Glad you got the right insurance co finally. Maybe.

I'm enamored with the idea of chickens running around, but I know that the whole host of problems they'd cause would far outweigh any benefit I'd personally get. Glad you've got a workable plan to keep them at bay.

I got the balance of the wires for the UCL placed today. (easy) And the Rev-A-Shelf undersink pull out towel rack mounted (PITA!)

Some of the reason the towel rack was hard was because my tools are strewn around everywhere. I can find one enormous phillips head screwdriver and one teeny-tiny one. I can not blame MIL for this ;) I can blame her son. He gave them to me, the least he can do is put them back. (Okay, so I found one flat blade squirreled away in the wrong place by me.)

The other reason it was so difficult is a crappy design and/or instructions. Last step: "Hold slide over marked hole locations and install towel holder with four Phillips head screws provided." What they don't mention, besides that fact that you're likely contorting yourself under the sink as I was, is that the bars don't remove. So the front two screws have to be mounted using something with either a very skinny shaft or very, very short shaft.

At the time, all I could find is the giant phillips. Too big all around. And the drill bits. I started using JUST the phillips bit, tightening with my hand to get them started so I didn't have to hold the unit up. Then every once in a while I'd let go of something and the screw or drill bit would drop into the channel which it was nearly impossible to get things out of once it's mounted (easier when you could turn upside down and shake). I went to get a magnet to get stuff out. But I neglected to think: a) the magnet was small enough to fit into the channel too, and b) the whole unit was chrome so the magnet STUCK to the inside of the channel.

I finally found the wonderful screwdriver I've used for almost everything I've done through the kitchen reno. It came with my Nest thermostat. I keep it in my pencil cup on my desk. Except this time it wasn't there. I looked around and found it and it was small enough to work.

I got it mounted and ALMOST thought the door wouldn't close (yeah, should have checked that...didn't realize the bars stuck out so far in front of the unit that mounts). It barely closes. Also, it doesn't slide as freely as it did. I'm blaming a combo of me digging around in the tracks trying to dislodge various objects and the wood shavings from drilling and screwing getting in there as well.

So now there's SOMEWHERE to hang a towel. I want somewhere out too, but can't decide where/what/how yet and we're ending up with clumps of towels left on the counter...not good. I washed them today and am hanging them to dry. I'm going to go get some Command hooks and try a couple ideas.

Now, I have to clean up my messes. I have stuff everywhere. Stuff I took out of the cabinets for these endeavors, wood shavings, and tools.

Hair appt at 1pm. That's all the plans I have for the weekend. Took about 2 weeks off from job#2 for the start of school. It's very freeing.

Been looking at recipes for sweet stuff. I think I'm going to make some peanut brittle and some ice cream later.

Here is a link that might be useful: rev a shelf evil towel rack

I've got a pocket door to my laundry room. It's never closed because the kitty box is in there. Since they're working in there I shut it. Oops. Apparently when I painted that entire side of the house last year I never painted that stupid door. On the list it goes. I have to prime and paint the laundry room anyway. Right now it's a sickly yellow and it has no windows so no color sample looks good in there. I'm going to prime it white and then decide on a color.

Hi all
Internet access tonight in Kananaskis, so just checking in to say hi!
Obviously, no progress on the garden or house but continue our cycling trip from Jasper to Whitefish.
Weather has been cool and the sun and wildlife have been allusive.
3 more days of riding until our rest day in waterton.

Cal- brave award.
Christine- pocket doors rock. We did one for our pantry and added a motion sensor light.
Schick- way to stay after the insurance peeps.
Freeman- you rock! I am sure I missed a picture in week 13

Well, that didn't do anything. The cruddy policy my agent came up with is only for stated hazards, and collapse or contractor issues are not in there. Back to looking into attorneys...

I am channeling terri this weekend. I didn't mention that I cooked last night (rare). I made tacos. It was my first big cooking experience on the new range. DH also got a copper pan and I used that to brown the meat. I almost wish I'd used my old pan, and I may next time...just to see what the range does vs. the pan. But WOW it was a really different experience. I had cooking ground beef down to a science on the old range because it required an elaborate routine of rotating things into the center of the pan where it was hottest. With the new combo...totally even cooking. Little bubbles everywhere. Amazing.

I've also made chocolate ice cream this afternoon (about to put it into the ice cream maker) and I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies tonight, I think.

I was going to make peanut brittle but don't have corn syrup. I read about tapioca syrup as a replacement and since we're going to Whole Foods tomorrow (not near by) I'll look for it there.

Everyone is staying busy - good for everyone! I'm still unmotivated but did work on my glass insert today. Nothing like 11th hour pressure. Contractor comes back Monday to complete things which includes installing insert. Went to big box store today to get some molding supplies. Wait till contractor sees I want him to install it like a window insert that I have elsewhere. Window sill and all. Oh well, we'll both get thru it, but I'm so unmotivated to finish my part. Guess that's why I chose never to do production work. The piece is so simple and easy; at another time, I could have started and completed in one allnighter.

