Too much of a muchness

My kitchen cabinets will be redone in four weeks time. I’m pretty excited about this, having dreamed and planned and talked about this for several years. PG is also excited about this, as he’ll no longer have to listen to me dream and plan and talk about it.

The kitchen designer had told me to wait until the cabinets were done before choosing a new countertop. She said that I needed to see how it looked in the room with the light in there to get a good idea of what colours might work best. At the time, I thought that seemed reasonable.

However, now I’m thinking the current dark greeny-grey countertops will look rather hideous with the dark reddish-brown colour I’ve chosen for the cabinets and I don’t know how long I will be able to live with such ugliness. Also, I don’t know how much lead time would be required to manufacture and bring in the countertop I eventually choose, then to have it installed. So I need to get on this very soon.

Then I started thinking about my sink. I had originally thought that I would keep the one I’ve got, but then I decided that I wanted an undermount sink. I would need to purchase a new sink, as overmount sinks cannot be converted. I’m still not sure if my garburetor would pose any issues to such a sink. I need to find out.

I had always planned to get a new faucet, regardless of the sink I end up with. I have a vague idea of what I’d like. Very vague. That definitely needs to be firmed up.

Obviously, a visit to the nearest DIY store was in order. A reconnaissance flight, if you will. A fact-finding mission. I mean, I’ve done a fair bit of research on-line, but now it was time to go in and touch some actual things, to see some actual prices, to talk to some actual people who know stuff.

Well, I only lasted about 15 minutes in there. I just got incredibly overwhelmed! There was just SO MUCH! And this was in just one store! Plus, the store seemed to be quite busy, so there didn’t appear to be anybody who could spend quality time with me and help me wade through these deep waters.

But I will go back and try again.

Just not right away.

And not until I’ve had a stiff drink or two.

Paint-a-thon

My decade-long quest (thus far) to renovate and improve my home has moved another small step ahead. I have repainted the powder room and downstairs hallway and I have (or more precisely, PG has) changed the light fixtures in all three bathrooms.

Those particular walls used to be a light pink colour. (What, you thought I was nicknamed “Pinklea” just for fun?!) Now they are a darker, almost-burgundy-but-not-as-deep colour. I can’t really describe the colour very well (obviously), and it’s called “Merry Meredith” which is in no way useful. So here’s some photos: This is the downstairs hallway, complete with two pairs of DD’s shoes, my black sweater and my purple Lululemon hoodie just to prove that real people live here.

This is my little entrance hall, again with a pair of DD’s shoes to accessorize down there in the bottom left corner. (Sheesh, doesn’t that girl EVER put her shoes away?!)

Here is the powder room. No shoes this time. I was a little hesitant about painting this room darker, as it’s so small, but all the home decorating magazines say if you want to try dark, a small powder room is the place to try it. Which sounds rather paradoxical. But I tried it and I quite like the result.

And here is the new light fixture in that powder room. I’m so happy with it! I used to have those ugly vanity lights like on a make-up mirror, and this is so much nicer and so much less “this-house-was-built-in-1998”. The other two bigger bathrooms now have similar fixtures, only with four lights instead of the three shown here.

I’m pretty pleased with how this all turned out. It actually didn’t take a huge amount of time (although I could have worked more than just an hour or so a day – hey, I had other stuff to do!).

And now, I have three burning questions for you: 1) If I can do this in less than a week, why oh why can’t I get motivated and get my kitchen counters, cupboards and backsplash redone? 2) Am I now ready to be featured on some HGTV design program? 3) How on earth do I describe that colour?!?

Shut-in

… And in ongoing renovation news, the shutter has finally been installed on my kitchen patio door!

This has only taken eleven weeks from order to delivery. Or maybe more – I’ve actually lost track. The installer was here on Saturday morning, and he told me that the shutter was delivered to him much earlier, but it had holes in it from an “incident” with a forklift, so he sent it back with instructions for it to be redone. Good man, that installer.

Anyway, this is what the patio door used to look like:

You can’t really tell from this photo, but the mini-blinds are filthy (because I hate cleaning them and in fact am not at all proficient at doing it) and bent up near the bottoms (because of the very large dog that used to live here before I bought the place). The strings to hike the blinds up and down are absolutely black from use, and I haven’t a clue how to clean them – which begs the question, would I clean them if I knew how anyway?

And this is what the patio door now looks like with the new shutter and all its louvres open:

And with the louvres closed:

Aaaaaaaand one final photo with one of the bifold doors open oh-so-artfully:

I’m pretty pleased with the end result, though. There’s a bit less light than before, but it’s a south-facing kitchen so it’s quite bright anyway. The down side is that instead of two blinds to open and close each day, there are now eight sections of louvres to open and close each day. A bit more effort is required, especially if you are like me and insist upon opening your blinds every morning and closing them every night. DD is already miffed, but she’ll just have to deal with it.

Now that all the windows are sorted, I suppose my next step is to repaint the kitchen cabinets and have new cupboard doors put on and have a breakfast bar built and get a new sink and new countertops. (I’m sure I’ll think of more stuff – just give me time!) But you know, I’ve got this trip to Egypt coming up, and I’ve only got so much money. Priorities, priorities.

Speaking of priorities, I need to go adjust the louvres on my new shutter now. This could take some time – there are eight of the suckers, after all.