Adventures in BPD Land

Some images from Pinterest that have made me laugh recently

(that remind me of being bi polar).

PS-If you're not on Pinterest and want to join, let me know and I'll send you an invite!

And if you don't know what Pinterest is ... then I'm very sorry for you.

It's pretty amazing.

Dirty Thirty

Kurt turned the big THREE ZERO on Wednesday.

So happy birthday to my Kurstanimal!

I love you more than Diet Dr. Pepper

Or cheese

Or chocolate

COMBINED.

And in case there's any question that Kurt and I are MFEO

(it's cute, it's like a little clue)

feast your eyes on these pics,

both taken the year before we met:

Kinda scary, isn't it?

Kitchen Wars: Well Tile Me Up and Slap Me Pretty

     Yeah, I have no idea where that title came from earlier. I'm weird; roll with it.

     So, back splash time! We knew pretty early on we wanted a subway tile back splash. There were a moments of uncertainty, but in the end we both loved the classic and simple look. For a day or two we worried the subway tile and bead board would be too much texture and would compete with each other, but decided they wouldn't. Now that they're both up, we're glad to see we were right. Why? Because they're both a) classic "patterns" and b) white. And there's only one place where they meet. AND I like the play of horizontal lines vs. vertical ones.

     We considered hiring this out because Kurt had heard from someone that doing tile was tricky. We priced out Home Depot and they told us $300 to $400. Then a lot of other, smarter people told Kurt that tile is easy. So guess what? All in all, including a tile saw, we spent about $150 in supplies. It took Kurt a little bit of time, but it wasn't that tricky (you know I was writing during all this!). And it looks FANTASTIC!! I love it so much. Do I say that about everything in our kitchen? Probably. Because it's true. 

Next up: paint!

Date: Ohhh, the last few weeks.

Kitchen Wars: Back to the Closet

     Well, the closet has been completed for a while, and we finally score our washer and dryer! All in all, we spent a Net of about $300 on the set, what with the recouped costs from selling our old set and then rebates. I lurve me some rebates. The washer and dryer aren't even the same brand, but since Amana is owned by Maytag, you can mix and match. Here they are all stacked in the closet where they belong! No one puts baby in the corner, but I definitely put my laundry set in the closet. Hah!

     Anyhow, all that's left with the closet is installing the accordion-folding door. It's the only door that will work with the tight space. 

That's probably the least exciting post of ever, but whateverIdowhatIwant!

Kitchen Wars: BEES? Beads. BEES? Gob's not on board.

     Our next step in our kitchen was installing the bead board. I love me some bead board. Convincing Kurt wasn't hard, but he didn't love it like I do until he installed it. It looks so incredible. Also, he built a wall on the backside of the peninsula to hide the pipes and backs of the cabinets. Cuz those things aren't so much pretty. It still needs to be painted, but since we're painting it white, it won't look that different.

Kitchen Wars: Our "Pantry"

     It's been forever since I blogged about the kitchen! And not for lack of updates. Mostly I've been pouring my blogging attention into my new author blog and my non-blogging attention into school work. Busy busy busy!

     During our reno, we stumbled across sundry extra cabinets in our house and sheds. Including a really tall one!  The tall one was a veritable treasure chest, filled with stuffed animals, camel backs, and kid-sized elbow and knee pads. I used to have a picture of the loot back before our computer crashed ... sigh.

     Anyhow! With all of the extra cabinets, we practically have a pantry! And, as luck would have it, we had an extra counter top. Okay, that sounds strange but here's what happened: I originally thought it would be cool have some open shelving across the new wall we built, so while at Ikea last summer, we bought an extra slab of counter but the less-thick slab. We were going to cut it up and use as shelves. Well, once we got the wall built and the cabinets moved, we realized that wouldn't work. But wouldn't you know it, we had all this extra cabinetry along the back wall that needed a counter top ... what serendipity! We didn't have enough cabinetry to stretch along the entire wall/under the whole counter top slab, so we left a hole to make a little desk like area that will be my writing area. :)

We're going to add molding to the top of the tall one so it looks built in.

Date: I give up. Sometime in May, probably. :)

We Have Grass

I have a wonderful, favorite cousin named Carly. She's six months younger than me and my mom's sister's daughter. Back in the day before widespread email, Carly and I wrote letters to each other (she grew up in southeastern Idaho and I grew up in SC, of course). In one letter, she wrote that she was excited for me to come the next summer saying, "We'll have grass!" What she meant was their lawn would finally have grass--it was a pretty new house and the lawn hadn't come yet the summer before. My mom thought it was slang for having a good time, since in her day grass was a common term for marijuana.

And people wonder where I got the propensity to make distant, convoluted associations from. :)

Anyhow! On Memorial Day weekend, I woke up on Saturday morning to Kurt asking me, "Do you want to sod the front yard?" I immediately answered in the affirmative. There was this landscaped area up front that had once been nice and neat with four little bushes and red mulch. During our extended closing period, no one lived in the house and weeds took over that area. In fact, last year while weeding, I accidentally pulled out on of the bushes because I thought it was a weed. I HATED that area. It was messy and gross and high-maintenance. I just wanted some grass that we (read: Kurt) could keep nice looking with mowing and the trimmer. I spent a huge chunk of time last summer weeding and I've come to the conclusion that no chore is as demoralizing to me as weeding.

It ended up being a really nice weekend--weather in the 70s and overcast. Perfect for working in the yard ALL DAY. We bought our sod from two people off Craig's List, but they knew each other and the sod was all from the same farm. We only sodded that front area and then a little into the yard. To help make the boundary between existing lawn and new sod not so noticeable, we threw seed down. Weeks later, it looks awesome! We actually have a nice yard! Next stop is paving the driveway and painting the house ... then we won't be "those neighbors" anymore.

2009 

 During ... this isn't much different looking than when the mulch was still there.

I love the patchwork look on newly laid sod ... not sure why, just do. :) 

We tied the dogs up out front. They enjoyed relaxing in the nice grass and shade of the front yard and watching us work and all the cars drive by. 

This was about a month ago, during the 3 week stretch that we were getting TONS of rain so our grass was super green and pretty. 

Today, looking all nice and trim after Kurt worked on it last night. Not as green as last month, but it still looks pretty nice. We need to trim the tree again, but are waiting till fall.