Parental Kitchen Remodel: Before and After

Let me preface this by mentioning that my family didn't know about this blog until recently. The Mister is painfully (and psychotically, sometimes) private and I was afraid he would freak out and kill me frown on it when he found out. Well, he saw the name of the site in the Most Visited list (which is how he accesses his beloved Craigslist) and was all "Is that our Little Pink House"? and I'm all "Maybe?" And he was all "Ok". Ummm. Awesome.
So I told my mother about it and she, of course, had to check out her posts first and noticed that I totally dropped the ball and neglected to show you guys a proper Before & After of their kitchen remodel. Remember that lack of follow thru I mentioned last January? Yup. Hasn't improved.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

Removed the wall the clock is hanging on.

AFTER

Opposite angle, there used to be a wall here!

I just love the bookshelf she added for her oodles of cookbooks, what a great use of vertical space:

And the convenient file storage in the desk:

What do you think? It's crazy how different it looks, isn't it?

If you missed the first four remodel posts, you can see them here, here, here, and here.  Wow, I really do suck; these were from May!

Happy Birthday Christi!

My little cousin turned 21 on July 27th! Last Saturday her friends threw a big shindig and they invited me! I felt so special and I got carded three times! Awesome. I think that was my favorite part of the whole night. You know, not that I didn't enjoy seeing this:

about 20 times! She was sleeping on her boyfriend by the second stop and (old lady that I am) I called it a night around 10:30... I know, I suck. But I had a lot of fun and so did the rest of 'em.

See the pink jug? It had water in it to keep her hydrated. Some sorority thing. It was all blinged out.

Goofy future clothing designer and her fabulouso hair do-ist!

We were downtown and people were taking carriage rides. Isn't this a beautiful horse?

Lemon-Lime Shrimp Recipe

This is my mother's recipe and it's fairly subjective, so the "recipe" is really just a ballpark guesstimation for a jumping off point. It's also doctored to feed a butt-load of people, so feel free to cut it by about a quarter. The actual directions are fairly hazy as well, so it may not be the best recipe for a beginner cook. You will have a ton of "sauce" left over, my family sops it up with crusty French bread. The also eat the excess roasted garlic on bread. This is, by far, the best shrimp recipe I have ever encountered (I may be biased, of course). We always make it on the grill, but she said you could make it in the oven as well. There are no times or temps for anything, you just have to know when things are ready. Like I said, it's hazy, but delicious!

Lemon-Lime Shrimp

Yields approx. 16 servings

8 lbs. unpeeled, tail-on fresh shrimp

12 lemons

12 limes

2 cups olive oil

2 cups garlic (!)

1/2 cup vermouth

1. Cook the garlic in the olive oil on stovetop until fragrant and soft.

2. Mix all ingredients EXCEPT vermouth in a grill or oven safe pan, cover with tin foil. 

3. Grill/bake/broil until shrimp is cooked through.

4. Add vermouth 1 minute before you remove from the grill/oven.

Serve straight from the grill/oven family-style with plenty of crusty bread and whatever sides tickle your fancy. 

Feel free to ask me any questions and I relay them and get answers!




 I am linking up to Tasty Tuesdays at:

Father's Day Flamingo

My dad hates getting presents. Despises it, really. But we always end up getting him something and so this year he beat me to it.
My parents have a thing for flamingos. Any flamingo. They have flamingo wine glasses where the stem is a leg and you have to be careful not to poke yourself in the eye with the head. They have double-walled acrylic low-ball glasses for sipping poolside. They have some random pink piece of metal that is supposed to be a flamingo which sways in the breeze. They have a metal planter which had seen better days.
When I was picking up my patio set (more to come on that tomorrow) to take to the sandblasters he told me I could take the flamingo along, then spraypaint it for his Father's Day gift. Well, I was totally on board, since he NEVER asks for/wants ANYTHING. EVER. Awesome. Easy peasy, right?
The sandblaster finally got my stuff back to me on Friday evening. This is what the flamingo looked like at that point:

