Get'er Done

We had such a busy weekend! Tons got accomplished (mostly thanks to Mark and our good friend Ryan).

First and foremost, I can no longer refer to our abode as the "Peach Palace" because Mark and Ryan painted the house! It is now painted Dunn Edwards' "Floating Lily Pad." It looks like a completely different house!
Sometime in the next few years, I would like to add a stone facade to the bottom half of the front of the house. Something like this. We also plan to eventually get a new front door. We're thinking a dark wood with wrought iron details.

Next on the list, Ryan helped install some under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. I call it the "I'm not waiting up for you" light.

We also finally got the mirror back up in our guest bathroom. Remember that snafu we had with the mold behind the mirror that I discovered when I was prepping the mirror for molding? That wasn't the molding I was going for... We fixed all of the problems, but the mirror had been sitting in our hallway for over six months. Well no more! I repainted the new drywall, and Mark and Ryan got the mirror and the molding up, and it looks fantastic! We also finally hung a towel bar and a hook so that towels don't have to be draped over the shower curtain rod.

I also spent some time sanding and painting cabinet doors for the bathroom, Mark installed a nice new medicine cabinet, and let's not forget the lovely new house numbers next to our front door.

There's nothing like hosting visitors to light a fire under our tucheses...

Lola's first trip to Home Depot

Sun-kissed skin so hot it'll melt your popsicle...

Ok, the title has nothing to do with the post, but somehow that song got stuck in my head this morning. What's bizarre is I'm absolutely positive I didn't hear it. How do you come up with a line like that anyway? It doesn't rhyme with anything and it's actually a really weird mental picture. -Jus' sayin' Katy Perry.

Ok, now back to more important things, starting with the kitchen. Phase 1 is complete! The cabinets, counters, and floors are complete, and for the first time in two months, we have a fully functional kitchen! It feels awesome. It's so hot it'll melt your popsicle.

Behold...




Notice I called it phase 1. There is still work to be done. Phase 2 consists of installing the green subway tile backsplash and pendant lights on either side of the hood. But for now, phase 1 will have to do. The kitchen is quite enjoyable as is.

In other insanely awesome news, the family is coming to visit! And when I say the family, I don't mean just my parents, or just my sister. We're talking mom, dad, Tali, Cliff, and....Dahlia!

Tali and my birthday is six days apart, and this is a big one (the big 3-0) for her, so what better way to celebrate? This is also the first time that the whole family (even pre-D) have come to visit at the same time. Just a couple weeks away!!!

The Star of 30 Rock

I call this photo Travertina Fey. Ok. That's not as funny as it sounded in my head, but how's about a courtesy laugh?

The travertine is going in as we speak. Mark just took a photo of the progress and I can't resist sharing.

Sink Hole...

...No, not the scary ones that swallow your house! -The ones that you slide your undermount sink into. Duh!
The kitchen is moving along quite quickly. The cabinets are done! They look better than I ever imagined!

this one looks a tad orange -photo below is more accurate

Our counters were measured for the granite last night, which will be installed early next week and in the meantime, the tile goes in tomorrow and Thurs.

Meanwhile, Mark and I enjoyed a quick one-night vacation in Paso Robles this weekend with our good friends Adrienne and Brian. We did a great job stocking up our wine fridge!

Kitchen Confident Y'all

So you know how I thought we had two weeks until install? Well having been through many-a-construction projects with quoted timelines that are way optimistic, I thought, eh, we've probably got two and a half, maybe three weeks. Wrong. We got a call from the cabinet maker on Monday (one week into construction), telling us he could install as early as Tuesday (yesterday). So that joke I made about breathing into a paper bag last week wasn't too far from the truth.

While we didn't have to install this week, we figured, having a kitchen is better than not having one, right? So the plan of me miraculously learning how to tape, mud and skim coat drywall quickly flew out the window and we had our handy man come in and do it.

Mark and I then rallied until late last night to prime and paint the areas around the cabinets that will be visible.

Surprise! Mark shaved his head!

this totally brings back memories...

All of this was done because the cabinets are being installed today!!! I waited at home for them to arrive this morning so that I could see them in their uninstalled, unfinished state.

The cabinet above that looks like a speaker box is actually going to house our wine fridge

these are the uppers you don't need rehab for using, but please don't abuse them

I can't wait to see what awaits me when I come home tonight!!!

If these walls could talk

...they'd say "We're walls!"

