New Addition to the Family

No, this is not a baby post. This is a post about a piece of furniture that makes me so happy it has become a part of our family. Yes, I love it that much.

Our kitchen has only one wall of cabinets. On the other wall is where I had this ugliness.

Please excuse the trash that sorely needed to be taken out.

I had been perusing Craigslist forever looking for a piece of furniture, preferably a buffet to fit this wall. Well all of the buffets I ran across were too wide for my odd length of a wall (46"). Then one fateful evening my Aunt and I dropped in on a little shop in Moberly called Endless Possibilities. It's basically a flea market in a store. They always have new and unique things. After borrowing a tape measure from the store owner I found this (can you believe it!) BUFFET!!!!

This buffet dropped down from heaven I tell ya! And the owners had it marked at $150... Womp womp. Remember that whole money is tight, paying for school, thing? Yeah, this buffet didn't fit into that budget. Luckily the owner happened to be at the store and he brought it down from $150 to $100 for me. The cheap-o in me still though it was a little high. So the scaredy cat Olivia went home without the buffet. All the while wondering if it would be there if I went back, could I find something better on CL, would I ever find something to fit that gosh dern wall?!??!??!?

Ok long story made a tad bit shorter I had my aunt go back and pay for it the next day. Also since my birthday is coming up, she and my grandma both put in $20 so this bad buffet rang in at $68 after taxes.

 

I cannot put into words how much this buffet adds to the kitchen. It has almost doubled my counter space, I now have a place to prepare things and use my mixer and it gave me a ton of additional storage! LOVE!

I'm not sure if I'll refinish it or not... still contemplating. This night-time picture really does not do it justice. Oh and that filled to the brim ledge above it either. The funniest part of this story... when Eric and I went to go pick it up I asked him what he thought and he said "Well it isn't what I was expecting." I replied with a what do you mean? He said he was expecting an actual buffet like at a restaurant. That got a few snorting laughs from me as I pictured a 24-hour buffet in our kitchen. Dream on buddy! Ah boys, gotta love 'em!

Slow Process

Hi everybody!! I made it through finals... somehow without a scratch and then it was high time to start in on my Christmas break to do list.

• Make cleaning schedule.
• Paint kitchen cabinets.
• Find something to replace microwave cart.
• Read "Time of My Life"
• Finish Christmas shopping.
• Clean out LR closet.
• Finish BR closet (buy baskets to corral stuff on shelves and paint it)
• Paint trim in BR.
• Have a photo shoot with Mojo and Junior.
• Host a holiday party????

This is just a quick tentative list I jotted down last week and my first day off from school (yesterday) my aunt and I dove into the biggest task of all since it was a rainy ucky day and we had already planned to anyways, painting the kitchen cabinets.I wanted to get this done before I start working full-time on Sunday. Boo. It is now day two and I am slowly chugging along at my own pace and trying not to have a nervous breakdown because my house it a wreck. Everything will get a final coat as soon as I get done writing this and then the cabinets will get a 3-4 day "cure time". Hooray for no more mismatched cabinets!!!

Here's a before picture to jog everyone's memory.

 And a sneak peek picture ;)

Yes that is a heart shaped paint glob on my arm. Had to take a picture. I'm a nerd, I know.

Floors Galore

Our Kitchen has a lot of updating that needs to be done. However the one thing I want to talk about today is the floors in this room, the bathroom and the laundry/dining room. Here's what they look like now.




Kitchen

Scuffed Surface

Back Room

First off I just plain don't like the kitchen and bathroom floors. Second, they have big gaps in the linoleum and third, the finish is wearing off in some places. The laundry room floors got destroyed by a puppy and since they were in terrible shape we also painted in there and they're really not pretty now. Enough said. So I spent the better part of my life on Monday checking out my options of peel and stick tile. I 'm pretty sure we're going to go with this option because

1. It's super easy and we have no tile laying experience.
2. It will adjust to the uneven floors of our old house well.
3. There's a huge variety to choose from.
4. It's inexpensive.

See that little #3 up there? That is proving to be a tad bit of a problem. I can't make up my mind! First off I wanted to go with the Lowe's ebony tiles that I saw in this laundry room. I really like the look of them and they're super affordable ringing in at $.88 a square foot.



Unfortunately there were a ton of reviews saying that after they had been in for about two months the finish gets hazy in high traffic areas. I know, insert let down music here. We are in the kitchen a lot and the tiles will have to hold up to the dog's nails. So even though it was love at first sight. Ebony tiles were a no go.

So here are the contenders and their prices.

$1.39

$1.69

$1.39



$.88




$1.69



I am completely torn. I would like something darker so it doesn't look dirty all the time, but I like the look of all of them. Then there's also all the different prices to consider. I'm at a loss at this moment. Here are a few more pics of the kitchen now.

And my inspiration pic.



Found Here



 HELP!!! What do you guys think? Should I save money and go with the cheapest? Which one do think would look best with the white cabinets, Oil Rubbed Bronze and coutertops, without being too matchy? I'm so ready to tear out the floors it is killing me.

Well while we all stew on all that information I hope you guys have a great weekend! I'll be working on a little project with a Flip cam for Monday's post! Stay tuned!!