tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54702712353331330772024-03-19T03:51:56.589-07:00Kraken Craftskrakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-83658676963296462772014-08-13T10:37:00.001-07:002014-08-13T14:27:22.883-07:00Puffin and Sea Creature Themed Nursery Pictures<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I haven't posted anything on this blog for a very very long time, I figured I was due for a post. We have gone/are going though some major life changes. I'm pregnant and due with a little girl in November. We already have the nursery mostly set up, which didn't really require that much redecorating since the guest bedroom kind of looked like a nursery already. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We moved the queen sized bed out of there and for my office, got a murphy bed that transitions from a desk into a full sized bed. I'll take pictures of that someday once I get my office better set up. It's a mess right now. We also moved the marble topped dresser into the master bedroom for extra clothes storage for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The glider came from Salvation Army. It is pretty ugly and I was thinking about recovering the cushions, but that seemed like too much work for something that we will only be using temporarily. It is amazingly comfortable though. The diaper pail was a hand me down, and strangely everything else in this picture we already had. Even the changing table with the animals stenciled on it. I found it in the alley when I lived in Burbank many years ago and most recently it was in the closet for extra storage. It already had the animals stenciled on it, I just changed out the knobs with unfinished wooden ones that I painted with random paint samples from our garage. We still need a changing pad for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found the fake Eames hang-it-all at the Salvation Army a while ago and just repainted the wooden balls different colors (also from our random paint samples in the garage). I made these felt puffin portraits a long time ago and they were already hanging up in this same place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I managed to fit this drop leaf table </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to use </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">as a side table to the glider. I got from my Aunt when she was downsizing and it used to belong to my grandparents. I have had this lamp for a while and have still not been able to identify the maker. I think my parents got that dinosaur candle holder at an estate sale many years ago. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Ikea crib and bookcases are the only things that we've bought new so far for this room. The crib still needs a mattress. I made the fish print, whale watercolor and the puffin mobile. There are seven different puffins in this room (the two felt portraits, the Charlie Harper print in this picture, the three puffins in the mobile and one on a <a href="http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/">Geninne Zlatkis</a> bird ABC print on the other side of the room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found this weird circus screen print at an estate sale. It is by <a href="http://www.julitajones.com/">Julieta Jones</a> a printmaker based out of Laguna Beach. I love it, but I'm not sure Nate is as keen on it. The frame was originally painted red, but I repainted it white. At some point I might replace the pink mat with a white one, but I think for now it is ok to have a little bit of pink in here since it is a girl's room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are the table numbers from our wedding that I designed, watercolored and put in thrifted frames that I painted with more paint samples. I have gotten a lot of use out of these paint samples. They are each a different sea creature and inspired by children's counting books. They fit perfectly above the window and of course I've had them up in the guest room since we bought this house. One of many things that made the guest room look very nursery-like.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here you can see the extent of my vintage children's book collection. There are actually a few more in the living room, but they are more chapter books instead of picture books. The Ikea book cases do hold a lot of books, but I should probably save more room for toys. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The toucan night light was from Goodwill. I think it is an Old Timer Ferrari one made in Verona, Italy, but it might be a knockoff. After seeing them a million times on pinterest, I had to make some display book shelves from Ikea spice racks. I painted the unfinished wood white. They are great for showing off some of my vintage children's book covers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is that <a href="http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/">Geninne Zlatkis</a> ABC bird print with the last puffin. I also already had this up in the room when it was a guest room. The coral reef light switch holder was in this room when we bought the house and it matched the not super attractive fish mural that was in this room <a href="http://krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-house.html">when we moved in</a>. The Rody horse was a lucky Salvation Army find. Oh and the rug that is in here is the one that was in the living room before. We got a new one for the living room that again I may take pictures of at some point. It is super faded and has been thrown up on by cats too many times to count, so I figure if it gets spit up and crayon marks on it I won't be too upset. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm pretty happy with this room. Actually it is my favorite room in the house right now and I'm always going in there to just relax on the glider and take it all in. We still need to get some essentials and I also want to make another mobile to go over the changing table. I might take down the vertical cat scratching box since they rarely use it anymore and put up some more of those Ikea spice rack book shelves, Otherwise it is pretty much done, and way ahead of schedule. </span></div>
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-5814216879312641222013-07-25T14:31:00.000-07:002013-07-25T14:31:05.628-07:00Refinished Hardwood FloorsA couple of months ago <a href="http://www.krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2013/06/hardwood-floors.html">I mentioned</a> that we were planning on getting the hardwood floors in our master and guest bedrooms refinished. Well we did, a long time ago. But I keep putting off posting about it. I guess, since we paid someone to do it instead of doing it ourselves, I just haven't been as eager to blog about it. I am very happy that we didn't attempt to do it ourselves though because it was a pretty involved process that is probably best left up to the professionals. The company we hired was <a href="http://www.calhardwood.com/">California Hardwood Floors</a> in Signal Hill. <br />
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To refresh your memory, here is what the floor of the guest bedroom looked like after we pulled up the berber carpet that was pee stained and shredded by the cats. Some previous owners had decided to use the original hardwood floors as a drop cloth when spray painting the walls and then just covered them in carpet. In the guest bedroom we took up the tack strips and all the staples in the floor as well as the carpet. <br />
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Since the master bedroom is where we sleep, we didn't pull up the carpet in that room until the weekend before the floor refinishers came. The floors in this room were in about the same shape as the ones in the guest bedroom. We didn't end up taking the tack strips out in this room because California Hardwood Floors said they would take them out for no extra charge. Good thing, because, just like the tack strips in the guest bedroom, they were attached with 2 1/2" long staples which were really hard to get out. </div>
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After taking out the carpet and pulling up the staples in the center of the floor, we moved our mattress back into the bedroom so we could sleep in our own bedroom for a couple of more nights. During the actual refinishing process, which took three days plus three more days of drying, we slept on our mattress in the middle of the living room. It was so bright in there!<br />
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Day one involved lots and lots of sanding. I locked the cats in my office and put Kieta outside. I was planning to hang out in my office and work but the sanding was insanely loud. I ended up taking my computer into the barn to work and leaving the poor cats to deal with the loud noises themselves. They pretty much just hid, huddled together, under my desk the whole time.<br />
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After they finished sanding I got to pick out the stain. We were trying to sort of match the hardwoods in the rest of the house. They have more of a red tone. The original hardwoods are white oak which apparently is really hard to make look reddish. I think the stain I picked was the one on the far right. I wasn't too worried about it looking exactly the same because they would never match since they are a different type of wood and a different with of board, but I wanted it to somewhat flow.</div>
