Kid bedroom redo

My dear little boy turns into a teenager next week. Whoa. I know people say this all the time, but how the heck did that happen? I can remember thinking shortly after my divorce that having to be the only parent to him during the times I had him was going to be so very hard. Now we've done it this way for twice as long as he was in a two parent home, and I think things are going pretty well.

When I moved into this little house in a great location, it was listed as a two bedroom house, but the second "bedroom" was the old back porch, which had been added at some point after the house was built. I had someone come in, bump out the back porch area by a few feet and made that area into a conforming bedroom.

It has served Mr W well. He spends most of this time in the living room anyway, since that's where his computer is. But he's been wanting to change things around in his room, so I've taken to Pinterest to look for ideas. His room is very small - 7.5' by about 10', which means we can fit a bed along the short side, but not much else. The ceiling is kind of low as well.

This is what he's got now (please excuse the mess):

He's got a loft bed with space for a chair underneath that he rarely uses. To my left out of the frame is a book case.

While looking at Pinterest, I came across this really neat design, with a bed on a simple low frame with wheels. The bed slides under a platform when not in use, and there's desk space on top. How clever is that? I've looked around, and it seems this is a custom thing. I can buy the frame with the wheels, but am having trouble finding a twin bed sized platform that we could make into that desk space.

But while I'm looking, I come across the website for the company that I bought his loft bed from in the first place. They have this:

This looks kind of like what we have now. This looks like kind of what we have now, with the legs cut shorter. Hey! 

So my clever idea now is to repurpose his existing bed so we can put a desk on top of it. Cut some length off the bottom of the legs, take the ladder off, make it longer by replacing the 2 x 6's with longer ones so the bed slides underneath, and put another full piece of plywood on the top to support a chair and desk. I can probably take the existing railings off and replace them with something a little more open like is shown in the top picture. It's all narrow enough that we'll have to put the desk area at either the head or the foot of the bed, as opposed to along the length of it, but that's totally doable, too. Maybe I'll even paint it...

If this works, it will be much cheaper than having to get new stuff. I wasn't looking forward to having to find a new home for his old bed anyway.

Bad coffee creamer, and a kitchen picture

Here's a finished kitchen picture. I still have to paint the window, but will do that this weekend (I swear). Details include knobs and pulls, which I mentioned the other day, and also to get a smaller microwave. This one is vintage 1990's, if I recall correctly, and was given to us by my former in-laws, with the express purpose of being able to fit big things in it. Microwaves were the up and coming thing at the time. It's a monster, though, and getting a smaller one will free up space on that counter. 

I love the wall color. I hemmed and hawed over this one and several shades lighter, and it was Mr W who said, "I like the darker color". I had considered blues as well, and just couldn't make up my mind. Once this got on the walls, it was clearly a good choice. There is a lot going on between the floor and the tile, and the bold color kind of melts into the background. It's weird, you don't notice it much, which to my mind means it's holding its own. 

Oh, by the way, it was bad coffee creamer. Yuck. And shame on the store for having spoiled stuff that was two weeks before its sell by date. 

In other news, I've been having trouble sleeping. Again. I usually fall asleep OK, and then am up for an hour or so, then am solidly asleep when the alarm goes off. I've been reading about sleep, and I do a lot of it right. Dark room, cool temperature, quiet or white noise, consistent times, and few if any disturbances.

Sally, who has always slept in the living room, has recently been granted access to Mr W's room (at his request) and will fall asleep there when he's at my house. When he's not, she still goes in there but is a little restless, and I can hear her walking by my door sometimes once or twice a night. So that's one thing that wakes me up, but it's not a big deal. 

I did go to the doctor and she said that because of my age, I should get hormone levels tested, which I did and they are normal, so it's all in my head, so to speak. What I mean is that the worry about stupid things that have no real bearing, and also about things that are totally out of my control are the things I need to usher out the door when I lay down to sleep. So I'm going to try to do some meditation work before bed to clear the table, and will see how that goes. 

I do occasionally get a really good night's sleep and the difference I feel is really noticeable. It's the difference between getting all the stuff done that I need to get done and not much more, and feeling like I'm actually living my life as I should. 

