"Is that a light at the end of the tunnel, or a train?"

I just got these FABULOUS plant holders...They were delivered on Monday. They are made of iron and truly delightful works of art. The pot holder needs a larger bottomed pot than what I have in it in the front room but the alligator feet are awesome!

These are stork feet. You could actually use it for a small catch-all if you wanted to at the top instead of as a plant holder. Both pieces are very Edward Gorey to me and I love them! I don't think I'll have them outside in the elements as I think they would rust something fierce. However, I may put them out for the summer and then bring them in side for the rest of the year.

When Eddie picked Bean up at school last night, one of her teachers shared with him a new talent that she has learned:

At the end of the day when the parents come into the room to pick-up their children in Bean's class, she looks at the parent, then looks at the child who belongs to them, and the promptly goes over to the coat cubby and get's that child's coat and takes it to them.

Bean's morning teacher, Miss Kathy, who refers to Bean as her "Jo-Jo-Potato" told me that they got new safety locks for the diaper cabinets in her room and all of the teachers have been trying to be stealthy when getting diapers out to make sure that she isn't looking so she can't figure out how to get the new locks open.

Just give her time...She'll be a master-diaper-lock-cracker before the week is out!

Bean...can eat bananas...once again!!!

Talk about pulling the rabbit out of the hat...Lulu was surprised to see that the Easter Bunny had left her a basket this year. She's been particularly all kinds of awful with her behavior lately, so it's a miracle she was on the receiving end for this holiday. Lulu even said herself, "I didn't think the Easter Bunny was going to bring me a basket because I have been so stinky!"

Yeah, you, me and dad, too...

Easter Baskets this year were much simpler. Holiday rubber duckies, a small amount of candy (a good thing, too, since we just learned Lulu has a cavity that needs to be filled in two weeks) and of course, pop guns. Both girls got pop guns, and promptly, at least one of them was broken by the late afternoon. As was Lulu's bird pen (above). She managed to pull the rubbery body off it's form and then in an attempt to remove it's feet cover, snapped the pen in half.

The bulk of our Easter photos this year were taken while I was in bed. I love this picture of Bean, beautiful!

Looking for Easter eggs. It's hard to hide eggs when your little bunnies are raring to go (and you are exhausted and groggy) at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning...

Eddie got the sheetrock seams taped and mudded today. He'll start sanding once everything is dry and repeat a few more times. Once he's done the final sanding, we can prime the walls and put up the wallpaper on the two walls that will be papered...

And then we can start installing the upper cabinets!

I have a tendancy to throw myself into new creative arenas. I remember, once when I was the tender age of maybe 19, deciding to sew a shirt for a boyfriend as a birthday gift using silver tissue lame' fabric. Had I ever sewn using this specialty fabric? No, but that was besides the point. Once I decide to do something, I generally jump in with both feet after either researching the heck out of it or figuring out what needs to be done mentally to accomplish the task.

Take mosaic tiling for instance...

I originally wanted to order letter tiles to put in front of her, spelling out her name. But everything I could find online was either not our style or else were the wrong colors. And for the record, there isn't a lot of that (alphabet tiles) out there to choose from. They are called "house numbers and letters" and for spelling addresses out. So, instead, I morphed that idea into creating a custom mosaic tile hearth for underneath and spelling her name, that way. I'd pull in all the colors in the kitchen... Had I ever done such a thing before? No, but like I said above, that has never stopped me before. I found several good web sites on mosaic tiling and it didn't really look that difficult to me. I started by deciding on what kind of lettering to use and mapping it out on paper I snagged from Lulu's coloring pad.

Then I bought green tile that matched Agatha, a tomato red to pull the monkey wallpaper in, added black (since the top of Agatha is black) and then the fill in tiles would be the same rootbeer & gold metallic swirl that we'll be using as our backsplash around the kitchen.

Above, I've got the border done and most of the letters filled in. The last "A" gave me a little trouble.

I then started on the fill in tiles this weekend. It's a lot like playing Suduko and the old board game Operation. I use these tweezers, mostly, to place tile pieces with a little dab of glue on the back to adhere them to the cement backerboard (which is adhered to floor grade plywood). I also cut all the 1x1 inch tiles using glass cutters into strips and random cuts, and then kind of put everything together where they look like they would fit and be complimentary.

