Emily’s Kitchen Reveal!

I am very, very excited to be posting pictures of my kitchen this morning! I am absolutely thrilled with the end product… I think you’ll see why!

To refresh your memory, here’s what they were working with:
Granite Transformations worked their magic!

Take a look…

Isn’t it lovely?? In addition to making the cabinets and counter tops look so much more appealing, the people at Granite Transformations made some other functional changes that will really make a difference.

First of all, the sink.

I love this sink and faucet from Blanco – the sink is so deep that it can hold a lot more dirty dishes there’s a lot less mess when I rinse the dishes, and I really like the 80/20 split of the basins. I also love the faucet. It turns on so easily, and I love how it turns from a steady stream to a sprayer with a touch of a button.

They also helped make my fabulous Frigidaire microwave and range fit better into my kitchen.

The way the cabinets were before, the microwave practically sat on top of the stove. They built new, shorter cabinets above the microwave for me so that the microwave is up where it should be.

The pantry:

We had two doors on the pantry that opened up from the middle, like shutters (know what I mean?), and they replaced those with a more modern-looking style that only has one door.

They shortened our island:

Before, the island part of the counter jutted out in sort of a weird shape. While it added a bit more counter space, it made it impossible to walk between the counter and the kitchen table if someone was sitting there. I often walked out the other side of the kitchen, through the living room and dining room back into the kitchen just to get to Sam’s seat. The way they reconfigured the island adds a lot more space to our eating area, and I love how the clean, straight lines make it look.

Finally, they added hardware.

Our old cabinets didn’t have any hardware at all, which gave them a really dated look. I think the brushed silver hardware adds a lot to the cabinets and drawers!

So whaddya think??

I love it, as do Andy and the kids. The white cabinets brighten up the kitchen so much – it looks like a completely different place. I also love how the white is balanced by the dark brown counter tops. After we picked out our colors and everything, I got nervous that we hadn’t made good decisions. I don’t know why I was nervous, but I just was! Once they got started, though, I knew we had made the right decision, and once I saw it complete… I was in love.

The entire procedure took exactly five days. In five days, we had new cabinets, counter tops and a new sink. The GT process of overlaying existing structures made a huge difference in the time it took to complete the project, which was great because even though I do not love to cook, having a non-functioning kitchen makes life difficult. Five days was very doable – five months would have been tough!

I really cannot stress enough what a great experience this was. During the process, we had at least six different GT people from the Dayton branch in our house doing one thing or another, and each and every one of them was incredibly nice, friendly, and knowledgeable. We absolutely felt like we were in great hands throughout the process.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Granite Transformations for inviting Jenny and me to be “Trendsetter Bloggers.” You absolutely transformed our houses.

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I can’t get enough of you, Rite Aid!

I cannot stay out of Rite Aid this week!  I am to Rite Aid as Lindsay Lohan is to a court room!  Last night I was having a serious Dr. Pepper craving, and wanted to take advantage of some new coupons I’d printed for Suave products, so I made a quick run!  Here’s what I scored!

Rite Aid $3.02 and got back 11 +UP Rewards!

Three 12-packs of Dr. Pepper $10.98 (they count as Pepsi in our area of the country – the deal is for Pepsi products. Oh and only one is pictured b/c I was too lazy to drag the other two in from the kitchen for the photo!)

6 Suave products at 2 for $4 = $12

Playtex Gentle Glide $4

total = $26.98

coupons!!

-$5/$25 Rite Aid printable from Red Plum (this one was available 9/13 only)

-$2/3 Suave hair care from home mailer

– $1 two 50 cents off Suave deodorant printables

– 50 cents Suave body wash printable (same link as above)

-$2 Playtex Gentle Glide printable

-$15 +UP Rewards from the Pampers deal

=$1.48 + $1.54 tax = $3.02

I got back 11 +UP rewards 6 total for the Suave (2 for each 2 purchased), 2 for the Dr. Pepper, and 3 for the Playtex!  Yippee!  The best part about this was that except for the Dr. Pepper, none of this stuff is staying at my house.  It is all for friends and family who use these brands (like the lady deodorant for my manly brother.)  I love it when I can “afford” to be generous, thanks to coupons!!

So, I adore you Rite Aid.  You are becoming my steady and CVS just a side fling!  What did you all get at Rite Aid this week??


Print FREE Grocery Coupons at Home

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Win It! Remington Wet-2-Straight Flatiron

Ladies and, well hopefully just ladies…I have a NEW FAVORITE hair tool!  I cannot believe how much I big puffy HEART it.  It’s the Remington 2″ Wet 2 Straight Curved Plate hair straightener.  And it’s amazing!  I love the curved plates, I love that they’re so wide, that they get so HOT and get my hair so straight!

I hate, hate, HATE flatironing my hair.  And yet, that is how it looks best.  So especially for events and special occasions, I like to have it nice and straight.  But usually after blow drying and then straightening my hair I am a hot, sweaty, frustrated MESS.  As a matter of fact, after getting ready for Fabric Care University where I needed to look fab for Tim Gunn, I told my girl Andrea that I was just going to pay to have my hair done from now on before events!

But now I don’t think I’m gonna have to!  Because the Remington Wet 2 Straight works so well, I myself have flatironed my hair three times this week alone!  That has happened before…NEVER.  I have used it both on my wet hair and my dry hair and it works awesome on both.  The first time I used it on wet hair, I didn’t think it saved me much time over drying AND straightening, but I was significantly less hot, sweaty, and angry.  The second time I used it on wet hair, I think I got better at it and it DID save me time!  And when I used it on dry hair, it was fast-fast-fast!!

I loved this straightener so much I asked Remington if they’d give me one to give away to one of you lucky readers, and they said yes!! Here’s how to enter to win:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite thing about your hair is.

2) Go to Remington’s Facebook page and “like” them – tell them I sent you!  You won’t be sorry, they have lots of great tips on their page!  Then leave me a separate comment on this post telling me that you did.

3) Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter.  You may copy and paste this if you wish.  “@jennyitup & @momminitup are giving away a Wet 2 Straight straightening iron from @RemHairCarehttp://bit.ly/d6GInw ”

This giveaway will close on Wednesday, September 22nd, and a winner will be chosen at random.  Good luck!

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