Decisions, decisions

We're making progress in the decision making department.
On black friday I actually got my husband to go shopping!! And it's a good thing too, saved a total of 25% off our appliances (a little over $1K) :)

We picked:
GE Dishwasher Model # GLDT696TSS (Sears)

Kenmore 5 Burner Gas Range with Convection oven option and Warming Drawer Model #72903 (Sears)

Sansung Over-The-Range (OTR) Microwave Model # SMH9187ST (Best Buy)

Samsung French Door Refrigerator Model # RF266AEPN/XAA (Best Buy)

Stainless Platinum finish doesn't show the finger prints like regular stainless steel, but still looks good :)

Cabinets: Blue Mountain Woodworking

They should be here on thursday to take the measurements so we can finally get them under contract.

We're going with Maple wood stained cinnamon with beaded inset drawers and doors. Base cabients will be standard size. The uppers will be 36" tall and 15" deep since the inset reduces the inside cabinet space. We're getting a double silverware tray drawer, Soft close drawers and 2 base cabients with pullout trays.

This is the sample in their showroom. It's not quite as red in real life

Hardware: I don't have a picture but I picked a flat black, bin pull style drawer pulls and knobs for the doors.

Countertop: Gold Venetian Antique Granite (with the antique finish it has a little bit of texture and won't be as shiny/glossy as most granites)

Floor: We're doing locally quarried black slate tiles. We're going to use a matte searler so it'll look more like a chalkboard then a shiny smooth surface. I don't have any pictures

Sink: Rohl Shaw farmhouse (apron style)

Faucet: Delta Linden Pullout sprayer. Venetian bronze

Lights: TBD

We're going to do recessed lights and undercabinet lights but I also wanted a chandelier over the kitchen table and a pendant light over the sink.

I'll probably order this chandelier and maybe add shades down the line

Kichler: Salem - Chandelier 5 Lt Incandesent. Tannery Bronze





I absolutely fell in love with this pendant light from pottery barn but it's on backorder until March 21st :( I might just wait for it b/c I cannot find anything like it!

Serena Antique Mercury Glass Pendant - fluted cap: antique bronze, cord: black

I think those are the decisions we've made so far, but they're the big ones! of course it's the small details taht will probably drive me into the nut house :)



Kitchen remodel

It's been so long since I wrote a post I don't even want to try to catch you up on what's been going on since the last one.
But I do want to document the kitchen renovations since I don't want to forget the little details down the line. and I should probably start with documenting the construction (although this is probably something I'd rather forget)

I have determined that our house is a 1920's Bungalow style house. The entire thing is plaster/lath construction with next to zero insulation. Next year we'll be replacing all the windows and insulating from the outside and replacing the siding. I'm think the kitchen was probably changed around in the 70s or 80s since there was drywall behind the little bit of cabinets and that's about how old the fridge and stove look.

Here's what we started with as far as kitchen cabinets...

1st weekend - demolition

plaster/lath removal in the sun porch area and off the load bearing wall

2nd Weekend - Demolition (this time, we meant business! haha)

We took the entire sun porch off the house and rebuilt it except for the roof.

Saturday:

Windows removed

Outside wall removed

 Outside wall rebuilt

Sunday

Window openings fremed and sheething installed 

Monday

Windows installed

3rd weekend - Insulation (didn't take pictures) 

4th weekend - Demolition

The remaining plaster/lath was removed from the old kitchen.

View from the Hallway

View from the back wall where the table will be looking to where the stove will be

View from the window corner looking towards the living room/hallway

View from the door corner looking to where the sink will be 

Loving the sunrise :) 

Garden Tour

I'm a part of the cottage garden forum on gardenweb.com and I posted this "tour" of my yard last week to introduce myself. I love this forum, everyone is so nice, the advice you get is out of this world and I live vicariously through the pictures that everyone posts. I would definitely define my gardening style as "cottage" - very informal, I love complimentary colors and textures, there's always something blooming, things just grow into each other so there's really no room for weeds :)

So here we go...

Last year we totally re-did the front of the house. When we moved n they had some evergreen yews, a sick rhodedendron, a half decent azalea and some burning bushes. That's about it and they had to go! :) So these plants are only in there home for a little under a year now, and things seem to be growing quite nicely now.

Moving around the right corner (the west side of the house)

The only thing on this side of the house were some sickly looking yews and once again, they had to go! This is a mostly shade bed and there is a maple tree that's to my right as I took this picture just outside of the photo and that's a cherry tree in the back right corner. I want to eventually have the flower bed come down and around these trees.

And moving towards the back of the house..

This Bridals Wreath Spirea came with the house and I just adore it :) I have a Brunner Macrophylla in front of it and it's by far one of my most favoriate plant purchases. when it was in full bloom it had the most electric blue flwoers = Awesome!