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So the first day they sanded, stained and put the first layer of water based polyurethane on. That night while I was talking to Nate on the phone explaining what the floors looked like I opened the door to look at the floor and Flynn ran in and walked on the wet floor. I managed to chase him out of there with a swifter without actually walking on the floor myself or touching the swifter to the ground. But it did leave a few little cat foot prints. It ended up being ok though because they buff inbetween each layer of poly and that managed to get rid of the cat foot prints. </div>
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Above is what it looked like when wet after a couple layers of poly. I didn't want it to be too shiny and after it dried it wasn't nearly as shiny as this. <br />
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Since the hardwood floors in the rest of the house are about 1/2" higher than the original hardwoods (because they were laid over the top of the original hardwoods) we had them put in a transition strip that slopes down. Above you can see the transition strip as well as the fact that the floors don't match, but don't look too weird together.<br />
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After it was all finished I repainted base boards and we managed to get the furniture all put back into both rooms before Nate's parents came to visit. Here are the floors with everything moved back in.<br />
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Overall I think it turned out really nice. There were a few deep stains that didn't come out even with all the sanding, but I think that is to be expected with 60 year old hardwood floors. It looks much better than carpet and so so much better than their previous sad paint splattered state.<br />
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-17782423548369592702013-07-01T09:45:00.000-07:002013-07-01T09:45:05.242-07:00Trellis for the CucumbersWhen we bought the house, there was a small space between the barn and the back planter box. It seemed like wasted space to me. And even though you would think it would be pretty shady, since it it crammed in between the wall of the back planter box and the barn, since it is south facing, it always seemed to get a lot of sunlight. So last year, Nate and I built a small narrow planter box back there. Here is the <a href="http://krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2012/05/in-garden-may-2012.html">first blog post</a> where I mention it. Last year we grew corn it it. The corn did ok in there. It <a href="http://krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2012/06/in-garden-june-2012.html">got pretty tall </a>and ended up producing a few ears of corn, but I decided corn is just not worth growing. It is so cheep at the store when in season and just as tasty. And getting only an ear or two per plant just seems like too much biomass to produce to get a tiny bit to eat. <div>
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In some issue of <a href="http://www.sunset.com/">Sunset</a> this winter or spring (I can't find it anymore and can't find any reference to the project on the sunset webpage) they had a tiny blurb about using steel remesh, like the stuff used in concrete slabs, to attach a sturdy trellis to a wooden fence. I thought it would be perfect to attach to the side of the barn to let vining plants (like cucumbers) grow in that weird little planter box. I told Nate about it and I added it to the list of projects to get to at some point. </div>
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As a side note, the barn had a pretty good termite infestation in the door and earlier this summer we ended up getting the whole barn tented and fumigated. When they did that the tarp ended up covering up the weird little planter box. The vicane definitely killed all the plants that were left in the planter box, which at the time was just parsley that had seeded itself there. I was worried that it probably also killed any earthworms and anything other good stuff living in the soil and I didn't know how well stuff would end up growing in there. </div>
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I had started a few cucumber seeds earlier in the late spring and was eager to get the plants in the ground. So we went to Lowes and bought two <a href="http://www.lowes.com/pd_353630-157-737624_0__?productId=3820787&Ntt=remesh&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dremesh&facetInfo=">4' by 7' wire remesh panels</a>. With a little bending, they barely fit in Nate's Ford Focus with the back door tied down. We also got screw in hooks to attach them to the side of the barn. We ended up having to cut down the remesh a little bit. They attached to the barn pretty easily and make a nice sturdy and attractive trellis. I put lots of compost in the planter box to make sure the soil was healthy and planted the cucumbers. They are now finally blooming and getting tall enough to climb up the trellis. Hopefully, I can actually get enough cucumbers to pickle a few this year. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-30590244442053028262013-06-03T10:55:00.000-07:002013-06-03T10:55:59.472-07:00Hardwood FloorsWhen we bought our house we assumed that it didn't originally have hardwood floors. The living room/dining room, hallways and my office had fairly new (I think cherry) hardwood floors. The kitchen and bathroom had linoleum and the guest and master bedrooms had berber carpet. Since the house was built in 1955 it didn't seem that crazy for it not to originally have hardwood floors. Since many of the other houses in the neighborhood that we looked at had original hardwood floors, I figured that hardwood or carpet was just an option that you could choose from the builder. Even though the new hardwood floors in our house were nice and in good shape, I was kind of sad to not have the thin board oak floors that were original to many houses built in the same era. <br />
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When we had the extra doorway to my office drywalled up, like many people who do some remodeling to their homes, we discovered some odd choices that the previous owners made. We were trying to get baseboard molding to match the molding in the hallway and the inside of my office to patch the space that had just been drywalled up when we discovered that the people who laid the hardwood floors didn't take the baseboard off when they put in the floors. They just laid the hardwood up to the baseboard and put quarter round over the gap between floor and the baseboard. Normal people would have taken the baseboards off, laid the hardwood all the way up to the wall and then put the baseboards back on over the hardwoods. This of course made it really tough to patch the space where the doorway had been. I will not show you a picture of the makeshift patch job we did. But lots of caulk and strategic furniture placement hides it fairly ok. <br />
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When poking around the baseboards, I shined a flashlight down in the space between the wall and the hardwood floors and realized that there actually were original hardwood floors underneath the new hardwood floors. Strangely they seemed to have been painted white, but I could see a nice finish to them in spots where the white paint had flaked off. <br />
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In the guest bedroom the carpet was in horrible shape. First, two cats and a dog that was potty training at the time had peed and thrown up on it multiple times. Each time we used carpet cleaner on it, instead of taking out the stain, it would just make it bigger and darker. Also the cats loved scratching at the carpet in the door way. They had managed to unravel long strings of berber carpet which exposed the tack strip. Walking into the room in bare feet became really dangerous. But since they had destroyed the carpet so well, it was easy to pull up the corner of the carpet to see that the guest bedroom also had original hardwood floors that seemed to have been painted white. <br />
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This past weekend, we decided to tear up the carpet in the guest room to see what we were working with. Either we could refinish it, leave it painted white, repaint it white or just get new carpet. Any of these options we figured would be better than the stained, unraveling carpet that was there.<br />
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We weren't expecting what we found. The floor seemed in fairly good shape. But it looked like someone had painted the walls with a sprayer without bothering to cover the floor in any way. So the floors were pretty solidly white on the edges with lighter white in the center and lots of drips and foot prints. I guess if they were planning on putting hardwoods over the existing hardwoods in the rest of the house and putting carpet down in the bedrooms, why try to preserve them. Who cares what future owners of the house might want to do.<br />
