More kitchen progress....

The kitchen is coming along. I think I will be back to painting the cabinents tonight. Brian is probably going to rip out the kitchen floor on Saturday so I don't have much time to finish the cabinents. I ordered some vintage swiss dot fabric to make some curtains and need to find some fabric for under the sink. We've decided (for now) to leave the plate and cup cabinent doors off and we still need to add some moulding so it looks nice. Here's some pics so far.

First coat of primer on the inside.



The plates cupboard. Notice that it needs some trim on the bottom

Before:



After:



We painted the bottom cabinents "cargo brown" by Ralph Lauren, added some vintage drawer pulls (on clearance at Lowe's for $.97 each) and some really neat knobs on the bottom (not on clearance). Really makes a difference.



I got these blue milk glass knobs on eBay.



Before:

After:



These weren't our first choice for lights but we like them. The give off LOTS of light now. Our kitchen is very bright with the white ceiling and the cream cabinents. We still need to put up some crown moulding.



We laid out some of the new floor tiles and it is going to look great. The colors are aqua and coffee brown. Lots of work but it will be so nice in there.

Sharing my sewing...

I love sewing and don't get to do it as much as I like. Actually none lately because I have been painting the kitchen. I'm taking a short break from that and maybe I will be able see my fingernails again (they are covered in layers of paint that won't come off).

Here is an outfit I did for eBay recently. I'm working on finishing two more this week.

It's based on two vintage patterns that I combined. This fabric has been in my stash for awhile. I guess it was waiting for the right dress!

The kitchen project that won't end...

I must admit that the kitchen is wearing me down. I gave myself until the end of March (and it looks like we will be done before that) but the endless painting is driving me nuts. We are painting the top cabinents in Ralph Lauren "Edwardian Linen" with turquoise blue on the inside (scored that paint for $2.00 at Lowe's). The bottom cabinents will be painted a dark chocolate brown.

So far I have half the lower cabinents done. One coat of primer and 4 coats of brown paint. Brian will be installing the new hardware tonight. The upper cabinents are waiting for sanding so I can put the final coats of paint on them.

Brian is going to try to rip out the floor on Saturday and then we can see what we're dealing with. The floor tiles came in and they are exactly what we wanted and will look really good. I keep telling myself that it will look nice when it's done. It will but will it ever be done?????

Spent so far:
Paint & supplies: $60.00
Lights: $108.00
Paneling: $30.00
Floor & supplies: $178.00 (so far)
Sink: $0.00
Faucet: $98.00 on clearance!
Garbage cans for floor junk: $36.00

Mr. Grae

Here are a few pics I took of Grae today.

Lauren, Maddie, Ava, Brian and I came down with a headache/fever/extreme tired thing this weekend. I actually had it on Saturday when we were working on putting the new sink, faucet and priming/painting the inside of the cabinents. I kept getting hot and cold and was really tired but just chalked it up to being pregnant. Nope. By evening Brian was feeling it and the next day so were the older girls. So far Grae and Ellie have escaped it. Hope it stays that way.

I have some pics of the primer on the inside of the cabinents but I'll share later. We installed the new lights in the kitchen as well as the new (free) sink, the clearance faucet and I painted underneath the sink which was scary. Now we are just working on priming and painting the cabinent doors and bases and waiting for our new floor tiles to come in. I used to dread working in the kitchen because it was dark and ugly but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite rooms.

Ava

Ava's threat if anyone (she meant me) threw away a broken picture frame. This is the same girl that is trying to convince her little brother that his reflection in the mirror is named Timmy.

What do you do at 10:00 pm?

I paint ceilings and enlist the help of my husband. On Saturday we primed and put one coat of paint on the kitchen ceiling. It made a huge difference in brightness. I was amazed. When we walked in the kitchen on Sunday morning I thought our roof had blown off or someone had raised our ceiling while we slept.

It did need another coat but since it was Sunday I didn't have to do it. So off to church we went.

About 10:00 pm, I felt restless. So out came the paint and ladder and up I went to put the last coat of paint on the ceiling. I then decided to clean the kitchen, do the dishes and mop the floor. The funny part is that Brian didn't think I was crazy. Guess he is used to it by now. So about midnight I crawled in bed. Was I exhausted? Nope. This is the part of my pregnancy where I can't sleep. Fortunately for Brian, I didn't get up and paint something. I just thought about what I would paint.

