Day 79- Liv gets her s*** together and gives you the completed kitchen pics!

So I've been a little neglectful. And some would say rude. To string you along for months of posts whining about how long my remodel was taking, and then finishing it, and then quietly, selfishly hoarding all the finished pictures to myself while I cried sweet tears of relief in my new craft room. It is finally done. Completely and with no asterisks saying Chris still needs to do a few more things. Done done. The only thing still not done is our final invoice which hasn't come yet. We're not saying anything in case he forgets about it since we were a little job for them and we get our remodel at 50% off! Just kidding. I'd say something, Mama raised me a little better than that.

So I guess you want to see some pictures? I haven't finished styling everything yet, that takes time and consideration! And a trip to the flower mart for an awesome hanging fern for the range wall by the window and big fiddle leaf fig plant for the office. Then the pictures will truly be blog-worthy. But I'm getting some hate mail from you dear readers so I gotta give you some relief. Just a note though, these were taken with my phone and I'm not Bethany Nauert or anything so don't give me crap for the bad pictures. Here you go... We'll start with the craft room/office/playroom.

Yes, I hung my creepy French clown vintage needlepoint because I love it and it hasn't made Elsa cry yet. I was going to get it framed but I kind of love seeing the stitching fabric and that it's stretched out and askew. Adds to the vintage charm me thinkest. IT'S MY ROOM!

I'm pretty sure the smartest decision for this room was ditching the bookcase that bisected the room (it's in Jeff's studio now) and adding the high gloss white armoire with sliding doors to house our books and my craft crap. It's a Pax wardrobe from IKEA, was annoying to build, but it's perfect for this room.

My desk is flanked with stacked boxes of my fabric hoards. Incessant reminders that I need to bust out the sewing machine again and get making.

My Sew for Victory poster is at the framers right now and we still have more art to hang, but we're finding that we want to keep things a little more bare in the new spaces. The paint color (Swiss Coffee by Ben Moore) is the perfect warm white and we put it everywhere. Eggshell for the walls and doors, semi-gloss for the trim. Of course this is making me KILL to put it in the living room too now! It makes everything bright and big and happy.

The laundry closet is a tiiiight fit but it works, and the machines are fantastic. It's been so long since I've washed clothes in a nice machine with a bunch of settings! My aunt is going to gasp, but I even washed a load of my delicates (she works at Vicky's Secret) on the delicate cycle and then hung them to dry and they came out great. I HATE hand washing clothes so that alone made this whole remodel worth it.

We also had the painters paint the heater cover in white to make it less obtrusive (it was just a gray metal before).

Let's talk a minute too about these floors. THESE FLOORS! I love the cork. So much. Except the cat puke camouflages identically with the floors so I have to get down low and scan around every few days to make sure there aren't any hidden yaks. Luckily the boys don't puke as much as Lily Mae the Bulimic Siamese (God rest her soul) so it's not that big of an issue. It's lovely to walk on, always looks clean, and wine glasses just bounce right off of it without even a chip! Don't ask how we know that. It's great. It was a pain in Don's ass to install (the seams curled up when the adhesive dried so he had to sink about 3 million little brads into them to keep them down- totally invisible though) so I'm not sure how easily I'd recommend the BuildDirect product we purchased. I love the pattern of the cork though.

And our goth bathroom! So hard to photograph because it's tiny, but this is about it. Matte black chalkboard walls that nobody better chalk up (I like it just like this) and the gold accents and shiny white toilet/sink coordinate perfectly with the kitchen.

Ugh, I wish I was a better photographer so you could really see the greatness in here. You get the idea.

Elsa is slowly breaking down my resolve and I'm allowing the magnet letters to stay on the refrigerator. Just adds to the lived in charm of the kitchen I guess. I still want some art piece above the sink window, but something small and not too colorful.

My kitchen-warming present from Jodi! A sweet little spiky air plant in a gold geometric planter. Perfect for this corner.

We're trying to keep the window ledge somewhat clear so the boys can sit up here and bask. Jeff sealed the butcher block counters with a matte polyurethane that was *almost* dry when the first cat jumped up there. We have really faint kitty toe prints in the finish but I kind of love them.

My favorite things about the new kitchen are the Delta Trinsic champagne bronze faucet and matching sink flange, the Ikea Domsjo sink, the soft-close cabinets drawers and doors, and the beveled tile with black grout. That's a lot of favorites.

I'm not sold on the LED light bulbs we put in the overhead lights, they make it feel a little strange in there somehow, like you're in a school auditorium or something, but they last like 86,000 hours so that kind of makes them worth it. We have our coffee station set up on the buffet, with coffee cups and all the accessories needed in the cabinet below, which is just one example of how functional the space is for us. There is just enough room for everything (no room for anything more though so no more kitchen towels Sue!) and everything is in perfect reach of where it should be. Working in this kitchen is a pure pleasure now.

And the cats seem to enjoy it too.