The Kitchen!

FINALLY! Our much overdo kitchen pictures! Hurrah! Let's first remember what we started with...

Gross. And NOW (almost the same view):

Ahh...so much better and brighter! I can't imagine having that terrible WALL where the peninsula now is. Yesterday I prepped dinner while watching the Olympics and was happy as a clam. There will soon be a dining room table in the middle there.

Here's a BEFORE of the actual kitchen - 

And AFTER: 

 I still want to put something on that back wall - maybe these cool graphic prints we got as a wedding gift in colored frames? And I will paint that wood stool something fun someday.

Here are some other details for you:

Normal size stove! (If you remember what I had before...)

Awesome flexible faucet.

Big deep drawers for storage - LOVE THIS.

Some green friends in our window.

Big ass sink.

Breakfast area.

SO HAPPY!

Here's all the materials we used if you are curious:

Cabinets - Ikea Akurum Adel Off-White

Drawer and Cabinet Pulls - Pulls Direct

Countertops - Honed Absolute Black Granite

Stove Hood - Pacific Sales

Appliances - From Sears

       - Bosch Dishwasher

       - LG Convection Range

       - Kenmore Elite Fridge

       - Kenmore Microwave

       - Kenmore Washer & Dryer

Sink - Kraus

Faucet - American Standard

Hanging Lights - Restoration Hardware

Kitchen Chairs - Restoration Hardware - On Sale!

Table - Neal's Grandmother 

Map - Style De Vie inside HD Buttercup

A plug for a friend...

One of our best friends and frequent dinner party guests, Cassidy Lange, has just started a line of handbags. They are fun, loose, practical shapes, made out of amazingly soft leather right here in Los Angeles. Not only are the bags great, that she's pulled this all off while having a busy day job as a film studio executive is pretty damn impressive. 

Go check them out here: www.cassidylange.com and from now until Labor Day you can use the coupon "firsteditionlondon" and get 30% off your order. 

How yummy is this "Glazed Vintage" one?

Hurrah for local Los Angeles businesses and creative friends!

Fire! (Not ours!)

Hi all...this is not our house:

...but it IS in our neighborhood. Yesterday afternoon we heard tons of sirens and helicopters swirling...turns out a house 6 or so blocks away caught fire. See this post on The Eastsider for details. Yikes. Too close for comfort. Luckily, it sounds like no one was hurt and the fire didn't spread.

Even freakier is the fact that our backyard is basically a tinderbox of dried out weeds and trees that was making me upset because it is so ugly, but now Im panicked because it's probably not very safe.

Ironically, we had gone that morning for the second half of our landscaping consultation at Burkard Nurseries, where the owner Frank talked us through, not only adding a few walls to flatten out some yard for a garden, but how to put in super simple pipe irrigation to get water down to the bottom of our yard so we can start planting something more attractive then the weeds and old tile and drywall that exists now.

I will take a few BEFORE pics so you can see what we mean. Ugh. It's going to be a big project, but one that this house reminded me, is even more urgent for the safety of US and our neighbors.

Good News!

We FINALLY took some DONE kitchen pics yesterday and will fix em up and post them very soon. Back in the swing so vow to do a little more posting.

Stay tuned!