Nudity

I must warn you, these photos are incredibly offensive. Our kitchen is naked. That said, here's where we are:

Side note - I love this pic of John. He looks chubby. And he
really isn't. At all. But he lets his belly stick out, which cracks
me up.

What are you looking at you're wondering? Quite honestly it's too hard to explain. Or I'm lazy. Basically John keeps uncovering structural issues and he is a perfectionist. And he watches lots of Holmes on Homes. So he's doing lots of stuff to prepare for installing new hardwood floors, the ceilings, and recessed lighting. He also moved the plumbing (with the help of our neighbor/friend who is a plumber) so the sink will live in a new spot. See last picture. Everything you see in these pics in terms of cabinets, appliances, etc. are temporary. It's just so we can have running water, a fridge and a stove while we're going through this. I am still malnutritioned.

Anyway now for the fun part. The "new" cabinets! Insert image of Lindsay doing a toe touch cheerleading jump. (PS - I wasn't a cheerleader. I was on the drill team though. Obviously.) We had to abandon the idea of the hardwood cabinetry for a variety of reasons, but mainly it's either super expensive to buy them, which we were never going to do anyway, or it would take John forever to make them from scratch. Not his fault but he's single-handedly doing this kitchen so we are going another route. The original plan, which I still love and it will suit the style of our 150 year old house, is the grey cabinetry I posted about months and months ago. 

The best part? We found a whole kitchen for sale on Craigslist for $500. I think they'll look awesome painted grey and with new handles/pulls.

We won't use the top trim part, just the cabinets. I know we can transform them to where they look custom. Recently Erin at Elements of Style did a whole post about grey kitchens. I got super excited, since it's the same idea we're working towards. Check out the pics she found: Green Grey Kitchens. 

Our New Deck

We have a fairly good sized piece of property (1/3 acre, which is pl-EN-ty for us) but the way we use the outdoor space is sorta limited. Just a huge lawn. Up until this summer all we really had was a brick patio (beautiful) to relax on but there is no privacy or protection from the sun and heat in the summer. And I'm no "glistener." 

In comes a brilliant idea. My awesome cousin was getting rid of all the Western Red Cedar from his deck last year and was nice enough to let thrifty John snatch it up for reuse. It's gorgeous cedar. And as luck would have it, we had the perfect spot for a small deck that would provide more privacy AND shade! We added this deck right off the kitchen. We took out a window, added a French door and voila. John even used some of the leftover wood to craft two deck chairs and we found this super cool wrought iron and wood rocker at Todd Farm for $35 that we'll fix up next year. It's great - the dogs can stick their little noses out the bottom to spy on the neighborhood, John and I can relax with our coffee or cocktail, and we can forget about the mess that awaits us right inside the door... Ignorance is... well, you know.

Eloise's Room

My sister is having a baby.  And of course I'm excited to be an aunt but I was alarmingly excited at the prospect of a nursery to force design ideas onto.  Clearly I'm no professional I just love it and if my sister likes my ideas, then, hey, free design advice for her!  That being said I tried my own design board.  She was waffling on colors since it's a little girl (to be named Eloise) so I came up with a couple of ideas to get her brain goin'.  I'll tell you at the bottom which one she's going to use.

I'm sure you're dying to know. Hehehe... She chose the middle one. Loved the gingham. Yay me. Now this is mostly a loose set of ideas that she can follow to stay on track. I'll try to get her to send me photos along the way (she's in Ohio, I'm in MA) so we can see the progress. It's fun for me. ZERO WORK. On HER house. Mine is a nightmare. Updated photos coming soon... I'll give you a teaser though. Heard from downstairs yesterday: "Well at least the bathtub won't fall through the floor." Ah THAT'S a relief. Cut to The Money Pit... 

Big Baby Steps of Progress...

More progress... because Spring is the busy season at the boat yard, it might seem like we're making baby steps but they are BIG baby steps. For sure.

Ta-da! Used to be a window...

View from outside

View from outside part deux

Door is in, and the window moved over to the left

Half the tile (so far) came up, new subfloor down

Jonesin' for a Craft Fix

Big time. So I made a new roman shade for the downstairs powder room. I guess I just get bored... ? The shade used to be a roller shade in black and white (that I made but it wasn't functional. Oops!)

VOILA!

KITCHEN UPDATE!

Well when we started the project we really had no idea what we were getting into. Actually, I think John expected it, but it still doesn't cease to amaze him how structurally unsound our house was (IS!) To me it just all looks scary beneath the covers.

So the following pictures are really just to show you how crazy strong it is now. No more bouncing at my desk upstairs when the dogs run by. Sound as a pound.

This is to illustrate how nail happy the previous "builder" was. This is the old subfloor.

There are now 12 inch spaces whereas before we were pushin' 20+. AND you'll notice a new supporting beam running through the kitchen, which replaced something that more closely resembled a twig. Crazy man did it by himself. I was sure to leave the premises when this all went down.

Every poop pipe gets wallpaper in this household.

Ireland Inspiration

Major Catch Up Part 2: The Kitchen

The ceiling came down. There was much debate about taking the whole mess down but John did it. We will gain a couple of inches and we can ensure it's all level, which it wasn't before. The way this house was built leaves much to be desired. John is constantly scratching his head in wonderment. Random shims and scrap wood make up the structure of our house. Awesome.

Supporting beam

POSITIVITY ALERT! The new Samsung microwave was installed over the oven with ventilation outside. It's like a beacon of light amongst the rubble.

Old insulation. Disgustin.

It's officially a non-functioning kitchen. GAME ON.

Major Catch Up Part 1: The Bathroom

After being lazy, a weeklong vacation, some work travel and BEING LAZY, I'm finally posting a new update on what we've done to the house.

I guess I can't really say I've been that lazy seeing as I decided to repaint the upstairs bathroom, replace all the fixtures, mirror, lighting, etc. Everthing went well except for the discovery of knob and tube wiring. Major oops. So, much to John's dismay, he had to put a temporary halt on the kitchen to rewire the entire upstairs. For those of you that think that John Linsley is laid back and even tempered. WRONG. Come over one day while he's doing a gut job or trying to manipulate a piece of teak. You'll see...

Anyway, this is the bathroom before. The blue isn't horrible, it just seems like a bathroom suited for a little kid so it was time to change it.

After

Before

After

Walls changed from blue to Sherwin-Williams Grecian White, new linen shower curtain, pictures rematted, all new fixtures, new handmade roman shade courtesy of directions from Little Green Notebook...

Before (but after I painted the vanity)

After

New light fixture from Target, with glass shades and silver tipped lightbulbs from Schoolhouse Electric.

We took the old mirror and John made a teak frame for it. It's my favorite part of the bathroom.