$10 shelves

I used the plan from Ana-white.com for her $10 Shelves. They were SUPER easy and only took about about 15 minutes to put together.

I used (2) 1 x 4's and (1) 1 x 2



Put together and sanded down



Finally painted and up on the wall!

The small white filler is paintable to cover the scew holes

Kitchen Reveal Part 2 - Cost Breakdown

For this renovation we did all the work ourselves (minus the granite installation) so we didn't have to pay the 20% labor fees most places charge.

Here's a rough breakdown of where we spent our money...

Whirlpool appliances from Sears: $3,000
American Woodmark cabinets from Home Depot: $5,000 (we got BIG discounts on these)
Granite Countertops from local supplier: $2,200 installed (included sink)
Recycled Glass backsplash from Lowes: $150
Ceramic tile flooring from Home Depot: $300 (includes subflooring, thinset & grout)
Ceiling fan from Lowes: $75
Chandelier & above sink lighting from Home Depot: $80
Martha Stewart paint from Home Depot: $35

Total cost of the renovation was about $11K.

Rehab? For Furniture.

This weekend I will attempt something that many others (who aren't me) have tried and succeeded... Painting old furniture to make it look brand new.

Among the many other things that were left in our house by previous renters was a dresser and matching nightstand. They have served their purpose, but now that this is our house I am going to make the guest room a room and not just a large space for me to toss misc. crap I don't feel like putting away! Yeah, you know you have a room like that too...

I have a very small budget to get this room in tip top shape and hope to do everything for under $250. We are leaving the carpet alone for right now because in the future we will replace all the flooring on the 2nd floor. This will definatly help me to stay on budget.

Here is what the dresser & night stand currently look like. You can see I already started to remove the handles.

Kitchen Reveal Part 1

We finally got our kitchen done the week of Thanksgiving. However, since the holidays at our house are insane (and messy) I didn't have a chance to post pictures! So, now that the mess is gone (and the kitchen is clean) it's ready for its close up.

If you check out the pictures of the old kitchen, you can see we removed the peninsula and
extended the cabinets along the left wall. 

We opted to go with a single sink in the oval shape because it was a
little more modern and something we didn't see a lot of. 

We went with the larger French door fridge with the ice maker/water dispenser on the outside.

We moved the table and chairs from the dining room to the kitchen

The finished product! 

American Woodmark Cabinets - Savannah in a Hazelnut Glaze

St. Cecilia Dark Granite

Recycled Glass Backsplash

More Snow...

Since the only thing happening around here these days is snow, here are some Ruger pictures from yesterday's snow fall.

My Favorite Shot

This is my absolute favorite shot from my hike at the Lil' Lehigh. The original was pretty foggy but it ended up being a great shot.

Just for kicks. Here's the before.

12 Degrees? Grab a Camera

This past weekend I decided to go to a local stream and work on my nature photography skills. When I got in the car I saw it was 12 degrees outside, so it was a good thing I brought an extra sweat shirt and wore snow boots & ski pants.

Here are some before & afters of my trip. I'll post more once I'm totally done editing.

Before

After

Before

After 



Buy One, Get One?

DH and I agreed that I needed a new car for reasons that included; mine having almost 90K miles, and he couldn't drive or sit in it too long because it was too small.

After talking about it for a few weeks, we decided on the Ford Escape. It was comfortable for both of us to drive (and sit), it gets good gas mileage, good rebates and financing, and he's always liked Ford vehicles.

So at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning, we got up and went to the dealership ready to buy. What happened later that day is something we never thought possible. We are calling it "DOD" Day of Disaster. I won't go into details, but we bought a car and after 9 hours, left it there. It was sad and frustrating, but we knew there were other cars out there that we'd like better.

We looked online and found the perfect car at a dealership just a few miles away.

Bright and early Monday morning, DH went to the dealership and told them what car we wanted to buy. They made it so easy and simple that it was great. However, while he was there, he asked the guy what he could get for a trade in since he saw a truck on the lot that he LOVED (and had to have).

Here's what happened next...



Not 1, but 2 new cars were in our driveway! I'll tell ya, it's never a dull moment.

Till next time!

Snow Day!

Just thought I'd share a few pictures from our first Snow Day of 2011

I was truely bored at this point in the day...

A Sad Goodbye

Our garbage men picked up our tree this morning. It kind of made me sad to see it go. We had a good tree this year. Strong branches, nice topper...oh yeah, and a crooked trunk! Ugh. Gotta love my husband.

As usual, Ruger just HAD to pose in front of the tree. He's such a camera dog.