What.A.Mess.

Cooking dinner for my family is an adventure. My kitchen looks like this:

The fridge, sink, and dishwasher are still functional, but the only counter top is right around the sink. Everything is covered in dust and nails and the guys are working on removing the old cabinets.

In the laundry room, the new sink is now functional and my microwave is mounted here temporarily.

It is still a construction zone, but you can see the peppers I have prepped to make stuffed peppers for dinner. Yum. Worth the effort.

In the living room sits the dining room buffet and most of the contents of my kitchen. I have a small amount of space here to chop onions and make a fruit salad.

It takes 4 trips to get everything I need down to the basement where my stove is plugged in.

But once there I managed to brown the meat, cook the rice and vegetables, and bake the stuffed peppers.

Back upstairs we sat down for a lovely dinner (in the living room!) and we didn't even use paper plates (tempting).

Peeling off layers

And the demo begins.

I had the urge to peel off the wallpaper in the hallway. So I did.

It already feels better. Except this type of paper left a layer of adhesive on the walls that will take serious elbow grease to scrub off.

I am also moving out of my kitchen into our temporary kitchen (the laundry room), which looks like this:

Not kidding. Think we're crazy?

household chemical disposal

This is exciting stuff, my friends. This is what you come to my blog for, right?

Stage 1 of this kitchen remodel is to empty the kitchen and set up a temporary kitchen somewhere else in the house. Our temporary kitchen is going to be our laundry room. We are planning to replace the sink and faucet and add a countertop over the washer and dryer to make the space more usable. There is plenty of storage in the laundry room, but much of it was filled with old things that belonged to my Grandparents. Cleaning it out was a job I was putting off. 

After cleaning out the cupboards I was left with 2 trash bags, one donation box, 3 vacuum cleaners and parts, a bunch of old fabric (some of which I donated, and some of which I kept for my girls to be creative with—more on that it a minute). And this:

Piles of old household cleaners and chemicals. I kept a few usable things, but lets face it. I just don't need 15 bottles of various types of wood polish, 3 bottles of oven cleaner (mine is self clean), 5 different kinds of laundry soap (none of which are for high-efficiency washers), sketchy unlabeled cleaner bottles, etc. What I really need is room in my cupboards.

I set about trying to find out how to dispose of this. I got the major runaround and called about 8 people. The 5th or 6th person in Great Falls directed me to call a neighboring city even, and finally someone in Helena told me they would take it, but it would have to be solidified first. So, I have to dump every. single. bottle. out into kitty litter, double bag it all, and haul it to Helena. Or box it up and stuff it in a old barn somewhere and forget about it. Ha. 

Have any of you dealt with this challenge before? I have 2 boxes from the laundry room, one box from the garage, and another cupboard to clean out still. And who knows what is lurking in the shop. They don't make this easy. 

(On a happier note, we found a few fun things in my Grandma's old fabric drawer—some old retro-looking double knit fabrics, already cut into squares for a quilt, and another quilt front made out of old men's suiting. The suit quilt had no backing (it actually looks like the backing was removed and the front was just dry-cleaned, maybe with the intent of adding a new backing). The suit squares also had a few holes in them (moth-eaten?) but could be easily patched with no backing on the quilt. 

I would love to know the story behind this quilt. Was it made of my Grandpa's old suits? In any case, I may need to take up quilting and finish it. It would make an adorable quilt for a boy's room. (So in other words, since there are no little boys in this house I'll have to find a another recipient to appreciate it :)

I went shopping

My shopping forays to Great Falls are usually packed with necessary errands like grocery shopping and house project supply shopping. I rarely take the time to shop for fun things anymore, but this week I made an exception. I indulged in a quick visit to a downtown shop that had caught my eye awhile back—it is called Once Again Vintage. 

This shop is filled with mid-century era vintage house wares and clothing, so I will definitely be going back. This time I was charmed by a couple of pillows that just had to come home with me.

The owner sews them out of vintage upholstery fabric. My couches are fighting over these beauties.

Arrogant Mr. Hounds Tooth thinks every girl looks good on his arm (and he's right).

But Mr. Dark and Debonair in our living room upstairs has been feeling a bit drab lately and feels it is his turn to flirt with these Pretty Pops of Color. I tend to agree. But I might have to pay a visit back to Once Again and pick up a few more pillows, just to keep things fair.

the doors are in

Lest you think our holidays were full of gluttony, let me show you what happened between the over-eating, game-playing, and nap-taking (because I won't lie—there was plenty of that too).

Things have been getting lively around here! First of all, our garage door is in!

It is even operational! I am loving not having to get out of my car to heft the door open. I realize it looks a little bit odd right now with the 2-tone trim. I will probably wait until spring and warm days to paint exterior trim.

The days have been unseasonably warm for January, however. It is really weird. I'm not complaining, as it allowed us to get 3 of our 5 new side doors in.

These doors came primed and will need to painted brown along with the trim. Our garage is sealed up so much better now (the doors actually latch), which I'm sure we will appreciate with the typical Montana winter weather finally arrives.