I've been trying to quit smoking before some upcoming surgery. DH and I both quit a few weeks ago. He's doing fantastic, I'm really struggling. My acupuncturist on vacation...l-o-n-g week ahead for me.

I also made some chocolate chip cookie dough in preparation to try out my oven this week. Expecting the hood (and pot filler) to be installed so I can finally prep the oven for use. This will be the third time the pot filler position will be moved so I better be absolutely sure. I'd be perturbed at me too! They'll need to pull the stove out to install. The countertop is sooo tight to the stove; I don't see any wiggle room to scoot the stove out without chipping the countertop edge. I'll be stressed out the ying-yang over that, I'm beginning to wonder if I should just leave the house altogether during that time.

No matter how i feel, I better drag myself to the gym in the morning. Need a better frame of mind to get thru the week

Well Mags, you've come quite far..just make it one hour at a time, it'll turn into half a day, then the other half, then a full day, week, month!
I applaud the desire to put it behind you and win! I'm rooting for you!

Hmmm my super big accomplishment today was taking Mr.'s 17(K#2)and 14(K#3)shopping. I have NEVER taken them before. They went to an elementary that had uniforms. Then we just knew their sizes and their needs and brought it to them. But the younger has literally grown a foot in a year, and the older is "changing" his style.
First stop shoes, gave them a price range #3 maxed it on one pair, #2 got two on clearance and then we tossed in a new backpack for #3. It was rather painless.
Then off to Costco for a backpack for #2, some chino pants for each and they grabbed some shirts.
They were done.. Lol..
So dropped #3 off at the high school with hubby for youth football and #2 and I headed to lunch and home.
I apparently have some online shopping in my near future. ;)

This evening we purchased some gel stain and more Poly. I have an old oak bedroom set that is getting a "new" look. I will start with the headboard since we just brought it over from the other house tonight and it's my least favorite part of the set. If I don't like, no loss...
Dinner was reheated leftovers from yesterday. Ground turkey enchiladas, spanish rice and refried beans(canned) but not usually.

I'm happy to hear others are in their kitchen cooking happily away!

Terri- I'm envious of your school clothes shopping. I've got 4 girls. The oldest is entering 2nd grade but she's never cared about clothes that much so when I take her it more of a "yeah, that looks good" attitude. Number 2 is starting kindergarten this year and she is my girly girl diva.

Grandma takes each grandchild on a big shopping spree when they enter kindergarten so Grandma, me, and my 5 year old went shopping the other day. She had to try EVERYTHING on to make sure it looked good. In the end she got 14 new shirts, 14 pants/skirts mix, 4 new pairs of shoes and 10 new pairs of cute socks and she was upset that she couldn't try on the socks in the store to make sure they looked good with her outfit.

Oy ve, I'm in trouble with that one!!!!

As far as progress on my part, when we built the new addition for my kitchen, we used the space{{gwi:807}} for the old kitchen to expand the mud room/laundry room and we created a nice walk in pantry. We left the tile that was in the mudroom alone but ripped out all the old tile from the kitchen.

Since we expanded, my mudroom floor has looked like this
{{gwi:1934057}}

We finally used some left over tile today to finish out the flooring in there and, as of tonight it looks like this

{{gwi:1934058}}Yay!!!!

Now I need advice. Pre-GW days I would have just gone with "grout" I wasn't even aware that there were different colors.

We need to remove the old grout from the existing tiles and regrout the entire floor. We already have the light colored grout that's already there but after looking at the tiles set and seeing the dark lines in between, I'm thinking it would look really nice to have a dark grout for contrast. Plus, that floor is, let's face it, constantly dirty and I am getting tired of scrubbing grout with a toothbrush so my clean floor will look clean.
What do you think? Should I go with a dark grout instead since this room is a workhorse room? It houses the washer and dryer, the laundry/clean up sink and the entrances from both the back yard and the garage so it sees a lot of traffic.

Let me know if you think dark would be good.

Bonus (unrelated) pic
We had a thunderstorm roll through tonight. It cleared up just as the sun was setting and I went out to feed the dogs and snapped this pic. I thought it looked cool.

This post was edited by Texas_Gem on Sun, Aug 17, 14 at 1:16

The microwave has been replaced.

And then they found this in my living room ... it's a vintage outlet box. An example of the superior craftsmanship of older homes.

The annoying thing is that someone dug it out, installed a 3-prong outlet, and then buried it again.

