Fun and Frolic With Long-Term Love

[Bluebird]

Awwww thanks! Honestly, in real life I sometimes take a lot of flack about the way that I have raised my children. They have to take on a lot of responsibility around the house, and I'm fairly strict. That said, there's a reason why I parent the way I do - kids who have experienced trauma as deep and vast as my children need to feel that others find them capable and responsible, so they will start to believe it themselves. Also, it gives them order and control, which they don't have a whole lot of experience dealing with at all. I feel the proof is in the pudding, so to speak, in that my kids are respectful and confident that I will always trust them to be able to handle something. And, well, it's borne out - they do call me when they need assistance, to get my opinion, and they are relatively self-sufficient in their day to day lives, once they have moved out. Plus, my older daughter tells me all the time that when she was a teenager, she didn't appreciate all the chores and how strict I was, but she needed it and she is glad now that I saw that.

DarkKnight and I were certified as higher-level foster parents, meaning that kids that couldn't hack it in regular foster homes could be placed with us. All 3 of my kids were in residential care at some point (meaning a group home). Michigan came to us out of an orphanage-style place outside of NYC, whereas my oldest two had been in a group home but had transitioned down to a higher level foster home when they were placed with me. I can't even estimate how many parenting classes and trainings I have sat through in my life! It definitely isn't easy, and from the outside looking in, a lot of my friends think I am too hard on my kids, not permissive enough. But there is a real reason why I can't be as lackadaisical with my children!

Michigan though, has been my easiest child as an older teenager. When she was 10-11-12-13 though - we had some real tumultuous years where she felt completely out of control and lost...and confused, I would say. I homeschooled her not only because of her brain issues (long and short term memory loss) but because she needed constant reassurance and redirection. Having her be with me ALL THE TIME really helped her. It was exhausting some days, but I don't regret being a stay at home mom to her.

Haha! That reminds me of a time I was having a "home visit" from one of Michigan's social workers. This lady had visited us 3 or 4 times previously and always had glowing things to say about how sweet Michigan was, and how calm and poised. She was beginning to tsk about how maybe we should downgrade Michigan's status in the system, since she was doing so well. That day when Michigan came home from school (she was in public school until we officially adopted her in 5th grade) she was an absolute terror. Refused to sit down and speak to her worker, threw herself on the floor, crawled under the table and SCREAMED intermittently during our conversation. I will never forget the deer-in-headlights look the worker gave me! She was brand new to her caseload, and hadn't worked with attachment disordered kids before. She was literally frozen in shock and didn't know how to respond. I just let repeating to Michigan that she had to choose to come sit in the dining room chair next to me, or to come sit on my lap and I would hold her. I would continue the conversation with the worker, but then focus back on Michigan after a minute, to ask her if she had decided. After a bit, I told her that I was now going to make a choice if she didn't. She calmly climbed up in the chair beside me and started conversing with the worker.
The worker later told me she would have handled that completely different and she feels her way would have been completely wrong! And she was shocked that Michigan would ever behave in that way - it was as if she had regressed to a preschool age. Well, duh. That's why she is in the higher care level! She only did that sort of thing once out in public, thank goodness. My older daughter did it ALL THE TIME. If you can imagine a 13 year old girl banging her head and fists and feet against the floor in the grocery store.

I don't miss that part of parenting! Lol

 

[Bluebird]

I have spent so much money at Home Depot guys! Whew! On Friday it was over a grand spent on lighting for the kitchen, paint for the entire upstairs, a new faucet in the kitchen, cabinet hardware, and I don't even know what else. Then we spent around $600 on amazon on kitchen chairs, more lighting and a new table. Today I spent $3000 on new appliances.

What can I say, remodeling is expensive. Good news - now that the mortgage is settled, we can go back to using credit cards. We went ahead and I had DarkKnight apply for an Amazon Rewards VISA yesterday. You get 5% cash back for Amazon purchases, 3% for purchases at restaurants and for groceries, and 1% on everything else. Since DarkKnight only has a single credit card with a $200 limit at present, I thought it'd be a good one to start with. Instant approval for $3000. We were like whoo hoo! DarkKnight was laughing - "I'm an adult!" Silly man. Now he has a house and a big boy credit card.

