The Frugal Housewife: May 2006 Archives

Make sure you visit us over at Mamarazzi. Updates daily. ****** Yesterday I got nothing done. Nothing. Not one thing. After a busy week, busy weekend, and not enough sleep the grey morning and cool air left me lazy beyond lazy. I napped a few times yesterday, nursed the baby, visited a few of you and not much else beyond preparing supper. Last week was a flurry of activity as the pool was finished. Now we are just waiting for the builders to schedule the cover fitting and the concrete work needed to anchor said cover. Which reminds me I need to buy chlorine tabs. Mother's day was busy. I recieved lovely cards from everyone. But even on Mother's Day there is much to be done and one is still Momma, the great be all wonder that makes everything function properly. My kitchen project is kind of in a holding pattern. I haven't gotten much done than where I stopped in the middle of last week. But I do plan to plow ahead quickly this week and get things moving again. because next week I have a summer class at the community college I am really looking forward to taking. It involves local history and a field tip or two involving some very old and historic homes I am nashing my teeth at to get to see. This is how it is going so far - This is a photo of how the kitchen looked when we came to see the house before purchasing. I am posting it because I can't find my folder of photos that I have taken. On the far right of the photo is a double glass door and a bank of windows. Completely unseen and hidden. They had put a hutch and a refrigerator in front of those areas and completely blocked them out. We didn't know there was a double door nor the window until much later. These lights are flourescent. They are blindingly bright except when you are at the counter working. Then you are standing in your own shadow and cannot see a thing. Here on the right you can see the tops of the window. We did not know that was a bank of windows until our third visit. We replaced those lights and added a ceiling fan. This part of the house was not air conditioned at the time. It has nine and a half foot ceilings and the heat just hangs in the air in the dead summer. Also we added some task lighting and plan to install some under the cabinet lighting when the painting is finished. I really want to replace those cabinets with something nicer and in the color of a nice dark cognac. For now that part of the budget for the kitchen was spent on living during the 5 months Steven spent working for his company for no pay :( . I had to find a suitable way to brighten and enhance the look of the kitchen without buying new cabinets. I have taken to painting them. The color is everard chamber white. It is a kitchen and trim enamel paint in the Williamsburg collection of historic colors. On the left where there is paint smeared on the blue strip on the wall. That is where a room divider was on both sides. With these built in shelve things that were detracting and annoying. I took a sledge hammer to those shelves and posts and took them down opening the room up into a full length 27 foot room. It will be a kitchen/dining/den area for the family. -When I ever finish, that is. Instead of dumping everything out and having a gigantic mess everywhere I have been emptying one cabinet at a time. The cabinets have to be vacuumed, then cleaned, allowed to dry before 2 (sometimes3) coats of primer/sealer goes on (I am using Kilz) and then 2 nice coats of this luscious paint that is soooo very sexy to paint with! Once everything has had 24 hours to cure the cabinets are arranged and everything put back in its place. It makes for slow going but at the end of the day we are able to move around in the kitchen and there is very little by way of debris to have to clean up or stumble over. It has been raining part of the last several days so the painting of the cabinet doors has stalled. I like to paint them outside in the bright heat of the sun. They dry MUCH quicker and can go back up at the end of the day. That wallpaper is nasty. It was put up over the drywall BEFORE the drywall was primed or painted. Oh what fun that crap is to remove. I am looking at tin ceiling tiles to replace it with. First I have to find the perfect ceiling tile! I have managed to keep Steven entertained and get one coat of primer and paint on at a time usually though while he is napping. Colby is home from school now so it will be a huge blessing to have her to lend a hand both with the painting and keeping the baby happy. I have been hesitant to brag on what a good baby he is for the fear the powers that be might hear and knock me down a notch or two. But he is. I have never had a baby that would sit in a swing for 30 minutes or so or even one who would nap during the day. He swings, he naps and is generally happy. Which makes doing things around the house much easier than I ever dreamed. I am watching him now as he naps in the morning sun. He is the most delicious looking baby! How did I get to be so lucky?