Our Grace Filled Life
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Mar 28 2012

Kitchen Tour – part 1

by Amanda

As I started going through my house pictures, I realized they’re not very complete.  I love it when I have pictures that show the process each step of the way.  I’m pretty sure I just want to be able to show everyone how much work we put into something!:-)

So, this is one of those rooms where the pictures don’t tell the complete story, but it’s still a pretty dramatic change…to me anyhow!

Our kitchen is a long room with the actual kitchen area at one end and the eating area at the other.

Today, we’re touring the eating area.

To start, here are some pictures of the space when we first bought the house…

Before it became our eating area it had to put in it’s time as a painting space for the kitchen cabinets.

If you stood in this room long enough, ivy would begin growing on your shoulders, it was weird.

Our original plan when buying the house was to first tackle some bathroom overhauls, redo the front living room/dining room, paint some bedrooms, etc.  We really thought this space could wait.  But, the ivy only lasted about a week, it had to go!

So, out went the furniture & down came the wallpaper.  Only, the wallpaper had no intentions of leaving us quietly & without a scene (as wallpaper has a tendency of doing).  For the majority of the room, the wallpaper was put up directly on the drywall (it hadn’t been primed or painted at all).

If you’ve never experienced this before, what happens then is that part of the drywall wants to come down with the wallpaper.  It’s a big mess!  I really wish I had some pictures of that so I could show you how much work we did!:-)

So, once the wallpaper was down, my dear, sweet hubby began the tedious task of skim-coating the entire room to repair all of the drywall damage.

We also decided to scape down the popcorn ceilings to clean things up a bit, another extremely messy job my hubby did.

Here’s how this area looks today…

Most recently for this space I made roman shades, which I plan on sharing more about at a later date.

Our vision for this space still includes new wood flooring & several other projects that tie into the kitchen area which I hope to show you here, soon!

Categories: Our Home | 2 Comments »

Mar 27 2012

Let’s start a home tour!

by Amanda

I’ve just added an “Our Home” category to the site & my goal is to have a complete tour posted there eventually.  So, little by little, I’ll be blogging about different rooms/areas of our home & updating the “Our Home” section as I go.

As I’m sure you’ll figure out by looking at our house pics, we’re not professional designers, builders, decorators or really professional anything at all!  We just love our home, & enjoy taking on new projects ourselves.  And besides, the professional-look isn’t really our thing.:-)

I can’t really say any room in our house is “complete”.  It’s all a work in progress, which I’m sure anyone that has tackled home improvement projects before can’t relate with!

So, without further ado, here’s an outside look at our house!

First, here are some pictures from when we first bought our home in 2009.

This past Fall we decided it was time to paint.  As groovy as this peachy-pink color is, we weren’t feeling it.

And, as you can see from the post-pressure washing photos…

It was time for a new paint job.

Now, I’d love to tell you we tackled this project ourselves.  Sadly, as enthusiastic & DIY-minded as we are, we just couldn’t foresee being able to take this one on ourselves.  I’m no stranger to a paintbrush, but I hate being more than, oh, 3 feet off the ground!  Also, Speedy Gonzalez I am not!  At the speed I paint, this would have been a 4 year project for sure!

Caleb on the other hand has no fear of heights.  Strangely though, we can’t find a paintbrush that fits his hand, hmmm.

So, we decided to call in a pro on this one.  He did an awesome job!  I’d certainly recommend his work to anyone!  See for yourself:

On our project list for outside yet we have:

New roof (slated for this Spring)

Landscaping

Painting front door & porch swing

New windows throughout the house (kind of indoor/outdoor I guess but it will improve the curb appeal for sure)

Hope you enjoyed the first stop on our home tour!

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Mar 26 2012
Grilled Hash9

Grilled Cheesy Beef & Vegetable Hash

by Amanda

We have been experiencing some unusually warm, some days even hot, weather here these past couple of weeks.  I for one, am loving it!  Although we tend to fire up the grill year-round here, these warm days get me extra excited about grilling out!

Fortunately, both Caleb & I are big fans of regular ole’ cheeseburgers, because those seem to find there way onto our menu almost weekly around here in the Summer, but sometimes it’s nice to change it up a bit.

On this particular night, I decided to throw together some of our favorite ingredients & see what happened.  The result was delicious!  Absolutely nothing fancy about it (that’s how we roll around here), just yummy, filling & simple food!

