Lighten up!

"I'll have the kitchen done in a couple weeks..."  Yeah, right!!  I'm still plodding along on the cabinets!

One fantastic thing:  the original light fixture that I wanted in the dining area went to clearance at 1/2 price, so thanks to heaven and Cap'n's procrastination, I was ultimately able to get exactly what I hoped for!  (Things don't usually work out like that for me.)

I did spend a couple weeks with family in South Carolina, and I finally got a job!!  So I'll blame some of my slowness on that.  Although having a job has energized me so I'm actually working more on the kitchen now than I had in the last month.

I love this job!  After years of searching and applying, I was finally hired at a great company doing just the kind of work I enjoy.  Great people, happy and friendly atmosphere, no micromanaging and no politics!  I think I've died and gone to heaven.

But do you think I'll get my LIBRARY done before 2012???  Wasn't that my new year's resolution?....

Smack talk!

My kids are threatening to never talk to me again if I don’t put up some photos!  I’ve thought long and hard about that offer, but okay, I guess I’ll show a few anyway. 

A view down the side wall, looking out the dining area window to the back deck. 

Below is an overall view.

This is a view from above, so you can see the rugs.  The overall rug size is 4’x6’ and it’s a little small for what I’d want, but the next size was 5’x8’ and that was too much.  Oh well; in my price range I have to take what I can get!  

 These are my fortuitous finds!  I found them at Hobby Lobby when I was looking for a shelf unit, and got them at half price!  The green blanket on one of the figures looks almost like the countertops in the kitchen area!

And this is a quick and cheap shot of the unfinished kitchen, below.  The actual green color of the cabinets and top is a little closer to the statue's blanket color; this photo looks a lot more gray than it actually is.  Pardon the dirty counter! (And that incongruous John Deere toothpick dispenser!) The upper cabinets will be white, like the chair rail in the dining area.

I’m still working leisurely on!  Just now starting the upper cabinets.  I’ll be replacing the dining area lighting fixture, and hanging window treatments soon.  I also have a painting I’ll be mounting to the left of the shelf in the dining area.  More photos when it’s all complete!

Detour part 3: Are we there yet?

Stop whining!  Sit down!  Leave your sister alone!  You just ate!  Why didn’t you “go” at the last rest stop?  Don’t make me come back there!

Okay, I admit it – my 2^nd cabinet color choice turned into orange sherbet!  I’m assigning Cap’n 30% of the blame because he helped choose the color, but he wanted to just get the sample and I said it’d be fine, just get the whole gallon.  So it’s mostly my fault.

For color #3 (and 4) in the cabinet debacle, Cap’n caved and I got the dark color I originally wanted for the lower cabinets, and this time a “gaurnteed” off-white for the upper cabinets.  It’s taking a lot longer than I expected as I am juggling cooking, cleaning, and family events with emptying cabinets and drawers, two coats of paint, and reassembling doors and drawers in turn as they dry.

Nevertheless, I am LOVING the new look!  This weekend I’ll purchase materials for the window hangings and possibly the chair covers as well.  And I will continue painting, painting, painting!  It seems the journey is as pleasurable as anticipating the end result, and I love doing all the work myself.  It feels like such an accomplishment.

Now take your finger out of your brother’s nose and get back on your own side.

Head Games

Admit it, you have at least one imaginary friend!  That’s the one you’ll be talking to when nobody else is around.  When I was very young, my friend’s name was Jimmy.  We became ‘acquainted’ when I was about 5, and he stayed with me at least through 5^th grade.

As an adult, I find my best imaginary friend is Don Chew.  Don is good at encouraging me when I’m hesitant to pursue a goal, and talking me out of wild and crazy spontaneities when my brain thinks I’m younger than my body does.  I mostly try to pay attention when he speaks.

Don has been a very good advisor and cheerleader as I work on redecorating my kitchen.  Working in cahoots with daughters Mélange and Vagrant, he has supported my decisions on wall colors, rugs, accessories and accent pieces.  I’m really excited at how it’s all coming out!

With one exception.

I cannot get the cabinet color right.  Up to bat with two strikes, my confidence is fading fast.  The sample sizes you can now purchase aren’t always enough to give you a clear picture – that is, if you are wise enough to try them in the first place.  Searching through my library of decorating books, I keep reading that color is a cheap way to change your décor; if you don’t like your first color choice, just paint it again!  I try to take comfort in that, but…

At $25 a gallon, Don Chew believe it.

Detour: 4-wheel driving

I suppose you are all wondering if I have gotten lost during my detour!  You could say that.  First, I have discovered that I am no longer as young as I used to be!  What’s up with that?  Hours of taping, climbing stepstools, hunkering on the floor, balancing on countertops, and painting exhausted me.  My good household ladder is MIA, kidnapped by husband Cap’n and held hostage somewhere at the airport, so the upper reaches have proven challenging.

Secondly, the paint chosen for the trim and cabinets has turned out to be PINK!  If you recall my fashion entry, ‘pink’ falls into the soap-in-the-mouth category of my decorating vocabulary.  The sample looked good, but I guess I should have been warned by the color name of “strawberry malt.”  Sigh!  So hopefully we will be going out today to get a replacement gallon.

Never fear!  The work shall be done, and “After” photos will be posted!  Meanwhile, my library/den is still pending and I here provide you with a teaser of that disaster.  In case you thought it couldn’t get worse!

Detour!

Well, I’m taking the scenic route to deconstructing my office/library!  As my husband was planning a trip, I spontaneously quipped, “Give me $100 and I’ll paint the kitchen while you’re gone.”  Good heavens, I was not really expecting him to hand me cash the next day!

If I had considered the amount of work involved, I would have asked for $500 and four good-looking workmen!

Photostock via www.freedigitalphotos.net

   However, I am still excited, emptying and scrubbing down the kitchen, and planning how to stretch my funds as far as possible in redecorating.  Daughter Mélange is helping to settle my indecisions in the details, and everyone else is cheering me on.  I really want to do the work myself!

“Scenic route” or no, my bulldozer and dump truck are still headed for my workroom.  But for now, to the kitchen!  ("Before" below.  Yes, these are before-cleaning views!  I can embarrass myself, thank you!)

NAG, NAG, NAG!

My kids are beating me up (and well deserved it is) to get another blog posted.  In fact, they have chosen the subject for me.  I hate to admit they’re right, so I won’t.  However, I’m going to follow through with it and claim it as my own idea.

For the first time in my life since moving out of my parents’ home, I have a room to call my own!  It answers to various names – library, workroom, office, den, art & craft space – but so far its actual function has been a place to toss – nay, cram – stuff when trying to clean the rest of the house.

You don’t believe me?  It can’t be that bad, you say?  Oh ho, but it can!  Come back in about a week and I will have video of the room in its current state.  (I’m not starting this project until late next week, even though it was originally a new year’s resolution!)  Don’t worry; I’m not one of those people who clean just before the cleaning crew arrives.  (Because no cleaning crew will ever cross my threshold!)

Now, leave me alone while I gird my loins.