I interrupt my regularly scheduled Friday night for this update...

You know, my regular scheduled night of kitchen renovating. I just have to do a quick update of what our kitchen looked like the past few days with cabinets... so that I can get to the next, very important post, on which I need your help. Please. Thank you.

Let's talk about how much my parents rock. We left looking like we did in the last post... and came home to this:

 Look! We have SO MANY cabinets... and some doors! And a new ladder. No, not a new ladder. But that is right in the center of the kitchen now so we can hold up cabinets, move things, and reach high places. I think I might need it kept in the kitchen because I am so short and the cabinets are so tall.

I digress. Check out the amazing work J and my dad did when I was at work this week:

oh looky there, an actual fridge in our kitchen. Next to the fridge is the dishwasher, which still needs its white cabinet-faced door on it. You can also see the awesome range hood above the stove- right now it has stickers on it to protect the stainless steel, but it's reallllly pretty.

Just for fun, let's look at our progress and journey so far. Here is where the good old kitchen started, back when we moved in a few years ago...

Wow. What a difference! And the cabinet hardware- UGH so bad. Let's look at one more picture of the house and kitchen after a mini reno and before we started this current project.

I can't get over how much bigger the kitchen looks with those half walls knocked out and cabinets that stretch to the ceilings. Amazing.

We've got a weekend of working ahead of us... but it's finally coming along. Yay!

Restoration Heartware

Okay, I know it's hardware. And that's just what we got. From Restoration. They restored my faith in customer service, which has been severely jilted by Ikea & Associates (namely countertop concepts). I have been pleased with Ikea up until the part where they actually have to do some work besides sending me unassembled pieces.

So the guy who "ordered" our hardware with our kitchen... actually didn't. Simple mistake, right? Yeah, it would be if I wasn't already annoyed that the people Ikea contract their granite countertops to are the woooorst ever. I have called them a bazillion times. I have gotten 2 phone calls back. Lucille, I don't like you. I realize it may not be nice to post that in a public forum, but 76 hours to return a phone call simply asking for an updated status is not acceptable. Right? Well guess what's less acceptable? No phone call back ever.... Hmmm... So the status of our countertops is unknown. Thanks Ikea. And thanks for forgetting the fact that we need HANDLES to open our cabinet doors.

See this here? This is when I cannot handle things going wrong. Thank goodness we DIY because waiting for contracters all the time would make me craaaaazy.

So we decide to splurge on Restoration Hardware hardware. Why you ask? Because it's beautiful and user friendly, and because RH will deliver in 2 days for only $5 extra shipping. This hardware is heavy, mind you, so I am quiiite thankful. But of course, my luck, my 2-day shipping request doesn't go through... so I call RH. I get Jared. I think Jared woke up to puppies, rainbows, a beautiful wife, and a great big latte with whipped cream today. He could not have been any more pleasant. Thank you Jared at RH, you made my day. If I knew your last name I'd write something nice to RH about you. But if you ever find yourself roaming the blogger world, know you brought me a smile of customer satisfaction today among a bunch of others who clearly did not.

Here are our beauties:

Love them. A little rustic, a little modern. A little LOVE for RH for these bad boys. Here's the link in case you wanna copy and buy these little guys. I would.

Heartware, RH, Heartware. And extra thank you to Jared.

Crossing my fingers, toes, eyes, hair, and clothes (that would be weird, I won't do that) that this kitchen project is finished in time for a little celebration at our house next weekend!!

Cabinets, Cabinets, Cabinets, Cabinets, Cabinets!

I am in a singing mood lately. That title is in the tune to "Saturday, Saturday", you know, that Elton John song. I am just a book of song. Anyway, let's make this post short on words and full of a few pictures. Oh, I would also like to state again how much patience it takes to renovate a kitchen, and that clearly J and I are meant to be because two people who didn't love each other a whoooole lot could never do this.

Anyway, J gets yet another round of kudos for the amazing work he has done. Here is the updated progress that he worked on a few days pre-sonoma.