I must take the opportunity to mention the visit we had from some special Utah friends who braved the 10 hour trip to come see us over New Year's weekend. I am kicking myself for not getting any photos of them to remember their visit by! Anyway, I'll tell you how well we treat our friends. Chris happens to be a Project Manager and professional door installer. We just happened to be working on doors while he was here so he willingly pitched in and helped install those doors in record time! We're sorry we put you to work, Chris, but we sure appreciated your help. And your visit! Love you two!

Probably the biggest improvement was the door between the garage and the house. Before it was just a hollow-core indoor door. Now it is solid and well-insulated.

I have a funny story to share about this door. This morning things got a bit quiet, so I went to see what Eva was up to and found a pencil in her hand. (Her left hand. We might have a lefty on our hands!) I didn't find her work of art though until I went to take a photo of this door:

My reaction was more amusement than annoyance, which would not have been the case if my 6-year-old had been the culprit. She has a reputation for this. But I had to laugh that Eva couldn't resist this white canvas. Fortunately the door has to be painted still, and the marks came off fairly easy with a Magic Eraser.

I have one more thing to share. If you scroll back up to the garage door photo, you might see a stack of something inside those windows. That is the pallets of tile and supplies we picked up yesterday! Yes, things are getting lively. If I can get the guys to actually stay home in between farm seminars and grain hauling, we might have more progress to share soon! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have kitchen cabinets and laundry room closets to clear out.

Episode 3: Christmas Joy is . . .

. . . connecting with the people we love!

Duh. But so true. Slowing down and focusing on family is simply the best part of Christmas. After I finally finished my Christmas cards, I put away my computer and all my kitchen planning stuff and just enjoyed the slow days. I even downloaded a book on my Kindle and finally read (The Help), something I don't take enough time to do any more. 

Speaking of Christmas cards, I ordered mine from Pinhole Press this year, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the quality of their printing. Their card stock is high quality also. I searched the net to find a 15% promo code to use also, which kept the price reasonable. They had these adorable photo return address labels which was the icing on the cake for me.

 

I was addressing these late at night and the lighting was poor. Forgive the poor picture quality.

I've kept up with the tradition of sending cards now for several years, and the best part? Getting everyone's cards in return! I just love the stack of photos and letters decorating my shelf! 

I delayed getting our family photo this year until it was too late to do it outside (comfortably.) So I came up with plan B and hung a sheet in our living room. It worked out.

Another Christmas tradition we are trying to continue is to build a real gingerbread house. Last year we made 2 smaller ones, so this year we had to change it up and make one BIG one.

We found out those are a little bit of work, and they need a little structural support until that icing dries (one or 2 walls may or may not have caved in, ahem. And our roof could have been a bit saggy and ours walls crooked. Adds charm.)

We even made windows out of melted life-savers. The whole project was very much a group effort. Even Tom got involved making the cardboard template. We had lots of help with the decorating. 

Thankfully. There was a little mishap during the construction phase. As I was rolling out the dough, my mom's marble rolling pin rolled off the floor and on to my foot. Fortunately it resulted in saving the floor from any cracked tiles. Ha. Unfortunately my foot did not fair so well. My mom had a boot from a recent broken toe, so I spent lots of time icing my foot and used the boot to hobble until Monday rolled around and I could get an x-ray. The x-ray revealed no broken bones, but I still am left with a very swollen and bruised foot. At least I can walk on it, and I have at least 2 pairs of shoes I can wear comfortably. The whole thing is a very inconvenient excuse not to exercise. (Bad timing coming off the holidays, you know. And I have an upcoming event to prepare that involves swimsuit wearing. No, not a pageant. More like a trip.)

Nevertheless, we completed the gingerbread house:

I suppose in some light it looks more like a haunted house. And now after a week of sitting around it looks even more haunted. They are tasty, you know. The porch posts are gone, a couple of windows have been smashed out. . .

We opened presents with my family Christmas Eve day.

Sarah was recovering from a little hernia surgery a couple of days prior, so her usual energy level was down a notch or two. Not for long, though.

The babies kept things lively enough. How much longer do we get to call them babies?

Board games are the favorite way to pass time during the holidays.

Lucky us, we got to celebrate again on Christmas day with Tom's family. We started out with a Christmas feast of rotisserie beef.

And then the much anticipated gift opening. This year Nanna started a new tradition with the Grandchildren of 3 gifts each representing gold, frankensense, and myrrh, and also one "love" gift. 

Somehow I ended up with the most pictures of Eva this year.

Her favorite gift was this little pillow pet. She rolled around on the floor with it for about 10 minutes and didn't much care about opening gifts after that.

Here are my two nephews in their new ski gear:

Really, they are smiling under those masks. :)

Our blessings have been bountiful again this year. I hope I can keep a huge spirit of thankfulness in my heart every day in this new year and treasure each and every moment as a gift. I have made no other resolutions, but I suppose above all that is my greatest goal.

Happy New Year to you and yours! Thanks to all of you for following our adventure on this blog. I treasure your comments and your friendship.

Episode 2: Christmas Joy is . . .

. . . Christmas Programs!

The girls' school has the best old auditorium. This Christmas Program was so adorable.