In other other news, here's some more new stuff in the Etsy shop:

Upcycled button stack key ring in tan and blue:

Upcycled button bracelet in greens and blues

Happy Thursday! I'm attending a lecture tonight on campus. It's one of the benefits of living in a college town that I don't take advantage of enough.

As requested, more floor pictures

This is my bathroom. Please don't look too close, as there is a lot of construction grit and grime yet on everything.

The bottom of the closet door needs to be planed, so it's still off the hinges. In the picture above, I'm standing in the doorway that's always closed in the kitchen pictures. The bathroom has a whopping 5 x 5 of floor space, and has three doors. The stripes actually do make it feel a little roomier in there, and I figured with all the blue and green in the kitchen, I'd make the floor neutral in the bathroom and eventually paint the walls something else. They are a medium-dark gray at the moment, which doesn't look bad on its own, but doesn't really go with the tans of the floor.

Here's the back hallway. I originally wanted this all the white/light tan but after using so much for the bathroom, there wasn't quite enough. Since I didn't want to change the walls that I recently painted, I let the installer pick the extra non-white tiles and I love how it turned out. The dark rectangle is the heater vent, btw. The baseboards in here will have to be redone, as there is now a 1" gap under the orange walls. 

This is looking down the stairs  to the back door. The stairs look skewed in this picture, but they look just fine. I just love that this area will be easy to clean now. The carpet was really gross. I will need to get rugs with grippers, though, because the floor is nice and smooth. 

The floor tiles are really dull at the moment because they come with a protective finish that I will eventually strip off. I'll then give it a couple of coats of wax and it will really pop. 

I spent a good bit of yesterday starting the backsplash tile. For some reason I thought the space would allow 1/8" joints all over, so I set the first row 1/8" off the counter, and 1/8" between tiles. When I then went to fill in the other rows, I was about 1/2" short of space. Panic!! 

I left the first row in place and have done 1/16" joints instead, which is basically just setting them so they are level and have a bit of space between the rows. I bought the little 1/16" spacers, but they pop out even when I've pushed the tiles together, they look right, and are level. Since the first row of subway tiles has 1/8" spaces horizontally, I'm continuing that and it looks fine. 

I'll post some pictures when it's a little further along. 

New floor and counters

It was a busy week in the kitchen remodeling, and the end is in sight. I took this picture yesterday morning, but the counters were finished yesterday. The floor turned out great, and I really like the feel of the VCT tile. 

Partway through the process, the contractor suggested that we do the bathroom (through that door) and the back hallway (behind me from where I took the picture). I ordered the tile (boxes of 45 pieces) thinking I'd do the bathroom in blue and green and have mostly tan in the kitchen. 

After placing tiles in various patterns, it was clear that I needed to have the white in the mix, otherwise it would be too dark. Further, it looked better if the white and tan ran diagonally across the floor. It kind of evened things out. I also decided I wanted the option of having the bathroom different colors, so had them do alternating stripes of white and tan. 

The back hallway was supposed to be all white, to match with the orange-yellow walls that I had recently painted. Since I used so much white, they popped in a few tan and a couple of green tiles in random spots and it looks great (fun but not overwhelming). 

When I first saw the finished kitchen floor, I thought "I love it!" Then I thought, "when it comes time to sell, will this be a bad thing?" Then I remembered seeing several pins on Pinterest showing how to paint vinyl floors. This covers all the bases for me - I can enjoy my busy colorful floor, and if I get tired of it, or if I ever sell the house and the buyers want it changed, I can paint it tan (or whatever). 

The speed and ease with which they did the floors (one day to tear out and put down new subfloor, one day to lay the new tiles) makes me very glad I had them do the bathroom and back hallway. It's so solid, and it is DONE. The new floors will serve for a long time. I had been intending to tear up the carpet in the back hallway for months, and had managed to rip up the edges, but that's about it. They had it, as well as the indoor/outdoor carpet underneath that, out in about an hour. I know this because I went to work that day, came back to the house 90 minutes later, and it was done.

The rest of the pieces should come together next week. Appliances delivered, sink and faucet hooked up, trim put back. 

Mr W asked what I was going to put in the space between the tops of the cupboards and ceiling. I don't know yet, so he's taken it upon himself to make some color-coordinated action figures out of the many Bionicle pieces he's got in his collection. So I'll have several kitchen guardians in place, and he gets to feel like he's contributed a little something to the process. Yes, I'll take pictures.