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With much difficulty, we tore up the tack strips and removed a million super deep staples from the floor. I think we will probably pay someone to refinish them for us and have them do the master bedroom at the same time. I pulled up a corner in the master bedroom and it looks like the same situation. <br />
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I'm assuming that since they put hardwoods over the original hardwoods, there must have been something wrong with them somewhere that made it not worth just refinishing them. So we probably won't be tearing up the new hardwoods throughout the rest of the house anytime soon. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6whdyXEXk1QNFbOcg4dUPTpLW7V5JxUGZBer4L2Iy-H9N5FfY2QWSnaMO5SIeIWnp5UQx-2pY6YmbMIlei2LNnjGgoWMB8J1uS0U_2DXoelesaNO3xWWZ0DTwOVgPUe5d7fGhB42jTg/s1600/DSC_0553.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6whdyXEXk1QNFbOcg4dUPTpLW7V5JxUGZBer4L2Iy-H9N5FfY2QWSnaMO5SIeIWnp5UQx-2pY6YmbMIlei2LNnjGgoWMB8J1uS0U_2DXoelesaNO3xWWZ0DTwOVgPUe5d7fGhB42jTg/s400/DSC_0553.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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Anyway, stay tuned for future progress on this project. Hopefully we will get it done fairly soon since Nate's parents are visiting us in a month and will need to sleep in that bedroom.<br />
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-67911620717873828662013-05-24T12:39:00.000-07:002013-05-24T12:39:07.780-07:00I Think the Kitchen is Finally Completely Finished<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This last phase, of tiling the backsplash, grouting, caulking and touch-up painting, took quite some time. But it was kind of nice to break it up into lots of smaller projects the could be done in an evening. Again. as a reminder, <a href="http://www.krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2013/02/kitchen-remodel-phase-one-complete.html">here</a> is what the kitchen looked like when we bought the place two years ago. And here it is now.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6azCuBt0HlINqSXF0hudSXfaOk3EaP8KWMbdUKfytSOzCRls6UyhooxhWM5MrVpwrBjGFJJcdVRrg09JWbAR1DSh2xhbfPkiFRNmuAGtxebxNFQ1VGGqqHPHFVpGwcacDnxs1UhrJLg/s1600/DSC_0549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6azCuBt0HlINqSXF0hudSXfaOk3EaP8KWMbdUKfytSOzCRls6UyhooxhWM5MrVpwrBjGFJJcdVRrg09JWbAR1DSh2xhbfPkiFRNmuAGtxebxNFQ1VGGqqHPHFVpGwcacDnxs1UhrJLg/s400/DSC_0549.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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We ended up having to buy a wet saw to cut the subway tile. There were lots of corner notches that we had to cut to go around outlets, cabinets and window moulding that you can't cut with the score and snap tile cutter we already had. I think the wet saw we bought probably isn't professional grade, and wouldn't work that well for stone tile. But it worked great for the ceramic subway tile and cost about the same as renting a wet saw from Home Depot for one day. </div>
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There was some debate between Nate and I about where to end the subway tile. I was almost of a mind to just tile every wall in the kitchen from floor to ceiling, or at least from floor to the level of the underside of the upper cabinets. I finally agreed that that would be a little excessive and expensive. I think I'm pretty happy with where we decided to end the tile. In this corner above, I didn't want a floating square of tile on the far wall, so we just didn't tile it at all. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicKGjye902OdXzsRPlSUSV9jiIR7F1qv5nLwoZgyMfQaXZb_qmyaCq8PgwERj88LiyNcN4ImvSJlCnVsRQrYf3KXUR6cifPSQbR8dhTTx6rNIdz4xQf2Alr368in_Sf1PMifYqngH5Jw/s1600/DSC_0547.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicKGjye902OdXzsRPlSUSV9jiIR7F1qv5nLwoZgyMfQaXZb_qmyaCq8PgwERj88LiyNcN4ImvSJlCnVsRQrYf3KXUR6cifPSQbR8dhTTx6rNIdz4xQf2Alr368in_Sf1PMifYqngH5Jw/s640/DSC_0547.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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On this side we ended at the edge of the upper cabinets, but used bullnose edging tile along the edge. So even though you can see some bare wall behind the fridge, it looks finished. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-GiZ3Ey6HArfKMqOMwQtAvh9DrnSDhFfmq9DOQkqp9Wa6gqLngYH-bESPG329RCTYyPlJKlQIillWS_HZxkKuwNHkgAOY-d8xT0myVJLxfOMe7dsh9V8WsholBDpsp6j9RY6sQdaPhA/s1600/DSC_0551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-GiZ3Ey6HArfKMqOMwQtAvh9DrnSDhFfmq9DOQkqp9Wa6gqLngYH-bESPG329RCTYyPlJKlQIillWS_HZxkKuwNHkgAOY-d8xT0myVJLxfOMe7dsh9V8WsholBDpsp6j9RY6sQdaPhA/s400/DSC_0551.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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In this corner, since there was a defined end to the tile with the window moulding, we ended up tiling the space between it and the counter on the far wall. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqjEwPBf6w4U-Hvl02uAd6QDF6SCApnoSSpm-pGgoxvuC-YoQxhajYZpcNGSr8x1BQ3LpKtPusfYaLqyoj4TN2zD5jWBpn7ffjPDCH-TPIA273mMbLfhGdhcpoj0otDBX5KUMIXhpEg/s1600/DSC_0546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqjEwPBf6w4U-Hvl02uAd6QDF6SCApnoSSpm-pGgoxvuC-YoQxhajYZpcNGSr8x1BQ3LpKtPusfYaLqyoj4TN2zD5jWBpn7ffjPDCH-TPIA273mMbLfhGdhcpoj0otDBX5KUMIXhpEg/s640/DSC_0546.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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This was the hardest to figure out space. We ended up tiling behind the stove, but just from the level of the counter up. We screwed a piece of wood into the wall during the tiling to keep the tiles level with the counter. Then on the left we stopped at the edge of the microwave. The end of the tile is hidden, just barely, behind the stove. We didn't want to tile the whole area behind the stove and if we extended it any further there would be tiles floating in the air. If I had to do it again, I might have just tiled all the way to the door jam and down to the floor so it looked like we tiled behind the whole stove. <br />
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Since we did almost everything ourselves, there are definitely a lot of little imperfections in this kitchen. But I'm willing to live with them since doing things ourselves saved us A LOT of money. I think also having put so much hard work into it gives us even more of a pride of ownership. <br />
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Living with and cooking in the new kitchen has been really great so far. There is so much more counter space with the microwave, coffee maker and toaster oven not sitting on the counter. Keeping the coffee maker behind the tambour doors in the hoosier cabinet has worked out really well. We even found a smaller toaster oven that fits inside the hoosier cabinet too. And it toasts so much quicker than our old one. I think my only complaint is that cat foot prints, and all dirt/food debris, show so much more on the new countertops than on our old beige speckled laminate ones. I don't think we are going to convince the cats not to walk on the counters any time soon, but at least the counters are super easy to clean.krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-77661844606801808282013-04-12T12:11:00.000-07:002013-04-12T12:11:01.485-07:00A Little Bit of Subway Tile<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last Sunday we started tiling the backsplash with subway tile. Since we are using a premixed tub of mastic to attach the tiles to the wall we don't have to do it all in one sitting. This makes tiling much more enjoyable when you know you can just stop whenever you feel like it. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghp4k1_Gezd3-V17IgupgOaNaf6Qy-XGzXdQmgsoGHKx2WslVOpPn_1osYyIxCbInfVsRO6cd1J-9MvfYvyA_VYvePDdZal3tTWYTn-xsZlnOi0BHGnRzdCm7aMuxL8ysPMVSmeTFYAg/s1600/DSC_0546.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghp4k1_Gezd3-V17IgupgOaNaf6Qy-XGzXdQmgsoGHKx2WslVOpPn_1osYyIxCbInfVsRO6cd1J-9MvfYvyA_VYvePDdZal3tTWYTn-xsZlnOi0BHGnRzdCm7aMuxL8ysPMVSmeTFYAg/s400/DSC_0546.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First we laid down paper over the new counter to keep it clean and then we sanded the wall. Supposedly the tiles have a hard time sticking to painted drywall but roughing up the surface helps. The subway tiles we bought are self spacing but we used tile spacers to lift the first row up off the counter. This line will get filled with caulk instead of grout. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have a tile scorer and snapper, but we discovered that it made pretty ugly cuts in the subway tile. We did use a coping saw to cut the tiles to go around the outlets, but the outlet covers will hide those cuts so it doesn't matter what they look like. We are going to finish all the tiling that doesn't require any cuts that will show and then either borrow or rent a wet saw to cut the remaining tiles. We also had to buy longer screws for the outlet boxes so the plugs can sit over the top of the tile. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi4n2WWPaFFnrNgxDm08Ae0_ir6HSbL6ScID3BcDzCocuacm5AFzKEgzhbY3YG2KhAGx65bYJseebZZiH4c-zblEeDjDE5GEpujhrLDQDbDEgPvJwAl2T7CH_ZNaISX92KgeR2r42EUg/s1600/DSC_0551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi4n2WWPaFFnrNgxDm08Ae0_ir6HSbL6ScID3BcDzCocuacm5AFzKEgzhbY3YG2KhAGx65bYJseebZZiH4c-zblEeDjDE5GEpujhrLDQDbDEgPvJwAl2T7CH_ZNaISX92KgeR2r42EUg/s400/DSC_0551.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It only took a couple of hours to do all of (except the tiles we still need to cut) the backsplash on the wall behind the sink. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8yBNjS-DfcilgIUP-ocgjaR7ebY5pWCwxilhKiJCtfdLaYMt0DB3qvgp3kdSOKB8ML6WtU269b_KW6-ebEC5-83vsxEl32idYERkAf2k9-aOQOdWV9d6udTvq8gIujrD6n0YUg1EsXw/s1600/DSC_0556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8yBNjS-DfcilgIUP-ocgjaR7ebY5pWCwxilhKiJCtfdLaYMt0DB3qvgp3kdSOKB8ML6WtU269b_KW6-ebEC5-83vsxEl32idYERkAf2k9-aOQOdWV9d6udTvq8gIujrD6n0YUg1EsXw/s400/DSC_0556.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was hoping to be able to do the tiling on the wall behind the stove some evening this week, but I managed to cut my finger really badly chopping onions on Sunday night. I had to go to the emergency room and everything. In the interest of keeping my wound clean and dry I think I'll need to wait a while before doing any more tiling. </span></div>
