My awesome husband carried our chair down Stockdale Hwy just so I could find the perfect grassy spot to take pictures on. Totally worth it because I love how fun they turned out, and we took his Easter pictures too. 
Happy First Birthday Hezekiah! I'll save all the sappy stuff for the baby book! 
This guy loves his bike and always has the biggest proudest smile when he's riding on it. 
Party pictures are on their way, I just finished editing them!
Rule is...if you help make it, you help eat it. And he happily obliged.
And here's the after! Taking down the closets made the hugest difference, and raising the ceiling and adding can lights really opens up the space too! Oops, I still need to put the air vent cover on! I opted out of a dishwasher (I know, I know!) for more cabinet space and Eli was able to put in a gas line so we could use our gas stove. The original stove was on the left side of the kitchen, and we also moved the fridge to the spot that was previously a closet. 
The before view from the dining room: 
And the after! We gained a little more counterspace by getting a microwave/hood in one and while I love the look of a nice hood vent, this works for us. I don't like the gap that's between the last cabinet on the right and the fridge, and am hoping to come up with something creative to make it look a little more finished. A tall skinny wine rack maybe? 
Rather than keeping the same set-up with the snack bar (don't know if that's the right name for it), I choose to have a large extended countertop with lots of drawers facing the dining room. The drawers are smaller/shorter...only 12 inches deep rather than the standard 24 which would have been too deep for the space. They are perfect for storing all of my baking things, linens and some tableware. And the extra big counter space is awesome for rolling out cookies! I have shelves to hang up to the left of where the last upper cabinet (above the cake stand). Just have to do it! 
I have a thrifted frame that ended up being the perfect size for this little piece of wall and am planning to turn it into a chalk/magnet board.
And here's extra storage we were able to create by hanging a few shelves. We keep a few small appliances and Hez's food, dishes and bottles here for easy access. And under the shelves is a perfect spot to tuck away a trash can.
I couldn't put cabinets above the fridge because of the attic access door, so I keep two big baskets on top that usually hold things like paper towels and wine. If the attic access looks like it's falling, that's probably because it sort of is. It still needs to be nailed in, so it's just kind of sitting there right now.
The biggest thing we have left is the backsplash. I'm not looking forward to spending the money on it, but am trying to keep an eye out at Home Depot for clearance tile. I picked up some little subway glass tiles for the bathroom for around $2.50 sq/ft and would love if I could find another deal like that, but it might take a while since the kitchen needs quite a bit of tile! I think eventually it might be cool to hang something in front of the little shelving nook, but as long as it stays uncluttered I'm not to worried about it. I also need to finish the teapot canvas painting, I started them when Hez was just a newborn and still have to do some final painting on it. At least it's hung up?
And it was a huge ongoing project for the next several months, although to date it still is not finished. Here's the view from the dining room. 
We tore out the two closet/pantrys on either side of the kitchen entrance. And while we lost a little storage, they were really making the kitchen way smaller than it should be. And while removing wallpaper, we found another hidden flower stencil.
While we had our demolition hats on, we figured why not take down the ceiling? If you can tell from the pictures, it was LOW. Which was odd and very out of place since the rest of the condo has tall ceilings. 
My awesome husband even hooked up a gas line so I could have a gas stove on the other side of the kitchen (the previous stove was on the side closest to the dining room and was electric...no gas hookup). 
And one day we finally had walls again. Since we took out the awful lighting when we raised the ceiling, we installed can lights. Nice and bright now! 
The new year brought new tile, all laid while 5 months pregnant. Not the easiest thing to be on your knees with a trowel spreading tile adhesive! You might notice the little nook in the left of the photo below. Since the closet on the left was also part of the air system intake, we couldn't remove the whole thing. So a small column is still there, and we decided to make it a little more functional by turning it into a sort of shallow open closet. 
And eventually I was able to assemble the cabinets and we began to install them.
And the day we installed the sink was the most wonderful day of all! No more washing dishes in the bathroom sink or with the hose outside! Hello civilization! 
And the pictures below are how the kitchen has looked since February. Notice anything missing? Yeah, the handles! And upper cabinets! Between money, a baby about to be born and a billion other things, we decided that getting in the lower cabinets would be priority. Eventually we'd get around to buying and installing the rest! Within the next couple months we got the handles on though. 
Newer pictures to follow!
The silver bucket he's sitting on? It held paper fans at our wedding! The backdrop is several yards of an inexpensive velvet kind of material draped over the gate on our front porch. It'll show up again at the party in something fun I am planning! Notice some snack looking things sitting in his lap? Yup, that was the only way I could keep him sitting in one spot! If you look close he even has a little crumb on his chin, which I choose not to Photoshop off because it was too cute, and so him to always be eating those "greenies" we like to call them. Not to mention his uncooperative hair! I rubbed in some baby lotion and attempted a little comb-over, but you better believe it doesn't stay like that for long! I love his fly aways! 
Then I paper mached a few layers on the balls to give myself a good surface to paint and also to keep them from mashing. After the mache was dry I glued the dowel in with some school glue and spray painted the entire thing black. 
The unevenness of the mache ended up giving a really cool effect of old iron weights! I added the "1" on in Photoshop.
Consensus? He cried. At first. But who really wants to wear a big funny helmet with a paci decal that says "I love mom" on it? I'm not one to complain about a decal promoting myself, but I do get that the helmet can be a bother. Hence the lack of one on my own head... I am planning to pull the little paci and other decals off and replace them with something cooler though. 
But once we got to riding, he started to figure out that it was a pretty cool little set up. Sit back, relax and enjoy the view while I do all the work. And so far I am pretty happy with the front mount bike seat for him. It is slightly awkward to pedal, but not enough to really care. I'm not planning to race with him or anything, so for around town leisure rides it will do quite nicely! 
