Atlanta's Country Living Fair :: And a Give-away!

**UPDATE: Give-away is closed and the winner has been emailed - thanks for entering!**

Hello!  It's that time of year again - time for Country Living Magazine to bring their very own Fair to the Atlanta area - at Stone Mountain Park on Oct. 23, 24 & 25.  My friends and I love going to this even every year.  I wrote about it last year and you can read about that here.

This year I am very excited to be able to offer two free Early Bird Weekend passes again!  Read more about the give-away at the end of the post :)

Kitchen Renovation: Part Five!!

I think I said in Part One.. I hope I'm not here in a year posting Part 20 or something crazy like that..but we are going on five months since we started the renovation... Warning.. this post is "picture-heavy"

When we left off in Part Four we had finished installing all the new crown mold.  Hubby beefed up the chunky-ness factor using the crown that we removed in the beginning and by adding a couple more elements.  The first piece is basic base mold turned upside down.  Next he attached the old crown (also using some chunks of wood behind and out of sight for stability), then he cut a 1" by lengthwise and attached that to the top of the crown - coming out over the edge slightly.  Once this was caulked and primed it looks like one big crown mold!

Then the day came for the granite installation - I was blown away by the beauty...

It's called River White.  I was trying to find something as close to carrara marble as I could find. Hubby talked to his supplier and she knew exactly what to show us..  This is beautiful and has specs of ruby in it as well.  I'm so in love with it!

Then I started priming the upper cabinets.  I took off all the doors and we filled nail holes, caulked and primed.  See how all the crown/trim looks like one piece now?  Love it.

We also found these kick-ass corbels online for a great price. (sorry about blurry pic - I cannot hold my phone in my left hand and take a decent picture)

Kitchen Renovation: Part Four

Hello everyone - hope you are enjoying your weekend as much as I am!  We just had the best day yesterday hanging out with all of our kids - a rare occurrence!

When we left off last time (you can see that here) we had just finished creating the island and securing it to the floor.  Now it was time to build it out with some finish carpentry.

He wrapped it with primed luan and used 1 x's for the trim/edges

Next he ran the electrical and put an outlet for the microwave behind the cabinet next to the stove.

So now we had a working microwave and a fully functioning island with a painted wooden top... just waiting for the granite..  and the next day he took off the ugly, green laminate back splash!!!!

That was the happiest day!! Even knowing it would be a couple of months before we would have the tile up, I didn't care.. the torn drywall looked BETTER to me than that green.!  Hallelujah!

Next up - build two new cabinets to go above the stove.  We had lots of discussions about what to do above the stove.  We wanted to be able to center a cabinet above the stove and use a 36" stainless vent hood, but the cabinet above to the left didn't come over far enough..  Originally we were not going to use the shelf pieces that were there before, but we realized we needed them to fill the gaps.

Hubby reused a 1" strip of oak (once again) on the right side of the cabinet on the left, added the old shelf, added the new cabinet, then the other old shelf, and the larger new cabinet... and bam, nicely centered!  It's coming together :)

Over the next few weeks we painted the island, built a pull-out garbage can drawer, and put a nice crown on top of the cabinets - of course using the crown we took down way back in March.

So much more going on in the kitchen, but this post would take forever to read if I put it all in here - heck, it's kind of too long as it is!  Can I mark anything off the list?  Well, I actually need to ADD to the list so I can mark it off - building upper cabinets, garbage drawer, and crown mold were not there, but really needs to be, right?

Remove old cook top, oven/microwave & cabinets
Move gas line/electrical

Install new stove

Reuse cabinets to build new island

Remove laminate back splash

Build upper cabinets/install

Build pull-out garbage can drawer
Add stainless steel back splash behind stove w/small shelf

Paint cabinets

New hardware

New microwave

New sink & faucet

Install new subway tile backsplash

New counter tops

New hardwood floors throughout kitchen/family room

Thanks again for reading!  Next up will be the new granite counters and we'll start paining!  Yay!

Love,

Kitchen Renovation: Part Three

Oh boy.  It has been a while since I have shared anything about the kitchen.  WOW. March 15 was the date of the last post!  We have done a LOT since then.. and I take tons of pictures!  But finding the time to sort through and edit the pictures, and then actually write words to describe what we've done...???  I'd rather spend that time actually working on in there, (or going to the pool) so it's a catch 22 :)

This is where we left off way back in March - (you can read that post here)

In April, our next step was to build the island.  We had the tall cabinet that held the old oven/microwave that we were going to reconfigure for the island, and we thought we would just add it beside the cabinet that we were currently using, but it made it too long.  So we had to rethink it..  We moved this cabinet back to be a part of the island...

...and we took the top of the old tall cabinet to use beside it...

Hubby did a lot of carpentry work on it to make it the right size.  We lined them up where we wanted them to mark the floor...then had to cut away the tile floor from under where the island would permanently live - our old island had never been secured to the floor.  This one would be.

I helped by holding the shop vac while he cut.  I had on a hoodie because the little chips of tile were flying!  I really could have put on long pants too, but that would make too much sense.. Hubs could care less if he gets hit by flying tile chips!

Asked my son to take the pictures..  found this on the camera later - haha :)

He put plywood in the inset and shimmed and got them all level and perfect - note, that is same cabinet from above the old oven!  He reconfigured it for a floor cabinet.  That is what really amazes me most about this renovation - he has reused so much from the old kitchen!

