Kitchen. The End.

The kitchen has been completed.
The tile installer finished over the weekend and here are photos of the final kitchen.
To refresh your memory, here is Before:



During:


And... (drum roll) here is the After:


You can click on any of these photos to see a larger image.

I am now pouring over a pile of receipts and paperwork to pull together the final numbers so I can tell you how far over-budget we went in a later post.

Paint!

Aside from the tile installer blowing us off for 2 days in a row, I'm still confident we will see the completion of the kitchen before we get a senior-citizen discount at the movies.

I met with the paint consultant today because I am totally insecure in my ability to chose paint colors. Cara spent about two hours with me today and we picked a group of paints for the entire first floor.

I feel great about the color Bristle for the kitchen and didn't understand why I can't just paint all the rooms that color, but Cara helped me find some other neutrals that I liked. Cara is big on browns, and I wanted to get away from the chocolate brown existing in the Living Room. In a startling change, I picked a blue-gray for the dining room to replace the bright red. I usually love a red dining room, but I'm looking for a change. We have no money or plans to paint any other room than the kitchen, but I like to have options.

So, the painters promise to come this week and I'm not losing hope the kitchen will be completed soon.

Note: all of these colors are C2 paints, except Sag Harbor Gray which is Benjamin Moore.

In the end it was quick

After months of agonizing about tile, we decided upon 2x9 carerra marble tiles, one of which can be seen above. This will match the marble counter on the island and its neutral so there's less of a chance we will regret an hour after installation.

It was ordered on Wednesday, we drove like maniacs on Saturday to pick it up before the store closed, and the tile installer is coming today!

Coming soon.. a plethora of paint-chips when the paint consultant arrives on Tuesday. The painters are scheduled for Wednesday.

In theory, the kitchen could be completed this week!

Finally the yard is useful

I pretended to be Martha today and went into my "garden" to pick flowers for a bouquet. The blooming bee balm, combined with the Alium that refused to grow upright, several hosta leaves and ferns has made a nice display, if I do say so myself!
Finally, watching home-shows non-stop on maternity leave is paying off!

First runner up

We were waiting for friends to arrive with dinner, and frankly, we were tired. So when Beech-nut 1 said "I want someone to play with me.", we raised our fists to prepare for rock-paper-scissors. But inspiration struck Jeff and he looked at her and said "Do you want to get the broom and sweep the kitchen? You can use the Swiffer". BN1 replied with a cheerful "No, thank you." No matter what, we have taught that child good manners!

Jeff looked away while slyly mumbling "Yeah, I bet you don't know how." Ever my child, her competitive streak stirred "What? What did you say?" she demanded to know. Jeff repeated his statement adding for good measure "I think you're still too little."

That did it. Squaring her shoulders and giving her father a Them's-Fightin'-Words look: "I'm not too little! Give it to me! I know how to sweep, Daddy!"

And that's how Jeff lost the Father of the Year award...

But hey! Our kitchen floor looks good!

Experiments with Moss

Here is the first of the "Growing moss in the yard under the Shade of a Beech Tree" experiments.

My mother generously spent time pouring over plants at the local nursery to discover they sold Gold Scotch Moss. She purchased 3 plants for us and Beech-nut 1 and I planted these today.



Find a good spot to plant.



We scientifically chose this location considering several key factors:
1. It is not in the path of foot traffic,
2. It is near a rock wall and there was a picture of a rock wall on the plant label,
3. It is in the shade,
4. My mom said it would be a good spot for the moss.



We dug a hole, weeded around the hole, planted the moss, and added water.

Now we play the waiting game.

The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

Trim

Its been a little slow at SOABT lately due to the newest Beech-nut being born 9 days early. Now that we're all home and healthy, we can move forward to complete the last few tasks left in the kitchen.

The trim around the windows and doors, the baseboards, and the final piece of crown molding was installed today. Due to the uneven nature of our walls and windows, it took our carpenter longer than expected to complete the work, but its now done and it looks amazing!