So, here’s how it went down…

Take a small roasting pan, or other grill-worthy pan & pour in approximately 1 tablespoon of melted coconut oil (butter would work too).

Then, fill it with 6 medium potatoes(I used a combo of yukon golds & red potatoes because that’s what I had on hand, use what you have) that have been washed & cut into 1/2 inch chunks.

Top with 1 pound of ground beef that has been broke up.

Then top with 3 carrots that have been washed, peeled & sliced…

and 1/2 cup of frozen peas, seasoned salt, garlic salt & pepper (I generally don’t measure spices.  Just use your judgement.)

Cut 1-2 tablespoons of butter into chunks and dot on top.

Cover & place on pre-heated grill, on medium heat (use indirect heat if possible) for 45 minutes, stirring after 30.

When potatoes are fork tender & there’s no pink left in the meat, top with 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, a sprinkle of parmesan & a sprinkle of parsley.

Cover & grill for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until cheese is all melted.

Serve & enjoy!

Makes 5-6 generous servings.

Note – This is an extremely versatile dish!  Use whatever veggies you have on hand or that your family likes!

A more “viewer-friendly” version:

Grilled Cheesy Beef & Vegetable Hash

1 T. melted coconut oil (or butter)

6 med. potatoes (any variety will do), washed & cut into 1/2 in. chunks

1 lb ground beef

3 carrots, washed, peeled & sliced

1/2 c. frozen peas

Seasoned salt, garlic salt & pepper, to taste

1-2 T. butter

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Parmesan

Parsley

Take a small roasting pan, or other grill-worthy pan & pour in melted coconut oil.  Then, fill with potatoes.  Top with ground beef that has been broke up, carrots, peas, seasoned salt, garlic salt & pepper.  Cut butter into chunks and dot on top.  Cover with lid or foil & place on pre-heated grill, on medium heat (use indirect heat if possible) for 45 minutes, stirring after 30.  When potatoes are fork tender & there’s no pink left in the meat, top with shredded cheddar cheese, a sprinkle of parmesan & a sprinkle of parsley.  Cover & grill for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until cheese is all melted.  Serve & enjoy!

Makes 5-6 generous servings.

Edited 7/17/12 to add: Submitted to Chef-In-Training’s Tuesday Talent Show

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Mar 21 2012

I did it!

by Amanda

Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve jumped on the blogging bandwagon!  After spending the past couple years being completely inspired by, motivated by, encouraged by &, I’ll just say it, addicted to so many blogs I’ve decided to take the leap & start my own.  I’ve spent many hours dreaming about blogging myself, what all I would share & write about.  It seems most bloggers find their niche, their specialty, what they’re really good at & focus in on it.  It’s so fun to see someone’s passion come out through their blog.  Unfortunately, I can never pick just one thing to be passionate about; I have so many different things I love!  My focus jumps from one thing to the next without so much as a warning!  But, I’ve learned to like this about myself!  I like variety, so that’s what you’ll find here!

One of my passions that will probably show up a lot here is cooking & baking!  I’m constantly experimenting with new ideas & recipes in an attempt to eat healthier, less processed & more “real” foods.  I figure I’m somewhere on the middle of the “healthy-eating spectrum”.  I’m sure there will be some that think I’m “out-there” while others may laugh at what I call “healthy”.  I know that I certainly don’t have it all figured out, it’s a process & always will be, but I’m so excited to start sharing that here!

Another focus in my life that I’m passionate about is our home.  In 2010, after living in three rentals, we bought our first home together & we could not have been more excited to start making it our own!  I’m a dreamer when it comes to home remodeling.  Luckily, I’m married to a sensible guy that can kindly explain to me why it just isn’t realistic to remodel the entire house in a year….on a shoestring budget….ourselves!  I’ve definitely learned that the home remodeling process is slow, but we love tackling the projects ourselves.  It will be so much fun sharing our projects here so I can see all the progress that has been made!  So much of our inspiration for projects has come from blogs, so if I can inspire even one person by sharing what we’ve done, well,  that will just be icing on the cake!

I have so many other ideas floating around my head & I’m sure many of them are bound to show up here!  I hope you’ll keep coming back to see what we have going on in our grace filled life!   (To read more about me check out my “About” page)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Amanda

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