miso handy

granite!

2011-03-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Behold! It has finally been installed!

This pic shows the color of the granite best.
You can barely see the seam because our fabricator used the beveled cut to adhere the lip.
Cookbooks!

Maeby's favorite spot...

We still have some work to do. We still need to install doors, hardware, the backsplash, paint the cabinets and the walls. But it's so nice to have sanitary countertops!

updated furnishings

2011-01-27T12:46:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update with the pictures I promised recently.

Here is the coffee table:

And the light over the island:

Bonus! here are the curtains in my dining room:

Granite was installed yesterday! Pics are forthcoming!

a few new items

2011-01-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

What's your style? How do you define it? I am still trying to determine exactly what my style is. I know it when I see it, but I don't know exactly how to verbalize it. I want to say eclectic, but is that really fair? That's like saying my favorite type of music is 'alternative' or my favorite food is 'Asian.' It's descriptive of so many different genres and styles that it's perfect for my non-committal self. If I really had to hunker down, I would say eclectic with subcategories, i.e. Eclectic: whimsical, bohemian, fun with an air or minimalism. Does that even make sense? Anyhoo, here are a few of my whimsical, bohemian, fun minimalistic recent purchases, both from CB2.

Makoda Coffee Table:

Firefly Pendant Lamp (goes over the island in the kitchen):

If you're still unclear as to what your style is, get tips for pinning it down here.

I will post updated room pics soon!

I've really gone and done it!

2011-01-02T10:49:00.000-08:00

lovely...

Finally, finally, FINALLY!

I picked a backsplash.

It's the Beveled Arabesque Tiles in White from Mosaic Stone and Tile.

I am still in the market for countertops. Marble is my dream, but I can't say that I'd be able to stomach the imperfections, etching, and staining that are sure are occur, and I am certain that Bran would not be able to deal. Instead, we are going to go with granite. It will likely be mostly white with lots of black movement throughout. I am considering honed, though I have heard it tends to get mucked up with fingerprints, whereas the satin finish largely prevents that. It is going to depend on the precise stone that we get.

It's nice to be making decisions! Granite will likely be installed in the coming month- can't wait!

I got two turntables and a microphone

2010-09-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Where it's at, you ask? No, you probably don't ask, but I'ma tell.

We are currently....

Picking granite:

Building an island (doesn't look like much now):

Decorating:
Building cabinets in the dining room and installing crown molding (no pics). Lots, lots, lots happening, with lots on the backburner.

I'm also trying to plan a housewarming part of some sort. We've been actually living in our humble abode for just under 4 months, so it's time.

More to come!

dinner and other such things

2010-06-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

You know how it is - you schedule a party not only so you can have your party, but also so that you motivate yourself to get your ass in gear and clean. We tricked ourselves with that ploy this week, but instead of cleaning, we got our acts together and unpacked a load more stuff. Pics are worth a thousand words...

The kitchen (though messy!):

The kitchen sink. I heart my faucet.

A good overview of the prep area. The cabinet boxes are complete, but the drawers are in the works. Door fronts and countertops are further down the line!

Our fridge area. Stemware will eventually go into two cabinets (yet to be built) in the dining room.

We still have room in the kitchen, thanks to getting rid of that wall/oven straight up in the middle of the kitchen, so we're going to put an island in the middle, a small table and chairs, and a desk in the corner right before the service porch.

Living Room:

I can't wait for the day I get a new rug!

We tried our darndest to spiff up the fireplace. I want to take down these panels ASAP and put up a pretty mirror. I see a terrarium in my future! The eventual plan is to redo the fireplace with the same stone in the entry.

My new lamp from JC Penney. Kind of bohemian.

Don't my cats know these are people chairs?

More unusual sleeping spots for the Maeby. She sneaked in there while I was shampooing the couch.

Backyard:

Foosball heaven

Chimes and birdbath in the corner of the garden, with my neighbors grapes creeping in.

