With the Same Passion

It's Saturday - How 'bout some Coltrane?

I could listen over

and over

and over

and over

and over

and over

and over

and over.

Slow Progress Is Better Than No Progress

View of the kitchen

standing in the family room

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 ...

A Measure of Moxie

I'd made a trip to Home Depot a few weeks ago

when making some decisions regarding our kitchen remodel.

Every now and then I head down the lumber aisle first,

hoping to find some discounted boards 

to use for sign making.

A measure of moxie.

"...You soak up

others’ moods and desires

like a sponge.

You absorb sensation

the way a paintbrush

grasps each color it touches

on a palette..."

I scored big time that day.

A customer had asked to have some lumber custom cut, and he didn't want the leftovers, 

so they just left them in the discount bin.

When I asked the Lumber Guy how much those random boards would cost 

at the discounted rate, he said,

"They're free.  Take 'em all if you want 'em."

He went on to explain that once a customer purchases a sheet of lumber, even if they have it custom-cut before leaving the store, it's store policy that the product has been sold to a customer 

and they can't turn around and resell the remnants to another customer.

So it's free:  First come first serve.

SCORED.

My first sign made from my haul:

After painting/distressing...

I printed out the lettering for tracing.

Then I filled in the letters with paint.

The finished product.

We'll Eat, Drink, and Be OH SO MERRIER!

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!

THIS PERFORMANCE

IS INCREDIBLE...

She just ROCKS the ending

Happy Birthday, F. Scott Fitzgerald

I’ll forever be an admirer of his life’s works.

His expressively impassioned descriptions of the human heart.

I feel as if I knew this man somehow …

but of course, I couldn’t have.

It’s that weird connection that people sometimes feel

with a complete stranger.

Perhaps.

So anyway…

Happy Birthday,

F. Scott Fitzgerald

September 24, 1896

Silver-Tongued Utterances