It’s been a couple months since I’ve updated about our kitchen and first floor home redo. If you follow my twitter or facebook, then you have seen pictures from my phone along the way. If you missed part one, click here to get caught up!  ;)

We’ve been having FUN over the past 9 weeks. “Fun” can also be synonymous with: frustrated, stressed, excited, emotional and a few other adjectives I will withhold. It has certainly been interesting, and honestly so exciting.

I have to say, our contractor has been a gem. He went OUT of his way to always ensure that we had water, a sink hook-up, and all of our appliances available for use. Even at times when we had a stove sitting in the middle of the floor, we had constant access to cooking which was a major concern of ours. We don’t eat out often, and we cook 3 meals most every day. The process could have been MUCH harder on us.

Floors were all placed, we made our tiny 80’s cut-out from the kitchen to the dining room larger, and new appliances began to trickle in. I began working on the dining room decor, which I wanted to make more of an “everyday” room than a formal dining room. It’s looking great I must say, and we’ve been doing school in there for the last few weeks so it is really feeling like home.

Making this wall cut-out bigger has been the biggest change for us yet! I can’t believe we’ve lived 5 yrs with it that small.

We call this our “hillbilly sink.” Lee (our contractor) propped our faucet on a 2×4 since we didn’t have a counter.

Before the counters we put in, we all traced our hands on the plywood tops that have served as counters for us over the past couple months. We figured someday, someone will rip the counters out and this would be a little time capsule of us.

Brett’s new baby:

Snippets from around the kitchen and dining room:

Once we finish painting, get our shelving up, and our art on the walls, I will post the completed rooms!  :)

It’s an overwhelming experience seeing your dreams take shape before your eyes. We’re feeling extremely blessed here in the Z home.

It was such a pleasure to meet and photograph this sweet little family! Candice and Dan are photographers themselves based out of Charlotte, NC. What an honor it was that they drove up to Cincinnati for a family session with their super sweet little girl, Stevie.

We had such a beautiful morning hanging out getting to know these guys, and being witness to their precious family bond.

Special thanks to Kelly at Cinci Makeup and Sam at High Five Salon for meeting so early in the morning! Also, big thanks to Finn Meadows Farm for the use of their farm.

Candice and Dan, you two are just awesome and your little girl is beyond precious. Thanks again for coming to visit! :)