dreams do come true

I am breathing into a paper bag. In a good way. Ahhhhhhhhhh! I have a kitchen!!!!

And it does not suck at all. Not even close. 

I was really upset about the hood tragedy last week, but after the rest of the appliances were installed, those feelings evaporated pretty quickly. I finally feel like my kitchen karma may actually be looking up. I know all of you have probably been wondering what I possibly did for my kitchen karma to be this jacked up. Trust me, I have been racking my brain myself. Did I run over a puppy in another life?  

It may not be finished but I don't even care. I have a range and a refrigerator--who even needs a hood? I usually have my trusty two little helpers connected to my legs when I'm cooking, so they'll be huffing in as much of the exhaust as my hood would be anyway. 

It has been a pretty productive weekend so far. I checked some things off my honey do list while my honey was away. Electronics have never been my strong suit so I am quite impressed shocked I got the tv connected and it actually works. Watch out. 

I can't believe I am about to be able to boil water!! It's the little things. 

Happy, happy weekend indeed! 

coulda woulda shoulda

I know all of you (slash my mom & dad) have been patiently waiting with bated breath to see pictures of appliances being installed. I have been too, except subtract the word patiently. I can't even begin to articulate what happened this week without owing a month's salary to the swear jar, and I am not trying to derail your Thursday morning like that. Thursdays are usually pretty good. Suffice it to say, the kitchen reno will not be finished this week. The pretty little hood that took longer to make than a mammal arrived earlier than projected last week. Cue the helium for the balloons! My contractor opened its tightly packaged coffin to begin the install on Tuesday and found it was damaged beyond belief. Suck the helium right of my head why don't you. To say I am disappointed would be the understatement of the year, but I am thinking I must be due for some reallllly good luck. I will probably win the lottery this weekend. Completely logical. 

So, I could show you a picture of a dishwasher that was installed, but unless it also roasts turkeys and prints money, I realize that no one is probably interested in that. On the bright side, and after much pouting/begging/threatening to cry, it sounds like they will install the other appliances this week. Fingers crossed!! So in an effort to completely divert my attention from the drama at hand, I thought I would completely switch gears and address a few other design dilemmas I was debating.

Gears switched. 

I must try to remember always wanting what you don't have is an innate quality in every human being. It's not just my day to day struggle. But in an ideal world, with no budget, there are a few things I might have done differently in the kitchen. Jack says I am the absolute worst when it comes to order envy. He is accurate. Without fail, every time I order food in a restaurant, I immediately begin to second guess myself when someone else orders and then wish with every ounce of my being that I had ordered whatever that person got. Every. Single. Time. So I really I shouldn't be surprised when it came to decision making in the kitchen I would have the same coulda woulda shoulda problems just on a different scale. Indecisive much?

WINDOWS...
In an ideal world, this kitchen would have a wall full of windows, a door to an outside patio, and a Subzero refrigerator stocked full of Ina Garten left overs, but you can't always get what you want. Unless you are Chrissy Teigen. We have one small-ish window in the kitchen. If I could do it all over again (sans budget), I would definitely add more windows, but that was an obvious way to save. For our project and budget, the choice came down to knocking down a wall or adding a window--they were roughly the same cost.

Don't get me wrong, I love natural light as much as anyone, but I also love elbow room and we had to have it. The kitchen was closed in like a box. Like a tiny Tiffany's box but without the sparkling rock inside of it. If we had added a window but kept the wall, the kitchen would feel just as confined as it did before. Also, since our house is historic, in order to get a window we would have to get COA approval. And given the uproar in our neighborhood over other design issues, I didn't want to deal with the headache. I think we made the right choice choosing to take out the wall instead of opting for more windows. I just want to mention this to those of you out there struggling with similar choices. When you look at something as lovely as these windows though, it is hard to think anything is right in the world unless you can have them too.

THE ISLAND...
I worried I'd have regrets about the island the second I pulled the trigger. Our kitchen is small. Very small. Tres petite. In most worlds probably too small for an island, but when you are dealing with someone as hellbent as me, there is only ever one way that situation resolves itself. I must learn through trial and error. Actual trial and error. I don't know if I will end up resenting its sheer presence, but lawd I hope not. I needed the extra counter top space too for crying out loud.