Abby was the narrator and did a fabulous job, never missing a line (and the rest of the time she mouthed every one else's lines :)

Sarah's group sang "I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas" (among other songs) and most of the kids had their own little solo. Sarah sang "broke my daddy's coffee mug" load and clear and right on key. I was such a proud mom.

Aren't they cute in their little pajamas?

After the program, Santa came to give everyone a candycane.

During the entire program, Eva sat on her Grandpa's lap, occasionally yelling out "Abby!" and clapping her hands. Afterward Grandpa put her up on stage and she was quite thrilled to face everyone and smile. She had her moment with Santa also, but was mostly interested in the candycane. 

The girls had a great support group come to watch them. Thanks everyone for coming, especially Nanna and Papa all the way from Bozeman! 

Episode 1: Christmas Joy is . . .

. . . building Gingerbread Houses with the Kindergartners!

Before the break I spent an afternoon building gingerbread houses with the Kindergartners, using milk cartons and graham crackers. I love those kids. We made the real thing a few days later, which I'll share in an upcoming post.

Are you all enjoying your holiday? The Christmas spirit is still going strong at our house and we plan on soaking it up as much as possible before next Monday rolls around. I'll share some of our best bits over the next few days. 

kitchen finishes

Since we have finally made a decision on kitchen cabinets, I'm excited to show you what I am planning design-wise. If you want to read more about the cabinet shopping process, you can find that here. But if you want to skip to the good stuff, read on.

Now I'm aware opinions vary widely on finishes. If it isn't your thing, that's okay. But I do hope to land on a modern but fairly classic, timeless design.

All white kitchens are all the rage of course, and I love their light, bright spaces. I also love the warmth and texture of wood. So I am going to mix them. White on top for lots of brightness, and dark on the bottom for warmth and texture. Here are a few favorite kitchen photos I've collected:

I do so love this kitchen. It doesn't have dark lower cabinets, but so many elements I love. 

from Living Etc. via Desire to Inspire

Jessica Helgerson

The common theme is lots of contrast. As for my own kitchen:

1. Tile floors. Don't try to talk me out of this one. They are already ordered! :) I have lived with and loved tile floors and aside from the occasional broken dish, have never had a complaint. I plan to use a grout color that is either slightly lighter or slightly darker than the tile that will hide dirt well. This flooring will go in my entry, hallways, laundry room, and dining room as well as the kitchen.

2. This is the slate fireplace that everything must blend (and not compete) with.

3. The lower cabinets will be quarter-sawn oak in a dark walnut color. The style is a simple shaker.

4-7. The countertops are up for debate. All four choices shown are granite, though I haven't completely ruled out the alternatives. I have found granite incredibly easy to live with—durable, heat resistant, and easy to maintain. The options shown above are:

• 4) Lennon granite: I like some parts of it better than others so I would want to hand-pick my slabs. It is busy enough that I don't want my entire kitchen done in this. Maybe just the island?
• 5) Absolute Black Honed granite: I like the honed finish better than shiny, but it would still show smears and fingerprints. It is a classic choice, but I wonder if it provides too little contrast with the lower cabinets.
• 6) Black Cambria leathered granite: Slightly bumpy but I do LOVE the overall natural look of leathered granite. I also like that it reads more as gray. 
• 7) Pearl Green leathered granite: I'm not sure if I can get this option because I spotted it online, not in a shop. It might be pricey. The green undertones could look fabulous with our fireplace, and this color resembles soapstone, another material I love but have ruled out because of it's expense and tendency to scratch. 

Needless to say, we have lots of shopping around to do before settling on a countertop.

8. The few upper cabinets are the same style as the lower but painted a soft white. This keeps the upper part of the kitchen light and bright.

9. My backsplash choice will likely be white subway tile—that is if I can find one that is a soft enough white to go with my cabinets. I was thinking white grout, but seeing the example here I think I might enjoy a little contrast from a light gray grout.

10. I would like my light fixtures to bring contrast with a black finish. I do like the industrial look of these pendants, but I am still shopping around. I am undecided on cabinet hardware color. Stainless would coordinate with my appliances and contrast with the lower cabinets, while black would look smashing on the white cabinets and coordinate with my fixtures. What do you think? I'm leaning toward black. (I don't want to mix hardware finishes.)

11. Last but not least, my appliances, sinks, and faucets will all be stainless.

I would love to hear what you think! I will keep you updated as I shop around and make more decisions, but don't plan on seeing much until after the new year. I think I am going to step away from the computer for awhile and put off my kitchen-obsessing and decision-making until after the holidays. Except for maybe an occasional holiday-related post, you probably won't see me around the blog much for the next couple of weeks. So I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

ordering cabinets

Guess what? We've made a decision and we are ordering kitchen cabinets today! I'm so excited and relieved to be moving forward on this piece of the puzzle.

Before I get to the finishes, I'll tell you a little about the cabinet shopping process. Brace yourself—this could be a long story.

The first guy (we'll call him Dude) I happened upon by accident as we were shopping for doors. I didn't know this place had a cabinet shop, but they told us their cabinet guy loved to visit the actual kitchens and help make the plan from scratch, so we made an appointment for him to come visit when the door guy came to make his measurements. When the Dude called me on the phone to schedule, the first thing he said to me was "I've been doing kitchens for 20 years and I'm really good." O.K. then. Well.

