Today's the day: Countertop Installation

Well, here we go. We are waiting on the countertop dudes to arrive. Before the chaos ensues, I thought I would memorialize the laminate-that-was:

Ahh.

And here's the view from the other side of the "Cheeseburger Window:"

We got inspired the day the guy came to template the countertop and asked him to measure for the piece in the opening of the Cheeseburger Window, too. I'm excited for that; because it was less than 5 square feet, it didn't affect the cost of the project at all. (!) I've removed the moulding from the sides; the countertop guys will take off the sill-piece that's there, then we'll trim the old moulding and put it back.

So... that's where we are right now. I'll update as I can get more pictures. In the meantime, party in the dining room:

UPDATE:  Sink is out; the Mr. spent awhile on the floor.

In the foreground are tools integral to the job: drill bits, a spray nozzle, and a spoon.
UPDATE: Old counter is out.
UPDATE: OMG, SHINY!  Also, the new sink is HUGE.
UPDATE: Slight hiccup with the faucet-hole placement. Offset sink with bowl on left + faucet with attached lever on right + soap dispenser + sprayer thingie = interesting combination.

FINAL UPDATE: It's dooooone!!! Yaaaay!  We love it. Sorry for the blurry/dark/grainy/cropped pictures, we have a good bit of  'touching up' to do on parts of the cabinets that had been covered by the lip of the old counter and I was trying to find an angle that looked as complete as possible. We're not hooking anything back up tonight.. we figure we should let the silicone cure or whatever.  Also, the fumes are killing our brain cells and we need a beer to celebrate.

The enhanced Cheeseburger Window (it's like a wee breakfast bar!):

The installation guys were great--they did a super job with topsy-turvy cabinets, walls, and cutouts. Can't wait for y'all to see it!

Less than $10: An Ode to Craigslist

Speaking of "less than $10," my sister-in-law informs me that somebody on HGTV recently spray-painted a chandelier like we did. Maybe we should demand royalties. But back to Craigslist: for eight bucks apiece, we picked up these two chairs from (as it turned out) someone who lives about three miles down the road from us. They're a neat shape, and the finish looks great with our dining table. They needed some cleaning up, and besides a minor flaw that we discovered when we got them home (their arms are about a quarter of an inch too high to fit under the table), I think they're going to work. I took off the cushions (one was red, one was green. I didn't ask.):

...and recovered them with upholstery fabric.

I may recover them again at some point. This fabric, despite how the picture looks, is not at all pink, but different shades of gold; some blocks are warmer, and some have a greenish tint I thought would blend nicely with the green chairs and the gold-ish walls. Ultimately, the checkerboard bit is a lot less subtle in our house than it was in the store and I still may keep my eye out for other options. At any rate, the Christmas cushions and stains and such are gone and I'm happy with that for now. We still have to figure out how best to fix the arm-height problem. So far our plan is to saw a half-inch off the bottom of all the legs. Either that or screw something into the feet of the table that raises it up enough. Suggestions?

We Bought A House (and a Lizard)

Yep. Came right along with it. Freebie. To best illustrate how we came to know this, imagine the following scenario: THE MR.: "Where did that bill go?" THE MRS.: "Oh, it's in the office. I'll get it--"

LIZARD: "Hey." THE MRS.: (freeze) THE MR.: "Oh, look, a little [insert colloquial term for lizards that I've already forgotten]." LIZARD: "Got any cheetos?"* THE MRS.: (pointing) THE MR.: "... I'll get it." It was deposited on the patio, after which it most surely scampered back inside to wherever it came from in the first place. Before it got a chance:

("'Sup.")

The Captain never noticed. Which was probably a good thing. *As in, "I heard you fed a slug one once."

The $5 Chandelier Experiment

Well, before I get too far I'd like to take you all off yer tenterhooks and say that the experiment was a success, thanks in no small part to the help of my father-in-law (and my mother, who didn't say, "you're going to do what to it?" and instead helped me prepare it for a makeover.) Back to the beginning. While ceiling fans are great (we know, we've been living without them), we wanted something a little closer to the ground (have I mentioned the ceilings in the old part of the house are 10 feet?) in the dining room. I'm not a huge fan of overhead lights that hug the ceiling, so a chandelier seemed an obvious option. New chandeliers, however, are expensive. I didn't like a lot of what I saw in home improvement stores. I liked some things I saw elsewhere: Pottery Barn:

