Hollen Home | Our Kitchen Update

As I have been mentioning in posts the past few weeks, we recently embarked upon getting our kitchen cabinets refaced and a back splash done. I have spent most of the last year debating on whether or not we should sell our home or put down deep roots and stay here for a long time. I started making my lists about what needed to be done to move and then I started thinking about all of the things that have occurred in this little home of ours. I became nostalgic of the many band practices that were held in our basement over the years and the moments out on the back porch with many musicians and friends. I thought about bringing both of our children home to this house. Marin started crawling here, walking here. I've spent many a night and early morning upstairs in the kid's rooms, nursing a little baby in the glow of a night light. I thought about cramming all of our family into our living room and kitchen to celebrate birthdays and gender reveal parties. 

This is home. I want to be here for quite a while, putting down some roots. Deep roots. 

So, we decided to move forward with updating our kitchen since we plan on sticking around for an extended period of time. Completely replacing the cabinets was going to be way too expensive, especially since we had put in new floors a few years ago and they didn't extend under the existing cabinets. The floor would need to be redone as well. Our cabinets had good bones and structure, they just needed a refresh. We had updated the cabinet doors and painted them white a few years ago. That plan worked great for a number of years but I was getting super tired of repainting everything every year or so. The wood cabinets weren't wearing amazingly well either and our cat had clawed at many areas and drawers. 

It's pretty crazy to me how much our home has changed over the years. This is how the kitchen looked when we bought the house...

This is how the kitchen looked before our cabinet refacing....

We contacted Home Depot for an estimate. They reface all of the cabinets, replace all of the doors, replace all of the drawers, etc. Our drawers were pretty much falling apart so I was super excited about new drawers. They also installed sliding shelves in our pantry and a few other cabinets and rebuilt a few of our cabinet floors because ours had been damaged. We have never had an actual cabinet floor under our kitchen sink. I imagine it existed at some point but had some water damage. When we bought the home, under the sink was pretty much dirt and spider world. We just kind of lived with it that way all of these years. 

All of the cabinets are soft closing which is a cool, added bonus. We added hardware to everything as well. Our cabinets didn't have hardware before and I felt like I was constantly wiping them down due to cute, little, grimy hands constantly touching them. 

I love how it all turned out. The backsplash has been a project we have wanted to do for quite a while now. I cannot believe how much brighter everything feels now. We kept the counter tops the same because luckily the previous owners owned a granite company. I love the contrast of the backsplash and dark counter tops. 

There are still  few things to be done though. I need to go through and touch up a lot of the aqua paint on the walls. They also removed the white valance that was above the kitchen sink. Right now it looks pretty horrible and unfinished. I also want to get a cool pendant light for above the kitchen sink.    Little baby steps. 

Before....

Overall, we are super pleased with the results. I am also very thankful to have our kitchen back. Not having a kitchen for a week with two small children is something I really don't want to have to experience again. This was our living room for that week...

Hallelujah. I am so thankful that this project is pretty much complete. Now we can enjoy our kitchen. 

Nostalgia & Thank Yous

Nostalgia usually begins to set in around this time of year, deep into my bones, always present and always waiting. So many of moments from my past sneak their way in to my life, my dreams, my thoughts. In the past, a lot has happened in the month of May. I have become the person I am today in the month of May. I have lost much and gained much in the month of May.

Nearly 6 years ago (six years!!!), I wrote these words on a now forgotten blog...

I am traveling in between two separate worlds, two worlds that hold pieces of my heart, mind, and soul. My body only rests in the in between of my past 3 years and my very beginning, which now is my soon to be my future once again. Every line on the road takes me further away from the northwest. I am a wash of emotions, some of sadness, some of joy, some of wishing I had more time, yet some of knowing I’m listening to the will of God and going where I need to go, at least for this season. Everything within me wants to turn back, to go back to my life in Longview, to the teary-eyed friends I left in the parking lot a short 24 hours. 

For as long as I shall live, I will never forget the last day I had in Longview. That town built me up, tore me down, and somehow directed me home to the new life that I was supposed to have, even though I fought that for quite a while. The last day will forever be cemented in my soul. I can still feel the ocean mist on my face, the salt inhabiting the curls in my hair. Everything was damp but no one seemed to mind. We were together. We were hopeful, yet we were sad. We knew that, whether we liked it or not, my era in that small town was coming to an end and I would never be the same. Aside from my husband, the friendships I had back in the northwest are ones that I feel cannot be replaced or replicated. There is something so intense and special about it. It’s not meant to be repeated. 

