Kitchen Updating / White Tile=BAD

Our Kitchen was not in terrible shape by any means, but we did think it needed some freshening up. White Tile counters, white tile backsplash, white, microwave, white cabinets, and old white dishwasher. You get the picture, too much white! This was a fun project, we found ways to save some money, and also ended up with a new and comfortable kitchen. We like to think that in our house we will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen, so we want it to feel good. Here are some before pictures:

I hope my description of the white out makes sense when you see these pictures; no character in the kitchen, and nothing unique. This picture to the left shows where I have begun to tear off the countertop tile. This was a great way to save some money. Most people charged around $300 to tear off the old countertops before replacing them, so $300 saved in my book. The blacksplash tiles were a bit more difficult and we ended up having to cut the drywall out and replace it with cement board. Those tiles on the back were stubborn. It ended up being easier to cut the drywall out instead of trying to pick off each individual tile. More $$ saved.

Here on the right the countertops are off, bar is off, and the kitchen is a mess. Progress!

Old sink = not very attractive. This thing was a mess all the time. We decided to get a new under-mounted sink to replace this one. With it mounted under the counters it is a lot easy to clean around the sink. And it just looks better. I will show a picture of the new sink below.

A guy come out to make a template out of thin cedar planks in order to get all the right measurements for the new granite. I did not know this is how they measured things out, but it was neat to see the guy tacking all these planks together and hauling them back to the shop. The picture below on the right is at the granite yard. Kim could not come with me that day, so I was praying that I picked out the right slabs. It was awesome to be able to go pick out a huge slab of rock thinking that it was going to be turned into our kitchen counters. We selected a granite called yellow river that has some natural gray streakiness to it.

So now its time for some after pictures. Granite installed, new Island delivered, some furniture added, new stainless steel microwave and dishwasher, and things are looking up. We stripped the kitchen down, okay I stripped the kitchen down; I think Kim pulled 2 tiles off total, but she did really well with those two tiles, and we built the kitchen back up. In fact, I was able to get a photo of Kim in action: (thanks for the help Kimmy)

We also got a new light fixture above the island which we thought was cool. Kim admiring her new purchase:

Awesome antique French cupboard that we had to have. The red color is beautiful and the inside is a smokey gray color we love.

We added a tumble stone backsplash and pulls and knobs to all the drawers and cabinets. The stone on the back makes a great contrast against the new stainless steel appliances.

Pink Hydrangeas that popped up on the side of the house. nice surprise.

We feel very satisfied with the work we did on our kitchen now its time to enjoy. If anyone wants to come have dinner, or breakfast or lunch for that matter, you are more than welcome. We added some things we wanted: granite, new light fixture, knobs, new sink, new stainless dishwasher and microwave, a big island, and stone backsplash. And, we were able to save on somethings too. Our biggest savings came on the cabinets. We were getting estimates for cabinet glazing ranging from $1300 to $2400. I thought to myself, no way! So I was able to get two bottles of charcoal/black antique glaze for $14 and over a saturday and sunday glazed all of our kitchen cabinets. Lets see $2400 or $14? Easy decision there! Below are two good before and after pictures that kind of sum up the whole process, and you can see the cabinet glazing too:

Cluttered and White!

Same corner, updated cabinets and clean:

Thanks for Reading,

NICK

HBH

HEY HOLLIE, LOOK, I BLOGGED....

I'm Taking OVER !!!

Kim, my wonderful wife, doesn't seem to have quite enough time to truly immerse herself into this blogging lifestyle, so I (Nick) am taking it upon myself to pick up the slack. I AM TAKING OVER!!! I mean, thats what any loving husband would do, right? (Wesley and Dave, keep jokes to a minimum please). Kim started a new job earlier this year and has been working extra hard to get ahead and put herself in the best possible position to do well. I am very proud to say the least. So with that hard work she doesn't have much time to read other blogs, much less post on her own. I am now the official blog voice of the Campbell family. I am excited to be able to show everyone who reads just how wonderful our life is, including updates of what we are doing and where we are going. I will also give some needed updates on our home, seeing as how Kim left that task unfinished in her earlier posts.

