Mom Time on a Dime

Quick post, but I HAD to show you guys this...

In addition to finishing up the kitchen, we are also working on the guest room (since we had to blow out part of a wall for our new, awesomely-amazing built-in for the fridge and pantry).  That being said, the room was in desperate need of new paint, baseboards, and crown molding... easy enough, right?

Chris went to Seconds and Surplus (in Richardson for those of you DFW people) for some baseboards and molding and then proceeded to send me THIS picture right before he headed home.

"They only come in 16ft strips" - Chris

My car, the unicorn.

My husband, the DIY car-driving dare devil.... for all those curious, yes, he did drive 10+ miles down a major freeway to get this home...

Illegal? Not sure. Amusing? Absolutely... never a dull day around here....

Seriously! No lie... we are so close to finishing the kitchen we can TASTE the future food we are going to make in it.

There is nothing more I rather do then post a TON of before and after pictures for you all, but it's the 1% that's still unfinished which is killing me.

Knobs/drawer pulls... kitchen hardware just generally as a whole.

Originally, Chris and I fell in love and decided on these Fintorp pulls (and matching knobs) from Ikea.

As modeled here by our pantry in our laundry room.

Measuring about 7" long (we loved it especially since a lot of our new drawers are really large and need a large pull to distribute weight) and only $7.99 for a two pack, we thought we were good to go when we originally started our kitchen demo.

Well, the evil kitchen gods must have heard our perfect little plan and decided to take a shit dump on it by having Ikea discontinue them.  Oh, why not just call around and see if they have them at other locations besides Dallas? Oh we did.  I even had my mom in Scottsdale drive out to the Ikea in Tempe and wrangle up their last 4 packages.
True motherly love right there.

With four packages down and only 3 more needed (we needed a total of 15 and we had one extra left over from our laundry room), I was super shocked to find that there were still four packages left... in Brooklyn, NY...

Lucky for me, I was going to be in NYC for work.... it only took a cab, subway ride, and water ferry to get me over to Brooklyn during my day off.
Only once I got there, an INCREDIBLY rude worker told me that I was wrong, they were completely sold out, and whoever told me they still had four in their system "must have had their head up their a**".  (Did I mention I flew to NYC, took a cab, subway, AND water ferry to get there?)

And so now we are stuck... 8 awesome pulls and 15 lonely drawers.

Chris and I have looked online for replacements and cant seem to find anything we like or that is under $20 a pull. (I'm sorry but I'm not spending $500 on kitchen hardware)

I'm sure we will find something soon... not to mention that my mom is coming in town this weekend and she has the BEST shopping karma EVER, so we'll see.

The 8 pulls that we have we plan to use in the bathroom for our new vanity (as soon as THAT project starts... now looking more at an early summer start date) and sell whatever we don't use on e-bay.  True story side note:  Our exact two pack of the stainless steel Ikea Fintorp handles just sold for $66.00 on ebay for one (yes, 1) set!!  Again, they were $7.99 normally at Ikea.

Do you guys have any ideas on handles or pulls?  We are trying to go for cottage shabby chic.  I would love for you to leave a comment with a link if you have any ideas!!

Thanks!
-Samm

Where do I even begin?
...I'm sorry?
...I failed you?
...I'm sorry I teased you with our kitchen and then left you hanging?
...I beg your forgiveness?

Yea, all of the above.

No, Chris and I didn't die mid-remodel, and no, there was no terrible accident which left me without the ability to type, post pictures, etc... I just simply got caught up with the 10,000 other things going on with life that I left you all without a word or whisper.

In my (pathetic) defense, I was also involved with two week-long trade shows (yes, weekends included), caught that AWESOME flu which has been going around (no joke, I only visited two spots in our house for 10 days: the bed and the floor of our bathroom), and then was in NYC for a week for yet another work trade show (just got back last night).

Excuses aside, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I AM SORRY!

Yes, the kitchen remodel is still going on (33 days and counting) so let me catch you up to speed...(I promise to go back and give a full detailed explaination of everything, but I just wanted to give you a quick progress report without going into every single project).

1. The floors are down and look beautiful... 

I'm loving our 3x6 travertine pavers in the kitchen... even if we did have to do them over more than once.

2. Our new fridge arrived from Sears!
 With tags still on and everything.
 It keeps our food cold and we love having water/ice in the door (a convenience we didn't have with our old fridge).

3. Ding-Dong the evil fan in the kitchen is down and dead...
 Chris installed and wired new recessed lighting which looks awesome! Makes the kitchen feel 10x taller!! (and yes, Chris patched the hole and you can't even tell a fan monstrosity used to be there)

4. Chris and his dad flipped the guest room door (it used to open right to left but now it swings left to right so you don't see our built in right when you walk in).
Somehow, someway, we found paneling that matched the existing room which kept it looking seamless without being awkward (**we still plan to repaint the room a different color but havent gotten there yet**).
 5. After a couple days of "down time", our custom cabinets came in and were installed.
 My favorite feature? Our custom wine rack and pantry for the built in...
 Ready for this???
 Yea, I know... beyond awesome... I seriously started crying when I saw it.  Real tears people, real tears.

6. We hired a fabricator to come cut and install our granite.

Why, yes, that IS a St Patrick's day beer pong table/work bench behind him... thanks for noticing our awesomeness.

Our sink was definitely the hardest part to cut out, especially since its so close to the edge, but I am happy to report all went smoothly and it looks beautiful finally installed.


7. After getting 8 (yes, EIGHT) different quotes to paint the kitchen, we finally found a company to make our cabinets all white and pretty without having to take a second mortgage out on the house...

Chris also installd and grouted all our back-splash that we bought at the marble and tile auction (remembered here) and his dad made a brand new, custom casing for the window above the sink.
 It seriously looks amazing.

8. After spending WAY too long picking out a microwave, we finally decided on one we liked and Chris built a trim kit for the cut-out space...by himself... saved us more than $300.

Don't worry, our countertops are red... we just covered them after install to make sure they stayed pretty throughout construction

 Did I marry a talented man or what?!

9. We spent a couple of weekends looking for a decent range hood (and even tracked down a couple unsuccessful Craigslist leads) before deciding to turn to eBay.
We are SOOO glad we did since we saved a bundle and couldn't be happier with the look and function of it! (again, full story to follow soon!)

10. I will leave you with our most recent update... Chris installing lights in the upper-upper cabinets.
They are wired to the main can lights and really give the room an extra burst of bright light!  I love them.

As I finish typing this out, I can hear Chris in the kitchen with a hammer and nail gun... I'm not 100% sure what he's doing (door casings?) but I promise, promise, promise to keep you guys more in the loop (especially since we are close to finishing... pray for us).

What are you guys most eager to hear about? My tears of joy over the new pantry? How painters wanted us to sign over our future first born to paint the kitchen? How eBay saved the day with our range hood? Let me know!!

-Samm