Kitchen Update

With all the construction workers out now we're in control of finishing up this project. You can see from the update a few days ago that the pink tile is out, the wall is gone and two posts were put in its place. It room has drastically changed. Steven and I sit on the floor of the kitchen and try to imagine what it use to look like. It is almost a figment of our imagination. Luckily we remembered to take before pictures to remind us (this is the step we usually forget).

We had a few hiccups with the remodel but now were back on track. One of the major hiccups was finding out the wall between the kitchen and dining room was a load bearing. We replaced it with one post to hold the beam but decided to add a second post to even out the room. Between the posts we plan on hanging a table as a built in. We purchased a table top that is actually an framed antique door. The goal, as always, is to put something where it is least expected. I've started looking at chandeliers for above the table but I know there are a lot of things to get done before we even get to the table, let alone decorative lighting. The next step though, now that we're done painting, is to put the cabinets in and then tile this weekend. By the way we discovered some exceptional paint called FastHide. It dries in an hour which allowed us to paint the whole room twice in one evening. It saved us some of our lost time for our contractor woes.

Sunset Desk

Our apologies for being out of commission for the last week. We’ve been working on our first resolution (removal of the river rock). And we are almost there! Our backyard is looking amazingly bare and the receivers of the rock have projects of their own to begin. We’ll keep you updated.

Today I want to go back to a blog a few weeks ago about paint. That is where we will begin. Who thought purple, bubblegum pink and lime green paint would turn into a fun reminder of an Arizona sunset while being a functional and amusing craft desk.

We embarked on this project last fall when Steven’s sister, Lori, mentioned she was in the market for the perfect ‘L’ shaped desk. She lives in a small apartment where she spends most of her day crafting remarkable paper crafts. It is even more miraculous since she is clinically blind. Lori has some vision and what comes out of it is amazing. But back to the task at hand. Steven and I decided we had enough time to find and put the life back into an old desk just in time for Lori’s birthday and Christmas. We were looking for a desk that was functional and had a lot of surface area to spread out. At the same time it had to be small enough to fit into her apartment.

On one of our regular runs to Arizona State University Surplus we found what we were looking for. ASU Surplus is where the local university sells their old, outdated furniture and odds and ends. We end up buying the crazy the stuff. ASU Surplus has inspired many projects that we will speak of on a later date. That day we found a retro, metal desk and a typing table with retractable sides that slid perfectly under the desk.

To paint we took the entire desk apart hoping to be able to reassemble.

Near completion we ran out of purple spray paint. As mentioned in a previous blog we ran to buy more paint only to find there was none left. We came home with pink and lime green and you can see the outcome.

The one thing you don’t see is that we were left with 2 extra pieces once reassembled. We are still not sure where they belong but we kept them just in case.