Wow, everything is coming along!
A2 Hope you are having a great trip so far!
Texas, 4 girls! Yikes! I'd prefer dark grout only so I don't have to see the dirt. LOL I'd know it's there but it wouldn't bother me not seeing it because it's supposed to be dark.
Terri, I have 2 boys and only one is into the shopping. He's only 12!
Schicksal, man, that sucks about the insurance! Someone has to accept some responsibility here!
CEF, good work on the fence. Will the cats crawl under or through it? I didn't know chickens rolled around in the dirt.
Christina222, I could use a pocket door on my laundry room but I don't think it would work. Maybe I just need quieter machines. LOL

Well, the 9 yo and I ran a 5k last night and I saw him at the start, then he wanted to go ahead and I saw him when he made the turn and was going back and I saw him at the end. He had me beat I bet by 400m! We had fun! Rain seems imminent, so I'm not sure I'll be staining my gate today. I do have a TON of indoor stuff to do, but I think I'll just hang with the boy, because later tonight or tomorrow he'll be going to his Dad's for 2 weeks. The older boy is in Cincinnati with his Dad at a soccer tournament, but I think they are out now.

lazygardens, that's a wild old outlet. Many things hidden in my walls too, none that interesting.

MGMum 5k! Impressed. Actually, I'm impressed by any running. Walking only here.

Texas Gem I'd go with dark grout. Charcoal or dark brown as would suit the rest of the environ. Life is too short.

Mags hang in there on the quitting. I lost my mom at 16 years ago at 70 to emphysema. I miss her everyday. I look at all the things that have come about in those years since and I wish she could have seen them. Both personally and the world in general.

Terri glad the school shopping wasn't too painful.

Plans changed somewhat for today. I'm looking forward to them but also starting the stress-ramp-up of heading into the first five-day-student-week. Too much cooking channel tivo'd stuff yesterday. We're going to go to the farmers market in Hollywood (it's huge, we've walked through when we've happened upon it before but never been to buy) and go get 'the best burger in LA' according to some annoying gal on TV...but it looked really good. Actually, I think the idea for both stops came from her show. We'll likely hit a Whole Foods as well.

Other than that and going out to water before we go, it's got to be all school work (which I've already been doing for 2.5 hours or so).

Another dark grout vote!

Finished #3 online this morning.
Mentioned to #2 we had to finish for him.."what we have to go shopping again?" Lol..no son, online.."oh, phew" lol

#3 and Dad are moving the corner unit and the big TV to the garage right now for them to have a game room, yesterday we moved our old love seat and ottoman in there from Grandma's house. Now Dad can build his little corner bar.

I found another very Queen Anne style coffee table on CL for $15. Thinking about getting it to have another sitting vinette in my Sitting room. I will strip and restain to match my Black cherry it has inlay on the top like my desk. Queen Ann legs, scalloped table top though. All the table pieces in the room would have the same legs shape/style.

CalQ, I lost a grandma to that horrid disease too..she wasn't even near her 70's.

Progress! A teeny tiny bit of progress. Electrician did the work in the laundry room and the tile for the floor was delivered. I also baked a baumkuchen cake. It should not have been as hard as I made it. First I overcooked the eggs and then I undercooked the cake! Ah well, next time will be better and a few extra minutes in the oven got it done and I think it will be good.

I too vote for dark grout!

This post was edited by Christina222 on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 7:08

Well we planted the trees finally..poor little things.

I want to keep them small and manageable, so we are planting them 4' apart. So we put the first ones 4' from the fence and 4' from each other.
Just have to pick up a couple bags of bark for around them.

I might just be able to get a dozen trees in the stump garden! 6 x 2 rows. I could probably do 6 x 3, but I think I'll save tha "third" row for blueberries.

I am thinking about pulling lilac runners from my mom's and planting them to eventually hedge out the neighbors yard behind us a bit.
We would like to replace the 4' fence with a 6' so I might not want to do the lilacs first?

Oh and I have decided that I will not bother doing anything to my old, nasty painted cabinets in the kitchen. Because we will slowly start working on the kitchen after the first of the year!

After moving into our new build home 3 months ago, I'm finally ready to hang some artwork. Started last weekend and just finished the majority of the rest. Funny how some things don't fit as well in the new house.

I'm very excited that we hired a tiler for our kitchen backsplash this past week. He is fitting us in between larger jobs so we might even have it done by the end of this coming week!

Yesterday we purchased a round outdoor table at the Crate & Barrel Outlet close to where we live. I've been watching it for 3 weeks as the price goes down each week hoping no one snatches it up. Success yesterday! This is replacing a large rectangular table that we had which was much too large for our new deck. Today we had a young couple stop by to say hi and offered them the old table for the home they just purchased. They were trilled as were we to get rid of it. My DHs new motto is " If something comes in, something goes out." Certainly worked in this case.

MGMum
Long ride today - over 130 km and 6000 feet of climbing rained for over half of it and a torrential rain for about 20k (ok- I can convert some metric but too tired to convert climbing)
We saw mountain goats today but no caribou, elk or Rocky Mountain sheep.
Tomorrow is the longest day with about 150km but not as much climbing.
Now- working on drying out our clothes - fortunately the Rockies low humidity helps!