My wildflowers have yet to bloom.

The sunflowers are blooming!

Bathroom:

I decided I'm going to have fun with my peach tiles.

My koi reflection

Dining Room:

I don't have the heart to take down the cats favorite spot to sleep... boxes piled on each other, topped with a blanket. I need some more furniture, eh?

Sneak a peak into the kitchen from the dining room.

My little slice of heaven.

progress...

2010-06-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

A photo taken by my 6 year old nephew.

The floors, after having been rough sanded, but prior to fine sanding and stain.

You can see the Patch work above and below

The final floor in the entry. You can also see the color of stain we chose for the floor.

Up close and personal

DRUMROLL PLEASE.....

Our progress in the kitchen!

The very first stages.

I can fit in my sink!

The cork floor from kitchen into laundry room.

The cork floor is in and finished. The bottom cabinets are installed and the top ones are being built, though not attached to the wall. My sink is so large, I can actually fit in it (I tried!)!

This was about two weeks ago...

It's starting to come together! We are in the house! We are living here! It feels like home because the kitties are here. We are still very cramped and not wholly unpacked...

My kitchen appliances... in my living room.

KitchInspiration

2010-04-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

My sinkipoo!

The time has come, my little ones, to talk of other things. Namely, inspiration... make that kitchInspiration. Too cheesy for you? Not me.

We are ready to go with the kitchen. Dad is building cabinet frames, the floor is down, I bought a 30 inch, single basin, fireclay, apron front sink! I adore it and can't wait to do dishes in it... STRIKE THAT.... can't wait to watch Bran do dishes in it... STRIKE THAT... can't wait to watch Bran put the dishes in the dishwasher from my lovely sink.

But still, I don't know what I want to do with the cabinets, backsplash, hardware, etc. Many decisions to be made, and not terribly much time to make them in. I am picky. Very picky. Since we are on a super dooper incredibly tight budget, that makes it ever more difficult. In a kitchen, I'll go for function over form. However, aesthetically, I love or am inspired by elements of these kitchens:

Love the inky blue cabinets with the farmhouse sink. These are concrete counter tops. I'm not sure I'd brave no upper cabinetry, but it does make it feel very open.

Again with blueish cabinetry. I love the pop of teal and the farm sink! The owner of this kitchen mentioned that the backsplash was not installed. They went with white subway tiles.

How gorgeous is this kitchen (esp that last shot!)? I love the copper touches. I feel like this kitchen is just begging to have a redhead cook.

These two look similar, with the mini white tiles. I tend to like the first one a little bit more, but the jury is still out on these tiles. I feel like they will really date the kitchen (what, blue cabinets won't?)

Not totally my style, but I can appreciate it's classic beauty.

I like the mix of marble and wood here with the white subway tiles.

So that's it for now. Lots to think about!

Kick off your shoes!

2010-04-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Our modest entry way has been begging to be made over. This little room (8ft wide and 4 feet long)has seen many transformations throughout it's nearly 100 year history. It once was a porch. Then, it was a cement slab covered by carpet with wood paneling on the walls. Now, it is a lovely slate entry way (soon to get gussied up for company).

Let me help you get situated as to the layout.

When you walk up the brick entry, do you see that teeny tiny little room? Yeah... that's the entry. Not a lot of space, but the plan above is actually the layout of how the house used to be. When you walked into the house, you had a choice to go right into the bedroom or straight into the living room. This didn't make sense to us, so we changed that 3rd bedroom into a dining room, closed up the wall to the immediate right of the entry, and made a 4 foot opening from the living room into the dining room. You have already seen some of these changes.

This is the view from the dining room, through the entry, and out the front door. This was after we took out the closet and took down the wallpaper and took off the paneling from this room. See the awkward layout?

Another view of from the dining room, showing where the closet was taken out and the opening into the entry way.

And eventually went to this...

And then into this:

Both the new and old doorway are framed in.

