The Twice Remembered Cottage

Y ou all left such lovely comments in my last entry about our new hardwood flooring. Thank you! It was a backbreaking job as you may well know, but we are very pleased with how it turned out. I'm glad to hear that some of you have the same flooring and have been happy with it! For those of you who are eager to rip out your old linoleum or carpet, I understand! It will happen, and even if it takes much longer than you prefer to get to that point, it will be well worth the wait! {You'll be kissing your new floors, too, I'm sure!}

I was disappointed to see just how grainy the photos were in my last entry as I looked at them in theFor now, the kitchen is my playground. morning light so I rephotographed them and replaced them. I spent some time, too, capturing some little kitchen vignettes. {I know it seems like the kitchen is really the only place I photograph vignettes, but that's because the rest of the house is pretty much a great big embarrassing "before" that needs a lot of work still.} For now, the kitchen is my playground as far as decorating fun goes, though the studio is getting there...

Last week I shared with you some photos of the kitchen floor "surgery" we had to perform recently in order to prepare for the laying of the hardwood, along with some additional history about our kitchen. In short, I've been waiting for this flooring for a looooooong time.I feel like the hardest parts of the kitchen remodel are behind us It has been a slow, labor intensive journey getting to this point with our kitchen. We've been working on it little by little for over three years now, but when you're on a budget, slow progress is better than none at all, right? We still have to tackle the trim work, install/paint beadboard, and work on a few other small projects I've been dreaming about for a while, but I feel like the hardest parts of the kitchen remodel are behind us. We've knocked out walls to install windows and french doors, installed a new plank ceiling and lighting, added trim to and then painted our standard honey oak cabinets, installed a new countertop, backsplash, and faucet, replaced the appliances, and finally over the course of the last two weekends, laid the hardwood flooring.

Just about all the accessories you see in the photos came from Goodwill, yard sales, or the flea market. A couple of things were purchased from Ebay. I think my favorite recent finds are the old mortar and pestle {it was $1}, the cake plate and dome {$5!}, the antique cookbook {$1}, and the Morton's salt tin {.50}.

I hope you enjoy these random shots of our "kitchen in progress". Can you picture it with white beadboard around the entire perimeter? Can you picture the dining area with a fireplace? {More on that in the future!} Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for this space!

First a "before":

And now a few million "afters":

I wasn't going to show you this side of the room since there are boxes of flooring stacked up, but I wanted to tell you that I'm making plans to put a fireplace on the wall that the map is on. The kids LOVE this giant, laminate map and they all want it in their room. One map, three kids sharing two rooms. That still leaves not enough map to go around. Hmmm...

And a before and after taken from the same angle. {Maybe there is potential for the rest of this house afterall?}:

If you like this project, I'd appreciate your vote in a contest I've entered at Repair-Home.Com. Just scroll to the bottom and click on "Rollover to rate this".

Also, you can rate my kitchen now on HGTV's Rate My Space...Thanks so much for your support!
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I'm including this entry in the following link parties!: Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special,Flea Market Style, Works For Me Wednesday, Transformation Thursday, DIY Showoff, Kimba's DIY Day, Show and Tell Friday, Hooked on Fridays, Today's Thrifty Treasures, Metamorphosis Monday, and Make Your Monday!!!