New Hardware

How do you like my new drawer hardware? LOL. Needed some way to get in the drawers while we were painting the facings. Hey, it works!


We are getting closer!

This stuff seemed like such a good idea in the store but it has been a P.I.T.A - I'll tell ya about it later.

Hope to at least be close enough to finished by the end of the week that I can show pictures (but I had hoped that last week too, so there ya go) I can't believe we did our whole kitchen at the last house in six weeks - and it was a total gut job! We stripped everything out to the sheet rock walls and down to the sub-floor! Of course we were 15 years younger!

Back soon!

Under my skin

I think the white paint has gone from just in my hair and under my fingernails to soaking through under my skin!


Need a spoon? Fork? In there somewhere!



The cabinets are actually painted and the last coat will go on the doors today. Yes, I need to clean out under the sink. All in due time.



Looking good, huh? I know, you can't tell much of anything from these pics - that will make it more fun when we finish! While we wait for the doors to 'cure', we will be attempting to build some pull-out shelving for these bottom cabinets.


By the time last night rolled around, I really needed a piece of chocolate cake. I didn't have any chocolate cake so I thought I would make brownies but I didn't' have a brownie mix. What I thought was a box of brownie mix was actually a box of cookie mix. - Cookies it is.

Have a great week!

The man at work

The end is in sight for the upper cabinets! I need to put one more coat of paint on the top trim (as soon as I finish this post) but everything else is painted.

The doors have been 'curing' in the garage and will go back up this weekend along with all the trim. I'm terrible at waiting for paint to 'cure'. By the time it is dry to the touch I'm ready to get things back together so the past few days have been hard! I've kept myself busy re-loading the cabinets. Everything is getting washed as it goes back in and I've been trying to figure out the best place for some of the stuff. (some of it is going back in the exact same place) I'll admit it is easier to move stuff around without the doors on!

Once we get the uppers finished this weekend, we will start on the bottom cabinets. Those will be fun! We are planning to add pull-out shelving to some (maybe all!) of them. Hubby is taking next week off so we can work on that. Not sure if we can get it all done but we will be giving it a try.

I'll try to give another update once the doors and trim are up.

Slowest paintbrush on earth

I think I must be the slowest painter on earth. You women that can eat breakfast, rip out the kitchen, put it back together and still get dinner on the table all in one day - whew, better women than me! LOL

Can't remember if I ever showed you the lamps I got for the dinning room awhile back? Timothy gave me a gift card to Home Goods so I had been stalking the lamps section waiting for just the right ones and found these several weeks ago. (I'll have to go back and look for a pic of the old lamps - we will just say short!) Anywho - after I got them home I noticed they were the same height as the picture on the wall. I didn't want to take them back so I'm thinking I just need something else to hang over what is there. On the list. (I have 9' ceilings in there so there is plenty of room!)

And here is what you can't see in that photo







And I'm just working on the upper cabinets! This isn't even all of it. I shoved stuff around in the pantry and the closet under the stairs and stuffed stuff in there too. (don't adjust your monitor - fuzzy pics. Rush, rush)


And here is the entry (where I was standing to take those photos) Lovely welcome to my home, huh?

Back to painting!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Committed

Committed - the point in any project where you have gone too far to change your mind. Also the point where you think you should be looking for the men in little white coats because surely you have lost your mind.

For the record - I'm not painting in a closed garage, just didn't have the door up when I took this photo.

Back to work.

Night lights

Totally missed posting yesterday! Went to the hand-quilting class yesterday morning. Lots of fun! There were 8 or 9 of us plus the teacher. It was very informal. (just the way I like it) She showed us a lot of different types of 'tools' (thimbles etc) and let us try them out to see which we preferred, then she showed us the basics of hand quilting. Still lots to learn but I think I have the basic 'rocking' motion down, just need lots (and lots!) of practice and I may never get the hang of loading the needle, but it was fun.

Thought I would show you a pic of my little garden house with the lights on. I took this the other day just as they came on. It wasn't quite dark yet, but you can see them. I need to find a string of actual outdoor lights to put in there. I can see the lights through the window from my stitching chair that I showed you the other day. Love it!

Do you have those projects on your list that just keep getting bumped for whatever reason? Well I've had one that has been getting bumped for nearly 3 years. There have been many reasons for bumping, not the least of which is that it is not going to be a quick one. I tend to get grumpy about the third day of a project, especially if the end is still not in sight. Problem now is that I'm getting grumpy that this project hasn't even been started and it is the first thing that went on the list when we looked at this house. The time has come to paint the kitchen cabinets. I was hoping to have hubby take off work and help me but at this point that can't happen for at least another 3 weeks and I'm tired of waiting so I'm going to get started by myself. There are parts of it I just can't do myself. There are power tools involved and while I admire all you DIY women that pull out the power tools yourself and go for it, I'm just not that confident to do some of it without some help from the hubby so I'm going to get started on the painting part - that I can do by myself. (this is not a huge kitchen make-over, just paint, building and installing one shelf and some bead board paneling) I'm not sure how long this project is going to take (way longer than the week I was hoping, I'm sure) but I'm going for it. I may be scarce the next couple of weeks but I'll try to get at least a couple of posts in - I'll have to take a break now and then if for no other reason than letting paint dry! (I hate waiting for paint to dry!) Of course, there are several other things on the calendar that will mean some days will just not see any progress.

I figure if I am going to be grumpy anyway, it might as well be while it is in progress rather than just waiting to get started. It will never get finished if it doesn't get started! Wish me luck!

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day!

Busy birdies!

Yesterday I noticed a lot of birds flying around the patio. Walked out to see the beginning of a little nest (I took a pic with my phone, but it wasn't very good) Today I noticed there was still a lot of birdie activity going on so I went to look again - the birdies have been really busy! this time I came upstairs and got the camera and climbed up on a chair to get a better picture. Hubby isn't too happy since they are on top of the shade (behind the curtain), which means he can't pull the shade down in the mornings and this is on the east side of the patio.

I've really been missing the weekly stitch nights with the girlfriends. It has been 3 years but I still miss those Wednesday nights. Anywho - I was having a little self-pity party this morning so I took myself out to the quilt shop and signed up for a hand quilting class!