Curtin Call

No, I don’t mean the Bruins – though they did a pretty good job at it themselves!

So, last week, I see this lady walking with the cutest little Mary Jane style shoes and I thought to myself “I need those!”

Whilst shopping this past weekend, I could not walk past the clearance shoe section without at least looking!!! Yes, it is a problem. I promise to seek help. Soon.

Lookie what I found:

Heeheeheehee!!!!!! Aren’t they awesome???

Jealous?!?!?! Wait!!!!! It gets even better! Remember I said clearance section??? They were $54.99 (not that I would have paid that!) marked down…… 90%!!!!! Yes, that means they were marked down to $5.49!!!!!! Wait!!!!! It gets even better! I had a coupon for 30% off!!!!!

Heeheeheehee!!!!! I paid less than $4.00 for a the them there shoes!!!!!!

Heeheeheehee!!!!!

They installed the handles and knobs. I was a little nervous about mixing them!

The floor is actually in, too! The back splash has been selected and should go in next week.

So…. whatcha think about the mixing of handles and knobs?!?!?!

And what have you done with my Shadow?

See this guy here?

That’s my baby boy, Shadow! I call him my big little baby cause ya, he’s kind of large!

He’s also a scaredy cat. You’d think a cat that size would be all rough and tough and come and get me, right??? No. Not at all. This cat so much as hears a strange voice and he is gone, gone, gone. Spends more time in my closet than my favorite sweater!!!!!

So, can you imagine my surprise last night when I looked over my shoulder and he was sitting in the hallway watching my contractors installing our new kitchen floor?!?!?!

I turned and looked at him and asked “Who are you? And what have you done with my Shadow?” He looked back as if to say, “They have their own key, come and go as they please and haven’t they been here like forever???? I thought they were part of the family now!!!!!”

So, its taken approximately 5 years for an outsider to actually lay eyes on our second cat. So now for all that doubted his existence – go ask John or Jake – the big little baby does exist!!!

So now that the appliance nightmare has been resolved, there has been progress on the kitchen front again!

Look!!!!! Granite!!!!!

The appliance garage:

The island:

This shows the true color of the granite best:

Loving, loving, loving it!

Handles/knobs arrived. Floor tile picked up Saturday. Hopefully both will be being installed later this week!

I have been soooo fortunate with the cabinet, granite and tile folks (and I can’t say enough about my carpenter!) on this project. It makes me sad that the one place I had a hard time with is the one that I’ve dealt with for 20+ years. Oh well, hopefully I won’t be needing any appliances any time soon, anyway.

As I type this, I realize five weeks have passed since my last post. That’s not because I don’t have anything going on or anything to say or anything to show you. Jeepers! I’m remodeling my kitchen! I have lots going on, lots to say and lots to show you! Yet, I haven’t posted in five weeks!

The question was posed elsewhere if blogs are becoming a thing of the past. Replaced by simpler means of communication (read: Facebook, Flickr). Part of me believes it is true. A bigger part of me hopes that it is not. I’ve been keeping this blog for ~8 years now. I can come here and go back and read my posts, look at photos, and have many a “oh, ya!” moments. I don’t want that to go away.

What do you think? Do you still blog? If not, do you miss it?

Sorry I’ve been away for awhile. I’ve been busy. Really busy but I won’t bore you with the details.

I did want to take the time, though, to give you an update on the kitchen (which would be reason #1 for why I’m so busy).

Over the holiday break, we started the demolition of the kitchen. It was a lot of work for hubby and I, but we did it!

Yesterday, our new cabinets arrived:

The majority of them, though, are being “stored” downstairs until our carpenter comes back on Friday:

Normal people would probably just stack them there and leave them uncovered but normal people don’t have an abnormal cat like we do:

Took him all of… oh…. 30 seconds to find his new sleeping spot!

One of the biggest changes in the new kitchen is going to be the “wall cupboard”. Basically, the wall between the kitchen and dining room had been turned into a cupboard. Its great for storing your cereal, cat food (of course!) and canned goods. Currently, it has sliding doors on it:

I’m not sure if you can make this out here, but we’ll be removing those doors and we ordered just cabinet faces to go on that wall. Our carpenter (who is awesome!) will build a new cabinet and hang the faces over it:

Its still a tad stressful but I am really, really glad things are starting to come together!!!!!

I must admit that this past holiday season has been one of the most pleasant, enjoyable, peaceful holiday seasons that I have had in a long time!!!! I’m sure that having a total of 11 days in a row away from the office (and only having to use 3 vacation days to get them!) helped, but…

We spent Christmas at my sister’s house and had a lot of fun playing the Wii with our nieces and nephews. Every one was on their best behavior and I think I can speak for all when I say it turned into a really nice day!

I/we spent the majority of the rest of the time demolishing our kitchen! This project is sooo much more enjoyable than the nightmare that was our new septic system in the spring!!!! Cabinets are ordered, granite color decided (haven’t reserved “our” slabs yet though), appliances selected. All top cabinets removed as well as the dishwasher. Next weekend, the bottom cabinets and island go.

Its been a lot of work, but fun! fun! fun! And best of all?!?!?! Not ONE ache or pain after all this lifting (and I won’t even talk about swinging that hammer while removing tile from the wall). Maybe the time and effort at the gym has done some good after all!

Whatever would possess a couple to decide to start their kitchen remodel just a few weeks before Christmas??? Even though I’m one half of that couple, I do not have an answer for you!

We knew we wanted to remodel and we knew we wanted it to be a winter project. Suddenly, it was November and we were all “Holy crap! Don’t blink or winter’s gonna be over! We better start this now!!!!!”

Sounded pretty good at the time. Course, we’ve never remodeled a kitchen before so had no idea how many decisions we’d have to make. And pressure??? Well, you’re probably thinking “No big deal – just put it off, get through the holidays, then proceed!” WRONG. Unless, of course, we don’t need that 10% off the cabinets that they’re offering until December 24th.

But its okay. No, really. I’ll breath again soon. December 25th is looking like a good day for that.

I was chatting with my niece yesterday when she asked “So, are you getting a Christmas tree this year???” I looked at her puzzled – like “of course we’re getting a Christmas tree!” – when she suggested that we did not get a tree last year. I was puzzled. Confused, really. “We didn’t get a Christmas tree last year!?!?!?!” “No. I remember we were picking on you for it!” Well, I thought, she’s younger than I am and surely has a better memory than I.

So, what do I do??? I go back on my blog to see if I posted about my Christmas tree last year and what did I find??? A post on December 22nd is what I find. A post titled “Before and After” talking about how we’d finally finished our living room. No pictures of a tree. No mention of a tree. So, I guess that makes her right. No tree. How sad is that (that we didn’t get a tree, not that I have no memory left what.so.ever)?!?!?!

So yes, this year we will have a Christmas tree. Cause I’m not starting the gutting of the kitchen until after the holidays.

We changed the color of our shutters from a light blue to “Georgetown Blue”. I didn’t want to keep the door the same color and didn’t want to use burgundy cause it seems everyone paints their door burgundy. So, I decided on “Georgian Brick”.

So… what d’ya think????