And then this!

And here it is wallboarded (fully painted pics are coming soon!).

Another angle from the living room into the entry before:

And After:

So not only were the walls a mess in terms of layout, they were also a mess in terms of structure. At one point, the entry was the front porch. That means the walls were made of stucco, just like the outside of the house. Well, what has the theme been throughout the other parts of the house? If the wall is messed up or just plain ugly, PANEL IT! So of course, they did these here! Once we took the panelling off the walls in the entry, we found stucco!

From the entry into the living room...

So, we did some manual labor (and by we I mean Brandon).

So now, back to the floor!

First things first... I layed out the slate on the floor in a pattern that pleased my eye. The slate that we bought has a varied sized of slate that go into a specific pattern. We bought 4 boxes of 10ft each and mixed up the stones from the boxes to get a more random and not clustered look. Since the natural slate has so much variance, I wanted to make sure that it looked abundantly random, but not too much so.
After it was all layed out, we measured out the exact dimensions of the entry and positioned it so that the most visable/ higher traffic areas got the full pieces of slate. To do this, we used chalk to outline it. We marked which pieces would need to be cut.

Then we got down to business.

The cement pad under this section of the house was not fully level, so dad created a little sub floor system and topped it with plywood. We secured cement wonderboard to the plywood so the slate had a nice rough surface to adhere to.

Dad and Brandon then got to mortaring. We put it on in sections and backbuttered (spread thinset/mortar on the back) each tile.

This is not a great picture of it because the colors don't come through like they do in person and especially in natural sunlight, but it really is a beautiful tile pattern. We realized that we will probably put on a light gray grout because there is some space between the tiles, and then we'll seal it, but for now, I absolutely love it!

PS, check out how awesome the plaster looks!

Dad is Great

2010-03-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

My dad. Just to tell you, he literally worked until his fingers bled. Even though I insisted that he stop, he refused until all of the plastering was done. It took only 10 days and an awesome guy named Oscar (if you are looking for a wall boarding/plastering guy in the LA area who works his tail off and is very good at what he does, email me for his number), but my dad covered an entire house full of wallboard or just plain crooked walls. I wish I had better pictures of the project, but let these suffice for now...

We went from this kitchen window (can be seen here as well)...

How amazing does my kitchen window look!?!

Remember my dining room?

Check it out now!

How about the infamous 3 layers of wallpaper found after we took off the paneling?

Now a beautiful, stench free, blemish free wall!

The walls look absolutely fabulous. Dad and Oscar took the walls from scarred, slanted, and downright scary to ridiculously gorgeous in a little over a week. How is that for a quick turnaround?

Best plasterers ever

I could never thank him enough for everything that he's done for me and Brandon and this house (not to mention a zillion other things). I appreciate all of his help so much that it sounds cheesy and overemotional, but there are no words for how much I am grateful for having him as a general contractor and father. I love you, Dad. YOU ARE GREAT!

peace, love and refinishing the tub (and sink)

2010-03-03T21:46:00.000-08:00

I am a hippie at heart. In middle school and the early part of high school, I used to wear a peace sign, plaid bell-bottoms, a head band... the whole shebang. My 9th grade health class asked required us to keep a journal with teacher led questions every day. The one that stands out is "If you could live in one decade, which would it be and why?" My not so wise or worldly 9th grade self answered "I would have lived in the 60's. I really like hippie clothes, peace, and VW's. Plus, marching in protests would have been fun."

Earth to 9th grade Cori! The reason for these protests were war! The US was internally in a state of peril and strife. I am embarassed that I ever said this, but like I said, I am a hippie at heart, and I knew that before I ever fully knew the reasons behind it (thankfully, I have gained much perspective and wisdom in the last 14 years).