I like the credit game. He's going to add me as an authorized user and that will boost my score too, because apparently it reports. No worries though. All of the purchases we made this weekend so far are for cash, except for the Amazon stuff, since we wanted the rewards. Even then, we have the cash to back it. DarkKnight already took it from me so he will have it to pay when the bill comes due. I don't like carrying balances. It makes me edgy. I have dated lots of guys in the past that revolve huge amounts - are at 90% utilization and stuff. Nope. Not going to go there.

But yay! Finances are good at the moment. Oh! I wanted to tell about my Home Depot appliance buying experience. They price match. I had $3600 budgeted for a stove, fridge and dishwasher from there. I did some looking around online and found those 3 things and an overhead microwave for $2800 as a package on JCPenney's website. I brought the link in, and when Home Depot looked at the stuff they had for sale, it came to $4800! They were concerned that there was no way that could be right. That's a $2000 difference! So first they went through the list and checked all the model numbers. Nope, matched exactly. Then the salesperson said there was a rebate offer going on right now, so JCPenney must be giving me the price based on after rebate costs. So we went all the way through the sale and no, that was their price. So, a manager had to be called to approve it. He did the same exact things, and verified that the prices were right. Crazy! The only difference is that Home Depot gives free delivery and free installation. JCPenney charges $100 per item for installation but still has free delivery. The manager told me we would have to pay for installation then, so I said I didn't want that. I hope PunkRock can figure things out! So, yeah. We got every for $2900 (includes tax). It's a French door fridge with an icemaker, a gas stove with a griddle in the center, the overhead microwave and a dishwasher, all in Slate. I didn't want stainless steel - I dont like cleaning at all and having to wipe fingerprints constantly just wouldn't happen. lol It's the GE Adora line. I love it! I set the delivery for the end of February, so that will give us time to get the kitchen finished up.

Today DarkKnight and I also bought electric outlet covers and some vinyl wall base for the kick plates in the kitchen. That last one was unexpected, but the existing ones are poop brown. So i am replacing them with white.

 

[Bluebird]

Gosh, this is going to turn into a home improvement journal for a while. Sorry y'all, but that is what my focus is right now! Here is some non-house stuff:

It's been weird since my daughter got her car - I open the garage door and my car is there! Last night when PunkRock and I got home, I was like, what is Michigan doing being home, did she get sent home from work? Nope, she hadn't used my car. lol It's strange. Today she is taking her ride back to the dealer. The mechanic had mentioned one thing wrong when we got the inspection - the oil pan gasket is seeping. They gave her a cost of $250 at the shop, so she is now taking it to the dealer to get their take on it. They have a policy of paying half the cost at their shop, so if they charge less than $500, then she will get it done there. It's like a 3 hour job, so she is going to be busy most of the morning. Her appointment is at 10. It's kind of annoying, because she had said she would be my helper today, and I desperately need another person to assist me. Oh well. Things will still move along, I suppose.

Money in my bank account is disappearing at a steady rate. DarkKnight is supposed to get his tax refund deposited this morning, but I am sitting in his office recliner at the moment, and it isn't in there yet. That's all earmarked for purchases in March though, so no worries.

DarkKnight's cousin came over to the new house yesterday, and talked with PunkRock. He is going to be helping PunkRock put up a half wall and extend the fireplace brickwork to the ceiling in the living room. He and PunkRock seem to be confident that it won't take longer than a weekend - they will do it together on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon. We decided not this upcoming weekend, but maybe the next. It is on hold until the plumber gets over here to remove the gas insert in the fireplace, but hopefully I get a call today from them to schedule it.