That's because up until two days ago, they were just frames. The drywall went up on Tuesday. We still have to tape, mud, skim, and paint them, but it's progress, and progress is good.

All of the electrical is ready to go. You can see on the first photo, the blue circle on the ceiling is where one of the pendant lights will go.

The hood will be just to the right of it, and on the other side there is wiring for another pendant light. I'm still drawn to these ones, but we may have to hold off to keep our budget in check.

In the second photo, on the right wall, the wires poking out are set up for under cabinet lighting. At this point we're not installing anything, but this way, if down the line we want to add another level of lighting, the wiring is ready to go.

So there's plenty to do, and with the cabinet construction having begun on Monday, we are at t minus eleven or so days until they're ready to be installed. That's nota-lota days. Pardon me while I go breathe in a paper bag... -Actually we're totally up for the challenge to get the room ready to go. It will all be worth it when I'm makin' Mark some bacon on a gas stove and admiring the lovely custom utensil drawer. -Oh and don't get me started on the pantry!

Blank Canvas or Pup Playroom?

The demo is complete! Our kitchen is an empty shell, and boy does it look good!
-The dogs think so at least.


They have taken it upon themselves to scatter all of their toys across what is now their playroom. Griffin is loving it because he's not getting crated during the day -there's really nothing for him to destroy.

Yesterday our cabinet guy Jimmy came by to take final measurements and our trusty demo-er/electrician/plumber/friend Yaya laid out plans for electrical/plumbing.

We've ordered the hood and sink too! Now it's just a matter of figuring out the granite for the counters. We want it to be on the lighter side since our cabinets will be a chocolate brown. I like this, this, this and this too! We're open to suggestions!

Honey, I think we need a new kitchen.

word.

Good Riddance Kitchen...

Mark and I spent the greater part of this weekend prepping for the demolition that will ensue on Tuesday. That's right, friends, our kitchen goes bye-bye come this Tuesday.

I focused on clearing out and packing the kitchen, while Mark worked on clearing out the garage to make room for our temporary kitchen/kitchen storage.

Sometimes you don't realize how much cookware you have until you have to pack it all up. I packed up six, yes that's right SIX pyrex dishes. Granted, a few are different sizes, but lemme tell you, if you're having a lasagna & kugel potluck, I'm your gal. Really.

We also took the opportunity to get organized in the garage and get some racks and shelves to store our tools.

Come Tuesday, Lola and Griffin are headed to Doggie Day Care and our kitchen is getting done-torn-up like nobody's business. The cabinets - gone. Floors- say goodbye. And that hood! -serious tears of joy with that farewell...

We have gotten a great deal on custom cabinetry and will be going with a shaker style cabinet in a chocolate brown stain. We decided to go a little bit lighter than the original espresso, because we don't want the space to feel small.

Stay tuned for more photos of the demo and kitchen in progress!

Thrice bitten

I’m sure you’d like me to believe that you have better things to do with your time than read about my bug-bitten finger, but I don’t believe you. Poor Mark has had to listen to me complain about three bug bites I have (2 on my left forearm and one on my right ring finger) all weekend, trying not to laugh when I refer to them as “my mosquito bites,” so I’m going to give him a break. Mark, if you’re reading this, now’s your cue to stop.

All my life I have been the victim of mosquito bites, regardless of the time of year, climate, time of day, or layers of clothing I happen to be wearing. I believe my sister shares this problem, but I may be mistaken. Mark always asks, “how come you’re the only one getting bitten?,” to which I reply *as if I know what I’m talking about,* “I have sweet blood!” I’m pretty confident that I’m getting bitten in my sleep, because I have mad-mosquito-swatting-ninja-skills when I’m conscious…

The most likely cause of these bites can be traced back to our new windows. –By no means that it was their fault; in fact I should actually blame the old ones. Had they not sucked so bad, we wouldn’t have had the need to replace them. When replacing windows, there is an unavoidable period of time where a gaping hole resides in the wall. Whether it is for 30 seconds or 15 minutes, those damn mosquitoes will find their way in, because they obviously smell my sweet blood…

Now as soon as the swelling of my finger goes down, I pray to have no more reminders of the windows that were.

In the meantime, I will continue to dream about the kitchen that will be. Now that we’ve taken care of our windows, and we’re fixin’ to file our taxes, we’ve started talking about the impending kitchen overhaul. Here is what we’re thinking so far…

And on a parting note, if anyone’s got a good exterminator in the Valley that specializes in mosquito eradication, please share!