Kitchen and Dining Room Photos

I forgot all about our current house.

For the past two years or so, the only home we've cared about has been the one we're building with Panorama Homes. It's hard to love the house we're in now - it's just a storage unit. We were able to save thousands on construction costs by purchasing all the fixtures ourselves and storing them, but it didn't take long for the stacks of boxes to suck the romance right out of the place. There has been a sauna in our dining room for more than two years. There's a clawfoot tub next to it. Oh, and did I mention the toilets? Just try to enjoy your home with three toilets stacked to your living room ceiling. I dare you.

We hadn't expected the construction process to take this long.

Also, I'm a bit of a shopaholic. If it's an open-box clearance item, that means it's heavily discounted, one of a kind, and this is my only chance to buy it! Did I mention we've saved thousands?

I can't wait to get all my bargains moved into our new house and get this one staged and sold. If I'm remembering correctly, this house actually used to be pretty nice. We (well, I supervised) expanded the kitchen and completely gutted our master bathroom, creating a new master suite complete with Jacuzzi tub, cavernous shower, and his-and-hers walk-in closets. We pulled up the blue carpet, installed fireplaces, brought in crown molding and chair rail, and added built-in bookcases. You'd never know this place started life as a builder-boring KB Home.

Sexy Nerd created the river rock fireplace in our dining room.

Side note: I edited all of these photos on my laptop and apparently it's time to get a new one. HP says each photo looks AMAZING. My phone and my tablet, which I didn't check until it was too late, say I'm living in a retina-burning house of yellow madness. Our walls aren't actually the neon depicted here.

My wacky video card is also responsible for the bookcase appearing so messy. Darn laptop!

Sexy Nerd built the bookcase, hung the chandelier, installed the can lights, refinished my childhood dining table, installed the tulip wallpaper mural (it's a single mural, split in half), replaced the musty carpet, and painted every surface, including our burgundy dining chairs. 

He's quite the handyman, that Sexy Nerd of mine. I think I'll keep him around.

Oh, you see that granite countertop over on the left? Sexy Nerd did that. The slate island too, which was formerly just a vast, empty space of wasted square footage. It seemed like the builder went for an open floor plan but didn't intend any particular use for each space. The family we purchased our home from had been using the dining room for watching TV and the living room for...nothing. They also slept on the floor and had a little shrine with incense by the patio door.

For Sexy Nerd, part of the appeal of building a brand-new home must be that everything will already be perfect and he won't have to lift a finger.

The poor guy must have forgotten why we bought our current home. I'd declared it "Perfect!" and said I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm pretty sure I was over that blue carpet by 6 pm of our first day in the house. And we didn't get the keys until 5.

You can see a glimpse of the stairs in this photo. (And a sad Pica!) Sexy Nerd refinished them.

The stairs...not the Pica. Although, he did give her a bath once. Does that count?

When we bought this house, the kitchen was much smaller and it had blue laminate countertops. The only light fixture was one of those long, plastic halogen boxes you sometimes see in garages.

 The red paint is Behr Cherry Cobbler in semi-gloss. We love it, though it gave us a scare at first - the initial coat goes on pink!

I wasn't able to find a "before" photo of our kitchen, but we're in a cookie cutter neighborhood and a duplicate floor plan is currently for sale down the street. This is pretty much what ours looked like when we moved in a decade ago. Can you believe it? Quite the transformation!

Actually, ours was a bit worse, with grayish blueish crap carpet and faded green laminate countertops.

Sexy Nerd built the wine bar. And wired the lights. And upgraded our doors. 

At this point, I should probably just stop pointing out any Sexy Nerd-related details. If you see it in a photo, he's responsible for it. 

I love this kitchen! I'm going to miss it.

The oversized island is the perfect spot for a wine and cheese tasting, also known as our dinner last Monday. Not having kids is the best.

I'm going to need to come back and update this blog post with a photo of the view out our kitchen window, which looks out at towering rose bushes and a lush, green lawn that never dies. It's magical.

It's plastic grass.

Baaah, says the little ram!

In other words, now that I've decided not to point out all of Sexy Nerd's handiwork, I'm not really sure what to write anymore.