Deconstructing Christmas in the Kitchen - Decorating Kitchen for Winter to Spring

Hola!  It's that time of year again.  New Year's has come and gone and the Christmas decor, which has been up since early December, is being packed up and taken down to the shelves in the basement to rest for another year.

The big tree in the living room will remain up until Three Kings' Day on January 6th.  Yeah, I'm a sappy sentimental type of gal :)  The first Three Kings' Day I celebrated was with my Mr. Don in Madrid, Spain on January 6, 2012.  To see the large parade, we stood for hours to hold a place on the Paseo del Prado, a lovely large boulevard upon which the Prado Museum and many other revered museums and organizations are located. That trip had been scheduled to celebrate about 10 years since our first trip to Madrid in October 2002.  One of my all time favorite pictures of us as a couple is this one (taken during that 2002 Madrid trip, on a side-trip to see the ancient city of Toledo - this was taken before we walked over the St. Martin's Bridge seen behind us and a river far far below to get to the ancient city built on a high place).  It sits on my bookcase/storage unit in the kitchen, where I see it many times every day:

He was serenading me as an obliging lady from our tour bus snapped our photo, LOL!  Sadly, our January 2012 trip back to visit Madrid was the last trip we would share together, as Mr. Don passed away in October 2012, but I will always remember our two trips to Spain and the wonderful fun-and-adventure-filled years we spent together travelling, exploring shops, museums, restaurants, playing chess and writing our blogs.

Deprived of all it's Christmas dressing, the kitchen looks rather barren to me now, LOL.  Isn't that always the case when the Christmas decor comes down and things aren't bright, festive and shining with lights, ornaments and glitter everywhere, sigh.  Still, I can definitely notice now that it is staying light longer in the evening and getting light outside a little bit earlier than a week ago, so I won't complain too loudly.  This is how the kitchen looks now, mid-redo:

From the entrance into the dinette area from living room.

From one corner of the kitchen looking at the dinette and kitchen driveway entrance,
patio door, and my breakfast bar area.

These are dried out hydrangeas that I clipped from the side garden along the driveway.
Amazingly, they held up under 60 plus mph winds, pounding rain storms,
several freezes, snow, and more winds, winds, winds!  I wanted to put something
on the table as the lantern I had on it during the fall leading up to Christmas is
currently on the mantle in the living room.  The bouquet is wintry, and also reminds me
that spring will be here in 3 months - well, at least astronomical spring.

This is the bookcase/storage unit I bought and put together to cover the
side of the fridge and provide a convenient place to remove stuff from the
countertops and for my cookbooks, more storage behind the uneven doors.
I have tried several times to get those doors to hang evenly, and have failed
miserably.  I also have to open them rather gingerly, as they have a tendency
to fall off, LOL!  Good thing there is no one else living here, especially kids!  

You may remember the inspiration photos for adding this bookcase/storage unit to my own kitchen design:

Way fancier than mine, as it was framed in complete with crown
molding and there are cabinets above the fridge.  My goal was
similar though, covering up the side of the fridge open to the dinette
with something functional and attractive.

Same idea as first inspiration photo, different color (love the grey!)

I chose a white modern/clean look for my bookcase because the cabinets will eventually be painted white. I chose a unit with enclosed storage space to stash
the large supply of nuts I feed to all the city's squirrel population, or so it seems
sometimes!

I swapped out the cardinal Christmas greeting card collage for this
lovely horse print from my 2017 calendar.  Horse art doesn't have to be expensive :)
The colors work perfectly in the room and it will be there until covered up
next Christmas season by the cardinal card collage.  

Last photo: the kitchen entrance off the driveway.  I hung up a pair of curtains
that normally go on the patio door this time of year, to replace the single panel
with a different curtain (that I had used the year before in my Shezebo screening)
to better coordinate the colors.  I like how these look so much they'll be staying,
so after I took down the autumnal/Thanksgiving gold brocade curtains I put up
the spring/summer curtains.  They let maximum light into the room during the
day, which is important this time of year, and if it gets too bright I can tweak the
built-in blinds in the patio doors to regulate the light flow.  

Still to be done - an extensive list to finish the kitchen re-do:

New countertops.  I have to get myself to Home Depot and get something ordered, but first I have to come up with a drawing and measurements.  How come they make it look so easy on those home improvement shows?  This isn't easy at all!

Tear out old and install new backsplash.  My new backsplash has been in my possession for some time.  I ordered this gorgeous porcelain ceramic tile Carrera marble look subway tile that comes in 12 x 12 sheets, in a smaller size "brick", given the smallish proportions of the kitchen and the limited amount of backsplash that will be covered, I didn't want to go with a larger size.  Once the countertops are in, I can get my "guy" in to tear out the old tile (hopefully it doesn't destroy the drywall underneath!) and put up the new tile and grout.  Yes, I've seen this done many times on HGTV and DIY network shows online, but I guess I'm adverse to risk and hard labor these days.  Plus I don't have the necessary tools and don't want to spend the $$$ to buy it!  I mean, how often will I ever use a tile cutter again?  NEVER.  I could rent what I need (maybe), but how would I get it home?  I don't drive - I mean, literally, I have never been behind the wheel of a car in my life and I have no clue how to drive although I do know all the rules of the road that nobody obeys anyway these days so what difference does it make, heh?  LOL! 

All the rest of the jazz. 
Painting cabinets first, but will probably be last to be done. Originally I was going to do white uppers and black lowers, then maybe dark grey lowers, but then I decided to just stick with white for uppers and lowers.  Now I only have to decide upon a white out of about 10 million shades and make up my ever-changing mind to do it myself or hire someone to do it.  Geez Louise!

