What's a Budget?

I'll be the first to admit - I am terrible with money and everything related. When it comes to finances, I leave it to DH. The man has never paid a dime in interested and I envy him for that. However, when it comes to household repairs/renovations I keep us on budget (as much as possible) and I record everything we do so there are no questions down the line about what we did to the house or how much we actually spent.

My household renovation tracking log includes the following:

• Room of the house the renovation/repair took place
• The date we started and ended
• Which items in the room were repaired/replaced
• The details (ie any paint colors, product model numbers & styles, etc) incase something breaks we can find a replacement for it
• The store where we purchased the items
• The cost of the item(s)

DH thinks it a bit extensive and not needed but I think he'll thank me later.

However, when it came to figuring out a budget for our kitchen renovation I had no idea where to start. I Googled a of things and found this:

.		Value of Home:
		Example:	$300,000	Start here > $

2.		Select a Percentage of Home Value to Estimate Total Budget:			7% 8% 9% 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% 21% 22%
		Example:		20%

3.		Remodeling Budget Sample Categories:
			Cabinetry		40%
			Counters		9%
			Appliances		10%
			Electrical		10%
			Wallcovering		3%
			Flooring		8%
			Labor		20%
			Total:

All I had to do was plug in a few numbers and it told me what everything should cost. It was great.

I was able to make a few changes because we were doing this all ourselves (minus the countertops) we didn't need the 20% labor fees. I moved money around based on where I thought we could spend less and put it towards things I knew we'd have to spend a little more on (like cabinets & countertops).

While I'm slowly learning to budget my money, it's tricks like this that get me going in the right direction.

Kitchen Renovation Inspiration Part 3 - Lighting

I love lighting! Chandeliers, Pendents, Track, all of it. Here are some pictures of lighting I love and I need to find a home for at my house...

Varaluz Lighting Company - this company uses recycled materials to create these beautiful pieces. I'm usually not all about going green but for some reason I really love their work.

Pottery Barn - to be honest I was never really a big fan, everything was always really expensive. However, I was able to find some great lighting at a reasonable price.

And just for fun, these chandeliers (from Pottery Barn) are probably the coolest I've seen in all my searches. I mean really, whoever thought to make wine bottles into a chandelier is a genius!

I hope to channel some of this chicness into my new kitchen and find the perfect balance of sophistication and fun.

Fun in the sun

While DH and I were putting the screen door on our new patio door, Ruger was playing in the yard. After a while, I didn't seem him anymore...he was hiding under the Arbs to get some shade. He's such a smart one.

Of course I couldn't resist a little Photoshop. If you look closely, you can see a reflection of our house in his eyes. Kinda cool right?

Finally getting some love

Our much desired Chifarobe has been lonely and neglected in our garage the past few weeks while we are neck deep in kitchen renovation planning.

But the other day we FINALLY gave it some love and attention - the first coat of stain.

I decided to go with a Mahogany Satin Gloss finish and really loving how it's turning out. It's a nice dark shade with a rich finish.

Last night we tried to get the second coat on but a terrible thunderstorm interrupted us and we'll have to finish today. Bummer.

Here are the progress pictures:

As One Door Closes Another One Opens - Almost.

I can't believe we finally replaced our back door! I was so happy to see the P.O.S. gone I nearly cried tears of joy. When the door was originally installed, 26 years ago, it was installed upside down AND backwards! It's true. And the worst part is, that no one noticed until we moved in a year and a half ago. The door also had a terrible draft and always locked us out of the house. *Singing Na na na na, Na na na na, hey hey hey GOOD BYE over and over again in my mind.

And like every other renovation in our house what could go wrong actually did go wrong. Here's a quick summery of what happened:

My father in-law & DH measured the door wrong and as a result bought the incorrect size door. The door they purchased was a 72" x 80" standard door and what we needed was a 74" x 80 1/4" custom door. This was a huge problem because they didn't discover the error until after the old door was removed. At this point it was too late to order a custom door size, so they had to make it work. A couple of 2 x 4's and new trim work was all it needed - nothing major thank goodness.

The rest of the installation went fairly smooth. The door went in perfectly and silicone seal was added to keep water out. All that was left was put in the insulation and paint the trim work.

We started to remove the stickers (as instructed) after we did the final inspection. That's when we saw it....

A BUBBLE IN THE GLASS!

And that's when shit hit the fan. The bubble was hidden by the sticker and there was no way we would have seen it until we removed the stickers. UGH!

As I post this we called the store it was purchased from and are still trying to get this resolved - it's been 4 days and no one seems to know what the heck is going on. I'm about to raise hell. Well maybe not raise it, but someone is going to hear about this.

The old door: No you aren't seeing things - the screen is on the inside of the house!

In progress: I love the open feel and all the light it lets in! Maybe it should stay this way?

The final result! The final trim work can't be added until the door is replaced.

