Moving right along . . . . on something else . . . . .

The floors are still in the same state as the last post except we have put down red rosin paper to protect them.

The big project this past week was the kitchen . . . . still.  Friday, a week ago, we went to IKEA and picked out a new kitchen.

Now IKEA wasn't my first choice.  That was for Dear Hubby to build custom cabinets that I could have painted and antiqued for a nice prim look.  He does such a good job with woodworking.  If he had all summer to do them WITHOUT having to put down the flooring or repairing the holes in the ductwork under the house or help the contractor dude with under the house structural stuff, he would have done it.  Something like this . . . . . except maybe painted red . . . . .

My second choice was to buy stock boxes from IKEA and have him build just the doors.  He said, "but football practice starts in two weeks!".

So we went with the whole shooting match from IKEA.  I have to say, we made the right decision.  We had looked at some stock cabinets at the big box store that looked about the same.  The IKEA cabinets with all the fun innards were less expensive and the quality was much better. Just no comparison.  Not the prim look I want but I can monitor and adjust with the decorating.

As of this morning, the boxes are built and in and level (big whoo whoo on that one)  . . . . . .

Here is Dear Hubby working on putting in the counter top. . . . . .

With Nelson's help . . . . . Reagan is off napping somewhere . . . . .

All the drawers and inside thingys are built . . . . .

And while I've been writing this post, Dear Hubby has gotten half the counter top in.  They are a birch butcher block from IKEA.  Just love it.  They are solid wood which will be stained and finished with tung oil like the floors.

So the goal for the rest of the weekend (and I'm just telling you so we can be held accountable) is to get the rest of the counter tops in, install the kitchen sink, put the black, wrought iron hardware on the drawers and cook dinner on the stove by Sunday night.

Monday we start with sanding the floors.  The upper cabinets and the painting and the decorating are going to have to wait.  We just needed to get a working kitchen in.  Only one week of being without a kitchen was enough for me.  

Blessings, Cathi
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Another step finished . . . . .

So here it is, 4:00 in the morning and I can't sleep.  Maybe this is why. . . . no kitchen!

In order to put the floors in the RIGHT way, we had to remove the bottom cabinets and put in the new flooring.  We are raising the floor 3/4" by adding the wood floors and to be done the right way, the dishwasher and cabinets and countertop had to go up the same 3/4".

I know, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.  But we could have fed a small town with the number of eggs we have had to break!!

So far we have this, though!

Next order of business is to put the kitchen back (with a few little upgrades).  Then on to sanding, staining and sealing all the floors.  And LOTS of touch up paint.  Who am I kidding, while the downstairs is almost empty, I might as well give everything a fresh coat!

It only took us 4 days to put all the floors in . . . . .including closets and the pantry.  Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.  We didn't work the entire 4 days.  It was clear after Day 1-1/2 that we hadn't done a lot of manual labor this summer and that we were old.

Hope to post more by the end of the weekend!

Blessings, Cathi
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I'm outta here . . . . .

I'm off on vacation in hopes of finding some cooler weather.  I'll let you know if I find any.

"See" you in a week!!

Blessings, Cathi

Shedding a little "light" on the subject . . . . .

While we are waiting for something to happen to the remodel (we are still letting the flooring acclimate to the house), I thought I'd show you pictures of a lamp that Dear Hubby made for us years ago.

It usually lives on the end table in the living room.  Since we have no furniture in the living room right now . . . . . It was one of those odd pieces that we couldn't fit in a box so for now, it sits on the floor giving us a little light.  We wouldn't want to trip over the dogs laying on the floor at night!

With the lamp shade . . . We had found an old junk store somewhere in Virginia that was selling old books for 25 cents each.  We picked purely by size and color of the books. . . . not the titles.

Kind of wish we had paid attention.  I might have wanted to read these before he drilled a hole in each of them!

Note the wooden spool Dear Hubby used as a spacer.  Just a very SMALL portion of my collection of spools.  When Mary and I went antiquing and she found her wonderful box of wooden spools, I told with her that I wasn't interested in them because I had so many already.  But that's for another post!

Stay cool!!

Blessings, Cathi

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My tomato/basil cup runneth over . . . . .

This will probably be the last of the garden photos on this blog for a while.  While most of you are in full swing with your garden, ours is starting to dwindle.   We have had ours planted since Easter . . .3 months.  Now we just try to keep the perennials from dying in the heat and coaxing the veges along to give us "just a few more".  We will probably wait until September to start a fall garden.

This is about the time that we have so many tomatoes that we just can't eat them fast enough.  I have a feeling I will be spending the afternoon blanching and freezing tomatoes to use for soups this winter.

This is just one of our three Roma plants along with a total of 18 tomato plants.  There is already a basket full of Romas sitting in the house.

 I like to make Basil butter then freeze it.  Wonderful on bread along with the soup in the winter.  I'm not sure I have enough butter for all of this.  I have also frozen it in ice cubes to drop into a pot of veges in the winter.  Not sure I am up for making  Basil cubes today!

This is the purple basil I decided to try this year.  Just one plant.  Not quite as strong as the other basil but still delish!!

Hope you all have a festive and SAFE 4th of July tomorrow.  We'll be going to a church cook-out/softball game.  Should be fun!

Blessings, Cathi
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