My Sweet Valentine

Didn't I tell you that I was married to an incredibly kind, sweet and patient man? Well, if I didn't; I am! He gave me the sweetest card and most gorgeous roses and put them in my pretty vintage vase and this was in spite of the fact we're spending a chunk of change on the kitchen....Yes, I know I'm lucky and I love him!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday to my Dad...

Well, it's my dad's 72nd birthday and unfortunately I'm sick as a dog, but, that didn't stop me from staying up until 1:30 a.m. making him something that he needed. You see, he's in a nursing home and he told me he needed a new bag to hang on his wheelchair as he had worn the heck out of the one my sweet Aunt S. had made for him. So, I got lucky and found a pattern for one at a garage sale for $0.25 (I know you're not surprised by this...) and this was my first attempt. I think it turned out pretty good since I'm not really an expert seamstress. I had to alter the pattern a little so it wouldn't hang down and rub on his tire wheels, which is what happened to the last one, and he liked it a lot.

My sweet hubby drove us the 2 hours to go and see him and I slept in the car almost the whole way, never even got out of the car when we got there as I was on my deathbed. Still not doing so good but hope to make it back to work tomorrow. My hubby took it into him and visited with him and they ate pizza while I slept. I haven't been this sick in a long time but we didn't want to disappoint him so we went. I'm so sorry Dad, sorry that I couldn't really spend time with ya but I hope you like your bag and your new shoes we got ya!

Kitchen Progress Continues - Part 5 (I think...)

This is our old backsplash tile, it's not bad, but I didn't really like the country blue squares and the hubby "hates the rounded corners" which I was shocked to hear that he'd even paid that much attention to them, shows you what I know!
Here's a shot where I've started to take it down and am really trying hard not to rip the drywall off...it's a pain in the butt though...I wouldn't recommend it for something "fun" to do!

Well, we're still working on the kitchen. We've been doing the following:

• Got the new laminated floors installed;
• Been working lots of hours on our new vintage metal pantry cabinet;
• Spent lots of time researching stainless steel vs polished aluminum trim for the countertops;
• Went through 2 choices of paint colors and winded up picking Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray (I think that's the name of it anyway - I'll confirm that in a later post for ya);
• Spent time meeting with the countertop contractor to go over the samples we've gotten;
• Ran around town picking these things up;
• and have spent hours trying to take down the backsplash tile!

And, on top of all this, both the hubby & I have been working our full time jobs and my sweet hubby paints all day for others and then comes home to our current mess. It's 11:30 p.m. on Thursday night and he's out there right now washing up brushes. He's such a sweetheart; every day, not just on Valentine's and believe me, even though we've had some tense times through this (mostly on my behalf which I'm not proud to admit...), I know how lucky I am that he loves me.

Kitchen Restoration Continues...Part 4

Well, I just haven't posted anything about our kitchen progress in a few days so I thought I just share a little more information. This picture above is our dining room wall and wall color; we've decided to go ahead and repaint it and the kitchen while we're in the middle of all this so stay tuned; I think I'm going to paint it a light gray color called "Silver Screen".

This picture is of the Aqua Boomerang countertop finish that will soon be our countertops; stay tuned! I'm still in the middle of researching to find our aluminum and/or stainless steel trim for it. Whew; that's been a job! I'm getting excited as this week we payed our deposit down to the contractor so he can start and order the materials. We're getting there slowly but surely!

Go Lions & Go S.R. - We're so proud of him...

See this handsome young man; I have been a part of his life since the day he was born and I'm so very proud of him. He's T.'s son, S.R., and is an amazing soccer player for his high school team and even plays on a travel team.

Last week I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to hear them talking about him and showing several minutes of him on the field playing on the local news and today they did an article about him in our city's newspaper and here's a quote about him that I thought I'd share: "R.'s made Leon's junior-varsity squad as a 10th-grader and progressed even further when he joined a travel team. He was promoted to varsity as a junior and led the Lions with 12 goals. But no one could have predicted R's offensive explosion as a senior. "He's got blinding speed," said first-year Leon coach JM "He's very fast and he's got a great finish."

Way to go S. and way to go to his parents T. & D. who I love dearly. It's so awesome to be here to be a part of his life and I'm so proud of him! Go Lions!

You know I love to brag on all these kids that I get to share their lives and be a part of! We went and sat in 20 degree weather last Friday night to watch him play and it was worth every second of freezing! Congrats!

Kitchen Demo Project Continues - Part 3

See this masked bandit? Yep, you guessed it, that's me in "demo" mode today. You see, I bought this vintage metal pantry cabinet to put in the kitchen so that we can get rid of what I now lovingly refer to as our "divorce pantry cabinet" and it had to be sanded, primed and painted. Of course I didn't totally realize that when I bought it but.....I did want the cabinet so I'm not sure it would have stopped me. Oh yeah, my hair does look a little "reddish" as I got up and added a little Clairol to my life this morning first thing as the gray was starting to take over; do you wonder why? With all my kitchen woes? LOL!Here's the cabinet - we've already spent about 3 hours removing rust at the point you see here. And, my sweet hubby helped me with this on his day off and the day of the Superbowl. See, I told you he was nice!

See this cool vintage light globe? I got it for free at one of our local thrift stores, the Children's Lighthouse, and the nice lady there gave it to me for free as I bought a number of other things that I'll post pictures of later (hopefully). I got books for my niece (that is a teacher and always needs more for her class); a beautiful vintage purse, two pretty pins, some awesome chair cushions for my glider and this globe. It was filthy but I washed it up and love it; I think it will be used under our carport but I'm not sure.

Below is one of the tile choices that I was considering but I've already ruled it out as it's going to be too busy for the amount of space we're going to be tiling now that our backsplash will be custom and 10 inches tall. I like it but found one I like a little better...

This is the one we're going to use; the one in the upper left, the all white one but I really like this pattern and it will look good in a small area. Check out our new vintage 50's inspired faucet called a Dishmaster M76XL. It's going to look awesome on our new white cast iron sink. I found this on this really cool website, retrorenovation.com, that gave me tons of information when looking for resources to redo my kitchen. (Thanks Pam of retrorenovation for all your help and information!)

Stay tuned as you know there's more coming....

This is just another shot of the kitchen after we pulled up the hardwood floors and pulled out the "Divorce Pantry Cabinet" which used to be to the left of the stove...Getting the pantry cabinet sanded and ready to paint and prime. I had to wear the bandana because it was probably totally covered in lead paint.

Our Kitchen Saga Continues Part 2

This is the ugly culprit that started it all....do not, oh yeah did I tell you to NOT buy..., this stuff! Liquid Lightning, oh yeah, Fast Acting and Fast Destroying!

Please note the below picture of under our kitchen sink where they found the leak, under the sub floor of the cabinet and behind the back wall between the cabinet and the exterior wall of the house...joy, joy....

The picture below (although it's hard to see) is our hardwood floors buckling from the water leak. Yep, you guessed it, they had to be completely removed and then we had to go and find new floors to install and we decided to go ahead and do the dining room while we were at it. Our friend H. came and installed them last Monday and Tuesday and had to stop back by on Wednesday and they did a great job. See the picture below. Now, it's on to picking out our backsplash tile, new countertops, stainless steel trim, paint.....see what a little liquid drain opener can cost you....

The shot below is our new floors in our dining room. I had this rug before but am undecided if it will go with all the new changes. We'll have to see how much money we still have left before I decide on whether or not to change it.