kitchen inspiration.

we are starting to get to the point in building our house where we have to make big decisions. lately we've been visiting cabinet makers to decide on kitchen and bathroom cabinetry. while i'm having trouble nailing down idea's for the bathrooms i've got a clear idea of what i want in the kitchen.

here's my inspiration...

basically, here's what i want:

• shaker cabinet doors, medium-to-dark grey on the bottom, white on top
• white-ish countertops (probably quartz but we have to price it out still. crossing my fingers that we can fit it into the budget!)
• brass hardware. i'm seriously obsessed with the drawer pulls on the bottom left picture. now i just need to find somewhere that sells them for less than $30 a piece! 
• a big island. i think it will end up looking like the bottom left picture. big, with a sink, but with stools along one side. 
• also, drawers. lots and lots of drawers. 
• for a backsplash i'm thinking either white subway tiles or some sort of planking like they have here. what do you think would be better? 

so! what do you think? any red flags going up? do you have something in your kitchen that you love and we definitely need to get? i'd love some advice! 

by the way, i never actually shared our floor plans! here is the upstairs, where we'll be living. david's oma (grandmother) will be calling the bottom floor 'home'. basically we come in on the ground floor and go right up the stairs in the middle. also, it's cut off a bit but we have a front porch going out off the great room. 

(all inpiration pictures taken from my pinterest page)

new art for my living room.

the other day i was at my mom's house. she had been cleaning out the spare bedroom so she could make a sewing room. there was stuff all over the house waiting to be sorted through. while i was looking through some boxes i found these amazing vintage patches. my mom said she collected them when she was a kid, buying one from every place they visited. one of them was a sports participation badge my mom got when she was in school. i instantly pictured them displayed in a shadow box and told my mom she should get on that! knowing she would never actually do it she gave them to me. and i'm sooo glad she did because they look awesome in my living room. i think in the new house this would look really great in a gallery wall in the dining room or office.



basically i just wrapped a spare piece of grey flannel i had around the back of the shadow box and then used hot glue to stick the patches on. easy peasy.

i love that the shadow box makes them look so fancy, like they are worth a lot of money. now i'm dreaming up other things to put on display in shadow boxes. maybe some ticket stubs? origami paper cranes? the options are endless!

ps. sorry about the lame pictures, the glare on the glass was really killing me!

house update.

we have been making some serious progress on the house. the footings are totally done and we are pouring the rest of the foundation today. it is so cool to be able to see how big everything is going to be and where everything is ending up. i can't wait until next week when hopefully we can back-fill everything and start framing! here are a few pictures of everything so far...

around here lately.

hi friends!

it's been a while since my last post- too busy studying a working and not enough time for blogging! here's what i've been up to lately.

most importantly: i'm an aunt again! my sister, hannah, had a beautiful baby boy named jonathan. he is seriously the cutest.

also important: we started on the house! hole is dug, footings are in, foundation will be done by the end of the week. good stuff all around.

i've also been knitting up a storm. but since everything i'm knitting is going to be given away i'm not going to post any pictures and ruin the surprise! i already gave jonathan his blanket. it kept him warm for his first trip to target. you can't really tell but its got a white heart on it ;)

that's all folks! hope you had a magical thanksgiving :)

scootin' around town.

we are no longer a one vehicle family! hooray!

this semester mine and david's work and school schedules did not line up at all. it would have been impossible for us to get everywhere we needed to go without another vehicle. so, we bought this fantastic scooter from my sister a few weeks ago and it's been pretty life altering. i don't have to wake up early to drive david to work and i don't need to leave work early to pick him up from work and bring him to school.

we are also saving a ton on gas. multiple trips to work and back during the day adds up to a lot of gas. it feel surreal to fill up the scooter for only 4 bucks. and it lasts for almost two weeks! the fuel efficiency along with the cheap insurance ($300 for the whole year!) made this the best option for us. winters here are pretty mild as well so we're hoping david will be able to drive it almost all year.

yay for progress! :)

back to school for the last time.

well, i'm officially done my last first week of school! after this semester i'll be done my degree. i thought i would have mixed feelings about it: excitement, nervousness, sadness. but really it's just excitement. and the usual weird back to school feelings...

every first week of school is the same but it always seems to throw me for a loop. i crave the change in schedule but i always have a hard time adjusting. i have classes in the evening, work on some mornings, and lots of weird afternoons at home with nothing to do. but seriously, what are you supposed to do at 2:30 on a wednesday afternoon? it seems too early in the semester to be working on school work (although you'd think i'd know by now that it's never too early to start on school work). house work is reserved for saturdays (although an extra cleaning day might be in order). and everyone else is at work or school so i'm home alone, watching tv, eating popsicles. it's a strange time all around.

it also takes time for me to get used to working less. usually after a long day at work i'm tired and i usually sleep well. now that i work shorter days and go to class (where i just sit and listen) i have more energy. and while this sounds like a great thing it no longer means going to bed at 10pm and sleeping like a baby. it'll take a while for me to get used to it, and by the time i do i'll be swamped with papers to write and assignments to finish. there's no winning with this messed up schedule of mine...

overall, i'm extremely grateful that this is my LAST first week of school. i'll probably miss it in two seconds but luckily there's always grad school!

lately, in photos.

(in no particular order)

1. alex and fred get married.

