Here's the most controversial to date of my house projects....the new trim was ok, hubby agreed that the old stuff was cheap looking and the stained pine looks much better. The bathroom in the basement was fine by him...it too was pine stained to match the trim (I'll post pictures of that one another day)...he didn't fight me much on the black cabinets upstairs because staining them made them too light for between the sink and the floor....the kitchen Island however, well he still isn't so sure about it. Me on the other hand...I'm actually liking my kitchen again, it isn't an oasis of ugly monotone oak cabinets when I hate golden oak to begin with!

Here's a rather rotten picture of before...flooring going right up the back of the island. I've honestly hated that single part the most since we moved into the house!

This point is where I was glad I ripped into it while daddy wasn't home...the girls and I were having fun ripping it apart. It made more sense to me to have the bigger of the two for pots and pans than baking stuff...so apart the entire thing came!

And I had a great idea for the inside...which meant while it was in pieces it was easier to remove the shelf than try and be careful once it was all put back together. 

And now it's not looking so horrible anymore, and the back is a whole lot better than seeing the flooring go all the way up! You can see the original color in the background...

Here's one of my favorite parts of the island re-do...no more standing on my head to dig out the pans I want! the girls think the drawers are great too...one of them crawls in and the other pushes the drawer in and out

And the finished product...I absolutely love it! It was a 50ish dollar change that made a world of difference in my golden oak nightmare! 

The island followed the crown moulding that I had wanted to put up for quite a while too...I did that first to make sure the black didn't totally ruin the kitchen...it was easy to put up and would have been easy to rip back out to replace with matching crown. 

Ignore the mess...that was mid re-do...no bathroom upstairs, and the kitchen was about half functional...the island, while that was where everything lived while we were using it! 

The saddest part of me liking my house again is we need a bigger one so all this was done just to sell it! Hopefully someone else likes it as much as I do, it's a 100% improvement from when we moved into our builder grade, white walled, finish quick so we can start another house to make more money expensive investment! 

So here's the reason for the lack of posts lately...I got 95% of the list done before we had a house of people for thanksgiving and I think if you asked any one of them they wouldn't even be able to point out the unfinished parts! Yay for mommy! 

Here's our main bathroom before....

they're the only two pictures I actually have from trying to get rid of the vanity and mirror...

and here's the inbetween...

and our bathroom now....we absolutely love it!

The pictures really don't do the tile justice...they're gorgeous! 

And bonus to me wanting a smaller vanity, now we can actually open the door while someone is at the sink without getting squished or losing a toe! Besides, it just gives the girls more cupboards to empty! Our bathroom went from hardly any storage to storing everything that had to be kept in a closet right outside the bathroom...where you had to leave a trail of water and hope nobody was looking if you forgot to grab a towel! And don't even get me started on the heated floor...that is worth every penny we spent! 

It came and went and I didn't turn into a pumpkin...

I wasn't super duper excited about turning 30...all I could think of it's OLD, 

when you say it everyone is like "oh" you're no longer in your twenties...I've heard over and over all the stuff you're supposed to quit doing...and the list goes on and on. 

So when I looked in the mirror last tuesday morning I didn't look any different, no gray hair, no wrinkles that mysteriously showed up while I was asleep...nothing looked any different so I figured it wasn't going to be as bad as I had predicted. Only war stain I had was the pink finger from the frosting mishap on the cake I made for my own surprise party...yep, I knew!

I had such a good time that night it's quite possibly the best birthday I've had since I was in gradeschool!

Here's a rundown of the last few big ones...25th (golden birthday) I waited and waited at home for the farmer boyfriend I had to finish for the day so I could go out for supper. Something about the threat of snow and field work don't go along! 

21st...I was sitting in a store called The Tile Shop in Eden Prairie MN I believe getting the rundown on DIY kitchen counter tile. The explanation must have worked well because a month or so later my mom's countertop was gorgeous porcelain tile instead of putrid yellow 50's laminate. Followed by supper at a restaurant not far from the tile shop because it got late getting the rundown. 

18th...well that one wasn't so shabby either...I hate to admit it, but the only thing I wanted to was to see 98 degrees in concert. They just happened to be in Mankato the weekend after my birthday, so with mom's credit card in hand, a hotel room reserved, one of my friends and our tickets we girl tripped it to Mankato and had a teenage girls' dream of a time. A hotel room to ourselves, some nice eye candy to watch and the next day we hit the mall...that one was kind of spendy!

So here's one of the pictures you don't so often see on my blog...my girls are a whole lot cuter!

Thank you iPhone for the awesome picture, and thank you to everyone that gave up their evening to help me celebrate! 

I guess 30 isn't so bad after all...