Texas-great sunset! I am hoping the

A2, good luck, I can only admire u from afar - something I could never achieve

Never say never Mags! I never thought I would ever start running but two years ago my then 10yo said he wanted to run the Moon in June. I thought, I can't do that! I can't run, so at 46yo started Couch to 5k and I'm still going! I usually run 3 times a week, usually only 5k or thereabouts (30-35 mins) but I have run a 10k race a couple of times. The only thing is, sometimes theses races, though a lot of fun, can be expensive! Usually there is some kind of charity involved. Start slow, and keep on going. Like quitting your smoking! Start slow and plug along.

We got the inside portion of the gate/fence stained yesterday. It looks pretty good. I just got a clear stain/waterproofer. I didn't want a colour. It never did rain, though it looked like it all day. Today the forecast is for rain though. Looks like rain off and on all week. I might postpone the outside portion until I see no chance of rain in the forecast. I hate for the work to be for nothing. I vacuumed and mopped too. Yay me! LOL I think I'm asking Santa for one of those robot vacuums for Christmas. Cal, you have one right?

Yay, for sales, NH!! Did you ever post a final reveal?? How's hubby?

Yay, Terri on plans for a reno!!

Christina, I had to google that cake! I'm assuming you did not make it on a spit?! Is it heavy tasting? Or light? I think that is too much work for me. LOL

A2, glad you are having a great trip! I do height and weight in feet/inches and pounds. Deli meat I do in grams. Temperature celcius only! They put fahrenheit in our booths at work and I'm lost! I call the boss for a conversion. LOL I complained to him about it because, Hello! We're in Canada, we should have celcius! I did not grow up here watching Detroit news/weather (still don't!) and virtually no one in this city does celcius! He said, oh I'm really good at converting, call me. So I do. Worst thing he could have ever said to me. I'm sure he has better things to do with his time than tell me what 19C is in fahrenheit so I can set the thermostat. Which I don't even know how to work! At home, I figured out which two numbers to use for heat and A/C. I really need to buy a better programmable thermostat in C.

Any good recommendations for a programmable thermostat, people?

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I enjoy the Ecobee I installed last winter. I was originally at the store to get a Nest but decided to do some last minute comparison shopping and discovered a better option for what I wanted a wireless thermostat to do.

No meaningful updates here. I am meeting with a builder and engineer on site at 2 and waiting for attorney #1 to get back with me. This weekend I basically did nothing... cut some door casing, baseboards and door frames, and spoke with the guy next door who saw the whole loading incident happen.

I wasn't really in the mood to do much besides sit around and play Angry Birds, and plan my next move.

This post was edited by schicksal on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 10:05

So much going on! Running, cooking, painting, buying, lounging, and just stuff!

Yesterday I was kind of a slug. I picked up about 500 lbs of landscaping rocks from a woman off Freecycle. I was too lazy to unload them, so they remained in my truck when I went to work. My truck moved like a whale.

I didn't do anything else yesterday, but water.

Today I started out with a bang!
I unloaded the rocks and kinda decided what I'm going to do with them. My truck sighed with relief.

Then, I decided to prune and limb up the roadside. If I don't do it, the county comes by and hacks the trees off at their trunks. If I prune them up, they leave them alone. I learned that the hard way. I have about 200' of roadside. One side trees, the other is junk and getting the hellebores and hosta.

I throw stuff in the road to slow the traffic down. I'm on a straight-away coming out of a very bad curve. I scream at the cars to slow down when I'm working out there. I did find throwing crap in the road is easier. I think they're afraid it's me lying in the road to stop them.

I think I'm going to make a sign for either end of my property, to attach to my saw horses: "Slow Down! Crazy Woman Working next 200' "or something like that.

In the meanwhile, here's a picture of my road with the stuff in it. Proof that I did all this before 12:00 noon!

Greetings from the swimmin' hole:

Had a great weekend up on the creek on Saturday and with my family on Sunday but came back to a lot of work, so I'm still stuck in neutral.

As you can see, no sun! I can't believe how white my legs have gotten, but the water was very pleasant. Not bone-numbing, headache-inducing cold like it usually is. It was cool and felt good on a muggy day, although I did not do any actual swimming, just got wet up to my waist while hiking the creek.

Terri - Saw your post on week 13. We are primarily in the SW area. Mom lives about two miles from where she was born and her sister still lives in the house, 80+ years in the same house!

MGMum, no, I didn't cook it on a spit. YouTube, in it's frightening acuity, recommended a video to me last week in which the layers are cooked under the broiler. You put a small amount of batter in the pan, pop it under the broiler until browned, then add more batter and repeat. It came out yummy even if I did manage to mess it up. Not heavy but not light either.

My house is a MESS. They came today and pulled out the floors in the laundry room and guest room. I have a washer and dryer (along with a ton of other stuff!) in my living room.

