Archive for October, 2011
Fab Freebie: Trick Or Sweet!
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won!***
Hope everyone had a happy Halloween! The two folks getting an extra candy fix (thanks to random.org’s choosing) are… Johanna (who loves Rolos) and Clare @ Fitting It All In (who’s an M&M addict). And the winner of a pair of tickets to our local R.Home For the Holidays event on Nov 16th, featuring a presentation by Grace Bonney, is… Randa! Congrats everyone!
Since we can’t giveaway goblins or ghosts, we’re celebrating Halloween with a candy-tastic giveaway instead. No costume wearing or door knocking required. The prize comes from our favorite local candy shop, Sweet Spot. Their store is not only designed in a super fun way, but it’s stocked with tons of goodies – including those classic childhood candies you just can’t seem to find anymore. Along with (my personal favorite) over 50 flavors of soda.
So the Sweet Spot folks put together three themed baskets for our winners to choose from. Below’s just a sampling of the type of candies that you’ll find in each basket, which are all stocked with $50 worth of yummy stuff.
- PRIZE: One candy basket of your choosing from Sweet Spot (the Retro Candy Basket, the Specialty Chocolate Basket, or the Spooky Halloween Basket).
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “TRICK OR TREAT!” and tell us…
- BONUS QUESTION: …what your all time favorite candy is. Reese’s cups? Skittles? Starbursts? I could go on and on…. so I will. Butterfingers? Peanut M&Ms? Black licorice? Ring pops? Razzles? Nerds? York Peppermint Patties?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, November 2 at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: Two
- PRIZE SHIPS: The 48 contiguous United States
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winners will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
*************************
But wait, there’s more! We’ve got an extra prize available to anyone in the Richmond area. Local shelter mag R.Home is again hosting their annual R.Home For the Holidays event in two weeks (Nov 16) and we’ve got one pair of tickets to give away. This daytime event includes design seminars, lunch, and a talk by Design*Sponge founder (and Virginia native!) Grace Bonney. We’re excited to finally meet her – and any of you that join us at the event!
Please only enter this bonus contest if you are available to attend from 10am to 1:30pm on Wednesday, November 16th here in VA at Plant Zero (you win two tickets so you can bring a friend if you’d like). To enter, just include the phrase “TICKET ME” in your comment (yes, you can enter both contests in one comment). One winner will be selected from all of the entries containing “Ticket Me” along with two winners from any entries that say “Trick Or Treat” and all three lucky ladies or lads will be announced on Thursday.
Note: We aren’t paid or perked for hosting these giveaways, we just do ‘em to thank you awesome folks for stopping in. See our Giveaway FAQ page for more info. Pics courtesy of Sweet Spot, R Home Magazine and Design*Sponge.
Cabinets & Costumes…
We knew we weren’t likely to find $1 cabinets again (like we did for the office built-ins) but we couldn’t resist checking out the Habitat For Humanity ReStore for the four cabinets that we need to create the peninsula and build in the microwave/fridge (we’re able to reuse the 36″ cabinet that used to live where the stove now sits, so that saved us some major money). The good news is that we found three out of the four we needed! And only spent $90 total.
Yup, we got a corner base cabinet for the peninsula for $50 and two upper cabinets (one for over the fridge and one slightly taller one for over the microwave) for $19 each. And just for reference, to buy those cabinets new from Home Depot or Lowe’s (in the stock, off-the-shelf department) they would have been $219, $96, and $89 respectively (for a grand total of $404). So we saved $314 by going secondhand. Which made complete sense since we’d be scrapping the doors anyway.
The issue with the doors? They don’t match our existing ones (nothing that we hunted down both new or secondhand did since our doors are 30 years old). But to get the solid oak cabinet frames for that price is a steal and once they’re all painted white with new or retrofitted matching doors (from other existing cabinets that we’re not using), no one would ever guess they hailed from the ReStore.
We could only fit two of the three into our trunk. But thankfully they’ll hold items for seven days at our ReStore, so we just came back for the giant corner cabinet with a bigger car borrowed from John’s sister a few days later.
Now they’re all at home, but not in their places yet (the carport and our sunroom are the holding area for lots of old cabinets and doors that we have removed and new ones that we’ll be switching in).
And yes, the sunroom looks especially crazy and smells like wood. Could be worse (wood isn’t that bad of a smell, actually). Hopefully in the next few days we’ll be back to share our freshly built-in fridge.
But wait- it’s Halloween. Did you really think we’d let you go without sharing the kiddos in costume? Meet Mrs. Monkey & Mr. Banana:
Clara liked doing her best monkey impression (saying “ooh ooh ah ah” and waving her arms) while Burger slinked around looking beyond embarrassed. The second we popped on the “hat” part of his banana, he just slumped down and half-closed his eyes as if to say “this is not ok.” We freed the poor guy from his yellow prison within a few minutes of this photoshoot though. And gave the boy a bone. Actually his monkey friend handed one over. She’s a very generous chimp indeed.