The delay continues

It's been a week-long pause now, since my new kitchen cabinets were installed and anything else has happened. I emailed the contractor and he's trying, but hasn't been able to get an installation schedule yet for the floor and counters.

I'm trying not to get too annoyed here, but I'm tired of doing my dishes in the bathtub. It seems to me that the floor/counter sales person knew that the job was happening, and even if my final choices weren't made (due partly to his lack of communication) he should have scheduled the installers' time.

In other news, Mr W's had his first cross country meet yesterday. He's just started up this running thing again, and it's been a challenge because it's been so hot since school started. They actually called off school on Friday because of the heat. The schools just haven't been able to get cooled off at night. Crazy. He's doing great, though. I keep telling him that the person he's racing against is the runner he was when he started two weeks ago. 

I've been getting inspired for making new jewelry, and ordering supplies. Yesterday I put in orders for watch parts, buttons and some other new dangly things that are going to look great. I signed up for two craft shows this fall, over the first weekend of November and first weekend of December. That will give me some Christmas spending money, and it seems I get motivated with a goal like having to have stuff ready for a craft show. 

I've done yoga twice a week for the last two weeks and I'm really glad I've started. Yesterday we did these balance on one leg and lean forward things and I couldn't really do them. And having to sit on your feet, so the top of your foot is completely on the floor and you sit on the soles of your feet, is impossible for me right now. But it will get better. Gotta start where I am, just like the kid.

And we wait

Things are looking good in the kitchen. The cabinets are in and I've waited for two days now for the counter top people (who are also the flooring people) to schedule a time to come in and do the counters. This does not come as a surprise to me. The salesperson at the flooring/counter store has been in no hurry at all to follow up with what I've wanted. I definitely won't recommend his company in the future. Hopefully today I'll hear something.

But I love the cabinets. The color is lovely and there is a ton of storage space. That's a wine rack to the left of the hole for the dishwasher. There was a bit of miscommunication about that, where it was originally a wine rack, then the contractor said we could make it into a space for cookie sheets, and then it ended up a wine rack. That's fine. I'll buy some wine. 

I've been super busy at work with a load of timed experiments that have to happen on mosquitoes that are 3-7 days old. It's been go go go since last Friday with that, but today should be the last day. The results are good and interesting and I've got boxes full of tubes of dead mosquitoes that died after a certain amount of time exposed to insecticides, so that's very good. 

I did apply for the university job and turned in my application yesterday. That also was a lot of work, and although I had a month to work on it, I did most of it in the last few days. I'm satisfied that the application (cover letter, CV, research statement, teaching statement) represents my qualifications and experience adequately, so that's good. It will be interesting to see if I even get an interview. I need to tell my boss and his boss that I put them down as references. I know they'll understand because it's a really good opportunity, but I still feel a little smarmy doing it.

And it's been hot this week. Mr W's school is not air conditioned, so they've got these huge fans moving air through, and they keep the lights down. I know I can't do anything about it except make sure he's got his water bottle, and I do.

Hopefully now that the timed experiments are winding down, the application is in, and the kitchen is almost done, things will feel like they are less rushed.

The beginning of cabinets

As someone mentioned to me, it really starts looking like a kitchen once the cabinets start going in.

I would like to say here and now that I LOVE the cabinets, which is a good thing because I don't think there's any going back on this part of it. I'm not sure if they will drill holes for knobs, but right now it's all smooth. You can see the corner where I got a lazy susan. I think that makes good use of the space. For some reason, the original layout had both corners (this one and the one to my left as I took the photo) with 8" doors and then about three feet of space into the corner. It's lots of storage, but a small opening. Now, it's just the one corner to my left that's like that. Design restriction, I guess.

When I got to work yesterday, it occurred to me that they would likely hang the upper cabinets, so I called the contractor and asked if I should come home and get the tile out that I bought for the backsplash. I also told him he was welcome to gather it in the three spots I had stored the boxes, and gave a very detailed text as to the order. This is it! Well, turn it 90 degrees and it is it. I love this, too. It'll be 18" of tile all together. 

