Thursday, January 19, 2012

Miss Me?


The kitchen-we will be getting new rugs, some colored pendant lights, a custom tile backsplash and some decorations for the tops of my cabinets

It has been almost 1 month since we settled on our new house.  We moved in on 12/23, just 2 days before Christmas.  It has been a whirlwind since then.  Time won't slow down, it seems.  Anyway, sorry for the long hiatus.  It is taking us forever to make this house our home but it's all in fun, right?  We have been in Lowe's, Target and Ikea more than I would like to admit.  Over the next few weeks, I will start blogging our home's progress.  You will have to excuse the blue tape for now as our PM will be coming in to touch up everything soon.  I marked everything with the tape so he could easily find dings and marks.

For those of you getting the espresso cabinets and java floors, I can tell you that it is going to drive you nuts.  The cabinets show EVERYTHING and the finish comes off rather easily.  We are extremely careful with them and they still have scratches and dings now.  I may end up distressing them in the future if they get bad enough to warrant it.  They stress me and my hubby to death.  As for the floors, they scratch and dent easily.  I don't understand it.  They are hickory, for crying out loud!  One cardboard box, that was practically empty, scratched the heck out of one of my planks when it got slid across it.  I was very unhappy.  I admit that I cried a little, lol.  Seriously, hardwood floors should be able to withstand basic operations in the home.  I don't get it.  The box took off the top layer and left me with a huge light dent in the flooring.  My PM said that he thinks that is a fluke but I have seen more scratches and dings that shouldn't have happened.  The good news is that the floor is distressed anyway so it won't be hard to hide imperfections, but still, these floors were not cheap and it ticks me off.  We now have a "no shoe" policy because I just can't risk damage to my floors.


Our formal china cabinet doesn't fit in the dining room so it is in the morning room for now.  I will either get rid of it and get a more casual piece or I will replace the table to a more formal looking one.  We will soon get some kind of pretty light fixture to hang from the tall ceiling.  I know the picture makes the table look like we didn't center it but it is.  I am extremely OCD so it is in the dead center, trust me, lol.  

Our hardware-We love it!!  Notice how the espresso cabinets actually look brown in this pic.  They really aren't black like most pictures show.  They are truly a deep brown.

8 comments:

Rachel said...

Glad to see you back! Sorry to hear about the floor and cabinet scratches. Absolutely love the hardware. I'm impressed that you have that done already :) It took us a couple of years to get around to that in our current home. We'll see how long it takes in the next one. Can't wait to see more pics as you get settled in!

Brooke said...

Could you post a few photos of your cabinets close up. I'd be interested in viewing them. We also chose the maple espresso cabinets.

Ellen said...

I love your kitchen! Looks great. I'm sure you are very busy getting everything settled - can't wait to see more pictures.

We had hardwoods in our first house - and they were just like you described - scratched and dented from anything (and my dog pretty much ruined them). None of my other friends had hardwood that looked that bad. A flooring guy told me it was because they were high-gloss hardwoods.

At least your floors are already distressed - but that still stinks.

Sgt.Rich said...

I too have made this Ikea pilgrimage you speak of. Paong chair has been on my list for many a year and I finally have room to own one!
Sorry to hear about floors. I am a self proclaimed "house nazi" and tend to overthink all kinds of things. So when we moved in and I went to get the dogs, I had nightmares their paws/claws were going to ruin the hardwood. So far, so good.

Brandy said...

Rachel, we had to install the hardware quickly. Every time that we touched the cabinets, we would get bad smudges from our fingerprints. We also were damaging the edges occasionally with wedding rings and finger nails. I freaked when my kids would attempt to open them so it was mandatory to get hardware on ASAP!

Brooke, are you wanting to see the scratches/damage or just an overall view of certain cabinets?

Ellen, the thank the Lord that my floors are matte. There isn't a bit of gloss on them. If so, I would be crying for sure with the scratches and dings, lol.

Sgt. Rich, I was wondering how your floors were going to fare with the doggies. It's great that they aren't damaging them!

Brooke said...

What flooring did you choose?? I feel like we have very similar selections/taste - Our cabinet/granite selection is nearly identical (if not so: espresso cab, venetian gold granite) We chose a bruce distressed hickory in spice tint... I'm hoping it will look similar to yours, I love it!!

Brooke said...

What flooring did you choose?
I feel like we made similar selections / have similar taste. We chose espresso cab, new venetian gold granite, and a bruce distressed hickory in spice tint -- I'm hoping ours will look like your flooring; its beautiful!

Brandy said...

We have Armstrong hand-scraped/distressed hickory wood floors in java (color). I love them! Your combination is going to be really pretty. It's amazing how much it finalizes the home when you see those gorgeous wood floors in. :)