The heart surgery of the home!

Before!

wish I had taken the pics before I started setting up, oh well

Well it happens just about once every season...I get this amazing idea to renovate something in my house...our house was built in 1992, so you can imagine that there have been many renovations, so its not like I don't know what I am getting myself into...however I seem to have a short lived memory on how stressful a renovation could be, like all the hard work and sweat put into it flies from my mind the moment the renovation is complete...well recently I had one of these moments...lets renovate the kitchen...so after a lot of shopping and picking out what I wanted, as well as talking Klay into doing it;) we started the project!

The whole idea that the kitchen is the heart of the home is so sweet right...yeah well not so much when you are trying to redo it...it was so stressful, because everything had to be perfect! It was like giving heart surgery to your house, this room will make or break the rest of the home...that's a lot of pressure...however these thoughts were not going through my head when we decided to do it...I'm a born optimistic and believe everything will turn out perfect and will go smoothly...however I have learned this is not true during a big home project, but of course my short term memory is lacking and we started the project anyway!

Well first off let me say, if you haven't ever done a home project yourself then you might not appreciate this as much as someone who has, none the less, I think you'll get the jest of all the hard work! Well that said Klay and I did everything ourselves, I mean no reason to call in the pros;) Mostly because we try to keep the budget as low as we possibly can.

This was the list we were going to do to the kitchen:

• paint the cabinets
• lay down counter tops
• put up a back splash

So really not that difficult...at least not on paper any way.

Step 1: cabinets...I sanded them, painted them with Bhers plus paint a flat black, two coats, and then lightly sanded again and put a light stain over them.

Step 2: counter tops...not as easy as it sounds, first we had to rip up the existing ones, then we had to make a counter top with ply wood, then you put down backer board, and then finally put down the tiles...I think by the time we got to the granite tiles it seemed like a breeze...the worst was the ply wood and backer board, the backer board caused so much dust it was crazy!

Even Penny was tired of the mess...poor baby!

Step 3: back splash...first let me say that I had to fight Klay a little for this back splash, I had fallen in love with it early on and there just wasn't anything that could compare to it...the back splash was actually a decently easy task to do and it turned out great!


Well it's official...we are DONE!!! and I have to say a messy and a complete disastrous home for two weeks was well worth it! However if you had asked me at the time I might not had thought so, but here we are at the end of our project and our kitchen looks amazing...like a completely new home! I must also spend a moment and brag on my awesome husband who worked way too hard to make the new kitchen possible...I love him more than I could even possibly try to describe...he is such a hard worker and I am so very blessed to have such a handy man!

After!!!

#4-Camping!

This past weekend I went camping...in a tent...for two nights! I was excited about going, mostly because we were on the lake and I love boating and the sun, so I thought it can't be that bad...oh and because I was also going to have six other amazing friends there to share in my adventure, besides my Klay-doh...because seriously there isn't much I do without him...him being there is pretty much a given;) If you know me then you know I'm not much of a camping girl...well I didn't think I was, considering I had actually never gone...My family's camping consisted of a camper or a log cabin, I think I camped once in high school, but all we did was stay up all night and take a nap, so I don't really count that.

The boys grillin!
The girls Chillin ;)

So we got to the campsite Friday night and left Sunday afternoon. Friday we grilled out ribs, or if you're a vegetarian, we grilled out tofu sausage, corn on the cob and baked beans, none the less it was a yummy meal! We started a camp fire for the night...even though it was so hot, because seriously what is camping without a camp fire? Not really sure if it is even possible not too! I could stand the heat if it meant roasting marsh mellows and making s'mores! Which we did!




So I made it through the night! Of course we were serenaded by a drunk girl a couple of camp sites down "singing" on the top of her lungs Bruno Mars' Lazy song...she finally passed out around 2:30am and I could go to sleep! However we must have a lot of early risers, because everyone was up by 7:30am...Klay and I being the last to rise, because we LOVE sleep! However we didn't want to waste the day...or let our friends think we are slackers...especially when we could already smell breakfast being made...so we woke up and pitched in! We had a yummy breakfast that consisted of grits, eggs, pan cakes, sausage for those meat lovers...and of course a yummy cup of coffee, because seriously who can start the day without it?!? And I must say, a breakfast made over an open fire is AMAZING!

Then it was off to a day of boating, tubing and jet skiing! Not going to lie, Klay and I were pretty awesome on the tube...they tried and tried to flip us off, but we held tight...thankfully Brian saved us by flipping off the jet ski and on our way to save him Klay and I got off the tube!



Over all camping was so fun! And surprisingly enough I would love to do it again! Who knew I think I might actually be a camper at heart;)