Two All-Consuming Projects

I am in the middle of two huge projects that are almost consuming me and are only going to get worse!

First of all, I am one of the co-chairs for our end-of-the-year carnival at the elementary school.  With little to no experience, preparing for this event (which is in May) has been a tremendous amount of work.  But I have a great team and we are making headway.  It is going to be a lot of fun with our traditional activities along with some new ones.  There will be food by Pizza Pie Cafe and Subway sandwiches, entertainment, carnival games, a dunk tank, a reptile booth, an old-fashioned photo booth, a train ride, tie dye crafts, a petting zoo, pony rides and more!  Whew!  Just thinking about it gets my blood going.  We've got a ton of work to do!

And if that weren't enough...we are getting ready to launch a large remodelling project at our house!  We are putting in an Ikea kitchen, painting, installing wood floors, new windows and a bunch of other stuff.  We are very excited but extremely busy getting things ready.  We are in the final process of choosing contractors, hardware, paint colors, floor stain, appliances, windows, light fixtures, etc. and this is no easy task (as I am sure a lot of you know!).  Decisions, decisions!  For someone who is so indecisive and almost always orders the wrong thing on the menu - it an be tough.  But we are getting there.  If everything goes according to schedule (does it ever?) demolition is scheduled for the end of this month!

And how about this timing?  Ikea in Utah is having a huge kitchen sale right now!  And if we weren't already getting a screamin' deal!  After doing hours of research on Ikea kitchens - we felt it was definitely the way to go.  Although we are only planning on getting one Ikea appliance so we may not be able to take full advantage of the promotion.  Anyone need a new appliance?  Fridge?  Range?  Dishwasher?  Induction cooktop?  Let us know!

I will (hopefully) be posting pictures along the way.  But here are a few pictures just to give you a taste of what we are aiming for.

A white kitchen! 

We are using the Ikea Adel White cabinets pictured below.  Different handles.  Caeserstone Lagos Blue (grey) countertop (copying the cousins).  White subway tile backsplash pictured below.  We are also using the Ikea double bowl farmhouse sink - larger than the one pictured below.

Installing a white oak floor with a medium to dark stain.  Not quite as dark as the one pictured below.

I don't think we have any idea what we are getting ourselves into.  But ready or not...here we go!