It. Is. Finished.

To say it took "longer than expected" would be a gross understatement. It took from Saturday until this morning to get all the boards down. The trim work still needs to be done but Bill says that he's going to hire someone to do that. I'm not sure he can tackle that task, based on this past weekend, without some serious medication. And medication and a miter saw just don't mix well.

Now we just need to get the new counter tops. We'll definitely be paying someone to install those - not doing so just might lead to D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

I sewed the baby sweater together, then took it apart, then sewed it together again, then took it apart again....are you seeing a pattern? I thought so. I seems that when one sews it together, there aren't the correct number of stitches at the neckline to make the neckband work correctly. I've re-done one of the front panels and now I'm re-doing the sleeve to see if that's where the pattern error is. (You see, it must be the pattern because it most certainly cannot be me.) I must say that the sweater is VERY cute when sewn together and no one would probably know that the neck stitches were whack - but I would know and it would drive me nuts. So, I'm giving it one more go and if that doesn't work, I'll check out the publisher's site and see if there are pattern errors. On second thought, maybe I should have done that after the first sewing and ripping...oh well, live and learn.

Progress

Did I mention that we have a lot of angles in our kitchen? We do. Friends, I give you . . . progress!

I Hate . . .

Painting yards and yards and yards and yards of white trim! But the results will be WELL worth it. I'll post "in progress" pics over the weekend.

I'll also post the complete baby sweater. Can you say "too stinkin' cute"?

Now Is the Time

Ladies & Gents, the time has come to install the hardwoods. Do you know how many angles are in my kitchen? Here's a hint - LOTS! I'm pretty thankful that I am not the one putting them down by myself. We're going to have help; Bill's dad is going to come up and help us.

We've pulled up the old floor and it looks like this now:

Nice, huh? Notice the blue tape? Still haven't finished painting the trim. Guess that'll be tonight or tomorrow night. To keep Punkin entertained, we're having a friend come over to spend the night.

As for crafting, I'm working on a baby sweater (crochet) for a girl in my choir who is having a baby in October. Her shower is September 13th. I chose crochet because it's faster for me to do for gifts. If she were a really close friend or a family member, I would have knit something. Given how crazy my life is right now, it might take me months to knit a baby sweater. (Reference my post from early July that listed all my works in progress. Need I say more?)

Tonight is Curriculum Night at school so I'm off to grab dinner before we go. And, since you asked, we're having Mexican...again. :)

Painting's Done . . .Almost

Kitchen's painted! Well, technically the main wall color is on but I still have to work on the trim. Have I mentioned that I. Hate. Trim. Just curious. Trim takes all the fun out of painting.

I'm really very happy with the color - it's not too dark, not too light. Not too green, not too olive. Like Goldilocks, it's "just right." Walking in the door and seeing it makes me smile. I can't wait until we get the floors down. But, no floors until I finish the trim. ARGH!

The maids come to clean tomorrow. (Sometimes I wish I could read their minds when they walk into my house. I'm sure that they tell all of their friends back in Brazil about that crazy girl in Duluth who has a room full of yarn and paper and who never sweeps.) After they're done I'll finish the trim and then we'll start pulling up the old floor and getting ready to put down the new one. Here are a few of the other pics....

New Kitchen Alert

OK - so painting my kitchen and putting down hardwoods isn't exactly "crafty" but it is a little creative, right? I'm up to my eyeballs in painting supplies right now. My 6-year old assistant/sidekick/helper and I finished putting Kilz2 on all the leftover navy blue tonight. Tomorrow morning will be all the little areas around and above the cabinets. Such a pain. Once that's done, on goes the paint - Montpelier Olive from Valspar (at Lowe's). It's more "artichoke-y" than olive which is good 'cause an olive kitchen would be, how shall I say, DRAB. Just gross.

Anywho - the new floor is called Summer Butternut and is a yummy shade of golden oakey goodness. All 14 boxes are still sitting in my van and stinking up the place. :) I'm hoping to get the floor down sometime this week. Hubby and I are debating whether or not to pull up the existing, builder's grade (read: crappy) vinyl that's currently there or to just put the floor over it. I say rip it, he says lay over.

Once the floor is down we're on to new counter tops. I wanted something fancy (like granite) but, alas, that's a BIT TOO MUCH money! So, we're settling for a laminate called Labrador Granite - looks like granite . . . but isn't. We're hoping that with the new paint, new floor and new counter we'll like the white cabinets that are still there. There's just NO way we can afford to rip those babies out and start over.

In knitting news, I'm still working on the Jenna Adorno Tempting sweater from Knitty.com (like 3 years ago). I've made it up to where I divide for the sleeves. My goal is to have it finished by the end of September. It's in black Debbie Bliss Cashmerino - otherwise I'd try to post a picture. I stumbled across a blurb on a blog (Crazy Aunt Purl) about a knitting store in ATL called Knitch. Hello! How did I miss that? It's in Virginia Highland; not exactly my "side" of town, but I'm always up for a yarn road trip. I just wish some of my buddies were yarn people instead of scrappers/stampers. What's a gal to do?