Kitchen+ Update

It's been a while since I've posted anything about our kitchen. . .so here goes!

This was probably taken in April. . .the cabinets are roughly in and the counter tops were just installed.

A very simple white Shaker style with Giallo Ornamental granite counter tops. What a process! Hubby and I went together to a bunch of stores, then I went during the week with my trusty camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING I liked. I talked to a few people at different stores, many of them were very helpful. We called people who had done renos themselves to check out for details we were missing. . . and searched the Internet like crazy!

(notice all the tools still in the corner?)

We still need some of the upper trim, below the cabinet trim and some edge finishing.

Then it was picking out tile. . . again. . .here was me, buying samples of everything and then returning them the next day only to purchase more samples! We finally decided on one we liked and that matched our counters, cupboards and floors pretty good.

(oops, sideways picture!)

Finally it is all installed. . .probably a month and a half after we finally picked it out. You can also see in this picture (maybe) the wall colour. Hubby went on some painting binges and had some help from a friend as well. Very appreciative of that!

Here is our office nook (the bump-out). . .I finally found some bulletin boards and white boards for our message center that I was happy with. After all the searching I did, it turned out to Wal-mart I settled on!

 So. . .a run down. . .
The island. . .

 The kitchen corner (see my sink~the domsjo!!!!). . .

 Kitchen corner, part 2. . .

 Here is our dining corner. . .just to show the trim style hubby changed it to.
(still thinking about painting the one wall--office nook one-- a darker brown. . .)

 Front window with no valences. . .

And of course, there is still lots of work to be done. We just hung some more pictures, etc this evening, but every day is one step closer to having it closer to being done. We still have furniture strategically placed to keep our little mover our of danger! Gotta love renovations at this age! (Although we always seem to do it. . .)

 This was just a fun memory for us. When putting some of the IKEA cabinets together, E wanted to help. Of course, there are no directions, just very poor photos (although I would think about becoming an installer if my teaching career ever crumbles!). So E started "reading" the directions. This one apparently tell us that "the bird is sad when it is getting broken." Note to IKEA: Your people look like birds, according to this K kid!

There you have it. . .our work in progress continues. . .

In every situation, there is some saving grace, some positive to see.

Aside from Christ, this is my happy thought each and every morning. Yep, this is my coffee nook! Pathetic you say? Yes, but if you saw the rest of our house right now. . .

 This is the rest of the house. . .someone should have let me know that when my hubby has a brilliant idea. . .this is what it will turn out to be!!!

We couldn't find someone willing to get rid of the rest of the texture on our ceiling so our next option was take it all down. When I say the rest of the texture, that means I have taken into account the stuff that has just fallen down on its own (which is why we are in this mess in the first place!) as well as the stuff that my hubby and I have spent hours scraping off. . .only to realize that our small square meter means that is we continue at the rate we were going, I might have a working kitchen by 2015!

So after finding someone to do the ceiling for us, we were happy--adjust the budget. . .

Then we get the phone call. . .yah, the guy doesn't want to remove it, so we have to. Granted, they gave us 2 days notice!!! Thank you to Opa for some help, and thank you that we didn't run into any more problems, and that we got to move some light fixtures around since the attic was exposed. . .

And now we live in a plastic bubble for a while!

We are making our "home" in our basement. Shared with the furniture and extra things to store of course! So our main area of living is the playroom. We are doing breakfast and dinners there, playing there, dancing there, resting there. . .thank goodness for the improvement in weather and parents who live near by where we can eat lunch!

In all seriousness though, I am blessed. Please don't read this post as a complaint in any way, because this is blessing! Why? Because I have a house to live in and a bed to sleep in and a family to surround me and friends who offer to meet me at the park and yummy (and not-so-yummy) food to eat and the list could just go on and on. My heart is heavy for those in Japan right now and also for our little sponsor children, because I, in my unbelievably privileged and blessed life, have an itty-bitty minuscule of a fraction of an idea of what they are facing. And so we, as a family, are offering our prayers for them daily as we cuddle together in our playroom every morning and night.

