My Weblog

Everything AND the Kitchen Sink

I love the time change in the fall. Will and I have been needing an extra hour in the day, and this weekend we got it! We were amazed at everything we had accomplished by 10:00 Sunday morning - would that every weekend was like that!

Now on to the kitchen... as you can see, the kitchen in our new house was in sad disrepair, with broken appliances, chipped tile, paint the color of dirty dishwater, mold under the sink, and smelly cabinets. Since Will is a kitchen designer by trade, he couldn't live with a kitchen like that and so we began remodeling before we even moved in. Lucky for me, eh? The escrow papers had barely been signed before he was in there with a sledge hammer, ripping up tile and the whole wall behind the sink. That was horrible - there were even a couple of dead rats back there. Not any longer, though - all mouse holes have been filled. The kitchen is small - sort of a U-shape with one end open to a breakfast nook on the right and the family room straight ahead. There wasn't any room to reconfigure or add cabinets (except on top of the existing uppers where we'll be adding small 12" high cabinets with glass doors), so he took off all the doors and drawers and kept the basic framework. We primed and painted the interiors of the cabinets white - partly to help get rid of the smell, and partly to brighten them up. The new doors and drawer fronts will be white. Then we had to make a hundred decisions for every other detail - easy for Will but requiring a lot of thought from me... What style doors did I want? Did I want a double sink or a large single one? I chose double. Did I want both sides equal, or one larger? And which side should be larger? And which side should the garbage disposal be on? Goodness gracious. Then I had to choose a faucet, and a second little faucet for the filtered water that would be coming up from underneath the sink. We had to choose new appliances. Then there was the issue of the countertop.

Our first choice was black granite, but the granite guy talked us out of it because he said it would show every fingerprint, water drop and crumb, so instead we went with quartz in a deep black/green. That's installed now and I love it! I have yet to decide on the wall color (I'm thinking white), and the wall color for the nook (a shade of green), and the cabinet hardware. Here's a close-up of that sink which required such thought...

The kitchen is by no means finished, but at least it's working now. I went nearly a week without any water in there, with food and dishes in boxes in the dining room, and Will's tools all over the place. The doors will be ordered tomorrow, but will they be in place before Thanksgiving when 12 people will be here for dinner? hmmmm....

Boo

I'm really not a fan of Halloween, but I did have fun making these little goody bags for Ryan's preschool class trick-or-treat party. We bought cookies and packaged them separately, then put them in another bag with some candy corn, a ball-and-paddle toy, and a lollipop dressed as a ghost. I'm afraid I had to remake Ryan's lollipop ghosts, as he had them totally covered in the paper towel and trussed up from head to toe with about 2 yards of ribbon! He was so excited to do this craft to share with his friends at school. And a perk for me is all the candy corn left over... yum! That part of Halloween I do like!

Moving Day

It seems I dropped off the face of blogland again! It's because we finally moved last Sunday. For three days I had no internet, no telephone, no television, no kitchen sink, no master bath sink, and no washer or dryer, which is probably the most serious situation with two young children in the house. I've done dishes in the remaining bathroom sink, and dug deep for things to wear, but slowly it's coming together. Now I'm using dial-up for my internet connection, and honestly, if high-speed internet hadn't been invented I don't think blogging would exist!

This is a "pretty" moving picture, of some things I moved myself before the actual move. My little helper is helping again, although right at that moment he was having a cracker break.

But what much of the house actually looks like now is this...

This is my studio. Or will be one day. Whenever the moving guys didn't know where to put something they put it in here. That's my other helper there, thinking how fun it is finding his way through the maze. Here's another view...

I wonder how long it will be before I'm able to create anything in there?

Moving has showed me something profound. WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF! Really. I suppose because we've been married 30 years and have lived at the last house for the longest length of time things have just accumulated, but I feel rather ashamed. When we moved our clothes out of the closet Will gathered all his shirts in one large armful, then went back FIVE TIMES for all my clothes - half of which I never even wear. And yet, when I go to clean out the closet I can hardly find anything to get rid of. How can that be???

Our kitchen isn't finished, so food and dishes are in boxes on the dining room floor. But the appliances are here and the countertops are in, so at least I can cook. I LOVE the new countertop - it's quartz and looks quite smart. We had a major mishap, though. There was enough of one slab left over to create a new sink top for the master bathroom, and as the granite guys were finishing up the kitchen they put it on sawhorses in front of the garage. Then the cable guys came. They walked right past that sink top to the front door, and asked me to open the garage door to let them check the box for the cable. I did - from the inside - and as it opened I heard a horrendous crash. I thought the door hit their truck, but no - it knocked over the thousand-dollar slab of quartz! which broke into about 10 pieces. We all stood there with our mouths hanging open in shock. But whose fault was it? The cable guys for not mentioning it? The granite guys for setting it directly in front of the door? Mine for opening the door? Luckily, the granite company is going to replace the sink top - not with my lovely quartz, but I picked out another pattern of granite that's not nearly as pretty but it's better than the plywood that's there now (which Will said we'd be living with otherwise). Oh, the trials of remodeling!