Ah, plumbing! So we need to remove the gas insert from the fireplace to get it back to being just woodburning, and to put in a gas line in the kitchen, to run to our new gas stove. We also have to have them take a quick look at our kitchen sink - we have an instant hot water dispenser installed but it isn't putting out any water. lol PunkRock says the unit is warm, so it is producing heat, but for whatever reason that heat isn't transferring over and producing instant boiling water. The unit we have costs $189, so we figure it's worth it to have the plumber take a look. DarkKnight loves this feature, so if it is beyond fixing, he wants to buy a new one. He and I are huge tea drinkers, so to have a faucet that dispenses almost boiling water instantly would be well used! The issue with the plumber though is that they will have to come back twice, in that the city requires a permit to do all of the work, and to actually connect our new stove. I have the new appliances arriving Feb 22, and I need the plumbing done way before that. So either the plumber will have to come out for a second time to connect the stupid stove, or I have to call Home Depot and move up the delivery date. I don't mind doing that, other than having appliances here earlier gives me less time to work on the kitchen.

I am now kinda set that I want to add a project into our timeline. Things are being planned that make our kitchen awesomesauce, but I didn't have money to upgrade the flooring. But now that we are really in there and working, it is going to stick out something terrible when everything else is new and shiny. The current status is linoleum that has seen better days - it's an off yellow color with random pink roses. Yeaaaaaaah. It is discolored in places and pulling up in others. It seriously needs to be gone. Today I am going to look at some cheaper options and see if I can tweak our cash to make it work.

Yesterday I stripped all the wallpaper in the main bathroom. It was supposed to take me all day, but it took 10 minutes. Score, spray, wait and then everything just peeled right off the wall. I was shocked. I had envisioned hours of scraping, but it didn't happen. Instead the slowdown was on PunkRock's end - he had purchased some PVC to replace the main drop under the bathroom sink, but was missing a connector. So we have to pick that up today. PunkRock also installed the new kitchen faucet, which looks absolutely amazeballs. I will get a picture today! That had some hiccups as well, but I will write about that when I get photos.

One absolutely positive thing yesterday is that I sold a bunch of stuff, the new house stove and fridge are now gone, and so is my daughter's little white dresser and my old printer stand. I also sold 4 Dali print posters. So that was great. Every little bit helps our bottom line! Anyway, I wanted to write about the refrigerator.

This guy messages me and offers me $50. He tells me his fridge has stopped working and he just needs one to replace it with, but everywhere he looks people are charging $100-$150. I had mine listed at $75. I check his facebook profile and he's a young 20-something dude with two little kids. I'm like, sure, I will take it.

He shows up in this truck that is just falling apart rusty. The back window is actually broken out and he drove it here in the freezing cold temperatures from an hour away in West Virginia. I'm like, dude! He and his friend come in, look at the fridge, pay me, and then PunkRock is taking the doors off for a little bit, so we get to talking.

Apparently he joined the Marines and was in there after high school for a little bit, but then got medically discharged unexpectedly. He said he had absolutely nothing lined up, so he moved into this falling-apart trailer on his dad's property. He said his stove shocks him every time he tries to use it, there are holes instead of windows, and the floor sags in spots. He says the walls are mostly plywood and in some places he can sit and stare out into the surrounding field. Yikes! While he is talking, he isn't making excuses, and just generally sounds like a decent guy. Not complaining or whining, just being matter-of-fact about his situation, and telling me what he is planning on fixing next. Since we are remodeling, he's sharing what work he needs to do.

When he gets to talking about his kitchen, he says that his cabinets have no doors and most of them are non-existent, and his counter tops are just pieces of wood stretched over the cabinet bases. Inspiration hits, and I ask him if he would be interested in the second kitchen we have in the basement. He freezes for a second, and then asks to see it. Guys, he is overjoyed to see this kitchen. He takes some photos and calls his dad. He asks me tentatively how much I would charge, and I tell him if he can remove it, he can just have it. He is absolutely speechless. I felt pretty wonderful. He says he has a 3 day weekend coming up, and he is going to get his dad to get a day off, so they can come up and get it down. Apparently his father is good with work like this, like PunkRock. So, he is going to get back in touch with me about the dates, but it looks like it will be not this coming weekend but the next. Yay! I feel like I am doing a good deed, and it isn't costing me anything. It's actually a help, because that is one less thing we have to do, you know?

