Kitchen Upgrades- Part 1

We have a big kitchen. The room is roughly 11 x 14 with a lot of wall space. It feels roomy. And bright.

When we moved in, the kitchen only had one wall of cabinets, original to the house and painted white. Between the fridge, the sink and the dishwasher, the wall only had enough room for two over-head cabinets, two under-counter cabinets (one under the sink), one drawer, and one hard-to-reach over the fridge cupboard. Read: no storage.

The previous owners left a big bulky fake-wood cabinet that served as a pantry, and we brought in a kitchen cart that houses our microwave and pots and pans. Everything had a place as long as we kept all of our small appliances in the dining room, the dog food in the basement steps, and our baking items in a hard-to-reach cabinet obscured by pot lids. It was not efficient.

Last weekend, I packed up half of the kitchen and painted the walls a beautiful light grey color called Plantation Moss (Valspar matched into Behr). And moved the wood cabinet, with our canned goods, into the garage. What do you think of the progress so far?

Painted new-cabinet wall

Next chapter: assembling and installing extra cabinets and a counter top.

Our first house fixes

We spent a busy weekend painting the new house and making a few small fixes.

First up: Mastering the Caulk
People often don't realize how easy it is to fix window trim and baseboards with a little bit of caulk. In a lot of older houses, the wood trim likes to separate from the wall, creating an ugly gap. A tube of caulk is just $3-4. It is also super easy to work with. Just make sure to buy paintable caulk if using it on trims and baseboards.

Before:

After:

Next: Painting
We painted our Family Room and our Master Bedroom, the two rooms we will use the most right away. We still have to do some touch-ups and we have to paint the trim in the FR. But both rooms are ready for us to move in!

FR Before:

FR After:

Bedroom Before:

Bedroom After:

Finally: Testing the New Lawn Mower

Our ILs gave us a nice lawn mower as a house-warming gift. Here is my husband taking it for a test run (note his shorts and boots).

And here is what our lawn looks like now since he decided not to finish the job. Our neighbors love us already!

Paints: Valspar Spa Pool, Olympic Applesauce Cake (matched into Valspar), Olympic Delicate White (for ceiling).