Painting trim, that will be black and include the window frames, door frames and baseboards.  I have no idea what color I'm going to paint (or maybe stain) the transition piece from the dinette into the carpeted living room. I want to remove the carpet in the living room, but with the massive furniture pieces that are permanently in place in the living room that I cannot and will not even attempt to move by myself, there is no way.  Period, end of story.  So it's one of those up-in-the-air thingies that drive me nuts.

New light fixtures.  The boob fixture above the sink makes me cringe every time I look at it.  I try not to, believe me!  Same for the boob light in the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom and the side hall to the kitchen entrance/basement stairs.  I know they were bought at Menard's because Menard's constantly runs specials on three boob lights for like $13 - for all three.  LOL! 

The problem is design paralysis when it comes to making a decision about which direction to go with the lighting.  I like far too many things, but like many others dreaming of new kitchen and dinette spaces that are all magically beautifully coordinated, I have champagne taste on a cheap boxed pink wine budget.  Every time I think I've made a decision, I find myself hours later veering off in an entirely different direction.  So I guess I just don't want to spend anything, but I hate the lights/fixtures that are over the dining table, in the center of the kitchen and over the sink.  HATE HATE HATE, the Trifecta of Hate. 

I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff - but I got the new smaller sized table and chairs that better fit the smaller space of this Maison Newton dinette, a new area rug for the dinette, and the white bookcase/storage unit - key purchases.

I'm trying to do all of this on a miniscule budget of a few thousand dollars.  Yeah, rutsa ruck, heh?  The BIG thing that was done already was to open up the wall all the way between the living room and dinette so now it's all one big flowing space.  It meant losing a partial wall in the living room that I used to be able to put furniture against. But it also meant closing up the separate door into the kitchen off of the bedroom/bathroom hallway - which I hated, and enabled me to slide the fridge from the dinette side of the room of that damn door into the kitchen proper where that door used to be, hooray!  That was a huge improvement, the fridge was moved to where it rightfully belonged and I had a dinette not infringed upon by the fridge. Can you imagine designing a kitchen and not leaving room for your refrigerator?  I mean - WHO DOES THAT?  And you should have seen the monstrous black wonder fridge that was shown with the house when I viewed it the first time - I swear it looked like it would eat you as you were sitting at the bar table they had in place of a civilized dining table.  How on earth did they feed two small kids at a bar table, I ask you??? (I was not so rude as to ask them). 

Okay, enough ranting and raving like a mad woman with dirty hair because a new season of Project Runway Allstars is starting in a few minutes, hooray!

Kitchen Reno: Big Bad Blank Wall and What I Did (Am Doing) About It

Hola everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, whichever one you celebrate. This year Christmas, Hannukah and Kwaanzi all seemed to converge around the same time.  There are always the Winter Solstice celebrations, too, which are probably the most ancient of all.  I always look forward to the day on the calendar when I can mark off that daylight STARTS EARLIER AND LASTS LONGER once again!

That big blank wall staring me in the face every time I walk into my kitchen/dinette area (constantly, it seems) and have tried to avoid looking at --

it didn't exist in quite this form (and was covered up by the fridge) before I had the wall work done, but now POW, there it IS.

I'm not one to decorate every bare wall in my house, but this walls cried out to me for - something.

I dug through my stash of old picture frames and "art" in the basement - several times - and thought I had a plan.  But I ditched it.  The 24 x 36 framed print of a 17th century Dutch still life of flowers against a black background just didn't seem "right" for the space, somehow.  The scale was off, the mood was off, veering too much toward the traditional.

After more pondering and looking around online for abstract art posters (when did posters get so expensive?), I window-shopped online for "marble/mineral" look wrapping paper or wallpaper in tones of gold/grey/white/black.  I found beautiful hand-made papers at Mulberry Paper.  But I didn't want to order and have to wait, then get frames or figure out what I was going to do for frames or not, etc.

So, I continued to poke around my house and online looking for ideas. WHAT can I use?  I ended up using an idea I had used in the living room, just on the other side of that bare kitchen wall.  I used mirrors I had on hand, and borrowed three mirrors from the mirror arrangement from the living room.  That was taken down in preparation for the wall work done.  After I finish painting the patched drywall in the living room, I will make a new arrangement with the remaining living room mirrors.

This is what I ended up with (the borrowed mirrors are the two end mirrors in the top row and the large mirror in the center):

After looking at it for awhile, I lowered the two square mirrors in the bottom row to better even out the spacing so that it matches that in the top row. Turns out the square mirrors are 9" square and the small round mirrors are all about 10" in diameter.  The adjustment made all the difference in how the arrangement looks but I haven't taken a new picture of it yet.

The bookcase I ordered (with two doors on the bottom) arrived on December 22nd and has been hanging out against a wall in my rarely used front entrance, waiting for the living room to be put back to its normal arrangement.  That will clear floor space for me to unpack the box and wrestle with putting the unit together.

The bookcase will eventually have its back against the side of the fridge, and will "just fit" the width and height of the fridge.  It's white, which will be the color of the cabinets when they've been painted.  The two bottom shelves will provide covered storage for my squirrels' nuts and birdseed and the upper shelves will provide space for my cookbooks, my wood canister set, and display of some of my favorite glass and china pieces.

It's coming along!

What About That Back Hall Mess???

Hola everyone!  First and most important, this will be my last post before Christmas, so HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE.

It's gorgeous here today.  After warmer (in the 20s) but dreary and damp weather yesterday, it's a bright and sunny 38 whopping warm degrees today and the snow is melting, hooray!  Not a cloud in the sky, this is shorts weather around here, folks.  It will be warm through the weekend, with rain expected on Christmas Day.  There will still be plenty of snow, though, as temperatures will

Of course leave it up to me be racing ten steps ahead when I haven't even gotten half-way through the kitchen redo.  But that back hall!  It's driving me nuts.

