Sweet deal...

 I wanted to write a quick post about our new counter tops that were recently installed. We decided to go with a Carrera Marble since it looks nice and we like the whiteness of it with just a hint of gray thrown in. However, after checking around and looking at prices/materials Magnus and basically my whole family tried to talk me out of it (since it was really me that was insisting upon this material) saying that it was too pricey and/or it stains very easily, yada yada yada. Then the stars aligned and someone from above must have heard my negotiating and whining about needing this very counter because apparently when my Uncle went to check the price with our measurements they just HAPPENED to have some pieces that someone had sent back (they apparently had too much gray for her taste). SCORE for us! These pups were around 60% less than what they should have been and they look, in my opinion, awesome in the new digs! We love the extra gray touches throughout the stone :)

As promised...

Below are a few pictures of our new kitchen. You can see the new cabinets, countertops, wine rack and backsplash. It is all very exciting watching it come together and there is still so much more to come! New floors will probably be installed in the coming week and then some fresh paint on the walls :)

First up is a before picture. This picture shows what the corner of the kitchen looked like after the cabinets were already ripped out, but the countertops were still in place:

How lovely right?

Check out all that light that the white countertops and walls let in! It's such a huge difference.

Below are a couple more pics that show the new wine racks encompassing the window above the sink. I think rather than using the top area for a wine rack as well, we will put some cookbooks up there to add a pop of color and touch of that homey feeling!

Another component to our weekend, besides taking all sorts of pics around the house, was supposed to be Yard sale round 2.... however, when we awoke on Saturday morning the skies opened up and rain started to fall so we called it off. About 5 minutes later the sun came out and it ended up being a glorious day, but at that point we had our minds made up! So instead of a yard sale Magnus decided to wash the car as I puttered around the yard to take in some sun and then ripped off the remainder of the wallpaper in the soon-to-be office ;)

Gearing up...

  for another long weekend upstate this weekend! Lot's of fun things on the horizon such as my friend Kristen's bridal shower and yet another mini yard sale on Saturday am. I'm sure once we arrive tomorrow night we will think of 10,000 more things to complete our Memorial Day weekend.

After this weekend of running around I am hoping to have lots and lots of new pics/posts to share with you guys!

Hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!

Sorry for the disappearing act...

  The Hubs and I have had a lot on our plate the last couple weeks and things are not going to slow down until around mid-June. All good things thankfully! I just wanted to pop in and post a few pics, though nothing fancy as we have not had time to upload proper pictures from our camera yet. 

Below are a couple pictures of our new countertops/bar area of the UpstateHaven kitchen. Everything is coming together wonderfully and we are SO excited for the floors to go in and also for the kitchen to be painted and freshened up!

*Notice the wonderful new subway tile backsplash!

I promise to upload more pics asap :)

Old World Charm

  One of the reasons we love this house so much and the reason I have always loved this house growing up (it was my Grandma's house) is the attention to detail throughout the house. The little nooks that pop up throughout the house and fun spaces to hide and feel like you are all alone and then the amazing shutters that are on every window throughout the first floor of the home. It just makes it feel so cozy and almost like a doll house. Here is a pic of the shutters on the main Kitchen window. I think we will just scrape off any chips and repaint them a dark brown... almost black, to match our lower cabinets.

We will be headed upstate this coming Thursday to prepare for a family yard sale on Saturday morning (my first time EVER hosting a yard sale, wish me luck). We should have TONS of fun update pics to show everyone next week!

Old Things

  Below is a picture of how the kitchen in the house has looked for as long as I can remember, give or take a few knickknacks. It's not the best photo but it gets the point across that our kitchen was in dire need of a makeover. Just look at those old wooden counter tops and and ceiling ... YIKES! I have been informed that our new counter tops have been installed and we are SO very excited to see them this coming weekend!

Not the most exciting BUT visually appealing...

 Today's post is not the most exciting part of our renovation thus far, but definitely makes the house look a little nicer on the outside. As you can see in the pics below (before and after) we found shutters to match the old ones (which will be replaced asap) to trim the new kitchen window. We think the house looks much better with all the first floor windows framed with the black :)

* Notice the far left window is bare..... kind of reminds me of my eyelashes sans mascara haha

* Now the window is complete and much more polished looking!

I just can't stay away...

Prompted by one of my oldest friends (as in length of friendship, not age haha) I decided to write another post for today about some of the changes going on in the Kitchen of our home. Don't be scared, as it is in the most basic shape at the moment except the appliances (all Frigidaire Gallery) and the sink (the faucet isn't even officially attached yet, I just threw it in for effect).

*Pic BEFORE the proper renovation started and after all cabinets/ceiling/wallpaper amongst other stuff was removed.

*New Stove/Fridge area of the Kitchen.

*New Sink area of the Kitchen with Dishwasher (the house definitely did NOT have one of these puppies before)!

*New Farmhouse Sink (Thank You Ikea)!

"We could really make it as professional wallpaper strippers....."

  These are the words that came out of my mouth after seeing what a stellar job we did of taking down the wallpaper in the Dining Room/Office, Hallway and 1st floor Bedroom (well most of it anyway). It was a very proud moment in the journey of home renovation/ownership. Below are a few pics of the semi-clean walls after all the tugging/scraping/begging the wallpaper off the walls! Shout out to the sibs for willingly helping us out with the project :)

*Please excuse the nasty glare of light coming in from the window!

Oh the progress we have made...

  This weekend was a super productive one upstate. On Saturday am we met with my Uncle (who is our kitchen contractor) at the house and went over what he has been up to and also we had some more kitchen stuff (pendant lights/hardware etc) to give to him.We also got a chance to see our new windows that were replaced last week. We only had a few windows replaced since they were problematic but we definitely have a few more to add to our list, but nothing urgent. Here are a couple pics of some of the new windows. The most exciting being the 3 side-by-side grid windows to replace an old bedroom windows upstairs.

In addition to all the exciting stuff going on contractor wise, we started our own little project inside the house. Stripping old wallpaper in order to prep the walls for some new paint. What a fun job it is ;) (big time sarcasm there) For the most part the wallpaper came off in big chunks and it didn't require a lot of manual labor.... UNTIL we got to the hallway! One would think with the paper being as old as it is and already starting to leave the wall on it's own, it would make for an easy job, however, there were two layers on the ancient stuff and for some reason it was just not ready to depart. Here is a lovely little pic of the multiple layers that were holding on for dear life. Thank goodness I have siblings who don't mind putting in a little elbow grease to get the job done :)

New Windows

  So here is what the back of our house looked like up until Tuesday this week. Now we have a few new windows to spruce the place up! We have not yet seen these new windows, however, we will get a chance to take a peek this weekend when we make the trek upstate tonight! I cannot wait to see how things are coming together in the kitchen and if the windows have freshened up the backside of our humble abode. As much as I really loved the windows that were already belonging to the house (mostly because I really like that kind of old charm and keeping things true to the original design) we really just needed to swap those out for efficiency.

We will make sure to take a ton of pics this weekend and get to blogging more often about all the progress!

Finally a proper blog site...

 Things have really been moving along with the upstate home. Our kitchen received a new window (as seen above) in place of the old 70's style glass blocks that used to house various utensils on a wooden board covering said blocks, the cabinets are going up as I type this and the new sink and appliances have already been put in their respective homes. I really cannot wait to be able to share this new haven with all of our friends and family. There is still a lot to be done, but it is coming along much faster than we had originally thought. Hopefully we will be getting more new windows and new shingles by the end of this month :)