Old Chairs

Our kids have really grown to love some neighbors on our street. They love walking through their gardens and talking to the elderly man about birds and flowers. During the Christmas season the kids were invited in the house to check out their extensive Christmas village and train set. (By extensive, I mean it probably spanned two or three sheets of plywood, and there was more in another area of the house! It was absolutely beautiful!

The kids have really grown to love these neighbors and I think they have grown to love our kids as well! A week ago, we got a phone call asking if we wanted some child-sized chairs. So we popped on by to pick them up. This elderly couple was just ready to get rid of them as their kids and grand kids had outgrown them, but wanted to check if our kids could use them before donating them elsewhere. They had one at their house, and got the other one from their daughter's place, who also brought over a wooden rocking chair because she knew they were going to be given to our kids.

The story behind these chairs. . .they were made in the early 60s by prisoners in one of BC's local-ish prisons. This man also has some big garden urns that were made by these inmates as some of their work-projects as well. Not a story we are going to share with our kiddos just yet, but interesting anyway!

I wish I had a "before" picture. But just imagine the dust and build up of sitting around in a basement or garage for some time. Here is my "after" pictures. We had a sunny morning this week, so I took them outside and started the big clean-up! Here they are sitting on my driveway after a first clean.
I know--as if you wanted to see the bottoms of these chairs! But I was so impressed with how well they were made--and how long they have lasted!!! There are a few tears here or there, but nothing major or really noticeable unless you look closely. (Doesn't the colour just remind you of your old fridge?!?!)

Here is the bit on the back of the rocking chair. . .I'm no antique person, but I've watched my share of Pawn Stars (boring TV my hubby watches!) to know that these labels are important! :)

And here are my kids enjoying the finished product. Having a cozy chat in front of the fireplace (Old chairs and an old fireplace!).

Our "new" chairs. . . thank you neighbors!

I've been away. . .

. . .well, not really away. Just away from blog-land. Instead, I have been very much at my house!!!
Yes, that is me! (My hubby wouldn't take it too kindly if you thought it was him in the pink!) While, he has been VERY busy around the house, I've tried to help out when I can--mostly that means keeping the kiddos entertained and away from the mess!

But I thought I would give you a small taste of the "mess" we've been living in!

No more valences. . .

No more wall. . .

Everyone is helping out! E loves doing everything he can with his dad. Maybe it is being a guy and being able to destroy things. Who knows! Princess A, on the other hand, is an extremely helpful supervisor. :)

And here is the hole in my house. My hubby got a bunch of help from Grandpa A here. Again. . .it must be the ability to destroy things.

E checking things out. . .

And things being mended again.

Things I'm looking forward to. . .a "finished" kitchen and surrounding areas! And no more cleaning!!! When you have little kids in the house at the same time as a DIY renovation, that adds up to a lot of vacuuming, wiping and mopping multiple times a day! But the adventures continue!

Just a regular weekend. . .

I thought we were having a regular weekend. . .
playing with the kids,
shopping for groceries,
visiting with a friend,
going to church,
having regular family dinner,
the usual, family stuff. . .

{What a sweetheart!!!}

. . . until my hubby just kinda decided he didn't like valences anymore.

Many people who has an older home like this is very familiar with the valences--to hide the curtain rods--we deal with them. We get used to them. There isn't a lot you can do with them. . .

Unless you are my hubby, and decide you don't like them on a weekend like any other. And your house suddenly looks like this!

And then this:

And then this. . .

I just want to know where my cupboards are!!! He gets to go to work and leave the mess behind. But I have to function in here!!!

But I shouldn't complain. He was nice enough to put the clock back up!

What have we gotten ourselves into?