During his visit he did some measuring and came up with a preliminary design. We discussed a few things at the time, and then later I visited the cabinet shop with my mom to revise it some more. It was apparent to both of us then that he was a bit stubborn and didn't listen all that well. And he insisted he needed to make another visit to our house to measure again. (What? We live 55 miles out! Why didn't he measure correctly the first time?)

Instead I offered to measure for him, and I sent a nice little detailed drawing to him. The next time I heard from him he said "I got your measurements and its not gonna work." He told me that he really needed to come out again. But the next week he reported that he needed to spend a week at the hospital (?) and cancelled our appointment. Legitimate excuse, of course. But I took the opportunity to spend time making my own drawings so I could shop around.

My next appointment was with Mr. Big Box Store. I made an appointment with him, and when I arrived for my appointment he told me he was in the middle of a big expensive kitchen order and didn't really have time to meet with me. Humph. I had traveled 55 miles to be there, so I insisted we meet as planned, and he did go ahead and draw up a plan with me. His price was good but not significantly cheaper. I found out later it was the last day of a 10% off promotion that he didn't feel the need to tell me about.

My 3rd appointment was with a gentleman I'll just call Nice Guy at a local shop. Our appointment went smoothly, he helped me refine a few details on my plan, and educated me in the process. I left with a written quote (unlike with the other two) and a detailed plan. 

Seems like an obvious decision, right?

A twist—the Dude advertised a 20% off promotion. That is too significant to ignore. So I waited for Dude to call me, then gave up and finally called him. Then I waited several more days for him to finally meet with me. I was tired of waiting by then but I waited several more days to get his final price. Which was good. Very good.

Meanwhile, Mr. Big Box called and said they would be having a 15% off promotion. He also Big Box would chew up any Small Box and would beat any price. Sorry, Dude, but I want to keep Small Box in business. For one, I already knew the Dude would beat his price significantly, and he had better cabinets. For another, Mr. Big Box informed me he had lost our plan. Two hours with him unsaved and down the tube. I wasn't about to spend 2 more hours with him, so I ruled Mr. Big Box out.

When I got tired of waiting for the Dude to set his final price, I decided to take what I knew back to Nice Guy to see if he would drop his price at all. He did... just a little...but not enough. The Dude still beat his price by over $2000. So now you see, this made the decision very difficult. What would you do?

Ultimately, we have made the decision to go Mr. Nice Guy. For timely service (confidence that he will get our order right) and better style and color options. In the end there were too many compromises with the Dude and this is a piece of the kitchen where regrets are NOT GOOD. Not to mention the fact that the Dude insisted on measuring again before he would order. Who knows how long that would take.

So, in summary, shopping around is exhausting and you might as well go to Mr. Nice Guy in the first place. If you are in the market for some cabinets and would like me to dish the dirt on who these people really are, I send you a private message.

So sorry if I lost you back there. The fun stuff is up next!

kitchen layout plans

When it came to deciding on a kitchen layout, I just couldn't leave it to the kitchen designers. (I'm a control freak!) When meeting with cabinet people I needed to have good solid measurements anyway, so decided to make my own drawings. I even went as far as to decide what I would put in every drawer and cupboard. I met with 3 different kitchen designers to price cabinets and all three told me I made their job much easier!

It wasn't without a lot of time and effort, however. I made my drawings in Google SketchUp (free!) and it took me a solid day of watching tutorial videos to figure out how to do it. It is fun and sometimes a little frustrating! My drawings aren't perfect—when downloading cabinets (from the 3-D warehouse where you can find just about anything) I couldn't always find the perfect cabinet sizes (most notably the oven cabinet is too short in my drawing). I'm also missing a few details. But you'll get the gist. 

Here is the overhead view:

First of all, I didn't detail the dining room and living room with window and furniture. But here you can see we are planning to tile the kitchen and dining room and hallways, and eventually lay wood in the living room. The main layout change you can see here is that we are removing the peninsula and adding an island, mainly to get rid of the corner sink.

The main sink and dishwasher will move into the island, which is perfect for access to our dining room table. We are sliding the refrigerator over a bit to the left to accommodate double ovens. Near where the old sink was we will put a prep sink. Replacing the current electric range will be a 36" gas rangetop with griddle. We won't have any upper cabinets along that wall. Instead we will have an chimney hood and open shelving for just the everyday dishes (which is right across from the dishwasher). The lower cabinets will house lots of deep drawers.

This is looking into the kitchen to the east. Having no upper cabinets and soffit on the east wall will open up this space so much!

Before, similar view:

Looking to the north, before:

And the north view, as planned:

Removing the peninsula and upper cabinets will also open things up. This view shows one challenge with our layout. To have the ideal amount of space between the island and perimeter cabinets (42 inches) we are little short between the island and the fireplace. This angle makes it look a little smaller than it really is, so I'll show you another view:

We have 2'8" between the island overhang and the fireplace ledge (the size of a standard doorway) and visually a bit more since it is open above the fireplace ledge and under the counter overhang. We figured that we can live with this arrangement, or, if worse comes to worse, eventually tear out the fireplace ledge to open things up. (My dad is not keen on that idea, however).

