fun at the fair

On Saturday, Matt and I went to the State Fair! There are things I absolutely LOVE about living in Indy and I'd have to say that taking a 15 minute motorcycle ride to the State Fair is one of them.  The "plan" for Saturday was actually to get the rest of the kitchen done.  We still needed to prime, paint, and put all the new trim up for before the countertops get here in a couple weeks.  Matt made sure I knew alll week that Saturday would be a workin' day.  Bummer.  I sooo badly wanted to go to the fair.  The fair runs for 3 weeks, but Saturday was literally the ONLY day that we could both go together.  We went last year and had a lot of fun so I wanted to be sure we went this year too.  I love the fair!  

We had lunch at El Rodeo after I got done with my 3 hours at the gym for the Les Mills launch (I did the BodyPump launch and then 3 other classes' launches) all the while planning on coming back to work on the kitchen.  Once we made it home and we both sat on the couch, it was a mutual decision that no work was going to get done.  Off to the fair we went!  We hopped on the Harley for what felt like the first time all summer and rode down to the fairgrounds.  It was so awesome to get to hang out with Matt doing something other than working on the house.  I love being with him.

I was so obsessed with the baby pygmy goats last year and we couldn't find them this year.  I whined a little bit about that.  I love the little goats!  I assume it just wasn't time for them to be shown since we went the 2nd day the fair opened.  I found a new animal to obsess over...the two litters of baby piglets.  Matt could not pull me away from them.  

Love this guy

Huge horses getting ready for the parade

Llama :)

There were 3 things I wanted to accomplish while at the fair...

1. Lemon Shake-Up

2. Corn dog! (with ketchup of course)

AND

3. An elephant ear!

We also bought a huge box of Salt Water Taffy that lasted a whole 12 hours.

Here are some more pictures of our night at the fair...

We got lucky and caught a free concert too! Jason Michael Carroll was performing that night.  We went and watched some of his performance while we ate our elephant ear.  There were a bunch of people coming to the fair I wanted to see but can't...Lady Antebellum most of all, Sugarland, Gloriana, Train/Maroon 5/Gavin Degraw, and Jack Ingram.  Maybe next time.

Good day at the fair :)

kitchen progress

I feel like I have talked about the kitchen remodel a lot. So bear with me if I say something I have already said a million times.  

In June, we went to Lowe's and designed our new kitchen.  The cabinets and countertop in the house are so old and out-dated and not in good condition.  There is also no space for me to put food (if you know me, you know I keep a WELL-stocked pantry...it's an addiction).  So new kitchen it was.  I did not realize how expensive, tedious, and labor-intensive it was to remodel a kitchen.  Especially when we Matt is doing all the tearing out and installation.

After much, much, much debate and back and forth we decided on Kraftmaid cabinets (which I usually unintentionally call Kraftaid or Kitchenmaid).  We went with a painted maple door which they called "Mushroom". It's basically off-white, but really warm. The door style is Alexis.  This style comes in the full-overlay design.  Here is a definition of it since I just tried 5 separate times to explain it, but erased them all...

"Full overlay doors have less than one-eighth of an inch between them—in effect, they fully lay over the cabinet. Frameless cabinets always have full overlay doors but some framed cabinets have them as well. You can tell for sure whether a cabinet is framed or frameless by opening a door and checking for rails and stiles."

Here is the door style. I couldn't find a picture of our door style with the Mushroom color.

Imagine this door style, but Mushroom color. Kind of like the light part of a Portobello.  How's that for a visual?  

Full overlay is a little more expensive than partial overlay, but looks soooo much nicer overall.  It's a much sleeker and streamline look.  These doors/drawers also has the "soft close" feature which I talked about in the previous post.  I love that.  We still need to buy the knobs and that will definitely make the kitchen more put-together (and make it easier for me to open the dang doors!)

The new cabinets are so beautiful! The kitchen looks amazing already and we don't even have the countertop or new sink in.

Countertop company came today to measure and gave us a final quote on the material. I am so excited because we last minute decided to put a 4 inch backsplash all the way around instead of just a 3 inch on one side of the kitchen and she threw it in at no extra cost! We went with LG Hi-Macs which is similar to Corian if you've heard of that.  No laminate and no granite.  The LG Hi Macs is perfect.  The color is called Mocha Granite so it is a rich brown with specks of other colors.  It will go great with the Mushroom cabinets, cherry hardwoods, and Homestead Resort Parlor Sage walls (can you tell I like saying that word?).  We also ordered a brand new stainless steel sink which will be integrated into the new countertops.  It will be a smooth connection where the counter will butt up right to the sink.  It looks so  awesome.  The sink is a 70/30 sink so one side is bigger than the other.  It is the deepest, biggest sink that I will ever have.  I am so used to the manufacture dinky stainless steel ones that have been in all the places we've rented.  We also bought a new faucet to install and it's fancy to me.  Once again, because anything new in a kitchen is fancy to me.

Huge semi that delivered the cabinets to me last week 

Old cabinets..you may not be able to tell, but they are falling off the hinges.

Before: sink and sink base

Before- above stove area

New cabinets filled our garage

My pantries!!

Just a little Friday night demolition 

1st new cabinet in!

After: above stove. Still need our new microwave and knobs...and paint and trim etc.

Big ole corner cabinet on the wall that previously had NO cabinets

Matt's electrical work.  He moved this outlet which was originally on the lower part of the chair rail up here. Don't ask me how he did it.  I just nod and say "Good Job!" Where does he get this from?

Sunday night after I got home from work we installed the final pieces...the pantries!

We just watched.  He stayed between my feet the whole time.  Until I was enlisted to help.

Ta-Da! Well, almost.  Still a lot of work to be done, but they are installed!

When you give a nurse a power drill...

She will scream every time it turns on.  That's a scary tool!

BUT I helped.

And then I loved on him :)

Matt worked SO hard this weekend getting all of the cabinets in.  I am so proud of my handy-man!

the part where we moved

Yes, it's been a week and a half now that we moved, but I am just now getting around to plugging in my printer and uploading photos. Whoops!

The weather was not very conducive to moving .  We were right in the middle of a heat wave...wait-why are they calling it a heat wave when all of July has been 90+degrees with a heat index of 100+? It is still that hot, so waiting to move would have done us no good.  We just had to suck it up and get it done.  Plus, would I rather have moved in January in the snow? Nope. Complaining stops here.

Massive Uhaul...the guy went to hand me the keys and the look on my face must have said it all. No WAY am I driving that thing.  We got the 26' truck and filled it the edges.

Moving day!

Getting out of the condo...on to bigger and better things :)

My super handsome and strong hubby

Matt's friends Troy and Tracy came to help us (so did Matt's mom).  I don't know what we would've done without them!  It made for a lot less heavy lifting for me :) 

Jax being a weirdo and knowing something is up

Say "goodbye" to condo life doggie! Your huge fenced in backyard awaits you!

pathetic...in an undeniable cute way

the boys

Now that we are all moved, it is such a relief to know that moving is not in our near future.  We plan on being in this house for awhile. Yes, things change but this house is a house we can grow in to. I am so happy to be a homeowner!