Modern Conveniences

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Danielle

It’s been a while since I’ve shared an update about our kitchen remodel. But if you follow me on Instagram, you know that we recently had a little addition to the space. This baby arrived a few weeks ago and has been a pretty big deal in our lives.

The reason for the fanfare is that we didn’t have a microwave…. for four and half years.

It’s not for any noble or environmentally conscious reason; we just didn’t have one.

We used to have one. When we moved into our home, there was no built-in and so we purchased a cheap counter top microwave. Our intention was that “someday” we would install one above the stove.

Sometimes that “someday” can take awhile. Eight years later, we were still living with our “temporary solution” when there was a small fire in it. Thankfully no one was hurt and the fire was contained to the oven itself. At the time, money was tight and replacing it wasn’t high on the priority list. So I learned to cook without a microwave.

And we got used to not having a one. Honestly, it really wasn’t that difficult since I’ve never been a big microwave user. We mainly used it to heat water and make popcorn. So we bought a kettle and an air popper and we were content. The only time we even noticed it’s absence was when we would have friends or family over and they needed to warm something. Well…. then and when we went out of town and I realized I was leaving our housesitters without a modern convenience.

However, someday has finally arrived. After lots of research, we picked out a microhood and have begun demolition of our kitchen cabinets.

**This is probably a great place to note that while ALL of this was going down, I was at a conference. This install was actually a three day process with numerous trips to Home Depot that I was in no way involved in. This is going to look surprisingly easy because for me, it was. Tyson would tell you otherwise.**

Part of the delay in tackling this project was that we knew installing a built-in microwave meant that we would have to customize the cabinets. The upper cabinets that hide the vent tubing for the stove hood are the perfect height for the hood, but too low for a microwave. We would need to cut and raise the cabinets by five inches. We didn’t want to do that until we knew we were ready to actually paint the cabinets.

The process included moving the power source up a few inches as well.

**I’m suddenly realizing that with the big hole above my stove, there is no turning back, is there? Yikes!**

Once the hood was removed and the cabinet cut to the size we needed, Tyson added a support bar across the back.

He also custom cut a new shelf for the cabinet.

To allow for all of the vent tubing, Tyson cut out spaces in the support bar and the shelf for the duct to feed through. He made sure there was a hole for the power cable to feed up through too.

Then it was just a matter of following the manufacturer’s installation directions.

Once the microwave was installed, he changed out the vent with a transition piece and used duct tape to seal the exhaust system.

As for the microwave itself, we went with the LG LMV1683ST. It’s brushed stainless steel like our other appliances and we came across a killer deal for it online. It was the most bang for our buck, it’s pretty and it will cook things… all this girl could ever hope for.

We still have plans to add a decorative panel across the front where the two cabinet doors were. The panel will still open to access the exhaust tubing and power source, but for all intensive purposes it will look like decorative molding above the microwave. That’s the next step and I can’t wait!

Are you working on any big projects that are steadily coming along? Have you ever gotten comfortable living without something that’s pretty common place? Is there an appliance in your home that you could never live without?

Furniture Shuffle – Part 2

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Danielle

Last night I dreamt about furniture. Specifically, I was helping a friend figure out how they were going to arrange 4 sofa sets in their home.

4 sets.

That’s a sofa with a love seat.

And in my sleep, I kept thinking, “if only they weren’t so ugly, this would be easier”. Because if you are trying to arrange 8 large pieces of furniture in a room, the obvious problem is the fabric, right? But in dreamland, my brain kept trying to work thru fabric choices that would be so much better. Then it all overflowed into fabric choices for the new chair in our family room.

This can only mean two things: 1) It’s time for me to put down the design magazines. 2) An updated post on our living room situation is seriously overdue.

For those that are new around here, last month I shared about our new sectional and our hopes for a new coffee table and overstuffed chair.

Last night, I was literally dreaming about this chair. But in blue.

Sadly, Tyson doesn’t love it for our space. So the hunt continues…

But let’s talk about what happened to our old red sofa.

A few of you mentioned what great condition it is in for being 16 years old and I totally agree. With our oldest wrapping up his junior year in high school, we know we want to hold onto it for a few more years instead of sending it to Goodwill or Craigslist-ing it. It’s a sofa sleeper and could be a good starter piece for someone’s new apartment…. someday… WAY down the road. But I digress.

Anyhow, we moved the red sofa to the “formal” living room and I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. The sofa is really comfortable and the larger piece invites more people into the area to just hang out.

However, we have an interesting problem. We can’t decide on the actual furniture placement for the room. Over the last month, we’ve lived with it in several variations and we are still undecided. If we were to remove everything and design the area with an unlimited budget, we know exactly what we would do. However, for one reason or another, all of the pieces need to stay in the space and that makes things tricky.

Here’s what we are looking at:

Option 1: Open Layout

We can place the sofa along the wall and have an open sitting area. This layout allows you to be see everything in the house and feels very open and inviting. It also feels like everything is jammed up against the wall.

