Unremarkable

Just in case I haven't made it perfectly clear, I have a love affair with paint and a hatred for honey oak. When we bought our home, I never noticed the huge monstosity that is our ironing board built into the wall in the hallway. If it was behind closed doors in the laundry room, I would have probably let it go, but it is the first thing you see when you walk up the stairs. How did I miss it? I have absolutely no idea. Daniel still claims that he doesn't ever notice it, but it is been driving me crazy. What to do? I rummaged around in the attic (approx temp: boiling) and managed to find a gallon of paint that looked like it matched the trim and doors in our house. It was 4 years old and had been probably frozen and boiled through 4 years of winters and summers, so using it was out. I trekked over to ACE hardware (my store-of-choice for cabinet/wood paint) and had them mix up a quart. I think it is a lot less noticable now, and Daniel still claims that he doesn't notice it. At least it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb anymore.. Before/After:

I knew that when we bought our place, it had two major problems... the first being an infestation of 8o's builder-grade honey oak, and the second being mustard yellow. Everywhere. I have been whittling away at these problems and am hugely impressed with the progress. Daniel allowed me to paint our kitchen cabinets (which ended up biting him in the ass when I was unable to re-hang them on my own... he ended up yelling "I AM NOT A CARPENTER!" in a fit of outrage). But I digress. I painted our kitchen cabinets (BM "black bean soup" in case there are any other paint junkies out there) and we swapped out the rusting over bronze hinges for some decent looking ones that were cheapish at lowe's.

With the money we got as wedding gifts, we decided that it was time to get rid of our cheap-o white appliances and buy something a little nicer. We sold the old ones on craigslist (all except the dishwasher, but that is a story for another day). What started as the easiest thing ever... set our budget, go to sears, pick out something decent, have it delivered, pay the bill... ended up not being so. Refrigerator #1 was 1/16" too wide due to our less than stellar measuring skills. Refrigerator #2 did NOT match at all (we had to order it because it was not in-store to see ahead of time). Come to find out, the refrigerator space is an odd size and finding one to fit it that was stainless steel was going to be a very difficult task. After exhausting our options at lowe's, home depot, sears, best buy, the great indoors, and menard's, a coworker of Daniel's suggested abt. We looked online, and there was a whopping ONE refrigerator that met our needs and it is finally here! Before and after pictures are definately in order....

BEFORE:

A small victory over an ironing board

Kitchen update