Also, the island overhang is only 6", not really enough for bar stools. I wanted to have extra counter behind my sink, however. The upper cabinets beyond the island will all be the same height and will have a simple crown molding along the top so they will go clear to the ceiling. Of course, there is really a ceiling, not blue sky! :)

If I had a ceiling in my actual drawing, however, I couldn't show you this view to the south:

This shows you how close the sink and dishwasher is to the dining area.

Looking to the west:

This corner, where the desk is currently, will house a shallow pantry (so I can see everything! I'm always losing things in the back of my 24" depth pantry cupboard.) It probably won't look exactly like this because we are going to custom build it. I'm looking for some creative ideas, unique doors, etc. Any thoughts?

Beyond it is the area where I am going to put a desk. We are going to reuse the old desk, add a new door, and custom build the upper cabinet to match. These I will paint a different color (undecided) so we won't have to worry about matching finishes exactly to the kitchen.

Desk and niche areas, before:

There you have it. I must say, it is intimidating to show you something I have put a ton of thought into and open it up for critique at this point. I'm scared that you will find something terrible I didn't consider. But, I think I can handle it. Critique away!

What's wrong with my kitchen, anyway?

So by now you have probably heard about our upcoming kitchen remodel, and you may have asked the question, "What is wrong with the kitchen you have?" Well, nothing, really, as long as you love original 70's decor and stepping over each other a bit while cooking. But listen. There is no question this kitchen needs a few updates. So if we are going to dig in, we are going to fix a few things. This kitchen sees a lot of action, especially during busy summers, holidays, and harvest time, so making it efficient and a pleasant place to spend a lot of time is a priority for us.

(the kitchen today)

Okay, but really. What is wrong with this kitchen?

Let's start with the very worst:

Yes, that is carpet in the kitchen. And I probably don't need to say any more. Admittedly, it doesn't look so bad in this photo. But trust me. It is dirty, grimy, and old. And a really bad idea in a kitchen. How it doesn't have spaghetti sauce stains in it, I have no idea. We shampooed a big soy sauce stain out of it when we first moved here. Rumor has it my Grandma liked warm floors because she liked to walk around in her bare feet. I feel gross if my bare feet touch this floor. And I am even more grossed out that my baby girl learned to crawl on this floor.

Next, the cabinets. Orangy stain and ornate hardware aren't my cup of tea. I prefer a clean, modern style.

The floral wallpaper border is rather dated. (I already removed the matching floral valances.)

The white laminate countertops aren't so offensive, but they have seen better days. 

OK, fine. Then why not paint the cabinets, replace the flooring, update the countertops and remove that wallpaper already?

I have been tempted to tear into that wallpaper on more than one occasion and do some quick and cheap updates like this. The truth is, that solution only glosses over the functionality issues. 

For instance:

The corner sink. Great in concept, poor in execution. I've seen corner sinks that work okay, but it is never ideal for more than one person working at the sink. And in this case it is even worse because the dishwasher is right next to the sink. That means, when the dishwasher door is down, there is barely room for you to stand and load the dishwasher. When you need to open the sink cupboard to get dishwasher soap or turn on the disposal, you must close the dishwasher door first. This arrangement could definitely be improved.

Funny story: My dad thought we should build the cabinets for this kitchen. It seemed to take some convincing to talk him out of it. I wasn't so much afraid of the quality as I was the amount of work, but I do think there are some advantages to having a "factory finish". Well, the other night we were talking about things my Grandma would have done differently if she'd have had the final say (as opposed to my Grandpa.) "Like what?", we asked. After some thought my dad said, "Well, for one, Grandma didn't want the contractor to build the cabinets. She wanted to buy them". We all stopped for a minute and then cracked up as the irony of that sunk in. Maybe my Grandma will finally get what she really wanted in the first place... ?

(I should mention that these cabinets are not built as traditional individual units and could not be easily reconfigured.)

As you can see above, the cabinets do have some quality issues. The wood isn't the best quality and the doors are thin.

The doors have started to look a little uneven and skewed.

The cabinets are all hung below a soffit (which has can lighting—very nice). However, my Grandma was petite. I am not. To me, the soffit is wasted space. 

The soffit also causes some of the cabinets to hang very low. For example, the corner cabinet in the photo above is very hard to work around and I have to scoot my mixer out a ways to be able to lift it up.

The appliances aren't original and the black is not terrible at all. Something I've longed for, however—is double ovens. This kitchen can use that kind of capacity. And something else—I didn't mind a glass top electric stove until I started using it for awhile. But over time I got frustrated with the slow response when turning things down to a simmer. I was always boiling things over. And then another problem surfaced. When I boiled things over the liquid would cause the pot to slide all over, and then I would have to try to clean it up by wiping a scorching hot burner. I'm not knocking your electric stove if you love it. But we don't get along as well as I did with my gas stove in Utah.

There is one more pet peeve I could cover:

We have this desk area in the corner of the kitchen.