And Clara’s cousin Emanuel (seen here turning two) even got in on the fun. He was a ferocious lion who requested candy corn throughout the photoshoot. Hilarious.
Of course the banana + monkey thing might not be as cute as one especially cute combo from last year…
Hope you all have a very happy halloween! Oh and what were you guys up to this weekend? Any cabinet hunting or candy corn binging goin’ on?
Psst- Check out our pumpkin patch adventures (including a family moon bounce and corn bin adventure) here.
Bowers In Da House
I promised more Bower visit deets on Wednesday when we dorkily spilled the beans that Katie B and I had been together in a series of photos that can only be described as awkwaaaard (get to the root of that joke here). You know we love a good Bower Visit Breakdown (like this one, this one, this one, and this one of yore). But before we get to all the stuff we did together, we’ll share the little video that we made for ya. Because KB and I always get the same few questions:
- how did you guys meet?
- are you real friends or just blog friends?
- how long have you been friends?
- what were your first impressions of each other?
- what surprised you about each other?
- what do you like to do together?
- how are your styles similar? how are they different?
- do your husbands really get along?
So we thought we’d answer them all on film for ya. Warning: you’re about to lose 12 minutes of your life to two giggly girls who incessantly say the word “like” and perform incredibly terrible impersonations of each other).
When it came to the stuff that we did together this time, here we go:
- filled our bellies with a ton of favorite local food (Bottom’s Up, Q BBQ, Carytown Burger & Fries) along with enjoying a few home cooked meals together in our torn apart kitchen courtesy of chef John
- did fun stuff with the kiddos like going for a walk near the river (where Katie snapped some family photos for us), hanging at the playground (where Clara & Will had some quality sandbox time), and even attending Clara’s weekly music class with Will in tow (he fit right in)
- checked out a few Saturday morning yard sales and even found a Goodwill Outlet (where they sell things by the pound in giant bins – it was like nothing Katie or I had ever seen)
- strolled around Carytown (where we did some browsing at a few thrift shops and consignment stores) and shopped at Stonypoint mall (where Jeremy got the same jeans as John, I’m telling you our men are hilarious together)
- hung around the house while our kids napped (Clara slept from around one to two thirty, and Will would sleep from two to five… so we were house-bound for a good chunk of time each day- which we used to do some synchronized blogging, talk about future projects, debate the merits of certain paint colors, take naps on the sofa, etc)
- rented a few movies after the kids went to bed for the night (X-Men: First Class for the boys and Bridesmaids for the girls) – we also watched a lot of Bang For Your Buck on HGTV since we liked betting which room got the most bang
In summary: good times. Katie even used her photog skillz to take some sweet pics:
So thankful for good friends, good weather, and sweet babies. Er, I guess they’re technically toddlers now. Sniffle. Did any of you guys hang with friends this weekend? Or have a weird feeling that KB and I were together? One commenter totally guessed that we were visiting each other while it was happening and we had no idea how they knew about it (maybe they’re psychic? or they saw us around town together?).
Psst- Check out Katie’s sweet post about everything. She even dug up our first email exchange. Love that lady.
Counter Conclusions
We’re inching right along in the kitchen (wish we could share kitchen updates every day but we’re doing this thing real-time). Which brings us to our latest decision: the new counters that we’ll be going with.
We’ve been debating possibilities for weeks (there are a junkload of options out there with pros and cons to each one). And ten people would probably make ten different decisions, so it can feel especially hard to hone in on the “right” thing since there are so many variables. So here’s how we landed on the choice that we like best for our kitchen/family/life. But first the thing we’re sad about: although we had high hopes of DIYing concrete counters (I pinned about a million tutorials) they’re not a good choice for our kitchen. After talking to a few concrete experts (who actually make ‘em for a living) we learned that in order to accommodate the double 12″ overhang (on two of the four sides of the giant 3 x 5′ peninsula that we’ll be adding) we would need to pour the slab extra thick, which is an issue because:
- our cabinets can’t support that amount of weight (they’d need to be reinforced = $$$)
- our floors aren’t built to support that load anyway (more on that here)
Cue the sad trombone sound effect. We debated doing some sort of concrete “slipcover” (for lack of a better word- some folks just coat another countertop material with a thin layer of concrete) but it ended up having more cons than solid concrete, so we decided to explore a few other options in hopes of finding The One. But we’re diabolically determined (picture me stroking my chin like an evil genius) to mess around with concrete one way or another. Maybe we’ll make a long concrete dining table for an outdoor deck area that we have yet to tell you about/build (it’s on the to-do list, so we’ll hopefully get there eventually). But back to the kitchen…
Once concrete was off the table (or the counters, har-har) we decided that hitting up a bunch of local kitchen shops as well as the usual home improvement guys (like Lowe’s and Home Depot) would be a good way to see what other counter materials were out there… and what they were going to do to our budget. Back when we did our first home’s kitchen we really splurged when it came to the counters (to the tune of $3,700 after a $300-off promotion), but they kind of made our kitchen and we had saved up the money to pay them off right away, so we didn’t regret that choice.