I must have {jinx-ed} myself. A mom of one of my son's friends stopped by and said she remembers being in our house because she was friends with someone who lived here previously. She thought it was neat because we had made a few changes and she remembers what it was like before. I was telling her about how I wanted to have the kitchen redone one of these days.

I did not mean that this weekend was "one of these days!"

We have lots of little projects to do--a baseboard needs nailing, a door needs a fixed hinge, cleaning galore. . .why a new project???

So. . .we will see how one is to function in a mess like this! :)

Laundry Shelves

Ohh. . . look what I got my husband to do!!!

Our laundry room was "finished" about 2 years ago. We installed a counter top and shelf over top, and had a "leg" or "peg" holding the counter top up.
Then a half year ago+ our hot water tank broke and things got re-done.
And I liked it, but I didn't love it.

But then I was directed to the Ana White website, fell in love with it . . . and gave my hubby a choice. Buy a cabinet with drawers for laundry to go in and fit under the counter top we have (which could mean re-doing the counter top, filling the wall, re-painting, re-caulking, etc. if the cabinet didn't fit perfectly) or build a variation of this.

It may have helped that I had been up with a teething child for the whole night minus 3 hours of broken sleep, that a few other issues came up that he may not have handled well causing LOTS of additional work for me, and that I was just plain overwhelmed with life even at 9 a.m. that day, but he started building. (And I didn't stop him!)

Maybe there are a few blessings that go with bad days for moms! :)

I can't find a "before" picture (sorry!), but here is what he did- his progress:

The frame of it all
The painted finished product

A close up of the "shelves."

In the end, the project cost about $60. . .but it could be less if you used pressed board or more if you used fancy trim or melamine board. Hubby said he thought it was pretty easy, that I could have made it on my own. A nice compliment. . .not so sure if I could, but that means it is also an easy-ish project.Like I said, we had to make it work for us, so we used Ana White's tutorial as a guide for us. We had a "foundation shelf" to deal with in the back, and for cleaning purposes, I wanted to keep the back open. We also had a specific height to work with, so there is room on the bottom so I can store smaller, flat totes (see in above photo).

I am extremely happy. . .(and extremely happy to have a hubby who can do this!). . .and now have a place to store some of my sewing totes as well (on top), and can kinda use it as a sewing table. (Thinking of finding/making a flip-out or slide-out table to go with this for the sewing machine. . .we'll see)

Check out that website--there are tonnes of ideas. . .my hubby doesn't know what all I have planned for him to do still! :)

Renos

Here are some updated pictures of this re-reno we are doing. Yep, it's STILL not done. If you are doing any renos, I have a company NOT to use!

This is the new flooring.
And a close up. . .I posted a picture like this one on the post when we had just re-done this flooring for the first time!

Since these photos were taken, all the appliances have been moved back, hooked up, and I can do laundry again (after a month of NO laundry at my own house. . .and a newborn! Seriously!!!) We've had baseboards put in, some touch up paint done. . .and some carpet cleaning done.

However, we made yet another call to the adjuster and told him we were not happy. The baseboards are not smooth, there are scratches that still need painting and the carpet cleaning guy decided to clean "around" furniture, rather than possibly moving anything. This company just is doing a half-_ _ _ job on everything. They have been in three times since the above pictures, and twice they have told us they thought they were done. And we had to say, hey, can you come check out this terrible work? We even had one baseboard that didn't reach the end of the wall and they claimed they were done!

So. . .now our basement has "sticky notes" all over it to show the people coming in tomorrow where work has to be done. Grr. . .

I can't wait until this is done and I can have my house back! On the bright side, I can use the laundry. . .

Uh-oh! Re-renos!

Just over a year ago, we (mostly my hubby, of course!) finished {most} of our basement. (We still have a back bedroom to finish off, but right now that is just acting as junk storage.) We liked all the work that the people we had hired had done, and we liked all that my hubby had done. It was nice.

