Kitchen Remodel

Hello!!! I haven't posted since who knows when... Sorry!  I've been too busy, demoing and building to have time.
But since we just "mostly" finished our kitchen remodel, thought I'd throw up some pictures. 

 Before we had nasty tile floors and I had shoved our table in the corner.  I replaced that smaller window with a casement window that opens up to the deck bbq area and acts like a serving bar window.  I love it.  I got the "new" double thermopane casement window from Second Use (architectural salvage shop) for $45.  I sold the old vinyl one for $40.. yay!!

We ripped out the wall to the living room.  You can see the refrigerator is now in the old range's spot.  I built a little 3' wall to cover the side of the fridge and that is where the new "dining room" is. In this "before" pick, you can see the original hardwoods that were under the tile.  Although in the photo they don't look half bad, but they were in rough shape.  The "after" is Highland Hickory Extreme Performance PERGO.  Looks pretty similar, huh?  But with 4 kids, durability will always win.

 This is the view from the laundry room door.  I custom built the island to look like an old buffet with the smaller spindle legs.  Our kitchen is just too small for the beefy kitchen island legs and I think the smaller legs look a lot older. They are large spindles, 2" squares, I got them for $2 each at Second Use.  I used 12" deep drawers on the other side from IKEA and the Oak counter is also from IKEA>

 View from dining / stair area. We gutted the entire ceiling to add 5 new can lights and 2 new pendants.  I wallpapered the ceiling with beadboard wallpaper from Martha Stewart and painted it Behr Aqua Breeze. Love it. (PLEASE ignore the old range and microwave and imagine a beautiful viking range in it's place.  It will be coming soon)

 IKEA cabinets, and farmhouse sink.  I built the little shelf above the cabinets, backed with beadboard and painted Behr Smokey Slate.  Perfect spot for my Pyrex and vintage finds.

 The counters are Wilsonart Carrara Marble laminate with a double round edge.  Again, durablity wins and they look amazing in person. 

Now I can keep and eye on my lil' kiddos while cooking dinner and can actually appreciate the fireplace / media center I built over a year ago (See how I built that HERE) when I'm in the kitchen.

Money

Money is a funny thing.  I've been thinking a lot about it.  Most people assume we are poor because of the size of our house.  How do I feel about this?  I don't know.

We live small on purpose.  We have a plan.

• Go small (live in 400 sq ft with 3 kids at the in-laws for a year) COMPLETED
  
• Stay small (live in 920 sq ft with 4 kids in a rainy city)...CURRENT (will be a rental soon)
• Buy a medium size house in Texas to live in for a year (this will happen in 2 years,this will also turn into a rental)
• Build our dream house with no mortgage (this will be completed in 3-4 years)

 I guess I don't like "being thought of as poor", I don't know why.  Why does it matter?  And at the same time, I "LIKE being thought of as poor", puts it into perspective. I guess some people think we are poor because we have a small house, no matter what we have in the bank. What does it really matter anyway? We never want to be a slave to our house.  We want our money to spread around, building our legacy and helping others. We plan to completely support both our parents and be the house that all gather to for holidays and birthdays and every day.  We want to spend our money on our family taking trips and mission trips and helping everyone possible.

I think most people don't stay small enough for long enough.  They are always trying to catch up instead of waiting til they can just really explode.

Living small is hard.  I have 3 kids in one 8'x7' bedroom with no closet.  All of their clothes are in one dresser and the coat closet.  The baby still sleeps in our room and her clothes are in a plastic container under the bed.  Our bedroom is  9' x 13' and housing a king sized bed.   But we do have our own bathroom, that is nice.  Ok... I lied.  It's really not that hard at all, it's tight, that's all.  Living on the streets, that would be hard.

Redneck and I both feel like we "have it all".  We feel like we ARE the Jones's... you know the phrase "Keeping up with the Jones"?  It's funny because no one but us sees us like that.  Everyone thinks we are poor and deprived, but I couldn't be happier.  A bigger house and living in sunny weather, that's just an added bonus.

We are spreading our manure right now... so our garden looks pretty bare to outsiders.  But living in the "dirt" (the starting ground), we know the richness we have invested deep down and it's only a matter of time til everyone else will see why we invested in "manure" instead of a "ready made potted plant".