Ideas Abound! {outcomes to follow}

Let's just get it out of the way, it's been like eight years since I last wrote.  I know, I know.  This is a habitual problemo with me.  And I'm sorry.  I really do always want to do better but somehow I can't seem to find the time (or energy) to write in a consistent manner.  I'm sure all two of my readers are super duper upset.

Anywho, can I just say that I am really excited about some of the things happening at Irvington Bungalow?  First of all, life is just so much more interesting and fun with Ainsley.  She is definitely the bright spots in our days.  When work is sucky and the house is a total disaster (both of which are daily occurrences) at least we have this to look forward to:

That face!  OMG.

But ALSO, our bathroom project is {finally} underway.  And if a cute, babbling baby doesn't make you smile, surely a new bathroom will, right?  (I should take some of my own advice when the baby is crying and the bathroom is dusty with plaster droppings everywhere).

We finally received all of the tile about a month or so ago.  And it is beee-u-tee-ful.  Chad is in the beginning stages of demolition with full throttle remodel happening in a few weeks.  But, WAIT.  There's more.  Only I'm not going to give it all away but let's just say this: I'm totally over my kitchen.  And like the "I'm never satisfied" person that I am, I'm already complaining about when we can start the kitchen project.  Since I know it is a few years away, I've been schemin' up ways to give my nasty kitchen a face lift.  Nothing that will cost a whole lot but somethings that will give it the oomph it needs so I can stop stammering and making excuses when someone walks into it for the first time.  Think: chalkboard paint, beadboard, paint colors in white, grey/blue and a deep red or gold/yellow (or both!) for accent colors, open shelves, organization, and some spiffy adornments.  I can't give too much away because Chad reads this blog and it is all a secret until I can present a plan.  Right now, I can show some inspiration:

paint colors:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
possible accent color, found here: 
 

another accent color, found here:



chalkboard paint, inspiration found here:

 
new cabinet hardware, found here:
 
 

So none of this is official because I can't do anything without talking to Chad yet (that's how we roll, for better or for worse!) and I'm still in the scheming planning stages.  But I'm SOOO excited to possibly get a kitchen that I don't loathe.  Wouldn't that be nice??  
ps: don't get an iPad because then you will spend all of your spare time sitting on the couch, getting ideas for which you really don't have the time/energy/money to implement.
 
pps:  most of my inspiration came from two blogs I'm recently obsessing over, found here and here.

kitchen voyeurism

my mom just had her kitchen remodeled. love it. i'm kinda pissed because this is exactly the style and color of cabinets that i want for our kitchen and i REALLY hate to do something on my house after someone else i know does it. it's just so unoriginal. however, i really love the cabinets so i might have to make an exception. they were handmade by an amish guy in northern indiana. i wanted to use the same guy (i am NOT opposed to using the same contractors) when we get around to the kitchen but apparently our cabinets are going to be handmade by a non-amish guy that lives in irvington bungalow.

things i like about the cabinets: handmade locally, the color, the inset doors, the shaker style doors, the hardware, the crown which actually mimics an older cabinet that was installed too. you can see it if you scroll down.

my mom probably would not be too happy to see this picture of here on the web. however she won't know because i'm pretty sure she doesn't even read this blog. i wanted to show how, even though the kitchen is small, they made the most out of the space.

this was an old cabinet my mom has had for years. i love how she incorporated it with the new cabinets.

love the compact, red stove. really great accent.

off to a good start

what number was "general organization" on our 2009 goal list? i can't remember right now but it was most likely near the bottom. if you live in a fixer-upper then you know organization is often the last thing to occur.

however last weekend i feel like we got off to a good start. one of the items on my christmas list was a shelf for our breakfast nook area. i've been married long enough to know that if i asked for some fancy shelf from PB or something that this wouldn't happen. so i asked for a shelf that could be used again once we remodel the kitchen and it was no longer needed in the breakfast nook. we got a gorilla rack. looks like we specifically have the GR 7304N.

no monkeying around (sorry) this thing is HEAVY-DUTY. dual purpose, too. now it holds our overflow kitchen items and all of my hobby supplies (shameless plug, sorry). one day, post kitchen remodel, it will live in our garage.

i really wish i would've taken a "before" picture of the this area. up until a few days ago this small space housed the dog's food, an old wall mirror we removed from the LR like four years ago, an antique umbrella, the microwave (still there), the dog's food (still there), an air compressor, various tools and boxes of nails, a stool, chairs, a folding table (still there), boxes to recylce, a basket full of old magazines and shoes, and a pile of junk to go to Goodwill. ah. isn't it better now?! for this feat alone i should be able to cross one item off of our goal list.

cottage living design assistant

does any one else get stuck on cottage living's design assistant for a looooong time looking for house ideas? i used to have this picture above saved somewhere and i couldn't find it so i had to get back on their site to find it again. i am in LOVE with those painted wood floors and the beadboard walls & ceilings. this is what i would like our attic to look like when it is finished. i am going to refuse to have carpet installed. a major reason we cleaned out the attic is for improved indoor air quality. the last thing i want is all the chemicals used to make carpet seeping into my nostrils.

so then of course i started looking at kitchen pictures. i love this kitchen....well, not so much the mint-green cabinets. that color just doesn't do it for me but i adore the style of the cabinets and the 3x6 matte subs. and seriously? who doesn't love schoolhouse style lighting?

below is another picture of painted wood floors. i'm kind-of obsessed with the idea of having checkered flooring somewhere in the house as well as painted wood floors somewhere.

Marmoleum Kitchen Floor

I was a little bored yesterday so I searched online for pics of marmoleum floors. I stumbled on this photo taken from the 1916 Portland Bungalow blog. Love love love this look for our future kitchen. Even the colors. I think we would consider doing the checkerboard at an angle. I've read that this makes the room look larger. With our limited kitchen square footage we need all the optical illusions we can to make the space look bigger than it is in reality!