Also, as soon as I gave the cabinet maker the go ahead, I had an instant pain in my side. I said nothing to him to let him know this, but deep down I really wanted an island that felt more like a piece of furniture than another set of cabinets. I wanted to do something in more of a natural wood instead of just like the other white painted cabinets. Did I make a mistake???

via Hunted Interior

Ok, maybe I am just obsessed with that kitchen.

via House Beautiful

In the grand scheme of things, no major freak outs about these two issues yet, but I just thought it was worth mentioning. And I also thought if I went ahead and said it out loud, maybe it would relieve some of my constant heartburn since I have been living with this all alone. I already feel so much better.

i love packing and moving said no one ever

There is nothing like a good move to make you want to throw away every single earthly possession you own just so you never have to move it again. WOW. I am officially 115 years old and my back is broken. Here I am carrying a sack of body aches and muscle strains that will likely stay with me all week. 

Jack and I had quite a rager on Friday night that ended with a 20 minute debate of should we just sleep on the hardwood floor or was it worth the energy to peel ourselves off the floor and make the 1.5 mile trek over to our temporary apartment. 

Tonight, I plan on sleeping as soundly as these guys do 23.5 hours per day.

On a positive note, the floors are finished and they look great! For once, I am not second guessing myself and having a giant case of self doubt. I am 100% happy with the clear finish. Everyone can rest easy. I know you have all been worried about the anxiety I was having. 

Sorry for only posting pictures of floors lately, I promise this has not turned into a blog only about hardwood floors. This is just the only progress I know to report of currently, and I am too tired to think of anything clever. Excuses excuses. 

On other positive notes, the pack rat is all packed up and schedule to be picked up on Monday. ALL of the appliances are in and should be installed this week. Does this mean what I think it means??  Am I seeing a light?? What will I do with my free time?? 

And to all of you kind, dear souls who offered to help this weekend, let's be honest. 

You're welcome. 

clear winner

The first coat of clear polyurethane went down on Monday, and I must say I am quite the Pleasant Pollyanna so far. And here I was thinking I would be pining away (pun intended) the loss of my dark floors. It is COMPLETELY different from what they looked like before, but I think the floors are probably happier to be back a little closer to their roots. They probably feel like Rachel McAdams in that they have been dyed so many times they didn't even know what their natural color was. I think the clear really was the clear winner. Here they are after one coat:

My fig trees have taken up residence on an outside porch during the floor project. If those suckers die, this Pollyanna is going to be quite the opposite of pleasant. I am pretty sure I have managed to keep one of them alive longer than my youngest little son, Alfred. Needless to say when I saw a SQUIRREL wreaking havoc to one of my dearest fiddle leafs, it is making me think it may be time to reconsider my stance on squirrel hunting. What a jackass. 

Of course there are plenty of spots full of what we like to refer to as "character" (i.e., the giant square cutout in the hallway above where the furnace used to be), but it wouldn't fit with this house if they were perfect. So far I am pretty pleased, and it is not everyday that I get to say that. At this point, (I hope you are sitting down), it looks like all is ON SCHEDULE, and we should be moving back in this weekend. Ohhhh, don't everyone volunteer to help all at once. 

a quick ear stain about floor stain

Picking out a floor stain can be quite the tedious process. You don't want to go too dark, you don't want to go too light, you don't want it to be too red, blah blah blah. I have had stain on the brain for quite some time now. I am kind of at that trippy place in life where if you say a word a few times too many that it gets to the point where it sounds so weird it can't possibly be a real word. Stain. stain. stain. Tell me that doesn't sound crazy to you too. I promise I have not been huffing polyurethane. Moving on. That was weird. 

I am having a dilemma picking out a stain. Here is a quick reminder of what the floors used to look like:

And a quick update on the sanding progress:

It's hard to believe after just a day of sanding, what once looked like this...

Now looks like this...

