Let's start in the Kitchen!

This is the heart of the home.  It's where everything happens.   Meals are prepared.  Desserts are fixed and memories are made.  It's also where daughters and sons talk about their day.  Also, where husbands come in to steal a kiss after a long hard day at work.  I love the kitchen.  There is so much to celebrate in a kitchen.

When we purchased this house it was not my ideal kitchen.  As you know we looked and pondered for some time before we decided and this house fit our families needs the best.  I wanted a Farmhouse feel and it's modern.  I wanted a gas stove and I have an electric cooktop.  I would have loved an island that I could use to prepare meals.  I can honestly say I haven't yet used this one.  It's more of a bar.  However, looking at the bright side is my personality.  This kitchen is large so that is the one great thing about it! So I have made this kitchen as much me as I can with just stuff.  Later we will change the door pulls and many moons from now may completely replace these cabinets.  I would also like to upgrade the appliances starting with a gas cooktop and double oven.  Cooking and preparing meals is a priority for me.  I would love to have a pantry too.  I was disappointed about that.  I have been doing some thinking with my DH and I think we can make it work eventually.  We also plan to replace the chandeliers.  I think these small changes will make a big difference.  We have painted most of the house a Church Hill Vanilla from Lowe's by Valspar.  It had that creamy candlelight glow I was looking for and neutral backdrop. 

Here's the Before:

what it looked like as we walked through

and now the After

a close-up of my cookbook collection and my mother's dishes, they're not prim but are special to me.  Since she cannot be here to share this house with me I thought I would showcase them in her honor. 

You might remember this little sofa table I had in the other house, since I don't have two tables I needed a little something in this room to not distract from my 3 beautiful windows.

As you can see I tried to lighten things up a bit and decided to showcase my white pitchers up here.

my breadboard doing it's job hiding the ugly cooktop and my wonderful apple pie sign

Since my DH and I are living separately I had to have a new coffee pot and I usually choose black but I loved the punch of color from this one I found at K-mart.

The dreaded high island that hides it all from the family room.  I have 29-30 inch stools and it's still too high for my kiddos.  Not sure what to do about that.  You can also see a sneak peak into my dining room.  I'll be sharing that soon. Stay tuned!

Before

After

Another overall shot from the family room. I still have a few things to hang in here but I don't have a lot of wall space.  Naturally, I moving things around on a daily basis.  I wish I could have a blog party and invite all of you to help me figure out where I want it all.  LOL!

Take care, have a wonderful day!

Carey