I came home yesterday and the window was gone, replaced with plastic sheeting. There are more cabinets that got put up yesterday, but again it's too dark in there this morning yet to take photos. There's also a spec sheet for the sink I picked, so it's probably in the garage. 

Squee!

Something I hadn't considered

I've been having some back and hip pain lately. Stiffness, mostly. I have wanted to incorporate some stretching into my exercise routine, but just have not managed to do so. I did morning yoga with the PBS lady for about a year, but it's been five years. No wonder I'm stiff.

In the minor upheaval that has been August, where my kitchen is being remodeled, I have closed my Etsy shop to work on new things, suspended my banjo lessons and am very busy at work, I also did not sign up for another three months of the spinning class I've been faithfully going to twice a week for almost the last three years because I need to structure that stretching time.

I went over to one of the local health clubs in town and signed up for a month to month membership because they offer spinning, yoga, and a couple of other group fitness things. There are several classes to choose from most days, and I live about the same distance from the north and the central locations, so I get even more choices. I haven't told my spin ladies that I'm leaving yet, but this is the right decision for me at this time.

I had an evaluation by one of their trainers. They did a strength test (meh), flexibility (it was so low, she had to do it twice), and cardio. The cardio had me step up and down on a stool for three minutes to the timing of a metronome, then she took my heart rate. I came out on the high end of "very good", which made me happy. I may be overweight and not flexible, but my heart is good.

Well, I went to my first yoga class last night. It was called "Deep Stretch Yoga". Holy cow. I knew I was tight around my hips and back, but man-o-man, I had no idea how much. I was late because I got stopped by a train, something that is sadly common in that part of town during rush hour, and sort of ducked in, grabbed a mat and followed along. I loved this class. They freely use props like foam support blocks, folded blankets, and pillow bolsters for support in the poses. You just shim in what you need and try to hold the pose for the 3 minutes or so. It was AWESOME! She worked on some relaxation stuff and breathing. It was all I had hoped. I will stop gushing now.

Here's a kitchen picture from two days ago. Yesterday they started on cabinets, but it's not light enough in there yet today to take a picture (no lights).

The plaster on the walls and ceiling is done and it is smooth and lovely. The rest of the house has old lathe and plaster, some covered with wall paper, so the smooth texture fits with the rest of it. They got the old gas line out as well. 

I need to take some garden pictures. I've been very pleased with the big zinnias and Black Eyed Susans I've planted from seed, and will do even more cut flower varieties next year. I really like having a little bouquet on the table. This was taken on the window they will be replacing soon, hence all the debris.

Plaster and drywall and pediatrician frustration

The plasterers and drywallers (Do they have better names? I don't know) have been in and here is what my kitchen looks like this morning. It was very plaster-y-wet smelling Friday night into Saturday, but it has dried and looks good. 

I thought they'd be putting drywall over everything, but they are plastering most of it, so that the original door frames and baseboards will still stick out, so to speak. I hadn't realized that, and am glad it will be this way. 

The ceiling had to be dropped about 5 inches so they could easily get the electric wires everywhere they needed to go. A big plus there is that all of the wiring in the kitchen will be new, including separate breaker switches for a couple of the appliances. 

So it's going. I'm a little weary of the disruption, but it will be OK. Mr W will be with his dad this week and that will make logistics easier. His first day of school is tomorrow, but he's got Cross Country practice today. 

I'm a little miffed at his doctor's office, who I need to sign a medical release form so he can practice with the CC team. He just decided/I just brought it up last Wednesday, and the Dr.'s office wants five business days to sign the form saying he's had a physical in the last year. I faxed the form to them last Thursday, with a note asking if they could please rush it, and heard nothing. I called this morning to ask about it, was on hold for 10 minutes, talked to someone briefly who said they had not processed it, and got put into voicemail again. I'm thinking that if this is their normal operating procedure, it ain't workin' for me. I've looked over the website for another group of pediatricians in town and I think we will be switching. I don't need the frustration.

Shuffle

No new kitchen pictures today. They've installed a new ceiling and put in the wiring, but the room doesn't look much different. I met with the flooring person here yesterday and don't know how they'll manage to get it all done in the time window the contractor planned for.

