I was talking with a friend the other night who told me that
her son had cracked the screen of his new iPhone 6, and though he had
insurance, there was still a $200 deductible to replace it.
That’s ridiculous.
Two Hundred Dollars for a deductible -- not for an automobile. For a PHONE.
My youngest son has gone through a few (too many) phones as
well. After his last “incident” which
destroyed his iPhone 4 -- which, by the way, was the SECOND iPhone 4 he’d had
in the last six months, this one being a replacement to his first one to “hold
him over” until the iPhone 6 was released -- I told him he’d had to make do
with an antique replacement that we bought off one of Zach’s buddies for $30
until he saved enough money to pay for half the cost of his new iPhone 6. He would be eligible for an upgrade in mid
August, but there would still be a hefty cost associated with this new “amazing
technological advancement.”
During the waiting, for whatever reason, he could not
directly text his dad with this antique phone. The messages would not deliver, but they’d
deliver to my phone, no problems. He
normally would only text me when he needed something -- come get me, pick up X
at the store, etc. Suddenly, I began
getting far more texts. I became the
middle man.
(He's recently begun dabbling in the market.)
He has since gotten his new iPhone 6 and taken pleasure in
showing me all its bells and whistles. I
look at my iPhone 4, which has served me rather well. Yes, it’s smaller than the newer models. Not as many features. The camera isn’t as good. It needs a new screen protector. But there are far more important things on my
gotta-have-it list than an upgrade to new and improved.
A knee-length camel wool coat
A new coffee/cordovan leather purse
New gym clothes
Besides, this kitchen has put a crimp in our budget for ... well, for quite a while. And those things on my wish list? Well, they're going to have to wait. Maybe next year? My black winter coat will last another winter -- or two. And my purse doesn't have a wow factor, but it's functional. And my gym clothes are getting slightly ragged on the edges, but grunge is fashionable, right?
It's good. It's all so very good. I'm loving my kitchen. It's definitely been worth some sacrifices. A little less spending for a while, a leaner Christmas. No new iPhones.
And as I gaze out the window of my new kitchen and feast on the morning light showering my mums, I smile inside. I think I'm ready for another cup of coffee.
We are souls drawn to The Light. Light brightens our world, our mood, our spirit, our path. It is a source of hope where there is none.
When we began remodeling our kitchen, strategic lighting was a big deal for me -- choosing the RIGHT lighting, the right placement. Our kitchen having been gutted, it was a bit of a challenge to visualize the best placement for light, but with the help of the contractor having done this so many times before, I was able to plan for The Grand Illumination of my dreams.
“Let there be light,”
God
said.
And it
was good.
All can lights were relocated in the ceiling, aligned in two rows and moved more centrally. The three pendant receptacles were installed over the center island, centered, equally spaced -- after much thought and measuring, measuring, and re-measuring to get it just right. Accent lighting was placed in the glass-front cabinet and underneath all cabinets. And I asked the contractor to place receptacles on the walls of each space where the tall cabinets are staggered with shorter cabinets. This would allow me to have as much -- or as little -- subtle accent lighting as I'd like, depending on the season and my decorating moods.
I browsed Houzz, Pinterest, and other online retailers for months before choosing the island pendants and the chandelier over the kitchen table. I wanted simple, yet elegant, preferring an antique or oil-rubbed bronze finish. After collecting a gazillion images of lighting options in my design file, I finally found The Ones from LampsPlus.com. They caught my eye immediately and shouted: "Choose me! Choose me!" My search was over.
Dimmer switches (one of mankind's greatest inventions) were placed on both. I find myself fooling with the dimmers constantly, standing back and watching the light reflect off the warm hues of the granite countertops like candlelight. Ahhh. Illumination at its best.
Extending the hardwood from the kitchen into the family room area allowed for even more reflection of light, both in the day and at night. Amazing how that seemed to open up the space of the living area. After affixing felt pads to all the furniture, it's been moved back into the kitchen and family room area. I've placed low-wattage accent lamps on different pieces of furniture as I begin the decorating process, adding warmth and ambiance to the living space. It's starting to come together, just as I'd hoped.
Last Saturday I took advantage of the warm weather to thoroughly clean the kitchen windows, inside and out. The horizontal blinds had been removed along with the heavy drapes that bordered the outside of the three windows. I've decided to instead go with simple, ivory-cream, lightly textured linen-like grommet sheers to allow as much light in as possible when extra privacy was needed. I bought the extra long length so that I could hang them close to the ceiling. For the most part, the sheers are kept pulled to the sides to allow a flood of sunlight.
Now, as I sit at the kitchen table, I can look out onto the stone patio, my view totally unobstructed.
I thought I'd track the progress of the kitchen remodel from day to day with photos. This is how it looked Monday evening, the first day they began construction/demolition. All cabinets removed, pantry removed, crap exposed. I haven't taken many more photos, because frankly, there would not be a huge difference to be seen. But there IS still progress. It's what's going on "under cover," the little stuff, the details that take time but don't get noticed. Wiring, and rewiring. Relocating plumbing. Relocating air vents.
