*sigh* (that'e the sound of happiness)

The worst of it is over.

I have a truely functional kitchen again.

After living like this for a week:

Yep, the washer, dryer, and freezer were in my living room.

But no more!

Everything is in its proper place and

I have a more than functioning kitchen.

A good friend's husband came and laid my gorgeous new floor.

Isn't it pretty??!!!!

Here's what the kitchen looks like now.

Obviously I still need to tile the backsplash, hang the vent hood, and put in

new ceiling lighting, but at least now I have a functioning kitchen.

I celebrated by eating dinner in my kitchen last night, a first in three months.

Today I celebrated by baking these gorgeous beauties:

Nothing better than fresh baked bread.

I have started getting back to sewing a bit too.

My sister requested a lanyard for her work ID

and a wristlet for going out.

I'm a good sister.

Granite and Plumbing (a new band?)

I was a good girl.

Really, I was.

I waited until 9:30 this morning before I installed the faucet.

The fellas that installed my granite

said to wait 24 hours.

That was yesterday.

Its a whole day later, give or take six hours.

First, I have to tell you about the fellas from Arch City Granite.

That's where my slab came from.

Super nice people throughout the whole process.

I would highly recommend them

(and they did not compensate me for this endorsement).

(too bad)

The installers were as nice as the sales guy who was as nice as the cutter.

I guess that's what they call the guy who cuts the granite.

So nice, and really knew their stuff.

I guess that's why they were hired. Go figure.

The fellas were good sports and let me snap a few photos of the install.

Here they are muscling in the granite. Watch your fingers!

Also snapped this one of the fella's in a, umm, slightly compromising position.

Good thing they work well together!

Can you believe a grown man is in my cabinets?

Just goes to show, I have tons of storage!!

Here it is in all of its gorgeous granite glory!

(Ain't that an awesome alliteration!)

I wish you could see the shimmery spots that look like mother of pearl.

They shine, shimmer, and sparkle.

There I go with that alliteration again.

It is brain addlingly addictive.

So, plumbing.

I installed the faucet myself.

Only one leak, but I knew exactly where it was and how to fix it.

So I did.

I'm feeling kinda big, bad, and bold for doing it myself,

no help from anyone.

Thank goodness for google and YouTube.

Isn't it pretty!?!?

I know, lousy photo. My new cabinets are so dark that they just suck the light out of the room.

I will eventually have better lighting.

So now I need help again.

I have two options for tiling the backsplash.

Option #1 is my original idea of white subway tile:

Option #2 is a glass and marble mosaic tile:

Color wise they both "go" with the cabinets and the granite.

But I just don't know.

As if that isn't enough to have to decide,

I need to figure out if I should run the tile just to the bottom of my vent hood

or all the way to the ceiling.

Decisions, decisions.

Makes my brain hurt.

Thoughts? 

By the way,
I LOVE my new kitchen

especially now that it looks like a kitchen.

In other news...

I have been able to do a bit more than just work on my kitchen.

But just a bit.

Took a class with Jacquie Gering 

She was great! SO much fun.

She does this great improvisational crazy piecing

(among other things).

Here is one of her quilts.

Here are my crazy pieced "blocks".

I've got a long way to go before I will have anything resembling a quilt

from this class, but at least I have a start.

This I think will be my UFO Pledge for the year.

I'll tell you more about the UFO Pledge later.

I also made a cute baby quilt, but forgot to take pictures before I handed it off.

Hopefully photos will be sent to me and I can share with you soon.



Round To It

I've been meaning to do this for a long time,

I just didn't get around to it

(those "round-to-it's" are hard to find!)

until now.

I've added a page to my blog

to show just my quilts in one place.

I know I don't have all of my quilts on here

and the ones that are are in no particular order.

But it's a start!

the end is not nigh

Progress.

Real, visable progress.

 This is where I left you last.

Since then, my computer crashed

so no updates.

But my fabulous neighbor has returned my little

laptop in tip top condition and

now I can bring you up to speed.

The sink is now installed!

I have to tell you, I was biting my nails as my good friend Doug

cut the front of my cabinet to fit the sink.

Even my neighbor the contractor was really nervous about doing it.

Thank goodness for Doug.

Its always helpful to have a crazy smart engineer for a friend.

Isn't it gorgeous?!?!

I  L.O.V.E. my new sink.

After that we put the island in,

I attached the cabinet doors,

and I've been putting the hardware on.

 The dishwasher and stove are in

(at least temporarily until we're ready to put the floor in).

I am now just a few days away from a functioning kitchen

even though my fridge will be in the front hall until the floors are done.

My granite

(this handsome slab from Brazil is called Haiwaii)

will be installed Tuesday.

See those gray/white areas?

They GLOW like mother of pearl.

Once that is in then I can hook up my faucet and have

RUNNING WATER!

Just in time to go back to work.

Sigh.

All in the name of Progress

Finally.

Some visable signs of progress.

Not just that I painted the ceiling and

repainted a few walls a different color.

Although I did.

Nope.

Now everyone can actually SEE

progess.