But we definitely went into this kitchen makeover vowing to come in substantially under that number. Which is funny given that we have about twice as much square footage (since we’re adding a big peninsula and this kitchen is a lot larger than our last one). For example, to use the same “pashmina” granite from Home Depot that we used for our last kitchen would cost us over $7,000! Which is just not in the budget. At all.
At first we thought about butcher block (Ikea sells it so affordably and it can be stained to get a richer chocolate look). But with the dark wood counters in the adjoined office (just five steps from the stove and three from the fridge) we decided that would be too much wood. Plus we loved the slick and easy-to-wipe-down surface that granite offered us in our first kitchen. Call us spoiled. But this time we wanted to go with something different (and had heard good things about quartz, solid surface options like Corian, and even cool eco options like recycled glass). So after hitting up a bunch of places, here are all of the samples that we brought home to mull over:
- Top left: LG Viatera quartz in “Geneva” found at Lowe’s (note: any of these options are probably available at a number of places)
- Bottom left: Caesarstone quartz in “Pebble” found at a local spot called Kitchen & Bath Solutions
- Right: Silestone quartz in “River Blanco” found at Kitchen & Bath Solutions
- Top left: Cambria quartz in “Torquay” found at Kitchen & Bath Solutions
- Bottom left: Cambria quartz in “Sussex” found at Kitchen & Bath Solutions
- Top right: Allen & Roth quartz in “Alloy” found at Lowe’s
- Bottom right: Cambria quartz in “New Quay” found at Kitchen & Bath Solutions
Oh and here’s a pile of white solid surface options from Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Kitchen & Bath Solutions (the one on top is Glacier White by Corian, and there are other options by LG Hi-Macs and Allen & Roth under it).
We also admired a few awesome eco options like recycled glass but they sadly weren’t in the budget (at least we got cork floors and can reuse almost all of our cabinetry to keep things green).
The one we loved most? This Silestone guy (River Blanco):
But after we learned that it would be over 5K for those counters alone (!!!), we knew it wasn’t meant to be. But don’t cry for me Argentina. It all worked out in the end and we found something that’ll be a great choice for our kitchen/family. The winner? Glacier White Corian:
We’re in love and have all but forgotten the 5K option that we once called a favorite. That’s actually not a white Corian square pictured above, but that bigger white tile was the same color so it represents the new counter better than a tiny Chicklet-sized square sample. Oh and the stainless steel bottle represents our new stainless appliances and the paint swatch is the current wall color so you can see how those things layer in with other things like our backsplash tile and the mocha cork.
Why did it win? So many reasons:
- It’s thousands cheaper than most other options we priced out ($38 a square foot at Lowe’s – compared to many other options shown above that were in the $80-100 per square foot range). We also have a 10% off “project coupon” that arrived in the mail from Lowe’s and will get 5% off on top of that when we use our Lowe’s credit card (you know we love a deal)
- John’s sister has lived with Glacier White Corian in her kitchen for the past 5+ years and loves it and has had zero issues (seriously, she wants to marry it)
- We are keeping our existing deep stainless sink and are not going with an integrated Corian sink (we have heard they can be harder to care for, and John’s sister has a stainless sink with the Corian tops and has loved that combo).
- It’s easy care (Corian is nonporous, which means stains do not penetrate the surface). According to the company, it also resists the growth of mold, mildew, and bacteria (John’s sister has a teen, a tween, a toddler, and a big dog – and she has no scratches or stains to date)
- We already use trivets and wood cutting boards to set down hot things (we’re paranoid) so following those steps with Corian should be no sweat (John’s sister hasn’t had any issues with that in five years of use either)
- It’s lighter than granite, quartz, concrete, etc (so our cabinets and floor joists can handle it, no problem)
- When installed, there are no seams, if done correctly (which is definitely appealing since the seams in our current granite tops drive us bonkers)
- It reflects lots of light, so it’s great for dark windowless rooms (like our kitchen!)
I know it might sound really bland to do white cabinets with white counters, but many of our inspiration photos from this post have the white on white look. And given our recent backsplash choice it’ll all hopefully make sense (the gray-green penny tiles will stand out along with colorful items on our open shelves while the counters and cabinets are classic & clean).
Those photos were found here and here by the way. We’re also toying with the idea of some sort of subtle color on the cabinets (maybe a soft taupe-gray like this kitchen that we crashed a while back). Not sure where we’ll end up, but we’ll definitely keep ya posted! What about you guys? Has anyone else decided to go with Corian? Or concrete? Or quartz? Or granite? Or butcher block? We’d love to hear which counter you picked for your kitchen! There are so many delicious options out there…
Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.