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-59575232831565594382013-03-25T11:15:00.000-07:002013-03-27T10:26:03.006-07:00Kitchen 90% Done!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since the last time I posted anything a lot has happened with the kitchen. Every weekend and a good chunk of our weekday evenings for the last month and a half have been spent doing something related to the kitchen. I thought after we finished painting the cabinets, we would get to take a break and appreciate our hard work before starting the next phase of the remodel. Apparently I was mistaken. Updating one thing in the kitchen makes all the other unupdated things look really bad in comparison. And Nate wanted to start the tiling ASAP. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(Warning: This post has lots and lots of pictures)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We did the tiling over Presidents Day Weekend, which made sense because tiling really takes three full days. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We used 1" hex tiles again, which we are fairly comfortable with after <a href="http://www.krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2012/06/hexagonal.html">tiling the bathroom floor</a>. But this time we used <a href="http://www.lowes.com/pd_255054-372-0D251HEX35MSC1P_4294965276__?productId=3151787&Ntt=American%2BOlean&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3DAmerican%252BOlean&facetInfo=American%20Olean">black and white American Olean</a> tiles which had to be special ordered at Lowes. It took a full (9AM until 11PM) day just to lay out and cut the tiles to fit. This was me very tired at the very end of the day. We numbered all the sheets so we could easily find the correct sheet when tiling the next day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because our subfloor was in good shape in the kitchen and we didn't want the tile to end up being higher than the wood floor in the living room, we used this <a href="http://www.lowes.com/pd_89400-34587-8500_0__?Ntt=tile+underlayment&UserSearch=tile+underlayment&productId=4165905&rpp=32">thin skin underlayment stuff</a> instead of cement board. It is just a roll of plastic coated paper that you lay down with the stickiest glue ever. When we bought it, we didn't realize that you had to also lay a very thin layer of mortar over the top of it and let it dry before you could start tiling. Waiting for that stuff to dry took way longer than anticipated, but once it did, the tiling went fairly quickly. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLvPtWgCioP8dKcu-63ORxqUSbXvya-7Ue-GpdMxNnose6CN0lL_q2LxCgrXPoTzwnHTRtj9vwFDaDWHvKG_ZvlChi82mYrkpMux_Orz4w-DxXWE6N51FlhzSlUXVtfSsO5gnfzNpTw/s1600/DSC_0511.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLvPtWgCioP8dKcu-63ORxqUSbXvya-7Ue-GpdMxNnose6CN0lL_q2LxCgrXPoTzwnHTRtj9vwFDaDWHvKG_ZvlChi82mYrkpMux_Orz4w-DxXWE6N51FlhzSlUXVtfSsO5gnfzNpTw/s400/DSC_0511.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next day was grouting and buffing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One thing that made it turn out much better than the bathroom tiling job was that we took off not just the baseboards, but the moldings around each of the three door ways. Here Harris is inspecting the competed tiling before we put the moldings back on. There were definitely a few places where the spacing between the tiles was either too wide or to narrow, but most of those are behind the fridge or behind the stove and won't be visible. We also luckily caught a couple of places where the pattern of black and white tiles were messed up before the mortar completely set up. If we hadn't fixed those places they would probably have driven us crazy for the next 20 years. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dFMcMxjHWd-gr9xOOlDvBsISAyHniaiKQaYskLkc9HbKsmbvIEGb3QuHgXYsetO_3g61LpMg90ZGESBAhr2N5UR7cyFZbp_jGQuSB7sYkMJLTdufy_OlFh2sDw3p90S4kMPpjwqByg/s1600/DSC_0532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dFMcMxjHWd-gr9xOOlDvBsISAyHniaiKQaYskLkc9HbKsmbvIEGb3QuHgXYsetO_3g61LpMg90ZGESBAhr2N5UR7cyFZbp_jGQuSB7sYkMJLTdufy_OlFh2sDw3p90S4kMPpjwqByg/s640/DSC_0532.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were extra excited that once we finished tiling we could move the former wardrobe/entertainment center we bought off craigslist and painted and turned into a pantry into the corner in the kitchen. It was really really heavy and it took Nate and I an incredibly frustrating half a day to just move it with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Above-All-Forearm-Forklift-Lifting/dp/B008ASBLJI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364230902&sr=8-1&keywords=forearm+fork+lift">forearm forklifts</a> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">from the garage into the backyard. After I refused to move it any further we got our friend Travis to help Nate move it the rest of the way into the kitchen. Once it was in, it was clear that it was too big for the space. I think we didn't take into account the molding at the top or that with a surge protector (we wanted to move the toaster oven and coffee maker into it) it wouldn't be able to go all the way up against the wall. It made our kitchen feel tiny. So the next weekend we got another friend, Jade, to help move it back to the garage again where it is still sitting to this day taking up room waiting to be resold on craigslist. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next thing we did was get a new stove and venting microwave, but I don't have a picture of those until the final reveal pictures so you'll just have to imagine. We got both from Lowes. The delivery people hooked up the stove for us with no problems and we love it. It has five burners and there is no space between the grates so you can just move pans back and forth between burners without having to lift them up. Also it is way more powerful and the quick boil burner boils water in probably half the time of our old stove. Our fridge and dishwasher, which are both pretty new and in good shape are black, but we wanted to get stainless steel for the stove and microwave. We got ones that had significant portions of black on them along with the stainless steal so they don't seem completely mismatched from the fridge and dishwasher. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The microwave wasn't as simple as the stove. First we got one that we realized was going to hang down so far that we couldn't fit a large pot on the stove. So we returned it and got a slightly smaller one. Lowes was going to charge us $100 to install the microwave, which seemed crazy for a less than $200 microwave. So we decided to install it ourselves. The instillation seemed like it went fairly smoothly, until a couple days later when we concluded that the microwave just wasn't venting properly. So we had to take it down and fiddle with the tube that connects the top of the microwave to the exterior vent. It was blocking the flap on the top of the microwave vent from opening. After fixing that, it works great. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We ordered grey silestone quartz countertops from Home Depot. They were having a 10% off sale and our kitchen doesn't have a ton of countertop space so they ended up not being all that expensive. We were originally going to have the Home Depot people remove our old sink and countertops, but for some reason they were going to have to do a lead paint test that would cost $400 before removing our countertops because our house was built before 1975. But if we removed them ourselves we wouldn't have to pay that fee or the fee to have the countertops removed and hauled away. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZG38QXFUgJt1pFPHjTZOugpF5qoOAboqWG5PWjuMjn1b-bKq-nfMjU89NexK7GJage2B4ZciwjiSndaqdr4_GPtrdw6VhdFisj2QQi9YWZRENFZCPsxFM4CwYCS7rw3Dgb6UESRJ7g/s1600/DSC_0540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZG38QXFUgJt1pFPHjTZOugpF5qoOAboqWG5PWjuMjn1b-bKq-nfMjU89NexK7GJage2B4ZciwjiSndaqdr4_GPtrdw6VhdFisj2QQi9YWZRENFZCPsxFM4CwYCS7rw3Dgb6UESRJ7g/s400/DSC_0540.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had a plumber unhook the plumbing and then we just took out the sink and the countertops. There were just a few screws attaching the countertops to the cabinets and after removing them, they came off really easily. We listed the sink and countertops as free on craigslist and within 15 min. someone came and picked up the sink and in a couple hours someone got the countertops. Amazing! I like alley furniture and general free stuff more than</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">probably</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the next guy, but what someone is going to do with our old formica countertops is beyond me. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZG38QXFUgJt1pFPHjTZOugpF5qoOAboqWG5PWjuMjn1b-bKq-nfMjU89NexK7GJage2B4ZciwjiSndaqdr4_GPtrdw6VhdFisj2QQi9YWZRENFZCPsxFM4CwYCS7rw3Dgb6UESRJ7g/s1600/DSC_0540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqeqqoNNBfc2vMX9mImzkVewnLCMrwJMKZ-shPDHgFzANJxrW7CjVIalOIAcM84s5MTM62l8eRaG0uk5G2J8drRvYhS2pigRioor0luJIBARGjES_OaFTZHEHgX55BC3PbkNf7pNo5Hw/s1600/DSC_0537.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqeqqoNNBfc2vMX9mImzkVewnLCMrwJMKZ-shPDHgFzANJxrW7CjVIalOIAcM84s5MTM62l8eRaG0uk5G2J8drRvYhS2pigRioor0luJIBARGjES_OaFTZHEHgX55BC3PbkNf7pNo5Hw/s400/DSC_0537.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next day they came and installed the countertops. I love them. We got the undermount sink on Overstock.com for only about $100. I love being able to just wipe stuff into the sink. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToO6hXWIeoNhfNofgKi5hZwNwyljbbVppub4euOswARQl0ldWERU-BdKCfRMrHdj3qkxynNyDiEgDAPrarRMjDHUQBwfp0zCNx0JklnGopNnNkmL9uzlqe0T4yCtVImY_CQmjabutcw/s1600/DSC_0572.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToO6hXWIeoNhfNofgKi5hZwNwyljbbVppub4euOswARQl0ldWERU-BdKCfRMrHdj3qkxynNyDiEgDAPrarRMjDHUQBwfp0zCNx0JklnGopNnNkmL9uzlqe0T4yCtVImY_CQmjabutcw/s400/DSC_0572.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The plumber came back the next day to hook up our new fancy faucet (also from Overstock.com). There was actually a manufacturer's defect with the faucet so it was leaking from the top of the sprayer, but the plumber fixed it with just an extra washer. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_2-P4_HWVfWkfZUWr_gAzBoug2z2TkAz1rWRWVUoolNqpnyXk_bTaoNVRApf6lv_y2YchTQSZp7DFDByHHNcH3KGmbrbrQe5kMUt8LT94JU-s9s7pKCEiFPiW9NLWWD11shyphenhyphenLFjw-w/s1600/DSC_0556.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_2-P4_HWVfWkfZUWr_gAzBoug2z2TkAz1rWRWVUoolNqpnyXk_bTaoNVRApf6lv_y2YchTQSZp7DFDByHHNcH3KGmbrbrQe5kMUt8LT94JU-s9s7pKCEiFPiW9NLWWD11shyphenhyphenLFjw-w/s640/DSC_0556.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05johQF1NIRUwU-pWuMU2Rx-imhVJN7Z2fs5M9GZQxXSrpLdsMQa5SY4gHSmDGpqqaIDvQnq8xR2oXc4Rjx1HhjE3KBoOsEZigukJBGuQfjA2oZ0LtHqtv8ipsnEhv3_C5piNBd_GJA/s1600/DSC_0557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05johQF1NIRUwU-pWuMU2Rx-imhVJN7Z2fs5M9GZQxXSrpLdsMQa5SY4gHSmDGpqqaIDvQnq8xR2oXc4Rjx1HhjE3KBoOsEZigukJBGuQfjA2oZ0LtHqtv8ipsnEhv3_C5piNBd_GJA/s640/DSC_0557.jpg" width="428" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are some final reveal pictures of the kitchen in all its glory. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4t3PIq2_CELHdcN6ssQ2rijkL2d3vMM1UnmTbL0bG-SA02wCa9_fm-DAnD4AQWLTOeXsu7Gd8ViCs9RWRyqAfDp6nLkBVKViIsHeWERHdzTtr1dt-PCyaJqnfmwuhV1ZJcOvi7gz7Jw/s1600/DSC_0558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4t3PIq2_CELHdcN6ssQ2rijkL2d3vMM1UnmTbL0bG-SA02wCa9_fm-DAnD4AQWLTOeXsu7Gd8ViCs9RWRyqAfDp6nLkBVKViIsHeWERHdzTtr1dt-PCyaJqnfmwuhV1ZJcOvi7gz7Jw/s640/DSC_0558.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Including the stove and microwave.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNZdTBukPtr5XB_Yu0UaKkklbENGoFLQsgBYlSuHrVkXcgXb-eOTqAB5J9G-A8o9Hm010Ql7PvsUnqvdOkgYQ46MuEObcAHdE7jbK9hBhd6Zt-MKFYlWYm1ZXwwXKnHGgbUcBlLZ-_Q/s1600/DSC_0560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNZdTBukPtr5XB_Yu0UaKkklbENGoFLQsgBYlSuHrVkXcgXb-eOTqAB5J9G-A8o9Hm010Ql7PvsUnqvdOkgYQ46MuEObcAHdE7jbK9hBhd6Zt-MKFYlWYm1ZXwwXKnHGgbUcBlLZ-_Q/s640/DSC_0560.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, to replace the giant cabinet, we bought a hoosier cabinet off ebay. We painted it the same white as our cabinets, which probably ruined its value. But, the finish wasn't in great shape and now I think it looks great with our kitchen. It doesn't hold quite as much as that other cabinet would have, but we were still able to get the coffee maker behind the tambour doors and will be able to fit a toaster oven if we get a smaller one. We rearranged everything in our kitchen cabinets so most of our food is in the hoosier cabinet and we can now fit some of our larger kitchen appliances in the kitchen cabinets instead of in a crate in the dining room. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The only thing we have left to do in the kitchen is install the subway tile backsplash and do some touch up painting. We haven't ever done wall tile before so I'm sure that will pose its own problems, but it is nice to be in the home stretch on this kitchen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know this post is already super long, but I wanted to show some pictures of a few other things that we have changed in our house while we were updating the kitchen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JpzmXAuF4iZpSFahKi9MalCRaE_w9G9anhgMkqnQPPIGvjcKrqBAG-dtpH0BpSZrg_MudLVl4f1u6BS1lYtqQlAQN12G7_bvn4FNsXIQfB6D90BhJtxX-WJieWh8lIOod2YUOZIetA/s1600/DSC_0562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9JpzmXAuF4iZpSFahKi9MalCRaE_w9G9anhgMkqnQPPIGvjcKrqBAG-dtpH0BpSZrg_MudLVl4f1u6BS1lYtqQlAQN12G7_bvn4FNsXIQfB6D90BhJtxX-WJieWh8lIOod2YUOZIetA/s640/DSC_0562.jpg" width="428" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We replaced the ceiling fan in the dining room with this enamel warehouse pendant lamp from Fab.com.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs31I9uXOCTp6AHrTRHfZqpGfEtGJvZp7uU5JxmQdNNXTHx_utjvWMWDsi4BF1ijkuP0hiW0LLYNH3LG_nS7_KqllnezV5j3RfjEXw5mM0rf4HK0a3wt8Lwic5317G4F9mAZeHBw879Q/s1600/DSC_0563.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs31I9uXOCTp6AHrTRHfZqpGfEtGJvZp7uU5JxmQdNNXTHx_utjvWMWDsi4BF1ijkuP0hiW0LLYNH3LG_nS7_KqllnezV5j3RfjEXw5mM0rf4HK0a3wt8Lwic5317G4F9mAZeHBw879Q/s640/DSC_0563.jpg" width="428" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCNC2hxb5pjNiY95W5MXwYE76V_YPoPD8hB_xHd4lUcJChIfumwP3WkQsPFZRgK8T_GB67GT423dUHy6qMPI-DkNsNnHVD3SP2lDA75bxiY9qsKkxscT-r15Ptv2MI-58OLcAXr45jg/s1600/DSC_0565.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCNC2hxb5pjNiY95W5MXwYE76V_YPoPD8hB_xHd4lUcJChIfumwP3WkQsPFZRgK8T_GB67GT423dUHy6qMPI-DkNsNnHVD3SP2lDA75bxiY9qsKkxscT-r15Ptv2MI-58OLcAXr45jg/s640/DSC_0565.jpg" width="428" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have lots of extra room for artwork in the front hallway now that the extra door to my office and the window into the kitchen are drywalled up. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyeKNRWA41gxoG6Mek6sNHS-fsTq0yizVMSywDXkUBX4baEYjkFoZFisAbvLDih45-JsVBZLdA3VQa3HlAlOrwJht-rrPNio3V7cKpTmSvSG9xbWR4tMsF-XHtXPbdTltbFouDEh0cw/s1600/DSC_0567.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyeKNRWA41gxoG6Mek6sNHS-fsTq0yizVMSywDXkUBX4baEYjkFoZFisAbvLDih45-JsVBZLdA3VQa3HlAlOrwJht-rrPNio3V7cKpTmSvSG9xbWR4tMsF-XHtXPbdTltbFouDEh0cw/s640/DSC_0567.jpg" width="426" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And we finally got a real door on the now only doorway to my office. Also we replaced the brass lever door handles with these white porcelain door knobs on the doors to my office the two bedrooms and the bathroom. Now Harris can't open the doors anymore. Unfortunately he can still open the exterior door to the back yard and will let himself and Flynn our if we don't keep it locked. That is a project for another day. </span>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-11123010208370836412013-02-05T12:43:00.000-08:002013-02-05T13:48:09.102-08:00Kitchen Remodel: Phase One Complete<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Ever since we bought this house, just about two years ago, we have been planning on redoing the kitchen. The problem is the kitchen has a lot of issues and tackling them all at once seemed like too daunting of a task. We also didn't want to end up with a half torn up kitchen for extended periods of time. So we decided to break the kitchen remodel down into phases, each of which could be done fairly quickly and look decent in-between phases. </div>
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Phase One: replace the boob light fixtures, paint the cabinets white, attach pulls and knobs to the cabinets and paint the kitchen grey. </div>
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Phase Two: get the extra pass through window in the kitchen dry walled over, tile the floor with black and white hex tiles, install free standing pantry, get a new stove and replace exhaust hood with venting microwave.</div>
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Phase Three: get grey quartz countertops and stainless steal undermount sink installed and tile backsplash with white subway tiles. </div>
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As of today we have completed all of phase one and part of phase two. </div>