But as luck would have it, our hot water tank decided to kick it and RIP--but did not allow us the peace! It made a mess! As soon as my hubby walked downstairs and into a puddle of water, we made some phone calls! Here is our basement that day! Our vinyl pulled up and fans doing what they can!
In this photo you can see some of our "new" vinyl and the old lino under it. (Don't worry, its not as messy as it seems. The flooring people put a leveling compound down as we had "floating vinyl flooring" put in. That is why it looks so dirty and ugly, I think.)

And, as luck would have it, the insurance company had to test the original lino for asbestos (is that how you spell it?) because of the age of our home. Guess what they found?

We got "re-located" for two days as they had to pull everything out to remove it all.

That is where the fun part comes in, for the kids that is! That meant a local vacation at the Super-8, consisting of lots of swimming time, which of course was the highlight for the kiddos! Other highlights included the BIG beds, late bedtimes and continental breakfast (aka: "I can pick whatever I want for breakfast!!!!")

Our little bathing beauty!

Playtime!

What little a did best at the pool. . .

Bedtime. . .or story time or TV time. . .

More swimming. . .did we mention there was a water slide? The kids were kinda small for it (see above), but they went off the end of it and enjoyed making the water stop and start. They turned into quite the swimmers after the two days there!

Hot tub time. . .

Water slide time. . .

As much fun as being in a hotel and going out for meals sounds, it isn't all its cracked up to be when it is totally unplanned and raining like crazy outside. Makes going out on adventures a little more difficult! And cramming all of us (newborn baby and all!) in a hotel room--not fun! We spent some time at the mall and stores, at Opa and Oma's and going on walks when it was somewhat dry. We popped into our house every now and then to see the progress. We may have had to make a few not-so-nice phone calls so that we could get back into our house as I was getting tired of this living in limbo thing.

Finally, we are back in our house. The result. . .our own beds, our own toys, home cooked meals again, no laundry, limited basement space for now, and for me, the dreaded M-word. Yep, mastitis! As luck would have it. . .I'm not the lucky one these days! I like my quiet house. I like my little nursing spot in my house. I like routine to my days. I like having more than 3 hours of sleep at night because everyone is comfortable in their own spaces. I like home-cooked meals again (although, not having to cook was kinda nice!). I'm a boring, boring person--and very content with it!

So, the next step in this whole reno-process is NOT another mini-vacation (much to the dismay of our kiddos. They miss the pool. The first morning back in our house, E came upstairs with his swimming stuff because he wanted to go back. He prayed at night that we could go back--please!They just don't get how much energy this takes out of us!). Hopefully, the next step will be getting the floors in, the baseboards done, the painting finished, getting my laundry back, and getting better!

But as luck would have it. . .I think we have a better chance of having sunshine than for this re-reno to be done any time soon! :)

Project

We've been thinking about what to do with E's room for the last little bit (since he moved down to the guest room). Here is his "before" picture. . .
These are the "after" ones. After consulting a few friends on paint colours, we settled on "Stone Fence" (Behr 720F)-a grey tone that was still kind of blue. I find that I am always choosing a blue that turns out to be too bright on the wall. This was almost a denim/grey colour, and I was actually happy about it. We already had the comforter, so I sewed some new curtains for his room to match. I still need to do some tie-back loops because I made the curtains using some heavier materials and with casing enclosures at the top. That will be done in the next week.

We even went out and got some new knobs and hooks for him to match the rest of the ones on the furniture (ie: the toybox had similar ones) and to get rid of those old 70-ish ones that were in his room.

We still need to find some cork boards for his walls (or something like that) since his walls are pretty bare right now. I was thinking about getting the cork board tiles (that will match the oak wood dresser and toybox, etc in his room) that Walmart sells and making a group of four on one of his walls, but they have been sold out the last few times I've been there. Maybe I'll have to check out Michael's or so. There are still a few "decorating-type" things to do and a few toys to return to his shelves, but the big job of painting is done and he is sleeping in his room again!

Here is the happy E in his "new" room. :)