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niblets

I have been working on a variety of home improvement projects. Sorry, this means I have basically fallen off the face of the blogshpere, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Right now, I am attempting to de-creepify my scary basement. I am not even sure that is entirely possible. Yesterday, I scrubbed and started painting the old coal storage room. You know what is dirty? Coal. Ok, to be honest it had already been cleaned and painted at least once since it held coal, but it was still really effing filthy. And surprise, surprise, painting is a nightmare too. The brick walls have multiple 1/2 inch grooves that run down the length of each brick so they have to be hand painted. NIGHTMARE. And don’t even get me started on the spiders. Ugh.

While I go re-immerse myself in that project, I am going to leave you with this:

I know I talk about my Magic Light here all the time, but it is only because it is so life-altering for me. We get sun maybe 3 out of every 30 days from November to March and the light is the only thing that gets me through the winter with my marriage and relationship with my children intact.

I thought I would pass along this article from the NY times that talks about the wonders of the Magic Light. You know, in case you are already laying on the couch in your pjs praying for spring.

Light Boxes May Melt Those Winter Blues

I also found an article about overparenting very interesting. I had a conversation with someone on twitter last week about whether or not it is ok to leave your kids in the car when you run into Starbucks. (I fall firmly on the side of YES, they can sit there for 5-10 minutes without dying or being kidnapped.) I had a lot of freedom to go out in the world and explore when I was younger and I want my kids to have that same opportunity. I haven’t quite figured out how to do that, but I am mulling it over.

Welcome to the Age of Overparenting.

Anyway, that’s it for today. I am heading back down to the ~~dungeon~~ basement.

k-k-k-kitchen

Let’s move on to something infinitely more satisfying…my kitchen!

I had forgotten just how bad it looked when we first moved in. The cabinets were newer, but they had been painted a really ugly pastel pea green with big ugly wood knobs. The floor was a really nasty linoleum that would not come clean despite a thousand scrubbings. I never noticed it before, but why were the cabinet’s kickplates painted blueish grey? That lovely stove did not even come with the house

There was also a very tiny place for a kitchen table where I was standing to take this picture. And not one, but FOUR doors leading into the room (basement stairs, dining room, vestibule by the 1/2 bath, and mudroom.

Here it is now:

Much better, right? We managed to save the cabinets, by painting them but we added a few more to match on the side of the stove and where we closed up one doorway. We cleaned up the butcher block counters and they look really good. We got new appliances and added a dishwasher (hallelujah!). We also had new tile floors put in. The paint is a very light blue that hints toward gray. We had new lights installed over the sink and in the ceiling, as well as under counter lights (not seen here because they made the counter look orange in the pictures). Oh, and the sink is a new cast iron sink and faucet too.

That is the door to the mudroom (don’t look at the mess in there!). You can also see my lovely gray brickset tile.

This area is hard to photograph. This is where we closed up a wall (behind the fridge) and added cabinets. The picture on the wall is a gift from my wonderful friend Allison at Igloo Letterpress.

In this picture disregard the BB gun on the top of the fridge (squirrels) and the mess o’ appliances there. When we sell it, I will have one lovely new toaster oven. In the meantime, I am thrilled to have somewhere to stash the rice cooker.

I had my friend Amy’s husband Joe design and build the open shelving so it wouldn’t block the windows. Joe usually makes beautiful organic, handmade wooden toys (including this beautiful modern nativity and this toy menorah that makes me wish I was Jewish), so I am glad he had the time to help me figure out what needed to go there. Also, the shelf is not “decorated” yet, but even unadorned it looks really awesome, if you ask me.

So there it is, 10,000 years of work for a semi-new kitchen. It is the most grown up room in our house.

If you are curious, the picture below was my inspiration picture. Obviously ours is much less fancy, (and cost much much less!) but I think it carries over the same calm vibe. I wish we could have put in soapstone counters, but it wasn’t cost effective since we aren’t staying here. In the next house, I hope I can have them. The butcher block looks pretty good too, I think.

Pinned Image

Annual House Visit

Tonight was Trick or Treat, also lovingly known around our house as “The Day We Get To Visit Our Old House”.

Since we moved 1.75 years ago, the girls look forward to this day with much anticipation. They talk about it whenever we happen to drive down the street that connects to our old road. They can’t wait to walk up our old sidewalk and peer into our windows.

As we visited our old neighbors, I thought the old house looked a lot better than it did when we lived there. The yard looked nicer, I think because all the landscaping I had planted had finally grown in. Also, they seemed to have raked the leaves away from the front door where they were always blowing around, annoying me.

We were in luck this year, the new owners invited us in to see some work they did on the back porch. It turns out, that house was much better than I remember it being. The new owners hadn’t changed much of anything at all (except the furniture), but it looked really good. I had forgotten how much I liked the open floorplan and the hardwood floors.

When I remember that house, I remember all the work it needed when we moved in and all the hours I spent fixing stuff. I had totally forgotten how I had actually been successful in making it a really nice house.

It was good to see that because I am in a stage of *hating* my current house with a white hot passion. When I walk into it, it isn’t relaxing. It feels like I am walking into a job. A messy, stressful job that is preventing me from enjoying my time sitting on the couch watching TV.

We have actually made a lot of progress, but there is still a good bit of work to do before we try to sell it next fall or the following spring. I have decided I need to knock out this kitchen job and paint the bathroom so I can be finished with work in the living areas of the house. Then, I just need to accessorize the crap out of it and get it over with. The remaining work is mostly painting the basement and basement floor, which will be tedious and annoying, but it won’t screw up our living area.

Mr. A doesn’t believe the next house (the one we will build ourselves) will be the Forever House, but I do. I am tired of working on old houses. I want shiny and new and clean. That is the dream.

niblets

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