An art contest

I decided to try something I haven't done very much of - an art contest. I was on Facebook and Blick Art posted this one so I decided to give it a try. It is actually through a Colored Pencil Magazine. I learned a few things in the process.

1. Don't look at past winners. Holy cow - these are professionals entering this contest (really - they have professionals and they have beginners and I am guessing that mostly professionals won last year). It kind of intimidated me, but I decided to do this, so I stuck to it, knowing my odds were lower than I originally thought.

2. I hate rushing art. This contest had a deadline. When I decided to do it, I thought for sure that I would have plenty of time to get it done. But, life happened and I ended up having 4 days. Really, it was an hour here, an hour there, and then my one art day which gives me 5 hours. It felt rushed and I felt a little frustrated because there are things I didn't do the way I wanted to. But, again, I had committed to it and really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, so I did.

3. I have been debating "reopening" my portrait business.  It was never really closed, but I don't get to do very many commissions. I haven't really decided for sure, but I did realize that I don't like the pressure and deadlines. I had to drop everything else in my house in order to get this one done, and I am not really in a position to do that on a regular basis. So, I still think about it.  I may just keep it "open" for if people ask about it, but not advertise.

4. It was kind of fun to enter a contest. I may actually do more. This magazine has a monthly challenge, and, while I don't think I will do every month, I may do it from time to time.

So, here it is. It is from a photo I took a couple of years ago.  I titled it "Make A Wish".

I finished the four portraits

I realized I started this process in February. So, about 6 months later, I have now officially finished the four portraits of my kids. They are definitely my favorite portraits that I have done so far -I am sure there is a little bias since they are my own kids ;).  It is fun to see all four together though. Now, I just have to figure out where I want to hang them.

Jonathan

All 4 together 

Nature art

I love nature. I like to paint landscapes, but sometimes I like to draw or paint the things that are up close that we sometimes pass over. My sister took a photo of a leaf on a sidewalk. I thought it was the coolest photo, so I asked her if I could draw it. I tried it once in pastel, and that didn't work so well. I started it again with colored pencil, but on a certain type of paper, and it wasn't going well. So, after I took the portrait class, I tried it again on this other paper that has worked well for colored pencils, and this was the result:

My nephew

I offered to draw my nephew as a gift for my in-laws at Christmas time. They gave me a couple of pictures to draw from, and I did one in pastel. But I also like the other photo - the two photos have different things I like in them, so, for fun, I decided to draw the 2nd one also, in colored pencil this time. They both have a different feel. And, I have to say, I loved doing the checkered shirt - it was a fun challenge.

Colored pencil

I have a new love. I still like my graphite pencils, and I still like my pastels, but I have a new medium that I have never really gotten into before, and now I love it. I happened to come across a class on the Craftsy.com site that was drawing realistic portraits in colored pencil. It looked really cool and had great reviews on it, so I decided to try it. And I have fallen in love with colored pencils. I had no idea that they could be used this way, let alone how to do it. I have done some colored pencil things in the past - way back in high school and college. But really, they felt more like coloring book drawings. I could do some mild shading, but you could see the stroke lines and I didn't have the good colored pencils anyway. So, I set those aside and didn't even consider it an option. And then I found this class. The teacher was great. And she gave good feedback. So, I did some practice sketches and decided to just try it. The result amazed me. The portraits I have done with these pencils are my favorite so far.  I have done 3 - starting around January or February this year. I did Madeline. Then Audrey. Then I had to take a break and I did some other art in the mean time. Then a few weeks ago I did Olivia (I was going to do Jonathan next but I just was dying to try Olivia's eyes and it just flew from there. ) And now I am working on Jonathan and it is going pretty well. Here are the 3 portraits of my kids that I have done:

Catching up

I think this is not my forte - keeping up with a blog. I also haven't been doing as much art lately, so I don't have as much to post. I am trying to get back into it a little more, and I am even taking an online class to learn a new portraiture style and medium.