So yes, I tend toward the bohemian, hippie, free spirit "inspired" decorating in my home. That doesn't mean I want the remnants of these relics to be left behind in my bathroom. Remember the old bathtub from the house:

Those little flower power buggers were an absolute nightmare to deal with. They were already chipping in many places, so they couldn't be left on. I tried just about every cleaning product to get them off the bottom of the tub: goo gone, simple green, ZAP (which works fantastically to clean the grout), bleach, acetone, etc. etc. etc.

I ended up really roughing up the bottom of the tub, but I beat the decals. I win.

Once I knew the decals were completely up, I talked with my dad about having the tub resurfaced. He said that it would cost somewhere around $500. Unfortunately, that is not in the budget right now. He also mentioned that there are epoxy kits to resurface the tub at Home Depot for about $50. Much better! This way, we were able to treat both the tub AND the sink!

The sink before

The sink drain before

The kit includes two identical aerosol containers of the epoxy, steel wool, tsp, and rubber gloves.

The steps are as follows:

Clean out the tub with the TSP dissolved in warm water
Wipe dry
Scrub, scrub, scrub with the steel wool
Rinse
Wipe Dry.

Repeat 2 more times (for a total of 3).

Tub after scouring

Once you are done with these steps, tape all around the tub and use either butchers paper or plastic (plastic is probably ideal, but we didn't have any) to shield your lovely peach tile from the spray. Make sure to tape off all of the chrome bits at the bottom and faucet level of the tub.

We only did the basin of the tub, which worked out just fine.

Once we did this, we pulled in the big gun (aka my dad) to do the actual spraying of the first layer of the sink.

Once he showed us, I did the rest. The first coat should be really, really light. Let it dry for 15-30 minutes, and repeat. With two cans, we did the sink and the basin of the tub with plenty left over.

The sink looks much better, although definitely not perfect. We are installing a new faucet, which will cover most of the chipping in the bottom of the sink, although the handles are not quite large enough to cover the outline. I think it will still look A-OK.

The tub turned out great. We ran into a little bit of a problem when I applied the epoxy a little bit too thick. It does this strange orange peel things, so we just wiped it up really quickly and let it dry, then applied the second coat.

Party foul

Worked like a charm

Tada!

When you are all done with the spraying, you need to leave the blue tape on for 3 full days before the full reveal. I don't know how this epoxy will wear, but I read that I should not use bleach on it. I am just happy that those heinous flowers are gone! I am super happy with how it turned out.

insulation, doors and walls... oh my!

2010-02-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

Whew! We have been busy.

As you can see... out with the old...

The old, broken front door.

and in with the new...

Dad working on the installation for the new, prettier and much more functional door.

You can kind of see the old back door here (though our soon to be ex screen porch)...

And nowa new back door without a kitty door and with a nice, new window.

As for the insulation, it is really interesting stuff.

We went with Insulfoam, a styrafoam-like insulation material. It is versatile, durable and eco friendly insulation product. There are no harmful chemicals in it, it is 100% recyclable, it will not support mold or mildew and has a very good capability to keep the weather outside (ie very energy efficient). It comes in approx. 8ft x 4ft sheets that are about 2 inches thick.

Bran cutting it to size

Trying it again with a different saw (remember the kitchen window from this post?).

I thought the table saw worked the best.

It is fairly easy to work with. Of course, you have to cut it to specific sizes depending on your studs, but it just pops in and you don't worry about messy fiberglass. We have fiberglass insulation in the attic, and let me tell you, it's no fun!

Also, WE HAVE WALLS! This is so exciting to see for us. It's the first huge improvement that you can actually see inside the house (as opposed to the roof, plumbing, electrical).

now...

then...

