A Kitchen Remodel: The planning phase

The time has come. 

(you may have noticed from my most recent pins what I have been scheming)

If we must stay in this house I am going to make the kitchen what I want and also utilizes every square inch of the 9 ft by 8.5 ft space.

Here are a few of my favorite pinterest inspirations that we are going to use as our guide. 

This first pin is probably the closest representation of what we will be doing with the space.

Source: houzz.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: vickys-home.blogspot.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: designocd.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: simplebeautifulhome.blogspot.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

And I am on the search for either a vintage china cabinet to transform or considering opening an account with British Traditions and ordering one of their stately reproduction pieces. (more on that later)

Source: home---made.blogspot.ca via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Hope to either be back later today or tomorrow with a style board for the space. 

I am still waiting on a few more quotes to come in from some vendors, but this has and will be an extensive researched product and a great resource for anyone weighting the cost of stock vs. custom, look alike marble or marble or even formica for that matter.

Stay tuned....

Preschool

Well... this past week big sister grew up. 

She started her first year of pre-k!

And of course she requested a picture with her puppies.... near impossible friends... near impossible.

But nonetheless I humored her.

The best part... we were on time, she did not cry... and I did not cry!!

This just makes my heart smile!
And I Love Lay Baby Lay

Look What I found!!!

This Massive starburst mirror was on the curb in my parents neighborhood! I tell ya folks in the suburbs people get rid of all kinds of stuff!

The broken pieces were also laying there and I was able to quickly repair them with some dowels, gorilla glue and some wood filler ;)

Can't wait to give y'all a tour of the new furniture layout!

7 months old

I am a few days behind on sharing these pictures. 

In the past week and a half baby boy cut 2 teeth, went from army crawling to full blown crawling (although army is still faster..)

We had our first stomach virus, made our first trip to the ER and.. pulled up on the furniture for the first time. 

I lost my little baby and started gaining a big boy :(

I tell ya he is a talker!! Even when he had the stomach bug he smiled and chattered away. 

Here is a sample of our fabulous 6 month photo session. 

Adorable Big Girl Room

This is a precious room of a friend of a friend.

I just had to share!

Dreaming

Like previously mentioned I am beginning the transformation of the guesthouse! Today I am dreaming of this space as I start organizing! Stay tuned for a reveal in the next few weeks!

And.. Ugh... No... We still are not fully moved back in! My whole kitchen is still at my parents house out in the suburbs! Buhl.. More boxes!

The guesthouse: office drama

This is the look I was going for in my "office" after a friend asked why I had never used this space as my office I felt it was something I needed to do. 

My fear to never start this project was ALL the work involved in this renovation. 

1. remove wallpaper

2.install carpet

3. paint everything! walls, trim, cabinetry... EVERYTHING

4. completely overhaul the bathroom

5. install proper shelving in the closet.

And not to mention I don't really want to spend a bunch on this project.

Sooo I needed inspiration and BAD!

So I started painting... Antiqua Aqua by Ben Moore

Then I got crazy and thought it would look good to paint the trim high gloss grey.

NO... it umm looks bad... see... DIY fails happen.... you just never know when that Idea will be good or bad.

So then... I sat down to work on an applique in my new office and.... my children played in their "mini-playroom."

AC found some chapstick and I told her she could use it. She proceeded to go to the bathroom to see her pretty lips... She pulled on the sink... and it happened.

It a miracle she was not harmed. Only severely sprayed with water. 

The sink fell off the wall and the pipe bringing water from the main house proceeded to severely pour into the space. 

Here is the aftermath after the overly dramatic shutoff attempt.

yes... my nasty not unpacked yet garage flooded as well. and everything everything out here is ALL garage sale stuff!!! I am just thankful for boxes that were raised and unharmed.

The newly installed carpet has already endured a good soaking. Now just praying we dont have mildew issues. 

Now for the great story:

I grab the baby and run to the bathroom. Shreels people shreels as my 3 yr. old is being pelted with a forceful stream of water to the face straight from the wall!

