Kitchen Remodel Reveal

I am finally ready to reveal our kitchen. This has been a labor of love and a complete pain in the butt. But I am so happy with the results (a few things need to be fixed) and I am loving my new kitchen.

If you remember, this is what my kitchen looked like before...old, outdated and boring.

 Linoleum floors, dated cabinets, old stovetop

 Old double oven (only the bottom worked)

And this was during the demo.

Where the double oven used to be

And now I present to you the (almost) finished product.

We used some leftover counter top to make a Nevada cheeseboard/cutting board and a soap dish. We still have a lot of leftover counter top that we haven't decided what to use it for. The cabinets have been refaced with new hardware.

 New counter tops that are quartz with a marble look to them.

We had to raise our cabinet over the stove due to the space between the stove and the cabinet. It needed to be at least 22 -24 inches for proper ventilation and ours was not. They moved the cabinet up, we installed the new range hood and added the back splash feature. The oven is Samsung and it is gas with both regular and convection settings.

 We installed Emser Explorer Series Paris tile which brings in all the colors together.

It is hard to see, but we used some counter top as the window's ledge. We installed a Bosche dishwasher and a farm house sink.

 We added pendant lights with Edison bulbs in them. This also shows a more close-up of the counter tops.

 We added tile on the other side of the breakfast bar for a place to house our chairs. Before they sat on carpet and it got really dirty under them.

 We whitewashed the brick wall, painted inside the indoors bbq and laid a piece of the counter top inside of it. This is where our microwave sits which we plan to get a new one.

 We got a new refrigerator due to ours being old and small. We would have liked to cut out more brick to get a bigger fridge, but it was too costly and would require new support beams. All appliances are stainless steel.

 We took out our double oven and turned it into a cabinet. We painted the inside black and our contractor added in a cabinet backing and brackets. We used leftover counter tops for the shelving as well.

 New Tile

 The lifted cabinet

 I wanted gray subway tile as my back splash. I searched for the perfect color to match everything and the tile was back ordered for 5 weeks. My contractor contacted the vendor and after many talks, they expedited it and I got the suede gray tile I had dreamed of. Seriously one of my favorite things about this kitchen. It has a Snow White tile grout with it.

 We used to have extra cabinets that we removed to make this part pantry, part mudroom. I painted the wall a light gray and we got the bench from West Elm. I still am looking for a coat rack or wood to make one myself.

Pendant Lights

And there you have it. My kitchen is pretty much complete and now to move onto the next project....the bathroom. 

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

I decided last minute to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. It has been a tradition in my family since I was a little girl and I wanted to keep it up. So this year, I made them on Christmas Eve, so I could just heat them up Christmas morning.

I started out with a basic roll recipe.

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

1 cup water, plus 
1 tablespoon water (70-80 F) 
1 large egg 
4 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil 
3 1/4 cups bread flour 
1/4 cup sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons salt 
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast 

Filling:

cinnamon
sugar
melted butter

Extras:

all purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the dough ingredients in a bread maker, but only use the dough option. This allows you to mix everything and let it rise without doing any extra work. Sometimes I make the dough all by hand, but with twin toddlers running around, bread maker it was.

2. Once your dough has finished mixing and rising, take it out of the bread maker and put it on a floured surface.

3. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. It should be about 1/8 inch thick.

4. Melt some butter in a bowl and brush your dough liberally with the melted butter.

5. Sprinkle dough with sugar and cinnamon. Use a lot. Make sure your dough is covered in the mixture.

6. Starting with the long side of the rectangle, rolls your dough into a log. Make sure to roll it tightly. Once you get to the end, use a little extra butter to close the roll.

7. Slide your log onto a cutting board and cut into one inch chunks.

8. Using the extra butter, brush your round pan with some butter on the bottom and sides. Place your rolls into the pan. I put about 9 rolls per pan.

9. Put in your oven on the warm setting or place them in a warm area for one hour.

10. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cook for 10 minutes. This stops the dough from rising anymore and "kills" the yeast.

11. The morning of, you can reheat your cinnamon rolls for 5 to 8 minutes at 350 degrees. You can serve plain or with an icing.

