The Kitchen- What I Wish I Would Have Known...

Over the course of building a house, you learn things.  That your husband likes dark cabinets and you like light ones.  That he doesn't like wood flooring in the kitchen because he knows someday your dishwasher will leak and destroy your floor (he's a wise one, that guy), and that maybe you two are a good team because you can compromise and get light cabinets with a tile floor. 

Besides learning to compromise, we found out some things that I wish I would have know about the first time I built a kitchen about 18 years ago:

1) There are a lot of designers out there that don't charge you one penny to help design your kitchen if you buy the flooring and lighting, etc. through them.  Now, if you are like me and hear the word, 'designer', you automatically run away.  I'm thinking, hey designer lady, I buy 90% of my stuff at TJ Maxx and Homegoods (Oh HomeGoods, I love you) and there's no way I'm going to pay designer prices.  BUT I was pleasantly surprised to learn that some designers have many different price points.   A designer helped us with colors, flooring and any question we had and it was all INCLUDED in the price we paid her for the flooring and lighting.  It was also nice to have some choices shown to us that we wouldn't have known about otherwise. 

2)  I can't speak for everyone's experience, but hubby and I bought scratch and dent appliances off of Ebay with free shipping and warranties included and they have worked perfectly.  The appliances I wanted were not in the budget UNTIL I found this place.  I wish I still had the name of the business but I remember it was in Florida and I had the seller email me all the warranty information ahead of time so I could check it out.  The 'scratches' and 'dents' were all on the sides or places where you wouldn't be able to see them anyway and you would never know there was anything going on with these guys.  The only drawback I could find was that even with the scratch and dent cheaper prices, a cabinet front refrigerator is still a higher price than a stainless steel fridge.  I don't get it.  I mean you are literally buying a fridge with NO FRONT on it and having the front made at your own expense and it still costs more.  Say what???  They are also a tiny bit tricky to install, which I believe is included when you buy the fridge in the traditional manner, but obviously no little man is going to shoot through the internet from Ebay and install yours, so good times.

3) I'm not sure if this is all cabinetmakers or if we just lucked out, but there were several features I requested of our cabinetmaker AFTER he quoted us a price and he included all but a couple in with the original price of the cabinets.  Say whaaatttt?  Hooray!

Pull out sliders on either side of the stovetop and on either side of the sink were both included!

Also included was the extra deep drawer made to look like two shallow drawers (above) and the pull out shelves (shown below) which are in all the lower cabinets.

And now for my favorite thing in the kitchen......

A utensil drawer.  Yes, I'm a nerd.  In my old kitchen, I had one utensil container, bucket, whatever you want to call it, sitting at the stovetop.  It was so full that every single time I would pull out a spatula or whatever, every single utensil would fall out. Grrrrr.  And then the utensil drawer came into my life. 

I love you, utensil drawer. 

It's simply a pull out drawer built like a box with three holes cut into the top where the three canisters sit.  Although I am pretty horrible with tools, I'm picturing that this could be easily made in any cabinet with a pull out drawer feature. 

Ironically, the two items I paid extra for (darn you, Pinterest!) are just okay.  I had to pay a little extra to get drawers under the sink. The Pinterest version shows two full drawers under the sink.  By the time the plumbing, disposal, etc was accounted for under the deep farm sink, I just had this much space left for the top drawer:

The one reason alone to get a one bowl, deep farmhouse sink:  There are dirty dishes in there right now....but you CAN''T SEE THEM!!  I know, it's a dream come true.

The height of both bottom and top drawers are just ok, but not tall enough for dishwashing detergent or other cleaning supplies you'd normally keep under the sink, so it's just not worth the extra money if the room is limited.

The second item was the corner drawers, shown above.  Again, they are ok, but there is a lot of wasted space back there in the corner.  I'm really too clumsy for a lazy Susan (you know I'm going to knock something off back there and then have to stick my hand in that black hole area where I always wonder what's going to grab me from in there).  The drawers are shaped weird but if you don't need the extra space the corner provides, then go for it.  Really, the best thing these drawers are for are for freaking people out when you ask someone to open one and they get more than they expected.  Hehe

You know those daisies in the center of the counter in those jars?  Those are called,' Hey kids, go pick me some flowers to keep busy because it's summer and I'm losing my mind' daisies.  They may also be called weeds.

4) Open shelving was something that was also included in the cabinet price and I have been pleasantly surprised that I have liked this.  I don't like clutter and I'm not great at decorating shelves. Or dusting shelves.  The more I think about it, shelves are not my friend.  But these guys rate up there because they make it very convenient to grab frequently used items.  I just keep decorative items up there as well so when I take down some dishes to use it doesn't look like something's off or it's empty.  The downside is the Bear comes along and drinks Koolaid out of my grandmother's decorative teacups. Sigh. 😂

This is my first time having an island. It's about 4' X 7' which I have found to be a great size, no wasted space in the middle.  Maybe some day we'll even get bar stools, lol.

A couple of other things before I head out:  I once had a gas stovetop with a downdraft vent.  The draft from the vent affected the flame I was cooking with and it was very frustrating.  This time around I went with gas again but made sure to get an overhead vent.  Also, I took a rough inventory of all my kitchen items and made sure I had a place to put everything in the new kitchen.  Anything that was just taking up too much space that I hardly used I got rid of and thankfully I haven't missed those items at all.  Lastly, although I don't have any, I would seriously consider IKEA cabinets if there is a next time around.  I've heard so many good reviews about them and they seem very reasonably priced.

I hope this helps give those of you remodeling or building a new kitchen some ideas and maybe even save some money.  If you have some other tips, please put them in the comments section for all of us to use!  

