The big reveal and I lost two.....

Two followers that is... sigh... I think having my net down for so long and being unable to blog put a couple of people off. They stopped checking in on me. Bummer. Come back... I promise I will be blogging again  :)

On to other things: my new kitchen and my band. Where to start, where to start. Okay. Band news first. Nothing to tell lol. Seriously. My band and I are just living day to day life. I am completely at home with it now. I eat normal little band sized portions and I can pretty much eat anything I wish. I have had zero troubles with eating at all actually. I am well and truly in the Green Zone. I don't get very hungry. I eat when and what I want (mostly good stuff though.. yay to that!) and I am neither going up nor down in weight. I am super happy.

As of the end of May I will have had my band for two years. Whod'a thunk it! Its been such a learning curve but I truly believe and will always believe that I did the right thing. 42 kilos loss later I am truly happy with where I am. I love love love my band and am so glad I got one in. It was a life changer. I am sitting on 70 kilos or 154 pounds. Do I look like a 154 pound weight woman? No idea since I don't usually deal in pounds. But at 70 kilos - for those who do deal in kilos - I think I look just that weight. When I get a decent pic will post for you :) At the moment all I have is kitchen pictures lol.. and speaking of which. We are done! Finally! Couldn't be happier. Here are the before and afters:

 This is where my old stove sat - the splashback is old fashioned and exposed brick is everywhere! Ignore the pile up of appliances. We had just started to clear out the cupboards and the red square is glass we painted trying to sort ideas for what kind of splashback we wanted.

 View to the pantry and stove 

 More brick (I hated it!) and a horrible one course shelf above which just gathered junk. 

 The corner just as you enter the kitchen - sparse and boring

 Behold the red counter-tops and beige cabinets. Those windows went right across where the door is now. The bench-top extended all the way across with a dishwasher where the door now is. This door leads straight out to the alfesco area. No more having to go through the French doors of the living room, through the pool gate and around the side. Now we walk straight through. Very handy when entertaining. Knocking out the bench space and putting in the door was the very first thing we did when we started the renovation. 

 Awful slate flooring.. never to be seen again

An overview of the kitchen. 

In with the new.

Taaa daaaaa..... New everything. This is our kitchen now. 

 The small shelf above the stove and oven is gone. We filled it in. Yay to that!

Note the wine rack at the end lol. That was full a few days ago. We have partaken in a few bottles due to a bit of hard work! My new kitchen is light and airy and just beautiful. I love it! We now need to buy some stools for behind the breakfast bar. 

 The bin has now gone. We have a bin in one of the cabinets - you pull it out. It is right under where I prepare the food. Just wonderful. The space where the bin was (that boring area) looks much nicer now replaced with a trendy table. Neatens it right up. Now we just have to replace the skirting board lol. (MOTH was like: Don't include that.. it looks untidy lol.. I said: well, you better get on and fix it then, huh?)

 Remember the old splashback with brick and boring beige tiles? They are now gone forever, replaced with dark chocolate tiles and a beautiful border tile to match.

The new splashback tiles. So shiny they reflect the back garden lol

 Even the spices now have their own drawer. Everything's at my fingertips.

 The kitchen is truly huge. We got rid of the L shape at the end here where the winerack is and it opened it right up. The benches are 2 inch thick bamboo (what a chore that was, cutting, joining and multiple oilings to get it waterproofed) and the cabinets and draws are gloss white. We have used a lot of wood and I went with chocolate roman blinds (which need adjusting as you can see lol) and Swiss made porcelain tiles. 

New appliances (kettle and toaster) and a brand new dishwasher. I LOVE the drawers - I will never go back to cabinets again. 

Anyway, I hope you like. I had such a great reaction with you guys wanting to see all the hard work that we put in gaining a new kitchen, how could I not share? 

Speak soon,

Cara xx