Kitchen Floors!

The floors are stained, woo hoo! I love the look :) The iPhone photo doesn't quite do it justice, but STILL you get the idea.

Just need two more coats of polyurethane and a few days to completely dry, and we will actually be able to start LIVING in this kitchen again! So excited!

Magnolia Wreath

This year I decided that magnolia leaves (in the form of a wreath and garland) were going to be the center of my Thanksgiving and Christmas decor.

It is so beautful, I love it!

This one I got from Pottery Barn (link). I love the size and the burlap bow! (Which ties very well with my linen curtains in the dining room, which you can see a peak of from afar!)

Renovation Clean-Up

SO, since we are DIY'ers, we knew the renovations of the kitchen, mudroom, 1/2 bath, and 2nd floor bath were going to take awhile. Rental of a dumpster 20-yard dumpster is roughly $300 a week, so we didn't want to rent one for 6 months (obviously!) SO, in the meantime, we decided to put all of our renovation debris in our garage. Since June, the remnants of the kitchen plaster walls and ceiling, 5 layers of kitchen flooring, mudroom tile, and bathroom tile had been building up in there! It was a MESS!

Now that destruction is certainly done and construction is nearly done, we decided it was time to rent the dumpster. Thankfully we had one of the most beautiful weekends of the year this past weekend to faciliate our hours of outdoor work! So warm, sunny, and nice.

With the help of a couple of friends, it took us about 6 hours to load the dumpster and the clean the garage. I'm SO SORE I can barely move (still!). But the garage looks GREAT and it feels so good to have it all cleaned up! Just in time for snow :)

(Some) Progress on the Kitchen!

The drywall is done, the walls are painted, the new faucet is installed, the backsplash is finished, and the electrical work is complete!

Here is what it looks like in its current state:

Here is what is left to do:

We're getting there, SLOWLY but surely :)

VOTE!!!!

I love the feeling I get after voting! I contemplated voting early or voting via absentee ballot, but there is something very inspirational and exciting about going and casting a vote in person on election day! (Even if I did have to park half a mile away and then wait in line for an hour!)

Praying for a PEACEFUL day of voting across our country!