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As a reminder, here are some pictures of the before. As usual I didn't take good before pictures so most of these are from when we first looked at the house before we bought it. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8aQJWXJ_jOWW20M6OnznW4CaAKAgtxnay-gvPt_MCh8ErR6efECkJqb1OEAYpuYE9hEhbPfv2sPhUSH1myU0b0FlklVGsRPvQqh18kBszXXZVCWKoi_HG_mL5r-q-8TcWvE3NASj4-A/s1600/DSC_0654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8aQJWXJ_jOWW20M6OnznW4CaAKAgtxnay-gvPt_MCh8ErR6efECkJqb1OEAYpuYE9hEhbPfv2sPhUSH1myU0b0FlklVGsRPvQqh18kBszXXZVCWKoi_HG_mL5r-q-8TcWvE3NASj4-A/s400/DSC_0654.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The cabinets were the basic light oak cabinets, though I don't think they were original to the house since the house was built in 1955. They must have been put in in the early 90s or late 80s. They were in pretty horrible shape since there were no handles so you had to grab the edge of the cabinet with wet hands to open them. Naturally there was some pretty bad water damage, especially under the sink.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAL56JfJHOsaKIF5mpEvKskjuLWXVS8yd7wGOjwSzIGjoQ7TP-gtwZmPzOEeyUd_IgwPaRZF7H6WAGzRKB4N77KaUAtJKvErzumOKkZyger1-rcQJQUgH_sjhLBCM2lBuZ7kX4XUo-Eg/s1600/DSC_0507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAL56JfJHOsaKIF5mpEvKskjuLWXVS8yd7wGOjwSzIGjoQ7TP-gtwZmPzOEeyUd_IgwPaRZF7H6WAGzRKB4N77KaUAtJKvErzumOKkZyger1-rcQJQUgH_sjhLBCM2lBuZ7kX4XUo-Eg/s400/DSC_0507.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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These two lights were the last of the boob shaped lights in the house.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFyhw4Bg6c_tGzEdouuwsvUYh-3hFsySyLo4WmwNkbqvNe0hbt1ZqlFWmsrIwW6pujHgUQUor_wJQajpUcUM-fJ5tsl2LFXoLhee7Xh94OPV0h0dBmSgYLJznhESdzlFs_NNlelAhTA/s1600/DSC_0661.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFyhw4Bg6c_tGzEdouuwsvUYh-3hFsySyLo4WmwNkbqvNe0hbt1ZqlFWmsrIwW6pujHgUQUor_wJQajpUcUM-fJ5tsl2LFXoLhee7Xh94OPV0h0dBmSgYLJznhESdzlFs_NNlelAhTA/s400/DSC_0661.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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At some point in our house's past, someone opened up these three windows in the kitchen. They don't really serve any function, except that that do make the originally very closed off galley kitchen much lighter and brighter and open to the living room. It is hard to see in this picture, but the third window is directly to the right of you as you walk in the front door. We couldn't really figure out what the point of this window was since it just allowed any visitors to look directly into our messy kitchen as soon as they walked into the house. There is also a corner of the kitchen, next to that window, that doesn't have any cabinets and is just unused space. Our kitchen also doesn't have any pantry space and we really wanted to use this space for a pantry, however with the window, you can't fit a tall cupboard. </div>
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We bought a paint sprayer off craigslist, after we found out that renting a paint sprayer from home depot for one day costs almost as much as buying a used one. We took off all the cabinet doors and drawer faces, sanded them and sprayed them with the paint sprayer. Then we painted the remaining cabinet boxes by hand. Here are some lovely pictures of our kitchen torn apart during the process. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXEiI8oCfst3jOwYLLFNvYNcEPcwcwqMRUnrPGa6sTDMPcMxkrt925gXdrfYdFPyEIAL8tHAbc32o0av7xTtKTHWz__9TyYEn1zxQDueUIZWSrvbBjivYzDqUWhXkczOYX7FPf045uRw/s1600/DSC_0511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXEiI8oCfst3jOwYLLFNvYNcEPcwcwqMRUnrPGa6sTDMPcMxkrt925gXdrfYdFPyEIAL8tHAbc32o0av7xTtKTHWz__9TyYEn1zxQDueUIZWSrvbBjivYzDqUWhXkczOYX7FPf045uRw/s400/DSC_0511.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-MdzK0I_gsh0Y8uDy5SRYr1mkl-qGc8CWi17zr8V0pbHOmNdusF351kfkYlpYP0XjCqcuDGZsFvX1FOp2FWqTzWZU5lfDPcrG9DXI26QqKH3XPge0FWXvQf6YED_YUGQoFbL-3YYZ3Q/s1600/DSC_0509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-MdzK0I_gsh0Y8uDy5SRYr1mkl-qGc8CWi17zr8V0pbHOmNdusF351kfkYlpYP0XjCqcuDGZsFvX1FOp2FWqTzWZU5lfDPcrG9DXI26QqKH3XPge0FWXvQf6YED_YUGQoFbL-3YYZ3Q/s320/DSC_0509.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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Also from craigslist we got this wardrobe which will be our future pantry. It originally was an entertainment center and was dark blue. So we had to reconfigure the inside and install shelves. Nate sprayed it white at the same time he sprayed the cabinet doors. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXvPLfkGHUH-4FHwDsS2gUxFU6x44AKuQGJOt1yjVlhoHPGZj-m_UjRN0l9xuwaRaqe5K81bQAFOr_afAz5bJDDux2Hm1fPSlDdiJU-Y_P0CJfHdQgBPnIcZfk1gg8sKc5oNXaKZ4aNA/s1600/DSC_0513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXvPLfkGHUH-4FHwDsS2gUxFU6x44AKuQGJOt1yjVlhoHPGZj-m_UjRN0l9xuwaRaqe5K81bQAFOr_afAz5bJDDux2Hm1fPSlDdiJU-Y_P0CJfHdQgBPnIcZfk1gg8sKc5oNXaKZ4aNA/s400/DSC_0513.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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Here are some after pictures. I got four of these vintage school house lights on eBay. Two went in the kitchen and one went in the front hall way. I'm not sure what we are going to do with the fourth, but I'm sure it will find a place at some point. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgernmIk4S8gYCbsunPfMClMG16zrDVXtBHu95VEpL5upmnf8UvZENevgQ3ynhMO4Hf17kylPLUan8r0Hp1m7Lng2QRzKEn2v5UPpyWKADKUPC9PYmKBTTIHk9rz-HlYdotEl-rrZ8B8Q/s1600/DSC_0518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgernmIk4S8gYCbsunPfMClMG16zrDVXtBHu95VEpL5upmnf8UvZENevgQ3ynhMO4Hf17kylPLUan8r0Hp1m7Lng2QRzKEn2v5UPpyWKADKUPC9PYmKBTTIHk9rz-HlYdotEl-rrZ8B8Q/s400/DSC_0518.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDrZ5L7wDMEhZP5pxYcx4p6b7gX9nE9c4IoxIi3CND8VxnQxDdmIebFmCQrEwir35S5zkQrQIXrKpYLDcgImJC5UyX7DME_G7zh269lR6JRkG6junaz4YjpCADT73kTlMarTX_GhPhg/s1600/DSC_0517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDrZ5L7wDMEhZP5pxYcx4p6b7gX9nE9c4IoxIi3CND8VxnQxDdmIebFmCQrEwir35S5zkQrQIXrKpYLDcgImJC5UyX7DME_G7zh269lR6JRkG6junaz4YjpCADT73kTlMarTX_GhPhg/s400/DSC_0517.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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I think the cabinets look so much better white. They really make the whole kitchen seem so much brighter. And after painting the walls grey, they really stand out. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1X21UtnOYVTMW3YYsjYLYoiM9Gdh_ZCb-hQiJa2tqCslJXShVOdkhLxNf2umigfn63U2-Y1lb6Z2WUPM4iov9qBXsMJypI1AzOu9qMSmwj-rL2tO8rXzVha8kFqKH_PUgEhmqm9BqA/s1600/DSC_0514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1X21UtnOYVTMW3YYsjYLYoiM9Gdh_ZCb-hQiJa2tqCslJXShVOdkhLxNf2umigfn63U2-Y1lb6Z2WUPM4iov9qBXsMJypI1AzOu9qMSmwj-rL2tO8rXzVha8kFqKH_PUgEhmqm9BqA/s400/DSC_0514.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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We got these drawer pulls from <a href="http://www.harneyhardware.com/hardware/knobs-pulls-catches/cabinet-pulls/36241">harney hardware</a> for only $1.11 a piece. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCU_bvgx4r0U1vbrjRyl7uwju9C0IGHXUP1IUhefnY8ml7Ie1HrET9KtR1VqfMk_FRcLraDsIIdPV5Ot6ykFlzUrpKm2MVJAUE5V_7mb93KEn4bdvLb6mPeWZMLclp-jy3ZBeF39nlkw/s1600/DSC_0520.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCU_bvgx4r0U1vbrjRyl7uwju9C0IGHXUP1IUhefnY8ml7Ie1HrET9KtR1VqfMk_FRcLraDsIIdPV5Ot6ykFlzUrpKm2MVJAUE5V_7mb93KEn4bdvLb6mPeWZMLclp-jy3ZBeF39nlkw/s400/DSC_0520.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And the same knobs that we used in <a href="http://www.krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2012/06/hexagonal.html">the bathroom</a> from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KL6FQW/ref=pe_175190_21431760_3p_M3T1_SC_dp_1">amazon</a> for $1.49 a piece.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTxjQyWhn3dalD4agNF292UVBBKbpazxGddzxgYBCkFUdlkCR5TLysb2e6kRsZHxA8VTAEe14nv7PpBeLeN0sbAEPpHHLELwdE8_aaIwhVnOvBPQbRNcg2FxF9RdmtC8ECdIBWHq8zsw/s1600/DSC_0521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTxjQyWhn3dalD4agNF292UVBBKbpazxGddzxgYBCkFUdlkCR5TLysb2e6kRsZHxA8VTAEe14nv7PpBeLeN0sbAEPpHHLELwdE8_aaIwhVnOvBPQbRNcg2FxF9RdmtC8ECdIBWHq8zsw/s400/DSC_0521.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Lastly, we got the window in the corner of the kitchen drywalled up. That was the best part because we hired someone to do it. It is amazing how fast professionals work. Saving money by doing stuff yourself is very satisfying, but saving your sanity by hiring someone to do the complicated things is worth every penny. Once we tile the floor, as part of phase two, we can put the cabinet that is taking up too much room in the garage here, and we will have so much more storage space in the kitchen. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKwC75uYEyLS48ANGOTTReU9kF4aTDY79ezKenuFb2uTbqvycRFt6fzvxBMEKD7JxaBpJrwrXwn2eWHw07lF9zzRdlE18aF0jLF3JMI8NpTCN9ShyphenhyphenDX7zxkkpm-N0dGqHtYpS9NN4rLQ/s1600/DSC_0515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKwC75uYEyLS48ANGOTTReU9kF4aTDY79ezKenuFb2uTbqvycRFt6fzvxBMEKD7JxaBpJrwrXwn2eWHw07lF9zzRdlE18aF0jLF3JMI8NpTCN9ShyphenhyphenDX7zxkkpm-N0dGqHtYpS9NN4rLQ/s400/DSC_0515.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-13769215272926228422013-01-10T10:23:00.001-08:002013-01-10T10:23:20.130-08:00Denim WhaleI had been wanting to make this denim whale softie ever since I saw it on pinterest. <div style="line-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px;">