Enjoy!

I am linking up with Jenn.

New Years Weekend

We are into the New Year and I am very excited for what 2017 has in store for us. We had a pretty good weekend. We are easing back into the blogging schedule, work and the massive snow storms that are to come (every day all week).

Let's get right into my weekend.

Friday we worked all day (holiday weeks mean no half day Fridays), hit up the grocery store, took down our Christmas tree, baked cupcakes, made dinner and prepped the house for the girls' party in the morning.

Saturday morning, I made spicy meatballs in the crockpot, ran to Whole Foods to pick up a few last minute items for the girls party, finished cleaning and prepping for the party. We decided to have a few people over for to celebrate the girls birthday. We had a couple friends and some family over. It was perfect. Small and easy to manage. Plus I was able to enjoy the entire party and not cook and clean the whole time.

We had a brunch at 11 am. I decorated minimally. And I made a few dishes (and had family bring a few things).

Birthday Menu:

Spicy Meatballs
Rolls
Meat and Cheese Tray
Fruit and Fruit Dip
Pastries from a Local Bakery
Chips and Dip
Quiche
Cupcakes
Mimosas
Orange Juice
Sparkling Cider
Water

And the bad blogger in me didn't get a ton of photos. We do have some on my nice camera, but none of the set up really. I was too busy enjoying the party and I don't regret that at all. But I did manage to snap some photos...

 The girls really loved opening presents this year

 Funfetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting

 Sutton is obsessed with her ball pit

And a few snaps of the decor that I got.

 There were way more cupcakes, but I snapped this late in the game.

 All decor is from Hobby Lobby

The girls didn't take a nap until 2 pm when everyone left. They normally nap at noon. They slept for an hour and a half and I cleaned up the house during this time. I also put together their toddler table which they LOVE.

We played, ate dinner and put the girls to bed. Then Rory went out and grabbed a pizza since I had no desire to cook. We capped off our evening with some wine and the movie Blackhat.

Sunday morning we went out to breakfast to one of our favorite spots. The waitresses know the girls so well since we have been coming there since the girls were in the NICU. They came over and sang Happy Birthday to them and added a little extra to their french toast.

Sunday afternoon we finally got the girls to ride on their rocking horses. They have been afraid of them since they got them on Christmas Eve, but they finally rode them and loved them.

Sunday evening, we had our first date night of 2017. We haven't had a date night in a long time. Either we go out with friends or not at all lately. So it was nice to have a date night. We started off at Roxy's for martinis. I had a Reno 75 which has pear vodka, champagne, rock candy syrup and lemon juice. Rory had a dirty martini with onions. It felt so good to have adult conversation and catch up with my husband.

After drinks, we headed to La Strada for some Italian food. We had the calamari and then I had their signature mushroom raviolis. Rory had the mushroom risotto which was out of this world. We had a bottle of wine and capped it off with pistachio gelato and fresh berries. Everything was sooooo good.

While waiting for our Uber, we ran outside to take a photo in front of the Reno arch since we NEVER go downtown anymore.

It was the perfect date night to start off 2017.

Monday was an off day for us. The girls woke up at 6 am and were going full force until 10 am when they took a nap. I don't remember the last time they napped at 10 am. They napped for two hours and then were up for a long time which meant cranky toddlers. Plus it was too cold to go outside since it was windy and snowing all day long. Total cabin fever.

We watched a bunch of bowl games, sat by the fire and played with all their new toys. They were exhausted by 4 pm, but they managed to stay awake until 6:30.

I made dinner from my Cravings cookbook and it was amazing. It was the first recipe I made out of the cookbook since I got it when my kitchen was being renovated. If this dish is anything like her others, I am going to be hooked and make them all. I made Vegetable Tortilla Stew and it was so good. Hearty, but healthy.

We capped the evening off with the Bachelor. I watched the whole thing because I didn't want any spoilers. And the girl in the shark costume....wow just wow. I can't wait to watch next weeks. Did you watch the Bachelor?

And that was our weekend. How was your weekend?