a reason to be THANKFUL!

With Thanksgiving only a couple of days away I starting thinking about the things I'm thankful for. Of course, family was the first thing that popped into my head. But, what next? With the weather changing to cold, damp, and rainy, the answer was easy...my warm and cozy home to snuggle up in!

My house has not always been warm and cozy. It has been through a couple of addition/remodels. The last one being three years ago. We started with no particular deadline. That immediately changed once we learned we would be hosting our son's wedding in three months! Doing all the work ourselves (mostly Hubby), we didn't have much of a social life that summer.

Hubby demolished three walls opening up
the kitchen area and expanding the dining room.

 

Wow! Look at all those electrical wires...they all needed to be rerouted!

Luckily, my electrician works cheap!

The really cool step-up architectural feature that Hubby worked so hard to create over the dining room table during our previous addition/remodel project was now in the wrong place! So, after investigating the situation he went to work to fix that issue.

What a mess...cabinets were scattered where ever we could find a place to put them. The sliding glass door in the back ground had to be removed to make way for a stove and microwave. We found a home for it in our newly enlarged dining room.

My youngest son was still living at home and helped out with some of the heavy lifting.

There's Hubby cutting right on top of the counter...doesn't he know

we have a cutting board?

I did help...really! I was the clean up girl and there was always something to clean up. I also did all the plaster work and painting which was challenging at times. As you can see from the photos, I had to texture and paint in random areas here and there working around the mess.

Notice the hideously bright orange dining room wall? Hard to believe but that is
the start of a gorgeous, rich red finish that will have the look of leather.

 Once most the painting was done, Hubby started laying the new flooring.

This is what the place looked like two weeks before the wedding! I was beginning to feel a little panicked and questioned whether we could finish on time. With help from my very generous father-in-law, we were able to wrap it up the day before the wedding which gave me just enough time to whip out all the wedding flowers!

 

I wouldn't have chosen to take on a major remodel and a wedding at the same time

but you do what you have to do! And, I love the results!

The new kitchen sparkles with stainless steel and glass tiles.

I love this bar area for entertaining! Hubby - nicknamed the mixologist by one of our friends - never leaves this area during a party...he's the perfect bartender!

With much cutting and hammering, Hubby was able to create a beautiful storage area and focal point for the dining room reusing some of the old kitchen cabinets.

I sanded, primed and painted them a soft black to accent the red leather wall finish.

Now that all that hard work is just a fading memory, I'm grateful that I can

just grab a cup of coffee and sit back and relax in my warm and cozy home!

Hubby got his reward too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Lil Pink Pocket: Show & Share, Fireflies and Jellybeans: Show Off Your Stuff, Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Night Special