paint makes everything better

While my parents were here they gave us an extra special gift and offered to help us finish painting the kitchen. They love painting and fixing up houses, so they're always up for a project. And we all know we've got quite a few potential projects at our house. I'm so incredibly grateful for their willingness to get this done for us. Our kitchen actually looks finished now. I can't believe it.

In true Team Cowan form, the boys put on their painting clothes and helped.

Before I show you the finished product, I want you to see what it looked like when we moved in. And I'm going to warn you, these images might conjure up feelings of sadness, anger, desperation, loneliness, hopelessness, etc. Consider yourself warned. Here we go:

There are five layers of wallpaper hiding in this room. Not to mention the carpet that is casually lounging on top of a layer of linoleum that has a death grip on the wood underneath. Brace yourself for a glimpse of the ominous greenhouse....

Cue this.

Ok, you can stop crying now. Here we are today:

Amazing, right??!! Let there be light!!

My mom even took the fabric that I bought for curtains four years ago and sewed and hung it for us. We now have curtains in the kitchen!! Hooray!! Isn't is beautiful?? I'm in love with it. Let me say it again - I am in love with my kitchen.

We also replaced the light fixture with an extra one that we had. We were going to try spray painting the other one in a fun color, but after some trial and error it was deemed necessary that we not put the old one up again. Long story short: My parents and I tried and ended up making sparks fly three times, then Zach tried on his own and thought he'd burned the house down, and in the process ended up melting the wires of the old fixture... It wasn't pretty. We were happy to throw that thing away.

Still on the list for the kitchen: Butcher block counters, a new (preferably taller than me) fridge, white subway tile backsplash, a coat of poly on the floor, new baseboards, new sink.....

But at least it's pretty to look at now!! Hallelujah!!

A giant thank you to Mom, Dad, Zach, Quinn, and Max for making the kitchen beautiful while I sat around feeding Oliver and making him do this: