Kitchens and A Summer of Two

The kitchen is easily where I spend most of my waking hours.  I'm either fixing a meal, cleaning up after one, organizing something or planning for the next day.  It all happens in my kitchen.  Lucky for me, I really like it in there.  That's because this was one of the first rooms we renovated.  

When we purchased our house, the kitchen had great bones but needed a lot of work.  The walls were bright yellow.  The cabinets were a beautiful cherry color. Several of the cabinet doors were broken.  The hardware was brass with pink roses.  Worst of all, the countertops were forest green laminate that was falling apart.  The disposal was broken.  The sink was very shallow and worn.  The faucet leaked and had lots of stains from water build up.  It also had stainless steel appliances, a double oven, built in microwave, glass front upper cabinets, tons of storage space, a huge pantry, and a gas stove.  Oh, this is a cooks kitchen.  Here's the before pictures:

This was during the inspection

 Double oven.  The doors were broken and wouldn't stay shut. 

 Island Stove

 Panty with all of their belongings.  Notice the lolly pop stuck to the floor. Lol

Recess Lighting and Open Cabinets

It took a while to get everything clean.  I'm still trying to find a way to get my cabinets to shine.  They are dull from so much wear, but will get there.  We replaced the counter tops with gorgeous granite from United Granite in Elkridge, MD.  I highly recommend them.  They also did the counter tops in our town home.  We put in a huge, deep, stainless steel sink and a new faucet.  The hubby replaced our broken disposal and we changed out the hardware.  We have a thing for brushed nickel hardware and a string distaste for brass.  Did I mention every piece of hardware in our house is brass?!  Finally, I painted.  I wanted to paint first, but I was worried the granite installation would tear up the walls or not be the same hight as the old cabinets.  It was the right choice to wait.  We chose a very light tan to open up the space and compliment our lighter counter tops.  Dark cabinets like ours needed lighter counters and walls.  There is only one window in the main area of our kitchen so, we needed it.  Here is the after picture:

This picture will become the before picture one day.  Here is my kitchen to do list:

-replace the broken doors (3 of the base cabinet doors are cracked and one drawer).

-install a tile backsplash.  

-sand and re-stain the cabinets to make them shine like new and match the new doors.

-find and install a new window treatment.

-paint the pantry, clean the pantry shelves and get more organized.

-replace the dishwasher and refrigerator ( they aren't broken but have their quirks and were not well cared for).  

-replace the floor tile.  Our current tile has lots of hairline cracks and shows every speck of dirt.  It was obviously not installed properly and a poor color choice for a kitchen.  

A girl can dream, right?!  In reality, I might get these things checked off my list in the next 10 years.  OR maybe some HGTV host will show up at my door and do it all for me for free.  I could also win the lottery.  Let's not hold our breath.  This house is a massive undertaking and we have hacked away at the big stuff for the first 6 months.  I think we are ready for a lull in the renovation work.  I will end this post with a few pictures of how the little one and I have been spending our summer days when we can.  

Clark's Farm in Clarksville, MD

Poolside.  Checking out the ladies!

Memorial Day Festival Savage, MD

Building forts with blankets.

Poor guy.  Momma makes him wear this hat.

Members only night at The National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD.

We have also been on a few play dates, used our new Baltimore Zoo Membership and wore out our Lion King DVD.  Summer 2013 is in full swing!

There's always time for change.

I'm a routine woman.  I wake up at the same time every day.  I get up the little man.  I do some laundry.  We brush our teeth and get dressed.  I fix breakfast.  I eat the same things at the same time just about every day.  I think you get the picture.  Lately, my workout routine has not been working.  The stress of the new house and life had me over eating; mostly snacking before bed.  I tried to compensate for that by adding an extra day for cardio.  I loved it!  Here's how the workout schedule went:

Sunday- 30min intervals on the treadmill & 30min intervals on the stair climber
Monday- 45min intervals on the elliptical & 30min intervals on the crossramp
Tuesday- No cardio
Wednesday- 45min intervals on the elliptical & 30min intervals on the crossramp
Thursday- No cardio
Friday- 45min intervals on the elliptical & 30min intervals on the crossramp
Saturday- 60min spin class

This doesn't include the strength training I was doing for 45min-60min every day.  Needless to say.  I was burning myself out.  I loved my new Sunday workouts.  I can now run a 5k in under 30 without fear of injury or wearing myself down completely.  The stair climber has become my new favorite machine.  I have never sweat so much in my life!  I kept this up and could not figure out why I was hanging onto this belly fat.  Where did it come from?  Two months went by and nothing changed.  I was slowly gaining weight.  I was struggling through my strength training.  I was barely finishing my cardio workouts.  Things were not going well.  I stopped stepping on the scale because the numbers just put me in a bad mood.  The problem doesn't just go away if you don't see it, unfortunately.  I was beyond disappointed in myself.  I knew something had to give, but I didn't have any more to give to my workouts.  Then, a personal trainer friend posted this on her Facebook page:

Why Women Should Not Run

I read it briefly.  I asked my husband to read it and tell me what he thought.  I read it again absorbing all of the attitude included in the post.  I read it a third time without emotion and strictly to learn.  I was meant to read this.  I needed to read this.  I believe God intended for me to read this.  Yes, I read it again and most of the comments.  I let it sit in my mind for two days.  My husband changed his workout after reading this article.  He just jumped right in without fear.  I decided it was time to try something new.  Bring on the change. 