MGMum, no final reveal yet. Backsplash is schedule to be installed this week. Then a few minor tweaks. Getting close!

Thanks for asking about DH. He's doing great. Was taken off two meds today that he's been on since by-pass surgery in March, so he's VERY happy. He's loving our new community, so I'm a happy camper.

I went to Lowes today to get the grout, I got charcoal. Thanks everyone for the votes!

While there I was walking down the lighting isle and saw this awesome looking pendant on clearance for 10 dollars. The only one left was the floor display so I snagged it for 5 bucks.
They told me the other store in town showed that it had 5 of them so I quickly went there and got all 5.

I'm not even sure where I'm going to use them, maybe in the bathrooms, or the entry way, hubs was thinking we could use several of them over the island. Either way, you guys should go by Lowes, they have several light fixtures on clearance right now for great prices.

Christina- I've never heard of that cake before but it looks delish!

Nhbaskets- that is a great rule! I think I need to adopt it for my kids!

Terri, CEF- nice job on the outside work.

Doug- glad to see you relaxing a bit, you work a lot!

Mgmum- LOL
When I was training in SSM- I used metric for temps and weights- some still wanted Imperial conversions- but the program does it automatically.
My friends do imperial temps in the winter and metric in the summer as they both sound better.

Texas- great find-they should look nice!

Freeman- you continue to amaze me.

Cal- how is it going?

We struggled to complete the 150K and 4000 meter of climbing into an atrocious headwind. If I did my math correct 90 miles total. The headwinds did us in- we had to pedal down the hills- or as someone claims- there were no downhills!
The only redeeming factor- no rain!

Shorter day tomorrow and a rest day in Waterton.

I'm exhausted. I should have taken a nap yesterday and didn't. I will today! First FULL day teaching. Still students in and out of classes. Still have 39 in one class, other teachers have it worse. They're going to have to collapse some small classes and disburse some kids. Not soon enough.

Just addressing a couple things above. I have the Braava, which isn't the vacuum robot, it's the mopping one. And not the heavy duty mopping one, but more the sweeper that can have a wet sweep/light mop. Think of it as an automatic Swiffer. Since December it's been awesome. It's now apparent that I really have to MOP all this flooring once in a while too. I'll do it labor day weekend whether the construction stuff is done or not.

I have a Nest. I love it. I could have waffled and waited and researched it to death, but it was cute and easy to install and I love it. It would be nice to have one integrated into a whole house automation system, but I don't have any idea about those, so this will do.

I use it in conjunction with a service called IFTTT (if this, then that). I have a 'recipe' set up with IFTTT that if the outside temperature goes above 85 degrees, to text me and ask me if I want to change the temp on my Nest. I do have all the automatic stuff set up, but I set it higher than we'd sometimes like. And if it hits 85 early enough in the day, the house gets too hot and won't cool down quickly enough for our taste. So when I get the text, I evaluate if I want to override the automatic settings. Very cool.

Hope to see some pics A2G.

Dryer outlet being changed today (MIL supervising). The roofer also sent his guy to finish the sealing or whatever of the roof end of the vent hood and today's contractor is the one who put that in, so he'll inspect and make sure they both agree that it's good.

I'm cautiously optimistic that I will be able to wash AND dry clothes/sheets/towels tonight.

Looks like everyone has been crazy busy!

Today I am back at work and just waiting. The overwhelming consensus among those I've talked to is that the liability will either be all with the material suppliers, or split between them and the roofers so I'm not worried. When attorneys you solicit tell you at this point things are going well and there isn't much they can offer right now that's a good sign.

The builder said that since liability hasn't been settled yet there is nothing that they, or really any reputable builder can do at this point besides stabilizing the building. They said it would most likely take through the end of the year for things to be settled and the repairs completed.

Of course now that we're in hurricane season it would be just my (their) luck that something shows up.

Texas_gem, I like those, too! Great find.

MGMum, no the cats won't crawl under. For 2 reasons:
1) the fence touches the ground to the point the bottom will eventually be buried with yard stuff.
2) they're so fat and lazy it would require thought and movement.

Today was productive. Once again, all before noon. Seeing a pattern.

I got my coffee and walked around for about 30 minutes, looking at different things I plan to rip out.

I discovered/found/remembered rocks I'd made a bed edge with where the neighbor has now built a fence. Since they're of stackable size, I think I'll dig them out and use them with the rocks I unloaded yesterday somewhere.

I thought about moving yesterdays rocks off the lawn and just onto a mulched bed until I decide what to do. Didn't get to that -- yet.

I got the hand truck and moved 16 pallets to the back porch. I have so much building material in my front yard I am look like a hoarder. These pallets are oak and will become my kitchen floor. If I don't use the wide plank pine I picked up off Freecycle a week or so ago. But anyway, the oak ones need to dry out, then I'll move them to the mudroom to acclimate.

