Parental Kitchen Remodel: Potential

Starting from scratch on a remodel is always tough. Tougher still when your brain is constantly wracked with indecision and the knowledge that you may come to regret any decision that you eventually make. Imagine these are the thoughts you are plagued with every minute of every day for the rest of your life... Yeah, that's what it's like be a member of my freaky little clan. 

So, you are beginning a kitchen remodel. 

Now.

Do you choose dark wood cabinets?

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Or light wood cabinets?

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Or white cabinets?

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Or cherry wood?

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Or something fun and funky?

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What about appliances? 

Do you pick white?

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Stainless?

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Panelled to match the cabinetry?

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What about the floor?

Matched to the entry and living areas?

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Tile floor?

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Patterned?

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Herringbone? (Yum)

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Checkerboard? (My Fave)

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What about the island?

Yes?

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No?

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Simple table as island?

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With Seating?

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Without?

What are your thoughts on beginning a project from scratch?

Hilarious kid!

I can't get the video to embed. Youll have to follow the link, but it's totally worth it. This kid is awesome.

http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/bad-romance-by-mickey-mouse-kid/8cpa9i1r


Anyone else notice dad racing past the camera in his bikini skivvies? Disturbing.

An Epic Story: Parental Kitchen Remodel

About 6 months ago now, the toilet in the guest bathroom on the 2nd floor at my parents house exploded. Something to do with the water level regulator not regulating. My mother came home to find water dripping into the kitchen. Luckily, my brother and S.I.L. live across the street and my brother was able to come over and help staunch the flow of water. Unfortunately (or a blessing in disguise), it was too late. Our State Farm guy sent over one of those disaster relief guys and he said lots of it needed to be replaced. Some of the kitchen cabinets were ruined, the ceiling in the kitchen, the ceiling in the hallway, the vanity in the upstairs bathroom, the vanity in my parents bathroom (it shares a wall), etc... They had been wanting to remodel for quite some time, but my indecision is hereditary, I get it from both of them! This "disaster" forced them to make choices. Here are some before shots (Okay, some are really just water damage shots):

 This toilet is the one that overflowed.

The main floor half-bath is directly below the flood zone.

 The water leaked all the way down the basement. 

The drywall had collapsed and there was water pouring out of the ceiling.

The restoration guys had to drill holes all over the ceiling and tear out a lot of drywall. 

This was the best shot I could find of the "before" kitchen floor. Linoleum parquet, klassy.

They decided to remove this wall while they were remodeling. 

The same wall from the kitchen side.

The wall to the left backs to the garage.

The maroon velvet curtains my mother had in the dining room. 

A detail shot of the original cabinetry and hardware. 

Past pantry, future fridge nook.

Aren't you loving the brown stove? It used to have a fridge to match. Yum. 

Past fridge nook, future pantry. They took part of this wall out, so the fridge wouldn't fit there anymore. 

The window is new, it used to be a garden window. 

Stay tuned for "in progress" pictures!

Mortal Combat

I was unloading Costco (I love Costco!!) items from my truck when I heard something thrashing around in the trees in our backyard. I turned around and saw what I thought was a squirrel falling from a tree. I looked closer and realized it was one of our pileated woodpeckers, she looked to have fallen and was hoping around drunken on a branch.

I then realized there was a large black snake in the tree not 5 feet from her. OMG, right?!

 

I was having a terrible time getting a decent photo because of the angle of the setting sun. Poo. Although, these shots are better than they looked on my teeny screen on the camera. You can actually see the yucky, slithery grodieness that is the snake. Blech. I didn't even realize, until Mr. came home (after dark, of course, and too late to do anything about it) and told me he was probably after her eggs.  So sad. He told me I should have gotten the pistol and "scared it off". I am not certain I could have actually shot at a living creature, no matter how devilish and carnivorous, even had I known this. 

What about you? Had you known the snake was after her babies, would you have thought to retrieve a gun to shoot at a living being? Food for thought (for me at least, most of you don't live among the wild, I am sure). 

