New Project

If you have followed my blog, you know I am in love with the original chandelier that hangs in our entryway.  It looks like the formal living room had something at some point, but it must have been removed because there is a circular white cover in the middle of the ceiling now. 

I wanted a chandelier similar to the one in the entry for the living room, but that was easier said than done.  I couldn't find anything close in style, except some online that were obscenely expensive...until I I found this gem on craigslist:

Tom is in shock that I paid someone $75 for it.  He hates it.  I knew from the pictures beforehand that it came with 30 years of dust, but I have already started working on it with my bottle of Brasso (it is solid brass, although you can't tell from all the grime and tarnish).  On the underside of the ceiling cap I uncovered "Made in Spain", but no year.  We'll see how she cleans up. 

Oh, did I mention that I found a whole bag of old papers in the basement?  There are original pictures of the house when it was built, all the architect plans for each of the home's additions, and an awesome old map of the area from 1935 when the plots of land were still labeled by the farm name.  I want to frame some of it, but I haven't even had time to sit down and go through it.  That's a another post. 

Memorial Day 2013

After recovering from a 24 stomach bug that swept through the family, we were able to trek out for the area's Memorial Day parade.  Uncle M was driving his fire truck go-cart in the parade and Baba helped wrangle the boys, making it a success.  Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and cool later that day, so the pool was out.

P is sporting his new sports glasses.  We got the transition lenses to go in them so he would have some sunglasses as well.  He picked the bright blue color all by himself.

P still hates loud noises and had his ears covered for half the parade.

As for Tom and I, this was a working weekend.  We needed to have the kitchen painted and ready for the cabinets which were arriving Tuesday morning.  I ended doing a little painting, primarily because Tom was recovering from the stomach bug mid-week (and I am the better painter between us).  God graced us with below average cool temps which made working in the vapor mask comfortable. 

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The great news is I really like the color, and with the exception of the little alcove at the top of the stairs (to the right of the lamp), we are all done painting as far as the kitchen goes.  The alcove I will paint the same red, and we'll replace the old light fixture there too. That means it is time to start on the nursery soon!

A Small Glitch and a Big Win

The kitchen remodel has gone surprisingly well, with one exception: this huge gap in our hardwood floors where the old peninsula was removed during the gut. 

The guys who redid all of our hardwood floors when we moved in came by and didn't sound that encouraging about a quick fix.  In fact, his exact words were "Oh, d#@%".  Turns out the wood is so thin, he doesn't carry it.  He recommended replacing the whole kitchen with new hardwoods for two grand.  No thanks.  Certainly not in our remodel budget at this point.  Waiting to hear back from him as to whether he was able to dig up any matching wood in his warehouse.  Ideally, we also need to fill in the gaps in the hardwood floor in the pantry that had been covered by cabinets, but we could always get a different thickness wood to replace the entire pantry floor since it will be in the closet.

Speaking of pantry, I am on cloud nine with the storage space (big win).  We bought the shelving at Lowes for an astronomical amount of money, and the contractors installed it yesterday.  Whatever you think pantry shelving should cost, triple that amount in your head.  I almost fainted at the register. 

Finally, we just returned from Home Depot with two gallons of Cinnamon Cherry (seen in s a bigger sample above).  The downside is Tom will be doing the painting (in all his free time) from here on out.  Just painting the pantry proved to be a bit harder at this stage of pregnancy than I had anticipated.  I was just too hot wearing my vapor mask.  So that leaves the kitchen walls, ceiling, and nursery on my fantastic husband's to-do list.  I can do some painting, like edge work, but passing on the big jobs for now.

Patrick's Fireman 4th Birthday Party

SOUND THE ALARM- PATRICK IS TURNING FOUR!

We did it!  This Saturday we successfully hosted a lot of 4-year-olds and their moms/dads for P's 4th birthday party at our house.  Without a kitchen.  Thanks be to God for blessing us with a sunny, 77 degree perfect day so the festivities could remain outside.  P had been waiting for this day for some time.  At 7 1/2 months pregnant, I took some shortcuts this round - the cake was ordered and not made by moi, and everyone feasted on pizza.  I did no cooking for this shindig (yet somehow was still exhausted by the time the party rolled around). 

All the printouts were from a digital package I purchased through an  Etsy Shop.

Best deal- the $11 flashing emergency red light (no siren) that I purchased on Amazon.  To keep things simple, the favors were the fire helmets (I ordered nicer ones that would last over the cheap plastic ones)

P wearing his dad's old fire boots and holding his brand new John Deere weed wacker (a huge hit)

We only had one organized game and Tom came up with the idea.  Each kid got one bottle of a travel size shaving cream.  As a group, they ran to three different "fires" set up around the yard and used the "fire foam" to put out the fires.  The kids had a blast doing it.

P playing in his new sandbox.