The apron that we took off the cabinets that was over the kitchen window has provided much of the wood for these "new" cabinets - so glad we kept it!

He also took the bottom of that old cabinet, made the drawer smaller, and reworked it for a future new microwave.  That's the piece that will go to the right of the stove.

He made shelves from a sheet of plywood to hold my pots and pans, and cut the rest for a temporary top for the island.  We put the cabinet next to the stove.  I sanded and painted the island top and we called it a day!

If you follow me on Instagram I'm sure you've seen that a LOT more has happened in the kitchen - I will get the next post up as soon as possible (maybe tomorrow..??) but until then I can mark one more thing off the list, and that always make me happy!

Remove old cook top, oven/microwave & cabinets
Move gas line/electrical

Install new stove

Reuse cabinets to build new island
Add stainless steel back splash behind stove w/small shelf

Paint cabinets

New hardware

New microwave

New sink (apron front?) & faucet

Install new subway tile backsplash

New counter tops

New hardwood floors throughout kitchen/family room

Next up:  building out the island and removing the ugly green laminate black splash! Thanks for reading and following along! (EDIT:  You can read part Four here!)

Love,

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's August Before & After Party!

Rose Gallery Wall

I actually wrote this blogpost sometime back in June.. and forgot to publish it..! So, I'm not going to edit it..just going to post it haha!

How is everyone?  We are doing well over here at 818..  Lots and lots going on, too..  Hubby's daughter graduated from Middle Tennessee State University (GO RACHAEL!!), he and I both  celebrated our birthdays (17 day apart), then throw in Mother's Day AND continuing work on the kitchen remodel - it's been crazy hectic!  But we love it!

The day of my birthday dinner my daughter was at my house as we waiting on the boys to get there, and I showed her something I had been working on.  She and her husband had recently down-sized to a loft apartment and have created a fantastic gallery wall in their new space, so she was the perfect person to help me this wall in the foyer.  The space at the top of our stairs has been empty forever... here it is pre-stair/rail painting....(which you can read about here)

On a couple of thrift/antique store outings I found several paintings of roses and they were laid out on our bedroom floor for a pattern for a gallery wall - I just hadn't had time to get them up!

I moved my mother's little secretary desk up from the basement where it was basically hidden from the world.  This would be the perfect "base" for my gallery!

We measured where we wanted to place the largest painting, got that up, and then just went from there.  Of course, we didn't stop to take pics until we were almost finished.. That's when we realized we really needed one more something in that lower left corner. I ran downstairs to my little bar cart and grabbed the round rose tray that was propped up on the back. We had to add a wire to the back of the tray so we could hang it, so for picture's sake Amanda held it up so we could see how it looked.. love it!

I actually had several of the pictures in my house, all in different rooms, and the thought popped in my head one day when I saw a gallery of like-minded pictures that I should put them together for impact.  So after a couple of shopping trips I had enough to make a nice statement. 

We had it done in about 30 minutes and love how it turned out! 

Do you have any gallery walls in your house?  My daughter's entire living room in her small apartment is a gallery wall!  It looks fantastic - I would love to see yours, too!

Linking up with Thrifty Decor Chic's August Before and After! 

And That DIY Party!

Love,

Spring Table!

Ahhh spring is in the air!  We have had several days of perfect weather and it has lifted everyone's spirits!  Today we are back to overcast and rainy, but we need the rain for things to grow, right?

I love setting the table in the dining room and pretending I'm having some girlfriends over for a wonderful, lazy-day brunch.  I usually get the urge a few times a year - (summer, fall, winter, spring..maybe??)  It's fun to pull out some dishes and we don't use everyday and make the table look special.  So here's my take on a spring table setting~~

These little bird salt & pepper shakers came with my hubby when I married him.. isn't that sweet?  He actually picked these up somewhere (probably a yard sale) and decided to bring them home one day - love it!

Fresh berries in little sundae cups to start.. then you'll have to imagine the rest of the food ;)  (And, can you see the very cool bronze bust right there on the buffet?  Scored that at Atlanta ReStore! I love it!)

I have so much fun setting a table - finding different pieces to go together, like the ceramic rooster and the small rooster & chicken plates.  The plates were a gift on Christmas from my bestie :)  I found Mr. Rooster at a thrift store (surprise, surprise).

I really enjoy this room, too - in case you hadn't noticed...

Here's the place setting - it's made up of stuff from all over -

The gold flatware just came back into my life after a long time away.  I'm holding onto it for my daughter.  A search of the interwebs came up with nothing similar.  Gold flatware is out there - just none with this shape/pattern
Corn husk place-mat - Wal-Mart - $3 each!
Black & white charger was also a gift from my bestie a few years back - she found them at Hobby Lobby
White dinner plate - Threshold at Target - $5
Red rooster plate - found in Blueridge, GA
Tiny bowl - Pier One has them all day long - $1.50 - I used them in my fall table setting

You know, I really should just call the friends and ACTUALLY have them over, right?  I mean, the table is set.. all I really to do is make a yummy breakfast casserole to go with the fresh fruit, make mimosas, and we are set! 

Hope your first weekend of spring is a good one!  I'll be back soon with more updates on the kitchen renovation :)

Love,

Linking up with My Passion For Decor

 
Sharing and linking up to That DIY Showoff Party!