I also have 50 6x6s in my front yard I want to make raised beds out of. I can't see moving them to the back (out of sight) just to move them back when I build the bed. It might be awhile, but since I'm moving them myself:? Oh, no. They're staying. But I really, really want to clean up the front yard.

I really have the outside bug this year. Finally. Mulching, clearing, cleaning, potting, planting, moving stuff, WOWOWOWOW!

Then, at noon, I cooked a steak, and will take a nap. Yeah, nap!:) Gotta work at 3:00.

Shicksal, I can't believe they're not condemning that home. There'd better be some serious engineers -- and your historical society -- supervising. It is/was a nice home! I'm also curious about lost income... That would kill me.

Well I've peeked in and checked on you all.

I've been working on Music Festival stuff...and just this and that.
We did buy a shelving unit at HD yesterday for the garage..and we organized a bit in there.

I have a HVAC guy stopping by tomorrow to give me an estimate on the range gas line. That'll mean I can move my gas range out of the garage!!! I have two choices on the slide in glass cook top..sell it on CL or maybe trade it to a second hand appliance shop for a washer and/or dryer for Mom.

Hmmmm.... Where does my heart take me on this? Dunno

I think I have the inspiration photo for my kitchen..well I have one, and I'm looking for another.
Plan as of today. Mostly if not only lowers, black shaker. Creamy medium toned counters. Wood and/or ? Fully tiled range wall. With what? Chimney hood.
Open shelves on window wall for sure, maybe range wall.

This post was edited by terri_pacnw on Wed, Aug 20, 14 at 13:33

The inspiration pic is a nice departure from what seems to be the norm. No uppers anywhere? Used appliances, I normally donate them because selling in CL has been more trouble than it's worth.

Today nothing too interesting happened. I am installing doors from scratch (not prehung) and this evening I put in one door frame. Actual carpentry is difficult and takes a lot of time. Who'd have ever known?

Shicksal, it's Ikea cabs, the new Metod, and that photo came from a French blog or magazine.
But I had already decided on Black cabs so did a little searching and came across that. It was so much what was in my head...right there on the screen.
And my husband like it. PLUS!

So It is the perfect start.

Finally have a relaxing few minutes. I'm sick tomorrow. ::cough:: Do I sound sick to you?

The cabinet guy is coming tomorrow to do light rail and other finish-type stuff. As DH pointed out, sort of pointless to do it before we've got the end panel issue resolved, but whatever. I was pretty happy for the excuse to be out sick. I'm not ready for a 5-day week. Maybe next week. ;)

I finally just made my peanut brittle. Did I mention that over the weekend I also made vanilla ice cream in addition to chocolate? The recipes I'm using are from the book linked below. It's from an ice cream shop (and more) that we like in SF. IIRC, I learned on Food Network Star that it's a Philly style ice cream (I could have the city wrong) since it's an egg-based base. I may try to look up some others just to try for contrast. I love this. Tastes like custard, but cold (the vanilla). I think DH would prefer a non-egg based version.

Dryer hooked up yesterday. Did about 3 loads of laundry. The washer and DW are very quiet. The dryer...not quiet, but then it does something and it gets REALLY loud (whirring), but not for long. So I probably will try to NOT do laundry when we're cooking, etc. The load I did yesterday was sheets. They felt niiiicccce.

Christina, that cake looks REALLY good. I'm sure no one but you knew of anything that went awry during cooking.

Texas_Gem, cool find on the lights.

Doug, OMG I want to be by that watering hole. I've not scheduled myself this Saturday at job#2 in hopes I might go kayaking. But if I were a betting person, I'd bet I won't.

CEF, I like the 'stuff in the road' strategy. Sounds like your fire is LIT!

Hope A2G's ride is coming along.

I'm sure I missed some cool stuff in there.

I'm going to try to get out to the local lighting store that has been recommended to make (or find) something to connect our pendants together and use one ceiling hole. I don't have as much faith in them, but we know of another company that we think can do it in Santa Barbara. We'll see.

I'm a bit bummed but cannot share this with DH. So I jumped on here to share with those that can understand. Finally had the Modernaire barrel style hood installed. The switch that controls the venting was defective so it had to be replaced. I paid the freight to have the piece overnighted to us. (The stove's been in since early June so without the functioning hood it's had very little use. Hood is black with stainless. Long story short, I should have gotten the polished stainless. The hood doesn't have the impact I thought it would have. My faucets, pot filler, knobs are polished nickel and DH and I thought the non-polished would work with the non-polished stove (didn't look at the whole picture, I guess). I wish I had asked here before ordering. I came across some old notes, seems kd suggested polished. Ugh! Have failed miserably in the past in Design and decor arena, so this time I hired out for all kinds of expertise (before GW). When designing kitchen, the plan was always to get the typical gray/black soapstone so the black matte/stainless would have been perfect. As my bad habit, I decided during my short stone hunt (1 outing) that I prolly couldn't live with the softer soapstone and found and fell in love with a harder, more stronger veining, but green tinted soapstone. The soapstone does have a nice presence though. I haven't been oiling the stone but we all know it will eventually darken. It's already darkened a bit from the blue-gray color since install.