We are reasonably comfortable, though. Sally has been dropped off at the local doggie day care, and I don't think she minds too much, although she'd rather sleep on my bed all day (me too, now that I think of it). Mr W's been shuttled over to his dad's house. And while that has come with some drama, as they've got a new puppy and Mr W grows weary of the responsibility, I was very proud of the kid for coming up with a plan that involved tethering the dog to the tree in the yard, and camping out close by with his computer. They just stayed outside most of the day.

I have felt really busy lately. Not quite frantic, but overextended and hoping I don't forget something that has to be done. Most certainly not enjoying the ride. And my back has hurt lately. It is, I believe, related to my old hip injury, which has left me with a stiff back a lot of the time. Stretching helps a lot, but I don't do it regularly enough.

I've also not been finding the time to practice my banjo. The last two weeks have been so hectic that I either forget, or put it off until the end of the day and then decide not to do it.

I have decided to shuffle the deck a bit.

I've suspended my banjo lessons for a month or so. Also, when it was time to sign up again for another three months of spin class yesterday, I did not. I'm going to join a local health club that has a lot of group fitness options, as well as yoga and "body flow" type classes. My employer will reimburse me up to $30 a month for a health club, so I'm going to give that a go for three months. I'm hoping it will make my back feel better.

Last thing is that I'm going to close my Etsy shop until the end of September. I haven't made anything new for a while, and will use the time to get my stock back up and think up some new things. My muse did visit a couple of months ago, and I need to follow up. I hate feeling like "OK, I've got an hour and a half to be creative, then I have to go to Target". That shuts down the process pretty fast for me.

It is amazing to me how these things mill around in my headspace for a long time, and then - bam - it's time to do it and the decisions come easily. Especially the banjo. I feel guilty for not keeping that up, but I just need to throw my free time up into the air and reschedule it.

I leave you with a recent picture. I can't remember what I called the post, but I wrote a few months ago about the people who empty my garbage.  They regularly leave the bin right in my driveway so I have to get out of my car and put the thing away before I can pull in. I thought it was accidental, but now think otherwise.

Kitchen demo complete

In the course of about nine hours, the crews came and took everything but the floor out of my kitchen. Above you can see the gas line for the stove, which will be relocated to the wall that is on my left from where I took this picture. 

I am THRILLED that they were able to take down the drop ceiling and now I've got a 9' ceiling in there. It feels bigger. The plan is to get a ceiling fan and light for the center of the room. 

They won't be able to use the wood floors that are under the vinyl, as everything was glued to the floor and it's not really worth the hassle. In the photo above, you can see how they ran the electric through the dropped ceiling. My contractor said they'd either go through the attic to run those wires, or make something on top of the cabinets (which won't go to the ceiling). Either is OK with me. 

We did talk about running the VCT (vinyl composition tiles) into the bathroom, which is through the narrow door in the top picture. The sheet vinyl runs continuously in there as it is now, and despite the extra expense, it's probably a good idea to do the floor in the bathroom. While they're at it, the contractor suggested they do the back hallway as well (only another 40 square feet). These additional little side things make me nervous because of the extra expense, but they are things that need to be done, and since the professionals are there, might as well take advantage of that, right? 

I'm going to work today. The project I'm working on involves rearing lots of mosquitoes and I need to go in an identify larvae. There's two similar species and we only want one of them, so I'll weed out the other by doing this.

Day One of Kitchen Remodel

Not much to see yet except a bare kitchen, but here's a "before" picture that will show the changes. Demolition begins today!

How can a person generate so many orphan tupperware lids? They got recycled.

Note the shallow sink, the short, shallow and stained counter tops, pitted floor and window (oops, you can't see it but it's there) that is held open with a small wooden spoon.

Let the games begin!

Flooring

I'm almost done deciding on things for the kitchen renovation. It's been fun, but also kind of nerve wracking, despite deciding that I'm picking things for me, instead of for the next people that live here (whenever that may be).

When it came time to decide on flooring, I liked the look of Marmoleum. It's pretty green, environmentally because it's like linoleum, but hipper. Here's an example:

I like the speckles, and I like how it comes in 12" squares, and so a person could make a pattern or a mix of colors and that might be interesting. Marmoleum is about $6-7 a square foot, and ended up being out of my price range. 

