Busy Bees

So, we've covered a lot of ground in the last month or so. Windows, obviously, which you can read more about in this post. But also a whole bunch of other things.

1. Drywall mud finished in stairwell and upstairs. He made the paneling disappear!

 Lovely smooth walls (and yet another round, hopefully the last, of cleanup on the upstairs landing)

 Trim needed to finish these edges.

 Now that I've spent some time applying mud, I have a lot of respect for guys who do it well. He did a really nice job.

2. Made super cool lamps out of salvaged wood

 I'm going to make shades for them. The proportions are obviously wrong with this shade, but it's functional for now.

3. Finished baseboard in guest room, just in time for my parents' arrival (no pictures of this. Baseboard just isn't that exciting, but what it lacks in interesting, it makes up for with time-consuming. So there's that.)

4. Successfully added casing around guest room window

 ...and somewhat less-successfully added casing around attic door in guest room. Nothing a tube of caulk can't fix.

Primed but haven't yet painted the attic door...

5. Cut down the camellia in front of our house because we didn't like it and didn't appreciate how much light it was blocking.

 In this one, where Todd looks kind of like the "why you" cartoon from The Oatmeal while brandishing a bow saw, you can see the front of our house right now and the place where the siding needs to be patched from the window replacement.

6. Baked a ton of stuffed heirloom tomatoes and drank a lot of wine while doing it

 OMG I love my kitchen. This is almost a year ago that we demolished the old kitchen.

7. Enjoyed another idyllic happy hour at Dunbar

8. Took in Crater Lake (again, fourth time I think) with my parents and stayed at the lodge for the first time. This is the view from the valley side.

 Mirror Pond at Crater Lake. I think this is called "arriving."

 I know Todd's eyes are closed but I look cute with my new haircut. #sorryimnotsorry.

 Made friends with this tame little guy.

9. Considered buying a labradoodle puppy who, at three months, was the best-behaved dog I've ever met

10. Ate a LOT of Buttercloud. With Kristan and Brian, with my parents, with my parents again, with Todd, with my mom... yum.

 11. Got the attic cabinet door in the bathroom painted. But not caulked, and it will need probably another tube of caulk.

 12. Acquired this great ikat shower curtain from Target. I'll be giving it the blue marker treatment. The pattern is perfect but I've never been a fan of muddy gray-blue. I was planning on putting it upstairs, but it might go in our bathroom if I really love it.

Kitchen Remodel Unofficially Started!!!

I am so excited to announce that I made the second unofficial step toward kitchen demo this evening. Behold, the dining room wall. Looking good. I know.

Allow me to explain. After badmouthing the grasscloth wallpaper in the dining room on video nearly five years ago, it has since really grown on me. I love it and wish it were in better condition. All things considered, it's not that bad, but there are some spots that would look better if they were patched.

Since we're taking out half that wall pictured above, between the kitchen and the dining room, this was the perfect opportunity to salvage some grasscloth to patch in. So that's what I did. Luckily, I didn't need very much. Removing wallpaper is not a task for the faint of heart. Removing more than half a sheet of wallpaper nonviolently is something probably only yogis could do. For the record, I am not a yogi. I got about half a sheet and called it good.

Next, I found a pedestal sink for the powder room we're putting in. I don't think I've ever written a sentence like this in my life, but ... it was the cheapest one Home Depot had. That probably just shifted your understanding of the universe, so I'll give you a moment to recover before telling you that it is a mere $54 for the sink and the base. It's the one on the right.

On a non-kitchen-related note, this brass beauty was purchased by the side of the road in Lapine, Oregon for $10 last summer. I'm in the process of painting the brass black, which is turning out to be a more tedious process than I'd anticipated. It'll look great in the upstairs landing though, which is where it will be living eventually.

Lastly, two seasonally appropriate items: pumpkin ale (the stuff from Kennebunkport, ME via Trader Joe's is better than this Blue Moon, but whatever)...

And this spectacular cinnamon roll with walnuts and two americanos made with locally roasted coffee from Great Harvest last rainy Saturday morning, following a trip to the farmers market in a downpour to get heirloom tomatoes. I'm fairly sure you can't get more Oregonian than that.

Demo on the kitchen starts Friday afternoon. Our contractor, Bruce, is bringing a trailer for us to fill. I'm simultaneously beside myself with joy that the day is almost finally here for that horrible, horrible kitchen to disappear, and terrified that my sanity won't be intact by the time it's over for me to enjoy it.

It's time, though. Our faucet has developed a dual-flow function, by which I mean, when you turn it on the water not only comes out of the spout but also conveniently comes out from around one handle. It also drips/runs constantly, regardless of whether we've turned the water off at the valve. On the note of sanity, I might blow up the kitchen myself if I have to listen to it dripping into one more bowl left in the sink.

Three more days!!

Downstairs Miscellaney (and a Tomato)

This has been a quiet, lay-low kind of weekend. We were in Bend last week, which was great fun, but also apparently draining. I dragged myself around all day yesterday, never completely shaking off feeling groggy. It was not a shining weekend of productivity. But last weekend was, between the dining room chairs and the pillows (more on those later).

So this is just a hodge podge of what's new this month (that I may or may not have mentioned before). First up, I snagged a couple of these artichoke candles on clearance at Target for $3 each. They'll be fun to move around. 

 

The dining room is looking worlds better, with the chairs and the newly constructed moss ball. One benefit of cutting down the oak in the backyard was the abundance of moss I harvested (sometimes I pause and realize I sound like a total headcase. Maybe I am. What kind of a lunatic harvests moss? I  have two bags sitting in the kitchen just waiting for inspiration to strike.)

I used said abundant harvest to create this moss ball, which is living in my little greenhouse. I feel like there's another word for this thing, but I can't think of what it is right now...

Here's the dining room looking into the living room. Other than the kitchen remodel/wall removal project, the last couple of things in here are some bold curtains, crown molding and a new light fixture. It's massively improved over where it was.

 Finally added a rug to the living room, picked up from World Market when we were in Bend last week. I LOVE having a rug in here. I also love this particular rug; we have a smaller one in the bedroom that migrated from our master bath in the Fishhawk house. I'd been considering layering a cowhide under the wing chair and ottoman (right side of the image) but I think it might be kind of overkill now that I can visualize it better.

 Ok, now, the pillows. This is the project that spawned the re-covering of the dining room chairs. I made some pillow covers out of napkins last year, and I was lazy and used Stitch Witchery instead of sewing them, and the fabric was more stretchy diagonally one way than the other, and they just never looked very good. Plus, they were green. Worked well at the last place, not so much here.

So probably six years ago, I acquired several large pieces of corduroy in the Garment District in LA. Two navy and two white. I've had them squirreled away, unable to commit them to a project. The day finally arrived last Saturday: they were destined to be pillow cases. (Well, like half of one piece of navy. These are pretty big pieces.)

I used the cord on the front and dropcloth on the back and sewed them this time, and darn it if they don't just look AWESOME. Some of my best sewing ever. This picture doesn't show them them all that well, but they'll be playing a supporting role from now on.

Penultimately, a couple of shots of my office, just because. Still work to do; I want to mess with the curtains, hang some art and finish assorted detail work on the trim, but mostly I really like it. The color on the crate under my desk is "La Fonda Fireberry" because I guess Valspar thought that just "La Fonda" or just "Fireberry" didn't capture it sufficiently.

Couch is a few months old. We got it shortly after moving back, and it is a vast improvement from that Ikea sleepersofa. I think Todd still secretly rejoices that thing is gone and he never has to move it again.

 And lastly, the tomato: a large golden slicer. I am about to eat it for dinner tonight. Yum.