P's real birthday isn't until the 29th, but he thinks it is this weekend when Tom can take him out to play golf and the pool opens. 

Kitchen Remodel- 2 Week Update

I can't believe we have been kitchen-less for two weeks now, nearly halfway through this remodel.  Here is the primed, ready-to-paint kitchen at the end of work week 2:

 Yippee, I officially have a pantry behind that unfinished door!

 And yes, that is more paint samples on the wall.  I can barely even say the word, but you can guess what I will be doing this week.

Because the granite has a burgundy streak in it (here is a sample piece),  we are limited on our color choices.  These are four wine colored samples from Home Depot's Behr collection.  The far left is my top choice, Cinnamon Cherry (next to it is Dark Garnet, then Chianti, then Wine Tasting).  I am going to paint a bigger sample area tonight to get a sense as to whether a red is the way to go.  I just think a cream would look strange next to the granite that is white and gray.

Thankfully, the worst of the dust is over.  This picture is of the dining room floor Friday evening as I started to clean for P's birthday party.  It was all over the downstairs thanks to little feet that were constantly tracking it everywhere the air didn't carry it.

 

The boys and I are off to Lowes to buy the pantry shelving that the contractors will install, and the cabinets are set to be installed on the 29th.  All appliances have been ordered and I just need to get the hardwood floor guys in to fill in some gaps in the floor where the removed the existing peninsula.  Oh, and the pendant lights are on the way!  Went with this guy to tie in the oil rubbed bronze fixtures:

 

 

Hopefully, I  will get Patrick's birthday photos uploaded this afternoon.

Giddy-Up

One of Patrick's classmate's, S, loves horses, so of course she wanted a pony party.  It just so happens that Tom's mom had a child size suede vest and chaps set, so my little cowboy and I headed out for the party today well equipped for some giddy-upping.  Tommy stayed home with daddy to nap (no naps the prior two days due to the noise going on in the
kitchen).
                          
 Beyond cute, isn't he?  The ladies loved him,  Especially considering he was the only boy from his class there.

 Looking at these pictures, you would think he loved playing the part of cowboy, but not so much.  He almost didn't even get on the pony, and only agreed to try it out after watching all of his classmates take their turns first.  After he got off I asked if he liked it and he said yes.  I asked if he wanted to get in line for a second ride and politely responded, "No thank you, once was enough".   Maybe this is not going to be my riding buddy.  I still have high hopes pinned on either Tommy or baby girl. 

                                                                   Did I mention there were raspberries?

A Sneak Peak at a 50's Kitchen

Now that are kitchen is stripped down to bare bones, I thought I would offer you a little reminder about all that 50's had to offer when it came to kitchen style.

 Day 1, Demo:

 This corner with the red stripe is my future pantry.  Turns out it used to be the first floor powder room, which makes sense since the two existing bathrooms now were put on as additions.

   Check out the bathroom wallpaper, which I actually think is pretty cute in a retro-kind-of-way:

...and the original laminate floor.  If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

At one point the ceiling was apparently wallpapered.  The beige on the walls is a faux beige brick wallpaper. 

Deadlines

Usually it is been baby's expected July arrival that has been my deadline for completing tasks, but today, I have a new one.  At 9:00AM tomorrow morning,  the best contractor around, Mike M, is arriving at our house to take a sledge hammer to this:

Goodbye fluorescent light that looks like a spaceship ready to beam us up.  Goodbye icky cabinets where I found signs of some little mouse activity lately (double ick).  Goodbye brass door handles.

Everything is going.  In the picture above, in the far right corner, you can see the remnants of a old wet bar. That whole area and cabinets  will be ripped out and the corner walled in to create my walk-in pantry.  No big structural changes though.
Am I ready for a full gut and remodel that will last a month?  Nooooooo...  As of 7:00pm tonight, this is how much packing and clearing out I have yet to tackle:

Ridiculous me thought I could clear everything out (because I wasn't packing much, just moving it to other locations around the house) in 5, 6 hours.  I am already 10 hours in, and have another 3 or 4 to go. 

Thank goodness I never got around to unpacking all of our books into the "library", because the empty shelves are now the makeshift pantry for the newt few weeks.  I will be picking up a microwave and toaster oven from a friend in the next few days to add to our new temp mess hall off the living room. 

One project that did get completed (sort of) was replacing the old stair runner with a new one, and adding matching runners to the upstairs and downstairs hallways and entryway.

 This was the entry before:

and after!

My photography skills are still lacking because the rugs look burgundy in these photos when they are actually much closer to a real red.  Tom picked the color and while I was hesitant, I have to admit he did an awesome job.  It looks great with the walls and floors.  Unfortunately, the installers failed to center our runner, and it cannot be pulled off then re-installed, so they have to order us a whole new one.  Oh well. 

P.S.  Did I mention I am having P's 4th birthday party here in just two weeks while we are kitchenless?  One word: PIZZA.