<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/184014334744177381/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="316" src="http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/186688347022885263_XpnRnJSo_c.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com/2011/05/tee-se-itse-valas.html" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/krakencrafts/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">krakencrafts</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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There is a <a href="http://valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com/2011/05/tee-se-itse-valas.html">tutorial for it on the original creator's blog</a>. But, the tutorial is in Finnish and there isn't a pattern, just process photos. Also it looked pretty complicated and well above my sewing skill level. So understandably, I forgot about making it and just looked longingly at the photo on my pin board every once in a while. <br />
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My cousin is having a baby girl and is due later this month. This will be the first of the new generation in my family (we aren't exactly prolific breeders) and since she has most everything she will need for the baby from hand me downs from friends, I wanted to make her something. <br />
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Lately, I seem to only pull out the screen printing supplies when there is a baby shower or one year old's birthday I need to come up with a present for. So I made a couple of onesies with an octopus and and blowfish screen printed on them. I also wanted to make cat softie with a similar pattern that I have made <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/8091404895/">dog</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/6144317212/">fox</a> softies for other babies. When I looked through my fabric stash I was out of the fabric that I wanted to use. I have vowed to use up a good chunk of my fabric stash before buying any new fabrics. I did find the legs from one of my old pairs of jeans that I had saved for some reason. So it seemed like the right time to try to tackle the denim whale. <br />
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It wasn't simple, and definitely didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it to, but I'm pretty happy with it. And now that I have a newspaper pattern for the pieces, I think if I tried to make another one it would be a lot easier and might come out even better. </div>
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It is a very ocean themed and kind too blue for a girl group of presents, but I think she'll like them. And I am very proud of myself for tackling the whale. </div>
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krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-43623417720961616882012-12-31T11:33:00.000-08:002012-12-31T11:33:29.021-08:00Sunprint Pillow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On <a href="http://www.designsponge.com/">designsponge</a> I saw <a href="http://www.designsponge.com/2012/11/bringing-art-home-wreath-photogram-diy.html">this tutorial</a> for a photogram wreath wall hanging. The tutorial uses <a href="http://lumi.co/collections/inkodye">inkodye</a>, a photosensitive dye to make an image of an evergreen wreath on a piece of fabric to use as a wall hanging. As a kid, I remember making lots of sunprints of various plants on sunprint paper but I had never seen the process on fabric. I immediately bought the smallest jar of the blue ink from the manufacturer's website. Of course, a few days later, they were selling larger bottles of it on <a href="http://fab.com/">Fab</a>. I wish I had gotten the larger bottle because the process really uses a lot of the dye. There are all sorts of amazing things I could have made with this stuff, but I liked the image on designsponge so much, and wasn't feeling too creative, so I stuck pretty closely with the tutorial. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I painted the dye onto a piece of unbleached canvas fabric which I binder-clipped to a piece of cardboard. Since evergreen clippings are not so easily come by in Southern California, I collected California poppy leaves from the garden and arranged them into the shape of a wreath. When I made <a href="http://www.krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2012/04/seder-prep.html">Easter/Passover eggs</a> this past spring, I discovered that California poppies made the best leaf impressions of anything in our yard. In the tutorial they just pinned down the branches onto the cardboard, but mentioned that you could hold them down with glass for a clearer impression. I took the glass out of a picture frame and placed it over the leaves. The glass didn't lie completely flat over the leaves because of the binder-clips however. If I did this again I would use something else to hold the fabric in place over the cardboard so I could hopefully get a clearer impression. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you paint the dye on the fabric it is almost clear, but after a few mins in the sun it starts to turn purple. In the designsponge tutorial they weren't super clear about which picture was from which stage in the process and in the comments people were asking how they got this purple colored dye since inkodye only comes in red, orange and blue. This is just the initial color that the blue ink turns in the sun. I left mine in the sun for about 16 mins. After taking the whole sandwich apart I washed the fabric in the washing machine twice to get out all the excess dye. After washing it it turns blue. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I sewed the sunprinted fabric into a pillow, using plain unbleached canvas for the back and an <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30072217/">Ikea pillow insert</a> as stuffing and gave it to my Mom as a Christmas present. </span>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-23928658493606416872012-11-27T14:28:00.001-08:002012-11-27T14:28:03.936-08:00Curry Plant Wreath<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/8224434409/" title="Curry Plant Wreath"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8208/8224434409_fa3638aeda.jpg" alt="Curry Plant Wreath by krakencrafts" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/8224434409/">Curry Plant Wreath</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/">krakencrafts</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>My curry plant (which looks like rosemary but smells like curry) was getting out of control so I used the cuttings to make a wreath with a wire coat hanger and some floral wire.</p>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-23988068281441040602012-09-25T15:48:00.001-07:002012-09-25T15:50:01.467-07:00Baby Pumpkins<div style="font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0;">
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<span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/8024774536/">Baby Pumpkins</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/">krakencrafts</a> on Flickr.</span></div>
I've had quite a few volunteer squash plants pop up in the garden this year. Most of them turned out to be butternut squash, but it looks like this one, that is growing in a pot underneath a tomato plant, is a baby pumpkin. I did have one decorative baby pumpkin last fall that I ended up tossing in the compost after it started to rot. I guess this is one of its progeny. <br /><br />krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-25363048437181511382012-08-20T14:51:00.000-07:002012-08-20T15:06:36.739-07:00Stinky Succulent Flower<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've had this <i>Stapelia gigantea</i> succulent for I think at least five years. I grew it from a small pinched off cutting and it has, very slowly, grown into this still not super giant plant. I have been hoping it would flower at some point because they are supposed to have really gorgeous starfish-like flowers. Last year it produced a small flower bud, but it ended up shriveling up and falling off. Earlier this summer, I was pleasantly surprised by this huge bud. </div>
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Little did I know it would turn into a really really huge bud.<br />
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After a lot of waiting, this weekend it finally started to open. <br />
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And yesterday it opened completely. The plant is sometimes called carrion flower and is rumored to smell like dog poop. I believe it's primary pollinators are flies (you can see one on the picture below) who seem to enjoy the smell of those kinds of things. This one definitely smells a little off, but not in a disgusting way. I think it smells a little like bonito flakes or maybe kimchi. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC9HdaY9JKPemGkJeCJgzJd_NDMSPku5RwqEmh_g42h9Si26QAlF7ZFXKWWuWHwe_OwlK8oFghfjRumDmlJcRXsrI9U5VGR2PfqkNRlffdu537pf52_CFVHq1DKPxHZrH2mz7t3AqeqQ/s1600/DSC_0518.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC9HdaY9JKPemGkJeCJgzJd_NDMSPku5RwqEmh_g42h9Si26QAlF7ZFXKWWuWHwe_OwlK8oFghfjRumDmlJcRXsrI9U5VGR2PfqkNRlffdu537pf52_CFVHq1DKPxHZrH2mz7t3AqeqQ/s640/DSC_0518.jpg" width="428" /></i></a></div>