I know I'll get over it, but a bit of a bummer right now. I really have to put forth some serious effort to find and get some nice subway tile. I would share a pic now but the area looks crappy right now. The upper cabs had to have plywood applied to the brick wall to make the upper cab install more stable. So the area behind stove is just painted plywood. Then I changed the pot filler location 3 times, so they had to cut out parts of the plywood. (my contractor is sooo done with me!). Maybe it'll look better once the subway time goes up. I'm so over this kitchen now and was going to hold off till next year on the tile. Now I'm feeling myself 2nd guessing everything going forward.

Tomorrow is a new day. I have a really long night tonight as I've waited until the 11th hour to get some things completed that should have been installed today. Maybe I'll be too tired tomorrow to give the hood a second thought. :-(

I've been lurking and not doing much but watch the empty walls of my demolished kitchen.

Mags when I read your post I could feel your frustration and tears.

I think those hoods are so beautiful and sometimes when things are too matchy matchy it isn't so great either. I wonder if u could return or paint to make it more of your ideal hood.

My puppy just ate my comforter. It was old but still....

I see big purple spots because I just turned and looked out the sitting room window.

CalQ, yeah, you look a little green around the gills.

Mags, I'm sorry. It'll be okay.. You'll just have to find a new wow to focus on.

Is the puppy's belly okay?

I like non egg ice cream.

This post was edited by terri_pacnw on Wed, Aug 20, 14 at 23:02

Everyone is really moving along!
CEF, I love your strategy for slowing down traffic.
Doug, looks like a nice relaxing time.

Mags! Hugs! Very frustrating to have reality intrude on our vision. Once everything is finished, you'll probably love it. Hopefully. :)

My vacation leave is over and I was back to work today. It wasn't terrible, partly because I had a good crew to work with today. Maybe I'll pick up an OT shift on the weekend. We'll see how bad it gets the next two days. LOL

My favorite ice cream to make.
From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Here is a link that might be useful: Classic Vanilla

So I guess I have Philly and egg/no-egg backwards then. Ok. Thanks for the recipe. I want to try and contrast.

Mags, I'm sure your hood will look beautiful with everything else. Might there have been something better? Maybe. But that's always the case. There always MAY be something better. You can't live second and third guessing everything. (I give the sentiment better than I take it, BTW.)

When I had been living with my empty kitchen and then just had some of the cabinets in and loved the open feel and THEN had the end panel for the fridge go in I felt like OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE! It cuts off the full view of the window when in the LR and in general makes a big impact on how open/not open the room seems at a glance. But...I need a fridge. And this was the best we could do. It's MANY inches less deep than it was. And that's good. It's WAY more functional than it was. And that's the best. (It's purdy too, that doesn't hurt.)

I second guessed the width of the fridge.
I second guessed going with stainless vs. wood on the fridge and DW.
I second guessed going with the stainless DW once I switched to the white W/D. (I want to decide TODAY if I'll panel the W/D).
I second guessed (and called MIL from the HD parking lot on cabinet order day) the 30" range since DH had REALLY wanted the 36".
I second guessed the 36" hood with the 30" range.
I second guessed the 9"h x 21"d hood vs. the 18"h x 24"d one.
I second guessed the speed oven again and again and again and continue to since it's sitting in a freakin' box in my kitchen. still. and will continue to be for some un-determined period of time. (working on this today).

This...is the short list off the top of my head. (oh...and placement of things on the island...don't get me started on that)

My kitchen is 2479% more functional than it was pre-reno. It's gorgeous. It's amazing. Is it perfect? No, nothing is.

I think a lot of it is the grass-is-always-greener thing. And the 'I suck at this' thing. I'm super guilty of that. I'm sure people will look at my kitchen and think it's perfect. It's not. I look at other people's and think theirs is perfect. They're not. (And neither are the people who stand behind them, and that's okay.)

cal_quail - Second guessing, I suppose, comes with everything significant that is done. I think you have pulled off your kitchen redo quite well and close to schedule. Thanks for the inspiration.

I've lapsed back into vacation mode. After last weekend I realized how hard I have been working. This is why I go up on the creek every chance I get. It cleans the cobwebs and gives me chance to slow down. I had most of the day off yesterday and did pretty much nothing, napped a bit, read the Sunday paper, etc. Feel much more refreshed now and will go back into the shop after work today and start the process of putting together the door frames and getting the bedroom door ready for finishing. Might actually get something done by Saturday night :)

"I think you have pulled off your kitchen redo quite well and close to schedule. "

...as I acknowledge the fact that the cabinet guy probably won't be coming today. I've been told his truck broke down and he'll likely not come. But may. I should get a call in a couple hours...which to me means he won't.

