iseecerulean

I have finally decided the kitchen can be pronounced done, even though there is a shelf I want to put up to display some antiques that haven't been brought back in from the garage yet.

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The arborists were here yesterday. Now I can show you the before and after pic of the exterior.

 August 6th...

October 27th...

Mine enemy the half dead, scraggly pine tree has been vanquished.  I wish they would have let me wield the chainsaw for the last cut, it would have been very satisfying.  I did do a little dance on the stump.

The rest of the trees have been trimmed, most noticeably the pines between ours and the neighbor's house.  They were drooping on the roofs, especially in the winter, now the lowest limbs are ten feet above the highest peak.  Our neighbor is very happy!  The other trees had dead limbs and suckers removed; an oak, a maple, and the locust had limbs removed that were hanging over the roof.

You can see the new windows, door and roof.  I like the new shingle color.  Still on the to-do list is new seamless gutters and a new garage door.  I imagine I may have to move a few plants next summer, I'll have to see how the shade loving plants in front of the house fare now that the pine is gone.  We are  going to plant a new tree, a little further out in the yard; a magnolia, I'm thinking, but I have to wait until spring.  

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Progress is slow, but it's progress.  I'm still doing touch-up painting on the kitchen cupboards, but I got the laundry area done. 

My husband thought I painted the radiator to match the trim.  I said "um, no, I just scrubbed it".

I'd like new, white, modern looking, laundry machines, but these 25 year old machines still do the job. Sigh.

From Kat...

The tropical  drink has to be added to The Beach House. The rest of the items will be perfect for the English Cottage Kitchen.  Thank you Kat, I love all of them.  :D

From my friend Elaine...

Hysterical!  Consider it on permanent display as my new fruit bowl in the middle of my dining room table.

I'm still working on the kitchen.  Most of the touch-up painting is done, but there is a cabinet door I'm not happy with, it needs to be sanded and repainted.

I found this picture on my phone today, it was taken last January.

I just took this one, standing in the same spot.

 This post should be subtitled:  Keli's misadventure.

 I had plans to finish the kitchen this weekend so that I could show it off this morning in all of its new glory. Saturday morning all I had left to do was paint the cupboards above the laundry machines, touch up and reinstall the baseboards, hang the last of the kitchen cupboards that I'd gotten painted during the week, and install a new kitchen faucet.

I spread an old sheet over the washer and dryer, walked into the dining room, picked up the gallon of primer, and, shaking it while I walked across the kitchen, dropped it in the middle of my kitchen floor.  The lid came off, primer went everywhere.  Based on what's left in the can I'd estimate a half gallon spilled on the floor, ran under the stove, and spattered upward.  Lots of spattering upward.  There is only one newly painted cupboard door which isn't now freckled.  It spattered onto the stove, refrigerator, the newly painted walls, the countertop, the new window, the clean dishes in the drainboard...I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

I got as much of the primer up as quickly as I could, then poured dishwater onto the rest of the puddle so that it didn't dry.  Because I'm short my pajamas bottoms drag the ground, so I pulled them off before they started smearing the mess.  Picture me, in my underwear, on my hands and knees with a pile of rags, sliding around on a soapy floor like a fawn on an iced pond, hand bleeding into the mess because the bottom edge of the stove slit the tops of my fingers open (but I can't stop I have to get the primer up), bawling and hiccuping while I frantically scrub because I might have ruined my pretty new floor, and because the more I wipe the further the white cloud is spreading out.

Luckily, I did get all the primer off the floor.  It was then that I thought to myself I should have grabbed the small shop-vac out of my studio.

Sunday I cleaned primer speckles off all the appliances and countertops, rewashed all the dishes, etc.  Now I only have to figure out how to get the screen out of my new window so that I can clean it, and touch-up paint the walls and cabinets, then I'll be back to where I was Saturday morning.  Maybe I'll have the kitchen done after this next weekend.

This is where it stands now.  Zoom in on the cupboard above the bananas or the drawer below.

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I've got all the wallpaper stripped from the kitchen and have another section of cabinets painted.  I am painting the cabinet doors on my dining room floor, which I covered in cardboard, so only have room to paint a few at a time.  I also updated Ester's breakfast bar on the bottom of the macrowave stand by placing a piece of leftover vinyl flooring atop the wood shelf, to protect it.

Before I finish painting the walls Matt is going to update the electrics for me.  There are two outlet/switch combinations on the wall.  The one to the right of the sink has the switch to the right of the outlets, so that I have to reach over the plugs to turn on the light; I'm going to have Matt flip them around.  The one to the left of the sink has a non-functioning switch (I presume it was meant for a garbage disposal); I'm going to have Matt exchange the switch for outlets, to replace this monstrosity the previous homeowners left us and we continue to use.  Ug-ih-lee.

The roofers are here.

Matt doesn't remember what color shingles we selected and I won't remind him, it's driving him nuts.  They are supposed to have the house shingled today and the garage tomorrow, then will do the fascia work.

I took the day off yesterday to give my arms a rest.  Scrape, scrub, brush...my arms are going to be buff when the reno is done!  I went antiquing.  Of particular joy is my new desk lamp, which I fell in love with about three years ago but didn't buy because I didn't have a place/use for it.  I couldn't stop thinking about it and went back for it, but it was gone.  :(   I've continued to keep my eyes out every time we've been in the antique store, but never saw it.  I found it yesterday in a different booth on a different floor. :)

I also bought a orphan etched-glass cordial, which I've assembled a small collection of over the years, a copper jelly pot which will look fantastic as a stock pot in the English Cottage Kitchen, and a tarnished silver bowl because I felt sorry for it.

The bowl polished up beautifully.  It says Tri-State 24, Ninth Place, 1960.  If a silver bowl was the trophy for ninth place I'm curious what the trophy was for first.

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