And turning to face the back yard...

This bed is also brand new, less then a year old. The shrubs on the right and left are lilacs we rescued from my dad's friends (lilacs send out shooters and are easy to dig up and relocate or just remove) the shrub in the middle is a Ninebark "Coppertina". That's where we buried the dog.

From the front of the new bed facing the back of the house. I have since added more rescued plants and some of my seedlings to this area so I'll need to add an updated photo soon.

And from the back yard looking at the back of the house. This whole garden bed was a result of our sewer project last year. (we had a blockage in our lateral near the house and had to remove the deck and excavate from the house to the white cleanout/vent stacks you see near the deck steps in this picture. Thankfully we have a friend with a backhoe who works for beer and chocolate chip cookies so it all worked out, but Chris and I did the rest of the final grading ourselves.)

The same bed, just a different view. I'm slowly filling in this area with more seedlings and rescued plants :)

This is the back yard looking East. We have an alley separating our house from our neighbors. The large tree in the middle a silver maple and the bain of my gardening existence. this thing has such shallow roots and sets seeds in helicopters 2xs a year. I hate them with a passion! I added a new bed around the tree and between the 2 pine trees - I call this my alley bed.

The view of the back yard from the alley. the "sidewalk" in the front of the picture is temporary and we just moved 2 tons of bricks from my mom and dad's house this weekend to put in a free-form walkway (not as boxy as the concrete sidewalks). The hill by the deck is scheduled be cut out and we'll be adding a retaining wall and a deck hopefully in the near future.

And here's the "alley bed". I had just transplanted most of these perennials so they're still looking a little said. This will look 1000 times better once we mulch. Lord only knows when that will happen though.

The east side of the house looking towards my front perennial bed. That's where I started gardening and the eventual plan is to continue that bed down to the Alley bed. I hate cutting the grass on this hill and my solution is to plant it up so I don't have to :)

And here it is - my first perennial bed. I have morning glory that grow up the railing on the front porch and I added some more plants to cover the foundation. it's a hard area to plant though, it's only about 12-14" wide between the house and the sidewalk and it's dry shade.

Saying goodbye

By far the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life was make the decision to put our dog to sleep. He was just too sick, we tried everything we could to save him and in the end (after dropping half of his body weight) we knew it was time to say goodbye. So April 29, 2010 Druppy, Chris and I enjoyed one last snuggle in bed, laid in the grass and watched the clouds pass by for the last time and shared one last piece of pizza.

And then that was it. He was gone.

Maybe someday I'll stop breaking down in tears when I think about him.

He will always be our first dog, our first baby, our first little buddy.

We will always miss him.

He will never be replaced.

Ha may not have the best dog in the world, but he was ours and we loved him.

He was a daddy's boy, that's for sure.

And he loved being dirty!

but at the end of the day, his favorite spot was right at our heads on the back of the couch.

My yard...through April 10th

So the frequent updates didn't happen as I had hoped

That just means this post will be full of more pictures, and so will the next one! :)

April 1st

This is the part shade bed, on the West side under the Cherry Tree.

There's not much to see now, but be paitent :)

This is the front (north side) of the house towards the west. In the middle is a white azalea and right by the bird bath is a leucothue

And this is the east side of the front of the house, again...not much to see...yet!

Here are 2 toad lily's emerging.

These are really cool plants for a shade/pt. shade area...they bloom in the fall which is rare.

Chris and I laid out the veggie garden

April 4th

Pt shade bed and lilac bed.

Gaura came back, liriope is looking a little sick but the daffodils are starting pop

Brunnera

New growth - Astilbe

Another astilbe returning

East side perennial bed

Cherry Tree, lilac, daffodils

April 5th

creeping pholx from my neighbor.

I had no idea what this was, I didn't figure it out until it started blooming

Brunnera and Daffodils

April 7th

Daffodils, Brunnera, creeping Phlox and wild violet

Daffodils, Rose Bush, foxglove

Azalea buds

Waldsternia, barren strawberry

Weigila leaf buds - I thought this was a goner...so excited to see life! :)

What a difference a few days make!

So glad my mom spotted this one - it's Frittileria, checkerbloom. I planted 14 bulbs last fall, this is the only one that bloomed :(

April 10th

Winter sown jugs that have germinated and transplanted Hollyhocks and Alyssum seedlings

Lilac bed with campanula, gaura, liriope, lamb's ear (transplatned from the yard!) and Brunner in the middle by the hose

Toad lily, Azalea, and bleeding heart

Astilbe

I finally spotted new growth from my Tiarella!

New growth from the Blue Star Amsonia