I stopped lifting after I injured my shoulder.  This was almost 4 years ago.  I loved to lift, but had to let it go.  I got pregnant not to long after this.  Then, I had a baby to care for and carry around.  I could not afford to have shoulder surgery with a toddler.  My guy asks me to 'hold you' every day (He means 'hold me', but says "hold you").  Surgery was not an option!  I have been building up the muscles around my shoulder with light weights and a few exercises suggested by my personal trainer (not the same one that posted the link).  I'm ready to see how much it can handle. 

I started on June 18th and am going to stick with it for a month.  No matter what the scale says, I'm not giving in.  My routine will probably change after this month and I'm open to new information and suggestions.  Here's the NEW schedule:

Sunday- 30min intervals on the treadmill & 30min intervals on the stair climber
Monday- 20min intervals on the elliptical, 20min weight machines alternating weeks of upper and lower body, 20min intervals on the crossramp & 20min weight machines alternating weeks of upper and lower body
Tuesday- No cardio
Wednesday- 20min intervals on the elliptical, 20min weight machines alternating weeks of upper and lower body, 20min intervals on the stair climber & 20min weight machines alternating weeks of upper and lower body
Thursday- No cardio
Friday- 20min intervals on the elliptical, 20min weight machines alternating weeks of upper and lower body, 20min intervals on the crossramp & 20min weight machines alternating weeks of upper and lower body
Saturday- 60min spin class

It seems like a small change to most.  I suggest you do 45min of speed intervals on the elliptical and see how easy it is compared to 20min.  What are speed intervals?  I do equal intervals of 75-80% of my maximum effort followed by 90-95% of my maximum effort.  The goal is to push yourself as hard as you can and then recover before you repeat the process.  I firmly believe in intervals.  They work.  I just took them to the extreme.  The post will tell you, the more fat you put on, the more cardio you add and it becomes a vicious cycle.  You body is storing fuel to use for your cardio. 

It has been five days and I'm already noticing huge changes.  I'm no longer starving all the time and counting down until my next meal.  My body is sore!  Ouch!  Did you notice the exclamation points?  The cardio I am doing is getting my heart rate much higher than before.  I am able to finish all of my strength training workouts at home.  I sleep better and am tired earlier. 

I'm going to keep my eating the same for this first month and will adjust after that.  I want to see just how my body handles the new workouts.  The goal is gradual change for some big results.  It is going to take time for my body to adjust.  I took before pictures and will post them with my after pictures on July 18th.  Tomorrow, I start lifting my upper body.  Here we go!

Where have you been?

Did you miss me?  It has been a very busy 6 months to say the least.  I have been trying to divide my time between a new house in need of attention, an always on the go 2 year old, workouts, family, friends, and just life in general.  Summer, my horrible eating habits, low energy levels, and the pile of projects I'm trying to tackle brought me back to blogger world.  I'm excited to share all of the amazing things my husband and I have accomplished the last 6 months with a few personal achievements thrown in. I will be sharing recipes, workouts, home projects, some 2 year old cuteness, gardening, and lots of summer fun.  Bring on summer!

The biggest change lately has been in our home.  We bought a short sale with amazing potential.  Yes, this means hours of cleaning, painting, demo, yard work, more cleaning, planning, contractors and some more cleaning.  The original owners had 11 children.  No, that was not a typo.  When we bought it, only the Father, oldest daughter with her young children (2 or 3) and maybe 2 or 3 of his children lived here with their dog.  This poor house has taken a beating and we are slowly putting it back together.  

Home Sweet Home

We moved in a week after Thanksgiving.  Did I mention we were in Texas for Thanksgiving?  You never know how much you have until you have to pack it and then unpack it.  My 19 month old was a great helper.  Can you sense my sarcasm?  My first order of business was cleaning!  Those oh so sexy yellow gloves and I got to know each other very well.  We had a cleaning crew come in and do a quick surface clean as well as the kitchen appliances.  The rest was up to me. 

Cleaning

The downstairs grout before.  Black and Brownish Goo.

The downstairs grout after.  It was WHITE?!

Can you tell the difference between clean and neglected for years?