Kitchen teaser...

So I had every intention of uploading images of the finished kitchen today when I got to work. Turns out, however, that I never actually TOOK a picture of the finished kitchen.

Instead, here's an image of the floor as it was being laid. Looks insane, right? The final product is fabulous, though.

Booty tomato

At least I think it looks like a butt....

The rest of the harvest is yummy, but not as funny

Kitchen pics, as promised.

You might not be able to tell a lot of difference between the old kitchen wall color and the new one. But I can. It was a sickly yellow, more yellowed with age than intentional. Inspired by the clock, we added a chic avocado color to the walls, which I think tempers the over the top patriotism of a red, white, and blue kitchen.

This is what it looked like when we moved in. Blergh.

AFTER PAINT:

Cabinets and Walls painted - much less dingy.

It's much brighter too, given that there isn't a lot of light in the room.

Soon this will be a red,white, and blue kitchen. Tiling is next on the list.

One drawer is still missing (it broke and needs repair), the floor sucks, and we don't have the cup pulls for the drawers yet, but I love it so far. Woohoo for progress!

How has it been a month and a half?!

Good grief. Worst blogger ever. I don't really have a great excuse, other than the fact that not a ton had happened indoors on the house until recently. And I never carry my phone with me anymore (currently it isn't even charged) so I never take pictures of anything. The result is that I don't write posts because they're not very interesting without pics. Or maybe that means I'm a bad writer. I'd tell my students that meant they need to use more descriptive language.

So, I'm going to try catching up on the last two months in two paragraphs; here we go.

Amazing red knobs on white cabinets! I loves them. And having the knobs back on  gives me a place to hang herbs.

Attached to the wall! Like in a normal house!

May was cooler than I anticipated, and I was glad I waited out the warm April before setting out tomato and pepper seedlings. I headed to a friend's wedding in Ohio behind a cheese factory, taught a maymester course every day, and then it was June. In June I went to Sweden for an academic conference; it was beautiful, warm, and I learned a lot about myself from solo travel. We also travelled to a ranch in Colorado for another friend's nuptials. Then I had a week long faculty technology workshop, where I learned a lot about what I was doing wrong in the classroom and how to make it better. No work had happened on the house by the last week in June, but the garden had exploded. No fewer than 100 green tomatoes. Then my parents came to visit! We fixed the squeaky ceiling fan, affixed a duct cover in the hallway after removing the masking tape that held it in place since before we bought the place [Least you think I am admonishing the previous owner, I should share that we detached the tape from the wall, but then just rested it on the floor instead of screwing it to the wall. For a year. And a half.] and tried in vain to fix the vacuum.

This is the dirt and bunny hair collectied from vacuuming just the stairs. Terrifying.

The vacuum should get it's own paragraph, but instead I will say this: it stopped working in April and we didn't buy a new one until last weekend. Let that sink in and then be glad you didn't visit during that period. I will call it "the filth period" at Frayne Street. We also spray painted the cabinet knobs for the kitchen cabinets that I started (and never finished) painting MONTHS ago. They are purty. I was so emboldened by experiencing what it was like to be productive on the house again that we painted the kitchen and all the rest of the cabinets this past holiday weekend. They look great but, as usual, I haven't taken a picture. But I will! And I will post that picture soon(ish).

Some Progress Indoors

It's the time of year when I'm much more concerned with garden projects than indoor projects. However, we have made a little progress. We hung the mantle a while ago, but I never posted a picture.

We also put up the last bits of trim in the dining and living rooms. I need to get my butt in gear to paint the cabinets, but I will wait until next week most likely.

Thriving Yard

Bunch #3 of kale from our raised bed.

Radishes! Don't throw out their tops, do this instead.

Pak Choy, Cabbage, Collards, and lots o' Kale

Not a bug or bite on these leaves! 

The snap peas were stunted from the row cover, so I sucked it up and freed that whole garden bed.

Garlic tops! You could harvest now, but that'd mean less mature garlic later.

Alium!

Peonies are ready to rock.

And the rhubarb is most undead.

Tomatoes, started from seed, now hardening off before they go in the ground next week.

Custom Wallpaper!

I couldn't find wallpaper I liked, so I decided to commission a toile of my life! You'll recognize the house, the bunny, the garden, the chicken coop, and pittsburgh's downtown. Also included is a fire engine and my busstop in squirrel hill. 

A friend of mine from my Colorado days, who also happens to be a talented illustrator, did the piece. If you are interested in seeing more of his work, I suggest you go to his lovely professional website: http://nickfauble.com/

I've sent away for samples from Spoonflower, and if all goes well, I will be ordering wallpaper rolls. Spoonflower also does fabric, decals, and wrapping paper so I could customize my whole life if I feel inclined!

This wallpaper purchase does mean I've broken a rule: I wasn't supposed to start thinking about bedroom or bathroom renovations until I was done with the kitchen. And we are far from done with the kitchen....