So, this is where we are! We are going to hire someone to help us plaster. We are gearing up to begin the kitchen cabinets... I'll post on the layout of the kitchen next week. I am in the process of picking paint colors, which is agonizing for me and everyone around me. I want a green yellow house with a poppy red door with grays and greens inside one minute, and a gray house with a royal purple door and vibrant colors inside the next. I want to make these decisions, but I have to be patient. Things are progressing so quickly. I am enjoying the process for now, even if sometimes it takes reminding!

light and color

2010-01-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

As you can see from some of the pictures, the dining room and the kitchen reside on the West side of the house. That means, these rooms get absolutely decadent light in the afternoons. I am trying to figure out how I can incorporate that natural light and use every bit it's lovliness to my advantage.

I have always loved the big old craftsmen homes in Pasadena - one of the main reasons being the elaborate stained glass that you often see in homes of that sort. My house will be a culmination of things I love, not one particular style or design aesthetic. So, I kind of want to give this stained glass thing a shot. Somewhere in one of these two rooms (the kitchen or dining room) seem like a natural fit for the stained glass with their abundance of light. The questions is where, exactly?

We are going to be putting in some cabinetry for bar ware in the dining room. Since there is an cubby-ish space in the room, it would fit perfectly, framing either side of the door. At this point, halogens have been put up at the top of each side of the 4ft opening that my dad, Rich, and Bran created. The cabinets will be the color of the kitchen cabinets (definitely painted), the top cabinets will have a glass front with glass shelves so as to disperse the light top down to get to the bottom for when it's dark out, the bottom will be solid wood.

Now I don't know if this is completely crazy, but what about putting stained glass on the backs of the cabinets... the part going into the living room. I am imagining it to look this from the living room. I don't know, I think it could be quite lovely! Since it will be glass in the front, with only glasswares in the cabinet and glass shelves, the light should flow right on through to the living room. Here is a really terrible and not to scale drawing of mine:

I don't know... what do you think?

ch ... ch ... ch ... changes!

2010-01-04T16:42:00.000-08:00

before:
before with that weird wall in the middle of the room:
before again with the weird wall:

after our wrecking crew:

It is my kitchen. Mine. It's not much to look at right now, but ooh, I can smell the things that will be created in here already (and that's generally a good thing).

It's 5:00 on any old weekday. I am just getting home from work and then the grocery store. Brandon won't be home for a couple hours so it's time for me to unwind from my day.

I walk in through the door of my house, set my keys down in the place that they will be set, and turn on some music (I think I'd be in the mood for some Joni on this day). I leisurely put my groceries away, let the dog in the house, and look through the house for any damage done by my mischievous kitties throughout the day.

It's too cold for a run this day, so I decide to have a glass of wine and get to cooking. I look through my cabinets, at my spices, open my fridge and find my fresh fruits, veggies, cheese, OJ (beware, I drink straight from the carton if the mood strikes), leftovers. Maeby hops up on the counter when I'm not paying attention. I pick her up and set her on the floor. What's on the menu tonight?

And this is my kitchen window. I can see it already.
before:
after:

It will provide fantastic light for photographing food. Can't you see it?

We may not be there yet, but we have made progress! All of the electrical and plumbing in the kitchen are complete. The floor is up, the doorway into the second bedroom has changed locations. The tankless water heater has even been installed! We are just about ready to start putting it back together.

As you know, I have already picked out my appliances. The next decision was floors. I toiled over the decision for weeks, months even. There were positives and negatives to every type of flooring.

tile: durable and cheap, but difficult to clean, susceptible to cracks, cold.
wood: beautiful and can be refinished, but expensive and hard to match with our vintage hardwood in the rest of the house
marmoleum: eco friendly, durable, easy to install, but a little cold and industrial looking for my untrained eye
cork: eco friendly, soft underfoot, easy to install, hides dirt and scratches, but susceptible to gouges and water damage, as well as fades over time

I am indecisive until I'm not. And once I know, I know. I decided to go with cork. It is important to me to renovate responsibly, with as little carbon footprint as possible, and cork is made from tree bark, not the actual wood. It can be harvested many times without destroying the integrity of the tree. Also, as a home cook who is often in the kitchen, I love the feeling of it under my feet. It's really wonderful. The aesthetic is nice because it will be in the same brown tones that the rest of the house will be, but won't compete with the hardwood in the rest of the house. So it fades and gouges... I can deal with that!