Progress Update

We kinda got distracted with the kitchen renovation and have neglected the Chifarobe we bought last month. So while DH was off on Thursday, he took matters into his own hands and finished stripping the stain and sanded 85% of the entire thing. Just the doors are left to do and I'm hoping to get that done this weekend (if I'm not waist deep in kitchen renovation stuff).

Sorry the photos aren't that great, I took them running out the door to work this morning.

Strawberry Cream Frosting

Since DH had a big (not really big, more like just a little) fit last week that I didn't make him cupcakes to take into work I made these for him to take to work on Labor Day as a treat for the guys. HOWEVER, he forgot to take them in. His forgetfulness was my gain. I brought them into my work to teach him a lesson and everyone loved them.

Ingredients you'll need:

3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Pinch of salt

1 cup butter

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1 cup frozen strawberries (thawed)

To make Strawberry Puree:

Place strawberries into the food processor. Process until pureed.

For the frosting:

Start mixing the butter and salt until it's light and fluffy. Add confectioners sugar and continue to mix until completely blended. Add vanilla extract and 3 tbs of strawberry puree and mix until just blended. Be careful not to over mix the frosting or it will become too fluffy. It should be dense and creamy.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Renovation Inspiration Part 2 - Countertops

So the other day I showed you the inspiration for our new kitchen. Today it's about what countertops we might want. While I love the look of the inspirational kitchen, I think the brown countertops might limit updating in the future. I want to go with something a little more neutral that will go with just about anything.

I know Granite is all the hype right now, but I just can't buy into it. Sure it's great, expensive looking and popular, but that's not a reason to buy something. Here are a few alternative options I've been looking into:

Dupont Corian: I like the look of this in Sandalwood (shown), Burled Beach and Tumbleweed. They are all neutral colors that look rich and are easy to take care of, and is less expensive than granite or solid stone surfaces. I like this look for the main countertops.

If I had an unlimited budget I'd get an eco-friendly countertop made of recycled materials. However right now they are much more expensive than any other type of countertop so I guess I'll have to wait on that one.

For the kitchen island I really want Heirloom custom wood countertops. They are fairly more expensive than the Corian (or granite for that matter) but since it's for a small space, I am hoping it works in our budget. Also the island will be used as our eating area so I hope the wood top makes it feel more like a table.

Kitchen Renovation Inspiration Part 1 - Cabinets

A few weeks ago, DH and I made the decision to renovate our kitchen. It's a project I thought we'd be doing next year, but thanks to the first time home buyer tax credit, it looks like we can do it this year. I am really excited by anxious at the same time.

While browsing through dozens of cabinet books I came across this Thomasville Cabinet & Kitchen. I immediately fell in love. I love the cabinet colors, the hardware, the back splash - EVERYTHING! I think my absolute favorite part is the apron style sink. It gives such a good contrast to the cream colored cabinets and it's something different that you don't see every day.

I am using this kitchen as my color & style inspiration to convince DH that we should get light colored cabinets and not dark cherry. Don't get me wrong, I love dark cherry cabinets, it's just we have a more casual style in the house and I think cherry is too formal.

Over the next few days and weeks I'll post more inspiration photos and when demolition starts I'll keep you updated on the progress (or lack of).

Peanut Butter Dream

I've been gone for a while for a good reason - Things have been crazy and I haven't had time to decorate, renovate or bake! I know sounds crazy right? They are things that should be in my every day life. I'll have more renovation stuff soon because we are thinking about redoing the kitchen!

Well I am back and I have a new frosting recipe for you. I wish I could say that I have the recipe for the cake as well but you aren't that lucky, yet.

Anyway, I made these cupcakes for work today and I thought I was in heaven! They are so good I thought about keeping them all to myself and not sharing. Then I thought about all the exercising I'd have to do afterwards and brought them in to work.

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

4 cups confectioners sugar

2 cups peanut butter (or more if you really like peanut butter like me)

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

1/4 cup cream (you can use milk if you don't have cream available)

I made chocolate cupcakes to go with the frosting because besides Jelly, chocolate is the next best thing with peanut butter. I used the Betty Crocker box recipe and it made 15 large cupcakes and 24 mini's.

To make the frosting:

Mix the butter and peanut butter until it's nice and creamy. Slowly add 2 cups of confectioners sugar. After the sugar is mixed in well, add milk. Once the milk is added slowly add the remaining 2 cups of confectioners sugar and mix well. To make the frosting more spreadable add some more milk. I slowly add milk until it's a good consistency.

I used the same 1M Wilton Tip with the 12" bag only because I don't have to refill it as often and I topped the large cupcakes with a small Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Here's the final product!

And for everyone out there who is trying to watch their weight - I always make mini cupcakes so that I can try them without feeling guilty for eating a whole large one. After all you feel better eating 4 small cupcakes than 1 large because they are smaller right? At least that's what I keep telling myself.