Meet Sheldon

About 3 weeks ago, E-bug came home from the park behind our house and told me that there was a lady there looking for a home for a kitten. Normally the knee-jerk mom reaction is NO! But since we lost our Shadow last summer and our Muncie girl in January (at age 18!) I had told the kids that we would be on the lookout for a new kitten. Here was our chance.
So I went to check it out and instantly fell in love. The lady who had found him had been looking for a home for him for 2 weeks. We took him home about 10 minutes later.




When he met polka dot he was scared for all of about 10 minutes. Now Poor Pokey is like a tolerant Mama to him. He runs and leaps onto her back and bites her head and just happily torments her. She hisses to tell him when she's had enough, but he doesn't get the message.


I love his little Kitler mustache! and his grey eyes. And his soft as a bunny fur. When I'm down, he curls up and snuggles with me. In the morning he plays wild kingdom all over the bed. I really needed some kitten therapy in my life right now.



Mattman is a HUGE Big Bang Theory Fan and loves Sheldon on the show. He decared that when we got a kitten he would be named Sheldon. So our baby was pre-named. Mattman was at a boy scout function all day and didn't see him right away. The look on his face when he got home and saw our surprise was priceless. The first thing he said was "His name is SHELDON!" I said yep, we've been calling him that for hours now. He's certainly a happy distraction.

Kitchen update: Not much has happened. I sorta froze up trying to decide about the floor dilemma. Finally I just filled the cracks in with putty and decided not to think about it. The countertops should be installed any day now. I'm getting anxious to have my kitchen back, but am very proud of how well I'm doing cooking without one.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 3 CABINETS!

Woo hoo. Cabinet day!
During the day, the installers told me about a few snags that had me freaked out, but I'm getting excited now that I'm starting to visualize things.

Sorry it's so dark - notice the horrible priming job I did on the soffits. Installer guy says "looks like you dry brushed it" No. I just suck. He says it'll definitely need a second coat. Ah well. Live and learn - and then use a real brush and not the foam kind.


I was surprised that I get a great big drawer now where the old bar sink used to be. Unexpected bonus. And the cabinet on the left has a faux middle piece so it opens up really BIG in case I need to store something HUGE in there.


Notice the cabinet in the corner: there's a drawer and doors on the outside. No more big scary dark unusable corner anymore. I can store things like a crock pot or seasonal dishes there :)
But notice the flaw in this kitchen layout? It's not easy to tell just from looking, but trust me, when you have the dishwasher door open to unload it, you can't reach the upper cabinets unless you are Elastogirl. So you have to unload the dishes onto the counter first, then close the dishwasher, then put it in the upper cabinet. But... working dishwasher? yay!

Squee! Look at my corner cabinets. Lazy Susan babee!


Problem 1 - the fridge. Sigh. I thought all was well with it despite it being white (not silver/black like all the new stuff) and having yellowing dirty handles. But when they moved it, it leaked. He says the freezer coil is freezing up and then when it thaws out it leaks into the drip pan that then overflows :(. So I'll have to save for that.

Problem 2 - The whole house is sagging in the back. We've known this for years, and someone decided not to put in piers. The soffit thingy over the fridge is seriously not anywhere near being level. He's gonna do what he can with trim and caulk and we'll just hope noone notices since it's over the fridge.


Problem 3 - The floor. Big sigh. I stuck with this kitchen layout so that I could stick with the floor as is. But the new cabinets are a wee bit narrower and longer, so part of it sits on concrete and the other part sits on the floor. He said there's no way they can cut the floor away and that if/when I get new flooring that they can cut it then right up next to the cabinet or try to pull it out and shim under the cabinet. NOT ideal, but I don't know what else to do.
Regret #1: not ripping out the floor before starting this.
Regret #2 (maybe): sticking with the same kitchen layout (the peninsula bottleneck)

Installer guy did his best (bless him!) to push the boards together, glue them and hold them with tape till the cabinets can keep them mashed together. He thinks we can fill the gaps with brown caulk and I can get another 10 years out of this floor. That is good news. But it means my dream of having the same flooring running throughout the kitchen, breakfast room, den, front room is probably not gonna happen.


He says he'll put my knobs on tomorrow. Oh shoot. One more thing I haven't even considered. I know they are thinking "what is UP with this woman who hasn't made any girly decorator decisions at ALL". Opinions needed about knobs: I'm thinking black squished up C shape for the drawers. What about the doors though: Same as the drawers or use knobs?
Off to scour the internet for inspiration photos.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 2

Today the electrician, plumber and sheetrock guys came to prepare things for the cabinets to go in. The hole in the ceiling is happily gone.

See that little extension in the soffit. Yeah. Since the new cabinets stick out a bit farther than the old ones did (so that there's room for the new corner lazy susan cabinet - squeee!!!) they had to extend the soffit right there.
Filling in the holes and building that stupid little extension = about $1000 (ok. probably not quite that much, but it was a LOT). yeah. That right there would make a certain someone throw up. I guess he should have begun this project about 8 years ago then.
Anyway...
Nice Sheetrock dude told me that there's no way that wallpaper is ever coming down without a buttload of effort. No thanks. He suggested that I rip off any loose bits and paint some oil based Kilz primer over the top. Oil based paints sorta scare me as I don't know if/where we have any thinner to get it off the brush/roller. So I went and bought a 3" wide 89cent foam brush and I'll use that. I'm just winging things now and hoping for the best.