This past fall, I looked through my photos from our trip to Glacier National Park. I decided to try to draw a photo of a leaf just after a rain storm. It was a little different than some of the other things I have drawn, and it was a fun exercise in trying new techniques.

This is the work in progress - I sketched out the lines, then worked from top to bottom (partly to not smear the lead as I worked).

This is the final product:

After doing this drawing, I did some work on quilting, but haven't finished any of those, so I haven't posted them yet. (Maybe that will be my next project?)

In December, I was really missing art, and feeling like I never had (or never made) time to do art, so I decided to just pick a project and DO IT. So, I thought through the many projects I wanted to do and decided to finish one that I started a couple of years ago but could never quite get. It is from a photo of my Dad when he was younger. I think it turned out pretty well. It is funny because at first, it wasn't quite him. I modified some things - especially the eyes - and then suddenly - there he was. It is always fascinating to me when that happens. The eyes are probably the most crucial part of the portrait. Mess up the eyes, and it just isn't them.

Here is the portrait:

The latest project I have been working on comes from a class about realistic colored pencil portraits. I don't know how truly realistic I will get them, but it has a lot of really good information and it introduces how to use a relatively new medium for me - colored pencils. I happened to find a great deal on the prismacolor pencils, so it was the perfect thing for the right class to come along and inspire me to use them. I started by just drawing an eye. This photo is one I posted on instagram to show the eye practice, and how many pencils it took to just color that one eye.  It has been fun, and I am now working on a more comprehensive portrait - hopefully I will get around to posting it in here when I finish. It still has several hours to go...

A new portrait

Some time back, on Facebook, my mom's cousin posted a really fun photo of herself, looking kind of rough, sitting in a bar. I just loved the photo - it had such character. So, I messaged her and asked her if I had permission to try drawing it. I started it soon after, and then I put it on hold for a long time, working on other things. Then, recently I decided I wanted to finish it so I got started again. This one has a lot of detail and was a slow process, but it was really fun to watch it unfold over time. Often when I do portraits, I don't do the whole background - or i will just do a color or mix of colors. The original photo actually shows more of the bar, and it does add a little to the picture, but I debated back and forth about whether or not I wanted to finish all the way across the photo. I decided that I wanted to just focus on her, but throw the background in to give it a little context.It was a fun piece.

The Tetons - Schwabacher's Landing

It is kind of tricky painting a scene that has mountains that are very iconic. In doing this painting, I have looked at this so much that I can no longer tell if it looks like the Tetons or not. But, it was fun to do. I had started it and had pretty good momentum going, and then I got busy with life and didn't do any for awhile. Then one day it kicked back in and I finished it. So, here it is:

Update - other art I have been doing

Once our kitchen was remodeled, I decided I had not been doing enough art, so one day I decided it was high time I get back into it. I looked through all of my potential art photos (I keep a file) and one of Olivia from a few years ago jumped out at me. I dropped all responsibility (which was really nice) and I worked on it for a couple of days until it was done. Here is a photo of it in process, and then finished. (The in-process one is kind of at a funny angle that makes it look warped - kind of weird, but that is okay)

Then, time passed again and I didn't do much art again. Why is it so hard for me to get up to doing this? In March, I decided that one thing that keeps me from doing the art is a fear of doing it poorly. So, I decided to take a different approach. The next project was an exercise or a training. I wanted to experiment with textures and shades and some basic skills and not worry about the outcome. I took a photo a few years back of some rocks that I thought were pretty:

I actually had tried to draw this one in color before but I was doing it on a different type of paper and it didn't work out well, so I never finished it. So, I turned this photo into a black and white one. Here are some photos of the process:

I don't always draw this way - but with this project I started on one side of the drawing and worked my way across bit by bit, carefully examining the photo (I had a hard copy and a digital copy I could zoom in on). This was the final project:

