Kitchen Makeover Prep, Old Family Quilts, Romantic Prairie Style, After Paint Job

Kitchen Makeover Prep-

Now that my little bathroom mini-makeover is done, onto the kitchen! It really needs a fresh coat of paint, after 10+ years! I went with a slightly whiter yellow, this "yogurt" from Behr-

It's a soft, buttery yellow, but with some undertones. It's more yellow on the paint chip than on the screen. Anyway, I'm taking off the old back splash tomorrow, then putting up the new back splash. Happy dance! Next week we'll have a plumber install the NEW sink, faucet and water filter, then I'll paint. Since we have the plumber coming to replace our very leaky exterior hose spigot (inside the wall) we'll have him do this too. Remove the HEAVY cast iron sink and install the new one. While Dave can do it, it's tough on the old back :) Both the old sink (bought used 10 years ago at Habitat) and faucet are on their way out. I can't keep the sink clean and finally got a new one, a Kohler, Brookfield, white, made in the USA with 80% recycled materials! 

Since our faucet was 10 years old we decided to replace it too, and this was much cheaper than replacing the big faucet we had, and I like the look better. It's a Moen (Dave knows plumbing brands!) a "Walden", tall but not huge-

Overall we're happy with the re-do, on a budget, since we're not doing the counter. We'll live with it. I've also deep cleaned my desk, on the end of the kitchen counter, and the desk drawers there. Here's the nice work I did. First I cleared off my desktop-

I also cleaned out all the old software, boxes and misc. junk out of my 3 desk drawers. I took my cookbooks off the desk top, out of the crate gave them a new home-

New home, desk drawer, easy to get to. The rest are on my bookcase

More cell phone stuff, papers, junk, time to purge!

All better! I can see what I have now, the rest is stored with like-wise items

Old Family Quilts-

Empress Anya loves to sleep in her bedroom during the day, when it's hot out. While we have AC it's cooler and she can hear the birds outside the window-

I was looking at my Grandma Marshall's quilts she made in that bedroom. I never knew her, but I love her design style and the colors she used! I can just see her on a snowy Nebraska night sewing away! I'm sure some of these were made from flour sacks-

Romantic Prairie Style-

My new FAVORITE BLOG is Cottage Of Vinnord. She has the best design style, I love it! She mentioned this book, Romantic Prairie Style so I checked it out at my library. It has some great ideas! While I am INCREDIBLY BORED with the all-white rooms, roses and burlap EVERYWHERE-look I do like the vintage twists. I think the whole chippy paint, fake shabby chic thing is on it's way out, but that's OK. I have loved old things my whole life and some of this fits me. Since I love Scandinavian & French country, with American vintage thrown in, it's a nice visual treat. Read all about it if you like! Here's a few of my fave shots-

Love the lemon yellow and blue! I would never have thought to paint the back of a cabinet a dark color, brilliant! This shot inspired me to make a lemon topiary, more later on that :) 

More yellow, how cheery! Similar to my old kitchen color but more intense, lemony

Love the blue and the mirror, wish I had a double window!

Nice idea with the hooks and jars with flowers

"After"

After Paint Job-

I bought this nice print about 15 years ago, and the blue wood stain was all faded-

The "before"

I bought a can of satin spray paint and tried to match the blue in the print, and did a pretty good job! Really makes the blue in the print pop, a good $4.00 fix!!! Ironically it's probably a "French country" print but I didn't know that at the time. I just liked it!

Color Me Happy! Winter Feed- Alfalfa Cubes For Chickens

A little spring color in the kitchen

Color Me Happy!
I made my first pilgrimage to the new Trader Joe's that came to Boise yesterday. Oh joy!!! I had been to their old stores in Portland years ago. After we left there they expanded a lot more. They sell lots of pretty natural, healthy foods, with their own label. Much of it is very affordable, compared to say Whole (paycheck) Foods. I love their shampoos, chips, mini cookies, condiments, etc.

Nurse Anya on the job

Under the heading of vision happy- my eye is healing up really nicely! Anya kept watch by laying on my side while I was crashed out on the couch the day of surgery. Just like last summers foot surgery! What a sweetie. I had a follow-up Tues., Doc said it looked really good. Another 2 weeks and I will get a new lens for my glasses. Everything is so BRIGHT, wow!!!

Under my bathroom remodel happy- we had to change our plans. Out with the fiberglass shower. Turns out it would have required demoing 2 walls. No thanks. We opted for another approach- standard steel tub, and white, tile look walls. This will be a much simpler installation and will look like a tiled wall when done. Works for me!

Under gardening happy- everything is getting so GREEN! I let the girls out again this evening, what a blast!

Under chicken happy- I went to the local feed store to check their chick delivery dates. I'm hoping for some chicks late April. Since they have to be inside I found it's better to do it later in the spring. That way I can get them outside a bit more, and not be so cooped up inside.

Ensen faucet, IKEA

Under travel happy- we're off to Oregon to see Dave's brother and then IKEA! I read a lot of reviews of their cabinets, sinks and faucets. All came with very good reviews. They don't sell brushed nickel finish which I like with hard water, but they have the one above. It's called a matte chrome finish so that may be the one.

We've pretty much decided to get this cabinet at IKEA, unless it's awful or out of stock. We like the integrated back splash. Tons of storage! IKEA has their plumbing go straight back, then drop. It's backwards of American plumbing. It creates a lot more usable space in the cabinets.

