I promise I will get back to before and after pics of the house but I was already bored just after the kitchen! So for today, we will take a little detour and head back for the dining room and living room tomorrow!

Home is far from being about the stuff that’s in it…although stuff sure does dress it up. I can distinctly remember the smells of our homes in Bogota and Switzerland when we arrived. I know, so strange. This house smelled like paint for the first weeks.  It wasn’t until we started cooking meals, lighting a candle now and again and baking that it really started to feel like home.   All it takes for me to transport back to my parents house is the smell of jasmine rice, Thai curry or seasonal things baking.  For those of you that don’t know, my mom grew up in Thailand so our comfort foods are hers! And curry it is. She always can detect the slightest homesickness from any of us kids when we call home for pointers on making curry. Her’s is the best.  The smell of lavender also takes me back to my mom’s house. My mom loves France more than the French and for some reason my brain now connects her with lavender and herbs de Provence!

In recent years when we were overseas I couldn’t pop out and buy a seasonal candle. I had never been one to even light candles much in the past but when we were away from the falls of smell or Christmas I was wishing for a big ol’ yankee candle on the countertop. To solve the problem I started to put a few goodies in a little pot on the stove and that did the trick. In the Fall I would slice an apple (usually one that had been in the fruit bowl too long for anyone to want to eat it) a cinnamon stick and some cloves. Towards Christmas I used apple slices, cinnamon stick, cloves and orange slices. And during the summer and spring I used a lemon or orange. Basically I just used what was seasonal and wasn’t something our fruit bowl would miss!  I would set the pot on the stove, add in water to cover the goodies, bring it to a boil and then lower it to low heat and simmer it for a little while. The house instantly filled with the fresh aromas and it smelled like home! If you do this you can cover the pot overnight and use the same stuff the next day. The apples will turn brown and the fruit will obviously be more broken down but the smell will be the same!  Another trick was to buy a box of the mulling spice tea bags. They are normally used for wassail or gluwein (have I mentioned Gluwein lately….hmmmm, must mean it’s that time of year.) but you can pop those in with a few apple or orange slices for the same effect.

If you are delivering a meal to a friend who is moving or just had a baby add a little baggie with the ingredients to pop on the stove. Write little instructions so they know they can just add a little water and simmer away!   During a time when cleaning or decorating might not be on the top of their list at least the house will smell like something happy!

What makes your home smell like home to you? Or what smells remind you of home growing up?

When we decided to venture into this foreclosure the drawbacks were the kitchen and the bedroom situation. The kitchen was a traditional gally kitchen with the sink, dishwasher, and oven all on one small wall with very minimal counter space and a door at the end of the “aisle” meaning it was going to be our main little boy traffic zone from the backyard.  We originally considered a big renovation, adding another bedroom and bath but decided our money was best spent hiring someone to help us redo the kitchen. And although we are still pining for an extra room we are loving the kitchen and so glad we expanded it!

(on a completely unrelated note, it looks like Seth was thinking about escaping to Spain (based on the book above) while he was doing the house inspection…..geesh that was a stressful time. So glad he didn’t leave us and go to Spain)

So…….I dreamed and pinned and researched and drew. We eventually decided the best plan would be to remove the door and put in a window in it’s place. We knocked out a wall between the dining room and kitchen to open up the space and added a counter top for serving, homework and junk mail  important papers, and just extra space in general. We added the window in the place of the door so that I could see the boys in the backyard while washing dishes and working in the kitchen. And to minimize the traffic zone through the kitchen from the back door.  The window is one of my favorite things about the kitchen!

For the backsplash I chose a faux metal tile from Lowe’s. My original plan was the paint it and distress it but in the end I have really liked the mix of finishes and I am holding off on changing it up. For the paint we had to go with the same paint as the living room and dining room because the rooms are all connected. We went with Timothy Hay from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. We are really pleased with how it turned out and ties the spaces together.

Martha Stewart- Timothy Hay (it looks much more cheery in person. And it is for sure more accurate in the pictures.)

We utilized the original cabinets and had them repainted to match the drawers and additional cabinets that we added. We updated the hardware with brushed oiled bronze hardware from Home Depot to compliment the faucet (Moen also from Home Depot). We added molding above the cabinets to make the cabinets go up to the ceiling and to match the rest of the rooms.

Because of the limited cabinet storage space we also had our contractor build open shelving around the sink. I wanted these shelves to be practical to store things that we use on a regular basis like snacks and fruit but also wanted some pretties. My favorite things on the shelves are the old tins, my special sign made by my friend Jennifer (you will get to hear about her home soon!)  and my Green Gate cups…these are mommy only cups! I see lots of Swiss hot chocolate in their future.

