Kitchen Project....

It has been a long haul, but I am almost done. I have got a couple days of work remaining with scrubbing, touching up the paint, and stain, and organizing. I ran out of time before my daughter came home for the holiday.

As I was cleaning the floor and realized it was dark down the path to the right side of my island. I looked up, and realized that an entire row of lights were off centered. 

There was a miscommunication in their placement. We discussed centering the lights. But they centered them off a hidden beam, and not off the other lights. It's a visual thing for me. After the first of the year (When Christmas is put to bed) I will move 6 lights down the ceiling by 18 inches... which means more painting. But for now, I'm calling the project complete... Except for the deck. Those photos will come soon.

Kitchen Before:

New Kitchen

The above light was made by Anita Bristow.

I was a second officer on the 747 flying out of Anchorage many years ago, and was coloring a picture with felts pens. Brent Bristow, my first officer, asked me what I was doing. I told him, "I want a stained glass light. I have no idea where I am going to get it. But if I draw it, I will find it." He said, "My wife makes stained glassed lights."

And she made me mine. How small is the world? When I went through my Airbus A330 training, Brent Bristow was my captain, as my sim partner.

Enjoy the weekend!
XO Karlene

Kitchen Project Update...

For the previous four nights I've been putting in 20 hour days. Working through the night, until the wee hours of the morning to get my kitchen project done.

My darling neighbors said I could use my tile saw through the night. Yesterday morning I finished with the last brick around 3 a.m. Oh... my kitchen looks very cool.

Since I am finished with painting, tiling, and stoning.... it was time to retired my work pants.

Throughout the previous six years, as I painted, laid tile, or whatever home-improvement project I worked on, I had my dirty pants. Which I just allowed to dry, bag up, and then I would wear them again the next project. Unfortunately all three had to be retired this year due to excessive mud. Paint drys, mud just crumbles. The great thing about work pants is you pull them over another pair of pants, and you can wipe your hands on them. I did often, as you can see.

Today I was planning on grouting the floor, but the electrician stayed all day, one of my grandsons was sick and I made a quick visit to help with his sisters while he went to the doctor. And then two of my other grand-kids were having a sleepover tonight, so I had a break in the middle of cleaning grout lines.

Back to the project...

Before you can grout, you need to clean the grout lines so they are free of thinset, and dirt. And clean the edges of mud. It's a tedious job at best. But... I got about 1/4 of the way before the kids showed up. Dinner, bath, stories, and then I worked while Miles played legos...That lasted about 10 minutes. My evening work finally started at 2000. Alias....8 p.m.

By the time I got the lines cleaned and fixed a broken tile, it was well after midnight. I still need to vacuum the floor to suck out all the dirt. So grouting was put on hold and I cleaned my counters and sealed them one more time. I'm so close to having my kitchen done.

Remaining items: 

Clean and Grout Floor.
Polyurethane the counters.
Seal floor after grout sets.
Goof-Off the stain that leaked around the windows.
Touch up all stain.
Clean windows and doors.
Stain closet door.
Touch up paint.
Hang pictures, and horses.
Move everything back into the kitchen, and organize.
Oh wait... I should do some shopping since Thanksgiving is at my house, too. 

Pictures don't really do this room justice. It's really awesome. 

Oh... and my stereo will be hooked up on Monday. The deck will be in progress outside next week. And that hood over my cook-top is not really blue. It just has a plastic covering.

I have three days to get everything done before my youngest daughter and husband bring my grandson, Carter, home for the holiday. Today will be a half day of work. 4 pm to 4 am, because Ellis and Miles will still be with me. Speaking of which, Ellis will be waking up in two hours if she stays on schedule, so I need to go take my morning nap.

This work is really great fun. And rewarding when you finish. I will post some do-it-yourself tips soon. Seriously...if I can do this, anyone can. 

Enjoy the Journey!
XO Karlene