The Opening.. {Home Renos}

I'm just taking a quick break from this (our homemade slip n' slide)... 

To share about our new view indoors. 

This partial wall removal, a project we began here, is almost complete. We're just missing a coat of paint around the trim which I might get to this week (if the weather doesn't take me away!). 

We're loving the new view, the natural light that fills the kitchen, and the wee bit of storage/surface space it offers. The three LED puck lights are really great too and use just four watts each. It's always nice to have lighting overhead, as our living room is lit entirely by lamps (there is no overhead lighting). 

The cypress wood is a really nice touch. It's made up of smaller pieces of wood pieced together by my dad and a wood worker. When it was completed he installed it along with the jams and trim. 

While we took care of the painting and staining. 

We used Behr's paint-and-primer-in-one semi-gloss paint in white for the trim and Minwax's polyurethane in a clear stain. Both took three coats to get an even coverage.

It's a world of difference in our little home. Here's what it looked like before...

...and after:

Yes, I can't wait to get the walls painted back to how they were originally. But the effort is so worth this inexpensive outcome.