Not Arbor Day...

{Time traveling and catching up on events in the recent past!}

...but we still planted a tree. Hoping this little beauty gives us some much needed shade!

Kitchen Renovation : Day I Lost Count

We had to wait a little bit longer than we expected for the tile guy to come do the backsplash because he got busy with another project but it turned out to be a good thing because… did I mention how long it can take to mud your walls? So, Tile Guy Dana showed up with his buddy David and had the whole place tiled plus one outlet moved. They came back the next day to grout everything and tidy up and then… this is how my kitchen looked.

And how it still looks today (only with a few more things moved back in). We plan to paint the walls just as soon as we recuperate from back to back birthdays over a holiday weekend (and after Sean reworks one small section). As soon as he gives me the green light, I plan to paint the walls Realist Beige.

And then the next big project (which we will work on slowly) is re-painting the cabinets. When I first painted them about 12 years ago, I really didn't know what I was doing. Now, they need to be sanded down, some cracks need to be glued and strengthened (because they are 26 years old) and I'm planning to replace the drawer knobs with cup pulls instead which means filling and sanding old holes and measuring out new ones. I want to make sure we do this right because I'd love it to last longer and hold up better than my last job did. We also have plans to have some wooden, L-shaped, open shelving installed in that far corner where one of the cabinets used to be. I've got a lovely collection of Polish pottery teapots and mugs that I'd love to put up there. I'm thinking I'd like to use some reclaimed wood, if I can get some in the right color.

Kitchen Renovation : Day 3

Our kitchen is almost complete but we've hit a few minor snags that have resulted in delayed finishing. Dry wall compound always takes so much longer to dry than you think it will! So, I'm going to play catch up with my posts and pictures. This was the state of things on Day 2:

These pictures were taken while the countertops were being installed. This long section had to be seamed at the sink. The epoxy that they used smelled awful and starting triggering a migraine for me. I had to take Miss Cupcake and leave the house it was so bad. We were thrilled with the way they turned out, but I sure wish we'd known about the stinky smells associated with the installation beforehand. I would have taken all of the kids out of the house and let husband deal with the smells. The one thing we didn't think about was having them replace the wooden ledge on the half wall with the same quartz as the countertop so they will be coming back to do that soon.

My kids did such a great job pulling down wallpaper. I might hire them out for summer! ;)

The sink was installed a few hours after the countertop guys left but then we started right away working on mudding the walls. I forgot to take a picture of it. You can see it in this picture below with the dry wall compound mid-drying:

And that's pretty much how it looked for about a week as my husband sanded, mudded, thoroughly dried, and repeated several times. There is still one section that needs some smoothing out, but with the back to back birthday coming up this past weekend, we had to take a break. The tile guys did come a few days after this was taken. I'll show you those pictures next.

Kitchen Renovation: Day 1

Ahhhhh… home improvement projects. The very definition of a love/hate relationship, don't you think? I love the progress but I hate the mess. I love the new look but I hate making decisions without seeing the final product first. And no matter how much you plan and prepare, you inevitably end up doing something you hadn't planned to do. Amiright? Here is what we've accomplished so far…

Day 1
Thursday

In three different stages, throughout the course of the day, we removed a window ledge, 

Yep. That's 26 year old cardboard right there shoring up the back side of our former window ledge. Fancy.

And a Pepsi bottle (circa 1989)… it was very clean, surprisingly. Like someone politely rinsed it out before hiding it in our wall.

all three countertops, the sink, disconnected all the plumbing, 

took down two hanging cabinets 

See the random hole? I swear… every time we take something down we find a hole where there shouldn't be one. I think the builders were hammer happy.

and removed a good portion of the painted wallpaper on the walls. 

Don't ever paint your wallpaper, people. Just say no.

Even if it's this ugly! Don't paint it… just tear it off.

The family that peels wallpaper together, stays together!

So, what was the unplanned activity? The wallpaper removal. 

See, what happened was I had planned to take the cabinets down at a later date. I had talked with my husband about putting up some fabulous open shelving in place of the two single cabinets on either side of the sink and he was game for it. He told me just before starting to demo the kitchen that he'd be willing to do it now if I wanted. So we did. And I loved it instantly!

I mean… look at the difference it made.

The first view from of my kitchen walking through the doorway of the breakfast room.

Huge change, right?

But removing those cabinets made us realize that we needed to address the wall since the tile we have planned isn't going to cover it. And that's when we decided to start ripping down the wallpaper. The painted wallpaper. Maybe the paint didn't make it harder to tear off, but it sure seemed like it. And adding a layer of two of latex (and primer if I remember correctly) really only created sharper edges to slice under your fingernails. 

Up next… new countertops, sink and faucet and my poor husband will be skimming the upper portion of the walls all weekend so that the tile guy can come do his thing next week. 

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

Almost new kitchen coming up!

I'm sorry. I have not been in a blogging mood. I don't know why, it just is what it is. But I want to blog more to record these days for my children to look back on. Not sure how I'm going to reconcile those two issues. For now, I'll just jump right in where we are.

Right here…

…in the kitchen.

