Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at our new and improved kitchen!  Katie recovered the upholstered chairs.  I made the valance. Mike laid the hardwood floor (with some help from Katie), and the heat register is a nice, new shiny brass one. Or gold. Even the kitchen walls are painted.  The two loose electrical outlets were replaced, so now you can plug something in and it stays plugged in.

It's too bad I sewed the valances so well. I think I need to take them apart and put regular neutral white lining inside of them instead of the yellow I did. It makes them not the color I picked.  Too yellow.  They look nice...I'm still debating.  We hung them at night, so there was no sunshine coming through them, so it's a different look.

See how yellow the top valance is compared to the fabric swatch on the back of the chair?.....hmmmm.

The whole kitchen has a different look!  Well, not quite.  That's why I can't take a picture of the whole thing.  It IS canning season, you know. ;-).  I still haven't put everything back yet.  I'm still debating whether or not I WANT to put things back!

I asked Mike to removed the back door's storm door that we never use.  I moved the shoe shelves outside to the left of the doorway. Well, actually KATIE was the one who did that.  After a few days of living with it, I think it'll be okay, but I am in need of something inside to put our shoes in... we just don't remove them before coming in.  We removed them AFTER we come in...but the shoe shelves were really messy.  Always.  And shoes were always on the floor anyway.  Maybe a fabric box or basket, eh?

We still need to find some rugs and I need some new dish towels. The yellow walls are pretty and kind of warm.  But not too warm.  The wood floor feels WONderful!!  One afternoon, before we'd put sliders onto the legs of the table and chairs and the kitchen was still "unfurnished," I found Mike laying on the kitchen floor, doing his Sudoku puzzle. The light is best in the kitchen area, so that's where he was--tables and chairs or not! ha. Katie and I accused him of just wallowing in the pretty new flooring he'd just finished. ha.  I wish I'd taken of picture of that!

There is actually one more strip of wood to place before the floor is actually completed, but it will be done soon.  Mike also wants to add some tile to the stove's backsplash area.

Katie was a HUGE help while here!  We so appreciate her efforts to help out Mike and get it done.  Did I mention the ceiling was re-painted, as well?  Her boys had a good time, just playing outside all day long on their own.  They had some little water-play toys, buckets of water, the hose, their own cars and stuff to play with (Transformers!), etc.   At their house, they can't go in and out on their own, so Katie has to be with them all the time. The doors are too heavy, they live on the second floor, etc.  Here, it was nice.  They could come in and go out, get snacks and meals on the go (frequently eating sandwiches on the front porch--so cute!) and they stayed in the yards.  Happily.  It was so fun to watch them play.  Maybe Katie took a few photos of that.  Actually, she did post one picture of outside play--in their underwear!. ha.  They changed to living most the day in their swim trunks after that.

Katie and her boys left this morning to head home.  Now we are empty-nesters again. sniff.  'Twas a fun summer!