Sunday, September 26, 2010

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

Saturday, September 25, 2010

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.









Friday, September 24, 2010

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...