I'm irrationally in love...

with this pattern from Sarah Cihat.


Reclaimed, random, yet cute, sorta like my kitchen.

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Temp Kitchen

When we decided to put off doing the kitchen overhaul for a year I began to strategize on how to create a workable temp kitchen. I've learned this is a right of passage for many rehabbers, so I tried to look at it as a challenge. Keep the costs low and see how creative you can get with what you have. In the end, we ended up surprising ourselves -- it's actually (dare we say it?) cute!

Here's a shot of the kitchen before. Not a great shot, but oh my lordy, get a look at that trim near the ceiling. And treasure the pot rack in front of the window. I can only imagine what the P.O. was thinking... "I know, if we block the little light with POTS and PANS no one will notice that the kitchen doesn't have a fridge! Brilliant!"
So before we could actually begin, we had structural guys come in and reinforce the floors under the kitchen. Apparently this is why the P.O. didn't have a fridge in the kitchen -- the floors couldn't support the weight. Welcome oh great metal support post! As you'll recall my dear sweet husband ripped out the old-lady-blue floor tiles that just plain grossed out his wife...

The floor was refinished. We steamed off the trim. Then we broke out a left-over can of Berkshire Beige paint. We squished in some cheapy-but-energy-efficient appliances, and put up some shelves.... and viola!

Not a lot of counter space, but good storage, and nice floors. When we properly re-do the kitchen the fridge will move to the basement and we'll get ourselves something that actually holds more than my wine and diet coke.

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A Canadian shoat oat

I'm in Toronno (that's how they say it here) on business but I wanted to make sure to say Happy Birthday to my little sister.

I love you Cheryl! Happy Birthday, eh?

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The view from the porch

One of the unexpected joys of the new house is our lovely front porch. Lately on warm nights Mr. Anderson and I have enjoyed having a nice chat out on the porch with a glass of wine. It's a wonderful way to unwind -- at least for us. For Ringo its the most aggrevating time of the day. Between him and us is just a single screen door with (thank goodness) an extra industrial-strength pet shield. I'm thinking we're going to need to order replacement shields by the dozen.

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(Long Overdue) Barn Update

I use the word "barn" because that's our new friend Bill, the garage contractor, shared with us when he came over a couple weeks ago. What he said was, "Ma'am, I don't think that's a garage you got there. I think that's a barn. There are a few left in this area and occasionally I see one. Yea, I think it's a 1-horse barn."

Alrighty. Pursuant to our orders from Allstate, the barn had to go. (Incidentally when we told our neighbor it was coming down she said, "Let me know when so I can enjoy a glass of wine and watch." *That's* how good our barn was looking these days.)

First Mr. Anderson and his dad removed the siding and sheathing from the walls. At least the walls they could reach (the south side of the barn was covered with weeds and protected by yellow jackets.)

Then my FIL brought out the love of his life, his chainsaw, to prep the posts for falling.



In the center of the barn was a lally column. For those of you not familiar that's a single column that jacks the whole structure up when the poor sad thing can't support itself. Pull it out or take a wack at it and the whole thing goes down. At least theoretically. The guys tried pulling it with a rope. Nothing happened. Then they decided to try wacking it (via a plank) with a sledgehammer.



Hahahahaa. So the lally column was kicked out, but the thing still stood! Only one way it was going to go down...



One might question whether it was worth it. In the end the guys were filthy, exhausted, sore, and the truth is we could have paid someone to do it for very little dough. But look at the smiles on theses faces...

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