What a door knob!

Hey, I started putting on the cabinet hardware tonight. Fun! I bought a great little tool. It is a plastic template that has lots of different holes in it and 2 edges that hook over the door so that each door has its knob in the same spot. FAST! I recommend it highly. Even if you have to drill your own hole, like I did, you get very even results.

One caution, however. Always open the door first to make sure that you are drilling on the proper side of the door. Um. Yes, that is knowledge born of experience. I need to buy one new door for my gain of this knowledge. Just hoping you do not need to repeat my expense. Thought I would try to help you out.

On the good side, I really like the stainless (brushed nickel) hardware. It picks up the stainless appliances and also blends in a little. Here are a couple of pics.

I have chosen the older style cup pulls for the drawers...leaving that for another night. Yup, taped on for now
Hope you like it!

Oh, one more thing. 2 weeks ago, I sold my old fridge. A really nice guy named Verne bought it for $80. I no longer have a fridge next to my couch. I was really anxious to get rid of it, because walking into someone's house and seeing a fridge next to the couch says: She is just too lazy to walk further for the snacks while watching TV. Not a good message!

I sold it on a very cool site that everybody but me knew about called craigslist.org
Amazing! it is pretty much a classifieds site, not fancy, set up by city, and best yet...entirely free! Your email is disguised and no name is given, unless you give it. I guess you have to be wary some, but you do with the newspaper too! It was great. I put the fridge up and in 24 hours I had 13 people who were expressing interest. Highly recommended.

I've got to CROW! -peter pan

Why is this woman smiling???


The stove saga is finally over. I tried to have the foot of the stove fixed, thought it was going to be a short little thing and it turned out to be the proverbial straw. Not fixable. It turns out that the frame of this here stove is bent and cannot accept a new foot. This is sad. A fabulous stove sitting on a block of wood. (say, isn't wood flammable? ) So I take my sad self to the store and run into the guy who sold me the stove. He heard my saga and saw my paperwork (In my head I hear "Alices Restaurant" playing, and I think I should be telling my story like Arlo Guthrie did his...) So I gently told my story about the 8 service visits, and the 10 hours of work missed, and the actual age and history of my new stove, and Travis did a wonderful thing. He went to his boss, made it right and really restored my faith in this big store. In 2 weeks, I will get a brand new stove..brand new. I am overwhelmed. Persistance and kindness really worked on this one. Persistance, kindness, and a salesman that understands that customer satisfaction is worth a great deal in the marketplace. Thank you, thank you!

Catching up

As promised, here are some details and pics.

First, here is the master carpenter working on the molding! wow, what a pain this is. Even the how to websites say hire a pro...I say, hire my dad! when you are trying to make 45 deg angles when your 180 deg is wiggling all over the place, (i.e. MY CEILING!) Um, 45 turns out to be 46.287590834 degrees. Oh so fun with the mitre saw. (or is it miter... mighty saw?) Yes, kids, don't try this at home...ok, try it, but be sure you are patient, and good with geometry, not afraid to cope the heck out of a curvy board, and willing to experiment. Confidence is a must. So is an air compressor nail gun! No messing around with pre drilling and nail setting. I did not order enough molding...my inadvertant ploy to get a return visit.

Um--one little trick to share. Do you notice the valance above the sink in the above pic? Well, when you get the cabinets, sometimes the doors are warped or marred. We were going to make a valance...well, we did not have to because one of the doors was warped. We figured that doors on cabinets are only fastened on one side, thusly the warping comes into play. BUT, a valance is fastened in more places. We could twist the warped door, screw it into place and it would be flat. It worked. The cabinet company sent a new, unwarped door for the cabinet, and we had the door (amazingly just 1/8 inch too long ..perfect!) cut to size, and there it is! Matching perfectly, the right height and width. I was thinking I must have done at least one good thing in my life to gain this kind of Karma. The cabinet company wanted 400 bucks for a similar valance...well, it was curved and such but hey this is a free valance! wheee!

Next, we have the Master Glass Artisan, (a.k.a. Mom!) She is measuring for the stained glass masterpiece that will go into the corner cabinet door. How wonderful to have parts of my family surrounding me as I cook and entertain. Mom made the genius suggestion that the backsplash behind the stove should be glass also, glued and then grouted onto the wall. AND it should be the same pattern/color scheme as the window. COOL! This kitchen is going to be so unique when finished.

The pattern I chose. Art Nouveau. (The little hacked line above the leaves is not really there, just a jot of mine, later rescinded) The blossoms (circles) at the top will be an orangy reddish yellowish circle that pulls the red/orange off of the floor. Amazingly, we went to a glass shop and found the exact match of glass to the blue green countertops for the leaves. The background in the door will be a seeded clear glass so that you will not quite be able to tell whether my dishes are in perfect order or not! (those of you who know me see the need for this...) The background on the wall behind the stove will be a milky creamy streaky affair that echos the cream of the cabinets. I can hardly wait to see this.

Mom started a new job and had to get back home, but Dad stayed for more molding fun. We decided that we had to go see the State Fair!!!fun fun fun. So the next pic, is the result of that. No, the State Fair does not have a Beer Booth, I just tried to take a picture of us with the tripod using the delayed shutter. Ok, the whole point was that we were wearing matching White Sox caps that blink in the night...so you see that my picture captured that perfectly. I won the fish in a game. First game of skill I ever won! But the blinking caps are super cool. Can't you tell? I know--not quitting my day job any time soon.
We like the fair so much, we went the next night too, just to see Kenny Rogers. What a joy! Yes, a joy...deal with it you non-Kenny fans! Singing along with a few thousand people "you picked a fine time to leave me Lucille..." That was a true joy. People are great with music. We are really willing to allow ourselves our little uninhibited moments because of music. It is fun to feel everyone abandoning themselves to this. As a lifetime music teacher, it was like flying to sing along with several thousand random people in unison singing. Sure, Mozart has his charms, but this was so enjoyable because no one was trying to impress. Only to express, and all together. That unity is so powerful.

In the final stages

Well, I am back. I am sorry, dear readers, to have been absent for so long. The music has taken me from my kitchen for a while. Yesterday was painting day the second time. I am proud to say that one can no longer see any white spackle in the kitchen! It feels less and less like a construction zone.

Batteries dead on the camera, so more pictures later.

The most amazing change really is the ceiling. I did not expect it, but painting those charming tiles on the ceiling has made everything look so much cleaner! I chose a color that is halfway between the original white and the warmth of the bisque cabinets and trim. I decided that if I matched it, that it would look too dull and yellowed up there, so a brighter shade of ecru was my selection. I really like the look.

At 10:45 pm I ran out of steam, so the hallway and about 5 tiles in the kitchen will have to wait until tonight. Then, pictures for all. Painting cute funky tiles that are charmining and native to the house is a PAIN in the neck, and arm, and shoulder! (ok, not so painful, but it is still slow going and tiring)

Well, it is Christmas music time at school. People wonder why choral directors are sick of Christmas music. It is because we have to do it from the middle of October until the end of Dec.
Still, the groups are sounding good this year. This blog is going to be transformed into a choral blog soon, I guess.

Left to do on the kitchen: Hardware/drawer pulls, undercabinet and corner cabinet lighting, choosing a new ceiling fan and wiring it up and when Mom and Dad return in December, the rest of the molding, the blasted window, and Mom will be bringing (maybe after december, whenever she gets it done) the stained glass for the corner cabinet and the glass backsplash. I will talk more about that exciting development later!

Greetings to you all!