What happened today, warmfridge? Going private is just as well. No one else is following us;-) That's a wierd looking faucet! I still like your pulls though. They look used. I bought some "fancy" brass and white pulls for a buck apiece but they aren't going to look right, I don't think. I'll know for sure after I get a real cabinet to hold them against but they're just not right. AND I was going to use oil rubbed bronze faucet which has a coppery undertone and the brass doesn't do anything for the faucet! Now I'm rethinking the faucet choice, too, because of our hard water. If my carpenter ever gets home from FLORIDA I'm going to ask about a wall mount. My window is only a couple of inches from the counter and I don't see how I could fit a faucet there. If I don't hurry up and get this kitchen finished I'll have enough stuff for THREE kitchens. It WAS only TWO kitchens two weeks ago. My carpenter is due home Feb.1 so I figured he'd be here that next Monday. I'm going to start taking trim off and cabinet doors off. Anything I can get off that won't really impact the room since it isn't insulated. I'd like to start on the walls but not until I call him and find out for sure what day he's coming. And I need to know if I should go ahead with the floor cardboard or if he wants to patch the hole that will be left from the peninsula first. One little project I need to be working on is thawing the overhead door on the building I keep "stuff" in. I'm a pack rat, reduce, reuse, recycle. He is too, thank goodness! We can make anything work with what we already have. But these constant snow storms have frozen everything shut and every door that isn't used daily has a 4 foot drift in front of it. That's good news, though, because they used to be 6 feet deep! I think my machine shed doors are still buried that deep. I have a couple of doors out there that I might use in the house but I didn't get them out last fall....no hurry. Now I can't get them out.

Wow, thanks to the spammer this morning that brought this tread back to the front page! After I made the initial postings, several weeks ago, I had to ask my husband again about the basement digging story. Cause it sure sounded a bit like "yes, I walked to school 6 miles every day-uphill both ways!" What DH says is that his dad and aunt used a horse and a slip to dig that basement (whatever a slip looks like?). His dad would have been in his teens and aunt in her late teens or early 20's I believe. The soapstone along the sink wall is now in. I cut the counter for this location too. DH gave me lots of suggestions, guidance, and man power. This part of the stone is not as consistent in character as the other pieces. The stone transitions into a harder stone at the sink and to the left. It will do. I had a lot of fearful thinking about tackling this project and I had grown men refuse my request for help. Though my brave dear BIL offered to help, we just couldn't coordinate a time. I had a local stone fabricator come in and cut the hole for my over-mount single bowl stainless steel sink. Here is the counter in place: Dorado Soapstone in Colorado cut the lengths for me and made the center cut at the sink. I glued it with 5 minute epoxy with my DH help. It took way longer than 5 minutes to dry, try hours. I was concerned that I'd messed the ratios up when I mixed the epoxy: Plumber hooked up DW, sink, & faucet. The plumbing was done while I was at work. When I got home and walked in, I exclaimed. . . "Whoa, that's a big one!" Later when DH came in and I repeated my shocked observation. He said he thought the same thing but wasn't going to say anything. Ain't he sweet? He then reassured me that he would claim he picked it out if anyone made a comment. I told him he could take the credit. It is so nice to get back to near normal in the kitchen. I have my friend/carpenter coming to put up new casing around the doors this week or next. Originally I was going to reuse the old fir trim with a plan to fill the nicks and dings, refreshing the surface for painting. Four sets of door casings are needed. One set was too worn out so we salvaged a set from an old house that sits on "Ruben's" farm. The house was a cute simple stucco bungalow that Ruben Oakleaf lived in. It's now decrepit and falling into the basement. Ruben was a bachelor farmer. I will have to remember to take a picture of the place. My late FIL bought the farm years ago to add to the family farm. Ruben had died. FIL kept the house, in case any of the kids wanted to live in the house. Well years passed, no one moved in, and the house decayed. I had always thought about salvaging the wood trim from that house. Now, 22 years later, DH & I took out 2 sets of door casings to use in the kitchen. I don't know why we even bothered. The raccoons moved in some time ago and made a big mess of everything and I'm sure there are other critters making Ruben's house their own. So, while contemplating my approach in refurbishing the trim pieces, I could only ignore the facts for so long. . . about 20 minutes. Other GW'rs are probably quicker studies. Anyway, while considering these casings I became disgusted, went up to the house, and proclaimed to DH "I'm getting Al to put up new woodwork!". The thought of raccoons having lived with this trim and doing whatever they do, was just too much for my sense of hygiene, style, and my new kitchen...what had I been thinking! DH lovingly agreed to this new plan. So there you have it, an update. I would like to share another kitchen picture with you. It is a picture of the brooder house that my GMIL & then MIL used for baby chicks. MIL turned it into a play house for her girls in the later 50's or early 60's. Then of course there were remodeling efforts when the first grandkids came along in the 80's: Inside is the kitchen: and here are the cupboards behind that hog panel (thank God for spell check, I can't spell "panal"): I will continue this thread when I get the fab new door trimmings up. Thanks so much for your interest and kind comments. How'd she get in here?!

Cindy, Thanks for the compliment! Yes, that is pea gravel. I had such a hard time with that area of my yard. It gets full sun all day and couldnt grow anything but weeds, even the daylilies didnt like it. I put in the landscape stones and added the pea gravel. The stones seem to keep the moisture content higher in the area and the plants around it do better. Sherry

The only thing I can think of is an allergy, have you bought any new furniture that your calves rest on. My forearms get red when I sit at the PC to long. I think it is the finish on my desk so bought a small memory foam rug/mat, folded it and rest my arms on it. I get redness on my face that looks like pin pricks after a soaking hot bath. I do not know what calcium channel blockers are but all meds have side effects, that includes supplements. Research everything you are taking.