PunkRock was kinda annoyed, saying I was giving away all his fun - he was looking forward to sledgehammering some stuff. I told him he could demo the half wall in the basement and he allowed me to appease him with that. lol

What else? DarkKnight spent the day pulling off the vinyl kickplate in the kitchen and filling holes all through the house with spackle. Sanding too. After work today he will be back at it. PunkRock works today until 6 pm, but after that he will be over to remove the kitchen lights, finish the bathroom piping and start work painting the ceilings. My daughter and I start painting the walls on Wednesday, so if he doesn't finish the ceilings today, he has tomorrow night as well.

 

[Bluebird]

Fuck a duck! I had a guy come and give me an estimate today on replacing the 5 small basement windows. $3000. Yeah, that isn't happening anytime soon! The contractor that is going to do the egress window is going to give me a quote as well. Hopefully it is better than that!

I just bought some cheap-ass mini blinds from Walmart for the bedrooms. Finally got all the doorknobs and deadbolts we needed for the exterior doors, as well as some various odds and ends that added up to almost $300. Sigh. Still in budget but geez. I am at the new house now waiting for DarkKnight to come over around 4.

Earlier I finally went and got my eyebrows done and had my bangs trimmed. I was starting to feel like Sasquatch.

 

[Atlantis]

Congrats on being a homeowner!
You have inspired me to do dome things around my house, including a new light over the dining room table. I have been into Home Depot a lot too, lots of ideas!

 

[Bluebird]

Yay! Today all things new house come to a screeching halt, as I have quizzes to grade this morning and then a Biology class to teach this afternoon. Once again, my daughter and her new car will be invaluable, as she is excited about driving her vehicle to complete errands for me! Our new recycling tote was delivered by the city to our new place last night, so she is going to pop over there this morning and pull it back off the end of the road. I also need to purchase 2 more ceiling lights for our closets, and I forget the style I purchased previously, so she will snap a picture of the box while there.

When my class is over today, DarkKnight and I are going to go get those closet lights, as well as 9 interior doorknobs. I decided to add those in after DarkKnight spent yesterday replacing all of the exterior deadbolts and doorknobs. It'll cost a little over $100, but the ones currently in existence are a dull brass color and just scratched up and look absolutely terrible. I hate to allocate the money for that, but it will make a difference, I think.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the new house removing the doors from the upper kitchen cabinets, and then taking off all of the hardware from those. PunKRock will fill the holes and sand them down for me later this week, and then I can paint them.

Here is my new kitchen faucet.

You can see we had some trouble with it fitting into the space! PunkRock carved out some of the window sill, and I purchased some half round molding to trim it out later on. I bought all new window sash pulls and locks, so the ugly brassy pull visible in the photo will be gone in a bit, and I am painting all the trim white. I freaking love this faucet! You can also see the instant hot water tap in the photo. It isn't working and PunkRock can't figure out why. The plumber will be in my house on a Wednesday to give me a quote on removing the fireplace gas insert and installing the gas stove line, and I asked him to look at this as well. If it's a simple fix, great. If not, a new one costs almost $200. DarkKnight says he wants it. We both drink enough tea that it does seem like something we will find helpful! Oh, and that blind is coming down too. Right now we've left them in place all over the house, but once I start painting the trim they will come down. I've already bought replacements.

Another kitchen pic. The poop brown vinyl trim has been pulled off by DarkKnight, and the old electric stove has been removed. Anyone want to buy a dishwasher for $50? The electrician was in yesterday and he is going to run a new outlet, as the big bulky black outlet won't work for the new gas stove. So he's going to yank that out and put in a regular size one. The switch above is already grounded, so he just has to drop a line. Still, $200.