Pink

I'm still knee deep in the chaos of moving, but when walking out the front door this morning I saw this single pink azalea blooming on a bush that's been flowerless for months. It made my day, not only because it was an unexpected treat, but also because it's my birthday. Often it's the little things that make the sweetest gifts! Happy Pink Saturday a day early! 

Visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for more Pink Saturday.

Another Week

I know I disappeared from this blog about a week ago. There has been SO much to do in the new house - everything had to be cleaned up and painted - so I've been busily occupied over there (with my little helper). The former owners were a very untidy lot, to put it politely. I could have opened a cobweb shop for Halloween with all the cobwebs I swept away - to be expected if the house had sat empty for months, but the other family moved out two days before we moved in! The kitchen was filthy, and one of the first things I told Will was that no one was ever going to catch me cooking on that stove. He agreed, and decided to do the kitchen up right with new appliances and countertops. More on that later, when it's finished. So now the house is nearly all painted, three rooms will be getting new carpet tomorrow, then we can finally start moving in our furniture, and then ourselves. I'll pop in again soon to share photos!

Time to Paint

 

I'm loving the colors and changes I see around me as Autumn slowly works its way in. Morning walks are chilly now, and require hoodies for the kids and scarves for me, but afternoons are still under summer's wing.

Our assignment this weekend is painting the interior of the new house. Lots of painting - every wall is in need. Will bought a paint sprayer so the job should go quickly. It was necessary because a lot of the ceilings are 12 feet high in places and we just couldn't see climbing up and down an 8-foot ladder all day long to move it every few feet. He made all these crazy pvc-pipe extensions for the sprayer so it could reach way up there - I hope it works! Once a room is primed it ought to be dry by the time we get back around to it and ready for the first coat of paint. In theory, anyway! So here we are - up early and fortifying ourselves with our first cups of coffee; the kiddos are at their other grandparent's house for the weekend, and the house is beckoning. Here's hoping for a very productive two days!

Mosaic Monday :: Chocolate

 

Chocolate is always a favorite, but somehow becomes even more so when the weather turns cold. What's better than hot chocolate, or warm brownies, or a secretly stashed candy bar brought out from hiding to indulge in when you're wearing a cozy robe and slippers? Not everyone likes chocolate, I know, but this girl loves it!

Be sure to visit Mary at Little Red House for more Mosaic Monday!

Photos are from flickr.

Our New Cottage

Today the escrow closes on our new home! Starting Saturday we'll be repainting every wall, recarpeting the rooms that have carpet, remodeling the kitchen, and we hope to move in about two weeks. Our work is cut out for us - the house is only 20 years old, but seems to have been lived in very hard. It's all rather shabby - and not in a chic way! I love a challenge though, and I'm looking forward to making an ugly duckling into something lovely. But the decisions! I've been working for weeks on narrowing them down - do I want a colorful house or a neutral house? I decided I'd be more comfortable in a neutral house with a bit of color, so that's where we'll start. And the first order of business, after I get the keys, is to take "before" photos. I always forget to do that, but not this time!

Updated to add: I forgot to have the water turned on, so we can't paint this weekend! I didn't know the water company was closed on Fridays, so by the time I realised my goof it was too late. And then I forgot to take my camera with me when we went over to the house this afternoon, and now the kitchen is partially ripped up. I've got to get myself together!

Mosaic Monday :: Autumn Rainbow

I can never get enough of autumn color! It's still rather hot here, but the elements have arrived. What we need now is a hint of morning frost to go with the mums, pumpkins, leaves, grapes, and acorns, then all will be right with the world.

For more mosaics, pop on over to Mary's Little Red House today!

A Gallant Lady of Song

My mom recently gave me this beautifully tattered folder of sheet music that she found in a thrift shop. The cover says "Songs by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, with the compliments of the composer". Inside is a photograph of Carrie and several of her most beloved songs, each with a lovely printed title page featuring her artwork of wild pink roses.

Carrie Jacobs-Bond lived from 1862-1946. President Hoover said this about her - "Beloved composer of 'I Love You Truly' . . . and a hundred other heart songs that express the loves and longings, sadness and gladness of all people everywhere . . . who met widowhood, conquered hardship, and achieved fame by composing and singing her simple romantic melodies. She was America’s gallant lady of song."

Carrie lived through some very trying years during her lifetime, but in spite of it she became the first woman composer to earn over one million dollars in royalties. She encountered obstacles when she wanted to publish her music (because she was a woman), so she resorted to establishing her own sheet music publishing company in a corner of her apartment. Against all odds it eventually became a world renowned publishing house. Carrie even printed her music on high quality vellum with a low acid content, so the pages have lasted through the years with their colors as bright as ever.

Carrie was also an artist, and handpainted many of the pink roses on her cover pages. They became her trademark, and are now my newest acquisition of something pink, just in time for Pink Saturday!