DIY Crazy!

Over the last couple months, we've been DIY crazy over here! First, I showed you the "buffet" that my husband made in the living room. He took cabinets that we were removing from our finished basement (to make a bedroom for the bigger 2 boys) and put part of them in the living room (that will become my dining room after we put on our addition.). The other part of them got to stay downstairs and became a craft station for the boys. We used part of the countertop from down there in the living room, but it just didn't seem right. The blue countertop threw off the whole black and tan thing I had going on.

But, one of my AMAZING BIL's called that he found me an 8' sheet of black stone countertop. One of the businesses that he was remodeling was throwing it away. PERFECT! So, he brought it home and just before Christmas, my hubby and both his brothers put it in for me...it involved moving an outlet and carrying that super heavy stone, but it looks so nice! We have plans to put a pie safe on one end where the countertop hangs over and a bookshelf on the other end.

Here's the before and after:



Another project that we've been working on is transforming the garbage area. When we built the house, Tim had this dandy idea for a place for the garbage to be hidden, yet in a place that was easily accessible. He built a slide out cabinet that had room for 3 garbage cans and it worked...kinda. The garbage cans fit, but would fall over if you pulled the drawer open too fast. Not cool with kids in the house! So, when we moved back, that was one of the first projects on the list. He made a frame and cut three holes in the lid that the garbage cans can sit in and not tip over, plus there's a sneaky hiding spot with two sliding doors that is where he made a little pocket thing for my griddle and deep fryer cords and there's room there for the garbage bags....the door that is closest to the back is where we keep my BIL's beverage of choice for when he comes to visit...then it's not out where the kids are gonna get into it! WOOHOO! Here it is:

There's a couple other projects to show you, but I'll save those for another post. Have a great weekend!