I yell run, grab the embroidery machine in one hand and baby on the hip and we drop the machine in the kitchen and proceed to run across the street to see if the neighborhood handy man can help. 

The man who is always home isnt... Awesome!

Call my friend Ruth. "Is your husband home?"

Ruth says "NO! Whats wrong Jenny Beth are you okay?"

"NO!!! I SHOUT FLOOD IN THE GUESTHOUSE!!! HELP!!!"

she heads over. 

In the meantime I call casey and he hangs up on me... I run to the curb, baby on hip and 3 yr old screaming from trauma of the event. I open the plate cover to our water main and for the life of me cannot process how to turn the water main off. 

 Ruth pulls up...behind the crazy woman getting a flyer from my for sale sign.

And yes I did think this lady was a good samaratain doing a u turn to help me. No! She smiled at me calmly and said nothing while I am hysterically crying with 2 children and huddled over the water main shut off. 

Ruth runs around her and we are both looking in the hole going what do we do?? What do we do?

(hysterical people, hysterical!)

Out of nowhere this guy named Anthony comes running around the corner. 

Ruth shouts "Are you our guardian angel?"

He was in classes with Casey and happens to live 4 houses away. (who knew?) 

He also has the proper wrench to shut off the water. 

(Casey had hung up on me to call Anthony and see if he could come help me)

The water is shut off and we breathe a sigh of relief. I wipe the sweat and tears from my face to then formally introduce myself to Anthony.

Then all the pictures you saw are the aftermath my family came over to help me sift through until Casey could get home.

I am sooo thankful for sweet friends who come running to my rescue. 

And for others who stay until 11:45 at night helping my husband use shop vac's to sift out ALL the water standing in the guesthouse and garage. 

What a story for the book I hope to one day write. 

Happy Thursday Y'all!

An Annie Sloan love affair

Meet my vintage kitchen table I purchased from a local antiques store. 

She was only $100.00 but perfectly matched the Restoration Hardware table I had been dreaming of. 

When we purchased the table it was a muted sage green and I was wanting more of a distressed grey look. 

This table has been with us for about 3 years.  For far far too long it sat with a coat of white, and a very very grainy distressing of glaze that I applied with a dragging brush technique to "distress."

Seen on the left of the table in the pic below. It was ugly!

Didn't take me long to fall in love with Annie Sloan chalk paint. 

I also knew the paint would be an investment so I began to save and scheme what color I would use.

The 

Here is everything painted with the base color except the bottom of the legs.

We went to visit my husband's family in Mobile, Alabama and while there my mother-in-law and I 

discovered we both have been itching to buy AS paint. 

She looked up stores in the area and the sweetest lady at Heron House helped us determine what all we needed and even walked through the steps with us. She was amazing!

Here is the table with the basecoat and beginning to use the dark stain.

Added some more stain as I got more confident. 

In this picture you can see the dark stain on the left and not on the right. 

Had I thought this through more thoroughly I would have stained in the other direction so there are no lines meeting in the middle of the table. 

Oh well. Works for me, and I will know for my next project.

And the iphone pic of the finished result. 

We have been very very pleased with how beautifully it stained.

Six.5 months

I hope to actually print these stat pages and pictures one day soon for the kids. Oh the to do list.
C man,
It seems like in a mere 3 weeks you have changed and grown soo much! You have started to truly baby babble. Mainly da da da da... On Friday aug 3, you started army crawling. You are the absolutely
Happiest baby I have ever encountered. I am so incredibly thankful for such a happy healthy baby. We went to daddy's family reunion in Heber springs, Arkansas 2 weeks ago and you Loved the boat and the lake.

You are still in size 2 diapers and drinking a 6 ounce bottle. Right now we are eating a fruit in the morning and a food pouch medley at night. You go to sleep at 7:30 and almost on the nose sleep for 12 hours. Like I said. Dream baby! We love you Connor man!

Can't believe you will be 7 months old next week!