It is mostly open storage and always cluttered, possibly because of a lack of effective storage. It currently holds my cookbooks, a few photos, Christmas cards from the early birds, a charging station, a CB radio (for farm communication—some of our land is out of cell phone service), a bulletin board for school calendars and such (that I never bothered to actually hang on the wall), and usually a pile of mail. All this means I don't actually use this area as a desk. Instead my laptop sits on the kitchen counter (as seen in the first photo in this post.)

And right around the corner, we have this little niche that is not as useful as it could be:

See where I'm going with this?

I don't want you to come away from this thinking I am whining and ungrateful. That is not the case. But I think sharing the issues will help you understand our thought process behind our new design. 

Tomorrow I will share more of that with you—the new kitchen layout. Until then, I'm curious. What would you do if this kitchen was yours? Live with it? Update it cosmetically and live with the rest? Or rearrange? Obviously budget factors in to these decisions, and we are very budget conscious—no spending 50 grand on this renovation. We are doing some pretty exhaustive comparison shopping (20% off cabinets!) and have some creative ideas for reusing materials, which I will share with you another day. We are going to DIY quite a few things as well (laying tile, building a pantry cabinet, installing our cabinets, and doing our own electrical and plumbing work-thanks to my dad's expertise.)  With any luck we will have a new kitchen before the spring farm work kicks in! 

Today I am . . .

. . . ashamed I've neglected my blog for nearly two weeks. That might not seem like a big deal to you, but to me it is important to give you a reason to keep visiting!

. . . excited that my new garage door arrived yesterday and soon I won't have to open and close it manually.

. . . anxious for the rest of the doors we ordered to come in. And not-so-anxious to paint those doors and trim. But very interested in seeing what those doors will do for reducing our heat bill!

. . . proud to have finished a nagging item on my to-do list—staining the basement bathroom cabinets.

. . . grateful to have a living room large enough to use as a work space (after giving up on the cramped, dark storage room and moving to the garage, then giving up on the dirty, cold, and dark garage and finally finishing the job in the house in front of the big living room window.)

. . . very relieved we didn't have to deconstruct the cabinets to get them into the bathroom. We were worried for bit. We tried every angle we could think of and finally gave up, saying "Dad better be smarter than we are or we have a problem." Well, of course Dad is smarter than we are, and he proved it by suggesting an angle we hadn't thought of. Fortunately, it worked. Barely.

The picture above left is of Tom trying to take the door off on the neighboring room in hopes it would give us enough clearance. Above right is one of the cabinets in place. Please forgive the poor picture quality. I'll take better photos once we do a little touch-up, install the backsplash, and accessorize. This cabinet seemed a bit imposing after living with it wide open, but I have a few ideas to remedy that. 

Moving on.

. . . happy that I have decided to keep going as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator as I just held another successful stamp class. I forget how much fun it is to stamp until I spend an afternoon creating. These are the cards we made (Mom made the one on the left):

. . . hoping I can get my Christmas cards together soon. Feeling so behind!

. . . looking forward to the girls' Christmas program tonight. Abby is the narrator!

. . . overwhelmed with the process of preparing for a kitchen remodel. So many details. I'm going make next week kitchen week on the blog and will start sharing our plans. 

. . . thankful for so many blessings.

Thanks for visiting and not giving up on me!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderfully low-key Thanksgiving at home this year. 

We began the day with freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Shrimp cocktail, meat, and cheese tided us over until dinner. Our main menu was complete with a perfectly roasted and moist turkey, made-from-scratch sausage and apple stuffing, yam-bake, asparagus, mashed potatoes, spinach salad, and rolls. Everything went off without a hitch, I'm proud to say.

Somehow we still had room for homemade pumpkin and sour cream raisin pie, and not-so-homemade red velvet cheesecake. (You have to be allowed to cheat on a few things, right?) 

Our table was not so crowded with my nephews and Tom's parents joining us. Plenty of food to go around and enough leftovers to last a week.

It was stress-free with lots of time to relax and play games. A perfect day in my estimation!

Hope you all had a perfect Thanksgiving also. Enjoy the rest of your long weekend!

Utah, this is for you.

Today I am thinking about Utah and reminiscing. That's not to say I'm unhappy or ungrateful to be here in Montana. Quite the contrary. I am SO happy and thankful to be here and don't regret a minute of it. But I just want a minute to be nostalgic about the place we spent 10 years of our lives.

Mostly, I'm missing my friends, my neighbors, my coworkers. Openings in the fence in the backyard and game nights with baby monitors by our sides. Babysitters to depend on right down the street and safe neighborhoods where you can play outside on the street and have scooter parades. Volleyball and music nights.

I'm missing afternoon prop shopping forays and lunch with my coworkers. Funny Photogs, Halloween Zoolander runway walks, and the best hard-working and talented team anyone could ask for. Ever-inspiring and super-creative product designers and concept artists. Meetings (yes, even meetings) and chatting it up with staff.

Brighton Ski Resort and the beautiful mountains. The aquarium. Children's museum. Jazz games. The symphony. KSL Classifieds and Craig's List (I know, I'm a nerd.) Manicured neighborhoods.

