Kitchen Remodel

As a follow-up to yesterday's post where I posted a video tour of our kitchen renovation, I thought I would post a photo tour as well. I don't think words or pictures can accurately portray the vast transformation of our kitchen. One would have had to have been present in our old, cold, dark, dingy and small, not to mention extremely dated kitchen to appreciate fully the light, the warmth, the space and functionality of our new kitchen. It's almost as if it's not even the same house.

 So, here we have the entryway, which will become the mudroom when the cubbies are built.

The cubbies will go on the wall with the angel on it. In the picture above, you can see the view from the entryway into the dining area with the wine bar straight ahead. Also visible is the wood floor, which is a wide-planked distressed oak, which is reclaimed barn siding. It's a very cool floor.

When you walk in the door, we have a bathroom immediately to the right. The tile on the floor and walls and in the shower is Italian Porcelin, but it feels like slate. We had a custom shower built in there,which is really nice.

Moving into the dining area, we have our "wine bar" which is visible from the entryway. We have all our bar ware stored in the cabinets above. The cabinet doors are made are wrought-iron  wire style and are super cool, especially for displaying the glasses. The counter is granite and the backsplash was designed by me and made from little bits of broken glass. I love the way the backsplash ties the counters and cabinets together. Under the counter, we have the wine fridge and two cabinets that hold nothing but alcohol. You can take the girl out of the bar, but you can't take the bar out of the girl (once a bartender, always a bartender). We also had undercabinet lighting installed which really brings out the backsplash and the beauty of the granite.

Moving on to the dining area. The dining area is quite large and the table is situated so that we can enjoy the views of the yard and farm out of the many windows. The light coming through these windows is amazing. The table seats 8, but we can insert two leaves and extend it to seat 12 comfortably. The lantern mirrors the bolt and toggle on the table and has an industrial feel to it that goes with the whole atomosphere of the kitchen. I just love sitting at the new dining table and staring out the windows.

Here is the view from the dining area into the kitchen.

And now for a tour of "Mommy's Playground" as I like to refer to the new kitchen.

I'll start with the Island, which you can see in the photo above. It seats four very comfortably and this is where the kids eat many meals and do their homework. Above the island are pendants made from mason jars, which are super cool and go with the industrial feel we were looking for. Inside the island, we have a cabinet for the trash, a microwave cabinet and two cabinets with pull out drawers, which I just love. Take a look.

Moving on to the sink and range top area. In the old kitchen I had one small window in this area that was not as big as one of the current windows, and being a lover of the light, it would be fair to say that having one small window on the west side of the house was a depressing experience for me. So, having these windows is just amazing! As you can see, we have a 36" farm sink with a large goose-neck faucet. I love the sink for both its size and depth and makes for easy washing of pots, pans and baking sheets. The range top a 48" gas range top with six burners and a downdraft, which negated the need for a hood and which allowed extra room for windows! I love the recessed arch in the ceiling that mirrors the arch in the island and wine bar and I also love the backsplash going all the way up.

 In the picture above, on the right, you can see the double wall ovens with a warming drawer. I love having double ovens. These are electric and have a convection feature for baking and roasting. Below are more views of the ovens and other appliances.

On the opposite end of the kitchen, we have the fridge and my pantry (which is really just my spice pantry).

Here are some detail shots of the cabinetry, counters, backsplash, etc. The cabinets are KraftMaid with a biscotti paint and cocoa glaze. I love them! We have so much storage, which is great considering the amount dishes, glasses, serve-ware, bake-ware, pots, pans, cooking accessories, etc. that I have. The corners have lazy susans. The lazy susan nearest the range has all the pots and pans. The lazy susan closest to the ovens has small appliances stored there, so I do not have to have those things cluttering up the beautiful counters.

I did not get a detail shot of the knobs and pulls, but I really love these as well. They have small beading detail on them that reflects the beading on the cabinets.

And finally, here is a view from the kitchen area into the dining area.

So there is a photo tour of the kitchen. The video tour gives a much better feel for the kitchen, so if you missed that, check it out in the post below. We are totally loving our new kitchen and it has already added a tremendous amount of enjoyment to our home.

And lest we forget where we came from, here is a picture of my kitchen on Thanksgiving day, a kitchen which I somehow managed to pull off Thanksgiving dinner in and look forward to laughing about in years to come.