All of the homes in this area with my house's footprint were built between 1955-1956 and all of them have the angled sink facing two corner windows, rounded "knick-knack" shelves on the ends of the cabinets framing those windows, a peninsula which, in original form, also holds three half round shelves, and a small back hall from the side driveway that tops the steps to the basement and a step up into the dining area of the kitchen/dinette.  None of the photos of such homes I've seen, including my own home, has any indication that there was ever a door from the back hall into the dinette.

As a practical matter, a regular swing in or swing out door wouldn't work, there just simply isn't enough room.  There isn't enough room for a pocket door either, or a barn door on a runner, unless light switches are relocated.  So, that back hallway is open to view from the kitchen/dinette area.  And mine isn't very pretty.  It holds my trash container, my recycling container, a four-tiered wire shelf unit holding myriad gardening tools and supplies; there are five coat hooks that hold my purse, jackets during the summer and a host of winter regalia this time of year (gloves, hats, scarves, coats/jackets), a broom, a snow shovel this time of year, and a dust pan.  And then there is the shelf above!  That holds yet more stuff, but it's difficult for me to reach; I usually have to pull out the mini ladder to access some of the items.

So - a picture is worth a thousand words.  More pictures are worth more words, right?  You can get a glimpse of the stuff in that back hall in this photo:

Okay, two are enough.  I think you see the problems.  LOL!  Not exactly the kind of thing one wants to look at when sitting in what I hope to be a sort of "lux" dining area experience.

So, I started thinking about what to do back there to try and streamline storage and make the space presentable, since I cannot cover it up.  Well, I could hang a swagged curtain, but that is so 1970s and would also get in the way.  I am constantly in and out of that back hall area and I can quite easily picture myself getting tangled up in any kind of draped curtain.

The shelf has to go.  So do all of those coat hooks.  I'll be shopping for some kind of cabinet that will hold nearly everything, which will go a long way to improving the "view" from the kitchen/dining area and making me much happier.
I'll let you know when I come up with something.  Failure is NOT an option :)

Kitchen Reno: Painting Patched Drywall Is - Ugh!

Hola and Happy Holidays to everyone!

We are in for another weekend snowstorm here so I'm keeping this brief because I've got to do two important errands (1) grocery shop and (2) hit the liquor store. We got about 7-8" last week over Friday/Saturday, and we're in for a rerun.  Reruns already, geez.

I have started painting the areas in the kitchen where the drywall was patched!  I should have done it sooner, of course - but I have to be in the "mood" and the "mood" to paint doesn't strike very often.  It is not one of my favorite things to do.

Tell me, please, who DOES THIS:

More about THAT later.

I had dug out the supplies to paint the week before and found a scant amount of kitchen wall paint left in the basement.  YAY!  So everything has been sitting front and center on my breakfast bar area for more than a week staring at me every single day, taunting me.  Yesterday, a nice sunny and bitterly cold and windy day with windchills dropping to 20 below zero, I figured it was time to start painting as I knew I would not be forcing myself to come up with anything else to avoid painting, not even a trip to the liquor store.  Sigh.

So, I get the taping done and since I didn't have to tape off the ceiling, it went surprisingly quickly and no up and down my rickety old ladder.  I had no excuses left.  I got the paint can opened and saw there was maybe 3/8th of an inch of paint left at the bottom of the can.  That wouldn't be enough to do the job.  So, I did what any rational woman would do.  I added water to thin the paint down.  It hasn't been used in 2 years, after all, and could use some thinning.  I poured in about 1/4 cup (I used a coffee cup that was nearby and added water to it) and stirred everything up thoroughly, giving both of my arms a good workout.  I used a small sponge brush to do edges/edging and a small (4") sponge roller to paint rather than a full-size roller, which I knew would suck up the paint tremendously.  I don't want to run out and have to make a trip to the big box store to buy a quart of matching paint.  I think I have enough watered down grey paint to get the job done.

Even with 2 coats of primer the patched areas sucked up the paint, especially where the mud was applied thicker to try and smooth out the transition between the closed in doorway and existing walls.  Close up, as I was rolling away with my tiny roller, I could see all kinds of flaws, but I wasn't about to stop and try and patch/fix/sand the problem areas myself!  I'll save that for the time I repaint the kitchen - if that every happens (probably never).  The fridge will cover up most of the flaws anyway and it's not like people go around staring at your walls from 3 or 4 inches away inspecting for flaws.

Because I was using the tiny roller, it probably took 2x as long as it would have using the regular sized roller, but I did get a lot of coverage out of relatively little paint as the sponge roller is more amenable to being squished against the wall to urge just a bit more paint out of the roller.  There is more than enough paint still left to do a second and even third touch-up coats later today.  Building up a couple of thin layers of paint will also help supply much needed "texture" to the new and sanded areas.  The walls in this house have been painted several times over the years, and what I thought was an "orange peel" texture is actually, the painter/drywall mudder guy told me, just built up paint texture from multiple layers!  Even after just one thin coat, however, I can see success staring me in the face, YAY!  That serves as motivation to get this part of the project done.

Now, about that photo of a kitchen outlet near an area where new drywall was applied.  I did not show myself removing the actual outlet faceplate.  That's right.  The dudes who did all the work on the drywall, mudding/sanding/priming -- never removed the faceplate!  They mudded right around it!  They primed right around it!  Of course that got smush all over the thing, and like most men who are blind when it comes to such things, they made a half-hearted attempt at some point to wipe the smush off!  Didn't work.