Then I found some other, commercial vinyl tiles called Azrock. I have to buy a case, which covers about 45 square feet, so am looking at getting these three colors and mixing them into a random pattern with a little more of the tan than the green or blue:

I'm waiting on a price, but it's supposed to be in the $2-3 a square foot range. The tan matches the cabinet color really well, and the other colors compliment the counter and backsplash tile. 

A note from a past self

I'm cleaning out cupboards in preparation for the kitchen demo that happens Thursday. It's not too bad, but I had one shelf that held bits of this and that and stuff I intended to file away or do something with. I found a notebook that I used to carry around in my purse. It had a quote that I had copied from, it says, the ceiling of a local coffee shop. Here it is:

"Life is about discovering and accepting yourself. Life is about stepping outside your boundaries and believing that you can. It is about following your dreams and knowing you are capable of achieving all that you desire. It is about recognizing possibilities and taking risks. Life is about loving, enjoying and being active in every sense. It is about appreciating the people, community and nature surrounding your being. Life is." Stacy Page

Isn't that nice? A little food for thought.

Sink and faucet choices

The choices are bewildering, but I have made my sink and faucet selections.

Here's the sink, Wheatland by Kohler. I really wanted the two different sized bowls so dishes can be rinsed on their way to the dishwasher (when I use the dishwasher), leaving a nice big bowl for filling pots or whatever.

That's a very unexciting picture, I'm realizing. The holes are kind of weirdly set on the sink, so I picked a one-handle faucet with a sprayer that can be put in that corner hole.

It's not green, but a stainless steel finish. 

Getting these decided was a lot of work! Glad it's done.

So those countertops? Here's what I'm thinking.

Well, I finally (FINALLY) got the counter top estimates. It took entirely too long. As many would have guessed, the Cambria manufactured stone I really liked is twice as expensive as laminate. I took a good hard look at what I wanted and how much money I had and the Cambria just isn't worth it.

But that's not bad news. I'm a person that likes color, and once a person is freed from the constraint of having something look like/ be like stone, it's a big bright world out there. To review, I love this glass tile:

It is pricey ($35 a sheet) so I will cut it into three strips (vertically in this photo) that measure 4" x 12" and lay them end to end to have a 4" high strip running parallel to the counter, with two rows of white subway tile above and below the colored tile strip. To match the Cambria, I was going to border it with 1" strips of 1" x 3" clear blue tile, but now I'm not sure about that. As far as installation goes (which I'm going to do myself) it might be better to have 6" of glass tile (or thereabouts, with joints) so that I cut less subway tile (which measures 3" x 6", and there's usually 18" of backsplash space). (Lots of parentheses in this paragraph).

OK, so now what to do for countertops? Nevamar has many, many kinds of laminate to choose from. And if one is not trying to make it look like stone, as I am repeating, one can have some fun with the choice. Here's what I'm thinking:

There will still be plenty of white because the backsplash is mostly white, but I thought this would be a fun choice. It's called Extreme Bamboo Green.

Here's another picture of it:

So then this leaves me with new decisions as to sink color and faucet color. I thought ivory for the sink and a dark faucet, but will need to try to picture in my mind how it will all look. 

I just saw this color palette on Pinterest today - lovely!!

Very close

Well, the date for the demo of my kitchen has been set, and my contractor has put together a schedule that runs over about two weeks, where they will hopefully be able to get in and get out as quickly as possible. 

We have run into a little snag with the countertops, and it remains to be seen whether this will affect the schedule. When I met with the guy, it was my recollection that I had asked for prices on the Cambria, and the sales person did not have that recollection. I'm trying to be fair about this, but after a couple of weeks, I sent an email to my contractor, specifying what I wanted estimates for. He forwarded this email to the sales person. Still I heard nothing. Finally, early this week, I get an email from the sales person asking when I can come in and finalize choices. I say I'd like prices before I come in again. He says I didn't choose anything that he could give an estimate on. I reference my email with specifics. I hear nothing. 

Then we set up a meeting for yesterday (Saturday), and I figure he's got a few days to get the estimates. Then it's Friday (the day before) at 2 pm, and I don't have the numbers. I send yet another email saying I will not meet Saturday without seeing numbers ahead of time because (I mean, did I really need to spell it out?) I didn't want to see the numbers for the first time there in the showroom and feel pressured to make a decision there and then. Geez.