I am terrible about taking before pictures because usually when demolition is involved, I just start ripping things out. But I love seeing other people's projects! So I'm going to try to blog this project the way I like other people to blog their renovation projects. (Cough,cough,Dwija…ahem!)

We are replacing our 26 year old white laminate (durable as heck, but so easily stained) countertops with something new. Tomorrow, these get removed and donated to someone who is going to try to get a little more life out of them (see what I mean by durable). We have chosen a neutral color Silestone product to replace them. Here are a few more before pictures with some extra info for anyone who's interested.

We are even replacing our window ledge with the same Silestone material. This window ledge. The bumpy, nasty, old, warped, painted MDF window ledge. Our tile guy recommended that because I am not fancy enough to think of something like that for myself. I might have to make him a cake for that suggestion. Best idea EVER!

This outlet just hanging out in the middle of the wall for no good reason will get moved lower and further back in the corner. Please ignore the missing laminate backsplash. 

Missing backsplash on the other side because we have to match!

White subway tile backsplash coming up!

Oh, hello!

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stay away this long. I would say that "we've been busy" but it's really just that we've been doing "life". We celebrated ProLife Day (January 22nd) by celebrating 17 years of The Professor being in our life.

A cozy pair of hand knit fingerless gloves from Sunshine!

Reading a card from Rain

He's growing into such an amazing young man that we are honored to call our son . Shortly after our celebration, Sean headed off on a business trip to Boston. The Boston that was just shut down by record amounts of snow…

yeah, THAT Boston!

Before he left though, he built a new countertop for the dry bar. We have wanted to get rid of the white laminate countertops for a while and create something that would match the built-in side opposite it.

Before with the old white laminate tops… they were not always decorated with such pretty food.

During...

...more during...

Done… just needs to be stained.

 I have discovered that I am not a staining kind of girl. It was terrible. It smelled. It seemed so arbitrary… what the color looked like in the can vs. what color it turned the wood. I had to mix stains to try to match the already stained side but then try to figure out number of coats. To condition or not to condition was another agonizing decision. And then don't even get me started on the oily polyurethane problem that had two master carpenters and the customer service rep at Minwax scratching their heads! It's done now and I have decided it will be a cold day in you-know-where before I willingly take on another staining project. Even though it turned out really nice! Home improvement projects should not be traumatic.

After!

Both sides. There is one tiny piece of trim that needs to be put back on underneath the tall countertop. It had to be removed to get the old countertop off. 

Looking from the dining room into the dry bar. 

Since my husband still wasn't back after the third coat of poly dried, I painted these mason jars as therapy… to make up for the trauma of stain.

Ahhhhh… beautiful paint. So tidy, so predictable, so comforting. These are a set of ombre colored jars that I intended to use as vases on the new bar or just for fun because they are pretty. I used this tutorial if you want to paint some pretty jars too or if you need some paint therapy.

Quickly popping in to say...

Sorry for the dump of coloring pages in your feed reader. There will be more. I'm trying to group all of the saints for a particular month together and then post them all at the same time. This makes it easier to create albums for the month over on Facebook.

This is only half!

Anyway... we are replacing the nasty, stained, matted down, 11 year old used-to-be-white-now-it's-kind-of-grey carpet in the kids' bedrooms this week (who puts white carpet in a kid's bedroom... a batchelor!!! That's who!) along with having baseboards replaced so we are in project mode over here and I don't know when I will get to pop in again. I painted 230 linear feet of baseboards over the weekend and now my back is yelling at me. Just shut up already! Not you... my back.

I did want to share a couple of things that were shared on FB this week because I found them so fascinating. First, teenager Ethan Metzger tells the Bronx Youth Poetry Slam what he responded when told his parents brainwashed him. The video of his presentation is kind of hard to understand at times plus I had to explain the snapping thing to my kids but it's worth watching. Maureen Witmann said, "As a mother of seven children, I can tell you it's pretty hard to brainwash kids. They still have free will. They still have thinking brains. They still see the world outside our walls. We set examples. We show them the world through our eyes. We share values. We demonstrate consequences of actions. But brainwash? As Ethan says here -- it's teaching." Amen!

And also, this photographer is doing something amazing...

It's so easy to forget that some of our feelings are about choice more than impulse. We can choose to love someone that we aren't in love with, choose to care for someone we don't naturally care for. Sometimes, it's a matter of creating the environment and then waiting for the feelings to come. Sometimes, just sharing an experience is what it takes to make a connection. Watch this.

My new front door (color)!

Remember the before...

Here is the after...

I love it!!!

IloveitIloveitIloveit!!!

I went with the darker of the two colors and I'm so glad I did. I wanted a color lighter than the forest green that was already there but not so light that it looked white in the sunlight and also something with just a hint of blue in it. This one was perfect! And it really is no surprise. Once I finished the painting I started noticing the same color in the rug on the inside of the door and in the mat on the outside and even the hanging decoration next to it. Oh, and hello rainy blog background! Hmmmm... I guess I like this color! 

Even Sean, who is color blind, said he liked it and described it as a soft color. I have to agree, I love the way it softens the look of the house. I wish I could show you the whole front, but I'm still trying to be mindful of internet safety. We had planned to add a kick plate in the same finish as the handle to the bottom but I don't think we will now. It would cover up all that pretty color! Sean pointed out that we don't ever really kick our door in, which is true. 

