Beautiful Day

It is FINALLY a beautiful day here I Grande Prairie. No wind and sunny sky. This is what I got to wake up to today. I love having flowers by my bed. Waking up to these lovelies helps to brighten your day and lift your spirits.
Do any of you put flowers by your bed?

Done Like Dinner

It has been a very busy and productive weekend. We completed the baseboards in the kitchen and hung up our new blinds. We needed to wait to do this because the inside window frames needed to be painted. It was worth the wait. 

Here's what the window and wall looked like when we moved in. 

Hideous I know. Here's during and what the finished area looks like now. 

It's calming and done. Another area crossed off our large list. It's sure come a long way from the day we got it. 

Eat Me Up

Sorry but I went on vacation from the house, work and the snow. But while I was away I fouls the letters I was looking for. It was a spur of the moment shopping trip with my mom and her friend. We had been going from shop to shop and then we entered Hobby Lobby. Well, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
I couldn't believe all of the cute things I could have bought for our house. Luckily, I stopped at the letters and a cute sign for the laundry. I actually had to stop because I needed to get shoes and clothes home. It took some rearranging but it all fit. I finally got some time to hang the letters. Here is what they look like. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

The END is near

I can't contain my excitement any longer. The flooring is 85% complete but the hardest part is done. This is was the hardest part:

There were many angles to deal with and it sat this way for quite awhile until about 3 weeks ago when Darcy began working on this area again. Yes, Darcy has done the floor because the company we hired to come out and do it cancelled on us THREE times. Finally we gave up and started it ourselves. 

Here's where we started...

Yes, the first four rows are down. 

More is getting completed. I'm sure you get the just of it so I won't show you anymore photos but Darcy should be very proud of himself for tackling such a project. We would have gladly had the company come in and do the work but when you cancel three times on us and the last time, you don't even bother to call us to tell us the installers won't be coming. Well, I think that's unacceptable and you don't deserve our business. 

Darcy finished the hallway, the most difficult part, I might add. Many naysayers said he couldn't do it and some said, yes, he could. He's proven to himself that he's capable of doing a job like this. He should be very proud of himself. He's never laid hardwood before but I would hire him. It's been a long  haul but the end is near. He's got the mudroom and the stair nose to do yet. 

Today the baseboards even went up which helps to finish the hallway off. It looks amazing!!!

Here's the finished product. AMAZING!!! 

The boxes are in place because the glue has to set. The baseboards are not quite complete. Are you ready for the final reveal....?

Looking down the hallway as you enter the house. The white post will be painted the same color as the railing. I can't wait to get this project complete. Next week, I'll share what that's going to look like. 

Our entry way.

Heading to the bedrooms.

Looking to the front door. This door will be painted the same color as the railing. 

That's Phoenix basking in the sun ray in our kitchen. He very rarely stays still and to have the camera pointed at him, I wish I'd had my telephoto lens on to get that cute expression. 

Oh, isn't it lovely. I'm so happy, vacuuming was so much easier with it all complete. Nice and clean. 

You'll see the ugly flooring in the bathroom off to the left. This will be our next big job to tackle but not for a time being. 

WAY TO GO D!!!

Flowers Everywhere!

Can we talk procrastination or what??? Today, I'm the biggest procrastinator you will find. I just don't want to get these math report card comments done. Instead, I went shopping for flowers. Yes, you read that correctly. For some reason, I'm addicted to having fresh flowers around me. Perhaps it's the anticipation of spring coming or finally having our lives get back to some sense of normalcy. Fresh flowers are perking up my spirits. 

So instead of sitting at the computer and writing report card comments, I'm writing a quick post to share some of the little vignette's (I love this word) I've created with my fresh flowers. 

Yes, you are seeing a tin can being used as a flower vase. I don't have anything small enough, so I figured why not use this. I cleaned it out as best I could. I think spray painting it white will make it look even better or maybe a bright orange or yellow. No spray painting today since the wind is blowing like it does in the Wizard of Oz. 

I love waking up to fresh flowers by my bed. They are some of the left overs from the Daisy's I bought last week. The bouquet was just too big so I separated them and put them around the house. A large bouquet can go a long way. Nobody said you had to keep them together. These flowers last a long time. Tulips, not so much. 

Drat!!! I just noticed my lamp shade is crooked. I guess I'm not as detailed orientated as I thought, I'll get better. I love tulips!!! 

Anyone else have favourite flowers they like to buy themselves at this time of the year? The flowers just seem to help put a smile on my face when I look at them.  Spring is on it's way!

I know I promised to show you the kitchen but it's not 100% finished and with Teacher's Convention, report cards, and going away to Edmonton last weekend there just hasn't been time. 