Option 2: T Layout

We’ve also considered floating the sofa, T-ing it out from the wall. It creates two distinct areas (a living room and a dining room) and provides an intimate sitting space to enjoy. It also feels like the room is more cut-off, but it’s nice not having everything up against the walls.

So there you have it. The set-up for my very first poll. Help a sister out and vote because we could seriously use your input. We want to know which is YOUR favorite layout!

[poll id="2"]

If you have additional comments or suggestions, I seriously want to hear those too.

How do you handle weird decorating dilemma’s? Do you drag your family and friends into the fray? Do you have odd dreams or get your husband to move furniture all over the house until you reach a resolution? My guy is the best!

Furniture Shuffle – Part 1

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Danielle

While I was having the most adrenaline fueled day of my life, Tyson was running home after dropping me at the airport so that he could greet the latest addition to our family:

Yes… we picked the Pearce Sectional by Pottery Barn and scored a smoking hot deal on this bad boy.

And because it would be two weeks before my tush could test run our newest lounge spot, Tyson sent me photos of the sectional in it’s new home.

Have I mentioned how much I love that my man gets just as excited about this kind of stuff as I do? It was so fun to get photos of his perspective on the new piece.

But before I introduce you to the new sectional, let me back up and give you a little “before”. Our red sofa has served us faithfully for 16 years and was ready for a new location. After all that time, I still think the color is awesome, but not in this space.

The bookcase my crew gave me for Mother’s Day a few years ago and we weren’t sure if we would leave it on the blue wall or switch it over to the dark brown.

Luckily, we knew about the delivery ahead of time and cleared out the room the night before. It’s nice having a son old enough to help move the heavy stuff.

So want to see what I was seeing 1200 miles away? Some of these are iPhone photos that Tyson texted to me so please forgive the quality.

It’s huge! This made me a little nervous. I was shooting messages back asking “Do you like it? Did we make a mistake?”

Our red sofa we had floating off the wall which I loved. However, because of the scale of the sectional, Tyson pushed it back to the wall.

He also brought in an end table and lamp from another area of the house and the room started to take a little more shape.

And of course the boys took a look at the new sectional and decided it was missing something. Dog schmootz. They remedied that within the first two minutes of the piece’s arrival.

Anticipating their antics, we chose Pottery Barn’s washable suede and this cleaned up easily. The boys are now trying to convince me that it needs dog hair on it too. I think not.

The sectional is incredibly comfy and much deeper than our last one. It’s pretty much the perfect spot for TV watching.

Tyson also opted to leave the bookcase on the blue wall and we are living with it that way for now. I’m not sure if it will remain this way, but it’s nice to have someone else define the space and then we can tweak things as we go.

We have a lot of beige going on and between the family-room and the kitchen, I’m really having to remind myself that we’re in transition with the fun, colorful part just around the corner.

The ottoman is getting returned to a friend and we are looking forward to having a new coffee table down the road. Not sure what it will be, but it will definitely have a different texture to mix things up.

The arm chair will need an update too. It’s currently slip-covered and the fabric is too matchy-matchy with the sectional for my taste. We’re considering reupholstering, giving it a new slip-cover or replacing it all together. But for now it stays as-is in the land of beige.

Our red sofa has been relocated to another spot in the house, but since this is getting so long, you’ll have to wait for Part 2. Let’s just say we’re still in negotiations on what is going on with that.

Have you recently purchased any large furniture items? Do you have any tricks or rules of thumb for determining furniture placement? Ever been far from home while big changes are a foot? It’s equal parts terrifying and freeing. I highly recommend it.

Blogiversary

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Danielle

Today is the one year anniversary of Storypiece. Wahoo!

I can’t believe I’ve been hanging out here for an entire year. If I had my stuff together, I’d have a giveaway (for you) or cake (for me) or something awesome that says “Let’s Celebrate!” But after the last two weeks of moving this blog, I’m just grateful to still be here.

On my very first post I wrote:

One of my favorite things about our home is that when I look around it, it truly is a reflection of the people that live here. The colors, the decor, and especially the furnishings… they all come with a backstory. Some things we inherited from family or friends, some things we made, and some things are just pure randomness that we couldn’t live without. And I often think… “If only these walls could talk?!”

It is my hope that with this blog that maybe they can. This is a place to discuss the history or journey a piece has taken. And not just in my home, but in yours too. Some items may have a more colorful past than others… but all have a unique beauty because of the story they tell. Thanks for joining me here and welcome to Storypiece!

It took me about three days to get those two paragraphs down and I’m proud to look back and feel exactly the same. But when I wrote that, I had no idea that this blog would become so much more to me.

Over the course of writing 100+ posts, I’ve made an amazing community of friends and been SO encouraged. I’ve seriously laughed, cried and prayed for people that I have not physically met. I’m continuing to let go of what others think of me and to let go of fear.

I’m hugely thankful for this creative outlet.

Thank you for sharing in our story and following on our silly little journey. Are you ready for another year? Me too. Next year there will be cake for sure.

Cheers!

Storypiece

Stories About Life & Home

Tag Archives: home

Modern Conveniences

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Furniture Shuffle – Part 2

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Furniture Shuffle – Part 1

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