Ew. Speaking of "wild", I let the dogs out the other night to potty and saw (not until I had stood there for about five minutes) a wolf spider the size of my palm hanging out in the doorway, about 18 inches from my hip. Icky, icky, icky. Lucky for you all, I was too busy shrieking like a girl and freaking out my Mr. and the dogs to take a picture.

Monkey Love

Meet Louie, my parents hideously deformed, inbred, crazy rescue pug. He loves his, um... auntie? cousin? The lovely, the infamous, the teeny dog lover: Miss Gidget Johnson!

They decided my parents flooded pool was THE greatest place to play. To the complete and total consternation of my father.

Projects out the Wazoooo!

A while back a wonderful blogger wrote a post about DADD, Design Attention Deficit Disorder (I think that's what she called it). I cannot, for the life of me, find that post (google: you've let me down), but it was so funny. And it described our house to a T! She said you have DADD if there is at least one unfinished project in every room in your house. Check.

The picture on the left has two more coordinating prints. They are destined to hang on this wall above the dresser/buffet in the DR. This one has been sitting there since, um, January? They used to hang on our wall in the LR at our old house. Our new walls are made of some kind of mortar/concrete mix and things are much more difficult to hang. A hammerdrill is needed, no joke.

Mister picked up this dining room table on the side of the road about two years ago. We plan on staining the tabletop and the base espresso to match the buffet in the DR, we plan to leave the white part white, to tie into the corner cabinet. He has the bottom portion stripped and that is as far as it's gotten.

Speaking of the DR corner cabinet, this is what it looks like currently. About two months ago, Mister built me a "spray booth" in our garage. It doesn't have the plastic surround yet. He has been working 6 days a week and has been unmotivated to help me in his off time. So it sits.


You can't focus on finishing a project before starting another. Check.

Since the DR is at a standstill, I decided to start painting the bedroom. This what happens when you second coat the edges without mixing the can of paint. Grr. Damn my laziness and impatience.

The wall pictured above needed to be painted first so I could move the bookshelf onto that wall so I could paint the wall the bookshelf was on. Of course, I since lost steam, so that is still the only wall that is painted.

 Classy, right?

Meanwhile, I decided to use the hardware (knobs) from the cabinet redo for the bedroom furniture. Luckily, there were six knobs on the cabinet and I need two for the storage bench and four for the bookshelves. I used the left over blue spray paint from my mirror project to tie the color into our bedroom from the hallway.

Of course, being me, I neglected to spray all of them at once. So the other bookshelf still has these knobs on it.

Which are actually originally from this bench:

I switched the knobs between the bookshelf and the bench because you could see the bookshelf from the door and the knobs the bookshelves came with are ridiculous. Can you even spot them in this photo? What Swedish genius thought these were a good idea? I only had one bookshelf assembled so they switched out easy. The new/old, blue knobs did not actually fit into the stock holes, so I had to drill them bigger. Pretty simple.

The gallery wall in the LR is not finished yet either. Mainly because of the concrete wall problem. I am too nervous to use the hammerdrill without "adult" supervision and himself is never home. I guess it would help if I at least got it mapped out, but even that is difficult. The television "frame" that Mister is building for me is also in the basement-of-lost-decor-dreams. Without the centerpiece measurements, I am not sure about placement of everything else. So this is what the LR "gallery wall" currently looks like:

If you'll notice, I DID get Mooey Vuitton and The Squeal framed. Finally. I am going to have to invest in a mat cutter for the rest, since just these two cost me $152(they were weird sizes)! I already have the frames for the rest, I think, but just mats will cost me a fortune and I am officially out of money.

Time to start finishing some projects I have already started so I don't have to spend anymore cash. With one exception. See that rug in front of the media cabinet? That is for our "outdoor living area", which currently looks like this:

My brother and SIL passed down a patio set from my great-grandmother last year and I finally took it to the sandblaster yesterday. Then I will have to primer it, spray paint it, and polycoat it. None of which I have yet. Argh.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a spray primer that works well on metal? How about a spray topcoat that won't yellow and won't flake the first year?
Do you guys have a laundry list of projects that need to be finished? Is anyone else as pathetic as I am when it comes to flaking out in the middle of projects?

Monkey Love

Spoiled rotten.