So, after I finished taping off the woodwork and wall areas that I don't want to slop paint on (because I'm a crappy painter and I get it all over myself, the floor, and unintended wall spaces and the odd piece of personal property in the next room -- how does that happen?), I removed the faceplate to scrub it down.   And discovered RED PAINT!

Notice where the grey paint is.  The grey paint was applied (according to the paint can notation), in 2014.  They painted with the grey AROUND the faceplate, did not remove the faceplate!  At least whoever painted the kitchen dark red had removed the faceplate, LOL.  And there is also a layer of a sort of goldish color underneath the red, that looks like it was done minus faceplate on wall as well.

Can you imagine an entire kitchen in dark red?  Holy Hathor!  Can you imagine someone either so inexperienced in painting, or so lazy, that they didn't remove the faceplate!

Okay - to the liquor store!  Oops, I mean, grocery store, then liquor store.

Kitchen Reno: Black Woodwork???

Hola darlings!

I wasn't going to post again today but what the heck.  I have been watching the latest Property Brothers' adventure in New Orleans and last night watched the kitchen episode contest.  Holy Hathor!

Fell madly in love with Drew's kitchen and its dark grey walls and dark backsplash, and all of the reclaimed wood accents - but loved the art work in Jonathan's kitchen and the black painted woodwork he did!  Tres chic.  I've been thinking about it ALL day.

This Atlanta home featured in Traditional Home (2011) just totally blew me away -- check out the color schemes in the family room and kitchen, WOWSERS!

I was planning on painting the woodwork in my kitchen white to match cabinets that will be painted white as part of Phase II of the Kitchen Reno, which will happen sometime early next year (but first I want to get new countertops).  But after watching last night's Property Brothers, now I'm thinking I should just go for it and go dramatic with black wood trim and white cabinets.  Will I?  Hmmmm...

Kitchen Reno Construction Done - Finally! And - SHOPPING SHOPPING SHOPPING!

Woop woop!  Hola everyone.

All the wood trim is up/completed, final layer of drywall mud sanded and the patches primed and ready to paint - done yesterday.

Now I have to get motivated to paint.  Sigh.  It's not fair, somehow -- when I had the energy to do all of this stuff I was working full-time plus running Goddesschess practically as a second full-time job after my day job, at night and on weekends.  Now that I'm retired and have the time, I don't have that energy.  LOL or cry.  I choose to laugh.

During all the frustration of the drywall patching/mudding/sanding/priming not cooperating and wood trim issues, I did a lot of online window shopping.  This wasn't part of the original plan but - oh well.  I bought a new table, four new chairs, a new area rug for underneath, and today I bought a new light fixture to go above the table.  Stop me now before I go bankrupt, please!

Actually, I scored amazing deals on everything, so I am very pleased.  I've no idea for the present what to do with my 56" monster round table that fit beautifully in the former Maison Newton but here it is too massive for the space.  Plus, I realized that I bought the set in 2001 - egoddess! - and while it is still in amazing condition, I've grown tired of the style and want something different, a little more modern/rustic-y mix, scaled down to better suit the size of this dining space and this home.

I managed to get the 4 chairs down to the basement rec room with rather surprising ease by sliding them backwards down the carpeted steps on their backs -- I know, sounds absolutely nutso but it WORKED!  They look gigantically large in the dropped ceiling room but at least they're out of the way until I figure out if I can sell them or give the set to one of my nieces or nephews, but the table is beyond me, too large and too heavy.  I am going to see if I can bribe my young neighbor's muscular hubby into getting he and one of his friends to take it apart and move it downstairs for me -- with baked goodies  Lots of baked goodies.  He's got a sweet-tooth :)

So, this is what things look like right now - a mess still but getting there!

Forgive the plastic sheeting stuffed under the table.  I need to shake it off outside and fold it - it's the heavy-duty kind and perfectly good and did not get too much drywall dust on it, so I'm saving it for painting projects.  Yes, I'm cheap frugal that way :)

Here is what is on the ceiling above the dining table at the moment:

It's humungous (nearly as large as the table!) and it's ugly.  This came out of my bedroom where it was either the fan or my campaign style canopy bed (the bed won) and was installed in the dinette in place of an even uglier but equally large fan when I moved in July two years ago.  I toyed with the idea of keeping a ceiling fan in the dinette for a long time, but in the end I decided nah, I just did not like anything I saw that combined a light with a ceiling fan.  And with central air, I don't really need it.

Now, let me warn you in advance.  I was thinking "buy something sleek and modern."  Something in chrome or polished nickel to go with the new hardware I bought for my cabinets (to be installed after cabinets are painted).  So, what did I do?  After days and days of looking and looking at dozens of different sites and dozens of websearches, TA DA!

Okay, take me out and shoot me now.  NOT MODERN, NOT CHROME OR POLISHED NICKEL.  NOT SLEEK.  It has CRYSTALS, for Pete's sake!  It is by Feiss and described as an "antique silver" candelabra chandelier, LOL!  The crystals are actually clear glass and smokey rock crystal - and only three arms.  It is 20" tall and 19" wide, so a little less wide than the up-to-22" that I was looking for.  But what can I say?  It was love at first sight.  Honestly.  One look and I was totally smitten.  And it could not be more different than the chandelier I had envisioned than how equally different it is from the clunky and too large ceiling fan light it will be replacing.

Cost (at DealYard): $59.95, no sales tax added and free shipping.  What's not to love about that?

