Laundry Room Make Over...so fresh so clean

We started in on the laundry room over the long holiday weekend and transformed it into a nice new clean space. We had left over kitchen paint and decided to paint it the same yellow. It really did brighten up the whole space. Terry also decided that he wanted to paint the cabinets in there white to match the rest of the house and I am glad that we did too because it really does make it look much nicer and cleaner.

Here is how our laundry room looked before:

 The best part of the whole weekend was that we decided to get some brand new front loading washer and dryers!!!! I never have owned new nice washer and dryers before and these suckers are huge too! The washer is 4.5 cubic feet and the dryer is 8 cubic feet! We put in all of our whites and darks and still had a TON of room for more clothes. The washer and dryer are so quiet compared to the older set we got with the house! Plus when you take the clothes out of the washer they are practically dry already so you only have to dry them for like 30 minutes. I just really do love them! I could not be more happier!

And here is our laundry room now:

The Big Kitchen Reveal!!!!

OK all! The kitchen is FINALLY complete! Oh my goodness this was the biggest project and the worst project but I am SO glad its completed. Surprisingly it only took about one week start to finish but it was because I took 2 days of vacation in the middle of the week and we worked pretty much non stop on them. One good thing is that when we started working on them the temps were in the 80's which helped significantly in drying the paint quickly...almost too quickly on some days! However was not fun painting the cabinet backs inside the house with oil based primer. I was to the point of picking up the phone and hiring someone to finish it for us...but after we got through the dreaded oil based primer things went much smoother! So without further adieu here are the photos. I have been told to include more before, in process and after photos so here you go.

Here is what our kitchen looked like before:

We washed everything with TSP and then used the stripper/glosser product on them all.

Here is my one hoarder shot after taking everything out of our drawers. It drove me nutzo to have this mess on my dining room table for a week. Don't understand how anyone could live with a mess like this always!

We pulled out the cars and brought all of the doors and drawers into our garage (33 total!)

This is after we applied the nasty smelling oil based primer! Looks so much better already!

Here is how the kitchen cabinets look now. I ended up finding some pulls in a contractor box set which was 10 pulls for $15.97. So it came out to be around $1.59 each. Not too bad since most of them were going for $3-4 each.

After my handy hubby added all the pulls to the cabinets and drawers I started the process of painting the walls a light yellow to finish it all off.

And now for my usual Before and After photos. I did a lot more this time so you could really see the change :)

We also ended up purchasing a NEW dishwasher over the weekend too since our old one sounded like a jet engine while running and leaked water all over or floor every time we ran it! We ended up getting a super duper quiet one and we love that the buttons are hidden. Looks so much more smooth and seamless in your kitchen that way.

In case you didn't see it in the million photos I have on this post ;) Here is our old dishwasher and our new one!

You have no idea how good it feels to have this project done and off our todo list. We just love the new look in our kitchen. It definitely got a face lift and for the cost of a few cans of paint and some cabinet pulls it was well worth it! I think this project ended up costing us just around $130.00! When you think about the cost it would be to remodel your entire kitchen it would be many thousand dollars. I think we will stick with this option!! 

May Thrifty Finds!

This month I ended up going to the local Goodwill with my friend Kacy @ Artsy Crafty Cool we were in search of super thrifty fun finds and we both were in luck and ended up finding some really cute things for our homes! I was in search of something to add to our entryway to add a pop of color! I ended up finding this:

Since my name is not "Julie" and I was not a fan of the hand painted artwork I went to our local Lowe's and picked out a nice Teal-ish spray paint that I thought would match the living room colors....and 30 minutes later this is what I transformed it into:

Here it is now in our entry way. It will be our cute little umbrella holder because we only get about 10 days a year in Seattle without rain ;) Joking....but it sure does rain a lot here.

The other thing that I picked up was these cute little candelabras for our bedroom. I just love! Especially the little sparkly gems on them. I added some candles I had left over from our wedding 3 years ago and voila! Just them and they do look so wonderful!

Photos from last weekend

If you don't know one of my side hobbies is photography. When I was younger I had dreams of becoming a professional landscape photographer and traveling the world with some huge magazine like National Geographic...but after I found out you really have to be super good to make a lot of money...I decided I would just do it as a fun side hobby. So everywhere we go I am usually dragging along my baby (Canon Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR) Over the years I have acquired a few lenses and filters but most of my shots are just taken with the normal lens (18-50mm).

So with that said every now and then you will find some photos that I have taken that I will add onto here. These shots were taken on the way to Terry's parents family farm last weekend out in a small town in Southeast Washington called Pomeroy. We went over to help work the calves which included giving them a few shots, a tattoo in their ear, weighing them, spraying them for flies and branding them! Yes indeed I did end up branding a calf. I think I was more scared than the calf was but I did it and Terry was proud!

Sorry the blog has been so slow this week. We are gearing up for starting a MAJOR kitchen over hall this weekend. We saved one of our biggest projects for last :) Can't wait to get that one over with!

Finally, here are a few shots on how the yard is coming along. The front is looking wonderful with so many more things are popping up and blooming.

We did also hire someone to paint the house. We are painting a few swatches on the back side this weekend to decide on the official blue colors. So excited to have the house painted. Its going to look completely different!