Mornin’! With the arrival of our guests coming in just a few short days, some minor tweaks needed to be made for their safety and comfort. Last year when we started paying more attention to the kitchen we got some stainless steal outlet covers, but I got the wrong kind for our particular outlet. Fail. So things were looking a little naked.

It was actually kind of scary to plug things in and unplug them because nothing was holding the outlet in place. With five people staying with us and not knowing our not-so-awesome kitchen quirk, we thought it time to put safety first, and be a little less irresponsible and cover these babies up.

Shame on me, because I knew this, but the covers were super cheap, and there was no reason not to get them. I think they are way prettier than the plastic ones the house came with. They were also less than $2 a pop after a few minutes of googling a place that had stainless steal outlet covers.

We decked out the whole kitchen good and proper, even the unfinished/untiled side.

I love when small changes make big happy.

Today is super exciting! Roeshel is sharing a truely amazing before and after, which has me thinking a lot! Roeshel and I met earlier last year, and I fell in love with her immediatly. I am sure you will too!!

Hi Making a House a Home friends! I’m Roeshel from the

I’m so excited to be hanging out here today. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Joey and Lana in person. They’re awesome! Recently, I made a quick decision to give our stair landing a quick makeover. No thinking about it, I just jumped right in. I used leftover paint, supplies, and decorative accessories we already had on hand (+ the felted reindeer head, rug and clock I got for Christmas). Before was ho-hum with no personality and a 1980s brass/oak light fixture….

I made and cut out a diamond shaped stencil from posterboard and using a pencil, lightly traced the pattern on the wall.

I taped off the pattern with Frog tape. Cutting tape at an angle made for easier taping in the corners of the diamond. Thankfully I’m doing a small wall. I probably wouldn’t attempt this on a large area.

It’s important to take a credit card and rub all over the tape to make sure it’s all stuck to the wall for a crisp clean paint line. Otherwise paint will seep under the edges.

Here’s what it looks like before painting…

In progress…

I did two coats and peeled off the tape immediately after the second coat, while the paint was still wet. Touch up paint as needed.

Take a look at the before of the small landing one more time:

And now the stairwell landing reveal…

Much better, don’t you think?

Thanks for letting me ‘show off’, Joey & Lana!

The kitchen. If you remember we have had a long long journey with out kitch. We started here…

Well, this photo was taken before we even owned the house. So you can really see where we started. Sweet floors, eh? Gotta love Joey’s face. We made some edits, starting with the floors…then we painted.

Then realized matte paint for a kitchen was a bad idea. Bad. So we painted again with semi-gloss. Better idea. Much better. We painted the mudroom door entrace red. We added some reclaimed wood detail, and redid the kitchen cabinets, which post has been on progress for months.

We also replaced the countertops, and redid one side of the kitchen’s backspash. 

So what’s the deal? We grouted the left side of the kitchen, but coulen’t start on the right side, until one little deed was done.

Here is the deal. And it’s kinda a big deal. The kitchen was loaded with 70′s appliances. We had always planned on replacing the dishwasher – so we pulled out the old one when we replaced the countertops a few weeks back. 

So, we couldn’t live with out any countertops, so we simply laid the 24″ oak countertops from Ikea on top of the cabinets until we actually agreed on a dishwasher. We didn’t want to lay the counters and then tile the backsplash before we installed the dishwasher because once those were laid – it would be a beast to get the dishwasher in. Good call Joey!

So we have been living with the counters floating like above, however we installed the sink of course. And finally, finallllllllllly, we have decided on a dishwasher. And STOVE! Hello shiny new appliances!

For the dishwasher we landed on the Whirlpool Gold® Series Dishwasher with Sensor Cycle – Monochromatic Stainless Steel. It usually retails for around $550, but our super generous aunt and uncle are part of Direct Buy and we got it for $337! The stove is a Frigidaire 30″ Free Standing Gas Range – Stainless Steel. This is also via the Direct Buy route for $515! This usually retails over $600. Shipping for both was less that $100. Can you say score? So, in 2-4 weeks, our shiny new appliances will be here. We are scouting a microwave which houses an exhause vent for above the stove. We wanted to keep everything on the super cheap and then pound out walls and totally redo the kitchen in about five years. I am so excited we have been able to do this all super cheap, even though it’s been massivly time consuming. The financial breakdown has gone something like this:

Kitchen Countertops: Ikea 96″ $169  and 49″ $89 + shipping 

Subway Tile and black grout: Home depot $30 box of tiles (we may beed two boxes), grout was $8 a bag (we think we will need 2 total)

Moen Faucet: Home Depot $135

Ikea Floors: Around $200

Paint: $30 gallon

Cabinet Refinishing: LOTS of time, and about $150

Cabinet fixtures: $80

Stove: $515

Dishwasher: $337

Shipping: $96

Reclaimed accent wood: $15

Red Oil Paint for Door: $18

Chalkboard Paint for fridge: $21

Total Spent so far = $1,931

While the kitchen has been a disaster zone for a while, it’s been nice to peek out into the mood room and be remembered, IT WILL GET DONE! IT WILL BE GOOD!

Are you part of a discount club? Do you love it? Let us know! We are thinking it may be a good idea!