None of the appliances worked so we looked around for scratch and dent sales. We decided for resale value to go for the stainless steal which was a huge splurge. I still laugh when I look at our fridge. After our mini fridge in Switzerland it seems comical that we could even manage to even use part of it…but somehow we do.   We went with a double oven and I am so glad we did! It comes in handy so often when I am cooking dinner and doing baking projects with the kids. On Saturday we made homemade pizzas with some family and we were able to cook 4 pizzas at once!  The oven for me, along with all of the appliances were a pleasant surprise. With all of the decisions to make I left the appliances to Seth. I knew he would stick to our budget and I knew in the end whatever we got would do the job. But what he got exceeded my expectations. I didn’t even review what he ordered I just saw them when I came and they were in. Great job, Seth!

We went with Santa Cecilia granite counter tops. I initially wanted a smaller grain, if that’s what it’s called. So the counter tops didn’t turn out exactly like I wanted but I love that I can set hot things on them, they hide the spots and spills a little better and they are just so durable with kids.

For the floor we chose a tile with a tweed texture look to it. I loved the added texture and wanted to bring out the warmth of the creams and taupe from the counter tops.

So, there you have it! The kitchen. Let me know if I forgot anything!

I mentioned before that the appliances were a pleasant surprise but I really must say that the whole kitchen feels like a big fat gift. Seth has known for a while that I wanted a place of our own and the Foreign Service lifestyle just doesn’t always make that easy.  When we bought the house it needed so many repairs and it would have been easy to slap some paint on cabinets and try to make it all work for a while but Seth really let me go with the kitchen and make choices that I really loved. I am sure he thought my mix of aluminum back splash, oiled bronze fixtures, etc were way out there but he just let me enjoy the process….and in the end he liked it all! I spend most of my days in there and I still pinch myself sometimes that it’s ours. Strange I know but true.

Tomorrow you get to tour a bit of my friend Leigh’s humble abode! You are going to love it!   At the end of seeing her sweet space you may just want to hop a plane and head down to Texas for some Southern hospitality!  Or maybe that’s just what it makes me want to do, but you’ll love the pictures!

PS- this is our 500th post…craziness!! We started in December of 2006 and have now blogged from the US, South America and Europe, through many moves, the addition of 2 babies, ups, downs and in betweens.   Thanks for reading!

Just a little disclaimer before I get going on Day 2: I am not writing about our house because I think it’s oh so cool and worth talking about….and I am not writing about it because it’s done! It is all a work in progress (ie paper blinds, random nails from constantly moving pictures, uncovered vents and plugs…) but it is simply a blessing to us. Not perfect, not brag-worthy, but a blessing.  And it for sure feels vulnerable to let the world into our space, so please go easy on us! The gals around the globe who have agreed to share their spaces are coming from a variety of backgrounds and incomes so you will get the treat of seeing how people have used their spaces both big and small, with zero budget and with abundance.  It’s going to be so neat to see how homes grow into beautiful spaces!

Oh yea, and disclaimer part 2: I went to bed a bit petrified that I thought it was a good idea to challenge myself for 31 days. This will be a growing experience for sure!  I will try to post daily before noon my time so that you ladies across the pond can get in a read before bed.

So, here we go!

I think it makes sense to start our little tour with the kitchen.  The kitchen is for sure the heart of our home. Both literally and figuratively. When you walk into our split foyer house you can go up or down. Most people walk up. And when you walk up you walk right into the entrance into the kitchen.  Today I will share a few pictures that will show you why I love this space. This is the place we all gather. This is where I feel like I do my most “providing” for my family. It’s where I can be creative in a very necessary job of feeding my family.  This is where we talk, laugh, cry, tantrum, slip, fall, get up, burn cookies, smell delightful smells, light a candle that spread a sweet scent throughout the house, open the window to hear the voices of brothers playing, greet daddy after work, store the amazing childhood temptations like scissors, scotch tape and medicines, create things to serve friends and family, make peace offerings and bake celebration treats. See why it’s the heart of the house?!

come on up!

see, work in progress…can you spot the missing drawer?

my husband can attest to the kitchen never being this clean! the counters are sparkly for you, friends!

aprons are always out…they aren’t clutter in this space, for me they add a pop color and they are a sign that we are still cookin’!

I was tempted to keep the new fridge shiny and cleared of papers and such…but this space is about our family and I just couldn’t get used to the blank shiny…this is more us!  I do try to keep the front tidy-ish but the side is covered with pictures of friends and family and magnets from our travels. and those little hand prints…they are just signs of life, right?!

this little corner houses a very important part of the kitchen…this tiny stool. throughout the day little hands lift it and drag it not so gracefully to sneak a peak at what’s cooking, to reach the tall faucet to wash wormy hands, or to attempt to open the fridge. My goal for our kitchen is for it to be a place where the kids can learn to love cooking and to understand more about nutrition….no lies here, this is a challenge. Baking with 2 balancing on this little stool gets interesting. and adding another stool isn’t the issue!

Tomorrow I will share the before pictures and tell you a little of how and why we chose what we did.