Happy Halloween!

Fall has arrived in the Northwest. The air has turned crisp and the leaves are beginning to change. Foggy mornings and cool nights. A sure sign that Halloween is right around the corner.

Hubs and I visited a local farm last week on my day off. The smell of homemade Carmel Apples, hot cider and fudge filled the air. We watched small children search for their perfect pumpkin....the one three times their size. I laughed to see mom try and convince them that a five pound pumpkin is so much better than a 50 pounder. Most of the time they were unsuccessful. More comedy watching mom try to hoist the giant pumpkin into a wheelbarrow.

We found The Great Pumpkin!
Giant Spiders guarding the pumpkin patch.

872 pounds of pumpkin.....pie anyone?

I had to visit The Pumpkin House.



The front porch has been made ready for Trick r Treaters.


Bugs the bunny has decided Mr. Pumpkin head has a very comfy lap.

Treasures found at Spooner Farm bring a touch of fall to my Dinning Room.


A special shout out to my BIL Mike in Australia. The Spooner Farm Tour is for you. I remember how much you loved (ROFL) your visit there. What did you say to me about Halloween....I think you called it all very strange and odd. HAPPY HALLOWEEN M!
Sis have you brought Halloween to Australia yet? You could be the first with a Jack-O-Lantern!
Do you need me to mail you a pumpkin to carve?

Happy Halloween!

Leaving the Kitchen for a bit

My sons room was in desperate need of a paint job. Years ago I faux painted his walls and gave him a Harry Potter themed room. We love HP in this house. Now Jacob is not big on change of any kind. He never has been. Old is good. I very carefully approached the subject of painting his room. I was very surprised when he consented immediately and informed me he would like gray. I asked him if he was sure and found out that the only reason he had not requested a change was because he did not want to hurt my feelings. lol!

I immediately ran out to buy some primer and pick up some paint color chips.

He chose a Sherwin Williams color called versatile gray. I was a bit concerned it might be depressing. I agreed because he has lived with Harry Potter just to make me happy. How could I possibly say no. I just thank my lucky stars he didn't ask for black.

I painted the backs of his book cases to match the walls. The ceiling has been painted Atrium white. The trim has been primed and ready for a coat of white too. The color is very sophisticated and restful on the eyes. Unlike his sisters high school choice of orange and hot pink.

Hubs has built a headboard for Jake and they plan to stain it this week. This was a great way to use up leftovers from the kitchen remodel. Here's a look at the headboard. I will post some in progress shots and directions soon.

We have grout.

Close up of mosaic above stove.
I'm very pleased with the back splash.

The microwave cabinet is almost done. It is time to move on to the lighting.

The kitchen has tile!

Tools need for tiling

Adhesive. The premixed adhesive was fantastic. Usually we mix up our own but decided to try out this product from Lowe's. The consistency was perfect and this container was enough to do our entire kitchen with a bit left over. Be sure to put the lid back on with a mallet between uses or it will dry out.

A straight edge and pencil for drawing lines on the tiles to be cut.


A putty knife and trowel for applying adhesive to the wall or individual tiles. Clean with water between uses.

A small level to keep your rows and edges straight.

Different sized nails and some shims which we prefer to fabricated spacers.
A wet stone for softening cut edges on tiles

A tile saw which is shown below. If you do not own a tile saw most home improvement stores have them available to rent. On our first tile project we marked the cuts and had them cut at the store.

The tile we chose for our back splash was a travertine stone in a 2X4 brick. The tile came on mesh sheets. We applied the adhesive directly to our walls for most of this installation. We did have to butter individual pieces to fill in the pattern. Ive posted an example of this below. You can see that we pulled a tile off the mesh sheet. This tile needs to be cut to go around the cabinet trim. We used this same technique in many places through out the lay out.

Hubs used his pencil and straight edge to mark where to cut on the tile.

Because our stone is tumbled we used a wet stone to get rid of the sharp edge. We could recreate the ragged edge to match the other stones.


Here you can see the tile fits nicely around the cabinet trim. Good job Len!

In tight places we put the adhesive on the wall with a putty knife and used the trowel to spread it out a bit.

Push, twist and straighten.

We used some trim pieces to trim out the edges of tile and to frame in the mosaic over the stove.

