Don't be an island

So we tore the wall down between the living room and kitchen on a Sunday, and I immediately moved the table because I dislike the table and kids being that close to me while I'm trying to cook. ☺ Having the big open space reminded me that I really would love to find a way to have an island, so all Sunday night I was racking my brain trying to figure out a way to make it work. Cary wasn't really on board with the idea of an island, and I had just stained and painted the cabinets and we don't have the money to be buying new cabinets, so how was I going to find cabinets that matched our current cabinets for an island. (?!?) 

Some time during the night I had a light bulb moment where I remembered that we had pulled out two of the cabinets to put the stove and dishwasher in and they were currently in our "laundry room" waiting to be installed. So I got thinking that those two cabinets put together might be big/ small enough to work in our kitchen. Cary was gone the next two days so Kenneth came over and helped me move the cabinets into the kitchen so I could give them a test run as my island. 

 I was sold, but was waiting to see what Cary thought. When he got home and I explained to him what I wanted to do, he basically asked when he could start. What a good guy! ♥ ☺

 So he had to cut through the floor and attach the cabinets and then put the wood sheets and trim on and then it was ready for me to stain.

during the staining process

 All done! I think it took us about a month to get it all completed. :D  Most of that waiting on me to do the staining.

 We have a "temporary" counter top made out of melamine board, hopefully it holds up until we can get the real deal, but I'm loving the set up and extra kitchen storage space.

Home Office

Cary was really needing a better work space since he works from home the majority of the week, and he needs two monitors and a little bit of room to breathe. He's been working on a tiny little desk since that's all we could fit in our bedroom over at the little house. ☺ I finally painted a wall so we could make at least one part of the room nice.

 Before

 After (sort of) We DIY'ed the desk ourselves. I used the door that we took down from the living room coat closet, stained it and that is our desk top.

 It's not done, but it's definitely better than what we had before. The little desk is what Cary used to work on.

 In the interest of keeping it real....the rest of the office looks like this. Actually, Cary moved his piano in there and I had to move some stuff from our disintegrating shed, so it looks even worse. ☺ We need a shed!