So he emails again yesterday morning, saying he'll have numbers by the end of the day Monday. I don't know if they'll be able to fabricate the counters in time, but I guess that's my contractor's conundrum now.

Grr. I'm getting frustrated just thinking about it. It'd be great if he came forward and said, "Oops, I didn't see that email where you asked for prices very specifically." But it will all work out.

I bought a new stove and a dishwasher yesterday. Of course, that has a story, too. I thought I would do a good turn and shop locally for the appliances, so I hopped online and went the downtown appliance store's website. I cross referenced the Consumer Reports recommendations with what the appliance store offered, and selected the stove above (a Frigidaire, gas, self cleaning, convection oven) and a dishwasher. For some reason CR likes expensive dishwashers, and I thought one shouldn't cost more than the stove, so I looked at models and then went down a couple of steps. Like the guy at the store said, if you're the kind of person that scrapes dishes before they go in the dishwasher, most of them will do a great job.

So I go into the store with my choices, and the sales person says, "Oh, yes, well that's a third party website, and we don't have control over those numbers." Pause. I raise my eyebrows in disbelief. She says they've been trying to get it changes so the site doesn't show prices, because (get this) the site shows the very lowest prices, on par with larger stores. Umm, OK. But she was able to sell them to me at those prices, and after a couple hundred dollars more for delivery, installation and hauling away my old stove, I've got shiny new appliances that will be delivered when they are needed. I'm keeping my fridge until it doesn't work anymore and I don't care that it is white an these are stainless. So there.

As I'm writing, I think that I should mention this or that, but this post is already pretty long, so more later. Hope you have a nice Sunday!

This and that

Tis the season for rainbows. We get just a touch monsoonal here in CO in July and August. A bit more humid, and a pretty good chance of rain or gusty cloudy stuff in the afternoon. This one is out my back door. 

Not much new to report on the kitchen remodel front. Apparently a lot of people are getting their houses updated, and I'm still waiting on the cabinets to come in. I'm also waiting back (tomorrow it will be a month, which I think is absurd) to hear about the estimate for the countertops. I don't know what the hold up would be there, as they've got the drawings and all. I haven't changed my mind again, but did ask them to give me an estimate for laminate while they were at it. 

I visited one appliance store in town, thinking I'd just pick out a gas range and dishwasher, and couldn't. I left, saying "I don't know enough to make a decision". So I was able to get a one month (it will renew automatically if I don't cancel - just like the dating site!) subscription to Consumer Reports, and checked out stoves and dishwashers there. Their favorite dishwashers are around $1000, so I'm going to have to go with a less favorite one there. It'll be nice to have one for when I cook something big. I haven't had a dishwasher for the 8 years I've lived here, so it will be a treat. If it didn't add value to the kitchen, I probably wouldn't, but I'm glad I get to have one. Also looking forward to having a real stove hood that vents outside. 

I'm finally starting to sleep better. Mr W was away and camp and it exacerbated the fact that I had not been sleeping well for several weeks, perhaps the lead up to said camp. I wasn't sure why, but I had this undercurrent of anxiety about having him go away to camp for a week, even though he and I had visited, and I was OK with everything about the camp. I psychoanalyzed myself about it, and discovered it symbolized the start of him eventually growing up and leaving. Isn't that the pisser about good parenting? If you do it right, you raise a person you love to be with, and they are supposed to leave. *sigh*. 

He had a good time, btw. I wonder how much I talked about all the ins and outs the time I went off to summer camp around 6th grade. I've gotten some highlights, but will have to ask more questions if I want to know more.

I hope to post a little more regularly, and if you are one of the folks who reads these sporadic posts, I appreciate it. :-)

Hello there Muse, it's been a while

I've been in a creative slump for a few months. Not really inspired to make anything new and list it in my Etsy shop. Part of this is because the stuff isn't selling that fast and I have a good inventory of my bracelets, so don't feel compelled to make more of those. I think what I need there is to get more advertising, and I'm working on that.