I am working on deciding what kind of a kitchen I really want! I know that I want at least one purple door in my house. The back one, likely. I think off white cabinets and I hope I can incorporate stained glass somewhere into the house. It's a mishmash of ideas that get confusing and difficult to sort through, but I know we can do it.

before (back porch into kitchen view):
after with no more funky wall:

work!

2010-01-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

So, so much has been done since the last time I posted! Demo is almost completely done. We are starting to work towards putting homestead back together again, and the anticipation is really building for Brandon and me. Sensing this, my dad, trooper of troopers, has been at the house in nearly every spare minute of his time. His best bud, Rich, has been there every step of the way. I can't express how thankful we are to have them helping us. There is no way we could ever have done all of this work alone. And boy, have we come a long ways!

Take the dining room for example. It shows much of the work that has done throughout the house.

Before with the lovely 70's wallpaper and paneling:

After taking off the paneling/wallpaper and seeing that there was wainscotting at some point in her past:

We removed the popcorn ceiling, which tested negative for asbestos, and revealed a relatively blemish free and smooth surface underneath... yay! Guess who removed the first patches:

The carpets were removed throughout the house:

Where there used to be a closet in the 'third bedroom' (and I use the term bedroom loosely... it is between the living room and the kitchen and will now be our dining room):

So... we braced the ceiling:

...and cut a 4ft opening from the living room into our now dining room!

view from the living room into the dining room:

This doorway is now framed in:

The brains:

Throughout the house, the progress has been immense! We have a new roof, new electrical, and our plumbers, the two old farts you see above (dad on right, Rich on the left), are thisclose to being done.

Here are some other shots from around the house.

Under the paneling, we uncovered not one, not two, but three layers of wallpaper hiding. FUN!

The forest of a driveway that invaded the driver's side door when opened:

Was trimmed back:

The entry way had it's paneling removed, under which we found that at some point it was the front porch, and the stucco was still covering the walls. We removed that stucco, as well as the closet behind the door:

All of the rooms have had ceiling fans removed and have been patched, sanded, washed with TSP and wiped down so that they no longer look like this:

In fact, we are almost ready for primer in the bedrooms, hallway, and living room. Our next big projects, after finishing the plumbing, are sheet-rocking throughout the house over the areas that are exposed, refinishing the floors, priming and painting the walls and wood work. And redoing the kitchen.

And as far as that goes... I am saving that for another day. But for now, suffice it to say that this is now where the original kitchen now resides.

one foot in front of the other

2009-12-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

I am getting way ahead of myself. I'm already trolling the for sale section on Craigslist looking for potential furniture. And when we don't even have walls yet. It seems that I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. But... but... but....

These chairs are really great! I am really surprised over the spectacular condition. The lady who sold them to me said she bought them in 1983 and they have never really been a part of the actually furniture for sitting. They were more for looking at. But mauve velvet really isn't my style, even if they condition of them is fairly pristine.

So what shall I do with them? I am more of a crafty person than a truly inventive or creative one. I'm an idea stealer and combiner... there is an element of creativity to it, but I need that extra push of inspiration to do a project well, and I usually get that from other people's projects. I am obsessed with home decor blogs right now, being that my house is going through a major transformation (I promise, I'll post pictures soon).

I am a huge fan of Apartment Therapy and the whole AT community. I sent in a question about the chair, asking for opinions, and it was posted! Check it out here :) I got tons of great suggestions. I can't wait to start it!

well looky what we have here

2009-12-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

Now I'm not professional, but I'm going to venture a guess... we need new plumbing. So now, besides the electrical and roof, the plumbing looks to be in desperate need of a tune up. This is something that the inspector told us we were going to need to do, but I didn't expect it to be so apparent. Oy! It's a little (read: lot) frightening, eh?

she's a beaut!

