Lets train

Mom is napping before her flight back home so I'll catch up on some posts if you don't mind.

Our kitchen curtains are complete! Total price including the curtain rod and fabric=$63. I know you can buy store-bought panels for much cheaper but it's hard to find printed fabrics in the correct colors for our kitchen, so we splurged a bit. Total time spent sewing=2-3 hours? I don't know because I just observed the sewing done by Mom:)

Here is the fabric we chose: I love stripes and the colors are perfect for pulling it all together. We had to make the top 4 inches vertical stripes to add length but I love the result.

I know the orange stripe doesn't perfectly match the walls but that is okay. It's supposed to blend and represent the same family more than being a perfect match. And of course the browns tie in with all of our wood. I like how the fabric is sort of 1970s [which goes with the old/vintage parts of our kitchen] but the stripes are more modern [which is for our updated stainless steel parts of our kitchen]. Am I reading too much into these curtains or what?

Meanwhile, the boys were hard at work on one of the final kitchen projects: installing the new microwave. Please note the light fixture as well---I will explain shortly:

Here is the REAL light fixture Nate picked himself and spent three hours installing. Apparently the electrical stuff is pretty challenging in an old house. And remember how the previous picture showed a light without the glass cover? That's because Nate accidentally hit the glass during a project and it cracked. There were many cuss words floating around the kitchen at that moment. But luckily the lighting store gave us a replacement shade for free! So all is well in the land of Nate:

I would now like to show you the final before and after shots of the kitchen. Remember, the only thing left to do is the back splash and we might do it sooner than later. We'll see.

1. Right hand wall BEFORE, complete with wooden built in: And right hand wall AFTER without built-in and with our fabulous new microwave. The stove obviously stayed from the original kitchen because it still works and I think my in-laws have purchased enough appliances to last them a lifetime:) Maybe someday we'll replace it but then again, I don't really care:

2. Left-hand wall BEFORE, complete with hideous yellow counter top:
And left-hand wall AFTER with our new fridge, cabinets, counter top, sink, and Nate's under cabinet lighting. He's very proud of this as well:
3. And the front wall BEFORE where the old fridge [now in the basement for storage] and stove used to sit:
And AFTER where we have our little breakfast table. And we even use it! You can kind of see the textured walls in this picture if you look hard enough:

Whew. When I look at the grand scheme of things it's easy to see how hard we've worked on this kitchen.

It was worth it. There, I said it. :) But I'm so happy it's finished. And I don't want to do another one for YEARS.