Scatter Brain Update

Do you have any silly regrets? My most recent frustrating, irking regret is over a piece of $5 furniture that Jonathan bought at garage sale in Vermont. For a quick background on the situation: Jonathan was in law school for a year before we got married and I moved to Vermont to be with him during his second year of law school. When I moved into his apartment, I immediately felt like I was living in a Bachelor pad. Not to mention that this $5 arm chair represented the ultimate man cave piece of furniture and I immediately thought it was hideous.

When we moved away from Vermont and back to Utah, for some reason we thought it would be important to bring our ginormous love sac with us and get rid of the rest of our furniture. Stupid.

So this is where I owe it to my dad to say, "you were right". He told us that it was a waste of time trying to get the love-sac back to Utah, but we insisted that we 'needed' it. We spent aimless hours taking the stuffing out of the love sac and putting this stuffing in garbage bags which we then stuffed in our small shipping pod. So you might ask, "so where is the love sac now?" Well despite my efforts to incorporate it somewhere, let alone anywhere in the house, we finally gave it away to a well deserving friend.

As I spend more time caring about the design style of our home, my thoughts have wandered back to that $5 chair that Jonathan bought at a garage sale in Vermont, but today was the first 'slap in my face'. To my dismay, similar arm chairs are selling for $5000 (see below)!!!! Grrr.... Considering that I am in the market for an arm chair in our living room, I am super annoyed with this discovery, hence why I decided to share my frustrations.

Now for a side note, Jonathan and I went to Dillon, Montana last weekend for Labor Day with some friends and we had an amazing time. I golfed for the first time in my life and naturally, because I never have 'beginners luck" - I sucked. I still had a ton of fun and I learned a lot.

I obviously need to work on my form a little bit :)

Labor Day in Dillon Montana is also known as the "Biggest Weekend in Montana", so naturally we had to attend the rodeo

The crew

We also went fly fishing and I after about 25 bites, I finally caught a fish!

Landscaping

I know I have been a crappy blogger lately, but in my defense Jonathan and I have been super busy manicuring the outside of our house. It all began when one day Jonathan decided that he wanted to build a pergola. The next morning, he got up early and bought all of the necessary supplies and we spent the entire weekend building this pergola (see below)

Then before we could landscape the area, we had to put in the sprinkler system which was a lot of effort in itself.

I could not be more happy with the way the final product has turned out. I love our backyard because it is our very own little piece of bliss.

So our next project was our front yard, which also required more time consuming sprinkler lines to be installed.

The cinderblocks in front of our house were indisputably HUGE eyesores that many of our neighbors were thankful to see leave. Apparently they had been original to the house since the 1950's!

So the picture below was taken after we landscaped and while I love the way the landscaping turned out, I still really want to repaint the outside of the house - possibly a really light grey, or a really light tan with some black accents? Regardless, the mint green needs to be gone!

Now I am already excited for next spring/summer to see how everything matures. I am also really curious where all of the tulips will come up because I threw a lot of different bulbs randomly throughout the flower bed. Should be interesting :)

Our garden has been another huge project. We started out with this massive play set (below) that we needed to get rid of. Luckily we were able to sell it online - gotta love KSL classifieds -A couple came and paid us cash, and hauled it away and we did not have to do a thing!

Our tomato plants are legitimately 6 feet tall! I guess two truck loads of fresh manure will do that for a garden, right? We have already been eating a ton of fresh lettuce from the garden and now we are excited for tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, pumpkin, and zucchini

And our very last project was an area of the yard that does not have a sprinkler line. We planted three aspens in the spring, but the area needed a little more help before we could really say that it was "done".

Originally we were just going to put down mulch and nothing else, but we decided to plant water-wise-natural-to-Utah plants so hopefully they do well with very little water.

Isn't it amazing what a lot of time and sweat in combination with a little mulch and some plants can do for a yard?

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

It never ceases to astonish me how some people have no problem deceiving so called 'friends'. There should be no surprise when I tell you that our kitchen remodel has taken a lot longer than expected. In fact, 'longer than expected' is quite the understatement. I recognized that our kitchen remodel was going take longer than we anticipated, especially when we were told at the beginning of March that our kitchen remodel would take one day, possibly two days. Anybody in their right mind is smart enough to know that a kitchen with exposed cinderblocks on the walls could not be completed in one, let alone two days, by a single person.

Based on the pictures and information I have provided in my previous posts, you might think our kitchen appears to be absolutely magnificent. However, like many of us who only like to share about the 'good' and leave out the 'ugly', I have left out the details of this secret nightmare. We have had problem, after problem, after problem, leading to never ending headaches. I would go into detail and explain all of the different complications but instead I'll just attach pictures...

The paint on the cabinets was 'bubbling'...

Many of the cabinets arrived damaged, which was going to be fixed when the job was completed...I guess that isn't going to happen

What's wrong with the picture below? Well other than the fact the drawer above the opening for the oven is completely wrong in size, the oven did not fit in this space...Please note that the issues listed above are only some of the issues we have encountered. Additionally, we also took out the cabinets in our hallway and planned on having this cabinetry redone to match the kitchen. This was suppossed to be completed with our 'one day job remodel, but of course this did not happen. Now, after two months since the day we first began installation, we are left with an unfinished project.

So today was the cherry on top of our problem cake. After being ignored for two weeks despite numerous emails, phone calls, voicemails, and texts, we learned via Facebook that the company who we bought our cabinets through, is out of business.

We bought our cabinets from Jonathan's high school friend Tom LeBaron, who worked for Dakota Mills. From the beginning, I did not feel comfortable doing business with Jonathan's 'friend', but Jonathan was insistent on doing business with him because not only was he local, but he also wanted to support a friend, so I agreed. However, as an unbiased customer, I recommend that nobody ever do business with him. I consider myself to be a fairly patient person, and I will admit that it takes a lot to make me angry, but I am purely irate with this situation at this point in time.

Functionality

I have been avoiding this blog post for at least a month now because I vowed to both myself and to the few individuals who read my blog that my next post would include a finished kitchen. Instead, I would like to suggest a small compromise - how about I include pictures of a functioning kitchen, which is still a huge accomplishment for Jonathan and I, especially when we are doing most of the work by ourselves! So other than the missing hood and back splash, this is basically the finished product.

You might be thinking, "I thought you weren't going to include marble countertops?" Well, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE EVERYTHING about marble! So, why should I spend the same amount of money for something else that I don't love? I don't regret my decision, not even for a split second.

Not to mention, we also found unique 'brown antique' granite countertops that inlcude large gold sections which I adore!

Additionally, Jonathan has spent a ton of time installing canned lights in most of the cabinets. He isn't quite finished yet, but so far he has done an amazing job! I am seriously so lucky to have such an amazing husband!

Below is a preview of what our marble backsplash will look like :) This is a project that we have saved for possibly... next weekend?

On a side note, this past weekend was Jonathan's birthday and I honestly could not be happier to be married to such an outstanding man. I am so grateful for an amazing, loving, hard working husband. I know I can always count on Jonathan to be there for me and to care for me. I love you babe and I hope you had a fabulous birthday!

This past Sunday Jonathan and I did something that was extremely therapeutic for our general well being - we began to work on the outside of our house.

I planted flowers in two pots to go beside our front door. I love how much more cheerful the outside of our house feels. The ugly cinderblocks will be our next outdoor project.

Jonathan planted spectacular pine bush/trees in rustic whiskey barrels, in addition to three aspen trees that are incredibly difficult to see in this picture, but there are three skinny aspen trees along the fence. I know the basketball hoop makes the picture below difficult to envision, but we all have a little bit of functionality intertwined with decorativeness, right?

Close up of the small pine tree in a whiskey barrel

That is all for now :)

I love March

Today could not have been a more beautiful March 1st day. It was sunny without a cloud in sight, 50 degrees, and no wind. Yesterday was similar weather, finally motivating me to go for a run, which by the way, felt absolutely amazing! Today, I took Grizzly Bear for a walk and I couldn't help but feel enlivened to know that warmer sunnier days are ahead of us. March to me means:

• Time to get out of that Winter 'funk' - swimsuit weather is around the corner!
• One Word: Barbecues!
• The beginning of spring!
• March Madness - something I only find entertaining when I try to decide if there is going to be a fight between the two mascots, which one would win? Last year, this got me to the finals!
• St. Patty's day and everything green
• Day light savings (I can't wait to get an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day) Mark your calendars for March 13th
• Apparently March is also National Craft Month which already has my crafty brain waves starting back up - jewelry anyone? ;)
  Sundance jewelry
• Lighter jackets
• Not quite flip flop weather - but possibly a peep toe shoe? Speaking of which, I think I am in need of a pedicure
• No more winter black/gray clothing and time to refresh my wardrobe with more COLORFUL clothing again!
• Cheaper heat bills is always a plus too

Here is to a happier you in Spring!

Acacia Wood Flooring

We finally gave in and decided that we needed to have our floors professionally installed. After all, I am sure they are done acclimating to our house since they have been sitting in our living room since November. Today we are day #3 into the installation process and I honestly could not be happier with the way everything is coming together! A part of me wants to lay on the ground and hug them because I love them so much!

Another update: Archways. Jonathan spent an entire week building archways in all of the hallway/entryways and I must say that he did an absolutely fabulous job!

This past week, we also took out our dishwasher and sink from the kitchen. As hard as it was to part from the convenience of having a dishwasher, I am excited that we are one step closer to getting this project done. Our cabinets should be installed sometime next week, or the following week. I realized something astronomical - I have been without a functioning kitchen now for 4 months! That is crazy! I long for fresh baked cookies, and crave homemade meals more so than when I was in college living in a dorm room

On a more positive note, our basement is almost complete. I still have a few more things to do to in order to polish it off, but I am pretty sure this will always be the case anywhere in our home. Lastly, Valentines day was yet another great day to spend with my hubby! I must say, I truly think he is amazing at picking out the most beautiful bouquets (and Liz, if you are reading this, I am sorry about your flower experience).

And that's all for now - I really REALLY REALLY hope that my next post includes finished (or at least partly finished) pictures of the kitchen.

Marble?

I absolutely love beautiful design. This is not to say that I am a great designer myself, or even close for the matter. However, I would like to imagine that with enough blog stalking, eventually my brain will soak in all of the images and somehow, someday, I will be able to re-create a beautiful kitchen. My apron front/farmhouse sink arrived today and I can't help but feel excited that everything is slowly starting to come together.

We FINALLY ordered our cabinets last week. We decided to do white cabinets along the walls with black granite, and dark ebony cabinets for our island with either some type of white granite, or super white quartzite (shown in the images below).

I would give anything to have a beautiful white carerra marble island, but I understand the impracticability of having marble in a kitchen, or do I? The super white quartzite comes close to looking like marble but in my opinion, it doesn't have the same 'airy/fresh" feel to it. Would you be turned away from a house with Marble countertops? Unfortunately, I know most people in Utah, with their small children and growing families would be turned away from such a thing. Grrr.... At least I will still have my marble backsplash :) Isn't it beautiful?

On a more personal note - I got a promotion at work and Jonathan got a new job with an employment litigation firm in Salt Lake City. With more responsibility also comes a lot more time spent working, and less time working on the house. I think we might need to give in and start hiring out our work. Anyway, I'll keep you posted as my home starts looking more like a home.