The next phase in the kitchen makeover is to hang the paneling and prime it, scrub the kitchen cabinents and sand, and then prime and paint. We are waiting on floor samples so we can confirm that the blue/brown scheme is what we're going for. I can hardly wait!

Lest you think...

Lest you think that I have forsaken working out, I have not. I went for 3 30 minute walks this week, lifted weights twice, took the girls for a run and did the painting squats workout. This workout entails squatting down to paint and then leaping up on a chair to reach the ceiling. I painted the hallway and Brian installed the moulding and chair rail - finally. We have said we needed to get it done about 6 months ago, lol.

Now we are about to embark on the $300 fast kitchen makeover. Our original plan was gut the whole kitchen, redo the floor and buy new cabinents. We still want to do that but don't have the $$$ for it now. Also the baby arrives in June and I want running water this summer.

So we found some really cool turquoise and coffee colored peel and stick vinyl tiles that we are going to put down on the floor. Right now there is white vinyl and I hate that it shows everything. Brian will rip that up and replace the subfloor and then lay down the tiles. We are going to do a retro checkerboard pattern.

Then I will be painting the cabinents a creamy white and adding some retro 30's hardware. The walls will be a light tan-ish color and I will paint the dark wood beadboard ceiling a glossy white. We also purchased some new pendant lights with bright red shades from Lowes (think cheap). We have a new sink out in the garage that Brian got for free so we may install that. We are for sure getting a new facet as the one we have sprays your stomach everytime you turn it on.

Most of the money will be going to the floor but I think we can do it all in our budget. It will look so much better and brighter and I will be able to live with it for awhile!

Here's the before:

Carpeting the stairs....done!

We finally got the call that our carpet runner was ready. We could not find any carpet runners at the big box stores that we liked so we went to the local Floors With Flair store and custom ordered one. What we actually did was pick out commercial carpet (like the kind you find at the doctor's or dentist's office) and had it bound on each side.

I don't have any before pictures of what the stairs looked like when we moved in but I will describe it. The stairs were a pale yellow color, including the banister. The paint was chipping and underneath there was green paint. A couple of weeks ago we painted the stairs a creamy white color and the banister a deep, deep purple. I gave it a couple coats of poly and then we just waited for the carpet.





Brian installing it with his new handy-dandy air powered stapler.







The color we picked out is a purple color with flecks of red and golden yellow. It is really nice in person but I couldn't capture it on camera.
What was nice about this carpet was that it had the pad already attached.



Here it is installed. I tried to get a full length picture but there is no light up the stairs yet so they didn't turn out. But you get the idea from this pic. It is sooooooo nice having carpet. I couldn't hear the stomping of feet coming down the stairs this morning!

18 months old...

You are 18 months old now. Can you get any cuter? This is by far my favorite age. I don't really enjoy being pregnant and I don't completely enjoy the newborn stage (except the smell of new fuzzy heads). I really like the walking, talking toddler.

You say all kinds of words and phrases now. You new one is calling your sister Ellie "princess" and you the "knight-knight". You do this as you carry a big stick around, slaying all the dragons. Your favorite beverage is tea and must have some before taking a nap.

How many times have I caught you jumping from one piece of furniture to the other - almost giving me a heart attack in the process. You carry your little red chair around so you can get up on things. You now know how to say all of your sisters names and they melt and do whatever you want when they hear it.

Ellie is a great playmate to you now and you pretty much do what she directs - except you won't put the dolls in the stroller and push it around. In your world, strollers are for trucks and balls.

You won't go to bed without knowing tiger is right there. Even if you are half asleep when we lay you down you will reach a chubby little hand up and say Tiger. Then you request your crochet blanket.

Tiger has seen better days. We purchased him right before you were born. We gave your sisters each their own stuffed animals when they were born but none of them cared. You care. Look at Tiger now. Most of his whiskers have fallen off, he looks mangy and sits lopsided. He also stinks with the smell only you can love. It is hard to find a time to wash him because I don't dare not have him ready for your naptime.


You are about to become the only boy in our family with the discovery that we are having a girl. How will you handle I wonder? Everyone says they feel sorry for you. They don't see your life here. You are so loved and cared for that I can't imagine you feel anything but happiness. How can you feel deprived with 4 sisters willing to do whatever you want?

I wish I could keep you at this age but I am looking forward to watching you grow to be a young man. Already you are quite the gentleman. The other day you wouldn't get in your chair to eat breakfast until you had grabbed a sister, pulled her chair out, made her sit and then tried to push her chair back in. We have no clue where you picked that up from but it brought tears to my eyes.

I love you Grae.