life.

it's hard to put into words what last week was like.  i awoke at 4:30 AM on sunday and looked out my living room window and saw our cars about to be submerged with water.  i ran to get warren up; he raced outside in boxers and crawled through the tailgates to save our cars.  as he waded back to the front door, we stood in shock.  we went to the garage and opened the doors....inside we saw a swimming pool of what use to be our stuff....it was floating, our refrigerator was turned upside down.  fear filled our eyes as we stared in shock, wondering what was going on.  i ran to find my cell phone to start calling our friends.  we began running through the house, wondering what to get, and what to do.  i was not calm.  my precious children slept in bed totally unaware of what was about to take place.  warren looked at me and grabbed my hands and said "shannon, i love you.  water is about to come into the house.  we have got to go."  i ran to the children's room and woke them up.  i handed them backpacks and told them to put their favorite toys in them.  taylor cried and walker stood in shock still half asleep, not knowing what was going on.  i ran to the kitchen and saw that water was pouring in through our floor vents.  i opened the chest with our pictures in them and ran to put them on my kitchen counter.  it was time to go.  we carried our children in our arms as we waded through the waist high water.  my cell phone rings, it's one of my best friends who lives a block away...panic is in her voice as she says her family is trapped and they cannot get out.  water has risen to the stairs of the second floor.  they are rescued by a boat.  my phone rings again, it's my in-laws saying, we can't make it to their house b/c the bridge is flooded.  we race to our dearest friend's house in the neighborhood.  i don't know how their house did not flood.  as daylight comes, we look outside her windows and see X marks on all of the houses on the opposite side of the street.  we walk to the end of the block,  it's unreal.  what once was a street, is now a lake.  we watch as the water rises and breaks the window's of homes.  our friends back their john boats into the water and take off to save the ones that are still trapped.  helicopters loom above us.  it's something i will never forget.

i have been forever changed.  i have seen my home's walls being cut in half, my floors being ripped out, my kitchen being sledged hammer, our belongings being picked up and thrown into a dumpster.....
i have seen true love from family, friends, volunteers, church members, and strangers.  i have cried, hugged, laughed, cussed...you name it, we've done it.  our community is so incredibly strong.  they have lifted our hearts and prayers.  we are humbled and our lives have been forever changed....thank you for everyone that has reached out.  we feel incredibly blessed and loved; if there is one lesson to learn in life, it's that there is so much good out there....

we're preparing for lots of rain here in the southeast....it's crazy, it sends everyone into a tizzy.  i just left the grocery store w/ a cart full of things that i didn't need...and then searched the city for sand bags.  it's not even raining yet!!  fingers crossed we don't need them.....

 

coffee, pretty images, and this song on repeat....kind of a perfect AM.

i think this girl pretty much nails this look and color palette...

kitchen inspiration

man, inspiration is everywhere these days.  it's almost impossible to make a decision.  every time i'm on pinterest or instagram, i see something that makes me want to change my mind.  for my new kitchen, i'm going white.  my last kitchen was grey and the house before that was greige.  now, i think i'm ready for white.  it's safe....and i need some safety in my life.  but i can't be totally safe (that's boring), the island is going to be a soft gray/ green.  now, i know what you're thinking.  your kitchen doesn't look like these....but i have a lot of faith in some cans of white paint ....so let's just keep our fingers crossed, okay ;)

*sources luxe, bravo, amber interiors, clary pfeiffer, cortney bishop, urban electric, luxe source

life.

in case you missed it on instagram, we are in the process of moving...again.  someone was interested in our house and i was up for another project, my husband not so much.  i wanted a gut job, my husband not so much...he was really enjoying our brand new home.  we are moving a couple of blocks away to a mid-century ranch.  never did i think i would say those words.....

but it's been fun so far.  is it my choice of desired exteriors, not really but i love a challenge and i love watching the process of something transforming into your own.  our house has only had one owner and so everything in the house was circa 1969.  i tackled the kitchen first.  here are some before pics...

here are some pics of the process.  we ripped out all of the upper cabinets, which opened up the eat-in kitchen side and made it feel like part of the kitchen.  it seems so much bigger now.  all of the ceramic tile was ripped out and will be replaced by a white washed oak wood floor.

we had our carpenter rework the lower cabinets by keeping the shell and making new drawers and doors.  i had one new upper cabinet made b/c i like having somewhere to store glasses without them being out in the open.  i will do open shelving on the other side of the window (much like our current kitchen).  we built a new cabinet on the end where the double ovens use to be.  all the brown paneling was covered with ship lap, super excited about this!!  we built a custom island that mirrors the walls w/ ship lap.

one side of the kitchen, we are leaving the same layout.  it houses great upper and lower storage, a pantry, and a built-in desk.  we simply reworked the cabinet doors and drawers, changed out the bi-fold doors for the pantry and added ship lap to the walls.  this side of the kitchen, we plan to use more as a bar.  i am thinking of putting antique mirrors on the upper cabinet doors to make it a little different. 

on the oven side, we ripped out the cook top and will replace it with a range.  a new bottom cabinet was made to sit on the other side of the stove and a cabinet surround was made for the new refrigerator.  our cabinet guy built a custom hood for the stove.  there will be no uppers on this side of the kitchen.

well that gives you an idea on what i've been up to this summer.  i want to be better about blogging during this renovation so don't give up on me :)  xoxo, shannon