As many of you know from our “Designing Kitchen and Cabinet Layouts” post, our whole house was designed around Bethany’s dream kitchen. While we made every effort to save money on other areas of the house, we were much less frugal when it came to the kitchen. Because we are so thrilled with both the aesthetic and functional results, I wanted to take the time to share pictures and explain in detail why Bethany loves her dream kitchen design so much!
This kitchen design is not one that happened by accident. Bethany slaved over the design for many months and mocked up every version and every detail using Home Designer Architectural software. Here is a screenshot Bethany took using the software and then what the kitchen looks like now in real life:
Picture showing Bethany’s dream kitchen design in Chief Architect’s Home Design software and then the final real life kitchen – it’s AMAZING how similar they look!
After playing with ingredients and ratios, I think I have come up with the bestbrownsugarmuffins ever! These are so quick to throw together, and the result is a moist treat that is yummy any time of the day. I have scaled this to make 24 muffins at one time so that we can eat twelve immediately and freeze twelve for later. You won’t be disappointed with this recipe!
As part of building our new home, we have taken on some of the components of the construction ourselves. One of the things we were not planning to do but ended up taking on is the building of homemade barn doors for our kitchen pantry. When we started looking for a barn door to fit that space we quickly discovered that we were going to have to spend $800 or more to get the look and feel we were going for. Bethany finally talked me into just making them ourselves. I had no idea how easy it was going to be. Continue reading Homemade Barn Doors→
Wow! I can’t believe what a difference interior trim and doors make! I was looking forward to seeing the interior doors hung and I knew it would be cool to see the trim installed but I didn’t realize all the details Bethany had planned for the trim. For example, she planned for the entire family room area to be covered in shiplap. She also requested beams to be placed on the ceilings in the dining room, main living areas, and the master bedroom. Even the doors are not the “normal” doors I’m used to seeing in most houses. For the doors she picked out a five panel farmhouse style door in keeping with the look of the rest of the house. Continue reading Interior Trim and Doors→
I passed! I have been putting off getting my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification for years and finally decided this was the year to get it done! The company I work for is strongly encouraging employees to get this certification and they recently sent me to a PMP Bootcamp. I thought the PMP Bootcamp was good but I left feeling like I had a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I ended up doing three basic things to prepare for and pass the PMP exam: Continue reading PMP Mindmap for PMBOK 5th Edition→
I never thought I would be writing a post about a woodworking project but I am so excited to be enjoying this new hobby! I have always had a desire to learn woodworking but it seemed too hard and I had no foundation of experiences to build from. I built a dog house years ago but it was pretty simple and turned out sloppy.
Haven painting the dog house
I am also extremely busy with my growing family and a demanding career so I assumed if I ever got around to woodworking it would be during my retirement years.
So what changed? Well, for my birthday my wife gave me a Kreg Jig. I didn’t even know what it was and when Bethany explained what she wanted me to do with it I felt intimidated and under qualified. She showed me a table on Ana White’s website and explained that if I could build that table we could save thousands of dollars compared to a similar table she was considering purchasing at Restoration Hardware. That got my interest. Continue reading Ana White 4×4 Farmhouse Truss Beam Table→
These whole wheat bread machine cinnamon rolls are simpler than you might think! The bread machine makes fresh, gooey rolls attainable right from your very own kitchen! Nothing compares to the yummy smell, and the kids have a blast helping to throw them together. If you don’t want to get up early enough to make them in time for breakfast, you can assemble them the night before (except for icing them). Simply assemble the rolls according to the directions, cover with foil and refrigerate. The next morning all you have to do is take them out of the fridge and allow them to set at room temperature for about an hour before baking and icing as usual. Your family and your guests will thank you! I promise! Continue reading Whole Wheat Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls→
