Around the House

So, what shall we talk about today?  We could talk about all the cool tools that they use when installing granite countertops.

Or, maybe all of MeMum’s beautiful summer flowers that are keeping the neighborhood bees happy.

We could maybe go into the finer points of wallpaper removal.

Or, you’d probably rather see my fancy razzmatazz coneflowers.

Or we could talk about how I’ve been painting trim and now I’m REALLY Honked Off about the new paint formulas that comply to the low voc (whatever that is) rules.  It means the paint dries too fast and doesn’t have time to level out.  The paint guy said they’ve had several complaints.  I wish he could have told me that before I bought the paint.  Buh-Bye pretty, smooth paint finish.  Hello Bumpy paint.  Thanks Congress.

Or we could talk about the new floor.  No more concrete.  Yipee!  Another week and they’ll be done.

But, by now, you’re sick of all this renovation talk.  You probably think I’ve forgotten about the Aurifil giveaway — but I haven’t.   TheManoftheHouse Random Number Generator has performed again.  This time he belted out magic number 73.

Lesley Moogsmum, Come On Down! Send me your address and I’ll get your goodies into the mail.

In the meantime, in my attempt to save you from the next few weeks of painting, cleaning, and putting this house back together I’m going to take a blog break for a few weeks. Hopefully I’ll be able to sneak in a little sewing somewhere in there too, before I explode! ;-)

XOXO,
Anna

Holy Cow, it’s been rough to sneak in any blogging these past few weeks.  Nothing fun happ’nin around here.  No fabric or needles.  No cooking.  No fun making o’ much.  It’s been a big week here in the reconstruction zone though.  I’m thinking we’re turning the destruction corner and now things are starting to be put back together.  We had to have a few cabinets re-made and they were installed on Tuesday.  Then, the appliances arrived on Wednesday.  WooHoo!   (Although the WooHoo was tempered a bit by the almost all-nighter that we had to pull between the two deliveries to get the drywall and electrical stuff ready — we’re still tuckered out!)

Anyway, new stove — look!  It’s shiny and dusty.  I just wanted to get a picture — it will never look like that again.  ;-(  We’re not really cooking with gas yet — there’s a little complication with hooking the gas up, but I’m sure it will be solved … sometime.  Haha.

In the meantime, I thought we’d have a little New Stove contest.  I had a choice of knob colors on the new stove.  It was like having a little angel and devil sitting on my shoulder screaming at me.  Did my wild side prevail?

Or did my conservative tendencies win out?

If you’d like to throw your guess in the pot (by, say, Saturday, June 25th at midnight), I’ll take all the correct answers and have a little drawing.  I’m thinking the prize will be a charm square pack of Bonnie and Camille’s new fabric line, Ruby.  (It’s been ordered, but not here yet —  I’ll ship it to the winner as soon as it arrives.)

So.  Whatddyathink???  Red knobs or black???

XOXO,
Anna

Oh BooHoo.  All the market fun is over and it’s back to real life here in ThimbleannaLand.  We had a HARD, long weekend last weekend, ripping tile out of the kitchen.  Remember this picture of one naughty kitty from last winter?

I’m only showing you that picture for a “before”.  Here’s a shot of the “during”.

Ouch!  For the most part, the tile popped up … well, not easily, but ok, with the help of a sledgehammer and that long pole on the left-hand side of the picture.  But see those six tiles still stuck in the middle?  Those, along with about 10 others, were stuck down with something that was meant to survive some sort of nuclear blast.  TheManoftheHouse spent a whole day chipping those tiles out little piece by little piece with a sledgehammer and small chisels, while I removed the rest of the tiles.

“My” tiles left a nasty adhesive behind, which required some sort of DIY tile jackhammer thingy for removal.  You can’t tell by the picture but that steel paddle jumps up and down like a jackhammer and chips away at the cement-like stuff.  We still have another full day of the jackhammer-dump-more-dust-all-over-the-house tool work to do.  I can’t wait.  Ha.

Meanwhile, the kitties are liking the new industrial look.  Maybe we should just stick with that.  How come painted concrete flooring in kitchens isn’t all the rage?  It would sure be easier if floors were like walls and you could just change the paint color.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good weekend.  Do a little sewing for me.  And if you happen to need tile removed, here’s a little tip:  there’s a reason why contractors want a LOT of money to remove it for you.  And a LOT of money is probably a really good deal!  ;-D

XOXO,

Anna

Well Hello There! Did you all have a nice week?

It’s been a little busy and stressful here in ThimbleannaLand as we start in on the fun (it is fun, right?) of choosing all of the little goodies for the kitchen/family room update. We made our first purchase this week — a ManChair for TheManoftheHouse.  As far as he’s concerned we’re done now.  To which I reply — let the spending begin! (Darn it!)

UglyGreenTile, your days are numbered — Yipee!!!

I’m a terrible decision maker and the hardest thing will be deciding on countertops. There are soooo many choices.
Corian. (Btw, these aren’t actual samples, just pics from the internet.)

Granite. Granite is leading the pack, although FreeDesignerLady is trying hard to get me to change my mind. She doesn’t have any other suggestions, but she said that several of her clients have told her they’re sorry that they chose granite. And I saw a year old countertop with chips in it this week, so I am having second thoughts.

Stainless. Perhaps a little too modern for me?

Ok, clearly, this isn’t working. Let’s move on to something I know. Don’t you think toasters are a good choice for the kitchen?

Or, what could be more perfect than polkies?

No Wait! I think I’ve found it!

(Just as a little sidebar here….I read some trivia in The Writer’s Almanac this week about The Cat in the Hat. Did you know that The Cat in the Hat was written specifically to help children learn how to read? Dr. Suess (Theodore Geisel) wrote the story with only 220 words — words that most first graders know. And Green Eggs and Ham has only 50 words, and only one of those words (it’s anywhere)  has more than one syllable — amazing!)

So, Whaddyathink about the countertops? I’m all ears if you have any suggestions!

XOXO,
Anna

BTW, I’m STILL having problems with my comments being forwarded to my e-mail, so if you don’t hear from me after you comment, it’s not that I don’t love you anymore. I do love your comments, but I just can’t devote any more time to copying comments from wordpress into my e-mail so that I can respond to them. It looks like I’ll end up rebuilding my wordpress theme, and since all of my non-wordpress pages are tied to the theme it’s going to be a lot of work. And after all that work, I’m not terribly confident that the problem will be solved — I have a sneaking suspicion that my webhost has traffic load problems and that could be the culprit. I probably won’t start on it for a few weeks yet, but if you happen by and things look amiss, don’t panic, it’s just me playing around. {Smooch}