2009-12-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

Let me give you a little tour of the place that I will soon call home. The furniture is not ours and just about everything is going to change: the electrical, the plumbing, the roof, the floors, some of the walls, the entire kitchen, the backyard and front yard will get a facelift... it's extensive and overwhelming. But we must document the beginnings, yes?

The living room... beads did not come with the house :*(

The gnarly kitchen. Gnarly more in layout and smell (they were smokers).
Other half of the kitchen behind the funky wall dividing the room (more to come on this).
The wall/oven dividing the room.
The view from the back porch

My sweet bathroom.
Bedroom #1
The super awesome bedroom #2. Again, they didn't leave the bar - so sad!

This is the whole house plan (really tiny).

Proof positive this house is now taking up 90% of my free time! It's going to be a long road!

appliances galore (thank you kelly ripa)

2009-11-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

I nearly hyperventilated as we walked into the Lowe's yesterday. We were there for appliances. Appliances are expensive (as is, apparently, everything house related). Panic ensued.

I never thought I would be the one to freak out when it came to spending money that we had planned, but it turns out that I had a harder time swiping the credit card than Brandon did. Strange! And it's not like we didn't know exactly what we were going to get when we walked into the store. Bran and I are frugality researchers... we find the best price and then we torture over big decisions until we finally pull the trigger.

But we did it. We ordered an entire line of beautiful Electrolux appliances: p-touch dishwasher, french door freezer-bottom fridge, 18000 BTU capable stove/range, and an over-the-range microwave. We were in for a fantastic surprise when we went in to Lowe's to open a credit card (zero % for the first 12 months, which gives us time to pay it off!) and they told us that we would get 10% off for opening the card! Plus Bran gets a discount because his company sells Elecrolux, plus there was an additional $350 back with the purchase of 4 appliances. Thank you, Black Friday!

All this... to put in our not-even-conceptualized kitchen. The possibilities are endless, but I'm petrified about making a mistake. I know about the kitchen triangle with the sink, fridge, and oven, but beyond that, my kitchen is oddly shaped and now that it's bare, I have the option to change it into just about any layout I want. It's almost too much power.

The appliances are set to be delivered at the end of December... so we have about a month to get our shit together. Can we do it?

it's ours!

2009-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

**blink blink**

I CAN HAZ... HOME?! It has been an absolutely frantic, stressful and intense month, but we are emerging from it as homeowners! I picked up the keys after dark yesterday from the seller's agent and Bran and I drove immediately over to the house. That sweet, sweet husband of mine picked me up at the sidewalk and carried me across the threshold of our new home. We walked around from room to room (because of course, there is nowhere to sit down) trying to absorb the enormity of what we had just done (and I only mean enormity as in weightiness of the situation, the house itself is not even 1200 st. ft!). We held hands and took it all in until Brandon looked at me and asked "now what?"

Well, now comes the time to tackle the beast! She's not going to be an easy conquest. I'll be honest, I have a ton of help. My dad is a handyman, Brandon works closely with tools at work, we have wonderful family and friends, but the house is in such a condition, from top to bottom, that everything will need to be touched by our loving hands. We are dealing with leaky pipes, a non functional kitchen, smoke smells, popcorn ceilings, dirty carpet, disintegrating roof ... and so much more. I think we're in for an adventure!

will it become a reality?

2009-10-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

My husband, Brandon, and I put an offer in on a cute little house. I feel so hopeful, so overwhelmed. We are still in the midst of negotiations but I think this just might work out. We are scheduled to close on November 2, 2009 and will take ownership 3 days later. This house will be a labor of love, a feat that I'm not sure that we'll be able to accomplish for some time, but we'd love the chance to give it a shot. I hope that this funky farmhouse with endless potential becomes a reality (with mucho help from my great dad).

This could get bumpy... I can't wait!