We have thoroughly enjoyed making our home. This is something we have dreamed about doing for a few years now, and are pleased that our hard work has given us the opportunity to play house! We started with some necessities, tables chairs, a BED, things of that sort. Then we started adding some fun things that make our house unique to us. It truly feels like home and I realized this at the end of this past weekend driving home. I joined my 3 brothers, and 9 other trouble makers, for my brother Alex's bachelor party in Savannah, GA this past weekend. Though we had a great time, fishing, drinking, and watching Alex run beside a car full of black guys with gold grilles while rapping Kilo Ali, it was nice to be headed back to home. I'm serious, Alex trotted for about a 1/2 mile down River st. slapping hands with these guys through the car windows and rapping every line of the Kilo Ali song. It was an impressive effort. The guys in the car were probably thinking 'who the hell is this crazy white boy'? Oh Yeah, did I mention we had been drinking, a lot?

Point of the story is, after all the fun was had I was eagerly driving home because I knew I got to come home to Kim and this place we call home. While driving I had the realization that we had in fact created a nice comfortable place to call home, and it was a proving point to me that so far we have made a satisfying life for ourselves, leaving me even more excited for what's to come in life. And, this is somewhat of a relief compared to the last couple places we have lived together. Apartment life, it gets old! Apartment life, it doesn't really say "home." In my next post I will put up some pictures of the progress we've made playing house, once I figure out how to get those pictures on here. Then I will continue post in order to let the blog world know what I am thinking, uh oh!!!

Nick

LAVISH: Body & Home

I was in need of some major retail therapy after a long week here in Scranton. Luckily I found just the place to get my fix. I went to Lavish Home & Body which is just 2 blocks down from my hotel. The store is attached to a luxiourious spa/salon which made me which I could stay all day for pampering. There were so many finds in this store that I would need a bigger house to purchase all my favs. I made out with some great new Mario Badescu products that I can't wait to try and a really neat decorative finial for my new bookshelves. I want to post a picture of it but don't have my camera here. Here are some pictures of the items I really loved...

I can totally image relaxing here on this Daybed and catching up on all my magazines.

How fun is this chair? They had them in all colors. They don't really match my decor but if they did I would have to have it!

These are the most beautiful barstools I have ever seen. I don't even want to call them barstools because that dosen't give them justice. I am actually wanting to get these but have to measure our bar height when I get home first. Great barstools are hard to find and these are the best I've seen.

That's What She Said

In the morning I will set out to the promised land of Michael Scott. Here is a photo from my last time in Scranton. This looks just like the sign on the show but yes, please notice the astroturf. It is in the mall.

Beach Bound

Nick and I are in the beautiful, stylish and sleek Impala headed to PCB!!!! Beach/La Vela here we come! I am so excited about a relaxing weekend with friends because I leave Monday for two more weeks in the ever wonderful Scranton, PA. This blogging thing will really come in handy then because I get so sad living in the hotel by myself. I will post beach pictures soon. Also, stay tuned for pics of Michael Scott in Scranton. If anyone wants a Dunder Mifflin T-Shirt let me know!

Under Construction: Creating our Cocoon

I am sad to say I am the last to give a go at blogging but have loved reading everyone's so far. I am inspired and can see how this will be such a great way to keep up with the day to day happenings. I just got home from Bunko at Jill's which had some amazing food and couldn't wait to start out my blog.  I am so excited to share all of our adventures and hopefully the pictures I will post will show why I have been so busy. We are very much under construction and are still trying to unpack out last boxes. With a new job and a new home it has been an exciting and busy time of change.  We have been painting, fixing, weeding, ordering, picking and painting more. You can see our painting operation underway below. I found out I love me some painting. We came out with sore arms, jalapeno pepper paint on our noses after a small paint fight and a appreciation for some good ole' fashion manual labor. 

The next photo I am going to post is to prove how serious I have been when I say we have NO furniture. Four folding chairs have been the extent of our decor so far. I came home yesterday not knowing we had a special delivery and here is what I saw.....all our dining room furniture had arrived and Nick had set it out so I would see it right when I walked in.  You can see in the picture he set one of our folding chairs next to one of out new dining room chairs. I love the sign he put out, which would you rather sit in? 

I am sad to say that you will never experience the neon green with white polka dots in our guest bathroom but to show you I am not exaggerating like I am known to do here is a picture of the before. 

We used an aqua grasscloth paper to try to tone things down a bit and changed out the fixtures and knobs. You no longer have to wear sunglasses when using the bathroom.

Other final new renovation are having this built-in bookshelves created. There was nothing here at all so I was so excited to have the extra storage. 

Here is our new bedroom furniture but we have no bedding. 

I would love ideas on the bedding! I see a few of you have some awesome design blogs tagged so I can check those out too. I can't wait for you to all see in person our new little home. Thanks Jill for this excellent idea. I love that we are committed to sharing our lives with each other and what a great way to do it!