Wait and see...

As predicted, luck was needed in picking out a paint color. We had quite a time of it, and in the end I feel like the right choice was made. See, I'm all for more muted tones, while The Husband likes bold and bright. Not to mention, we're both sort of stubborn people. No, I'm not kidding. It's true.

Now that our floor is more neutral, the one thing in the kitchen that demands you pay attention to it is our dining table. It's a vintage red formica and chrome one, much like this one but rectangle. Oh, and not new. In fact, it's well-worn. But I still love it.Obviously, an earth-tone was going to be too...earthy and bland. I was tired of discussing it, so I just let Husband pick the color.

It's actually much brighter on our walls than this swatch indicates. At first, I felt like I caved too easily. It was too bright, what my cousin K would call "Sesame Street Yellow." But once we got the furniture back into the room, it's really grown on me. And once we get the stuff back up on the walls, and the trim color chosen, and the new cabinet and drawer fronts in and painted...well, I think it's going to be just great.

All I wanted to do was paint the kitchen...

But then my practical, if not overly-ambitious, husband decided that paint of any color would clash with our ugly linoleum floor and equally-ugly cabinets. So what was the decision?

If you answered, "put in a new floor, order new cabinet doors, then paint the kitchen which ever color we wanted regardless of the color of the floor," then I have to commend you for knowing The Husband better than I do.

Seriously, we put in a new floor on Thursday, and finished up the edges tonight. It's not as daunting a task as it sounds, really. We didn't have to pull up the old floor; we just tore out the rubber edging, spread down a cement-based spackle to fill in the grooves, then installed the self-adhesive 12x12 vinyl tiles. Since our plan is to completely enlarge and remodel the kitchen in 5 years, we didn't spend a ton of money or anything, just went with something affordable but attractive, and something we could install ourselves.


Here is our old floor. In case you were wondering, that's not real brick.


Here is the cement-y spackle goo we applied, so our new floor wouldn't have to see the hideousness of the old floor.



Here is a badly-lit picture of our new floor, mostly installed. The Husband swears "it looks just like marble, " and that it reminds him of an ice-skating rink. It doesn't to me, but I still like it.


The next step is paint the walls. Well, technically...the next step is to agree on a color to paint the walls. Wish us luck! (If you've ever done home-remodelling projects with a spouse or loved one, you know we'll need it.)

Lazy Indeed

I apologize for my lack of posts recently, but life has been hectic lately. It's too much to go into right now, but I've been working a ton, and then there was that incident involving an all-female AC/DC cover band (Whole Lotta Rosies, not Hell's Belles) and free alcohol.

You know who hasn't been lazy? The Husband. He's off for 2 weeks before starting his new and much improved (we're hoping) job. But busy? My goodness, he's been busy. Among other things, he's talked to a dude (I believe it's what's called an "estimate") about insulating our attic and crawl-space; re-designed and re-fashioned one of the garden beds in the back which includes a now-much-larger water feature; made a grocery run and has many fine meals for us planned out; picked up paint swatches at Lowe's so I can make a decision about kitchen colors, after which he will paint the kitchen walls (I get to paint the cabinets myself); and has even found some time to loaf about.

If he ends up taking pictures of his handiwork, I will be sure to post them (and maybe give him credit.)