Backsplash

Here are some inspiration tiles that my mom found for the backsplash!

House Numbers

I was looking all over for craftsman style house numbers but all of the ones I found were way out of my price range. Then I found these at Restoration Hardware. At $10 a pop, they are in my budget and I love the look!

(photo courtesy of Restoration Hardware)

Seriously Final Kitchen Plans

For real this time. The main differences from the last plans are the placement of the sink, the upper cabinets which now have glass inserts (which I love), and there is no upper corner wall cabinet. No more changes will be made (whoohoo)! Seriously, we ordered these last weekend (so no suggestions, that means you mom =).

And here are the cabinets we ordered for the kitchen in the apartment.

And below, is the apartment kitchen with a breakfast bar.

The breakfast bar and the cabinets above it have not been ordered yet...

...so suggestions are welcome =).

The cabinets and appliances will be arriving next Saturday (Halloween), and judging by the progress our contractors have made so far, they will probably be installed sometime next year. Sigh.

20% off of a Backache

After months of toiling over different kitchen designs, today was the day that Masai and I decided to go to Ikea and place our order for the kitchen cabinets for both our kitchen and the apartment kitchen.  I already went once last Wednesday to get an invoice for the kitchen plan, then of course we had a plumbing debacle and had to change the plan.  So, we brought our newly designed plans and reluctantly left our warm apartment for the Sunday afternoon Ikea craze!  And Ikea did not disappoint; it was jam-packed with couples, singles, families, screaming babies.  It was a hot, stuffy, crazy mess.  After 3 hours of standing in front of the Kitchen Consultant desk, I had a backache, a headache, and was convinced that the poor air circulation was going to get me sick from someone else's germs.  Masai was none to pleased, to say the least.

Below is the breakdown of our day:

9:30 am   -  Rise and shine.
11:00 am - Swing by Tastee Diner for breakfast.
12:30 pm - Arrive at Ikea, College Park, put our name on the waiting list for the Kitchen Consultants.
12:50 pm -  Meet with John (the most wonderful Ikean ever!) to go over revisions.
1:30 pm   - Finished with revisions, John starts entering our order into the Ikea computers for processing.
(Masai and I take a tour of Ikea and check in on John intermittently to see how the progress is coming)
2:15 pm   - Masai has a meltdown and has to go to the Ikea cafeteria for coffee and deep breathing.
2:45 pm   - Cabinet order is complete!  Pay for cabinets.
2:50 pm   - Go to the delivery desk with completed order to arrange for pick up.
3:15 pm   - Delivery order is complete!
3:45 pm   - Back at home, time to recuperate and start Sunday afternoon homework.

The light at the end of the tunnel: Ikea is having it's bi-annual kitchen sale.  Since we bought three or more appliances, we got 20% off of our order.  So we saved a hunk of cash.  I guess that's worth a backache =).

Holes in the Wall

So the walls in both kitchens have been opened up!  It doesn't look like much yet, but it was really exciting for me when I went over there this afternoon.

Main Kitchen

Apartment Kitchen

Exterior Paint Color...

...is up! The color is "Franklin Lakes" from Benjamin Moore's Classic collection. We're really happy with the color we chose. Hope you like it too!