Trimmed

Ryan has been putting the trim under the cabinets and it's starting to look a lot more finished. Granted we still have a ways to go but it's definitely getting there. I'm so excited for when we can get our appliances in there (we won't jump ahead on how excited I am to actually cook in there).

Ignore the mess, we were workingggg.

It's crazy how much trim makes a difference. Speaking of trim, Ryan and I (yes, me, I cut and measured wood) put trim in the windows in the kitchen which basically just sealed them up and made them look a lot cleaner.

I pretty much cut all this wood myself. Ryan installed it.

We still need to put up molding (pretty much everywhere) but it feels so much cleaner having these windows cleanly lined. 

Oh and remember a few months ago when I bought something for our engagement pictures? Well, here it is in action :)

A bike built for two :)

On another note, I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving and a great holiday with family and friends. 

Sealed Up

Saturday, we were lucky enough to have my sister and her family come down and visit/ help. Ryan joked that it's going to be a "Vinci (Tkacz) kitchen" with the amount my family has been down to help. We're pretty lucky to have them so close and so willing to lend a hand. 

When they arrived my sister, Sarah and I quickly left the boys to do their thing while we went to a granite warehouse to pick out a counter top.

Granite warehouse

Since it's a working warehouse they wouldn't let Sarah go where the granite is but luckily the girl at the front desk was willing to (a) not steal the baby and (b) watch her while my sister helped me look through a million slabs of granite. I walked through the whole place and my first instinct when I saw the below slab was um, yes please! BUT since there was a whole warehouse we picked out a few other options to compare.

Option 1

Here were the others that we were drawn to.

Option 2- I think it was too consistent and black for my taste

Option 3- this reminds me of the Grand Canyon

Option 4- I liked the background but the black was a little too much

It's pretty hard to get good pictures on your iphone (although that doesn't stop me from trying). I had a bag full of samples from our kitchen (floors, cabinets, tiles, paint and backsplash) so it was easy to see that they would all go with our design but the first option definitely beat out the others in my mind. We also asked about marble (because the colors are perfect) but that was quickly shot down by the sales person when she said that not only do they not recommend it for kitchens (it stains, scratches and is very high maintenance) but they also won't put a warranty on it. So, my sister and I concluded that people with marble counter tops must not cook or have kids or both. Lesson learned.

When we got back, Ryan and Kevin had busy. They had put up siding on the side of the house where we had taken out the window as well as trimmed the outside of the window in the kitchen (the one that had been taken out and put back in). Ryan really wanted those two things done to finally seal back up our house before winter (is it weird that I almost didn't wear a jacket today?). They also put in our microwave (our first appliance installed!) and finished the venting for the microwave. Not only did they get all of that done, they also put up the side of our pantry while we were getting ready to go out to dinner. I'm exhausted just typing all the work that they did ;)

Teamwork

I love this picture.

And to make it that much better of a day, we got to spend it "hanging" out with Sarah and her ridiculously cute fleece with ears.

Uncle Ryan and Baby Sarah

Cabinets!!!

After an amazing Napa weekend trip with my girl friends, sipping wine in this beautiful scenery...

If you've never been to Napa in the fall, GO.

yesterday, I got home to find just as amazing a scenery... my dark wood cabinets!!!

Some of the wood still has to go up but you can see it evolving.

I don't even know what I'm going to do with all these cabinets ;) 

Procrastination

For the past, um, 6 months? I've been saying that I need to frame the large mirror we have in our bedroom. It was originally in the kitchen and when I brought it upstairs to use as a full sized mirror in the bedroom it looked.... bare.

Here's a before shot:

Sorry the picture isn't the best.

So, Sunday morning, instead of studying, I headed out to the Community Forklift and picked up about 5 pieces of old wood trim to frame the mirror with. I measured and cut the pieces down to size to frame the mirror. Sunday afternoon I used liquid nails and glued the pieces to the mirror and waited. Fast forward a day (or three) and not all the pieces were sticking so I re-glued and clamped the pieces (mistakingly clamping to hard and breaking the mirror... we'll call that the "look") and 8 hours later... wallah. A whole new mirror.

Another pretty bad picture... sorry.

It's definitely a cool look and makes me want to use the old wood in other projects. The best part is that I got 5 pieces for around $5. Gotta love weekend projects.

Lucky One

This past weekend after we returned from Ikea on a Friday night to exchange some cabinets because of a sink change of heart on my part (farmhouse sink? yes, please! we won't mention that this change had Ryan re-working the plumbing), I was sitting in the family room and I thought to myself how lucky I am. There are so many things I'm both lucky and grateful to have but most of all an amazing fiance who is building me a freaking kitchen (I'm pretty sure not many ladies get to say that about their man). I think it's easy to get swept away in the day to day (especially these days with so much going on) but when I finally had a chance to sit back and reflect on my life (and our life together) it brings me to smiles.

Alright enough sap, back to the kitchen. Friday night, after we got home from Ikea (note to self: Ikea on a Friday night is heaven compared to the weekend), Ryan put up the last of the hanging cabinets.

Ryan had to re-work some plumbing this weekend for our new sink and figure out the microwave vent which kind of reminded me of Apollo 13 when they have to make a square fit in to a circle (or was it the other way around?) but either way he made it work.

And last night, I came home to see the first of our drawers on and Ryan putting on one of the doors. Eek!!

Swoon. The hardware isn't on but I can just see it coming together and I love it! 

I also picked out some lights for the breakfast bar after MUCH deliberation (who knew that there were so many ugly pendant lights out there). So there will be two of these babies hanging.

I wanted them to match the style of the other lights but be much more simple.

And just this morning we picked out the recessed lights (who knew there were so many options) and I got in touch with a granite guy. It's been rather busy around here (not to mention the crazy amount of wedding planning going on behind the scenes), to say the least, but it's all coming together.

As sick of hearing about this kitchen you may be or how sick of washing dishes in a bath tub I may be, I think if anyone is ready for this kitchen to be done, it's Ryan. Luckily, we're almost there....

Closing In

I came home from class last night to find most of our cabinets hung. We're missing one and we have to exchange a few but still, very exciting!

Ryan standing in his masterpiece

Imagine dark wood instead of the birch since that will all be covered :)

I had a little panic attack because you can see that the pantry and over the fridge cabinets on the left stand out more than the other cabinets but Ryan reminded me that they'll frame the fridge. So, at this point I'm just crossing my fingers and trusting Ryan that I'll like it! :)

Now I just have to decide on light fixtures and counter tops. Designing a kitchen is a lot of work! (I said that to Ryan last night and he quickly reminded me that BUILDING a kitchen is a lot more work... touche.)

PREVIEW

We had our engagement pictures yesterday and here's a preview from our AMAZING photographer!

Yes, please!