My Kitchen....AGAIN!

Kelly's Korner is hosting a new season of "Show Us Your Life Fridays", and this week's topic is "Kitchens".  I did a throw-together post last year, and got a really good response. So, I thought this year I would do a real post with some updated kitchen pictures.  Please forgive me if this is the twentieth second or third time you have seen it!  HAHA!

The kitchen was one of the most stressful rooms while we were building this house.  From a cracked farmhouse sink, to not-so-perfect kitchen cabinets, to appliances that took NINE months to be delivered, to complicated microwave surrounds....you name it, we've had problems with it when it comes to this kitchen!

BUT, compared to the kitchen we lived with the first 20 years of our marriage, it's perfect!  We still have a few things left to complete, like crown molding, but the things that need to work in a kitchen, are working great!

The first picture I have is an old picture, but it's the very best picture I have.  It's actually taken during the daytime, so the colors are pretty good!  HAHA!

The color on the walls is "Grasscloth" by Behr from Home Depot.  It's pretty bright, and I have thought about maybe changing the color.  But for now, I like it.  The curtains were made by someone local using a "Victory Swag" pattern.  The farmhouse sink is from American Standard.  The first one we ordered was cracked when it came in.....and I didn't notice it until the very last day to return it.  Fortunately, the company let us keep the old sink (no way to repair it correctly and would cost a TON to send it back) and immediately sent me a new one.  It was the one biggest "splurge" of this entire house.  I love the size and the shape, I just don't like what it is made of.  It's made of a Corian-type material and stains very easy.  If I had to do it again, I would definitely get enameled cast iron.

The rest of these pictures were taken tonight....sorry for the darkness!  I didn't plan ahead very well.  We finally have the stacked rock up and the white protective covering off the vent hood.  We just like the crown molding and putting the molding back on the top of the cabinets (right next to the vent hood).  The cabinets are all cherry, stained with Minwax Jacobean.

My fridge is the very best thing in this kitchen.  It's an LG "french door" type and I absolutely LOVE it!  If you are considering getting a new fridge, I would definitely recommend this type!

The jar with the ribbon belongs to Jameson.  It seems that little boys are always dragging in "treasures".  I've found more than my fair share bouncing around in the washing machine over the years, so I decided to do something about it.  Now, every time he brings in something new, into the jar it goes!  Right now it has a sun-bleached turtle shell, weedeater line, rocks, pinecones, leaves, marbles, a tooth, some sort-of bug shell, sticks.....anything that would be interesting to a little boy.

The doorway to the right goes into our Master Bedroom.

Our island is stained a different color than the main cabinets. It didn't come out as I had hoped, so I plan on eventually change the color somehow.

This is the view into the living room.  I love that I can be working in the kitchen and see everything going on in the living room.

These are our garbage/recycling baskets.  When we first moved in, we still had a ton of work left to do, so we just put our HUGE construction-type garbage can in the kitchen to hold all of our construction garbage.  We sort-of just learned to live with it, not thinking anything about it.  Then, one day we were expecting company, and I just looked at the big ol' garbage can, complete with leftover drywall stuck to the bottom, and thought it may be time to get something else. HaHa!  We were used to the HUGE size of the construction can, but couldn't find anything nearly as big as those in the "normal garbage can section", so I bought the biggest one I could find.  It only took about 3 days to realize that wasn't going to work for us.  It was just too dang small! During a trip to a local Mexican Restaurant, I noticed they used this large, beautiful basket in their restroom for garbage.  I realized that might work for us too!  So, I went to Target and bought two of the largest hampers I could find.  We've been using them for about 2 years now and they are perfect!  They are HUGE and look great!  (Normally we have clear bags in them, but are just using what we could get locally for now)

Well, that's my kitchen!  I hope you enjoyed the updated tour!  I better go now because I see somebody eyeballing the cookies!

(Yes, he's going for the Justin Bieber look with all that hair!)