Ohhh beautiful! Well, not so beautiful yet, but major progress. Just wait to see what my parents did while we were away. Did I mention how AMAZING they are for helping!? Thank you mom and dad!

Cabinets! Yay! (Ugh, I am a total boring adult)

Wine, friends, and hearts

We spent last weekend a whirlwind 3.5 days in California last week. We flew into San Francisco and met up with my MOH, Sarah and her boyfriend Nick. I am so mad because we know I love houses and cool designs, and I didn't take any pictures of the AMAZING high ceiling beautiful architecture windows in their apartment. I die.

We explored San Fran for the morning into the early afternoon. It was super nice outside, like the friend gods had looked down and said, "These two have been friends for twenty something years, let's give them some sunshine for their reunion". What? You don't believe in friend gods? I do. They are for real. We ate amazing brunch (ham and cheese baked into a croissant and bowls of lattes? Yes please!)

Yep, that's a latte. In a bowl. mmmm. How beautiful. I also loved the simple decor in this place. And S pointed out the fact that this place has nutella as a condiment. Could it GET any more heavenly??

We wandered around SF and walked to the Golden Gate Bridge. I hate bridges. It's a legit fear. I used to have dreams of my stuffed animals falling off of them when I was little, and to this day I hate driving over them. So I was totally pumped we didn't have the time to walk all the way over the bridge. But we did walk around a lot and take some gorgeous pictures.

After a day in SF, we hopped in the car and drove up to Wine Country. We met my brother and his fantastic wife along the way between Napa and Sonoma and took a little break at Domaine Carneros for some bubblies.

Friday afternoon we made it the rest of the way up to Sonoma. Beautiful drive up there and I adoooored the place we stayed. Highly recommend Auberge Sonoma!! The places were awesome- all two bedroom, two bathroom with kitchen and dining areas. And just really cute, quaint, and beautiful. If you are going with a group, it is perfect- there are three condos in one area and then a cottage about 2 blocks away. We all trekked over to Whole Foods and got some grub for dinner and then the men (thank you guys!) whipped up dinner while the girls chatted over some wine... and cheese... and more cheese.

Lovely dinner made primarily by Nick. But I guess Sarah and the other boys should get some cred too. Yum. We turned in relatively early on Friday night because we were still east-coast timing and because we had a long day planned on Saturday.

Saturday morning we grabbed breakfast and coffee, took some major allergy meds (who knew wine country = sneezing and watery eyes), and readied ourselves for a long day of wine touring. I need to give a major thank you to Nick here, because we managed to travel around Sonoma drinking wine for an entire day and paying $0. Beside the price for renting a van/limo to drive us around so no one had to be DD. So thanks, Nick, you're the best. And you're damn good at picking out wineries, too.

Our first stop was Matanzas Creek. We were straight up VIP here. Many many wines to taste, a tour, and some games. Fantastic.

Ahhh, I already want to go back. The sauv blancs here were to die for. We attempted to order some, but the distributor will only ship 1.33 bottles to our house. How stupid. We are hoping we can find a way around it and order them online.

Next up was Martinelli Winery. This place was so picturesque and off the path, but definitely worth it. I don't love red wines, but I did love some of the zins here. Definitely worth it to give it a go.

Good arms, Lizzy. Another beautiful space. After Martinelli, we were trying to decide what we had time for and where to go. We Nick and Sarah decided on Gary Farrell. 

 Another stellar choice. The views from this place were incredible, and J found himself taking couples pictures of everyone, one after another, because of how beautiful it was. The wine wasn't too bad either. Every glass was better than the last.

Also my husband takes 500 pictures of me by myself per trip. This was one of the only acceptable ones that existed.  Here are more of the beautiful pictures from the last vineyard, including the really fun end-of-the-winery-tour jumping photos.

I got some air on that jump, but Liz looks terrified. After our day at the wineries, we had dinner at El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma Square. AMAZING.

Did I mention how much FUN my sister-in-law is? I love Sam. She's the best.

This dessert was devoured. Quickly.

