The Tile is Here

My subway tile for the kitchen backsplash has finally arrived.  Now we just need my parents to get here with the tile saw so we can install these lovely tiles.

The tile is from S'tile (but made by Gainey Tile in California).  It is 3X6 handmade tile in cotton white.  It has kind of a matte finish that I think will go nicely with my simple white kitchen.  

A Vegetable Garden Journey Part 2

We finally got around to working on our raised beds again--and got the cooperation of the weather.  It was a fabulous weekend and if we hadn't run around so much we might have gotten more done.  As it stands, we have five boxes built, two to go, and a lot of leveling of the ground to match all the leveling we did on the boxes.  But we are well on our way to a lovely raised vegetable garden  Here are a few pictures (from each angle):

We are trying to come up with solutions to keep out the rabbits and deer.  I have thought about planting repellent plants but am not sure how well they work.  We have been told that you pretty much have to put a fence around your garden.  One neighbor said their cat keeps the bunnies away--we don't have a cat, but I have been pondering planting catnip to attract the neighbors cat to do the job.  

Do you have any suggestions?  

Closure. . .Literally

My missing cabinet doors have finally arrived. . .and only. . .26 days past the original finish date! 

Plus the painter came and fixed the gap around my farm sink--LOVE it!

Now if only our backsplash tile would get here. . . 

Hardware Is In

The cabinets are almost entirely done now.  The hardware went in and most of the finishing touches are complete.  I still need three of my glass doors to come back from the cabinet shop and a couple touch ups still need addressed, but the rest is up to us to do ourselves (moulding, tile, etc.).  Here are a couple pictures:

A Vegetable Garden Journey

First, how old am I?  Geez, one day working in the yard and I feel like I might be broken.  That is some sad commentary on my physical fitness of late.  I blame it on the homework.

Anyhow, in an effort to avoid said homework--and prepare a home for these:

We worked on our side yard trying to prepare for a raised bed garden.  When we moved in there was one tall spindly pine tree over there and three sad looking raised beds.  The tree came down on one and the other two were rotten--so we tore them all out.  Last year all we managed to do was throw a few vegetables in the dirt pile and call it quits.

This year I have bigger ambitions.  Here is where we were this morning:

Things were going fine until we ran into this:

We ground out most of the stump last year but apparently we missed this little lovely number.  Hours of shoveling and axing and digging and a little chainsawing. . .  and we had exposed a big chunk, but little else.  Our very nice neighbor came over and offered his assistance--and his truck. . . and chains.  (Note the rake for size reference--that bad boy was huge.)

Voila!  Out it came. Yeah!

Then we set to work putting in our first raised bed.  But everywhere we tried to dig for the corner posts we hit roots under the surface. 

 

FINALLY, a few feet farther forward than we intended, we have one bed.  

And we got a little eager so we transplanted our lonely blueberry bush into it.  We will buy it some friends.  For now I hope it lives through the traumatic five foot move.  If we had more lumber we would have built another one in like twenty minutes.  The area against the garage is all ready to go.  We started with the worst corner. . . I hope.

During our excavation we rescued a handful of chive plants, my garlic plants, and three mysterious bulbs that I will plant in a pot and see what comes out.  Whew!  

Now it is a race to see if the beds are ready before the 70 odd plants I have growing in little peat pots need to be planted.  I will be sure to post our progress.

Down To The Details. . .

. . . in other words: "Alright already!  I want my kitchen back."

Now that we have been on this month long journey to a new and fabulous kitchen it seems to have slowed to a snail's pace.    This week we. . . put up the second part of the crown!   And that is about it--oh, and they took three doors away to fix that had issues. . . and they are looking for the glass doors that go on the cabinets by the fridge--they never made it back when that cabinet got rebuilt.  This may sound like they aren't doing a great job when in fact they are.  Our installer has taken an inordinate amount of time adjusting each cabinet to make sure it is flush and level. . .I am just ready to put my dishes in my cupboards and reclaim my space.

Oh, I actually started to do that anyway--regardless of the missing doors and hardware (The missing doors are glass anyway so they will look a lot like this).  Here are the most recent pictures:

I am stilling working on the arrangement of these glass hutch cupboards.

A look at my ceiling - it is a little rough since it is painted pine, (and we didn't sand it much) but I've decided I like it that way.

Still to do:

1.   Door adjustments

2.   Bring back missing doors

3.   Hardware installation

4.   Sink fix (there is a gap around the sink due to a misunderstanding that will be getting fixed)

5.   Moulding around window and door to formal dining room (otherwise known as the piano           room since no dining occurs there)

6.   Backsplash tile installation

7.   Hardwood floor fixes (it needs to be stained in areas where the cabinet footprint changed           slightly--then a final topcoat put on)

8.  Final touch ups

So you see it's not as close as it looks. And now that I just catalogued what still needs to get done it seems less close than it did a minute ago.  Maybe I will go put more dishes away--that seems to help.

What do you think so far?  How would you go about arranging the hutch cupboards? Should I put cafe curtains on my kitchen windows (I never meant to but they suddenly look like cafe curtain windows!)?