I'm getting to it I promise. 

Enjoy the vignettes'...

Oh and our hallway flooring just got completed today. It's so exciting around here. I'll have before and after photos soon. Just keep coming back. 

April 

Sink or Swim...

Sorry for the delay in posts. It's been a terrible two weeks at work, and I haven't felt much like posting about some of the good things going on. Two weeks ago I shared with you some of the updates to our kitchen. It's starting to feel like a place I want to work in these days. Our stove top got fixed, well actually Darcy just troubleshooted and pulled up a spring and the negative button works on the stove top. Yes, you can actually turn down the stove instead of turning it off. 

We also got the handles on the drawers and cupboards. It's so much easier to get into cupboards now. You forget how important and convient they are to your life when you have them but when you don't look out. You find other ways of opening cupboards. It was getting really difficult to get into the drawers and cupboards as more appliances and drawers started to be installed. 

What brings me to this post tonight is my new sink and faucet. I love them!!!! 

I was cleaning up from super and thought about the choices we'd made in the sink and faucet. I have to say, we are both really happy with the choices. They both came from Costco and were the best prices when we searched around Grande Prairie. The sink is stainless steel and it's got a square look to it. If you know me at all, you'll know that I'm drawn to straight edges and clean lines. The counter insert was even cut out to be a large square, I think that's part of the reason why it took 8 weeks to come. The large tub is nice and deep, you can put in several dishes while cooking and there is still a lot of room. The grates at the bottom are not as bothersome as I thought they would be. Sometimes, cutlery gets caught underneath them but so far so good. 

Here is the faucet. I'm quite smitten <3 with it. I've always wanted a faucet like this. I know they are going out of style, at least that's what the man from DASA said when I showed it to him but it's a personal choice. It's easy to operate and the water comes out of it so nice and smoothly. When you put a pot underneath and fill it with water, there is not splashing of water and it's easy to get the pot in and out from under the tap. Love that!!!

The faucet swivels nicely and it's easy to un-attach and re-attach when you need it to spray and extend to clean the corners of the sink. I've not wanted to clean the inside of my sink each night but I do this one. It's so nice when it's clean and shiny. You'll also get to see what the counter top looks like. It's not a complete view but it's something. More to come, I promise. 

Hold On Tight

I know I promised to show you our new kitchen counters but we worked all weekend, again, in the kitchen. I didn't quite realize how much work the kitchen can be. Maybe it's because I want it done so I can work in it but as we added cabinet doors and drawers, and then the dishwasher was installed this week, it become difficult to get into the drawers without pulling the bottom one out, then the second drawer and finally the one you want. 

We worked today on installing the drawers underneath the cooktop. Yay, no more looking at the pots. I was determined to get the drawers installed this weekend even though the repairman has been here 2 times to fix our NEW cooktop. He was here on Saturday to replace the circuit board and we ended up getting a F47 code. Not sure what that meant, other than it didn't work. Frustrating to say the least. It works now, you just can't turn down the heat. You need to turn it off then back on again. Maybe the third time will be the charm. 

We didn't get all the pulls put on but we got the drawers done which will sure has helped with opening drawers. It was a long process of building the template. I'm not sure how he did it but he spent a good hour in the garage building it. I have to say, it worked incredibly well. You'll see in the picture below, all the drawers have to come out to get into the top one.

It was fine until all cabinet doors were installed. We needed to get this fixed.

We found the center of the drawer front, marked it with a little pencil. 

You'll see the block has a saw notch made by the blade going down the center of it. We lined this up with the little pencil mark.

Marked the two holes.

Then drilled the holes with a 5/16th drill bit. The wood behind was used so the drawer front didn't split at the back. I attached the pulls as he did more of the drawers.

They are all nicely lined up and so much easier to use. 

When it came to the pot drawers, we decided to use two handles per drawer. Not because each drawer needed two pulls but we liked the look of them. It makes them look uniform. They are all nicely lined up and symmetrical. Now the question becomes, do we go horizontal or vertical with the pulls on the doors? Any thoughts would be great.

We'll work on the doors this week or weekend and let you know how this worked out. Oh, I just about forgot, the top drawers don't have the same fronts as the other drawers. You won't see the boarder on these one. We looked through the IKEA catalog and kitchen catalog and noticed. most of the time, they attach the pulls the same distance from the top of the drawer as the drawer with the boarders. This means the pulls are the same height from the top of the drawers. 

As I was making dinner tonight, it was so nice pull on the handles and reach into nicely organized drawers. I'll show you how I organized them in other posts to come. Glad this task is complete. It's slowly coming together. 

Hopefully, the tutorial will help you attach their drawer pulls to your drawers.