Lately, PunkRock seems to have an irritability with all things DarkKnight related - at least, it is evident to me that he is a bit unhappy. DarkKnight is not at all handy, but he is doing a lot of stuff. I am not sure what is making PunkRock testy but it is making me feel uncomfortable. DarkKnight seems his usual affable self. I am going to talk to PunkRock tonight about this.

 

[Bluebird]

We made more progress on the house, but it is such slow going with everything else happening in our lives. Here's a post full of lots of little thinklings.

PunkRock did some more painting last night, but he will probably have to pop over after work at 9 pm tonight to see if it needs a second coat. This is the ceiling. We can't do any other painting until that is done.

I removed all the hardware from the bottom kitchen cabinets yesterday, and my plan today is to go over and remove the same from the drawers. I would be faster, but I am not a pro with the screw gun, and a lot of the pulls are painted over, so the screws just do not want to move at all.

The plumber is coming over today at 2 pm to give me an estimate on the gas line stuff. Ugh. I am looking forward to having this project move forward, but not anticipating a great price. We will see, I guess!

I am set to go thrifting with two of my besties on Friday. One of my friends owns a mid century modern store, so I am definitely going there. I am on the lookout for some specific accessories, and I am excited about being able to do some fun shopping, as opposed to filling up my cart with electrical outlets and doorknobs.

Today at 11:30 I have a dental appointment. Yes, again. I am supposed to pick up my new retainer. I hope it is a quick visit. I don't want trauma today. Afterward I will snag lunch and head over to the new house to await the plumber.

I have found a cheap and fabulous peel and stick vinyl tile for the kitchen. I would rather go with a better floor, but anything will be an improvement over the nasty linoleum that is there now. The plan is to grout it so it looks fancier. I had some worries because the tiles I kept choosing really didn't work, but I actually talked to a flooring specialist in the store yesterday, and they picked out a perfect one on first go. I think it looks great with the cabinets, appliances and the counter top. I didn't have the paint chip with me last night, so I am bringing all that over today. Hopefully it works.

 

[Livingmybestlife]

Look at pallet flooring. I just redid my laundry room with peel and stick last minute, kinda of thing. I took it down to the wood. That helped them stick better. It also showed some slight water damage.

I am so into pallets for flooring and outdoor bbq cover and outdoor sectional.

I meant to post about Michigan, so glad you were there for her.

I always relate to your blog. Poly, adoptive mother, home schooler, now remodeling.

 

[Bluebird]

Glad you relate! I am not sure if PunKRock wants to rip up the linoleum or not. We are on a timeline. The appliances are scheduled to be delivered on Feb 22, so the kitchen needs to be finished by then. This weekend will be focused on painting and electrical work, and then next weekend PunkRock and DarkKnight's cousin are extending the fireplace up to the ceiling in the living room and putting in a second closet in DarkKnight's bedroom. I am hoping the plumber can do his thing later this week or early next, because we are dead in the water on kitchen stuff until he is finished. So depending on how things happen, we might not have time to spend a couple of days ripping out linoleum. Honestly, that would make me happiest, but there are only so many hours!

 

[Petunia]

You've probably researched the heck out of this, but are you confident the grout won't pop loose due to installing tiles on top of linoleum? Seems that there is a possibility of movement which would break the grout free. If I were you, I'd rather blow the timeline to get down to the subfloor in order to lay the tiles on a solid base rather than do an install that may fail. A good place to post a question about this would be on Houzz in the GardenWeb forums.

You can always move in and then do redo the kitchen flooring.

We went with Adura Max from Mannington. I believe it was less than $5/sq. ft. installed. It's easy to work with and easy to repair down the road.

 

[Bluebird]

We have some pop-in vinyl fake hardwood stuff right now in the house we are in, and I hate it. I'd rather put in cheap sticky tiles than that stuff, honestly. At least when the floor starts failing I will only be out $300 or so. I figure I can love the peel and stick for a year and if it looks shitty, I can then pull it out and put down real tile.