And the last thing I completed was in May. I was asked to do a drawing of a boy who had passed away from a sudden accident. The school was honoring him and had a hero theme at school that year. They had a mascot hero guy and I was asked to put this boy's face on the body of the mascot. This was a stretch for me - I hadn't done anything like this before. It was kind of cartoon, kind of realistic. I also didn't know the boy and only had one picture to use for the drawing. But, I think I must have had some help from above because it ended up working out okay. I wish I had gotten a photo of the final framed project - it looked even better in the frame. But, I didn't think of it in time. Bummer. But, this is the final pre-framed picture:

I also did a "Paint Nite" with some friends. It is a step by step instruction. I learned that paint itself is not my forte. My pastel drawings are technically called paintings, but it isn't painting with a brush. I also learned that I don't like to be rushed, and that I like to have my own tools (I kept wishing I had my brushes there that night). But it was fun, and it got me in the mood, once again, to move forward on art. Here is our final product:

Now I am trying to get back into doing art more again. I have a painting I am working on - of the Tetons from our recent trip there. The other art I have been doing is sewing costumes both for Halloween and for Audrey's play (well, I am making a hat for her play, not the dress). That has taken a lot of my creative time lately, but those are mostly done. Hopefully I will be posting the Tetons painting soon...

Update part one - quilts

Okay, I know, it has been a loooong time since I last posted. I have done a little bit of art since then. I just haven't done a lot and I haven't kept up on the blog. I don't think anyone reads this anyway, but I am posting this for my own sake. First of all, I did some art in the form of quilting. I had started this quilt awhile back (a long while back, actually) and decided to finish it and give it as a gift to someone who has a southwest style in their home.

Once I made that one, I decided I wanted to do a little experimenting. I had taken an online class for making photo quilts. I decided to try a small one using a photo of a sunset from a previous trip to Oregon. I drew up a design, and put together this quilt:

It didn't quite turn out as I had hoped, but it was for practice anyway, and it inspired me to try the next project. I had to look at a few photographs and had to sketch up a design based on a few different photos. You make a simple cartoonish sketch that divides the parts based on color and shape according to how you want the quilt to look. This is the sketch:

Then, I picked fabrics and put it together to make this (this is the final product hung in the room of the person I gave it too:

Here is another up close-ish photo:

It was a fun challenge. There are many more quilt projects I want to do - I just have to make the time to do them. I have 3-4 that are ready and waiting for me to start, keep working on, or just finish the rest of the way.