Day off work taken for no reason. Granted, I've gotten a lot done. But. I. am. not. happy.

The good news is, I get more time to agonize over where to put the floating shelves. Oh joy. (see poll thread)

I did end up getting a lot done. But the contractor's wife never called back. Not. impressed.

I went to the lighting place that was recommended, but they just have catalogs of things available and the designer is on vacation until Monday. I think I'll be better off working with these other folks we know of/have bought some things from. (link below)

I ran several errands which included picking up bumpers for my cabinets (some of the blue tape is now gone) and a saw from MIL. I came home and cut the corners off the shelves in the two cabinets with electrical running through them. Then I started tackling the tray dividers. I've got them all cut and had to run out for screws. (Can't believe they didn't come with.)

And earlier, waiting for the cabinet guy, I emptied the remaining kitchen-stuff boxes. There wasn't space for everything this morning, but I put everything onto the bookcases we've had in the dining room through the reno. Now that I installed the rest of the shelves we have and will finish the dividers tonight, more can go in. We should be able to put a bunch more away. And we should be able to make a more or less final list of what we want/need from the cabinet co.

Here is a link that might be useful: Industry Home

Laundry room and guest room floors are done, hoping to get some painting done this weekend. I think a white for the laundry room as it's such a dark room, no windows. For the guest/sewing room I've ordered a sofa in an oatmeal color so I'm thinking a linen color.

Here's the tile in the laundry room, very inexpensive from Lowes.

Nice floors!

I actually started to GET a sore throat while teaching job #2 tonight. So going back to work and babying it will be a good idea.

I finished the dividers!

Nothing happening around here. I'm working 3 pm to 11 pm for 12 days straight, so I sleep in and laze around the house (despite my good intentions to get up and get things done in the morning). Oh well.

CEF, I'm right there with you yelling at traffic! My nickname in the neighborhood is "Speed Bump". We live on a quiet street - with a curve. Most of the city is laid out on the square, so the curve is a thrill, I guess. I've chased after many teenagers (and a few adults) roaring down the street. Our mailbox gets wiped out every other year or so, when the street is icy - but at least there aren't as many kids out in the winter.

Cal- a friend suggested gallery 74 to me for lights. I haven't bought any yet but I do like some of the stuff on their site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery 74

Thank you everyone for your very kind words as I work thru my biggest 'oops' of this kitchen reno. I'm looking at it straight on and ugh - oh well. I'm moving on since there's not much I can do about it anyway.

I spent most of the other night - an all-niter, completing my glass insert. It was going to be installed the next day - NOT! I finished it about 6am the next morning and had appointments starting a 9:30am. I was exhausted. I get a text before heading out, contractor won't be here today. Aargh. Did my appointments and came home and took a long nap. Prepped the oven and griddle. Made breakfast this morning on griddle. Need to find a good cleaner that can be applied while still griddle hot/warm. Impatient waiting to cool

Contractor installed my glass insert today. It's really simple. But effective. There is not a lot of color in the kitchen permanent elements so this adds some much needed color. Can you tell I'm scared to commit to color??? LOL (And I never successfully 'finish' a space). In person the glass piece has a lot of texture and strong color. Nothing wimpy on this piece, it just doesn't show up in cellphone pics. Contractor did a nice install. I could 2nd guess some things but I'm *not* going there!

Everyone enjoy your Friday nite.

How pretty and you made it! That is awesome.

Long week...might do some digging in the dirt this weekend. Little dirt theraphy is needed...

Nice inserts Cal!

Christina, I bet it fills so fresh in those spaces with new flooring.

Gas plumber/HVAC guy came over yesterday. He didn't call back with a quote..said easy, no big deal...but a call back would be nice.

Dinner is in the oven.

I still can't believe you made your beautiful window. So talented!

I did pretty much nuttin' today.
Finally too my 500 lbs of rocks and put them in a garden so they don't wreck the lawn and I could mow. I'll build a wall with them later.

Neighbor and I put in another fence post. We needed more time and the cement needs to cure. I love the way the fence is opening up the space between our homes.

That, and the fact I'm cutting out a ton of crap. Going are 3 50 year old lilacs that don't bloom. Out is a Sweet Autumn Clemetis and a pretty, Chinese honeysuckle hybrid, both of which will grow back. A LOT of Japanese Cariea on both ends of the fence, and a TON of this darned chocolate vine. That stuff is indestructible. But I'll soon have space to plant a few of my Japanese Maples that have proved sun tolerant!

Then, I mowed the lawn. It looks so pretty when I'm done, but sooooo tedious!

Then I went out for a glass of wine. Haven't done that this entire summer. No wonder I have no life. I never leave the house! But I wanted to wear a pretty summer outfit I have had for a while, and since Labor Day is coming, I figured this would be a last chance. I can now wash it and put it back in the closet. :)

Have a great weekend.