Kneaders french toast. Zupa's tomato basil soup. Noodles Mac & Cheese. Pawit's amazing Thai. Bajio's shrimp salad. Starbucks on the way to work. Rumbi's sweet potato fries and best salsa ever. Pie Pizzaria. Cafe Rio. (Except I don't have to miss that anymore and am already enjoying weekly visits in Great Falls!)

Anthropoligie. Banana Republic. The apple store. Home Again. IKEA. Nordstrom. Down East Home. Yes, the shopping in Montana leaves a lot to be desired. I want (need?) my shopping fix. I need to hit that new Crate & Barrel and H&M and my IKEA list is a mile long.

Everything the city had to offer was amazing. We aren't feeling sorry for ourselves because Montana has so much to offer in it's space and tranquility, but that isn't to say we don't miss it all (except maybe the traffic).

Last week Tom lost one of his old bosses to cancer (at only 44 years old) and his heart is being pulled back to Utah. It is very tempting to get in the car and pay a visit. But until time allows us to do that, Utah, just know you are in our hearts. We didn't leave you behind without looking over our shoulders a few times to wave goodbye.

landscaping project update

I started to type "landscaping project finished" into the heading and then decided that wasn't quite accurate. We are far from finished. But we did complete our landscaping goals for this year. As you know, we tackled the lower yard this summer and spent a LOT of time raking gravel—four truck loads to be exact. (My uncle helped with this job one day and said it should be prison work. Yeah, he's probably right. But it was also really good for the muscles in my upper body. Does anyone want to arm wrestle?)

It is hard to give an accurate "after" picture of this project. I took these photos before snow started falling last week, but winter had already shriveled all the plants I planted. You will have to use your imagination to see what will hopefully eventually look like intentional, natural landscaping. Right now it just looks like a sea of gray, boring gravel.

You will just have to imagine the lilac hedge full and and blooming, the juniper plants crawling over the gravel, and the salvia, seedums, and sage filling in with color. The rock staircase will be covered in beautiful ground covers (if the bunnies will leave them alone.)

The grass will be lush and green. Well, green at least. At some point we will probably plant a new variety of grass that can grow into a fuller, richer lawn. And I will enjoy not having to mow the steep hillsides.

The cement planters will fill in with hundreds of daffodils, tulips, and alliums. Roses and grasses will add texture and color year round, and I will eventually add more perennials to this area as I see how things grow and develop. I'll cover the soil with mulch in the spring as well.

Next spring I also hope to transplant some native yucca plants and add a few more perinnials to punctuate the gravel area without requiring a lot of water. 

For now we will rejoice in the satisfaction of a finished project and a much more manicured look as we pull in our driveway. 

Feng Shui Friday—organize your hand-me-downs

To find out how you can join the Feng Shui Friday challenge, click here.

Image from Ashley Ann Photography. Isn't this a great idea?

I'm am bringing today's Feng Shui Friday challenge back to the basics of organizing. Lately, I have been plagued by the chore of staying on top of my kid's clothing. As you can imagine, with 3 kids of the same gender, I have accumulated a lot of girl's clothes. Keeping all three closets organized with only the appropriate sizes has not been my forte.

Last week I tackled the chore of sorting through every box and bin of clothes I have saved over the past 9 years. This is what I was left with:

1) Two garbage bags of clothes to toss—clothes that were either stained or damaged. Obviously when I have packed up outgrown clothes I have not been careful about sorting them. This must change.

2) Two bins to donate to Goodwill.

3) Two bags to sell to the local "Once Upon a Child" consignment shop. I had pre sorted out the best brands and clothes in the best condition to sell, and I left with $52 in my pocket, even though they purchased less than half of it. It was definitely worth doing! I just added the rest to my Goodwill donation.

This is what I kept:

A bin for each size (and a separate one for shoes), each clearly labeled, sits in my storage room. These are my new rules for keeping it tidy:

1) Keep only ONE bin per size. This is key. If I keep more than this I will surely forget there is more and miss something. The job of switching out sizes and seasons becomes too big, and it is easier to go out and buy something new than sort through all the clothes to find something that works. If I keep more than one bin I'm likely keeping clothes that are either outdated, ugly, or stained, and quite frankly, my kids just don't need that many clothes.

2) If you don't like it now, you won't like it in 2 years. Don't keep it. (Even if it was a gift.)

3) If your first kid doesn't wear it, your next one probably won't either. And your younger kids deserve new underwear, socks, and shoes that aren't all scuffed up.

4) Between Christmas, birthdays, and generous grandparents, my kids always have new clothes. If you are afraid to get rid of old clothes for fear they won't have enough to wear, don't be. Clothes have a way of multiplying. And you will want to buy them a few new things of their own. Trust me. 

5) Buy the best quality clothing you can afford. After going through my kid's clothes its clear to me that the splurges were usually worth it—especially if they last for 2 or 3 kids. I shop a lot at Old Navy and Target, but I noticed it was the few splurges at Gap and other higher-end stores that made it into my keep piles.

6) Organize your kid's closets at the beginning of every season and go through the next size of clothes. Don't wait until 2 months into winter and realize you had a coat tucked away somewhere and could have saved $40 on the new one you just bought.