Who I used for our kitchen remodel

I have people ask me who I am using for various aspects of the kitchen remodel. I will put them in a blog post for people who might be interested: 1. General/ Contractor: Tim Madsen. I don't know what to really call him because he is just our "everything guy". He has done several things on our house - remodels, repairs, water damage, plumbing, electrical, etc. You name it, he has probably done it. He does an excellent job. Once he starts the job, he sticks with it until it is done. He pays close attention to detail. We have known him for years and he takes really good care of us. He is a big reason why this job went so fast. 2. Appliances - Mountainland Design. These guys were great. We worked with Kirk and Dave (though everyone there has been very nice) They carry really super high end stuff - like Thermador and Wolf - but they also carry appliances for "normal" people like us - Whirlpool, Kitchenaid, GE, etc. They also said they can often order something if you are looking for a specific model. They only sell products they back. They only work with companies that they feel are reliable who back their products. And, if you end up with a lemon (because they do exist) they will get the problem fixed or give you a new one. They have excellent customer service, had better prices than anyone on the appliances we got (saved us 25% overall above the best prices I could find elsewhere), and were not high-pressure on the sales. FYI - they sold us our appliances at "builder prices" because it was a remodel. I asked if someone could just come buy a single appliance and they said yes, and that if you say I sent you, they could give you a good deal on it. They also have a working showroom where you can try several of the appliances yourself, which was really nice. They have big demos, etc (though I never went to one of those). 3. Cabinets - Chateau Cabinetry - Again - these guys were great. They do custom cabinetry which just means they design it to fit your kitchen and you can basically do anything (within the size you have to work with). Rick is the designer and installer, Kyle is the office manager, I guess. Rick came to our house and came up with the brilliant new design of my kitchen. I felt my brain shift as he gave me new ideas. He had lots of ideas and suggestions that were better than anything I could have come up with. He designed my pantry too. They do bathrooms and entertainment centers, and really any type of cabinetry. They had the cabinets ready on time, installed them well, and when there were any issues, they immediately resolved it (things like a scratch on a door, needing additional shelves, wanting a handle instead of a knob, etc). Their prices were the best of the ones I got bids from, and it includes an allowance for handles, (most didn't) and a lot of things come standard - like full extension drawers. 4. Countertops - Tim Lunt of Lunt Kitchen and Bath - He was recommended by Chateau, and, because they work together a lot, I figured I might as well. Tim was helpful, gave me some good suggestions, explained the difference between the granite and quartz, suggested a sink that I LOVE, and he was on time, thorough, did a great job, and I have no complaints. 5. Appliance Installation - Klint Smith. Mountainland suggested him. It turns out he is the brother of Kirk at Mountainland. When he came out to install our dryer, he was so incredibly nice and so helpful. He could tell I was getting a little upset about the fact that I had just bought a dryer for nothing, and he was just really nice about the whole deal and he even came out the next day, unscheduled, to see if he could help fix the problem. And, he did a great job installing my other appliances too. His company is actually called San Pitch. 6.Flooring - I looked at some local places and I almost bought my flooring from Lumber Liquidators, who offered me a good price. I just wasn't 100% committed to the floor I was looking at there. Then, Tim told me that he was working on a job at the time who used builddirect.com and really liked their floor. So, I went on their site. They send you 5 samples for free. I got the samples and narrowed it down to two, but wanted to see more of that same wood since it had variety in the color and grain. I called them and they sent me 3 more of each kind - for free. I was willing to pay for them. And, the guy in charge of my order, Gary, kept in good contact with me about the status of my order, answered several questions for me, and was very helpful. They held the order for me because I wasn't ready for them to ship it yet (what do you do with 41 boxes of wood if you aren't ready to install it?). The only glitch was that he had put in a tentative order shipment date and went ahead and shipped it before I was ready for it. But, it really was only off by about a week, and it worked out fine because it gave us time to let the wood acclimate before installation. So, it ended up not being a big deal. Plus, Gary apologized over and over for that. He also followed up afterward to make sure we were happy with it and there weren't any problems. A couple of boxes were damaged, and he offered to replace them, or refund that part of our money if we needed him too. But, in the end, only a few boards were damaged, so we didn't bother. Their prices were VERY good, (It was $3-4 less per square foot than similar wood I had seen elsewhere) the order got here in 4 days from the time it was shipped. The quality is excellent, and the floor is beautiful. I had looked at another website (iFloor) and the quality was HORRIBLE. This acacia I bought is really hard wood, and iFloor's sample was lighter than pine and you could scratch the finish with your fingernails. A tip about floor samples - take them and try to beat up on them, drop your keys on them, if you have time, put them in a window with a post it note covering part of it to see if it fades. It helps you know what kind of durability your floor will have. 7. Tile - Dan Bishop - he is someone Tim knows. His company name is something like "Bishop Tile and Stone" Tile was one of the last things I picked, and my heart just wasn't really in it because I was SO tired of making decisions. But, Dan came out and helped me decide what I wanted to do and even offered a suggestion on how to lay it out that I hadn't thought of. They installed it with no problems, and it looks great.

The finished product

I just realized I never posted the final Before and After photos of the kitchen. I posted them on Facebook and then forgot to get on here and post. So, here you go:

I left that last post hanging a little - about our house having a curse on it. In the end, things got all worked out of course. It was a tough week. But, we love our kitchen now. It is a happy, comfortable room, and I am very grateful for the chance we had to do this.

