The Kitchen is FINALLY Done!!!

 After starting in January, taking a break over the summer and picking it back up in September, we've finally finished everything.  Well almost, the inside of the pantry (behind the closed pocket door) still needs to be painted but that will get done sometime in the next 2 weeks.  

It was a great project and the best news is that we're still married!!!

I'll provide details in a bit but wanted to get the pictures posted now for y'all to see.

He's Home!

And we put him to work on his first morning home.  

But mowing the lawn on the John Deere is not really work.

Missing Sarah Richardson

I can't be the only one out there who misses Sarah and her too funny side kick, Tommy.  So, I decided to get my Sarah on and commissioned my favorite neighbor, Rose, to work on some guest towels for us.

The timing is great because we'll have about 11 guests for Memorial Day weekend.  Problem is, only 6 of them will know for sure which towel is theirs, guess I better get to work on 7 to 12.

PS. Did you know that if you click on the picture you'll see a much bigger image?  Try it.

A Whole Lotta White

It was recently pointed out to me that I hadn't posted pictures of our living room after the ceiling painting was complete.  Well, here it is.  There've been a few other changes including new shades on the front window, new pillows and a smaller chair in the corner.  I'll post updated pics very soon.

Deck Changes

We've lived with the treated pine deck for a year now with plans to change the railing and stain it the same color as the patio cover on the rock deck.  Well finally we got a round to the staining part and are very pleased with the results. 

Notice  Fat Albert & Margene don't seem to mind the color of the unstained deck.

Here's my DH at the mid point.  Like everything else we've painted, it was done with a brush and a rag.  Rollers just seemed to add too much stain and that stuff's not cheap!

 The final result is quite dramatic and the contrast between the dark wood and the rocks on the house and the adjoining deck looks great.  It's not finished yet as we ran out of stain just as we finished the top and are now waiting for some dry weather days to finish the undersides that can be seen from the river.

Dinner & Vino

 I should have titled this post "Retirement Joys include having a dinner party on a Monday Night" but that was too long. From the quality of my photos you might say, there was a little too much vino consumed by moi.  

We had lots of fun getting to know new friends and action thriller novelist, Bob Doerr.  You could call it a "book club meeting" (Ann & Mary will approve) as we discussed Bob's previous books and his upcoming 5th in the series.  But, having only been to one book club meeting in my life, I'm not sure discussing books after many bottles of good wine really qualifies.

If you're interested, here's an Amazon link to his 3rd  novel that my DH says was his favorite, I'll be reading it on my next vacation and let you know. http://www.amazon.com/LOOSE-ENDS-KILL-Bob-Doerr/dp/1590957180/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336511781&sr=1-8

Backsplash Update

Well I've caught up on my blog posting because we just finished this project today.  It took us FOREVER to find a backsplash tile that worked with the colors in the floor tile and that we both liked.  So here it is and we did it ourselves.  We're very proud and if you can squint your eyes and overlook the nicotine colored cabinets, you can see the beach house vibe we were going for.  

Cabinet painting will not happen until September as we have too much fun, and family/friends visiting planned over the next 4 months to disrupt the functioning kitchen till then.  In case anyone is wondering we used Clayhaus tile that is handmade in Oregon.  We couldn't be happier with their product and the color we used is called Steel.  Pretty gutsy of us to do our first tiling project with an expensive tile, but that's how we roll.