Winter Feed- Alfalfa Cubes For Chickens-
After reading this Independence Farms- Hay Cubes in Winter and this What Do Chickens Eat? Fermented Feed  I started thinking about using this idea to supplement the chickens winter feed. I bought a 40 lb. bag of hay cubes, about 2"x 2" wide. While I didn't ferment mine, I soaked them in really hot water, for about 30 minutes. The first 2 times the girls just looked at it. After that, all gone! I guess they liked it. Another good reason to read lots of blogs. I may try fermenting their feed after summer hits, and I can really watch what they're eating...

Spring? A Longer List of Home Repairs& Improvements, More Creamed Ham, Independence Days, Cataract Surgery

Last years rhubarb

Spring?
It's been so mild lately, with rain, and things are getting green! Crocuses and rhubarb are coming up, grass is greening, and I'm getting out more spring/summer clothes.


A Longer List of Home Repairs& Improvement-
Well, when it rains it pours so to speak. Dave decided to go into the crawl space. He had found some mold under the edge of the vinyl flooring in the main bathroom. We're getting ready to remodel it. We knew there might be an issue with that. In the crawl space was a big wet spot. It's probably from a combo of the gutters that need to be replaced, and the shed next to that outside wall. We built a shed and attached it to the house, on the south side, between the house and the 6' fence. Looks like there's some drainage issues there. That's ok, since we can tear it down, and put in another one somewhere else. We don't need a big one anymore, so we're looking at this-

Since we have a lot more room in the garage (got rid of kids stuff finally!!!) we can go small. We're going to have a gutter guy come in and do a continuous metal gutter along the back run of the house. Dave installed one years ago, and it's not holding up due to leakage. We're looking at going to Portland soon anyway to visit Dave's brother, and I thought IKEA! We've been pricing bathroom cabinets, vanity tops. Ikea has a great selection and has the odd 40" size the original is. We may get something like this-

I'd use baskets for this

Nice birch finish

I like the way there back drops off on the counter top for toiletries behind the faucet.

We like this faucet!

I did some research and realized I could put tile or slate over laminate in our tiny bathroom, and have a new counter in there too! I may do this in the summer. I like this-

and this, but the sink's too spendy

More Creamed Ham- 

I made my 2nd batch tonite of Creamed Ham, and added 1 cup of fresh mushrooms. Oh baby, it was even better! I served with cooked carrots and homemade spiced applesauce. So good!

 Independence Days-

1. Plant Something- Nope. 

2. Harvest Something- Eggs.

3. Preserve/Store Something- Got some freezer food at Costco.

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Looking for bathroom stuff, good deals on gutters, a shed, and getting a pro to trim our 2 big fruit trees. Got 2 new runners at Costco, dried figs, bread, and a few other things.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Pulled out some home canned applesauce for dinner. Got some other breads, bacon from the freezer. Used up the last of the home grown nectarines (I think).

6. Build Community Food Systems- Not right now.

7. Recycle/Re-Use- We're going to expand the growing garden, and remove our old shed and get a new one up. Both Dave and I had too many shoes piled up so we combined- I had 1 white rack and used Dave's old one up on top of mine. I bought him 2  ($7.99 each at Ross) to stack for his shoes. Now all neat and tidy! Sorry, no before pics! 

 8. Skill Up- Learning all about doing slate over laminate!

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-  Will salvage any shed materials we take down. Will re-use sinks and faucet in the little bathroom, when I do the counter. We will fence in the old shed are when we take it down, and give the girls more room.

Cataract Surgery-

I will be having cataract surgery this coming Tues., so I probably won't be posting for a bit. Once my eye calms down, I'll be back!

Bathroom Remodel Prep

Similar to my color scheme, from Familyreunionhome.com

Bathroom Remodel Prep-
After 7 years of living with an original tub/shower I think we'll finally be able to do a remodel soon. We'll do as much of it ourselves as we can. We have a excellent plumber lined up, and we've done things like this before. Our house is about 25+ years old, and is 1 and 1 1/2 baths. This is our full bath down the hall from our bedroom. The original tub is shot, all pitted and worn from the years. The shower has a glass block window installed above it (love it!), and plastic walls put over the original ceramic tile. Probably some really ugly color, I'm sure. No before photos yet, I'm too embarrased! We have a soft spot under the flooring, so we'll probably have to repair/replace that and find the leak.  We have a very soft, light blue green paint on the walls. Lighter than the paint above. The cabinet is old, and was stained a dark brown. I gave it a coat of white paint, which helped.  Cracks on the laminate counter too.We decided to go with a fiberglass tub/shower, because we both LOATHE having to deal with discolored caulking. Every place I've ever lived has been problematic. I have prepped, scraped, cleaned to no end, and no caulking ever works. It always mildewed. The toilet is newer and okay, lighting's good. We'll add new towels bars, shower fixtures. So here the new shower we're thinking-

We wanted something more jazzier, but the upper window above the tub limits our height. No caulking to deal with though!!! Non-skid floor, and we may have some grab rails added at the factory. We'll do some cool shower curtains. I like to change them once in a while. I've never liked glass doors. 

Possible cabinet-

We'll probably go for some kind of stone top, with a similar faucet below. I like the beachy cottage look, clean lines and lighter colors. Satin finish on the fixtures. I LOVE under counter sinks. No icky wet, mildew spots on the rim. I hope to replace our kitchen counter at some point, same thing- stone counter and under sink. Maybe in the next two years? 

Our flooring we already have, and will try to match.

As you face the sink there's a hall wall on the right. We'll probably add a recessed medicine cabinet, n mirror needed. We may do something like this-

The we'll float a nice mirror over the sink-

From Houzz.com Some of these are actually medicine cabinets

What do you think? Hopefully we'll start in the next month or so.... More coming soon, I hope :)