The mosaic was created by us to fit the space we had. Graph paper, needlepoint mesh and hot glue were used. We laid out the pattern on graph paper. To make installation as simple as possible we made our own sheets of mosaic. The center of our design was separated into three pieces. We laid out the tiles upside down and applied hot glue to the back side. We quickly set the needlepoint mesh on top of the hot glue and pushed the mesh into the tiles. We marked the center metal medallions location on the wall with a pencil. After applying the three sections we fit in the triangles and border pieces.

The kitchen is completely tiled. Grouting will commence soon followed by sealing.

Back splash decision made

Long days at the deli are cutting into my reno time! This week with the heat wave work was busy! No one wanted to cook....including me! Sis the temp reached 113 degrees in my backyard and stayed over 100 for days! Today's temp is below normal at 68 degrees. I'm chilly but loving it. Chicken, sandwiches and salads were the top picks. People are very picky about their sandwiches...one guy did not want his meat and cheese to touch each other. LOL!

After months and months of discussions on back splash choices....I won. Actually I think we both won. I fell in love with this stone brick tile and hubs loved it too. Lowe's had the best price on this stone. The local marble and granite place wanted 37.00 a square foot and Lowe's $10.00! Today we got to install some of it. I love it when something looks exactly like you pictured it in your mind! Its just what I wanted. Maybe Len will finish the other side of the window while I'm at work tomorrow??? A girl can dream! I'm still playing with my idea for over the stove but progress is being made. One day this kitchen may actually be finished!

Back in the kitchen again!

Baby steps to share. Last Thanksgiving I primed and painted the Sheetrock to give the kitchen a finished look. Hubs and I finally got the walls textured to match the rest of the house and repainted. Masking everything off took three rolls of blue tape!

My new window sill arrived. I'm very happy with my lucky find. A remnant of Uba Tuba to match my counter top for $15 and $100 to get it cut to fit and round the edge. You get a wee peek at the back splash stone here. Wall color is showing true under the sill.

Finally Happy Birthday Laurel! I love you! Tell M that I received his letter and spread the word. We are all very relieved to hear he is feeling better. Mom is working on a cloche hat for you and says to tell you that Birthday Greetings are in the mail. Hope you have a wonderful day! I promise to email soon....I do....look in my eyes....

Kitchen update time

Hubs and I spent our day off together in the kitchen. First there was a side trip to the hardware store and Starbucks of course. We purchased some wainscoting, fluted trim molding and screen molding.
The wainscoting is used to trim out the top and bottom edges of our upper cabinets. The fluted molding is used to hide the seams where upper cabinets join together. The screen molding is used to trim out the where the upper cabinets meet the wall and to sandwich the fluted molding.
Here is a picture of the back side of the wainscoting. Its L shaped.

Here you can see the fluted molding to hide vertical seam sandwiched between the screen molding and all of it tucked behind the wainscoting.

This is a view of the back side...which will be up against the cabinet faces. You can see the L shape of the wainscot and the screen molding tucked inside the L.

Here is how it looks on the cabinet.

I have a few days off later this week and you can see I have plenty of sanding priming and painting waiting for me. Soon I will be able to order the cabinet doors!

The fridge wall is almost finished! Hubs installed brick molding at the bottom of all base cabinets. This hides a raw edge and gives the cabinets a uniform look. You can see he finished the baseboard and side trim too. Lots of priming and painting for me! Next weekend we hope to get the last upper cabinet built. It will hold the microwave and hang above where the microwave is now sitting on the counter. Some trim at the top and we will be done here.

On the left of the stove he had to cut the larger baseboard to fit under the cabinet and transition to the smaller baseboard on the kick plate. It looks terrific. He really impressed me by coping the brick molding on the cabinet right into the baseboard. Once caulked and painted it will look seamless. Great job Honey!

A few things still left on my list.

Trim out the window.

Buy and hang cabinet doors.

Choose a back splash....this has been hard. Hubs and I have totally different ideas on this. No worries...its going to be MY choice. I'm just not quite ready to commit yet.

Then I have to firm up the plans for the island.

I'm loving all the space! My old kitchen had 5 usable cabinets. My new kitchen has 14! I have gone from having 5 drawers to 11!!!!