Restoration Hardware:

But! spending $300-500 on a light fixture would be painful, I think, even if we could. So we (admittedly) went pretty far in the opposite direction and decided to try and make a $5 chandelier we found at a Habitat ReStore work. The last vestiges of the old fan (sorry for not taking a more complete 'before' picture):

I'm having trouble finding the picture I took of the chandelier, pre-makeover, but it looked pretty much like this--only older, and having been ripped unjudiciously out of the ceiling of its former home:

My father-in law attached a new wire and chain to the top (the old one was about 2 feet long, and since the old fan was in the middle of the room and the table wouldn't be--lest you need to crawl over it to get to the kitchen--we needed some length to swag). We then hung it in the carport to be spray-painted (which, by the way, was an interesting look; it's surreal having a fairly formal-looking chandelier hanging over the hood of your car.) I then spray-painted the whole thing, chain and all, with Valspar "Metal" spray-paint in "Graphite," which is a tad browner than it appears in this picture:

The above was taken after the "candle" sheaths were replaced. They were removeable, so we took them off pre-spray-paint and wrapped painters' tape over the bulb sockets inside. A close-up:

By the way, it wasn't dark when I took this. It was overcast. This was one project that was going on during the "great moving-weekend storm" that left puddles of mud inside and out, made our yard look like a convention of chia pets come to roost, and effectively splattered all of the tile-and-saw-dust from the goings-on with the floor all over the side of the house. But you know, whatever. We got a good chance to tell if there were any roof leaks. So... given the chandelier, the wiring kit, and 2 cans of spray paint (I probably could have gotten away with one, but I wanted to be sure it was as even as possible), we're now up to about $27 for the whole project. Finally, my father-in-law attached the whole thing to the ceiling where the fan had been, and we flipped the breaker. Success! In situ, with ten tiny shades attached (these we found at Lowe's):

Not too shabby, for a total of about $60 (including the shades, which weren't strictly necessary, and the extra hardware for the swag hook, which needed to be longer than the one in the kit due to how the ceiling was constructed). We're really pleased with it, and it makes the room look a whole lot different. So.. lessons learned, I guess--it's great to have a family member who's handy with the electrical stuff (had we not--I'm thinking of that Pepsi Max commercial. "Ready?.... Nooo."), and don't try to spray-paint the underside of something while your face is four inches away from it and upside-down. Especially if you wear contacts. My eyeballs haven't fallen out yet, but it was iffy there for awhile. More pictures to come, once the room is clear of boxes and we get the table/chairs in place. Thanks to all who helped!

Four Green Chairs, ISO Large, Fun-loving Table.

"Hi."

As we have never before had a dining room to call our own, it might come as no surprise that we had no dining furniture. Call me naive, but I didn't realize that SIDE CHAIRS could cost $200 (or more!) APIECE. Thus, our outlets for finding dining furniture have looked more like thrift stores and consignment shops. Which, actually, has been really fun. I'm kind of picky about this, and won't order anything online without seeing it first--this is our first house and the first time we've actually been responsible for finding our own furniture to serve a specific purpose. Thus! We were really happy to find this set of 4 (green!) side chairs for a steal at a local shop. They'll be the first of a set of chairs that we'll be able to use not only as dining chairs but extra seating throughout the house. The wall color in the dining room (hard to tell from this photo) is a kind of mustard-yellow, so they complement it really well. When we bought the fabric for the upholsterer, I also found some more that blends this emerald green with mustard yellow AND a soft cadet blue--something that will coordinate our dishes (and the new kitchen wall color--but more on that later) with all the green and yellow. What'll we use the fabric for? Seat cushions (or covers, if we find chairs we like that have upholstered seats), a piano bench seat, or a curtain panel--BWA, HAHAHAHA. The chairs are table-less right now, but they shouldn't be after this weekend. Pier 1 has an amazing table (big, slab-top, distressed--everything we were looking for) that we'll pick up as soon as we have the vehicle to do so. We weren't looking for too formal a table; this is going to have to serve every purpose we could throw at it--breakfast, dinner, crafts, games, easter-egg dying--so we wanted something we wouldn't always be worried we'd ruin. This is a horrible picture, but should give you an idea (fyi, it's Pier 1's "Torrance" table, and it's big--84" by 42"):

I think that's it re: Table and Chairs. Will post pictures once table has arrived and is constructed...