Architectural Hertiage Center's Kitchen Revival Tour

I took this picture before we even finished up the window hardware

 Two weeks ago our kitchen was on the Architectural Heritage Center's Kitchen Revival Tour.  It was so much fun to be able to share our kitchen with around 350 old house lovers.  It was also nice to be able to share how we were able to complete a 100% custom kitchen on a budget as well as share the names of all of the wonderful products and contractors that we used (I have included them below).

While the tour was Saturday, we were invited to a reception and a showing of all the other homes on the tour-they were so gorgeous and inspiring. 

I thought I would share pictures that I took of our kitchen while it was all cleaned up for the tour and finally FINISHED!!!!  We literally finished up installing the hardware on the restored kitchen window 1.5 days before the tour-nothing like a little pressure right before the tour.

Kitchen Resources

Kitchen Cabinets: Dovetail Custom Woodworks

Tile: Reiner Tile & Stone

Plumbing: Gagliasso Plumbing

Marmoleum Floor (Eiger) & Granite (Absolute Black Honed): Paulsons

Back Door (& front door restoration): Willow Classic Woodworking

Drywall: Oswego Dry Wall

Light Fixtures: Rejuvenation

Light Shades: School House Electric

Dishwasher: Bosch

Range: NXR (Costco)

Fridge: Kitchen Aide

Sink: Kohler Anthem

Faucet: Strom Plumbing

Sprayer: Danze

Back Door Hinges/Light Switches/Outlet Plates/Bin Pulls: House of Antique Hardware

Cabinet Latches, Aubrey Fridge Pull & Cabinet Pulls: Restoration Hardware

Cabinet Hinges: Horton Brasses

And an insane month it has been.  The first weekend of April Mr. Ben turned 4 and had a Robot Party to celebrate.  We also had some good friends visit.  Then it was the house tour.  The last two weekends (and week) we have been in California for a family reunion-soooo much fun!  Now we're back to the grind. 

 

We visited our wedding site, McCormick Ranch in Camarillo, CA-such a gorgeous old home and grounds

Not gonna lie, my BFF and I love to coordinate our kiddos outfits.  We need good pix for their wedding someday, right?

Turns out getting a good pic of two 11 month-olds is no easy feat.  Maxwell and Quinny sittin in a tree....

Sibling luv

knees for miles

Dimple!

The Gang in Cambria, CA, just south of Hearst Castle

Watching the Elephant Seals in San Simeon-the weather couldn't have been better

In addition, we just chose a contractor (Red Rooster Remodeling)  for our big remodel project and couldn't be more excited.  I'll have lots more to follow but we basically hired the contractor just for framing, structural and exterior.  We would have loved to hire her for the whole project but it is just not in our budget :(  We met with our architect, Joe (joeswank at gmail dot com) this morning and finalized drawing changes-we hope to have a set of drawings ready for permits in about a month give or take.  We hope to kick off the project in late June when the weather is better.  Less rain = saved money on tarping.

Learning to take Breaks from Hard Work

This being the third summer of working on our house, Steve and I are finally learning how to take just a few breaks from work and getting smarter...and poorer in the process. While we still do the majority of the projects ourselves and at least part of every project we hire out to cut down on costs, we have learned that we need to leave some time for fun as well as work. In addition, we probably would have truly killed ourselves by now due to amount of work and 107 degree heat over the past two weeks if we had not hired a wonderful contractor to help rebuild our front porch...did we say that it's over half way done and we've only done a couple hours of demo work?

At Stef and Marc's wedding, July 4, 2009


Cannon Beach for Mitch and Erin's wedding, July 18, 2009



Ben grandma's lake house on Mason Lake, July 24th, 2009
*note the cute wet dogs and Porter's silly little life jacket (he is not exactly fond of the water)


Bones and Brew Fest August 2, 2009
August attempting to get his first taste of beer (John & Jess' adorable baby boy)...he already recognizes a good beer