New table:

This is by Powell, the Franklin dining table, 45" round with under-shelf, mixes oak wood veneer rustic finish and metal legs with nail-head trim around the table apron.  I won't have to hide an easily scratched MDF smooth table top with this baby and if I don't like the color I'll be able to easily whitewash the wood veneer.  Sort of rustic-chic/industrial.  Something I would never have considered back in 2001 for sure, LOL!  Maybe the style didn't even exist in 2001...

Cost (at Amazon): $213.30 (no sales tax added) and free shipping.  I'll still be able to comfortable seat 4.

New chairs:

This is the Redfield nailhead chair in "white rice paper" textured linen-look Poly blend in a sleek Parson's design, just under 41" tall, 20" seat height, 18.5" seat width.  Amazingly, these dimensions aren't that much different than my 2001 dining chairs, but they couldn't be more different in style and footprint.

Cost (from Wayfair):  $106.99 a pair (2 pair purchased) for a total of $213.98, no sales tax added and free shipping.

New area rug:

I was looking for a round rug and, true to form, ended up purchasing a square rug instead. New rug:

This is from the Amherst collection by Safavieh, indoor/outdoor in cream and light grey, 7 foot square.  I prefer to use indoor/outdoor rugs in this room because I use the side entrance off the driveway into the basement landing that houses the basement stairs and doorless entrance into this room.  It also opens through the slider to the patio.  So I'm constantly tracking stuff into this room, especially from the patio for most of three seasons.  The present rug is also indoor/outdoor and I love it for it's ease of care and hard-wearing nature.  This will give me a chance to swap out the look.  The square rug has a more "elegant" feel to its pattern, I think.

Cost (from Amazon):  $142.89 (including sales tax) and free shipping.

Total cost for room decor:  $630.12.

The new chairs arrived Tuesday evening via UPS.  I will attempt to put them together today :)

That's it for now.  I want to get cracking on this room because I haven't begun to decorate for Christmas.  Normally my tree would be up and fully decorated by now, eek!

Kitchen Reno: Into Week Three and Still Not Done!

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!

Drywall patching is a word that starts with B and rhymes with WITCH.  It seems the painter/drywaller brought in by my contractor to mud and prime the drywall patches  thought his job was finished after 3 coats of mud, a sanding and priming.

Not.

Divets and dings in mud not caused by anything I did, areas that clearly to my untrained eye need more mudding and uneven sanding to smooth out transitions between the existing drywall and new patches, as well as unresolved "waves" in the mudding (not sure how else to describe them and they don't photograph so I can show you clearly what I'm seeing) --

The whole job should have been completed the Friday before Thanksgiving week.  All the guys took off for deer hunting up north, the opening of gun hunting season in Wisconsin.  Guess it was too much to think the job should have been finished right BEFOREthe crew took off for deer hunting.  But not in Wisconsin.  Maybe not anywhere, LOL.  It's like a sacred ritual or something.

ANYWAY.  The following Monday contractor guy appears to begin re-installing woodwork and also trouble-shoot the problematic transition between dining area flooring and the living room carpet, at about 3/4ths inch different heights.  He had to create his own transition threshold to fill the opening created between the two spaces by the removal of the wall because it's so wide and that was the fastest solution to solving the problem.  It works - sort of.

I showed contractor guy the relatively few issues with the drywall and he said he would call the painter/drywaller guy, who was supposed to call me to check on whether I was satisfied with the job (he did not call).  Contractor guy agreed more mudding and sanding needed to be done, possibly another 2 or 3 coats.  Another week of work, depending on how quickly the mud coats dry.

Contractor guy arrives the next day to install more woodwork and also the completed custom threshold.  Guess what -- the new woodwork doesn't marry correctly with the existing old woodwork because the old woodwork is thicker.  I have to laugh, I can't cry about it!  So.  contractor guy says no problem, I will replace the rest of this (a long stretch down the hallway wall to the bathroom door) with new woodwork so it all blends in.

He also told me that he had spoken with the painter/drywall guy and that he - contractor guy - would be finishing the mudding/sanding as needed to make sure the patches look as good as we can get them.

So - I had my Thanksgiving in a torn-apart house that is STILL not finished after more than 3 weeks to close up one simple doorway opening and open one simple doorway between two rooms.  Bloody Damn Hell.  I could have done it myself with my bare hands in this amount of time.  My hands, nails, and some spit.

My custom for many years has been to put up my Christmas tree and start Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend.  Not this year.  Today - November 29th, contractor guy got tied up on another job and was not able to come to finish.  And frankly, I doubt he will be able to finish for at least 2 more days.  He has to still sand what I hope was a final coat of drywall mud he put on yesterday and also finish installing all of the new woodwork trim.  Prime the sanded drywall patched areas and stain the new woodwork.  Rutsa ruck.

I shopped online until I dropped to spend some of my frustration over the past few weeks.  More on that in post above this one.

Kitchen Reno: End of Work Day 1

Holy Hathor!  So noisy!  But -- the guys made wonderful progress. [Day 1: Before]

All the wood trim on baseboards was removed and saved for re-use/patching as needed.

The electrical outlets that were going to be relocated were disconnected and moved; some openings in the subfloor had to be made to route the wiring, as well as accommodate the new location of the cold air return.

Wall between the living room and dining area was cut to the floor; framing reinforced.

Original entrance framed in.  Drywall up!

Tomorrow the painter/drywaller will arrive to put a first coat of mud on the drywall, and be back in the afternoon to apply a second coat (assuming the first coat dries).  Now I understand why the work is going to take all week - the mudding/sanding that needs to be done.  Didn't think about that before, duh!

Third coat of mud and possibly final sanding will be done on Wednesday.  No work scheduled for  Thursday.  Everything finished up on Friday, including patching floor, adding transition between the dining area and living room, trimming out the baseboards, and priming the drywall (I have paint matched to existing colors and will do that myself).

