Sunday, October 6, 2013

KItchen Island/Peninsula Progress

We finally got the island put into the kitchen. Well, let me clarify that, the island with the proper doors and hardware and butcher block top. We lived with the current island for about a year in various places and finally decided we liked it best as a peninsula again the wall. 
Here are some photos of what it looked like originally with the island in the middle and then up against the wall. 
Before

During construction and deciding where it should go. Here or...

Here?
We chose the first one. 



We lived like this for sometime. Love my new kitchen.
Here it is without the island (I know I keep calling it an island but that's how I think of it)
And here it is just about done. 
In this picture, Darcy is telling me it's WAY TOO BIG!!! I disagree, as I always do :-)

After and during... there are still the white sides to go on to finish it off. I'm waiting for golf season to be done. 

Now we're just deciding on what colour to paint these stools. So far, I've gone from a darker blue to yellow, that's the colour they are now but I'm not completely sold on the yellow. I might try the light blue in the background, on the tray. 
So why did we go with this option? Many of you said to go with it in it's original location but Darcy and I both work in the kitchen so we needed the most amount of space. This option really does allow for us to move freely without being in each others way. He works at the peninsula/island and I work over by the sink. BTW, the white plastic will not be staying on the hood fan. Can't wait for that to come off. 
Also, if you were wondering, kitchens are a HUGE renovation. So many details to consider. It's the room that's taken the longest to complete and it's still not done. I hope you've enjoyed. 
If you were feeling generous, you could leave a comment or two on what you think. 


Monday, September 2, 2013

Happy Anniversary!!!

It's been a whole year!!! We received the keys for this place a year ago today. What I remember about that day was the overwhelming need to keep repeating Oh My God.... and the amount of work we would be needing to do in order to make this house our home. 
Well, we're by no means finished but we've really come a long way in a year. There's been a tremendous amount of work completed, started and waiting to be finished. Right now it's little jobs... do they ever get completed???? We've lived through many stages of construction and I can remember painting every single wall, piece of trim, corner, and baseboard. It's been a labour of love and hate at certain times. But in the end it's been worth it. 

What I've learned:
1. I'm a perfectionist with certain things but not with others. 
2. I like getting jobs accomplished.
3. I can only live with a mess for so long and then it's time to git'r done. 
4. Living out of boxes isn't fun. 
5. I love my physio therapist.
6. I can do way more construction than I thought I could, although the table saw still scares me.
7. I'm an EXCELLENT painter.
8. Darcy and I make a good team and we do work well together, after we get past the....well you know what I'm talking about.
9. You can live without an oven, stove top, microwave but not all at the same time and never without a kitchen sink. 
10. Sometimes the most stressful moves, are the ones worth the most. 
11. My work ethic comes from my parents, thank you for that. 

Here's a peek at what a before and after of our living room and outside. Apologies for the darkness inside but it's all I've got. 



Ignore the boxes and half door on the cabinet. I was playing with an app. 










Again, all I can say is OMG! OMG! What a difference a year and some hard work can make. 
We would love to hear your comments, if you have any to share, write away. 






Thursday, July 11, 2013

One more thing off our long list

I know it's been awhile since I updated the blog. I've been de-cluttering and unpacking boxes that have been piling up in the basement as well as working on the outside of the house. It's been ALOT of WORK but worth it in the end. 
We finally have working ovens. Well I think they work. We worked on installing them this weekend and the electrician came out today to hook them up. 
 We took the paper off and shined them up and I'm very happy with the end result. I promised Darcy cookies... Which ones should I make? 
I have an awesome tray to go on the right next to the ovens. It's so cute...I can't wait to put it up. I've been eyeing it at this cute store called The Primitive Lane in GP.  There are way more pictures on her Facebook page if you're interested. I'll show you what it looks like soon. 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

OMG! OMG! and our Accomplishments

That's all we could say the first day we got the keys to the house. We walked around outside, taking pictures and then inside. OMG! Were the only words to describe what I was feeling that day. Well, I think I was really OVERWHELMED with the amount of projects we had to get done. 
The house was in rough shape. We've worked weekends and even some evenings. 
Yesterday we tackled a flower bed. We'd decided we would work on one each weekend, well for the weekends we could work on them. We do both work very full time jobs at times. 
Here's what we accomplished this weekend and then I've got some before and after pictures to show you as well. 
First thing in the am. We were trimming the excess branches  on the bottom.
Privacy is great but  this is over growth. 