Progress would probably be more noticeable UNDER the house than IN the house.
So I come home anxiously each day from work, hoping to see progress. And though it's there, it's not as obvious as one would hope to see. Sometimes progress can be slow. But without those details taken care of first, the fruition of the big picture could not take place.
We spent Wednesday night taking up the carpeting in the family room that connects to the kitchen, rolling it up and storing it in the garage -- to use in the living room where the carpet there needs updated. We then had to rip up and haul away the padding, followed by painstakingly (slow progress) pulling staples out of the subfloor with needle-nosed pliers, preparing it for the laying of the new wood floor boards. And that will take place today! So when I get home today, I'll see wood floors in the family room where there once was carpeting. Big visible progress! And at some point they'll strip all the existing wood floors in the downstairs, then stain everything with the first coat. Followed by cabinet installation -- all big, noticeable changes. It's a process. It takes time.
Back in late August I set a goal to lose ten pounds by October 11th for a cocktail party that we'll be attending in Manhattan, celebrating the recent wedding of our friends' oldest son and his wife. They were married in The Caribbean about a month ago, and decided to postpone their reception and have it instead in Manhattan where they reside. Well, I'm not gonna make that ten-pound goal by next Friday when we leave. As of today, I'm down 5 lbs. Slow progress? Yes. But better than no progress.
I suppose there were a few "rough patch" days when I lost focus a bit, could have tried harder. I wasn't 100% every day, 24 hours a day. No. I wasn't. But I made progress, and that's what's most important. And maybe, if I DO GIVE 100% between now and next Friday, I can probably drop another pound of fat, which in the big scheme of things may not sound like a lot, but one pound actually does make a difference when you're close to goal.
While shopping for their wedding gift the other day, I spied a cute little black cocktail dress hanging on an end cap of dresses that had been marked down. It was sleeveless, the left shoulder a narrow strap with little black sequins. Classy, sexy, and all black. LOVE. I grabbed that baby off the rack, praying it was my size -- and it WAS! I raced to the dressing room, slipped it on, and it wowed me instantly. Thrilled! It was the perfect dress for the occasion and at a FANTASTIC price. I already have the shoes, the jewelry, and after my manicure next Thursday, I'll be all set.
I've been to the gym twice this week, and I'll have another leg day -- my big day -- tomorrow. In addition, two mornings this week of outside cardio -- running. One morning, it was just steady jogging, and this morning it was hill sprints for HIIT cardio, following by power walking all the way back to the house. The morning sky was a watercolor canvas of melons and bright blues as I was finishing up. It felt good to breathe, to witness the beauty of a new day while clearing my mind and challenging my body.
Assuming I fail to drop another pound between now and next Friday, I'll not be terribly disappointed. I won't give up. I still want to drop those extra five pounds. But I need a timeline to make it a concrete goal. So now my goal is to lose five pounds between now and Thanksgiving. That's very doable -- measurable progress in reasonable time. I will then have arrived at my goal weight. The big picture. I can do this. I'm on my way ...
We've been planning a kitchen remodel since mid July. Here it is the last week in September, and we're FINALLY gonna see the action. Wow, remodeling takes time -- and lots of patience. Far more time than I realized. Planning, research, bidding, budgets, costs, ordering, working out the scheduling nuances between the construction team and the floor guy.
Knowing that we plan to put our home on the market in three to five years and relocate to NC, we are aware that updates will be necessary to attract quality buyers, especially given the age of our home. Our kitchen is dated, and it is in bad need of a facelift. It should have been done years ago, but raising our sons, we seemed to never have the resources for such a huge and costly project. There were two other updates that HAD to be done, non-negotiable --- a new roof, replacing the air conditioning unit for the upstairs.
Though not essential, a few years ago we decided to build a stone patio to add aesthetic appeal to the exterior. And THAT project was my husband's baby. His forte is landscaping. It's what he enjoys, and he takes a lot of pride in our lawn, plants, garden and special exterior touches. He collected stone from his mother's farm and hauled load after load to our home, painstakingly designing, placing, cutting and laying the stone over the course of a few weeks -- with the help of our two oldest sons. The stone, fortunately, was free. The monetary costs of that project were rather painless -- except for his labor, of course. And he did a fantastic job!
As I think about how anal he is when it comes to our lawn and landscaping, it reminds me of the time I thought it would be nice to surprise him while he was away for the weekend and have the yard mowed when he arrived home. MISTAKE. I butchered the hell out of our yard -- the blade had gotten dislodged, of which I was unaware (long story for another post), and one side of the mower was cutting short, the other side rather tall. Atrocious sight! And I couldn't figure out why it looked so horrible, so I just kept mowing and mowing and mowing ... to FIX it! I've not offered to mow since.