Since I got my hair cut short, I've been wearing earrings more, and it seems that the earrings I have are lovely, but I want some larger pairs. Hey, I can make some myself, right? Sure. So I hopped on Pinterest and found a few things I liked (here is the link to that Pinterest board if you want the original sources):

Making my own jump rings used to intimidate me, but my skills are a little better and I think I could do the above design with a combo of vintage buttons and my polymer clay buttons. 

I really like these. They induced a mild forehead-smacking moment where I said, why don't I make my clay buttons really thin (and therefore just decorative for this purpose) and then I can stack them like this in cool colors and textures? It's a very simple design, and I need a little file to make the earring wires out of the wire I have, but it's totally doable. 

So I've got some ideas that I'll try tomorrow between bouts of paint scraping, and over the weekend. I'm finally seeing progress on removing the old peeling paint from the porch and am almost ready to sand it, wash it and paint it again. I will be so very glad when it's over. It (speaking of forehead smacking moments) occurred to me that if the paint was hard to remove in a few spots, it's probably not going anywhere and could be painted over with the super-duper thick deck miracle paint I saw advertised at the orange home store. 

And tomorrow Mr W and I will go see the fireworks. Last year they were cancelled because it was so dry and we had just gotten over the large fire in the area. Well, they were postponed, but I then forgot about it until we heard the booms from the house on Labor Day. My dear son is going off to sleepover camp next week, and I dropped a bunch of money yesterday at the gear shop and got him a decent pair of hiking boots, as well as some good socks and a headlamp. The camp is only about an hour away, but they are off the grid, so if it were me, I'd want a good headlamp with extra batteries for sure :-)

Finally, I received the square foot samples of the Cambria countertops and as I suspected, the Waterford is truly lovely. On a total whim, and because like a blue jay or crow I am attracted to shiny things, I impulsively ordered a sample of Parys:

I got it out of the box and said, "Ooooooohhhhh. It's so pretty." One nice thing about Cambria is that it's all the same price, so the sparkly ones don't cost more. Parys is like Waterford in that they've got the same color of blue chips, except Parys has more. They are iridescent and not at all overwhelming or over the top as I had thought they would be. There isn't any tan in this at all, but it goes fine with the maple cabinets and the grey actually matches the "white" in the multicolored glass tile (click on the Waterford link above to see that if you'd like). So it's either Waterford of Parys and both are really nice. 

Hope your holiday is grand!

We have a winner. For the moment.

Well, the vast array of choices has been kind of daunting, but I think I found a way to make the two things I really liked go together.

This is the backsplash tile I like. It's $35 a sheet, so I will be cutting each sheet into three strips, which makes it a better deal:

It was/is really important to me (for some reason) to not get locked into one color for the walls, and I wanted tile that gave me that flexibility. I'm a blue-green nut, so this tile gives me the choice of those two, plus olive green, or khaki for the walls. Or white, but that's not really an option :-) This picture is oriented so I'd cut the tile into strips vertically, and then could orient them one of two ways, so I've got 6 different strips. 

OK, then I loved this countertop, Waterford by Cambria. The blue flecks are bluer than the blues in the tile, though. I blew it up XL so maybe the flecks will show. These pictures never do justice to the real thing. 

So my solution to bring these together is to get sheets of this:

I ordered samples of about six different shades that are close to this, and will pick the one that goes with the blue flecks in the countertop. It should go with other glass tile (hopefully). I'll then use this as a 1"border (i.e. cut a sheet into 12" strips) applied to the top and bottom of the 4" x 12" piece of the multicolored glass tile. The rest will be (much cheaper) white ceramic subway tile.

That's the plan, anyway. If I wait too long to order, I'll start considering other options, so once I've got the light blue tile picked out, I should just commit and order the glass tile and counters. 

Another thing that was important for me was to make the shapes of the tile easy to work with, because I haven't done a lot of tile setting and didn't want to have to rent a saw to get it done. I think I'll be able to cut any pieces by hand. Carefully. 

In other news, yesterday was my birthday, and I had kind of a trying morning continuing to remove paint from my front porch so that I may repaint it, BUT, had a fabulous rest-of-day. Went out to dinner with friend D, who is also remodeling, and we talked about cabinets, flooring etc. Then I went to an outdoor production of A Midsummer's Night Dream with some other friends and that was really fun. I feel blessed and grateful.