The finished product. We're quite happy with it. Please ignore our hillbilly dog area.
We're not sure what we're going to do with it. Oh it's an eye sore. 
You won't believe these before and after photos. I think I stared at them for over an hour last night. Marvelling at the amount of work we've done.



Monday, May 20, 2013

Accomplishments

What a great weekend! We went to see Fleetwood Mac on Friday night in Calgary, they were as good as you'd think they would be. Classic Rock Band. I am so glad we drove down to see them. We just about skipped out and stayed at home. The weather was so good, we just wanted to be home to get some things accomplished. 
We decided to make the trip to Edmonton go farer and we headed home instead of staying to visit with family. As much as I wanted to visit, I also needed to be home to get some jobs accomplished. 
One of those jobs is our lawn. It is a sad, sad, sad sight. I think lawn is an understatement, it's more like a patch of dried dirt and dandelion. We are the eye sore of this neighbourhood. We're working on it but it's slow going. 
We drove home Saturday and arrived late but that didn't stop us on Sunday. We divided and conquered two major jobs that needed completing. Darcy worked on the railing on our front porch and I worked on over seeding the lawn. Both were big jobs. 
I think this photo gives you a pretty good idea of what the front porch and the lawn looked like on our first day. 
Oh my! It was in very rough shape. 
This was taken a week ago as our roof was being replaced. The cedar shakes smell delightful when it rains. 

You can see by the next two photos how badly the lawn needs to be attended too. 


This was today as Darcy was building the railings. It's just about done. 

I've over seeded the lawn with dirt, peat moss, sand and seed. Now we just need to water, water, water or maybe some rain would help our cause. 

The front porch all painted and ready to enjoy. I can't wait to sit out here during the summer months and read and maybe even have myself a margarita.  

I think I'm in love. 

The not complete but looking WAY BETTER photo. 
Here are the before and current photos again. 
Before
During/Current

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Raise Me Up

The new roof is going to look amazing. I wish it would stay this colour but cedar fads over time. Can't wait to see what it looks like completed.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

No You Didn't...

Oh yes I did!!!! 
And it's not what you think...
I decided it was time to clean our cream sectional sofa. In our old house it sat downstairs and wasn't used very often. It got the occasional vacuum and cleaning but it didn't get the wear and tear it gets now. Plus it was upstairs while we were tearing out flooring and the dust was getting ground in. 
I've cleaned it many times before with a carpet cleaner and then with my Bissell Green machine. But I'd used upholstery cleaner. I'm trying to go chemical free and found a recipe I thought would work in the machine. 
I mixed 2 parts warm water with 1 part vinegar and 1 part hydrogen peroxide and went to work cleaning. I was having some problems with the Bissell sprayer, why I'm still not sure. So I proceeded to take out my vinegar and water, spray away and then vacuum up the excess water. Didn't really think this would do anything other than clean, well was I wrong. I finished and left it to dry while we went out looking for tile for our bathroom, the buttons rusted and seeped through. 
Gross! But I was pleased with the amount of dirt that was removed but the end result, not so much.
APPARENTLY! I didn't pay much attention in chemistry class and didn't realize the vinegar reacted with the metal in the button. The area where I'd sprayed the vinegar and water was the worst. Yes, I had wrecked my nice cream couch. Darcy was calmer than I expected, thank goodness and searched Google for a way to solve the situation. I love Google. 
This one doesn't really show the extent of the damage I caused. 

When I look at these photos the couch still looks dirty :(


Luckily, we found out that lemon juice will neutralize the acid of the vinegar and the salt will work to remove the stain. 
I tried it on a couple of places and it was seeming to work. The hydrogen peroxide did not work, it removed some of the rust stains but not all. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo but I was way to worried about this to even think about doing a post. It was after the fact when I had was putting on the lemon juice and salt where I even thought to take photos. 
I let that sit for about an hour or two and then vacuumed up the salt. It had worked, well at least it was better than the brownish rust stains. The only thing the lemon juice and salt did was to bleach or clean the area around the button more than the couch had already been cleaned. You'll see a little bit of brighter fabric around the button area if you look real hard. I know it's there but others might not. Like I said, it was WAY better. 


Here you can see the little white areas around the buttons. Not at big deal. I'm sure they will eventually blend into the rest of the couch. Or maybe I'll try using lemon juice next time. Kidding...


Final product. I'm happy to see the lightened areas around the buttons rather than the dark rust stains. Next, I think I'll rearrange the room. Come back to visit to see if I change it or leave it this way.