Almost Finished!

Today we’ve been hanging curtains all over the downstairs. Ok, maybe “we'” isn’t exactly correct. Steve didn’t want to spend his Father’s Day on the honey-do list, so that drill has been whirring like those horns you hear at the World Cup games.
Almost ready to post some pictures!
Oh, all right…here’s a sneak preview:

See the paint cans on the floor? Painting is done! See the white trimmed entrance into what is now our dining room? We joke that we are the only people we know who remodel and put walls in instead of taking them out. See the piano in our entryway? Yes you heard me right, entryway. Why not be a little bit off-center I say? (Especially when there is not another blessed place to put this piano!) Believe it or not, my youngest is just  as happy to play it in the foyer as anywhere else.
That sweet little bundle in the picture is not my piano playing youngest, by the way, but isn’t he cute?

Decorating Dilemmas: It’s Curtains

“We don’t have a panel of judges, we have judges of panels.”
-My sweet husband after hearing the latest critique of the window curtain panels that will be returned to the store.
These didn’t work:
Neither did these:
What was I thinking?
Not going to add this chocolate:
Start the Regatta without me:

We have beautiful  walls and ceiling (Camelback and Believable Buff, both Sherwin Williams), the furniture isn’t going anywhere, the fireplace is no longer a monstrosity, and the new rug is a keeper. The book cabinets might get a facelift and I just might, gasp, steer away from red white and blue as a color scheme. Stay tuned folks! I have enough decorating adventures to blog about for months. If I had known it would take this long…
Hugs,
Renee

If You Give a Cook a Cabinet

If you give a cook a cabinet, she’ll need to get countertops.
If she gets new countertops, she’ll have to pick out a new sink.
A new sink means a new faucet too!
The new faucet needs to coordinate with the new oven, microwave, and fridge.
The appliances sit in the new cabinets which are going to need knobs and pulls.
If she gets knobs and pulls for the kitchen, she’s going to pick out new ones for the new bathroom cabinet as well.
When she sees that the knobs and pulls match the bathroom faucet, she’s going to realize that the door handles throughout the entire house are a dated, 80’s polished brass and she’ll want updated burnished bronze lever handles.
The new door handles won’t match the (shudder) polished brass ceiling fan, so it will have to go.
The new ceiling fan will have to match the new light fixtures.
The new lights should probably include one for over the sink as well.
A well-lighted sink will look great with the under-cabinet lighting.
But wait! She can’t have under-cabinet lighting unless she gets a new cabinet.
And if you give a cook a cabinet….

Kitchen Kapers: Before

This might be the blog-equivalent of really letting my hair down, but I’m all about truth and honesty. (Ok, I highlight. So there.)
Some of you know that we are in the midst of a huge kitchen project. Well maybe “midst” is too strong a word, because last week we found out that our kitchen cabinets were not “in-production”, rather they were “not in production.” What a difference a hyphen makes!
I’ve been warned to expect these little glitches and that’s ok. When our company comes in 6 days, we’ll have a spot to cook and eat that is not torn up.
Why on earth are we undertaking this little face-lift? (Ok, humor me willya? A new canister set is Botox. We’re somewhere between that and Phyllis Diller territory.) As you can see from the pics below we have a serious shortage of space. (I also have a serious “I can’t keep stuff off my fridge door” issue, but I come by it genetically. Hi Mom.) We also have an oven that has broken for the 3rd time, a fridge that will not hold more than a bottle of tabasco and a quart of half-n-half, and a pantry that was made for a bachelor who lives on Kraft Mac-n-Cheese and Cheerios. Nothing else fits!
You want more reasons? I’ll give you reasons! Two words: Golden Oak. Yes my friends, this kitchen is about to come out of the 80’s for good. I missed much of the worst of the 80s because I was busy changing diapers. Well, all 5 kids are potty-trained; 2 have graduated college and have babies of their own. The 3 still at home love to cook and we are out of room!
So what’s in the works for our little cook-nook? New cabinets, granite countertops, new appliances, reconfiguring the layout, taking out the closet pantry and replacing with a built-in, changing the windows, and turning what was our formal living room into a formal dining room.
Stay tuned!

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