn't have a pantry.  We turned the closet into a pantry for some food storage and a lot of kitchen storage.  Parker built the shelves and it is AWESOME storage for us!

How do you maximize your kitchen space?



Home Improvements: Our Bathroom

As you probably remember, last summer I painted all the trim/doors/cabinets and almost all of the rooms in our condo (everything except the guest bathroom).  I never did a post of our bathroom, bedrooom, and guest bedroom... so please allow me to show you our new (ish) and improved bathroom!

If you remember, when we bought the condo, it was very brown.  Don't believe me, recall this post.  This is what our bathroom looked like then:

And with new paint and accessories (and minus the metal shelves)... here it is!

Much better!  Paint sure does improve things doesn't it?

Hurricane Irene

So our first two months of marriage have been an adventure! Hurricane Irene hit this past weekend and she was not so nice. We started getting rain and wind Friday night, and around 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon, Parker & I heard what we thought was the sink running. Not dripping, but running. Well... it wasn't the sink, it was our bedroom ceiling.

We moved everything out of our bedroom (our clothes, 2 month old matress set, etc.) and put trash bags, towels, and buckets everywhere. Our neighbors came over and helped. We poked holes in the ceiling (omg I just realized I wrote "poaked" on facebook...)

It was pretty much a nightmare. Did I mention that it continued to rain for 6 more hours?

Sunday morning I ventured out to survey the damage... This is the view behind us.

To the front right of us:

Oh, this is the enormous limb that caused a hole in our roof:

Our ceiling is sinking... and cracking... and will probably fall in the floor.

The front of our building:

A home down the street :(

The roof was fixed this afternoon, but they probably won't be able to fix the ceiling until next week!  Please pray that it'll hold until then!!  I'm so thankful that it wasn't worse!  We are super blessed!

We wish you a merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas,

(We're a bit behind...)

We wish you a merry Christmas,

We wish you a merry Christmas...

(See our book shelf??)

And a...

 (that was for you Amanda!)

HAPPY...

NEW...

YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Living Room Pics!

At long last... Welcome to our newly painted living room!

I know you love the photo in the frame on the far left.  :)  haha  It's what I had at the moment people, let's be real.  Our awesome clock that we registered for will look more awesome when it's above the fireplace!

Boy would brown and white striped curtains look good on that window!

All of our mixed matched furniture in our sweet, very own, first living room!

 What color should I paint that TV stand?  I'm thinking dark brown.  Or blue.  What do you think?

What about this coffee table?  Today, I'm leaning towards white.  From this angle, it looks okay as it is, but from the other side... you'll see why it should be painted.

And just to keep it real... this is the guest bedroom.  The other side of it looks about the same.  Boxes, stuff, boxes, stuff.  A computer desk, with boxes and stuff.  One day we will get there.  Then we will paint it too.  One day.

Oh, and I'm going to paint the light too.  White?  Gray?  Blue?  Brown?  I have no idea.

I feel slightly better about having people over now! :)  haha. Thanks for stopping by!

Curtains

I know I stink at posting regularly, but you should thank me because I really have nothing interesting to talk about.  Seriously.  Unless you want to hear about my unit plans, studying for a three-day history exam, or driving back and forth to Greenville.

I promise I'll put before/after pictures of the living room/dining area up after this weekend.  Now that the painting is just about finished in the main living area (we still have to do the bedrooms and bathrooms... ugh), I've been obsessing about decorating.  I have a vision.  Most of our furniture doesn't match and everything is hand-me-down (we were going for free not looks), so we'll be painting a couple of pieces to make things look more put-together.   I'm fine with that because I'm definitely into the painted furniture look.

However, now I'm going crazy about what colors to pick for furniture.

This is what I'm loving today...

... it's likely to change tomorrow.

So far, I'm in love with what we've used so far.  The kitchen is Topsail (6217) from Sherwin Williams, the living room is Natural from Lowes (I forgot the maker), and the trim/cabinets/doors are Delicate White from Lowes (forgot that maker too...)  Kind of matches my blog, eh?

I'm also in love with antique looks like this picture easel.

I stumbled upon The Nester and let me tell you... I love this lady.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to copy a lot from her.  Look at this:

Love. It.  We have a coffee table (that is currently stained wood) that looks almost exactly like that table... but shorter of course.  It is going to be painted white.  And those plates!  And the pale blue!

The hydrangeas.  The chalk board.  But wait... my favorite part.  The curtains!

Oh how I've been wanting brown and white horizontal striped curtains.  Big thick stripes.  Sigh.
I have looked everywhere for curtains like that.  Ikea, Boscov's, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Walmart, Kmart, JC Penny, Belk, Big Lots, Kohls, Anna's Linens, World Market, TJ Maxx, Overstock.com, Amazon, Ebay, Home Goods, even Pottery Barn (which I would never be able to afford).  They don't exist!  This is the best I could find on Amazon thanks to my sweet friend MB.

But it just doesn't fit my NEED for these curtains.  The harder it is to find them, the more I want them.  I'm fine with making them... but I just have to find the time and the fabric.

So if anyone finds thick brown and white vertical striped tab drapery panels for an affordable price (or at all), you will be my best friend for life.  At this point, I would even consider dark khaki and white stripes.

Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to hunker down and make 'em.

First Time Home Buyers

Every time I see this commercial I laugh... it reminds me so much of me and Parker.  :)

Our Kitchen!

At long last, the wallpaper is down, the walls spackled, and all is primed and painted.  Remember the horrid red textured wallpaper and dark stained cabinets?

Well, they were replaced by light and airy...

Hooray!  What do you think?

We will eventually replace the cabinet pulls and hinges with a silver-colored finish.  In fact, we already have new pulls, but we can't find hinges like the ones we have (they mount on the inside of the cabinet)... so that's on hold for now.

I don't know which I love more - the new look or Parker washing dishes... HA!  Just kidding.

Please excuse the Pepsi can and the missing door pulls (they're at my parent's house getting cleaned).

We have to do a little touching up here and there, but whew!  What a difference!  And I love it!