So, those are my tips. Have any of you struggled with keeping your hand-me-downs organized? If so, how do you cope? I'd love to hear your own tips and tricks!

gutters

You'll have to forgive the pun, but my mind is in the gutter today. (Har har.)

Our new seemless gutters and facia are up and we are pleased with the result. Here is a look at the before:

And after:

The guy who did the job bid less than half of the other company we priced. Choke. He was extremely prompt and did a solid job.

In the end we decided against doing metal soffit. It would have lowered the soffit ceiling a half inch or so, and visually even more with the dark color. The eves are already quite low. After examining the condition of the (probably original) paint job on the existing wooden soffit, we decided it looked pretty good for 40+ years, and it would be a simple job to sand the rough spots and repaint, thus cutting our gutter replacement cost in half. I think we will repaint in a similar color.

I think the new brown gutter/facia color looks awesome. Even though it has more contrast, it seems to blend in and look like its been there forever. I can't wait to eradicate the blue completely. 

Now I am turning my attention to the exterior lighting. I already told you my plan to paint the fixtures by the front door, but we also have a few of these around the house:

Not so bad from afar, maybe. And quite appropriately atomic, don't you think?

But look a little closer:

Ew. Not in great condition. And wrapped in electrical tape—presumably to keep them from rattling in the wind, but doing a poor job as we've witnessed during these last few very windy days. This particular fixture is framed front and center in our dining room view.

The question is, what do we replace them with? The best looking option would undoubtedly be recessed lighting. However, our roof has a very shallow slope, and the attic space is extremely tight toward the edge. We aren't sure there is actually room for a recessed fixture. We could move them closer to the house (and add a few more while we are at it), but that would mean patching the old holes and adding a lot more work. I am leaning toward replacing them with simple, inexpensive, non obtrusive fixtures. Here are some options I've found:

 

1. Cove Atomic Age Flush Fixture by Rejuvenation, $145

This one was shot down lickety split. Too much like the ugly ones we are trying to replace, and it wouldn't put out enough light. And too expensive. Enough said.

2. Hunter Marine II Outdoor Light from Home Depot, $44.97

Meh. 

3. Braxton Flushmount fixture by Restoration Hardware, $219

This is what I would buy if money wasn't a concern. But we have to buy 5 of these and that makes it ridiculous.

4. Hampton Bay from Home Depot, $19.97

This is the best alternative I have found that isn't too fancy for the modern look of this house. And the price is right. However, the slanted shape and more Craftsman feel makes me less than enamored. 

So, what do you think? Which would you choose? Have you seen any good (not-to-expensive) alternatives? What are your favorite lighting sources? I could definitely use some suggestions.

Guess who's walking?

Just shy of 17 months, we finally have a toddler on her hands. Kind of. At least now we know she can. She isn't very consistent and still prefers to walk on her knees:

Mom suggested we make bubble wrap bumpers for our fireplace and sharp countertop corners. That'd be a good look, don't you think? 

I am going to have her looked at by the doctor because I've been concerned that her feet point out too far, especially the right one. Now that she is walking it is more pronounced and I'd rather be safe than sorry and intervene early.

Other 17 month updates:

 

She had her first little injury (fell against a table and cut the inside of her lip) and ended up with a fat lip. It broke my heart. Of course she is okay.

She can get pretty testy sometimes in a mood that could probably only be blamed on serious teething, but I still can only spot 8. Those testy moods and sore lips make it pretty difficult to actually check.

Our conversations go like this:

E: "MOM"

Me: "What?"

E: "MOM"

Me: "What?"

E: "MOM"

Me: "What, Eva, what's up?"

E: "Ga ba do da waaiiii la mo"

Me: "Oh really?"

E: "No."

mermaids

Lately my girls have been obsessed with mermaids. Especially Abby. I'm not sure what started it—but I know it was these mermaid fins that fueled it:

They were originally spotted in the Chasing Fireflies catalog that always comes in the mail just to tempt us (good for drooling, not so good for buying, although I did buy a dress from them once when I could NOT resist the cuteness. I don't regret the splurge, especially now that I have another baby girl that will wear it someday!)

Abby started asking for these mermaid fins, but we were concerned about their safety for someone who was just beginning to swim. Didn't God give us two legs for a reason? But Abby persisted and tried to make her own. First she cut the fins from cardboard and covered them with tape. When I told her they would not actually work in the water, she was devastated. Then she tried again using cloth and a hanger as a frame, duct taping flip flops to the hanger to attach her feet to. She was determined to try to swim with them, but of course I was quite concerned about how it would look if my daughter actually brought those things to the pool with her . . . (Why, oh why did I not get a picture of her creations?)

I compromised and bought little snorkel sets for the girls (with separate, normal fins.) They got our money's worth out of them during our trip to California last month. 

Back to the mermaids. They have also long admired these towels (sold by Chasing Fireflies too):

But this mom is mean and cheap and I would not buy towels at $48/pop. Never fear—when you have an ultra creative and talented auntie Amy, you might just get exactly what you want in the form of a beautifully handmade belated birthday gift! Aren't they absolutely amazing? The girls are tickled pink (and orange and green and blue.)

Thanks a million times, Amy!