Here's how it went down:

The last of the base cabinets are outta here,

and the mudding and sanding are done.

See Floyd checking out the changes in his kitchen.

He's not too thrilled with living in a construction zone.

 The dishwasher is disconnected and hanging out where my table usually is.

First cabinet going in!

 The fella's (an engineer and draftsman) came up with a pretty slick trick to

not having to hold up the cabinetswhile installing.

They screwed a 2x4 on the wall at the right height to hold the weight and make sure

all was properly aligned.

Smart boys!

More cabinets going up!

Here's the finished work from last night,

all the uppers have been hung but one that we're saving for later on purpose.

My neighbor and I brought in the base cabinets this morning,

GIRL POWER!

My garage is amazingly empty feeling now,

except for the old cabinets crowding up the place.

Maybe I will sell them this weekend.

So now we settle in for another episode of

"hurry up and wait".

The fellas can't work on the kitchen for another week and a half.

I hate washing dishes in the bar sink.

Help me decide something:

Here are two pictures of pendant lamps to hang over my island

(wahoo, I'm putting in an island!!)

Which one do you like better for my modern looking kitchen?

I like both of them.

Pendant #1:

Pendant # 2



Heading home

My drive home from South Carolina was a bit challenging.

I managed to hurt my back (again), which

made sitting in a car for 11 hours less than comfortable.

So I decided to take it slow, stop frequently,

and maybe hike a bit of the Appliachian Trail

(seeing as how I would be crossing it, rather convienent).

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and I drove through 5 hours of rain. 

But I did stop and snap some photos of the Smoky Mountians 

(they lived up to their name).

This waterfall was cascading down the side of the mountain right next to the highway.

I also hopped out to snap a photo of the Trailhead sign between rain drops.

A beautiful stream was tumbling down the mountain next to the trail.

Due to my back I wasn't able to hike like I had planned, there was a staircase with close

to a houndred soaked wood stairs that I just couldn't do.

And I of course left my rain gear at home.

I think it rained about 6 inches while I was in SC.

Next time I will plan my time and work load better. 

A minor diversion

My kitchen (the lack thereof)

is driving me crazy.

HOPEFULLY

I will be installing cabinets and flooring next week.

This week is finishing the the drywall (sanding and mudding and sanding)

and painting and pulling out the laundry room floor.

So I needed a distraction.

I needed to get away.

So I ran off to South Carolina to help my parents move into their new digs

after moving from Ohio where they lived for about 40 years.

Good daughter that I am, I built closet organizers in all the closets,

painted, unwrapped, put away, climbed in the thousand degree attic,

installed door closers, broked down a bizillion boxes,

and generally worked harder than I was here on my kitchen.

So much for distraction and relaxation.

Oh well.

We did sneak away from the mess to check out the local farmers market.

Gorgeous cabbages

Crowder peas

PINK oyster mushrooms! Really PINK!

Beautiful flowers

There wasn't much to buy as its been an unusally cool and WET

growing season. Hopefully more will come in soon

On the last night some dear friends hosted a

Low Country Boil.

So much fun! And SO MUCH food!

This is before the seafood was added. Such good people,

they pulled this basket before adding the shrimp and crab legs

to accommodate my seafood allergy.

 

The Thing about Demo

It's not like on TV.

HG and DIY.

Its not real.

They have crews of 20 or more.

They plan for months.

 Its not real.

Real is delays.

Real is indecision.

Real is living with your fridge in your front hall for two months.

Sometimes you need to take a break from real.

So I did.

Went hiking this weekend two places.

I forgot to take pictures of Mastedon State Park.

A lovely little park about 15 miles south of the St Louis Metro area.

Then I went to St Francois State Park down near Bon Terre.

I hiked the Mooner's Hollow Trail,

named after the moonshiners that use to hide in the hollows to make their white lightening.

No white lightening to be found on this hike, *sigh*,

but plenty of wildflowers along the trailside,

Along with lovely shady paths,

And lots of water.

On the almost 3 mile path, I hiked alongside running water for

at least 2 miles or more.

And I was lucky enough to cross the stream near this gem of a waterfall.

There are several other hikes in the park of varying lengths.

Definitely a revisit.

You know, when I'm finished with the kitchen.

*sigh*

Demolition continues

Progress is being made on the demolition portion of my new kitchen.

Today

 (after an 8 mile hike and a wash and wax of the car)

I did this:

It was actually really fun knocking out that soffit.

I really hated that soffit.

And now I will have room for my really tall cabinets!!

 I also spent some time pulling floor staples.

About a billion of them.

Actually, I've been pulling them in sets of about 75-100 at a time.

I have the blisters to prove it.

And I still have about a million of them to pull out.

*sigh*

I also pulled tile off the wall today.

I still have another wall to remove tile from.

It doesn't look too pretty and I will need to patch the drywall in a few places.

And give the whole thing a scratch coat of mud.

*SIGH*

So here's a picture of all of today's progress.



I still have to get the saws-all and take out those 2x4's that held up the soffit.

I like power tools!

And *SIGH* there is more floor to come up.

Which means more staples.

*SIGH*