Here is an upclose of the fill-in glass around the letters. It looks dark but I think that it will be understated once it is all done and grouted (I think I want to go with an espresso brown grout). It will also blend in nicely with the laminate flooring we plan to install which is a dark espresso brown and caramel wood look.

It's coming along...Eddie has most of the sheetrock up and we only had a few mishaps (forgetting to cut for electrical outlets in one wall!). Once the walls are covered, he'll tape and mud the seams and then sand them. Ugh, more dust!

Some days, I can almost see the finished results....

Kudos to Eddie on his weekend warrior handiwork!

Eddie has gotten some insulation into the walls and sheetrock up in places. We still have a long ways to go, though. This nook has some insulation, but unfortunately, the corner across from it was finished without us doing the same thing to it a year an a half ago. It shouldn't be an issue though. Agatha is right there and with the rest of the kitchen stuffed with pink fiberglass, it should all be cozy. This is a bigger issue that must be tackled before insulation and sheetrock can be put into and up on this side of the wall. The support beams where the doorway used to be are splitting. Not good...Also, the upper shorter beams were just kind of thrown in willy-nilly by previous owners and not done properly. If we plan on completing the attic for the girls in coming years, that will need to be supported properly now, so we can do the work that needs to be done, then.

Eddie is going to have to take the back panel of the linen closet out so he can replace the beams and get the sheetrock to lay flush. This is going to be a big process and will most likely require the help of our next door neighbor to get it done.

The mystery hole in our floor that Eddie discovered when he pulled up the old flooring. We've been keeping the garbage can over it so we don't accidently step in the wrong place when in the kitchen. My guess is it was a floor intake vent prior to the kitchen getting redone who knows how many years ago...

Eddie was able to push the cast iron stove pipe back into the wall, thereby negating the need to cut a hole in the back of the upper cabinet that will go there to go over/around it. Also, he was able to properly reinforce this portion of the wall.

Still, we have a long way to go before our kitchen chaos is no longer, chaos! And as anyone who has done a build out or remodel knows, it's super stressful in general and affects all aspects of your life. My grandma joked if Eddie and I would still be speaking once everything was completed...We'll have to see! :D

(And I can't figure out the proper HTML code to make the spacing correct in the upper photo postings...ARRRGHH!!!)

Lulu: "Mom, when Zach and I are finished being married, can we come and visit?"

Me: "What, honey? What do you mean?"

Lulu: "When we're finished being married..." (meaning, post-wedding)

Me: "You mean, to visit or to live?"

Lulu: "Visit you. Will we live with you?"

Me: "No, honey, you'll live in your own house."

Lulu: "Oh, okay. But will there be any houses open?"

Me: "Open? You mean for sale? Yes, there will be plenty of houses for you and Zach to choose from."

Lulu: "What about my clothes?"

Me: "You'll take them with you."

Lulu: "How?"

Me: "You'll take them with you to your new house..."

Lulu: "But when will we see you?"

Me: "You'll come and visit us. We'll see you on holidays...You'll visit Zach's family. We'll have you over for breakfast on Saturdays."

Lulu: "Oh, okay!"

This lovely mess, is some of the infamous knob and tube wiring found in our kitchen. This batch controlled the dining room lights and the switch in the kitchen attached to the ceiling fan we installed on the first remodel wave.

The doorbell wires, were wrapped around the beam to keep it up before being set inside the sheetrock and plaster. Not sure why, but evidently, this is how things were done a long time ago. The doorbell will be placed in the center of the wall, above the door to the kitchen. Eddie will carve out a spot for it in the drywall, and then our large kitchen clock will hide it from view once the room is finished.

We think this used to be a doorway at somepoint, many years ago. Why do we think that? Look at how different the lath and plaster is in this section compared to the lath and plaster around it...