The plumber left a little while ago and he gave me a ballpark estimate but will send me the real quote by Friday via email. He can do the work one day next week, so he is hired. Unfortunately, the permits alone are like $140, and then we need to buy 30 feet of gas pipe. He says figure on more than $800 but less than $1000. He has to tear out a good deal of ceiling and punch through some ceiling joists in the basement. Lovely. The installation for the gas stove officially costs more than the gas stove itself. Sigh. Y'all know I don't cook so this is such a waste, in my opinion. DarkKnight and PunkRock disagree, so I am outvoted. I don't really mind, but I am chuffed that I had earmarked $300 specifically for this job and now I have to budget out another $500 or so from my general cash. Ugh. They better cook me something yummy after we move in! Like, every damn day. Lol

I am chilling at the new house right now, waiting for DarkKnight to come join me. I finished taking off the drawer hardware in the kitchen and now that is all completely done. I need my computer so I can start planning the rest of the projects now that I have some dates. We probably will have time to rip out the kitchen floor down to the subfloor, so that will be good. We just have to plan when to rent the dumpster. We only get it for a week, so we have to schedule things exactly. More than likely, we will have to store all the kitchen floor debris in the sunporch until later, as the dumpster is definitely needed for the basement demo, and that isn't starting til March.

 

[Bluebird]

I have a big spreadsheet that I am using as a calendar to plan out what jobs need done before others. Pretty much all of the carpentry stuff we don't have time for and will happen after we move in - building the cats a bench to sit on in the sunporch, the cat highways in the living room, and the PunkRock's art tables. We have the money budgeted and ready to go, just no time to actually implement the ideas. Gah!

That said, today is full and busy but it should be fun. PunkRock has the day off and we are going to his first tattoo appointment. I decided to gift him a coverup of his existing shoulder tattoo, since he has had it for a long time and it needs doing. I look at it all the time, and it is off-kilter and the ink is bleeding in places, and the line work is just incredibly shitty. I have had a pinterest with ideas since I have met him and it is just cost that has been holding us back. Since the coverup is going to have to be at least half of his back, we are talking at least a thousand bucks. So, we are going to do it in stages over the coming year - hopefully done by summertime. He's going to get a big octopus with tentacles down his arm, wrapped around a pinup of me as a chubby mermaid on his left arm. I keep asking if he is sure he wants me on his arm and he hasn't changed his mind yet. I suppose if we ever break up he can cover her face with a KISS mask or something! Basically she is going to be a redhead with a teal tail and she'll be wearing a ton of my favorite bracelets.

Anyway, that appointment is at 11:30 this morning. We are meeting the artist for the first time (we looked at his work online) to talk about the design and hopefully hire him. No ink today, just discussion and planning.

After that we are going to go have lunch at our favorite restaurant. Mango Grill has a lunch buffet and I have been craving Indian food all week. Then we need to go to Home Depot and rent their small truck, so we can purchase the backerboard, brick sheets, drywall and framing wood for the living room fireplace remodel. I am really excited about having that ready to go. The project won't actually start until next weekend, but everything will be here, at least.

 

[Bluebird]

Wanna see some more pictures? If so, here they are.

Our recent Amazon orders all were delivered at the same time yesterday! Two boxes are the kitchen table, one is the kitchen chairs, one is full of the window sash pulls & locks for the entire house, and one is a bunch of Edison bulbs - not all of them, as I think 3 or so are being shipped separately. The last box is my Sputnik light fixture. I can't wait to put everything together but that isn't happening anytime soon.

Not sure if I posted previously about what all of that looks like when it is assembled, but here is the stock photo of the Sputnik light.

Yeah, so much squeeeeee!

So, I think I posted that DarkKnight has been working on exterior door locks, and that is all done now. Tonight he is going to remove all of the interior doorknobs, in preparation of the doors being painted this week and next. Here he is, hard at work.

PunkRock didn't get home last night til 1 am. He's been busting his butt painting all the ceilings.

I think this website will only let me put 5 photos in a single entry. So here is the last one: my existing living room fireplace.

