How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck....

...about 15 bucks worth! 'Morning all! We are super excited to share what $15 worth of wood did for us this weekend. Like I mentioned before, we took advantage of the long weekend, and really hit the ground running. Check this out. 

Joey, our friend Duane, and myself headed out to Queens to go to a little place we have mentioned before, Build it Green. It's a magical place where demo'ed building scraps go to find a new home, and we dig it. 

..and dig through it! After going through piles and piles of wood, we hand selected what we thought would work best in our kitchen. 

 Just 15 smackers and about two hours of work later, we were grinning ear to ear. We prepped and measured the wood on the floor, and planned it out just how it would look on the wall before we used a nail gun to put it in place. Here is a shot of what our kitchen in progress looked like before:

 Armed with a ladder and a nail gun, Joey transformed above the cabinets from the above to the below. 

We had a weird snag in the installation, it was an outlet we needed to figure out what to do with. 

Joey wounded up routing out the back of those wood panels so they would fit over the outlet with out it bulging out. At the end of the day, we wound up with this:

We likey! If you are wondering why we have no kitchen cabinets, it's because Joey is in the process if refinishing them! After our 10K estimate from Home Depot to refinish them, we thought it would be smart to at least give it a go and see how we do with some paint and spackle. We have had some kitchen drama in the past and are looking to overcome it. I think this is a really good start. 

Rockin' Faucets Part 1 of 2

Hello lovlies! Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was amazing. We were totally zonked! Minor home things got accomplished because of our exhaustion. Why are we so tired you ask? We had a 72 hour whirlwind trip to Indianapolis, IN to visit the fine folks over at Delta Faucets. 

We were one of the eight DIY blogs they chose to come to the conference, and we were honored to say the least. They treated each and everyone of us like kings and queens, and fed us like royalty too. From the moment we walked into the Delta building, we knew we were someplace special. Everyone in the company lined up and applaused when we walked in. 

We felt a little like rockstars. 

We had the pleasure of meeting Holly from 504 Main,  Roeshel from The DIY Show Off, and Maggie from Holyoke Home.

And there (is an awful photo of me) is me with Emily from MerryPad. 

Our three days consisted of getting to know the company and the people behind the products in addition to learning about there offerings and what makes them different. There is a lot to go over, so we are dividing it into two posts this week. 

One thing I am really over the moon excited about is the Brizo line Delta has. Maybe you have seen the awesome ads around magazine land?

I don't know about you, but the ad alone caught my eye. So, Brizo is like their top of the line brand. The process they go through in design and development it pretty insane. They travel the world in search of inspiring shapes, and that's just the beginning. Talk about a dream job. Additionally they are super into fashion. After all, they sponsor Jason Wu and pull influence from the design and movement of clothes. Simply put, they have some pretty sexy stuff going on.

So how does fashion and faucets come together in a way that makes sense? That's the first question we had too. Think about your home. Think about the little things that make it special. 

Like earrings to a gown, this finial makes all the difference on this RSVP, Brizo faucet. I want this bad. So bad. I want to run plumbing into my dressing room just to have a little sink, just to put this bad boy there. I would smile every time I used it or looked at it. And that's the point. 

Delta showed us what goes into the making of their products, and you can trust they are well thought out, environmentally responsible and best of all, attractive pieces you could be proud of. I never would have thought, to put thought, into something so simple as the faucets in our home. Sinse our trip, I have been evaluating every faucet I have come across. 

 

I am pretty set on this guy too. He is the Tresa, and is meant to be in our bathroom. 

 So there is a taste of what we were up to last week. Check back for another post this week about how to DIY your own install, and more fun stuff. 

Our blog was one of eight blogs chosen by delta faucets to join deltadiy2011. Though we were not paid to post, they did provide transportation and accommodations for our trip.

The Kitchen is Brining Us Down - Again.

Mornin' Lovlies! Having fun in the sun? It's been beautiful, we can't help but have a smile on our face and find excuses to spend more time outsite the past few days. So much time Porkchop got a little friend he brought home with him. We didn't approve, so we kicked him out stat. A tick does not belong in our home. Poor pup, he has a tiny scab where the tick was trying to dig into him. El groso for sure. Want to know about something else gross? Our kitchen!

You are totally jealous of our first ever invented dishwasher. We can tell. We have heard so many times that the kitchen sells the house. What were we thinking when we bought this place? The kitchen is the worst part of the home, the most expensive to fix, and used the most (except the living room). One of the first things we did, way back when, was paint the cabinets. Major fail. We used matte paint. Don't do that. You'll have a heck of a time cleaning them if you do. We also covered up the horrid plastic stick on floors with a quick Ikea fix, which has served well as a long-term-temp.

Then, Home Depot was having a promotion to have someone come over and check out your kitch to see what it would cost to resurface your preexisting cabinets. Sounded like something we needed, so we said "sure".  So a nice gentleman stopped by a few days later and we went over our options, and for the cheapest resurface (remember, these are not new!) it would cost....get this....TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. Um.....no thank you. It cost that much to have someone paint the ouside of our whole house.

So back to the drawing board. Think. Think. Think.

See those grooves? Those are super 50's. I think that's that last time someone updated this kitchen. Sinse we aren't going 50s, the grooves have got to go. So, Joey had an idea.

He told me to take those bad boy's off the hinges, he wanted to fill them in with wood putty, then repaint them....He was thinking. The kind of thinking I like a lot. A bit of love and labor can save you a ton.

So after some brainstorming of what we could DIY, here is what we cam up with.

• Wood countertops from Ikea
• Pulls from Home Depot
• DIY Cabinets, resurfaced
• New Farmhouse sink

....and we will call it a day for now. Unless of course you lovely people think those yellow counter tops are just too amazing to let go of.... :)

We will keep you posted and show you how the cabinets turned out, and share the (hopefully!) successful story of how to DIY this yourself and keep your 10K! We will also walk through the backsplash replacement, and counter installation. Also if we invent a magic want to make this archaic stove go away, we will share that too!