Redoing our Kitchen....but not before Joel discovers our "puppy"

The kitchen pre-"quiet moments" paint. That big honkin' kitchen island is actually on casters and can be moved around. We actually have it an angle right now and it has really opened up our kitchen. The only problem is those pendant lights. I think we are going to have to have them rewired in different places or Greg is going to do some serious damage to his noggin!

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging is that we have been working like crazy on our new house. It's funny, you buy a house you think is move in ready, and it really was but then you find all kinds of things that need to be done to make it yours.

One of the only disappointments we've found with the house is that it often smells of smoke from the two chimneys. We've had them both throughly cleaned and both crowns replaced. Even the chimney sweep is perplexed as to where the smell is coming from. One of the things we have hoped will make it better is painting all the walls. This has seemed to help. I still need to scrub the glass screens to see if that helps too.

Paint selection is always stressful. My parents came for Memorial Day weekend and were a tremendous help. My Dad and Greg worked their butts off revamping our bathroom and painting. My Dad brought some paint with him that they had left over from their basement redo, in an effort to be thrifty we painted our family room with it. Let's just say, it looked a lot better in their basement then it does in our room. The men spent the next day repainting the room "Monroe Bisque". Thank goodness for Benjamin Moore and their associates. Pam at Pineapple Paint has been fantastic to work with! The room now looks fantastic. We still need to paint the fireplace and trim white, but it's coming a long.

So here is what we have painted so far:

Living Room: Bar Harbor Beige 1032
Family Room: Monro Bisque HC-26
Kitchen: Quiet Moments 1563 (Greg swears I picked this color purely for it's name. He may be right...now that it's on the walls I'm not sure if I love it. We are thinking of painting our cabinets, so Greg is refusing to paint the walls again until we've painted them.)
Master Bedroom/Bath: Sag Harbor Gray HC-95

The previous home owners loved deep dark furniture and decor. It doesn't really float my boat. We have been battling red walls all over the house. She was really into painting one wall red in every room. I feel like everything she had made the house feel really dark. I love sunshine and brightness and the windows open. That is one reason we are considering getting rid of the dark cherry cabinetry. I'm posting a poll about this, please make sure to vote!!

One of the things in the kitchen that I thought was really cute was a large wall paper cutout of a yellow lab. I'm not much of animal person so this was the closest my boys were getting to a dog. Unfortunately we had to remove "old yeller". The boys were sad but I promised them I would try to find another dog to put up after we finished the kitchen. (anyone know where to get a large dog cut out??!) Last week Joel discovered our "dog" for the first time. I'm glad he found it before I had to take it down. Aren't these pictures precious!!

"What is this thing, Mommy?! They usually move when I come around"

Please forgive me for the disjointedness of this post. The phone keeps ringing and the boys have been needy.