Kitchen Re-Do (On a Budget)

Since nothing interesting has happened lately and we had a lazy weekend, besides going to Bass Pro Shop (I LOVE Bass Pro!), and Dexter, my son, pulling the coffee table into his face and onto my foot, I thought I would post our small scale but big impact kitchen renovation.

My poor baby!

Paint

Let me start by saying we got our house for a steal. The inspection came back with a clean bill of health, it had been newly painted and had quite the home-y feel. Plus, we're paying almost half of what we were paying when we were renting. Even though the house did have a home-y feel, it didn't really suit our taste. We decided that the kitchen was our least favorite part of the house and was the room that we would re-do first. We went to Home Depot and checked out some paint colors and decided we wanted a cool, minty green; thinking we were being super smart, we got a small sample can to try on the wall at home before we bought a gallon. Well, we took it home, rolled it on and loved it! The foolish part we didn't realize is that we had no lights on in the kitchen at the time so the paint was quite different when we went to paint the walls. Having paid for the paint, we decided to make the best of it and paint the rest of the room to see if the color would grow on us. My husband promised if I still hated it in a week, he'd go back and get a different color. I have to say the color has grown on me and I love how light the kitchen is now that it is a bright green rather than a dark blue. Especially since our house is on the smaller side, its nice to have bright, light colors rather than dark ones which make it look even smaller. Total cost: $75.

New bright green and counter tops.

Old blue paint and old blue and white counter tops

Counter Tops

After we painted the walls from deep blue to bright green, or maybe we did the counter tops first, my mind fails me often, the blue and white counter tops needed to go. We looked around at the pre-made ones but they were truly all very ugly; I felt that they were all trying to hard to look like granite but just looked like big messes (sorry counter top manufacturers.) We knew what we could afford and the installation and cost of many counter tops were just out of our price range. We looked into Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations and it really was a good option but still a little pricey and I didn't really like the speckled look that they all yielded. I remembered my uncle had re-done his counter tops with regular paint and sponged on another color so I called him to ask how durable it was and how exactly to do it. He said they have had them for over 10 years and they are still very durable and gave me exact instructions on how he painted and sealed his. We followed his directions to a 'T' and they turned out great! He used roll on paint and we decided to use Rust-Oleum spray paint for a more airbrushed look; my husband and I selected a hammered copper and a dark brown. First, we taped off the sink and walls and put protective plastic covering over everything that could possibly get paint on it. We didn't worry much about the floor because that was going to be our next project, this was kind of a bad idea because our feet stuck to the floor and got nasty film on them until we did re- do the floor. So, please, cover your floors. He sanded the original counter top down with 1000 fine grit sand paper just until it was roughed up enough to accept the new pain. Then, he alternated colors applying both until we got the desired look, I think it was about three coats of each. After we achieved the desired paint color, we applied SIX coats of polyurethane, letting it dry in between each coat. This part took a long time but was well worth it because we know our counter tops are nicely sealed and durable. Total cost: $50

Floors

We decided on getting flooring from Lumber Liquidators because of their unbeatable prices as compared to Home Depot and such. We ended up settling on a dark bordered wood laminate. The padding was included under the floor boards so we didn't have to worry about that and it cost about $1.79/sq foot. The only other expense we had for the floor were the siding boards and the water barrier that needed to be put underneath. We chose to install it ourselves because the installation cost was just more money we didn't have to spend. Someone had to watch my son while all of this flooring installation was going on and it most definitely wasn't my husband. I built a make shift barrier in between the living room and the kitchen so my son couldn't get through and my husband called me as he needed me to help click the floors in place. This lasted about 2.5 seconds before my 6'3" 220 pound husband was on the floor freaking out and sweating. He swore he could install it by himself, swore. He had helped his dad lay flooring in his childhood home and thought it would be just the same as that. My father-in-law is quite the handy man and I don't think my husband really knew what he would be in for when installing the floor by himself. Anyway, luckily my husband works with some really great people and two of his co-workers came over to save the day. I may or may not have told them about the mini break down my husband had before they had gotten there. :) Thank God for good people. Total cost: about $700.

Furnishings

Furnishing the new kitchen was my favorite part! Of course I hit up Goodwill and the dollar store to find great things to fill the kitchen with. The two things I splurged on were the clock above the fridge and the shadow box above the microwave. I saw the clock at Tuesday Morning and I thought it would be perfect so a had to get it. The shadow box and faux candles inside are from Hobby Lobby. Total cost: $28.