Sunday morning we had brunch before our departure. Delish! I can't explain how nice it was to spend time with the girls I grew up with and the men that have won their hearts, and adding my brother and Sam to the group was the best decision ever. We had the most amazing trip. I really hope it's just the first of an annual trip we all take together.

Love and kisses to my Yardley crew!

No one ever said it would be so harddddd

To the tune of Coldplay. Our kitchen is coming along, but it is 20 times more work than expected. Surprise surprise. So anyway, we had to level our cabinets. Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either. But I love this super cool super hero red light tool we have.

Jamie and I had to build a tower to put this thing on to make the top cabinets "level". I didn't understand how it could make a level line if it is clearly uneven. But apparently it levels itself. See, superhero.

And then it makes superhero lines. I sort of love it. It is a ridiculous tool.

So, have a close look... this line thing actually WORKS. And so we put the level cabinets up. Well, some of them. Here is a nice picture of J putting up the rail that the cabinets slide onto and attach.... Note to those of you not familiar with putting up cabinets: this is awesome. And not normal. But awesome. Level cabinets guaranteeeed.

So we made some progress, and we put up a few cabinets, but man it was hard work and we were exhausted. Also since we were away for a bit and then our interweb was down I'm behind on posting. Tomorrow I'll take pictures of what the house looked like when we got HOME from our trip, after my amaaaaazing parents came on that Saturday and really went to work. We now have an entire kitchen full of cabinets, but here is our first lonely little guy.

Two Thumbs Up. Did I mention how I have the best husband ever? He's a trooper. Good job, J!

Interwebs are down at Our House

we have no internet in our home. comcast is coming to fix it. i am in major blog withdrawal and can't even send my friends the pictures we took on our vacation to sonoma either!

For now, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to my mom and dad who did some magic work at our house getting cabinet doors in place and secured while we were away.

here's hoping for the internet gods to fix our connection today!

Tape it, Danno.

Okay so it's book it, danno. But that popped into my head. Happy Easter everyone! I am exhausted after spending a day running around with our niece and nephew and eating a lot of chocolate. So this post will be short and sweet and to the point. The point is for this post- I Helped! And we even have photo evidence. I am sort of on the edge of whether or not to post said pics, because I am in sweats and not looking my best, but alas, I was doing work on our kitchen and legit had my  hands dirty. After all the drywall went up, we had to tape the drywall. That means basically close off all the seams. I asked if we could skip this part of the process since the cabinets will cover everything, but J told me bugs can get in. EWWWW. I hate hate hate bugs.

Here it is in process.

Surprise surprise, look who is wearing 10 year old ripped jeans for this project? But, this is a really messy job so these $7 jeans (confession- I have no idea how much this pair actually cost) were probably appropriate.

Look! There I am! Nice old sweatpants. But none the less, there I am. Standing on a chair to "tape" the drywall of the ceiling. I was quite good at this, actually. It looks really messy, but it is a relatively exact art.

Here's the room all taped up. Do you notice that little red line around the top of the room? That line is being emitted from the hands down coolest tool I've seen yet. I didn't even know we owned it. J told me nicely with his big brown puppy dog eyes that it was "more expensive because it's the good kind". It is a level. But the coolest kind. I'll get into that in our next post... because guess what else?! We have CABINETS hanging in our kitchen now!! Not all of them, and not perfectly, but some are up. And I'm proud. We're moving along. Our deadline of May 14 might actually happen!!

Happy Easter! Hope the bunny visited your home!

Heart Melt City.

 

Just for the record, this makes my heart melt into a little blob and reminds me why I married J. This is our niece Hazel, and watching him play with her and gently and quietly talk to her is the cutest thing I've ever seen. It reminds me what a great dad he will be, and that's one of the best feelings in the world. Just needed to state that for public record.

LOVE.

Kitty Prozac and Pheromones?