And here's what he looked like after two cans and about a gazillion coats of Valspar Tulip Pink spraypaint:

I wish I had gotten a picture of him in his natural environment on Sunday, but jackass that I am I forgot. Big surprise there, right? I sent both parents this pic on their phones Saturday while I was working:

And asked "How do you like the color? Black on his eyes, beak, and/or feet?" My mom texts back immediately with "Looks good! All three!" My dad calls me two hours later to tell me there's a storm warning and to ask "What's this Google map you sent me?" The fact that my 60 year old father even knows what Google is cracks me up! And how exactly does this look like a topographical map? Anybody? Bueller?

I ended up only painting his eyes black, cause I didn't get to that point until ten o'clock Saturday night and cause he looked cute and I was afraid more black would look awkward. I also made sure to coat him with about six coats of Rustoleum lacquer in "Gloss", to keep him looking nice for a few years, but it didn't turn out all that shiny. Not sure why. It's a good thing spraypaint dries quick though, cause the last coat went on about an hour before I had to leave!

Family Time!

I love my family! Is that dorky? I don't care. They are awesome, generous, fun, humorous, etc... My paternal grandmother, Nani, turned 90 on June 14th! 90! That's a reeeeaaaaallllllyyyy long life. We had a birthday party for her at my parents house, by the pool.

I didn't take this photo, my maternal grandmother did. I hope somebody got a shot where you can actually differentiate between people!

Can you see in the photo above, Gidget came along for the fun?

"Mo'om, stop taking my picture"

Do you recognize this room? Probably not, since it was buried under 6 feet of crap last time you saw it!

My SIL put this together using 90 Nips. My grandma is obsessed with Nips, my dad buys them for her and keeps her well stocked. I'm surprised she hasn't developed diabetes thanks to all the sugar! She cried when she first saw this with all the time Angie put into it and all the signatures...

My aunt brought those brownies all the way from Michigan and looking at this picture I JUST realized that I didn't try one... Oh well, I'm not a fan of brownies anyway. We also had a chocolate fountain, but I forgot to get a picture. I think the chocolate in those always tastes like ass no matter what kind you put in.

Happy Birthday, Nani!!

Parental Kitchen Remodel: Moving Along

Slowly, but surely, it's all coming together...

Bookcase and Pantry. Can you spot the "manhandles"?

My father fought to keep the old ceiling fan, not sure why, but it is ORB so at least it coordinates. 

They did add a pretty new ceiling medallion, though.

This is probably the tidiest this desk will ever be.

IRL, the climbers look darker, more coordinate-ey, but isn't he funny?

Stove wall with tile in place. Aren't the countertops fab?

The pendants lights are in place, LOVE the spikey-height-adjuster-thingie (that's a technical term, BTW).

And lit. So fun.

She wanted the wall color to "look like a blueberry". You know how sometimes blueberries look almost dusty and sometimes they look rich? Yeah. I don't know the paint color, but it has a weird glaze on it so that it looks 100% different in different lighting. You can tell from the above photos. They were all taken with my camera at the same time on the same day, but it looks navy, gray, royal, etc... 

The electrician ordered the wrong sockets and switch covers, so those are still not in. Obviously the little wire curlie-cues on the pendants will be removed. The glass is still not in some of the upper cabinets. The living room and basement still look like this:

Living Room

This is the finished half of the basement.

There is a pool table under this pile of crap. 

 This is the unfinished, or storage, part of the basement. 

Actually, this is clean(-er than normal).

The guy who installed the floor did not lay it out first, just opened one box at a time and started going to town. So the floor is striped. Grr, right? The rep. from Qu-Cork is supposed to be coming out this afternoon, so we'll see what they say. (They're just going to say it was the installers fault, which it totally was.)

I have no clear idea on when everything is going to be back together with the furniture in place. Someday.