As with any remodeling, a few surprises were discovered, including a hidden junction box (code no-no) that was then disconnected and removed, and the fact that the prior owner added approximately 1/2" of height to the kitchen and dining area floor by adding a new layer of plywood over the prior floor surface before putting down the current flooring!  So my contractor is going to custom mill a transition threshold to fit the space between the dining area and the carpeted living room. That will stay in place until I replace the kitchen/dinette flooring and have the carpeting removed and hardwood floors refinished in the living room and hallway, the only areas where it remains on the main floor.

The guys are cleaning up right now (1:42 p.m.); they worked straight-through from 8:00 a.m.

I will give everything a wipe-down after I eat something - I'm starving!  More pics:

Height difference between kitchen floor (dark)
and living room (carpeted): 1/2 inch.  New
threshold will be sandwiched between and tapered.

I didn't do a thing and I'm exhausted - what's up with that?  LOL!

Kitchen Reno!!!

Hola everyone!  It has been a little while since I last posted, and I have been uber-busy with the garden, the yard, the Shezebo, the new privacy fence along the north lot line, and now, fall clean-up, which will end about next May.  And now, I am undertaking a reno project, my first - ever!

Ever since I moved into my retirement Maison Newton in July 2014, I've been wanting to open up the "window" that exists between the living room and my dinette area of the kitchen, and close off the existing doorway to the hall that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom. Closing off the existing doorway will give me room in the kitchen proper to slide my fridge over next to the existing cabinets and free-up space across from the peninsula and the dining area, while also giving me a more open traffic flow.

In the current arrangement the fridge is sitting in space that normally would be considered part of the dining area of the kitchen, and even though my fridge is Euro-style sleek, narrow and counter-depth it has always looked out of place to me, sort of stuck in a no-man's land between the kitchen and the dining area.  Here are some photos which show the less-than-optimum arrangement of the space:

Two of the identical floor-plan homes that I looked at before I bought this home had been remodeled so that the wall between dining area and living room was opened up and the former doorway to the kitchen off the hallway closed up.  The result was a modern-looking open space and flow between the kitchen/dinette and living room areas.  Here are a couple of photos of one of the houses where the wall was opened and how that looks:

And so, after much thinking about it and hemming/hawing, I decided to go ahead with a phased kitchen re-do that will, eventually, include a new countertop, new blacksplash, painted cabinets, new flooring, new cabinet hardware, and new light fixtures.  Eventually also a new range, dishwasher and microwave to go from black to stainless steel.

Phase I is opening up the wall between the dining area and living room and closing off the existing doorway.  The current "window" that is cut into the dinette/living room wall will be opened all the way to the floor and widened about 12 to 15 inches, depending upon stud location.  Today is the FIRST DAY!

Three guys are here and taped off the living spaces to contain the construction dust as much as possible, covered the carpeting with plastic and dropcloths; electrical outlets have already been moved and an inconveniently placed cold air return removed; they have also removed the woodwork in the construction area and have already cut the wall down to the floor!  Now they are working on relocating the electrical outlets.

Not sure how long they will be here today; originally the contractor told me they would be here all week, so I don't imagine they will be working 8-hour days for 5 days, not when the work is already progressing so quickly!

I am presently holed up in my den, which I somewhat cleaned up yesterday, knowing I would be working in here all week :)  It is amazing what an impending eviction from my dinette table (where I normally sit, looking out over my backyard through the patio doors) can do to motivate me to attack my messy den. It is now, at least, livable.  Eventually I will get around to finishing the taping I started in January (yes, in January), and repaint these dark and dreary walls!

Kitchens On My Mind: More Redos!

Hola!  I should be using the wet/dry vac in the basement and getting that cleaned up; I should be cleaning up the garage; I should be doing something - anything - to try and make less of a mess in my bedroom walk-in closet (do any of you have stacks of historical research on ancient board games on your closet floor and rabbit size dust bunnies???), not to mention straightening up the little room I laughingly call the den (it's mostly a junk room but it does have three very ugly and cheapo bookcases holding the bulk of my chess and history books and my old desktop computer).  I should be doing all of these things because I'm in the middle of refinancing and the appraiser is coming Tuesday evening at 6:30.

Instead, here I am, writing this after having visited some of my favorite blogs and having visions, once again, of a revamped kitchen...

It's probably just serendipitous coincidence that so many other people out there in blogland seem to be undertaking or have just finished a kitchen redo/remake/refresh/remodel.  I'm not planning a remodel but I do want to, at a minimum, refresh!  Anyway, it seems everywhere I look these days I'm seeing articles in magazines I'm reading and blogposts online about kitchens!

Here are a couple more:

Well, this one isn't exactly a reveal, but Barb at Turtles and Tails is revamping her kitchen by painting cabinets and walls and goodness knows what else, I'll just have to wait for the reveal, and added new hardware to the cabinets - which I just love.  I had no idea Target sold cabinet pulls and knobs, geez!  Where have I been?  Here is a pic of the handles:

From Turtles and Tails, May 22, 2013.

They're gorgeous - the Nautical in satin-finished nickel.  I have been absolutely shocked at the cost of various pulls and knobs at Menard's, which is my local go-to place for just about anything related to hearth, home and yard.  I have, in my small 10 x 10 kitchen 33 pulls!  Yes!  Thirty-three!

Now, I had every intention of painting my pulls with hammered bronze spray paint that I bought, er, some months ago...  But haven't gotten around to it.  I'm going to try a couple and see how I like them -- nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?  But truth be told, I'm just plain SICK of my old sleek Euro-style pulls.  They're boring.  The finish has worn off in places, too over the past 22 plus years of use, so instead of shiny brass it's mottled and dullish looking (shabby chic?), particularly on the handles on the cabinets above the stove, and the pulls on the undersink doors. 

