China Cabinet

We've been married almost two years, and until tonight, our china has resided in the department store boxes it was shipped in. We did pull out a few plates and the serving pieces for Easter this past year, but then back to the boxes they went.

Did you know china cabinets are expensive? Like, seriously expensive. We've done a LOT of furniture shopping in the past year, and even more furniture browsing, and every time, we look at china cabinets, hutches and sideboards. It seems like the ones we both like, that seem to match our dining room table, average about $1500 for new. We also have looked at antique and second-hand stores (where you can find ones in good condition for around $500), but never saw any that we liked too much.

I had occasionally checked Craigslist, but only once had a cabinet piqued our interest. It was an antique wardrobe with crosses carved on the front. The poster said it was made by monks. We were about to inquire about it, but it was fairly expensive, looked a little too large, and would require alteration in the interior to add shelves for dish storage.

Then, the other night, thanks to the Craigstlist app on my iPhone, I found one that I liked priced at $150. Yesterday, after emailing the seller and getting more info (like the fact she lived two blocks from us!), my brother-in-law (henceforth known as Uncle Oh) went with me to check it out. I still liked it, so we negotiated the price to $125, and Mr Oh and Uncle Oh went to pick it up today. The top hutch section wouldn't fit in our SVU, but the woman let them drive it over in her van.

They got it over, cleaned up a bit, and we put our china in it.

I really like the style. I'd call it...mid-century modern meets country? The hardware on the cabinets and drawers is my favorite.

Here's a shot of our china. It's Mikasa's Parchment.

We were going to register for the Parchment Blue, but it wasn't carried locally. It probably is better to have a very neutral palette, but I sure liked that blue.

Favorite Things: IKEA Expedit

Last night, when the baby was sleeping oh-so-nicely, and I couldn't seem to doze off, I made lists of things to blog about it. Unfortunately all of those ideas require photos I haven't taken or time I don't seem to have right now.

But as I was doing a little housecleaning this afternoon and evening, I saw all these things in my house that I love. A tea towel that hangs by my kitchen sink. The painting my brother-in-law created for our dining room. Two vacation photos blown up to poster size that hang in the living room. I thought I could make posts about my favorite things in my house...

The first large piece of furniture I have ever bought was an IKEA Expedit. They are one of the kings of bookcases. Just google image search it and see how versatile the storage options are.

I bought the Expedit before Mr Oh and I were even married, and he was the lucky one who got to live with it until our wedding day. (He also was the unlucky one who assembled it.)

This random old post shows the Expedit in our old place. There it held mostly books and a lot of dust. That is still pretty much its purpose in our current house.

Tonight I dusted about half of the thing. Although, first I dusted its entire little brother, which serves as our TV stand.

As much as I love our big Expedit, I doubt it will move on with us to our next house (whenever that may be). One, it was a pain to move. Once assembled, a lot of people do not recommend disassembling it for moving because it could affect it's stability. Two, as great as it is for storage, I'm not currently a great storager...meaning, it usually holds books that don't get read and picture frames that collect dust. Maybe someday I will use it more...usefully, but if not, I'll be fine with leaving the clutter behind.

The Expedit is one of my favorite things because it was my first big furniture purchase, it's from IKEA (which my husband describes as an amusement park with furniture), and it's tall - like me.

The Finished Kitchen

Well, I had to admit to myself that my kitchen will never be as clean and clutter-free as I'd like for the big unveiling, so after I semi-cleaned up after making dinner and baking cookies tonight, I snapped these pictures.

View from the dining room.

View from the kitchen sink. (We still need to add our hardware to the cabinets.)

Pantry Organization

Well, I should be posting the glorious "after" pictures of our kitchen improvement project, but the area is not quite as photogenic as I'd like it to be right now. :) You can catch a sneak peek at the painted cabinets and the laminate counter in this post, as I proudly show my organized pantry.

Our pantry is not the most attractive or functional closet, but hey, it's a place to put some food. I didn't take a picture of the terror inside the closet before I cleaned it out, but here is all the food piled up on our new countertop. Because our pantry had gotten so full and unorganized, it was easiest to just pull everything out and start from scratch.

When I put everything back in (welll, everything but the couple things that were no longer good...it's so embarrassing when nonperishables perish, right?), I grouped items by category. Top shelf = breakfast goods (cereal, pancake mix, oatmeal, jelly). Also on the little ledge on the top shelf's left side is our drink mixes (cold brew iced tea, Crystal Light knockoffs and Kool Aid). The second shelf has a few small groupings: items that are backup for the fridge (dip, mayo, relish), baking mixes, salad toppings and dressing, and then a nice pile of pudding and Jell-O boxes. The third shelf has all canned goods grouped in order of beans, vegetables, tomatos, soups. There's also ready-to-heat soups and more jars of peanut butter than any house should need at one time.

The last shelf is a little more mish-mash...from left to right: crackers, gnocchi (one of our favorite pastas and a super easy meal), boxed meals (like Hamburger Helper), boxed sides (like scalloped potatoes), broth, bread crumbs, and taco shells. In the middle we have sauces (one marinara and three alfredo, oddly enough) and the basket contains things for baking (food coloring, icing, cupcake liners, and birthday candles).

The very bottom of the closet contains a metal kitchen cart that we've had forever. Previous to this makeover, the bottom of the pantry held lots of useful things like a dish drainer we never use, several bottles of flat soda, piles of plastic bags, and four bottles of margarita mix. Sticking this cart in there was the only way I could get several more food items stored properly. The top pull-out drawer has pastas, the second and biggest has bags of chips, and the bottom drawer hold potatoes and onions. Now, when I say "sticking this cart in there", I really mean "taking the thing apart and reassembling because it wouldn't fit through the door frame". Really, I just had to take off the wooden top and screw it back on once the metal frame was inside. Although, it was more difficult than I thought, and I only put one screw in each corner, when there should be three. The thing's a bit wobby and I'll probably crawl in there someday soon when someone else is around to hold the baby. Or, I guess I could just wait until she's old enough to crawl in there and do it for me! ;)

The base cabinets installed...

An Open Floor Plan

Here are some photos with the wall gone. It was so weird seeing the rooms like this for the first time!

Kitchen Re-do

We have a U-shaped kitchen, and it's pretty tiny. When two adults are in there trying to cook, clean, or just grab a drink, it's hard not to run into one another. Things got especially crowded when you tried to throw in another person* or complete large tasks, like getting ready for a big party.

To help open things up and provide much needed counter and cabinet space, we decided to knock out a wall.

This wall:

This view is from standing with my back to the kitchen sink. To my right is the fridge, to the left is the dishwasher and stove/oven. The door on the right in the picture is to our pantry. It desperately needs a makeover. That is a task for another day.

Another view:

In this shot you can into the dining room. It's the room through the doorframe on the left. Straight ahead, past the fridge, is one entrance into our big living area. It used to be a two-car garage but the previous owners converted it.

Here is the dining room side of the wall. You can see the entrance into the kitchen area on the right. Technically our dining room is the living room (because technically the living room was a garage), and there is another dining spot next to the kitchen. It's a small little table that nestles so nicely next to our bay window.

And there, the last shot of the wall before it is history....

*Speaking of another person...our household has doubled recently! Not only did we welcome our baby girl three weeks ago, but Mr Oh's brother moved in. He'll live with us while he's going to school this year.