Parental Kitchen Remodel: In Progress

I thought I'd share some construction, or "During" shots. They may not be in perfect chronological order, so bear with me.

In order to have this wall removed, they had to re-position this HVAC vent. 

 Here's a view from the opposite side after they moved the vent, but before they tore down the wall structure.

After the studs came down. 

 Look Ma, no kitchen!

 Isn't this an appetizing shot of the dining room? 
Makes you want to eat dinner doesn't it? lol

Contractor replacing the drywall.

View of the beginning work on the island, shot from the dining room.

Further island progress and the pantry/bookcase. 

 View of the island from the laundry room.

The desk area. 

 The sink wall, shot from the laundry room.

Total gut kitchen remodels are looooooonnng process... I cannot imagine DIY-ing something this labor intensive.

Parental Kitchen Remodel: Choices

When they began their kitchen remodel, my mom knew two things; they wanted to tear the wall out between the kitchen and dining rooms:

and she wanted the new cabinets to coordinate with their existing dining room furniture:

Wouldn't be my first choice, or my 100th for that matter, but she loves it so that's all that matters right? 

The cabinets are Kitchenaid - Sonora cherry with a chocolate glaze.

Her old cabinets did not reach to the ceiling and she is definitely not a "top-of-the-shelf-decorator-and-duster" sort of lady, so all that space was going to waste. So there's another decision made, right? Ceiling height cabinetry in whatever color matches the existing furniture. Done. 

The DR furniture has crystal knobs with oil rubbed bronze fittings, so the top 12" cabinets got special ordered matching crystal knobs:

 (Credit)

The rest of the hardware needed to be ORB as well and she decided simple was best:

(Credit)

She did, however, add three of these guys in ORB for a little extra fun touch:

(Credit)

Two of them live on the pantry and one on the side of the island. They are all in a different position. I thought three different types of hardware was going to be a bit much, but most everything is in place now and you don't even notice.

They already had the stainless FisherPaykel double dish drawer, so stainless appliances were a given. My uncle happens to be an engineer for GE, so they got his discount on the range, hood, and refrigerator. Nice.

She knew she wanted cork floors. My cousin has had them for years and loves them.

(Credit)

I am not totally loving the floors, but like I said earlier, it is her kitchen, not mine. 

My kitchen has stainless steel countertops that are original to the house (59 years old). They show hardly any wear and tear, just a few small dings and no scratches that I am aware of. They don't stain and you can have them crafted to any specifications. And, of course, my mother wants to be cool like me, so they decided on stainless steel for the countertops with sinks built right in. No seams to clean, lovely!

(Credit)

I wish she had gone with the white cabinets - they really pop against the stainless! Isn't this a lovely kitchen?

The tile took a long time to choose. There are soooo many options at such varied price points! It came down to four, so she took them home and set them all up against the example cabinet she had and a stainless cookie sheet (as the mock countertop)and ended up choosing the one she had initially liked the least! It just goes to show that context is everything. 

The only example I found of what appears to be the same tile in a kitchen environment is actually the kitchen from the Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie! Which I never saw.

Although, it looks like they actually topped the island with the tile. Not very practical from a daily cooking standpoint. Unless you put a glass top on it, maybe. And they have my fancy slim line trash can! Yay!

The island has two height levels. One counter height for cooking, baking, etc. and one bar stool height. The counter height section is receiving the stainless treatment, but the bar stool height gets a zebra wood counter.

The desk on the opposite wall also got a zebra wood top.

It all sounds pretty busy, doesn't it? I even put a composite together for my own benefit to try and "see" her vision.

She didn't end up choosing those lights (they were my pick, thanks to Suzie!) and the blue tile didn't end up making it's way in. Luckily. She wanted to put it on the side of the island where your knees would be. The guy at the tile store talked her out of it. Thank God. 

The kitchen is almost finished, IRL, so stay tuned for more pics!

Check out the beginning of this project here and here.