I cleaned it off yesterday. I posted about the plumber coming yesterday to give us an estimate, and we are going to schedule him to come next week to remove the gas insert. The pipe to the left will be capped off in the basement. Next Saturday & Sunday, DarkKnight's cousin and PunkRock are going to be renovating this entire area - the space on the left will be closed with drywall, the mantle and bookshelf are coming down, and the brick will go all the way to the ceiling. I am really excited to see the transformation! I will get my fix today, going to buy and pick up all the framing materials for this project. After it's all put together, the brick will be a dark gray and I am going to try and paint the brassy gold cover, black. The walls will be a light blue called "Distant Ocean," if I am remembering correctly.

 

[Bluebird]

More photos!

Here's DarkKnight, last night. He went around the entire house and took down all the nails and curtain rods and hardware on the windows. Tonight he gets to fill those with putty. We are going to leave the window locks and sash pulls and blinds on until we paint each one - then we will remove them, paint the trim, and then when it is all dry, we'll put on the new hardware and hang up the new blinds.

I finally finished taking down all of the kitchen cabinet fronts and the pulls off the drawers. We have 19 drawers and 27 cabinets. I know that, because I had to draw a schematic detailing which cabinet door goes where, so after they are painted, we can put them back in the correct place! Oh, and screw jam is fucking gross.

This photograph is giving me so much grief! I need opinions on color choices, so if you have one, now is the time. lol

The retro pattern is the 50s laminate countertops that I have fallen in love with. They are in wonderful shape and the retro esthetic has me estatic. The green paint chip is the existing color of the cabinets. We are going to repaint them the exact same color, after the grime of time is scoured off, and the holes from the old hardware are filled and sanded down. I finally found a floor color I can live with - that's the fabric-weave tan-yellow in the background. It is more yellow in person, but it does have a tan tint to it. Anyway, it goes really well with the countertops and with the appliances and cabinets. The trim and doors will all be solid white. The wall color though - oh help!

The yellow paint chip is the color our sunporch will be, which adjoins the kitchen. I don't think I want yellow walls in the kitchen because they will fight with the green cabinets. But adjoining, no problem. There's a door between the rooms anyway. So, the planned wall color is this gray color swatch, and I am torn. I don't think it works, exactly. However, I don't know what to replace it with.

The appliances are GE Adora "Slate" color. I didn't want stainless steel, because I don't want to be forever wiping off fingerprints. Or rather, forever staring at fingerprints, because let's face it, I am not the cleaning sort of person and they will just stay there for days.

If I go darker on the wall color, the appliances will blend in and disappear. But I am not sold on lightening up the gray either, as everything else is so very light already. Opinions? Should I go with a different color altogether? Everyone on Facebook seems to have differing ideas and I can't come to a conclusion on this. I can post more kitchen shots, if anyone is interested at all in assisting with this. If not, no worries.

 

[Bluebird]

Fuck it, I am posting kitchen pics anyway, because at the very least, I will have a record of how much thought I put into my design process. lmao

Seriously though, some of my friends don't like the 50s retro kitchen, and are telling me that I should go with browns and tans and blah boring granite. Seriously - I bought this house BECAUSE of the kitchen. lol I want something not cookie-cutter. So, nyah!

Maybe I posted these back in November, when we were looking at the house, I don't know. If so, deal with it. Of course, it doesn't look like this now, but you get the idea. We've already replaced the faucet and the appliances are gone.

So the gray color will only be over the cabinets, on the soffit. The backsplash is the same pattern as the counter. The door and window trim will be white.

The gray paint will continue on the right side of this pic, and the wall on the left will be the same color as the cabinets. These colors will meet on the far wall, in a graphic design, like this:

Of course, my green is not as bright as that, but you get the idea.

So, is the gray I have chosen in the photo in the last post, too much? Too light, too dark, completely wrong? Gah!

Here is the table that will go in front of that graphic wall. The sputnik light will be hanging over it.

And the chairs:

It's weird to not have a an official dining room, but I am excited to have such a cute little eat in kitchen!

