Kitchen and Dining Room Tour

Welcome back!!! Are you ready to see my kitchen. I love to see kitchens, and I think most people do too. I guess that is why kitchens are such a big selling point for homes. So here is my kitchen.....

My kitchen is where I had the most influence in the building process. We came into our house when it was almost completely done. I got to pick the carpet, the counter tops and the appliances. Everything else was already picked out. I can thank my builder's wife for her degree in interior design and her great taste. She did a fantastic job picking out everything else (except for the bathroom countertops, but I will save that for another post!)

The builders were already planning on putting in granite countertops, so I just had to pick out the color I wanted. This wasn't an easy task since I was 6 hours away. So they Fed-Exed me some sample pieces. I don't know what happened along the way, but most of them arrived broken. The Fed-Ex man wrote on his computer thingy (you know what thingy I mean don't you?) that the box had "EXPLODED" and that is what it looked like. We assembled back the pieces and tried to imagine what they would look like in a kitchen we couldn't go look at. There was really only one option that we liked in the end, so that was easy (Where is my Easy button?). They also asked what appliances I wanted, so I found the Clean Steel G.E. appliances. They are not supposed to fingerprint as bad as stainless steel, and they are magnetic. Unfortunately those appliances were not in their budget. Luckily for us our realitor cut us a deal and paid $1000 towards the appliances for us. Sweet! So I got the appliances I wanted after all. Yipee!

I was on a blog the other day that was ripping on fake ivy plants. In particular, fake ivy plants over your kitchen cabinets and how horrible they are. Well as you can see I must not follow current trends. LOL!!! I love my fake ivy. They have been with us in every one of our houses. We have history together. I wasn't just going to shove them in a box and forget about them. I love that I don't have to water them or take care of them. Can you see that rooster up there? My sister gave him to me and I love him. I was sad when I was decorating because I couldn't find him. It was a happy day for me when I finally unearthed him from a forgotten box hiding in the garage.

Can you read the vinyl above my pantry? It says, "A Pinch Of This, A Dash Of That". It was the very first decoration I put up in my house. I told my hubby that I was going to limit myself to 2 vinyl items per room. He he he, I don't think it happened. I went a little crazy with it in my pantry....

but don't you just love it. I love having an organized place for everything. And if it is cute then all the better. And why we are snooping in my pantry do you want to see in my fridge too?

What? You didn't see any vinyl in there? Well yes, there isn't, but just give me a few more months. ---Insert wicked laugh here--- I do have vinyl other places that I didn't get pictures of. I have a Mommy's Kitchen Helper list on the inside of one of the cupboard doors, and a label on my garbage disposal switch (so my hubby doesn't get confused again....this one was actually his brilliant idea...did I tell you he is amazing?) While we are looking in things let me show you inside one of my favorite cabinets (Don't worry I won't drag you around my kitchen showing you in all of my cabinets....unless you ask!)

Don't mind all the mess in there. I wanted to show you the cork board we put on the inside of the cupboards. I love it in there. It gives us a place to put our calander and all the crazy reminder notices and things we need. Do you see all the post it notes stuck to the side? That is because I can't find any more thumb tacks. I hate to go buy more because I KNOW I have some.....somewhere.

Do you want to see in my oven too? Ha ha, just kidding! I will tell you though that there are chocolate chip cookie dough brownies cooking in there right now. YUM!!!

Well, let's move on to my dining room.....just take a step backwards, and you are there! I just finished making the curtains to go in here and in the kitchen. We had a hard time with the dining room ones. We couldn't figure out how do do curtains in the bay window. Finally we purchased a l--o--n--g rod and my amazingly talented hubby bent it to fit the bay area.

I should have gotten a better shot of the buffet by the window. It has some pretty fun legs. This was my hubby's grandma's. We inherited it after she died. It was painted a funny creamy green color. We sanded it down and refinished it. It is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I also love our table. We actually bought this table about a year and a half ago. Since we were living in my in-laws house for the last year it just sat in a box in our storage unit. It still looked brand new when we set it up here.

See the pretty flowers on the table? My hubby picked them for me. I love this time of year because the wild sunflowers are everywhere. I love them. My hubby always brings me some every year. And isn't that baby cute! She is sitting in her high chair eating crackers so I can take pictures of stuff. She is such a good baby to let her mommy play and be silly.

Well that is all for our home tour today. Our next stop will be the family room and I will probably squeeze the 1/2 bath and laundry room in with that. Stay tuned!