Gotta Stay Positive

Erika and Finn headed up north today to visit her parents in MT (she has the week off since students are on an international trip). Unfortunately, I'm stuck at home...but took advantage of all the spare time to work on a couple of overdue projects (once fully fueled with coffee, obviously). First - I tiled a few trim strips between the kitchen and "mudroom" and down on the lower landing. This was supposed to be easy - but try as I might, I had a hard time getting the individual squares to look level. Oh well, not that anything in this house is level anyway.

Here is the "before" photo...from when we moved in. Notice the wallpaper in the hallway - those walls (and ceiling) are the only surfaces that we have not painted in this house!


And the after shot. The mudroom walls are painted "faint flickr" which really brightens it up.


Next I gingerly approached another long-standing project. I donned the HEPA-filter mask, eye protection, gloves, and ipod and started scraping and painting the shed. Ughh. Luckily good songs came on "shuffle" and I pushed through. Here are the before and after photos:



Looking through the old photos I came across this one, housed in the folder "kitchen demolition and choas," which about sums it up. I think it's my favorite shot of the total madness that sprung from our kitchen remodel. I had no idea what I was up against (mold, coal soot, plumbing issues, electrical issues, plaster issues, window issues...) and spent a lot of time staring blankly, but somehow pulled through. Notice the open book that has plumbing photos for a PERFECT house. A lot of help that was. Also notice the essential kitchen gadgets: Coffee maker, Egg & Muffin Toaster, and Toaster Oven.