Saturday, October 12, 2013

Kitchen.... before and after

Our first interior kitchen project was the kitchen.  I an very happy with how everything turned out.  Here is what we did

1. Scrapped off the wallpaper.  Thanks to Noah, Mom, Nannie and Stephen.  After that day, I decided that people who remove wallpaper for a living must have the highest suicide rate. 
2. Tore down part of the wall into the Dining Room so that we could open the freezer (thanks to Don Cheeny)
3. Took out the cabinets on the sink wall and removed the huge island. 
4. Sanded and painted all the cabinets
5. Painted the walls.... thanks to Stephen, we actually painted it twice because I HATED the first shade of white.  
6.  Put up open shelving (thanks to the Secrist family.... :)

All the before pictures were taken by Stephen when he was trying to convince me to buy the house.  Good thing I had a vision :)  

Note the beautiful wallpaper (I will admit, I liked the pineapples)






I don't know what we would have done without Don Cheeny.  Not only did he make it so our fridge we brought from Texas would open, but he also removed all the broken radios. 

And here is the after.....

The light fixture in the picture below is one of my favorite finds.  Mom and I found it at the Habitat Restore for $5.  I bought a can of spray paint and changed it from brass to black. 
 I love the wide opening into the dining room and all the room now that the island is gone. 




*We are still looking for new knobs.  I want a black cast iron look, and I just cannot find them (at Home Depot). 

The cabinets are Coastal Fog by Benjamin Moore.  I did not like the color on the swatch, but then I saw it a friend's house in Florida and I knew it was the perfect color.  After buying 12 samples of gray, I went cold turkey on this color.  It is the absolute perfect shade. 

White walls are Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee.  The first try was Acadia White, but in our old house, it just looked dingy.   The trim is cloud white by Benjamin Moore. 

I bought the hardware for the opening shelving at Ikea.  Lori and Brad cut the shelves for me.  

I must admit, I am happy with the transformation. 

Saturday, October 5, 2013

What's with the name?

In Atlanta, you will often hear people say, "take a right at the big chicken"  or "if you make it to the big chicken, you went too far."  

Yes, the eyes and beak move


Everyone in the Atlanta area knows and loves the big chicken.  In high school, Louise and I used to go up there for dinner a lot (followed by a dozen krispie kreme doughnuts).  Last Christmas, Dad gave me a framed collection of Atlanta landmarks.  

Fox Theatre, The Varsity, OK Cafe, Big Chicken
Stephen was so confused by the big chicken picture.  Apparently, I had not done my job in educating him into Atlanta ways.  We had no choice but to drive him up there. Once he knew the big chicken, he started hearing about it everywhere.  He found it hilarious to randomly state our location in respect to the Big Chicken (like any true Atlantan would do). When it came time to pick a name for this blog, Stephen wanted "just north of south"  but I refused to admit that we were moving out of the south.** Somewhere, "Just North of The Big Chicken" came up and it just felt right.  

mmmm.  now I want some fried chicken and biscuits.  I won't like, I do love me some KFC.  

** Now that we are here, I will admit that I have moved out of the south.