There is a curse on this house

I have to say first of all, things have gone really smoothly with this remodel, for the most part. The dryer was a problem, but that was only sort of connected to the remodel. And then, yesterday, it all decided to freak out on us. We got the countertops installed with no problems. They are beautiful. It turns out they cut the hole a little too big for the cooktop, but he made it work anyway. They pointed out that the drawers under the cooktop needed to be cut smaller, yet again, and that, with the sink installed, our little pull out trays by the sink wouldn't close all the way. So, when the cabinet guy came out with the front to our compactor, we told him about it. He said the trays couldn't be fixed, but he did take the drawers and took care of that. And, he went to put the panel on the compactor and they had been told the wrong size, so it doesn't' fit. So, we have to have the panel remade. The counter install went so smoothly that Tim called the tile guy to have him come and just get the tile done. I was excited - it was going to be done early! Well, the guy never showed because his car broke down. Then, Tim went to install the sink and the plumbing was all wrong. It was too high coming out of the wall, and he didn't know the sink would be so deep (who knew - I never thought to tell him), so he had to tear into the wall behind the sink, the compactor, and then (gasp) cut into the cabinet base in order to access the pipe and lower it 4 1/2 inches so that water would drain from our sink properly. It was a mess. It was not a good situation. He was here until 7:30 trying to get us a sink that would work so we could finally have running water in the kitchen. This is what my kitchen looked like at about 5:30 p.m.:

And then, as Tim was finishing up that project, (he did get us a working sink and dishwasher, by the way), we found out that there was a problem with the lights that had been installed over by the stairs. They had worked fine and then suddenly they weren't working. By the end of the day we had all had it with this job. Today started out much better. Tim came and fixed the light and patched up drywall under the sink. The tile guy came and got the tile installed and it looks great. The appliance guy came and installed our microwave and cooktop. Everything went pretty well. Tim wrapped up some loose ends, the tile guys will come grout the tile in the morning tomorrow, and Tim plans to be back on Monday to finish the last little bit and make sure all is well. After Tim left, one of our new lights started freaking out on me. He came back and checked it out and couldn't find anything wrong, and it stopped flickering, so we will keep an eye on it. But it must have been a warning. I was excited to try my new cooktop, so I planned out a recipe, thawed some chicken, put a skillet on my cooktop, and turned it on. Or, I tried to turn it on. No power. I checked the breaker (I am getting really good at this whole breaker thing) and I turned it off and back on, just to be sure. No power. I checked the instruction manual. No, I am not an idiot and I really was doing it right. Then I called Klint (the installer). He has no idea what happened. He will come tomorrow to figure it out. In the mean time, I had raw chicken and no way to cook the rest of my recipe. So, we had hot dogs and brats. Not what I planned on, but it was all I could come up with quickly before Jeff had to leave for a meeting. So, I think there is a curse on this house. Why can't the cooktop just work? Why does everything in the past week or so seem to be falling apart? I just wanted to cry. I am SO close to being done with this kitchen. I just want it to be done so I can do something besides sit at home all day and wait for various people to show up at my house. I really have been good about not complaining through this process (except for the dryer), but now I am tired, and it is wearing on me. I hope we can finally get this all sorted out and that I can have some peace soon. I love my kitchen and I am grateful for it - don't get me wrong. I can't believe it is really in my house. And, I guess it wouldn't be a remodel if something didn't go wrong.