Anyway, I checked online and lo and behold!  Target offers these beauties in a six-pack for $16.99!  Holy Hathor! I thought they would be WAY more expensive -- they look very high end to my eyes.  Doing the math, not bad:  6 packs of 6 and rounding the price up to $17 comes out to $102 (not including sales tax).  Comes out to about $2.83 per pull. 

Then, I visited another favorite blog, Forever Decorating, and there was a refreshed kitchen reveal! (Note: I just noticed that it is dated 1/22/2013 -- silly me, I specifically saved this particular blog post because I loved how the redo turned out.  That means I probably blogged about it some time ago, duh).  I am loving this kitchen!  I hope when I eventually get around to painting the west wall, soffits and under-cabinet areas with my darkish-taupe color (I purchased the paint more than a year ago, geez) that the contrast with my already white cabinets will look as dramatically pretty:



From Forever Decorating, January 22, 2013.

Now I'm starting to get grandios ideas, sigh.  I love the crown molding...  And I'll bet I could have molding added to my cabinet faces to imitate the look of these cabinets...  What started in my brain months ago as a simple paint job is getting more complicated by the second.

Okay, I've simply got to stop this right now.  I have to trot down to the Pick 'n Save and get working on that basement clean-up.  Argggh!  Decided that I'm just going to toss all the paper piles from my walk-in closet underneath my bed for the time being...

Kitchens On My Mind: Half a Dozen Fabulous Redos From Around the Web

Hola darlings!

It's a beautiful day here today. Finished the front yard tirmming and swept everything up; cut the back yard grass and am now going to head out and start trimming and them whacking down and pruning!  But I have taken a couple of breaks in-between the work and got this post ready for you.

I have gathered these projects as examples of what can be done with imagination, a plan, lots of hard work, a handy mate or close relative who works for pizza and beer, and a small budget!  There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of kitchen revamps and redos on the internet, and they range from the grandiose in mansions five times the size of Maison Newton to small but beautifully rendered galley kitchens in New York apartments.  I selected these particular redos because (1) the footprint of the kitchen was not changed, i.e., plumbing was not moved and the original kitchen arrangement, including cabinets, remained more or less intact, (2) lots of sweat equity but low cost, and (3) doable by a single woman on a miniscule budget, possibly with the help of her reasonably priced handyman, Kevin the Wonder Man! 

Enjoy!

Ashley and her husband at Domestic Imperfection created an incredible kitchen.  Their total outlay so far is $1,600, not including new appliances (purchased before the redo began in earnest) that bring the total up to $3,700.  Still to come is new flooring (although truth be told I see nothing wrong with the current flooring and think it looks great with their restyled kitchen) and new lighting fixture(s).  The before and after pictures are stunning!  Here is one of them:

From Domestic Imperfection blog.

You can read all of the details at Ashley's blog.  The floating shelves created to hang underneath the upper cabinets is one of the most ingenious uses of space I have ever seen, and I love them to pieces!

Kelli at Pretty l'il Poseys shared a dramatic kitchen makeover too -- of her mom's kitchen!  Oak colored cabinets were changed to dark and gorgeously dramatic, and all white countertops turned into a spectacular granite look with acrylic craft paints -- the kind you buy at JoAnn's or Michael's (total for countertop redo $20), all for about $250. The painted countertops are simply awesome and look like the real thing even in close-up photos.

Here is one of the after photos.  When you see the sole before photo you'll immediately appreciate the amazing transformation that paint and some decluttering created in this lovely kitchen -- I want those windows, and the countertops too!  The look is definitely luxe and would look fabulous in one of the multi-million dollar mansions that we see in People Magazine and Architectural Digest...

From Pretty l'il Posies blog.

I hope you'll read all about the amazing transformation at Kelli's blog.  This kitchen amply demonstrates the amazing transformative power of painting, staining and switching out cabinet hardware! 

Jami and Brian at An Oregon Cottage did a total transformation of their kitchen for - are you ready? - $1,165!  Again, with no relocation of any major pieces or plumbing, paint and new countertops were the primary agents of the amazing transformation. The microwave was moved -- to above the range, which was itself transformed merely by the removal of a "back" piece that unscrewed and made the range/oven look totally different and very 21st century.  A new sink and faucet were added as well as new hardware on the cabinets.

Here is one of the after photos.  It was sheer genius to have some of the cabinet "fronts" removed and glass installed in place - same cabinets used, but with the glass an entirely new look resulted.

From An Oregon Cottage blog.

You can read all the details at Jami's blog, including a cost breakdown.  The entire project took about a year; it was done in increments which is a very good idea, because it gave them time to see what they liked and what still needed to be changed, as well as saving up for the costs of doing the work.

Jane at Frugal Fine Living did a kitchen transformation for $250.  She took her space from 1990's builder's standard (with yet more of those oak colored cabinets) to a rocking kitchen with hints of Provencal in its toile curtains and hardware.  Check out one of the after pics:

From Frugal Fine Living blog.

You can read all about Jane's progress as she takes her readers step by step through her redo/remake process.  Beadboard wallpaper, which I've also seen elsewhere in kitchen redos, was used to great effect on the backsplash and the end of the cabinet runs.  In 23 years I have yet to install a backsplash in my kitchen and if I do not do it anywhere else in my kitchen, for SURE I am doing it this year behind the stove, with paintable, scrubable high-grade vinyl wallcovering that will eventually also be installed elsewhere in the back of the house which has kitchen, dinette and family room all open to each other overlooking the back yard. 