I was truly so danged preoccupied with my own life drama and just getting the basics of this project going (cabinets, counters, appliances) that I really haven't even begun to think about anything decoratey. I still have NO clue what I'll do for the backsplash and I looked at the light over the sink today and thought "huh, I wonder if I should have bought a new one." Oh well. I'm just flying by the seat of my pants.

And those of you who know me well, know how VERY VERY VERY out of character this is for me. Heck. I don't even know what my appliances look like or any of the features. I didn't even read a single review. Shocking I know. It's like I'm living in someone else's life these days. But it'll be someone with a NEW KITCHEN. Woot.

Now... to figure out how to paint, mop (ok part of me is still the same, the nasty floor is seriously grossing me out), get Emma back and forth to dance, and paint tonight. Oh yeah, and we need to eat something too. Guess I won't be cooking ;).

Kitchen Remodel - Day 1 (even more)

The sky is falling

What used to be here:

is now here:


Ew. ew. ew. So glad I JUST mopped. sigh.
And I'm sort creeped out about the fact that any possible critter in the attic now has free access to the house.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 1 (more)

Day 1 work is complete. The kitchen is gutted. Here's what it looked like at 8am. Notice that I have a few of the not so broken doors off to save them. I saw on a thrifty decorating blog once how they made a headboard thingy out of cabinet doors that had been painted and attached together. Not sure if I'll do that or not, but I'd hate to want those doors in a few weeks and not have them.




Here's how it looks now:
Farewell soffits and upper cabinets over the bar and peninsula.




Uh oh. I had really really hoped we that I wouldn't have to replace the kitchen floor anytime soon. It's the formica brand laminate floor. When the dishwasher broke (2 YEARS AGO) it leaked water under the floor and warped the boards :(. I was really hoping that when the cabinets were out that I could just pound them back together and it would be ok. I don't think that's gonna work. Now what to do? ARGH. Cause I really can't afford to replace all the floors yet and the carpet throughout the house needs replacing badly too. When the time came, I was gonna redo the flooring in the whole house to be cohesive.


I'm sorta needing a pep talk right about now too. Originally (before my life turned upside down) we had planned to get rid of the peninsula and the bar area & wall. We planned to extend the cabinets all down this wall to the corner, with a window seat. Then the opened up area where the wet bar used to be would allow more room for a farmhouse table.
But... I stuck with the original floorplan with the hopes of saving money on the flooring (and construction costs with tearing out the wall). I know it's probably the right thing to do given my situation right now, but dangit, I'm sorta wishing I had eliminated the peninsula and done cabinets down the wall instead. That peninsula always causes a bottleneck.
C'mon people, tell me it'll be an ok choice (i.e. lie).

Polka Dot checks out the gaps. (The floor is shiny cause it's wet. I couldn't stand how filthy it was and had to clean a little)


Oh and here's a shot of my countertop sample. On the left is the Sahara Blue that I drooled over and the right is the Kona Beige that they cut me a great deal on.

New Kitchen - Day 1

Well really this should be day 47 or so. After all the divorce drama and the postponement of the whole shebang, it is FINALLY on track. I've worked and worked and worked moving boxes and fabric and books and furniture and dishes and and and..... I feel like I've moved. The kitchen is completely empty and ready to be ripped out.

I just got the call that Jose is on his way.

Deconstruction commences shortly. What I won't miss:
- the single crappy burner on the stove that still works (sorta)
- the orangy disgustocabinets that have gaps and cracks and creepy open spaces in the back that just let the bugs waltz right on in (ew ew ew)
- the oven cabinet that is pulling away from the wall
- the non-functioning hand me down dishwasher
- the cheapo sink (temporary you understand until we start construction and get a new fancy one - it's been in here for 2 years now)
- the non functioning wet sink
- the ancient laminate countertops
- the useless cabinets under the sink and in the corners
- the oven that burns everything on the bottom
- the built in microwave that's been broken for 10 years now.

Oh how long I've waited for this day! Go Jose!

The disgusting broken-down BEFORE:

Practicing what I preach

I've been a bit distracted lately and haven't made much time to be creative. But I'm realizing that I NEED to be creating. It is who I am. It makes me happy.

So, yesterday I tackled cleaning the "scary quilt room" for a while and unearthed some of those Aunt Martha plain tea towels. Since I was in the mood to do something stitchy, I had to figure out what I was going to stitch on them. Those old-timey iron on transfer patterns just don't thrill me much. They are either too realistic or too cutesy. So I went googling for some images. I saw this on online at Sublime Stitches in a space themed set. I used it as a go-by and drew it myself on a piece of paper. I have no idea how big their original is, but I did mine pretty big. Then I used all six strands of embroidery floss to stitch it (I use a stem stitch). It's pretty bold and bright but I LOVE it. I think I'll give it to my SIL Karen who is a real rocket scientist for Christmas. I originally was going to color it in with crayons and do the stitching in black, but I went this route instead. Maybe I'll do the crayon thing for the next one. I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning - just a few stitches here and there. FUN! and FAST! I love instant gratification. And that creative itch has both been scratched and triggered me to go create some more.

I have a stamp workshop on Tuesday so I'll probably do some papercrafting tonight.
Ooooh and I'm playing with my Big Shot and the leaf die and felt in fall colors. Stay tuned for exciting developments there....
Laura
(p.s. - notice the cool new banner at the top? I made it with My Digital Studio. Digital Papercrafting (and scrapbooking) program. I'm having soooo much fun with it. Ask me if you want a demo!)