This is where the fridge used to be in the kitchen. Originally, we had great plans of making a second entry into the kitchen going through this wall (the linen closet is behind this portion of wall). But doing that would have added an enormous cost to our plans and opened up a whole can of worms, I'm sure. When you start doing major construction like that, it just creates a chain reaction on all the things you find or have to fix and repair and replace that you hadn't anticipted having to. Ironically, Eddie realized that there WAS a doorway there at one point after he got all the lath and plaster off and saw that, yep, there was the framework for the door. It also explains why the linen closet on the other side of the wall, lines up so perfectly. If we had done a doorway through, it would have eaten up a huge amount of space and we would have lost what little storage space we have by not going through. Always trade-offs...

Yep, that big hole above the former doorway looks straight up into our unfinished attic.

Electrical outlets being installed...

We'll have two electrical outlets when everything is done and two light switches. One will control the new back door porch light and the other will control the light that we're installing in the center of the ceiling in the bar (see below). Finally, decent light to read and work in that part of the kitchen at night.

Lulu getting ready to have us sing Happy Birthday to her.

Her birthday cake with Mickey Mouse and Pluto in an airplane. Lulu pronounces Pluto, 'Pluddo' as she's not that familiar with him...

We got video of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Lulu and her blowing out the candles, but it will probably never make the blog. Eddie's too busy with work and I don't know how to do that kind of blog magic, yet.

Included in Lulu's box of presents from family in California, belated Xmas gifts from Aunt Alice and Cousins Samantha and Andy, including this snazzy Hello Kitty set of bath "spa" products. (And dad was already warned that they are Lulu's, not his!)

Lulu was beyond excited to have received the movie "Bolt" for her birthday. All I have heard her complain about in the car coming and going to school recently is how it's no longer available to stream on Netflix and we need to get it. Good thing she had a birthday!

A cute picture of Bean!

Our Honey Bear is a whopping 5 years old today! Such a big girl... Here she is enjoying her special birthday breakfast of Lucky Charms before going to school. Tonight, she'll have pizza and birthday cake at Grandma's with all of us and then open presents.

This is what our kitchen looked like when we bought our house summer of 2008. Pretty, huh? But no room for Agatha, whom we knew we wanted to get in the next two years. Plus, you can't see if from this photo, but immediately to the right when entering the kitchen, was the stove that came with the house. Electric, right below wall cabinets. Quite a fire hazard!

This is the NW corner, again, from before we moved in. This countertop was lower than the one on the other side of the fridge. Just one of the many oddities we would soon discover...

This is that same corner, last week. Eddie pulled out all the cabinets on that side of the kitchen and gutted the pantry area (which was built above the stairs out of the basement (see hole in wall above floor next to the fridge, that is the entrance to the backyard from the basement). Upon tearing out old plaster, sheetrock and lath & plaster, we discovered previous owners used the oddest things to shore things up in the walls and to make repairs and modifications, including crown molding trim as up and down "supports" in one of the sections of the wall. One thing there was throughout, old knob and tube electrical, which must be replaced. (Say it with me, "Cha-Ching!)

Here is the section of the kitchen we remodeled first, before Bean was born in October 2009. We added Agatha, re-did the walls (and added much needed insulation to them) though we decided late last year to swap the white cabinet fronts for a more durable and warmer look with the red-brown wood we have, now. The brown cabinets really set the sink off and make the room a lot richer looking. Besides, the dishwasher steam didn't like the pressboard construction of the original white front and was warping badly on that piece.

This past weekend, Eddie demo'd the rest of that side of the kitchen in anticipation of the electrician (who is here working against time and a permit inspection scheduled for tomorrow) and to fill the drop box we rented for the weekend as well. He also took all the flooring up and now he has the delightful task of removing all the awful nails and flooring hooks that are protruding up on the floor (some are visible in this picture).

The girls have been banned from the kitchen, our Crocs have been ceremoniously placed at the threshold to remind us in the dead of night when going for a bottle for Bean, to suit up before treking to the fridge. Walking on the floor as it is right now is pretty unnerving with all those nails and such sticking up. The Croc shoes are the best to wear, as the cush of the shoes foam conforms over the protusions better than hard, flat soled shoes do.

It goes without saying that I am looking forward to this all being completed, sooner rather than later!