Oh, and I'm thinking I might try a small planter next to the rocking chair of something that hopefully won't fry in the sun. Remember, this area gets very direct very late afternoon to evening full west sun. Any suggestions?

UPDATE: And tonight, after one night in the heat, we have bubbles in the paint. I am so mad! They got bigger as the door got hotter and then went back down after the door cooled. I still love the color but I just can't figure out what's making this door act this way. I'm going to watch them and see what happens. It was on a part of the door that I hadn't scraped the old paint off of completely, just sanded it down. I'm wondering if there is a layer of something painted deep down on the door that is prone to bubbling because the new section I painted where I had scraped off all the old paint didn't bubble. Hmmmmm..... I hate to think that I might have to completely strip the door and start all over again! If that's what has to happen it will have to wait until the fall.

Let's talk front doors...

I am getting ready to repaint that front door I mentioned a while back. My kids have insisted that it must stay some shade of green. I asked why.

They said, "Because Bilbo's door is green and maybe some dwarves will stop by someday!"
I replied, "Wherever Gandalf's mark is... there will be dwarves!"

But seriously, I've gotten a lot of different advice concerning this door.  Someone suggested that the direct sunlight concentrated on this section of the door made the paint bubble and that I should look for a high heat resistant paint. Another person suggested that it was because the door wasn't primed correctly that caused it to bubble but the major bubbling was only in one section, not all over. Presumably, if one section wasn't primed, the whole door wasn't primed so why wouldn't the paint have bubbled all over? Maybe it was a combination of the two factors. My plan is to scrape and sand down the bubbles as best I can, prime really well and then paint. I had thought about going with a lighter color by quite a few shades, but I'm wondering if that's necessary. I also need to choose a door color that will compliment the trim color and brick color. The siding and trim will be painted this fall (probably all one color instead of two) and the brick, while staying the same, is a color that I would like to alter by choosing colors that pull out the pink, grey and red and tone down the orange. Here is a picture of the brick, siding, trim and door right now.

This was at the end of yesterday when the sun was hitting it hardest. It faces due west. We have a shade that we can pull down to help block some of the sun but it doesn't completely cover this entranceway (and doesn't always get pulled down everyday).

This picture was taken in the morning when this side of the house is in shade. These are the two colors I've narrowed it down to (ignore the white color on the top, it was the backside of the folded over paint chip). The darker one really is only one shade, maybe two, lighter than the color the door is now. I was originally leaning towards the lighter one especially after seeing this inspiration picture, but now, I'm leaning towards the darker. Need to decide by Saturday. What do you think?

7QT: Bubbles, bugs, & books... oh my!

~1~

I need to paint my front door. First, because we replaced the handle and the new one is a different style...

 ...and second because there was some serious bubbling going on in this particular section.

Because it was only in this one section, I'm pretty sure it's due to sun/heat exposure as opposed to latex over oil paint or something like that. I scraped it down but now I need  to fix it. Oh, did I mention I've never painted a front door before? I'm thinking I need to sand it all over, prime it and then repaint, maybe a lighter color? Will that help keep the bubbles from coming back? Advice? Thanks!

~2~

Did you know that thrips are attracted to white blooms more than colored blooms? Now you do. UGH!!!!!!!

~3~

I love raiding our library's new book shelf whenever we go and seeing what's new out there. Of course, new is relative. It just means new to our library, not necessarily newly published.

Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes
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A 2nd level reader. Penny the mouse has an attack of conscience when she finds a blue marble in her neighbor's yard and takes it home. There is a happy ending, of course, but I liked the idea of an early reader that's not afraid to introduce a moral subject like this. I'm definitely going to be collecting this one and the other Penny books when Cupcake starts reading. {affiliate link}

~4~

Bow-Wow Wiggle-Waggle by Mary Newell DePalma
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Cute illustrations with nice colors. Perfect for a little one who's really into "dogs say woof" and "cats say meow". This books is all onomatopoeias and interjections! Onomatopoeias? Why would you ever say that? (Because it's fun to say!)

~5~

Good News, Bad News by Jeff Mack
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Excellent illustrations. The only words in the whole book are "good news" & "bad news" which sounds strange but really creates a delightful opportunity for some creative storytelling and discussion. The book highlights the difference between an optimistic bunny and a pessimistic mouse. Really cute!

~6~

Frog and Fly Six Slurpy Stories by Jeff Mack
{affiliate link}

BigBoy chose this one and then giggled at it all the way home. It contains six short cartoons telling the story of a frog who loves to eat flies. I can't really tell you more than that without giving something away. Let's just say it tickled the funny bone of my 9 year old boy!

~7~

Brachiosaurus: The Largest Dinosaur and Stegosaurus: The Friendliest Dinosaur
{affiliate link}

Interesting stories about a boy and his friends (the dinosaurs) with fun facts interspersed followed by a couple of pages of more specific information about each dinosaur. The illustrations reminded me of Ben Hatke's. These would be a hit with any young dinosaur lovers.