Everything but the kitchen sink

That phrase has a whole new meaning to me. We have almost everything done, except for the kitchen sink. As I type, they are installing my countertops and sink. All of the little details are taken care of. The appliance installer (Klint - see previous post) is coming this afternoon to put in my microwave and cook top. But, my sink has to dry, so I can't have running water until tomorrow. Bummer. I was really looking forward to washing dishes tonight (There is a statement you may never hear me say ever again, but it is true for tonight). Tomorrow we will get the plumbing all hooked up, the dishwasher going, the waterline to the fridge working, and the tile will be installed. And then, I think we will be officially done with the remodel. I still have to pick a rug and curtains, and hang pictures, but I won't have people coming to my house every day. Yesterday was the first day since Oct 6th that I didn't have someone come here to demolish, repair, build, troubleshoot, paint, install, or offer a bid. It was nice. But I spent the whole day running errands because I actually could for once. I must say though, this has gone very fast. The total time from start to finish, if you include M's room, was 4 1/2 weeks. 3 1/2 if you take her room out. The total number of working days on the kitchen alone was 17, though some of those were half days (especially recently while we were waiting for the countertop). I went less than 3 weeks without an oven, and a little less than 4 without the rest (cooktop, dishwasher, sink). We had a microwave and fridge the whole time, which helped. It has been fun, frustrating (mostly with the stupid dryer, which has nothing to do with remodeling a kitchen), exhausting, noisy, messy, and sometimes like Christmas each day as it evolved. Just don't ask me to make any decisions for awhile. Really. I don't think my brain can handle it. :)

A Tale of Two Dryers

Warning: This is a long post. I put it here mostly for me. You are welcome to read it, but feel free to skip it if it gets too boring. On a Monday, we took out our washer and dryer in order to put in the new floor. On thursday, it was back in, and I ran a small load of laundry. It was fine. On Friday I threw a load in but forgot to dry it, so I tossed it in the dryer Saturday, but it didn't dry. And didn't dry. I hung that up to dry (it was blankets) and tossed in the next load of clothes. It didn't dry. It wasn't even warm. And, it was Saturday. Why do things always break on Saturday? On Monday, we called a new appliance repair guy (ours apparently no longer services this area) and he came out. He couldn't figure out what would be wrong with the dryer, but thought it might be the element. He said we were only getting half the power, thus it wouldn't heat. So, he ordered a new element, and in the mean time, we couldn't do laundry because the dryer didn't work. The part came in and he came Thursday. He put it in. Same problem. So, he came to the conclusion that the only other thing it could be is the control panel. And, that would be over $400, even if he gave discounts on it. Well, that is when you say, "I guess it is time for a new dryer" because, really, who wants to pay for a part that costs as much as a new dryer. I was getting desperate to do laundry, so I went out that day and bought a new dryer.(As if buying 6 appliances for the kitchen wasn't enough!!) I got it from the people who sold us our kitchen appliances. They were great, sold me a floor model, it was just what I needed, and I saved a few hundred dollars, and I could take it home that day. Awesome. That night, our appliance installer (Klint) called to see if he could come that evening, so I said sure, and could he please also install our new dryer. He came, installed the dryer, turned it on, and guess what. No heat. Really? At this point, I could almost see the realization form before my eyes: "I didn't need to buy a new dryer. It was never the dryer in the first place" I wanted to cry. Or throw up. The appliance repair guy had never checked the outlet to see if that was the problem, despite knowing we had been remodeling. It turns out - it was the breaker. It was only sending half the power. Klint tried to fix it, but the breaker was bad, and the wiring was really all messed up, and loose. So, I called Tim. Tim came the next morning (this was Halloween), and sure enough, it was the breaker. We think it got bumped when he was putting in a new breaker for our cooktop, and because the wires were loose, it messed it up somehow. He put in a new one, tested the power at the breaker, tested the power at the outlet, tested the power running through the cord (because they had gotten the cord from our old dryer). All was well. We turned the dryer on. No heat. At this point, I was really ready to lose it. I had already missed the school Halloween parade because of this, and now I was wondering if I could even go to O's party to help. I called Klint from the night before. He came out to take a look at it and couldn't figure it out. He checked the power sources too. They were fine. Tim and I had already messed with it. I called the people I bought the dryer from, and they called their appliance repair guy to come out, but told me it would be Monday. I wanted to cry. It had been almost 2 weeks since we did laundry. We had run an emergency load at my in-laws, but that was it. Well, the appliance repair people called to confirm Monday's appointment and I told them I had gone so long without a dryer and they said, "Oh, well, let's see what we can do" This company is called Doyle's, by the way, in case you live around here and want a good appliance repair service. I got home from helping at O's party just as Doyle's called and asked if they could come. The guy checked the dryer and said, yet again, that it was only getting half the power. He checked the breaker, and showed me that instead of 220 volts, it was reading 8-9 volts. It makes no sense at all because it had been fine the day before. He pulled the breaker out, put it in a different slot, and it worked (which also makes no sense). Finally, the dryer worked. On Friday and Saturday, as part of the 10 loads of laundry I ran, the dryer tripped the breaker 4 times. We could just reset it and keep going, but it still meant that we had a problem. So, yet again, Tim came out (this was Monday this week) and took a look at the breaker. And, we finally figured out the problem. Six or seven years ago, we had a projector installed in our downstairs. The people who set it up said we didn't have enough breakers, so they took the breaker attached to the A/C and doubled it up with the dryer's breaker, and made a new one for the projector. They apparently didn't attach it well, and you really shouldn't double up breakers, but I guess people do it. So, Tim rearranged the breaker box, moving things so there would be a spot for a new breaker, and now the A/C and dryer are separate again. And, knock on wood, I now have a working dryer. So, it took two dryers, 10 days, 7 service calls, 4 repair guys, 2 breakers, and a lot of frustration from the time it broke to the time it was fixed. It is a bummer I had gone out to buy a new dryer. Being a floor model, I couldn't return it. Plus, after all that work installing it and getting it working, I was really afraid to move anything back or touch anything once it got working properly. So, we found a good home for the old dryer, and are getting used to the new one. I just never realized how grateful I am for a dryer. It is such a first world problem - I sometimes felt like a big baby complaining about having no dryer when people wash their clothes in a stream, and hang them to dry. In the end, it has worked out okay. Not my favorite situation, but it is over. I hope. I really really hope.