❤️, Elizabeth

It's summer and there are kids everywhere.  I'm pretty sure they just used all of Elizabeth's dish detergent on a slip -n-slide.  She's happy because she didn't want to do dishes anyway.  I'm happy because so far they haven't thought to put ME on the slip-n-slide.

The Foyer - A Messy Girl's Best Friend

Someone just drove up the driveway.  Unannounced.  You glance around.  There's little boy's underwear laying in the floor (don't ask me, I just live here).  Dirty dishes are overflowing in the sink.  It looks like a wild party went on last night, but the only people here were you, the hubby and the kids.  

Please, for the love that's all good and decent, please don't get out of the car.

Well, good times.  They got out of the car.  Oh, shoot, they want to come in the house. 

But, guess what? For the first time in my adult life, I have a foyer. 

Foyer is also code word for:  STOP where you are, don't come any closer to the real part of the house, just stay right here, sister.  I'm neat, I'm clean, that's all there is to see.

That's right, take it nice and slow.  No sudden movements.

With that said, welcome to the foyer!  I'll give you a tour, but it stops at the boy's underwear, deal?

Below you'll see a snippet of the dining room and rugs which were inherited from my grandmother (the famous MomB). 

Is that a Hershey kiss wrapper in the floor to the upper left? 

Oh my goodness, it is.  Geez.  So much for the clean foyer.

To see MomB's buffet makeover, click here

The buffet is on your left as you walk in the door.  The ceilings are 12 feet and we had a hard time finding a mirror to fill the space, but we lucked out when a friend/antique dealer found this one. I love old, French style mirrors.  Old French style anything!

And I love having books all over the house.  Fake books, real books, poetry I'll never read, it doesn't matter.  I'm addicted to reading (except poetry, sorry) and would love to design a library in the house one day.  Considering we don't even have landscaping yet, it may never happen, but it's fun to think about.  ☺️

As you walk in the front door, the piano is on your right.  It was a gift to me from my parents when I was around 15 years old.  The house plan called for this to be the dining room but we changed things around so we'd have a place for the piano.  Did you know there aren't any house plans with a 'piano room' listed?? It was so hard to find a plan that would work with all the open concept plans available nowadays, so the dining room is now the piano room, the living room is now the dining room and the changes trickle on into the kitchen.  In a future post I'll lay out the original plan and show the changes.  In the first house we built I was so afraid to make changes to the plan, but I think all the HGTV shows gave me the courage to knock down some walls for this house!  I'm having Fixer Upper withdrawals, wish the new season would hurry along!

Did you know I get a piece of bacon if I lay really still like this?

So there you have it. Well, have a good one! I'm off to do the dishes and pick up whatever candy wrappers have made it to the floor so I can show you the kitchen soon.  Do your kids trash your house or is it just mine?? 

Wait a minute.  I think it was me that ate Hershey kisses in the foyer. 

Oopsie.

❤️, Elizabeth

The Old Homeplace (House Exterior)

So I'm singing, 'Welcome to My House' by Flo-Rida really badly right now, but I can't help it (at least my other half can sing).  When the hubs and I planned to build this house, I wanted it to be what my dad always described as the old homestead.  Not physically like Dad's old home but the kind of place family gathers for generations.  I pictured family mulling around everywhere, eating meals of fried chicken and homegrown green beans, homemade pies and cakes.  Hmmmmmm, gotta love the South, there goes that diet.........and plenty of room for kids to roam and play outside, maybe even a pool someday?  An old homeplace, you know? 

We agreed upon a French style home, although a departure from the house in the movie, 'Something's Gotta Give' that I had first envisioned (Ohmygoodness if you've never seen it, google it, it's the best!), it turned out to be the perfect choice for us.  It's fun to have pops of elegance here and there but still be casual enough for old vintage worn rugs and chippy paint.  In almost all design decisions I make, I try to have an inspiration photo.  Along with the help of a wonderful designer/friend, we choose the color of the exterior of the home based on the home pictured below. 

Source unknown, please advise if you can give credit for the photo

Our climate here in Kentucky could not accommodate the treatment on the brick which I assume is a mortar wash.  Oh, how I would have loved to do that! (But that's another post).  I love the old world look of this house.  We have yet to add our shutters but this is probably the look and color we will go for, along with similar landscaping.

 We took a houseplan that was as close to what we wanted as we could find, and by the end of it had reworked at least half of the house. It was great after years of searching to have the exact house we were looking for:

1. One story, although we ended up with storage and a bonus room upstairs.  I hurt my back a few years ago and stairs are not my friend.
2. Tall ceilings - The ceilings are 10' - 12'.
3. Room for the baby grand piano that I was given as a teenager.  I never thought I'd design a whole house around a piano, but it's a space sucker for sure.
4. Three bedrooms with their own baths.
5. Large dining room (for all that food, right???)  Ok, I'd admit I have a problem, but let's move on.
6. Character, as much as we could afford.  Turns out character is expensive.  Boooo.

Front steps after the rain.

Our driveway is gravel.  We plan to pave it but I really enjoy the sound of driving home on gravel right now for some reason.  (I'm sure it has nothing to do with not having to pay for the driveway). Plus I can tell myself that's a French style driveway, right??

Ellie and the bad hair day.

I LOVE looking at houses and getting ideas, which is one reason I started the blog.  I have lived in apartments, a duplex and several houses and I can honestly say there were aspects of each one of them that I loved, no matter how small or large, simple or fancy.  Any house can become a home with your own touch on it.  And it doesn't have to be perfect, mine certainly isn't!  What's your style?  Are you into the vintage look?  French? Or a huge wrap around porch like the house in 'Something's Gotta Give?' I'd love to see your house sometime!