We're Getting Close...

Yesterday, Matthew and I came home to a wonderful surprise - the counter tops were in AND so were a few of the appliances! It was such a great surprise and started our evening off to a perfect start before Matthew had class. Here's how our night played out.

-surprise, kitchen is almost done!

-walk around the neighborhood

-dinner on our front porch (second night in a row!)

-the huge front tree is blooming purple flowers (I think Ashley called it a tulip tree?)

-our first HOA newsletter arrived! And it had our names in it welcoming us to the hood. I read that thing cover to cover. :)

-the ice cream truck came down our street! At first I was a little embarrassed to be running after the truck with no kids in tow, but it was so fun! We even got a treat for Maeve and Mabel to split as we knew they'd be stopping by.

-visits from Ashley, Mabel and James; Elizabeth, Maeve and Zeke and David and Marianne






Right now we're feeling so blessed to be living in a wonderful house, near friends and family with a NEW kitchen. Thank you to everyone who has been just as excited for us as we are.

Love, Matthew, Melina and Stewart

We're Floored!

Check out our new floor! We are so happy with our selection! We love the contrast of the dark floors against our white cabinets.



The tiles are super dusty and these aren't wonderful pictures, but you get the idea.

Love/Hate relationship

Hi! My name is Stewart. You may be familiar with me from previous blogs, but this is my first time wandering over to this here cleverly named site. What a name! They tell me my dad came up with it, but it couldn't a been him. He's not that smart as he's always yelling at me, and I don't have the first clue what he's yelling at me for. Anyways, I've got a love/hate relationship with my new house. I love all the new smells, and it has all the paint chips/dirt one can eat. It's like a Golden Corral! I hear there is a backyard but I can't get to it yet because something is going on in the house that they won't let me see. Strange men show up at all hours and start hammering away, making all kinds a noise. Wonder what is going on? They've got it blocked off with chairs and boxes and what not. I even try to get around these blockades by going up the stairs, but then I get all confused and don't know where I am. Stairs! I almost forgot to mention em. They are cool at first but I can't seem to figure em out. I go up, I go down, I go up, I go down, and I can't find where those noises are coming from. I guess my house is kinda like my dad, I love it but can't seem to figure it out.

I'm gonna go now, but if you have any tips on how to catch squirrels, post them in the comments. Thanks.

A New Addition to the Bland Home

NOOO it's not a baby, silly!

It's a ping pong table! In true Melina fashion, I gave him his birthday present a month before his actually birthday.

I'm off to New Orleans this weekend for my good friend, Kimberly's Bachelorette Party, so Matthew will have something fun to do this weekend while I'm gone. Enjoy hubby. I love you!

If you were to be stranded on an island..

You'd choose this one, right? After several months of searching, we've finally found a kitchen island that we love!

We found this beauty at the Vintage Market, the same place we bought the mirror in our bathroom. It's the perfect dimensions for our kitchen and is going to be super functional. We can't wait for the floors to get done, so we can move this baby in it's new home!

The exciting thing is that you'll be able to see the glass from the hallway as you enter the kitchen. Now we just have to find an awesome light to go above her and all will be complete!

Top this! - Concrete Counter Tops

One of the most exciting days since this kitchen renovation was last week when we saw a sample of our concrete counter tops! Most exciting because Matthew and I both agreed that we loved them, which meant no Melina breakdown! Plus ONE for me.

We are so excited about having concrete in our kitchen. After watching one too many HGTV shows where everyone says, "Ohhhh I love the granite" or "Oohh no granite, that's unfortunate", I was excited to break away and try something new. Here are a few pics.

I love the grainy look. I think it gives it some texture and will hide crumbs. :)

Cabinets are in!

Here are a few more pictures of where we're at (as of this weekend) with the kitchen. Cabinets are in, minus the glass fronts on the uppers.

I had a small (Matthew would say rather large) meltdown last week when the uppers were put in because I thought they had a green tint to them. Thanks to Ashley for coming over at 9 p.m. to reassure me that aren't in fact green, and I was paranoid. :) All is well with the kitchen world now.

Looking good, right?

The weekend was a productive one as we also purchased our kitchen faucet, bathroom pedestal sink and faucet AND picked out a microwave.

Here's a look at the bathroom faucet that Matthew picked out.

You know us, always looking for something different. Can't wait to get home to see what else has been done. More posting to come!

Kitchen update

The walls are painted! The pictures I have don't really do it justice, so I'm going to wait until the cabinets are put in (hopefully today!) before posting. We chose Mindful Gray from Sherwin Williams.
We did get our awesome SS Farmhouse sink in. We think our future kids can take baths in this thing til their like 5! (kidding) but seriously, it's huge!
It gives Matthew lots of room to pile up his dishes instead of putting them in the dishwasher!

Master Bedroom Makeover

I'm excited to share some pictures of the new master bedroom. We painted this room immediately after we closed on the house and before we knew the kitchen construction was going to turn our house into a dusty mess. Here's a pic of the bedroom before we painted.


And here are a few pictures of the new master bedroom!


The color we picked for the wall is Behr's Raging Sea. I love it. It's a great blue-gray color, really soothing and it went perfect with our Crate and Barrel comforter we received off our wedding registry. Doesn't the yellow sofa look amazing at the foot of the bed? My sister-in-law Ashley had the idea to put it there. Though the bed now screams HEADBOARD, I love having a piece of furniture at the end. We're thinking of DIY'ing a headboard, so we'll let you know if we decide to go that route. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we got the antique yellow sofa at the Curiosity Shop in Nixa, Mo for only $90! Such a steal.
We love the french doors in our room that go out to what used to be a sleeping porch. There's quite a drop from each room, so you have to kind of jump down, but eventually we're going to turn that room into a master bath. Ah the potential!

Redoing the Throne

I realized soon after we purchased the house that the bathroom was going to be a top priority. Nothing says "doesn't feel like home" when you have a dirty bathroom, no hot water and a gross toilet seat, so that became our first big project before moving in. Thanks to my mom, sister and the Sallas family (for stopping by and bringing dinner!), we were able to drastically improve the only bathroom in the house and it looks amazing!!

Dark picture but hopefully you can see the before. Half the bathroom is navy and the other half white. There is a maroon painted brick column thrown in there as well. AND those curtains could be original to the house, ick!

After!

We got almost everything from World Market (curtains, towels, bathmats) and the fabulous mirror from Vintage Market off 79th and Lee Blvd. And the brick column, we painted white, which I think adds a very clean, fresh look to the bathroom, which is what you want, right? Dingy is gone, thank the Lord!

And I can't forget about the new toilet seat. It's my favorite thing in the bathroom because it has a built-in kid's seat. Perfect for a baby Bland down the road, and of course, our nieces!