Day 16 - Appliances and we finally have a dining table and chairs

Yay! No more card table in the living room- we have a table and chairs to sit at now. It is amazing how much you can appreciate small things, especially when you have to go without for awhile. I have a photo of the table and chairs but the one I took of the appliances won't move over to my photo stream today and I don't feel like messing with it. I feel like my house is conspiring against me and things are breaking down all around me, including my computer/ internet abilities. I don't know what happened. Anyway…the dining set:

It is nice that the table leaves fit so perfectly in the cupboard right by the table. We picked the cupboard size before we picked the table. Our old table leaf would not have fit. I probably won't have a lot of posts between now and next week when it will all (hopefully) be finished. I am to the point where I think it would be fun to do "the big reveal" where I post before and after photos. I may post here and there, but I really do need to get caught up on the rest of my life. This kitchen has kind of taken over everything I do.

Day 13, 14, 15- now it is down to details

I haven't posted for the past few days for two reasons. Reason #1 is because I have been crazy busy trying to live normal life AND unpack many boxes and figure out where those things will go in my new kitchen. It is harder than I thought. Some things are the same, but for the most part, the cupboards are different. They are different heights and widths and are placed differently so I have to rethink where I want things. Reason #2 is because I have a lovely cold that is making me rather tired and miserable. Plus, it was just a busy weekend. Now that the cabinets are installed, Tim just has to work on the little details- outlet covers, putting framing around the pantry door, touching up scrapes on the floor and walls from installation, and so forth. For now, I will post some photos of the fun little details that I love in the new kitchen. Cabinet handles: (The dark island has brushed nickel, the hickory has these)

Custom drawer dividers for silverware and other utensils:

Pull-outs on the lower cabinets:

Built in magnet board:

Crown moulding and trim:

And better organization (cookie sheet dividers - my old one was the width of a single one of those spaces) And a full circle lazy susan that doesn't slide down like my old one did.

I need to take more photos now that it has been cleaned up and the details are more in place. I also will post about my pantry that I LOVE! Tomorrow the appliances come, and so do the table, chairs, and barstools. We are so close!!!