I have heard of prozac use for irritability before, of course. But in cats? The vet says Dexter is a "very anxious" kitty and that he might need a few doses of prozac. He actually said in a very calm voice "your cat may benefit from fluoxetine". I replied, "you mean prozac?". Very nice vet, and very knowledgeable. But hello, prozac is so much more of a user friendly word. I digress. So it actually wouldn't be a few doses. It would be f.o.r.e.v.e.r. Umm how much does this kitty prozac cost? We are waiting for blood tests first to make sure that there isn't some other sort of illness going on. But if not, we were recommended to give the prozac a go. I imagine Dex looking like this:

And Feliway. Now, feliway is a cat pheromone that helps relaxation. Feliway comes in spray form, or in difusers that plug into the way. Fantastic, so instead of Glade Linen scents, I can have cat hormones pumping through my house. Just what I was hoping for. I can't help but imagine Dex as a human being, taking prozac for irritability, and hormones for infertility. Poor thing. This cartoon is spot on what I imagine Dex going through, even though I 100% know pheromones do not equal hormones and that does not equal infertility treatment. None the less....

Okay, also I realize I am crazy cat lady now. But once this traumatic stretch is over, I'll return to house renos, furnishings, travel, and love. Wait, I don't really post about love that much, but I will work on that. Maybe. Probably not.

My last concern is this: If I get thiiiiiis worked up over my cats, what sort of parent will I be?! I think I need to let J lead the traumatic times on that front. Here's to hoping that the cats have a UTI, a thyroid issues (yeah that's not nice, but meds would fix it pronto), or that if that fails, the prozac does the trick.

What is my life coming to?

Jeans vs. Duvets

Remember when we discussed Jamie's jeans here? Right, so J is a saver and a methodical spender. But, sometimes, when you least suspect it, he is totally cool with splurging. It makes me laugh.

Let's revisit the jean scenario real quick. J owns some nice pairs of jeans, one of which was purchased when he forgot pants on a trip to Ohio to visit me. No joke, he cannot pack for himself. Many good qualities. many, many, many for which I am grateful. But good thing he married an organized packer, who starts to prepare a week prior to trips. Hawaii could have been a disaster. So, he does have some nice jeans. But, he buys these cheapy jeans and would really be completely satisfied with wearing only those pairs I think. I would say that 99% of the time, J would be happy in $7 jeans, a t-shirt, and flip flops. Fantastic, right? Since I said I'll take the extra for some of these babies:

Speaking of Sevens, anyone know where to find the super old school kind we all wore in college? My last pair has finally bit the dust and I just don't love the new versions.  My friend Kelly had on the classics when I saw her a few weeks ago and it made me long for a brand new pair of the old favorites.

But, when it comes to bedding, J follows that whole "we spend so much of our lives in our bed" belief and should be in that video from the movie Uptown Girls. You remember, right? This one.
Sheets of Egyptian Cotton.

Sad. Blog world won't let me put the video into this post, so there's your link. Go to minute 1:31. Nah nah nah nah nah sheets of egyptian cotton!

Here's the story. We own three duvet covers. Three nice duvet covers. The one I love most, J says is "crinkly". He actually calls it the Cracker Barrel duvet. Then we have another beautiful one that is dark tan and white square Hotel bedding. But, nope, that one isn't good enough for right now either. Our third one was the one we bought when we first got a king bed. 100% cotton. White. High thread count. That is the one we use all the time. White is not a good color when you have pets. Even if you do laundry a whoooole lot. But J calls it "the cloud" and to be honest, it does sort of feel like one.

Well, this morning, our lovely little buddy of a cat decided to vomit on the bed. Twice. Gross. I am now totally done with that duvet. But could we use a replacement one from the linen closet? Sure couldn't. We ordered a 100% cotton, 600 thread count, all white replacement cloud.

$7 jeans, but high thread count 100% cotton duvet covers? What are we? Royalty?

 Lucky for me, I found a great duvet on overstock that didn't break the bank. And coming home from work on a long day to a nice fluffy could iiiiis sort of nice. Let's hope the replacement is as good as the original cloud. So I'm certainly not complaining about getting a new duvet, but I would just like to say, that in support of jean shopping, you also spend 40% of your life in your jeans.  A new survey told me so.

(Okay, no it didn't, but it is probably true). Sweet dreams.