Our Budget Kitchen Redo

Welcome to our budget kitchen redo! We started our "little" project back in April and recently finished in October. Can you believe it? My husband and I are not do-it-yourselfers by choice, so things move slow for us. I'm easily intimidated home improvement projects and it shows in my procrastination. But I'm happy to say that we are officially finished with our little redo.

This dated wallpaper had to go!! What was I thinking when we put it up? I don't know but times do change so maybe it was in style at one time! LOL. And that old linoleum floor - YUCK. Outta here!

Before:



We loved this solid oak corner hutch when we purchased it. But it's too small and was just a catch all. While our Fiestaware collection is small, we still needed something better to display our favorite pieces.

The louvered doors on the pantries were awful. They seemed to attract all the dust and kitchen grime.



The first thing we had done was to have hardwood flooring installed. It was our biggest expense but money well spent. We hired out the work and didn't attempt this ourselves. A wise choice I'm sure!

Choosing a color was hard, but I'm very please with the end result. The rich deep brown of the floor offset the honey oak of our wainscoting and kitchen set.

After the busy wallpaper I was set for nice soothing creamy white walls.

While we are due for new and improved cupboards, the originals will have to do for a few more years. For a splash of color (and I love color) we painted cabinets in soft country green. We changed out the old brass hardware for brushed nickel.

After:

Replaced the old louvered doors with solid and painted them to match the walls.

We painted the shelves cream and changed the brackets to brushed nickel to blend with the cabinet hardware.

We replaced the corner hutch with a small cabinet that was a thrift store find. I'll show you the before and after another day. It really is amazing! I love having glass doors where I can mix my collection of vintage tablecloths and Fiestaware in one place!

New, updated lighting.



I had a frame made for a vintage tea towel. I can easily change the towel to match the season and my tablecloth! Other then the hardwood floor, this is my favorite change. I LOVE it!


The only thing left to do is to find a window treatment. I'm not sure what I want, if any.

I'm very relieved to say that we really are done! Someday it will be a complete bare to the studs redo, but that will be awhile. And nothing we will attempt ourselvers! LOL! So this redo is not too bad for two not-so-handy folks on a budget!

Happy Veteran's Day

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -G.K. Chesterton

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all who serve!

Cottage Book Shelf

The Pink Rose Cottage
is please to announce our newest category:
Cottage Book Shelf.

Wonderful used books including collector reference books, home decor, and cookbooks! Books that are sure to inspire ~ helping to make your home cozy cottage!

Shop now for the best selection.

Happy Halloween!

Have a fun and spooky Halloween!!

There's nothing scary about today's Monday Markdowns! Just great sale prices on select items. But hurry ~ Sale prices are good today only.

Sign up for The Pink Rose Cottage newsletter. You'll receive advanced notice of Monday Markdowns, exclusive offers, and more! The link it to the sign up form is at bottom left of the home page.

Virginia Retro!

My dear friend and personal Tablecloth Fairy, Pam has started her own blog! It's called Virginia Retro.

As you can tell she is a fellow tablecloth lover! She has some beautiful pieces in her collection!

Love this non-traditional fall tablecloth and setting!

This is Pam's cute and sweet Doyle!

Pam is new to the blogging world and I know she's love if you would stop over and take a peek at Virginia Retro. Become a follower too!

Congratulations Pam on your beautiful new blog!

Meet Gracie!!

Gracie is the newest member of our family. She joined us just this morning. Gracie is somewhere between 6 to 9 months old. Probably a beagle/lab mix. But she's a small girl. I fell in love with her face on the ANNA Shelter website.
Her sweet face matches her disposition. This doggy was ready for a home. I think she is head-over-heels in love with Ryan and Corrinne.

On the way home she whimpered and cried. I'm not sure if she was afraid of the car. She was a stray and may have been tossed out of a moving car. There is know way of knowing what made her nervous. But she came into the house like she's lived here all her life. She likes to play, cuddle, and loves belly rubs!

So much excitement for one day, she just curled up in Sunny's old bed and fell right to sleep and had an nice long nap. (Sunny hated this bed, poor girl! LOL)

Right now she's up again and out playing between raindrops. She's a sweet, loving, little pup who is going to fit into our family wonderfully. She's not a replacement for Sunny, but she's filling an emptiness in my broken heart. She makes me smile!

More on Gracie as she settles in....

We are so blessed!

Today is damp, cold, rainy...chilling to the bone. It was a good day to bake and make dinners for the freezer. We decided to light a fire in the fireplace to take the chill out of the house.

I was working the the kitchen and my husband watching TV in the family room. Suddenly we felt the house shake. It started out slow and then went to a full rumble. The fire in the fireplace burst in to a glowing ball. And then BOOM!

I ran to get my phone and couldn't dial 911! I was shaking so bad. I just couldn't get the small buttons. Didn't matter that it's saved on there. I didn't remember. So I got the landline. Wish I could say I did better, but I fumbled with that as well (You so don't want me with you in a crisis!). I finally got though and gave the dispatcher all the info. As this was happening the fire was starting to slow down. He still insisted we all leave the house.

We left and waited for the firemen. For living in an area with an all volunteer force, they were very fast! The chief came and saw that it was contained so I thought really they'd bring in a fire extinguisher and that would be it.

Well to my surprise two ambulances and five huge fire rigs came! I can't even tell you how many firemen and women! We had five fire companies respond!


They initially believed we had a large bird nest in the chimney becasue of the boom. But after putting the rest of the fire out and checking it they didn't find any remnants of a nest. It may have been there and burned out but we definitely had creosote in there. My husband had cleaned the fireplace and readied it for the winter several weeks ago. But lesson learned, this is a job for a professional!!!


(The sent me in to turn off my oven as I doing my was baking and they didn't want I oven fire too. So I snapped this picture)

While there were two firemen on the roof and about a half a dozen in the family room, more went though my entire (and very messy!) home checking for heat in the walls. They told us that the last three chimney fires they were called to completely destroyed the homes becasue the owners (like us) thought after it started to burn down that the danger was over. But it gets between the walls, so each and every room needs checked.

Fortunately ours was contained to the fireplace and chimney. (Yes sir! We have terrific angels watching over us!) We will have our chimney inspected and cleaned on Monday. I'm not sure when I'll be comfortable enough to build another fire!



A few of the firemen apologized to me for messing the floor with their boots! And another apologized for spilling some chemicals on my rug! (Can you believe it??? Hey guys! Absolutely no problem!)

I truly can't say enough about these men and women who dropped what they were doing on a Saturday afternoon to help a family that they didn't even know. These folks are THE BEST! I was a bit embarrassed by the whole scene because after it started burning down, it didn't seem like a big deal. But these guys took the time to explain how that's not the case.

We may have some chimney damage. There is soot all over the family room. The house smells, my hair and clothes smell. But I'm not complaining! It could have been so unbelievably worse!