Back to the kitchen update. So we've done our homework, the cabinets we ordered have arrived and are sitting in our garage. I keep peeking inside the box, running my hand across the smooth beautiful cherry/chocolate glazed finish.
It seems like forever trying to get this show on the road, but so much has gone into the planning, and ordering, and budgeting. Kitchen remodels, we found, are NOT cheap. We're looking at twice the cost of what we THOUGHT we'd have to spend. OUCH. Expensive undertaking! But hey, it needs done. So overdue. We figured we may as well get this done now so that we can enjoy our new kitchen for a few years before we put our home on the market and relocate south. So we bit the bullet and schmoozed our man Eddie (Eddie the banker -- he's a good guy that Eddie!) at our bank to secure a line of credit to help finance this. We're confident that this is a wise investment and trust that we'll profit with a nice return on our expense when we get ready to move.
Make it warm, please: We have oak trim throughout all of our home, and oak flooring in the kitchen, dining room and foyer. As a result, we've had to stick to a warm color palette. The oak? Hate it. It MUST go. But having to go with warm shades is actually right down my alley, since autumn hues absolutely intoxicate my senses. A coziness unsurpassed.,,,,,,,,,,,,I think of the warms of Spain ... THAT feel. YES. The color of warm.......It's like an innate thing with me...deep down into my soul....like warm whispers.....
So in choosing cabinetry, we knew without a doubt that the oak cabinets and those hideous shiny brass pulls HAD to go. Our new cherry cabinets will have oil-rubbed bronze pulls, and the cabinets will be staggered -- tall, short, etc. One set will be lighted with glass shelves, and seeded glass doors that reminds me of rain. We're going with stainless appliances, and they're due to arrive on Monday. My youngest son is most excited about having a new stainless frig. He hates our current frig -- we all do. It's old, and ugly and somewhat falling apart. But it still works, and so we've just put up with it, waiting for it to die so we could replace it. It's TIME.
The only snafu we've run into is our granite. We've been to the local granite dealer several times trying to find the granite we want, and because we didn't get our line of credit finalized in time, they sold the granite we'd chosen to someone else. It was one of those show-me-the-money-or-your-granite-gets-sold. So another trip back to the yard when the new shipment of that line came in, and since not all granite is the same, sure enough, it had some peachy, weird hues vs. more cream. Nah! Not digging that. And I'm not paying that kind of money for granite unless I find exactly what I want. So we either wait and gamble on another shipment -- which could screw up the schedule and delay completion -- or make a road trip this week down to NC to another granite dealer to see if they have what we're looking for.
Of their choices on their website, I'm leaning toward Kashmir Gold. We need to keep it light. Our cabinets are cherry with chocolate glaze, and our oak floors, badly stained in places, will be stripped and finished a little darker, a light walnut of sorts -- out with that yellowish-orange-y ugliness. So we need the contrast of lighter counter tops with a little warmth added in. Our contractor says he won't need the granite for another two to three weeks, which is when he'll need to measure for the plumbing, so we have a small window of time to find our granite. The hunt is on!
For the lighting, we decided to go with three pendants for over the island. Right now we have only can lights. We'll keep some of those and add a few more in strategic places, in addition to the pendants! Warm...ambiance! Bring it on. I found these amazing pendants that were exactly the look I was going for (antique bronze) -- and with a chandelier to match for over the table -- and Lampsplus.com
Our garage is a maze of boxes -- the cabinetry, miscellaneous boxes of dishes, wine glasses, kitchen goods, non-perishable groceries, and decorative items that I've had to box away to get ready for the demolition Monday morning. I've emptied, and emptied, and emptied -- cabinets, drawers, shelves, pantry -- then boxed, and bagged, and tagged and hauled to either the garage or upstairs to an empty bedroom, their holding place. The old cabinets come down, the lighting gets moved and removed and replaced, the ceiling patched, the plumbing relocated...and the list goes on. The construction guys will drape heavy plastic all around the kitchen area to keep the dust down, and we'll be camping and cooking out in the living room with the bare necessities: coffee pot, microwave, crock pot, and a makeshift table/counter with a few chairs. I'll be washing dishes in a tub out in the garage every evening in the utility sink. I foresee eating out at least three times a week. Their call, not mine. Me? Give me a tub of Trutein protein, a coffee pot, and a grill, and I can make do for quite a while. But the men of the house are gonna want real food and more variety. Whatever.
This is definitely going to be messy and challenging. And it won't be easy. But without a doubt, it will be worth it in the end......Psssst....I can't wait!
I was talking with a friend the other night who told me that
her son had cracked the screen of his new iPhone 6, and though he had
insurance, there was still a $200 deductible to replace it.
It's good. It's all so very good. I'm loving my kitchen. It's definitely been worth some sacrifices. A little less spending for a while, a leaner Christmas. No new iPhones. 