My dear friend couldn’t have said it any better: 

It was a simpler time, I laugh because I find myself saying that too often lately. Though, I'm starting to believe "simpler times" really only manifest themselves in hindsight. Either way, in hindsight or in reality,life was simpler then. It was before the reality of life had really set in, before any of my major mistakes were made and before I had any understanding of the consequences that those mistakes brought. The pressures of getting a degree, finding a career, settling down, what have you, didn't seem so daunting or at least not as imminent, and music was solely art. Back then we were all far more concerned with when the next show would be, or when our favorite indie artists would release their next record. We all had our own set of dreams, and strangely enough, we all seemed to end up in far different areas than where we were dreaming of at the time. I guess that's how it always works though. It was a time period which saw moments of triumph, defeat, joy, pain,surprise, disappointment, exciting hello's and some heartbreaking goodbye's. It was back when, to my recollection, none of us had ever heard of a flight that occurred at any sort of decent hour. Any time spent at the airport usually resulted in an all-nighter, or at very least, struggling to stay awake in the pew the next day. It was a time period where somehow, church, a trip to ikea, Cap'n Yoby's halibut, and a Fat Tire could cure a day which saw the death of a family member, and even the mightiest fall. It was a time that worked wonders for me as a musician, but not as much can probably be said for my lungs.  I’m an olfactory memory type though, so I guess it just adds another dimension to the memory.  I was one of the the uncool kids that didn't smoke (and on top of that I wore baggy jeans), but I'm pretty sure the second hand smoke got to me at some point. The apartment that we all spent so much time hanging out in, in so many ways seemed to change us from just friends to family. We had each others backs, but when we fought, we fought like siblings it seemed. It was an amazing couple years, but like any season, it wouldn't last forever, but he simple quote of "change is good" keeps resounding in my head tonight.

The day I left was a tough one. It seems too far away to me now and I feel the need around this time of year to hold onto it tight, to not let it go. The years between then and now are becoming longer. The tears I cried in my car as I drove away from my friends in the parking lot feel distant to me now but I still want to remember them, to feel their warmth on my cheeks. Now my life is consumed by an office job, being a mom, being a wife. I live a life of deadlines, diapers, and trying to fit back into my jeans. I don’t take any of those lightly, but sometimes I look back to remember where we all came from, those fateful days full of rain and creating. Those sleepless nights, not due to having an infant in the house, but because we wanted to create some art that was worth something or at least meant something to us. We awoke every day just to keep going. 

Little did I know that I would meet my husband a few days later. But, that’s a whole other ramble and blessing within itself. 

So, if you were there all those years ago, thank you. Change is good, change is hard. But, I think we all find ourselves in good places even now, far away from the years before, far away from the ocean shore and the late nights. 

Just, thank you. 

I Once Left My Heart In Longview

I've felt like such a jet-setter these past few weeks. After the California trip with The Piggies, I worked for three days and then promptly hopped on another plane early Thursday morning, bound for Longview, WA. I lived in Longview during my college years and it was probably the most difficult, life-shaping season of my life thus far. I met amazing people, played tons of music with tons of wonderful people, made some mistakes, had some triumphs, and then moved home to pick up all of the pieces after a few years. I don't regret any of it, at all. That time in my life has become part of who I am and I don't take that lightly for a second. 

Certain seasons change you and stay with you always. Longview is my ever-enduring season. 

My friend, Nate, was getting married, and my dear friends Katie, Brian and I took to the air and arrived in Longview for a swiftly passing, yet wonderful weekend. I was able to see old friends and meet new ones along the way. I stayed in the home in which I resided for the first few years I was there. We mapped out our expedition based only on where we wanted to eat. It was a weekend full of old and new. It passed far too quickly. 

Portland. Still one of my favorite cities ever. 

Katie. My best friend. We have been through thick and thin together. I am blessed to call her friend. 

Longview, WA

Being there though was good for me. I think at times I hold Longview with such nostalgia that I forget that times were tough then and I went through a lot to get where I am today. Times have changed, people have moved away, people have gotten married, and moved on with their lives. The homeless population has quadrupled and the drug presence has only increased. My heart aches for that little town. The heaviness over that town has only gotten worse.  

My old room, my old bed. So many memories in this house.

From being there that weekend, I can say with upmost certainty that the life I have now is completely where I am supposed to be in my life. I have it made. I work for a good company, we own a house, I'm married to an amazing man, we get to play music with some of our best friends. Longview is a season that is now the past and I think that I'm finally alright with that statement. It was good for me to visit so that I could finally come to that realization. It's a healthy journey. One that must be taken. 

The Wedding

In the northwest, you have to drink coffee. It's a must. 

Birthday Celebrations with friends young and old. 

Bruno's Pizza. I waited all weekend for this. 

Bound for home. 

(I apologize for all of the iPhone photos. I didn't have my camera with me nearly as much as I should have.)