If I've forgotten any step or if you would like more information, please my all means, ask! 

XoXo

Sara

PS!!! Here is a picture of our old oven. We got a new one of those right away!

Can you say 70's?!?!

My First Post!

I have been thinking about making a blog for a long time now; the Pinterest Era, so to speak, has grabbed a hold of me as it has to so many others and I want to post things that could be helpful to others. 

A little bit about myself, I am a 2011 graduate of Michigan State University and was married that same year to my wonderful husband, Jonathon. After we were married, we re-located to Georgia per my husband's job and found out we were pregnant three months after we were married, yay!? After completing my Bachelor's Degree in the area of Education, MSU requires an additional year of an internship in a classroom in order to become certified. WELL, moving to Georgia and then finding out I was pregnant so soon after put finishing my certification on hold. I found a job at local pre-school and worked throughout my pregnancy; after having my son, my husband and I decided that we would be better off, financially, if I stayed home with him for a while rather than pay the daycare fees and work my $8.50/hour job.

I have babysat PLENTY in my teen years and lived on my for around four years prior to getting married which lead me to believe I would be well  suited for home-making. I was honestly looking forward to it, what could be better than staying home while my cooing little baby grew up? Baking pies, making crafts, having a sparkling clean home and a hot dinner on the table when my husband got home from work all seemed so---doable. Well, let's just say that while I do love my son unconditionally and absolutely adore watching him grow, it can get quite boring. Sitting around all day is definitely not my cup of tea and I need things to keep me busy. 

Besides the fact that I am a new homemaker, and even though my husband loves me dearly, he will be the first one to tell you that I cannot cook. I have a solid arsenal of recipes that I can make with my eyes closed but my husband telling me constantly that we eat the same things over and over has made me cheat on myself and go looking for recipes elsewhere. In turn, I usually try and fail a new recipe about 4 times a week. Once in a while I get one that squeaks by as edible; my husband eats silently and doesn't look at me and say, "Honey, I love you so much," which I know means, "This is crap but I am not going to come straight out and tell you." That takes me back to the drawing board and am constantly trying new things to make him simply eat silently and maybe say "yum" once in a while.

To make a long story short, I'm just a young momma and wife learning as I go. I hope that if you do read this and my subsequent posts, which will be about anything and everything, that you will be able to relate in some way and find them useful or at least entertaining as you laugh at my many blunders.

And now to the post. We are not well off in anyway, except for in love :), so I am always trying to make delicious dinners for a reasonable price. In Georgia, there is a restaurant called The Atlanta Bread Company and they have awesome creamy tomato basil soup. I wanted to try and make it at home so I looked up recipes on Google and Pinterest and realized that I had most of the ingredients on hand and got a good idea of how I was going to try and concoct my own recipe. Guess what?! This one wasn't too bad. 

Creamy Buttermilk Tomato Basil Soup with Cheddar Croutons

Soup

1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 small onion, diced small
1 tbsp margarine or butter
5-6 basil leaves, julianned 
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
Fresh cracked pepper and salt to taste

Crutons

2-3 pieces of bread

Butter or margerine

Shredded cheddar cheese

Garlic powder

Over medium heat, melt the margarine or butter in a medium sized soup pot. Add the onion and saute until soft. Add in the can of tomatoes along with the salt, pepper, sugar, and basil leaves. Let simmer on low for 5 minutes. Add baking soda and stir, the mixture will foam a bit but this step is important so the buttermilk doesn't curdle when added to the hot mixture. Let cook for 30 seconds and stir in buttermilk. Let simmer on low heat for 5 minutes and either leave it the way it is and serve if you like your soup chunky, mash with a potato masher (what I did) for semi-chunky, or blend in a blender and heat a little more in the pan before serving for creamy, smooth soup.

For the croutons:

Pre-heat the oven to 375F, cube the bread, spread out on a baking sheet and dot with butter. Sprinkle very sparingly with cheddar cheese; you don't want cheesy bread, you want crunchy croutons so be sparingly with the cheese. Shake on garlic powder lightly and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the cheese is browned and the croutons are crispy.

Top the soup with the croutons and ENJOY!

I hope this works out for you. This is my first post so if I have ruined your dinner, I apologize. However, the name of my blog is Not So Suzy Homemaker, just remember this, haha! I cannot wait to post again! Thank you so much for reading!

XOXO,

Sara