Kitchen Reveal

We started the kitchen renovation over a year ago when we met with the architect. A year later we still are not completely finished, but since so many people have asked, I decided it was time for a reveal. We are mostly finished. The remaining items are two new outlets with plugs in black to replace the white ones in the wine bar, the cubby system for the mud room, and the deck. Please join me on a video of tour of the kitchen.

February Swim Meet

Today, the kids had their first swim since before Christmas. They all had been working really hard in the pool recently and I knew we had the potential to see some big improvements. Let me say this: I am so proud of them! Not only have they been working hard, their performances today showed how hard they had been working.

It was just a dual meet and we swam mixed heats to speed things up a bit. There was not a lot of choices of races because the meet was so small and the coach wanted the twins to swim some longer races, so they ended up swimming with the 9-10's in a few races.

Isabelle was up first in the 9-10 100 IM. This was her second time swimming this race and boy did she look good, really good. Her butterfly is looking so much better. When she came off the turn and went into the backstroke, she was looking amazing--her hips were going and she had great power. I wished I had a stop watch for that split! Then she came off that turn and looked amazing in the breast stroke.Unfortunately, she had to finish with the free, which is her weakest stroke, weirdly enough. But she had a great race and took over a second off her time from December.

Next up was the 8 & Under Back. All three kids were in this race. Gabriel swam first in the slowest heat. He was also the only five-year-old swimming today. He had an amazing race and looked really awesome. He shaved 5.7 seconds off his time and finished in 28.13. Really great swim. I was so excited for him. The twins were up in heat 5 of 6 and they both had the outside lanes, which means they had the two slowest seed times in that heat. Isabelle had been looking really strong in the back in practice, and I knew she could have a great race. I also knew Nathaniel could shave some time off.  It was a really great race for both of them. Isabelle finished second in the heat with a time of 21.9, shaving 1.45 seconds off her PR set in December. Nathaniel also swam a PR of 23.92. Isabelle's time held up for 5th place overall in the race, so that was great.

Next up was the 8 & Under 50 Free. Gabriel was up first in the slow heat. His stroke looked amazing and effortless really and he ended up shaving almost 8 seconds off his time, swimming a 1:00.32. Nathaniel swam in the next heat and he looked good too. He shaved about 4 seconds off his time.

Next was the 8 & Under 25 fly. The coach wanted Nathaniel to swim this race because he has struggled with his fly of late. He actually looked really good in the race and had a really nice swim.

Next up was the 9-10 50 back. Nathaniel was up in  the first heat. His stroke looked really good, but he lost  a lot of time not doing a flip turn and in looking back to the wall before the finish. He still shaved 2 seconds off his time.

Isabelle was up next in the 9-10 100 breast stroke. She had never swum a 100 breast before, so she was nervous, but I thought she would do really well. I thought she could swim it in 2 minutes, which is by no means a fast time, but it was her first time trying it, so I did not think it was unreasonable. She looked really great the whole race. She hit the first 50 in 57 seconds, which was her PR from December, so that was really great. She finished up in 2:01.32 and I was really happy about that, but she was not. There was only one other heat of the 100, and then she had to be on the blocks for the 25 breast, so she had no time to recover.

Like I said, the 25 breast was up next. Gabriel swam in the second heat. His stroke looked good, but he got DQ'd, I think at the finish, which was a shame because he would have swum a PR. Nathaniel swam in the 4th of 5 heats. He looked great and I knew he would do a great time. He came in at 27.67, shaving 1.5 seconds off his time from December. Isabelle was up next in the fast heat with the third seed time. Two boys had faster seed times. But she had just laid everything out in that 100 just a couple of minutes (no more than 5 minutes recovery) before. Well, she had a great race, she looked good and it was really close. She and the top seeded boy were neck and neck the whole way and I really thought she would get him at the end. But he out-touched her and she got second place, with a PR time of 25.12, about a half second faster than December. I was so excited for her! She had another great race.

Next, and finally, Isabelle and Gabriel were swimming the 8 & Under 25 free. Isabelle had not swum this race this year, so she was seeded in the slow heat with last years time and swimming right next to Gabriel. I told her that she would have to make herself swim fast and that she would have to push herself in this one. She actually looked decent in this race and swam a PR time, coming in at 23 seconds in her last race with no one pushing her. Gabriel also looked good, and he swam  PR by 1.62 seconds, finishing in 29.37. I was impressed with Gabriel holding it together through the meet. It is a long time to sit and wait and it was a very early morning to start.

So, all in all, a wonderful day for the kiddos at the pool. Lots of PRs were set and we saw a lot of guts and grit out there today.