And another before:

And another after:

Initially I was really worried about this part ever getting back to normal...

Now the boards that had to be replaced don't look as out of place as they did earlier...

And I was really sad to think about losing my white floor, that I HAND painted all by myself, but the maintenance is killer. I did it almost 4 years ago, and it was probably time to do it again. The scuffs and scratches were getting a little OOC. 

White floor no more:

You probably think I am a lunatic for ever painting the floor in the first place, but I assure you I am not. Some of you (more like none) might remember from here the floor was covered in a lovely puke green colored carpet, and underneath there was yet another charming shade of blue paint on the floors (and walls). OMG I am not kidding. I just found an old picture and I have to just share it. AHHH. Point proven. I was not crazy for painting the floors white.

And now to my actual dilemma. Floor stain decisions...

I am a lover of dark floors. Realllly dark floors. And our floors prior to sanding were already really dark. I know there is more upkeep involved with dark floors. And yes, we have dogs. I know the downsides, but you know I like to be hardheaded. I always thought I would end up staining the floors really dark again. Here are some stain options:

Clockwise from top: Early American, Mahogany, Clear

Top: Clear, Bottom: Mahogany 

Can you believe that is just a clear stain? Crazy, right? Knowing how much I love to pine and toil in agony over decisions like this, you would think I would have put down about 15 more colors. Thank God I didn't have access to more colors because clearly I would have. And I would have mixed and diluted and given myself about a million too many options to chose from. 

While the crazy person in me really wants to lean towards the darkest stain, there is some bit of sanity sneaking in that is telling me to let the natural beauty of the floors speak for themselves. I don't have to do the speaking for everyone. 

Here is another picture of particularly low quality, but I was trying to capture a bit of what the old stain looked like (in the far left corner) next to what the floors will look like with just the clear stain. I think the clear stain might be the clear winner. Yes, I get cheesier by the day. 

It is such a drastic change from what the floors were like before, but I think it is the right decision. Au naturale is always in style, right?  Anyone have any opinions they are brave enough to share?

electric feel

Last week was pretty exciting, minus the whole packing up and moving part. There was more real life progress! We all know how much I love lighting, so you know I was pretty damn excited to see those things get some electricity. It has been pretty dark in the house over the past few weeks months in more ways than one. 

Starting with the kitchen, let there be light:

You know nothing can go off without a hitch, so there are a few places where there are more holes than there should be. I am not even going to stress about it as I am currently practicing the Disney Frozen method known as "letting it go".  

And also because, when I popped in from work to check the progress, I found my BRAND NEW counter tops covered with things that are unmentionable. Things similar to those that littered my floor on the first day of demo when it looked like this:

Not cool people, not cool. Was there damage? Yes. Am I ready to talk about it? No. Why am I not in complete hysterics and on another crazy rampage? Again, I am practicing the let it go method. For now. That battle will be crusaded at a later date. 

Moving on...

Between the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and the sunroom, I decided to do a little switch-a-rooskie with the lights. The light from the master bedroom found a new home in the guest bedroom. The light from the guest bedroom (and star of a blast from the past post) found a new home in the sunroom. And the master bedroom got a much needed upgrade from the $10 ikea light that tops out with one 40 watt bulb. It was time. 

So what once looked like this in the master bedroom:

Now looks like this:

After raising the ceiling in the guest bedroom, I was worried the light fixture we had in there previously would be too small. Let's just go ahead and say I was right, because it is too late now. 

So what once looked this in the guest bedroom:

Now looks like this:

(furniture install to come if we ever finish this renovation)

And lastly, the guest bedroom fixture now happily resides here, in the sunroom:

Which will go above my sweet little DIY table project from earlier this month:

Also of note, the hardware for the kitchen was installed as well. I lazily snapped one single picture. It was not a true measure for my level of excitement, I promise. And you obviously know I will take more pictures. Come on, it is the colossal over sharer we are talking about here. 

I think we can officially start counting down the days! And not because we have a definite end date, but because I am going on vacation in September come hell or high water and not even this beast of a project will stop me!!