Fortune Cookie Friday 010

It has been 2 weeks since we moved in and we can't get enough of it. The new kitchen makes everything sweeter and the mornings a little more bearable. We love having our own space, to make a home together and to just be together. Yesterday marks 4 years of us knowing each other, crazy how time flys! There has been so many memories made in those 4 years that it's crazy to think about all of the more memories that we'll make in the next 4 year. I'll get off the rabbit trail now, promise. We put up DIY curtains yesterday and will be posting a tutorial on them in the next week!

Three more days till Halloween!! I've never been a super fan like some, but I do like dressing up and decorating. I've also never lived in the neighborhood so this will be my first time having trick-or-treaters! Whether or not we'll be here that night is still TBD, but I know it will be fun when we do hand out candy. Anyone have fun plans for Halloween?

We haven't had time to decorate for Fall/Halloween becuase of the craziness of moving in and unpacking. But for you guys that are, these Alice and Lois marble pumpkins are my favorite so far. Last year was my first year painting pumpkins instead of carving them, and I loved it.

Updating our 70's Fridge with DIY Paint: A How To Guide

Our house was built in 1957 and remodeled in 1980 when they put a brand spankin' new Whirlpool Mark I refrigerator in. But now that it's 2016, that almond color was just not in style anymore. It actually works perfectly fine and keeps things super cold, but that color was just awful. We looked into replacing it with a new stainless or black one, but we just couldn't justify getting a new one when the one we had was only aesthetically displeasing. So I did some research and decided I was going to DIY a paint job.

If you didn't catch  our full kitchen reveal the other day, go check it out. 13 weeks of work got us from 0 to 60 in no time, and we have big plans for some more updates down the road. The black fridge ties in the color palette for the kitchen and matches the black stove. If you don't get any further, the whole process took a total of 2 days, most of which was drying time and cost $16.

Before and After: The Full Kitchen Remodel Reveal!

It's been 13 weeks exactly since we did the first update to the kitchen by installing new cabinets on the once cabinet-less wall. And you guys, it has been a dramatic and long time coming. You can look through the entire kitchen timeline and see step by step how we got to this place. We still have a handful of ideas that we'd like to add to make the space more functional, like adding cabinets above the fridge and a storage/display system above the right side cabinets, and the backsplash(!). But for right now, we are incredibly happy with where our hard work got us. Our house was about as gross as it gets when we first bought it. The walls were yellow from smokers and the vinyl floor was sticky like duct tape. It took us 13 weeks to get here (including alot of work elsewhere in the house, but that's reality), meaning that it's a process. Don't go through these pictures and think you could never turn your kitchen around into a space that you really love. Life's too short to not be happy in a space where you spend a great deal of your time. With that in mind, see our transformed kitchen!

Here's just a refresher in case you forgot how ugly and non functional this place was before, a shot of the same space from the same angle. It's hard to imagine how sticky this place was and how clean it feels now. The thing that makes the biggest difference in visually looking bigger is the white flooring and the light gray walls. I'm glad we chose to stick with the black appliances we had because it grounds the cabinets and makes it seem full. Check out how we DIY'ed this black fridge from our existing almond colored one, spoiler: it took 2 days and $16.

Installing a Modern Brass Pendant in the Kitchen

Big news: we spent our first night in the house!! We were going to take pictures and a few SnapChats to commemorate the occasion, but by the time we got in bed we were exhausted. Everything is still in boxes and the floors are still dirty from working, but I couldn't spend one more night away from this place. It's hard to live in it and not have it decorated or pretty, but right now it's worth it. This weekend is going to be filled with unpacking and cleaning and rearranging.

On to other things for today! The kitchen pendant is something that I have been excited about from the get go. I knew that it was going to be a stand out piece since it would be gold and at the center of attention above the kitchen. After a lot of searching and price checking, we landed this pendant from Progress Lighting in the Natural Brass finish. I grabbed this beauty from Wayfair while they were having their huge Labor Day sale, so I got it for about 40% off. And if you thought this guy was cute, take a look at its big brother (literally), which is twice as big as the mini. Even though the bigger one is probably prettier and makes more of a statement, the dimensions of the mini fit our space better. If you're one of those people who don't like to wait for things to ship, then you can pick up the mini in the chrome finish at your local Home Depot.

Installing Marble Vinyl Tile in the Kitchen

Over the weekend we moved all of our furniture into the house, put all the hardware on the kitchen cabinets and hung them all up, installed the garbage disposal, and put the quarter-round down in the kitchen. A few posts back I mentioned that we picked up this marble vinyl tile from Home Depot for only 89¢ / sq. ft. Last week we prepped the floors and put those babies down. 

Here is the top layer of sheet vinyl. It was a brick like/Tetris pattern in a brown and khaki color. Below the top layer was a layer of plastic tile that looked 100% like masonry brick. Not only was their exterior brick, but their kitchen floor was brick! Thankfully, we came up with a better solution.

Below is the bottom layer of green terrazzo vinyl tile and it surprisingly more bearable than the top layer haha. This "Ugly Flooring From History" article is incredibly accurate because it lists the top (#1) and bottom (#25) layers as ugly flooring and oh are they right!

And here is the new carara marble vinyl flooring that we installed ourselves.