2. the bench we got engaged on (almost two years ago!)

3. david watches planes, i watch david. we both enjoyed our views.

4.  kristina attempts to weave. 

5. mini golf pros. 

6. giant rubber ducky at the richmond night market. 

hope you had a great start to your week! 

weekend success.

happy monday! i hope your week is off to a good start. today i'm at work and still recovering from a busy (but amazing!) weekend. on friday we got all dressed up to celebrate the wedding of our very close friends. it was a great day filled with love, laughter, and dancing. (congratulations alex and fred!) on saturday we packed up for a belated anniversary getaway. we stayed in richmond and went to vancouver for the day too. more details on that later... and then we wrapped up the weekend with a family bbq celebrating my favourite 11-year-old cousins birthday. all in all, a very successful weekend.

ps. did you notice david's new glasses!??! i finally took the plunge for him and bought him this pair for an anniversary present. another success in the kobes household.

summer bucket list update

well, it's officially august. only one more month of summer! so far we've crossed quite a few things off our summer bucket list but we still have some more to go. here's where we're at:

• walk to the movie theatre and watch a movie
• repaint the desk
• go to jam in jubilee
• have friends over for a bbq
• go to seattle vanvouver for a night (next weekend!)
• go to cultus lake and swim (i have to specify ‘swim’ otherwise david won’t)
• make nightstands
• go to whistler 2x
• read a book that’s not a textbook (in progress)
• work lots/make $$$ (so far so good!) 
• go to the gym/work out 2x a week (complete fail so far...) 
• keep our plants alive
• do the abby grind
• go (real) camping
• get good grades in summer classes
• go to burnaby mountain and watch the sunset
• go to the driving range
• richmond night market (planned for next weekend) 
• celebration of light

next weekend me and david are planning a belated anniversary celebration by spending a night in vancouver. we plan to hit up the richmond night market and do lots of sitting by the hotel pool. 

i hope you all are crossing lots of things off your summer bucket lists! have a fantastic weekend :)

one year!

today is our one year anniversary!

i know this is cliche to say but this year has gone by so fast! it felt like the blink of an eye but it's honestly been the best year of my life. me and david have gone through so much together. we moved in together. we decorated our basement suite from top to bottom and made it a home. we finished another year of school (yay!). and we managed not to kill each other when we were both so stressed with exams and papers to write.

besides all those practical things this year has changed us so much. we learned how to care for each other in a way that we never knew before. we learned how to be husband and wife.

happy anniversary david!!

one year down. a million to go!


(photos by sharalee prang photography)

the little things 05

today me and david dropped my parents off at the airport. they are going to halifax for a few weeks to visit my brother and his family. before we went home we stopped at iona beach and walked for a bit. the ocean was kind of spectacular.

i made this gif on the party!party! app by a beautiful mess. it is so fun!

the little thing that is getting me through this evening though, is david doing the dishes! this guys is seriously the best at doing dishes. it makes me giddy when i don't have to do them.

true story.

the end.

exciting news.

well, i think this is as official as it's going to get: we are building a house! we are unbelievably excited. the land is bought, the plans are being made, and permits are in the works.

but before you go nuts asking yourself how two newlywed students could possibly afford to build a house from scratch let me clarify something. the 'we' in the statement above is david and i, as well as david's parents. david's dad is an amazing builder and recently bought a vacant lot in abbotsford. they are building a house and we are helping design and build the house and we will live there. we are investing and will be applying for the mortgage and we will co-own the house. when we sell it eventually we will split the profits. or, if we feel so inclined (and have the money) we can buy david's parents out. we'll also be able to afford the payments because the house will have a basement suite. david and i will live in the two-bedroom suite while we rent out the top floor to some (hopefully) lovely renters.

of course nothing is set in stone. if we suddenly find ourselves out of work or some other disaster hits we will finish the house and sell it right away. we are all pretty confident that we can build a house that is worth more than it cost to build.

anyway, that's enough about the finances. mostly on the blog i'll talk about the designing and building process. i'll definitely be looking for lots of input! hopefully we'll be able to figure out some creative solutions to keep costs down without sacrificing style and functionality. and if all goes according to plan we'll move in by early 2015.

here's the lot:

again with our awesome sign:

and here's the fantastic view we'll have:

stay tuned next week to see the floor plans, they'll knock your socks off!

ps. if you're looking for a builder in the fraser valley david's dad is LITERALLY the best! he designs, builds, AND renovates. check out his website here.

still alive!

hey friends! sorry it's been so long since my last post, it's been a really busy week. and it's summer so it just feels better to be outside in the sun instead of cooped up inside writing blog posts. for the sake of catching up, here's what i've been up to for the last bit:

1. whistler with the kobes fam jam!

we went biking, and walking, and swimming. it rained. a lot. but it was great to spend time as a family.

2. we played baseball

we've been playing tuesday night softball for a few weeks, which, i have to admit, has been super awesome. we had a wrap-up tournament on saturday. softball from 8am-7pm was a bit too much for me though so i just played the morning.

silas was our cutest fan.

3. went to a wedding. we didn't take any pictures but we had a fun day celebrating with my cousin and her now-husband!

what have you guys been up to? got any big plans for the weekend? tomorrow my besties are comin over for dinner (i'm so excited!!!!) and then me and david are going to hit up jam in jubilee. should be a hoot ;)