 

[PinkPig]

I don't have an opinion on the wall color...just wanted to say that I really like your kitchen! Green cabinets including/especially! I can't wait to see you're finished photos

 

[breathemusic]

As I'm not a fan of the retro stuff... I can't really help with the wall color. But I'm glad you're making progress. Was having the backsplash and counters the same pattern a thing back then? Honestly, I'm not a fan when they match.... but again, I don't do retro either, so my opinion is pretty much useless here! LOL

 

[Livingmybestlife]

I am not a fan of yellow except with navy blue. I am just not a yellow kinda of girl. Huge fan of blues, greens.

 

[Bluebird]

I like the creamy, buttery yellow. The house I used to own in NY, I painted the living room a yellow and I loved it. I think it will make a good color for my sunporch, but that's the only place it is going to be in my new home. Wait, that isn't true. My daughter's bedroom will be that color as well.

To be fair, I didn't actively seek out a house that I could make retro, or that was retro. It isn't like, a style that I live or anything! But, when I saw this cure little kitchen, I started thinking of possibilities, and now I am digging it.

Wow, what a day! I had fun being out with PunkRock a good bulk of the time, and just being lovey dovey with him. We went to his tattoo appointment first - oh, I am so very squee about that! The artist is amazeballs and we have booked the first 3 appointments. It's going to cost more than I had anticipated, but everything seems to, lately! lol The first session has to be 4 hours long, because the design is pretty much going to have to be drawn on, as it is a coverup and the octopus tentacles are going to have to be adjusted on the body. The second session will also be 3-4 hours, because that is when the artist will do the pinup mermaid outline. Then the next appointment will start the fill-ins, and those we can do in 2 hour blocks. So, they charge $150/hour - you do the math. lol Worth it, I think.

Lunch was yummy, and then we went and got supplies - almost $600 in this swoop through the home improvement store. We got the flooring for the kitchen and all the materials for the living room fireplace remodel. We did more research and reading today about finishing the basement, and it is going to cost more than I thought. (Remember the theme, lately?) So, we've decided to only do the first couple of stages. We are still getting the egress window ($4000), and we are going to do all the demo - pulling the wood paneling off the walls, tearing up the carpets and other flooring, knocking down the walls. We are also going to level the cement floor. That's where we are stopping. We will drylock the cinderblock exterior walls too - we spent a couple of hundred on the stuff to do that already. We don't know what things are going to look like behind the paneling anyway. We don't know if they just adhered the stuff straight to the block, or if they did build out a frame. We don't know if they did the fireblocking or not - it could be a nightmare. Rather than stress about the cost and the timeline, we are going to tear out the ugly and go slow so we do it all right. We are going to talk to our contractor, once we have the demo done. We are going to live here for always, if not for a long time, so it makes sense not to rush it and be unhappy later.

 

[Bluebird]

Yesterday I went thrifting with a friend of mine, and my daughter and her friend wanted to go as well. We spent the entire morning and early afternoon going around to supercool places in Frederick. Gathered Goods, Cannon Hill - ooh and The Restore! I bought one small vase but my daughter bought an entire set of glasses with a matching pitcher for her apartment. My friend and I made tentative plans to go to ikea together soon.

I saw this light, but I didn't buy it. I thought it would look great in the corner of DarkKnight's office, but someone mentioned that it looks like an alien hatching pod and now I can't unsee that! The material is mother of pearl - none of the insets are cracked and it is just nothing I have seen before. I might still get it but I don't know. It's $150 but since I am friends with the person selling it, I could pay $100.

After all the running around, I came home and fell asleep. Apparently PunKRock went to the new house, but the temperature was too low for him to mix the mortar he got to fix the outside side door threshold. So he came back home and fell asleep too - until 8:30 pm! I woke up at 5 and went to dinner with DarkKnight, and then he and I went to the new house ourselves, where he did more work on the trimwork and on the interior doors.

I own 9 doorknobs.

Adulting is weird.

DarkKnight and I are going to go to the Restore here in our town today. I am looking for a vanity for the main bathroom. It isn't really in our budget or scope of work, but if I can find a decent one I will get it.