The wallpaper is a great budget-wise idea that will also be easy to swap out for another look down the road, should I tire of it.  I seriously doubt I'll tire of it though, since I've had the kitchen in its more or less original state for so frigging long, har!  Should I live another 23 years I'll be contemplating a kitchen redo at age 85.

The final kitchen redo I'm featuring is this amazing space from the Mills family at The Handsome Home.  It is just awesome and once again, how many times can I write it??? -- shows the power of paint and, in this case, actual beadboard used to cover over a darkish-beige tiled backsplash.  Check out one of the after pics:

From The Handsome Home blog.

It is hard to believe this is the same space (many before and after pictures so you get a great feel for how the space was transformed), but it is. As far as I can tell, the only thing that was swapped out was the kitchen sink and faucet, from double aluminum sink to porcelain (?) farmer's style sink and a new faucet. Of course, that style of sink and faucet can be VERY expensive. I don't have a cost on this kitchen transformation, but I would say overall it was done on a modest budget. 


So, there you are.  My inspiration kitchens, done on a dime and a TON of imagination!  I love each and every one and will be incorporating many of the ideas shown in these kitchens in my own redo.

Trad Home's Online Magazine Special: Great Kitchens

Hola darlings!

I have been perusing Traditional Home's special online magazine this month on Great Kitchens.  I've oohed and aahed my way through the first 41 pages thus far and while lovely, I confess that I just cannot relate to the humongous cavernous kitchens that are beautifully done up but make me laugh when I think about today's nuclear family in one of them.  Then I got to page 42 and "Small Size, Big Style" (written by Ruthie Staalsen) and I fell in love with a kitchen!  There are before-after pictures too, that were missing from the previous articles.

In this roughly 14' x 14' kitchen, existing cabinetry was retained, painted white and glazed with a warm color to give a time-worn patina and rich glow.  Wrought iron hardware was added -- pulls and knobs.  New lighting was installed, the existing island was expanded to add an in-cabinet waste bin and then the island was embellished to look like a stand-alone piece of furniture in a contrasting finish to the cabinets.  Just gorgeous!  New flooring (tile set on the diagonal to visually "enlarge" the space) and tumbled stone inset with black wrought iron medallions backsplash treatment were added.  A soffit was added above existing cabinets to the ceiling and then trimmed out with elegant mouldings to eliminate cabinet tops that used to just collect dust.  A bay window was added by the sink to flood the room with light.  Here is one of the pics of the refinished space I snipped from the online magazine article:

Is this style Provencal or Valencia?  I don't know, but it's so beautiful.  I love the chandelier above the island -- so light and airy but providing tons of work light.  And the sconces on the cabinets on either side of the sink area.  How on earth???  The wiring must disappear inside the cabinets and then into the wall.  I imagine that would be very expensive to have such wiring installed.  The sconces themselves, though, are drop-dead gorgeous! 

Other changes included replacing an outdated drop-in cooktop with a flush surface cooktop mounted directly into the new granite countertop and new appliances, including a new microwave installed above the cooktop. 

This homeowner was able to do this gorgeous designer-created kitchen due to an inheritance from her grandmother that specified the money be used to remodel her kitchen!  I do not expect to receive such beneficience from any of my relatives, but there are plenty of ideas in this kitchen remodel that I may be able to borrow and adapt to my own humble kitchen. 

And humble budget, too!  In the next post I'm going to show you a handful of some kitchen redos from various blogs, most of which have one thing in common:  low cost! 

Kitchens On My Mind

Hola darlings!

Are you looking forward to your three-day Memorial Day Weekend as much as I am?  Woo woo!

I still have much to do to get the back yard into semi-decent shape, but it it coming along.  Fortunately, last weekend was gorgeous.  But on Wednesday a cold front brought lots of rain, wind and abnormally cold temperatures.  So cold it's been since Wednesday, I've been back into my winter jacket with the hood, and gloves!  Brrrrr.

Last night when I got home the June 2013 print edition of Traditional Home was in the mail, and I dove into it this morning during the bus ride to the office. A great issue!  And a special feature on kitchens this month with a sweepstakes.  The prize is awesome for one lucky winner!  

Which got me thinking about my kitchen - again.  I've been thinking about it for over a year now - and still haven't tackled the repainting that it needs.  Other things I've worked on here and there, and things are coming along, agonizingly slowly! 

Amazingly, even after 22+ years living here, I am still quite happy with my picks for cabinets and laminate countertops, and even the flooring, although it is a bit the worse for wear after all these years. 

There are things I want to change.  I've written about that before here, I'm sure.  It isn't a very long wish list, given my budget constraints and the fact that I'm going to be retiring in less than 5 years (Goddess willing!)  A few changes I think will make a big difference in the overall ambiance of the space while also bringing it out of the late 1980's into the 21st century. 

I've received TONS of inspiration from Traditional Home over the years.  For instance, check out this "10 Steps to a Fab Kitchen" kitchen/dining area remodel.

Kitchen and dining area remodel, Traditional Home May/June 2013 online. Photo.

I LOVE it totally, but I have to be realistic.  Still, there are many points of inspiration and surely many items can be achieved with the "look for less!" 

Many of YOU have done fabulous redos/revamps/updates -- whatever you want to call it -- of your kitchens that have been of great inspiration to moi.  Without doing uber-expensive changing of locations of plumbing and staying within the same basic footprint, I have seen the most amazing updates that I still cannot believe it's the same room in the after photos from the before photos!

I have picked out half a dozen redos from blogs online that I will show you tomorrow.  You may be familiar with many of them.  Each of them is wonderful in its own right and did not cost an arm and a leg!