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Anyway, I wanted to document the flower, since it is already starting to wilt and I don't know how many years it will be before the plant produces another one.krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-88424623931685830472012-08-09T12:12:00.000-07:002012-08-09T12:12:04.727-07:00Hops Harvest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year we grew four different kinds of hops, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cascade, Nugget, Magnum and Centennial</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. We ordered the rhizomes from </span><a href="http://www.thymegarden.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the thyme garden</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> in Alsea, OR in November and got them shipped to us in March. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They all </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/7018222715/in/set-72157627485405707/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">started out</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> doing about the same, and the Magnum even started </span><a href="http://krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2012/04/garden-update.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">climbing up its twine</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> first, but the Cascade and Nugget ended up being the only ones that really took off. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Supposedly, in the first year, you shouldn't expect to get any cones. So I was pleasantly surprised when the Nugget bine started to produce burrs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which eventually turned into really big cones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was hard to figure out when exactly I should harvest them, so I ended up just harvesting a few of the drier and more hoppy smelling ones and leaving on some of the wetter greener ones to harvest later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It isn't too big of a harvest, but there are at least this many still left on the plant for a later harvest. The Cascade bine also has a few cones on it, but literally only 4 or 5 of them, so I'm not sure they will be worth harvesting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm drying them in the garage on top of an old screen door with mesh fabric covering them so they don't fly away. Once they are dry I'll put them in the freezer. Nate should be able to use them for at least one batch of home brew. And next year, we should hopefully get a bunch more cones and maybe the other varieties will start to do a little better. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qjpTI2KroRjN_LFn01X-Y9F-BzpuDf9W9bB12fwXOoOvaf6COfrMAyLjbvrkckIOKsF-LtHyuEtpoPqEJKFE0M9HlNuW79GR2crP8x45ee3tUlcD98P4kK3bDGoYWHtIdOIN50twtg/s1600/DSC_0510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qjpTI2KroRjN_LFn01X-Y9F-BzpuDf9W9bB12fwXOoOvaf6COfrMAyLjbvrkckIOKsF-LtHyuEtpoPqEJKFE0M9HlNuW79GR2crP8x45ee3tUlcD98P4kK3bDGoYWHtIdOIN50twtg/s400/DSC_0510.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-44099911387871632732012-07-31T09:55:00.000-07:002012-07-31T09:55:56.785-07:00Keita's First Camping Trip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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We took Keita on her first camping trip this past weekend. It was also a trip to celebrate our second anniversary. We camped at <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/angeles/recreation/camping-cabins/recarea/?recid=41690&actid=29">Buckhorn Campground in the Angeles National Forrest</a>. As we were driving up the Angeles Crest Highway the landscape was looking pretty dry and hot with just shrubs and yuccas, but once we got over about 5000 ft. it turned into mixed conifer forest with pines and incense cedars. The campground itself was even more lush looking, well comparatively lush. There were lots of wildflowers and currant and thimbleberry bushes. </div>
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We made shish kabobs for dinner the first night and hotdogs and beans the second night.<br />
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The second day we were there we stumbled across the trail to the summit of Mt. Waterman a 8038 ft. peak in the San Gabriels. It was about a 6 mile round trip hike from our campground. We've actually skied at <a href="http://www.skiwaterman.com/index-1.php">Mt. Waterman</a> a good number of times so it was interesting to see the area in the summer without any snow. </div>
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Keita was a little barky and territorial of our campsite and probably would have rather been sleeping on our couch in font of the TV, but I think overall she had a good time. </div>
<br />krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-46356561840376487642012-06-26T15:46:00.000-07:002012-06-26T15:46:18.344-07:00In The Garden June 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Since I get to work from home, I tend to go out and check on the garden multiple times a day. So its king of hard to see much change between visits. I was out of town all last week for work and so I got to come home to more noticeable progress. </div>
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The first tomatoes are starting to get ripe. These are Black Krim which actually grew as volunteers from our compost. I made gazpacho last year from the Black Krim tomatoes that I grew in the garden and accidentally threw all the tomato seeds in the compost instead of down the garbage disposal. Since then they have been popping up all over the garden. This weird tomato developed from a monster fused tomato flower which I guess is kind of common on brandywine type heirloom tomato plants. <br />
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The tassels are starting to emerge on the corn in the three sisters planter box behind the barn. I can only see one ear forming. Hopefully the ears will catch up with the tassels soon. </div>
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I think we will end up with a bumper butternut squash harvest. The little baby butternut squashes are so cute.<br />
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The purple tomatillos are growing like crazy. I have never grown them before and never really cooked with them either. I will be making a whole lot of salsa verde. But, I think I'm going to have to look up some more things to do with them also.krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-49261350244518384092012-06-07T15:27:00.000-07:002012-06-07T15:27:43.573-07:00Hexagonal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvtcM61BHpgxqNSIvUY2ubakq35kpN8h_egd5D6iYtZRUQmm01hxUdpLlEujY_p853IF30N9bZUg_asePChqj5p1Rmcfn7OHOLqjVAP8ewOi_P78vOz2dmlT7Zb5sytABXJ67zFT-bA/s1600/DSC_0509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvtcM61BHpgxqNSIvUY2ubakq35kpN8h_egd5D6iYtZRUQmm01hxUdpLlEujY_p853IF30N9bZUg_asePChqj5p1Rmcfn7OHOLqjVAP8ewOi_P78vOz2dmlT7Zb5sytABXJ67zFT-bA/s640/DSC_0509.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="428" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a long period of fear and procrastination, we finally tiled our bathroom floor. As you may remember, when we bought the house, the bathroom had decent looking grey and white tile in the tub surround, counter and backsplash, but the floor was just sheet vinyl (as shown below). It actually wasn't too ugly for sheet vinyl and vaguely resembled white tiles with grey grout. But, it still needed to go. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJGOLAzc0svVcHD4WIfUuWr8ikoLngf0a5DET5Vw3vcxGahzwlJZS1Uja4GYtEa-K9VFSXEmn-OQMX66b-d5jG2j03bRxpP0Jyy-MK20N4_7yB2uGA295_6Aujyl_k7SLNcErp3q5Qwg/s1600/DSC_0372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJGOLAzc0svVcHD4WIfUuWr8ikoLngf0a5DET5Vw3vcxGahzwlJZS1Uja4GYtEa-K9VFSXEmn-OQMX66b-d5jG2j03bRxpP0Jyy-MK20N4_7yB2uGA295_6Aujyl_k7SLNcErp3q5Qwg/s400/DSC_0372.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have always loved hex tiles, especially on bathroom floors. I know they aren't that practical, since there is an awful lot of grout to get stained or cracked. But we figured that with dark grey grout, stains shouldn't show up nearly as easily as with white grout. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whole process ended up being pretty involved and taking two weekends. First we took off the base boards, ripped up the vinyl and took off the toilet. In a house with only one bathroom, having to take off the toilet is a pretty major deal. Underneath the vinyl was just plywood subfloor which apparently is too flexible for tile. So we cut and thin-setted down cement backer board. After that was dry and we could walk on it we put the toilet back on. The tile we ordered from Lowe's still hadn't come in yet and we weren't going to go all week without a toilet. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the tile finally came in we took the toilet off again and started dry fitting and cutting the tile. Cutting 1" hex tile on a mesh backing is not an easy thing to do. We tried cutting it with a wet saw borrowed from a friend at first, but the water disintegrated the glue on the mesh backing and all the tiles started falling off. We ended getting this kind of paper-cutter-like thing that we used to hand score the tiles and then crack them. Not super accurate on 1" tiles, but it worked well enough for us. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzg5c2DCBt6EEbes9V0PxFQDyeEM-irGuZWzyyuPLU_NNUURRsVlLE3MKeYTHXE34dFOFkW3INial7UXOoG-MOCqoYEPuggxe0XtWc_gP14C0ipMBEaINOVGftx6zHtvLFepFA4w5dyA/s1600/DSC_0503.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzg5c2DCBt6EEbes9V0PxFQDyeEM-irGuZWzyyuPLU_NNUURRsVlLE3MKeYTHXE34dFOFkW3INial7UXOoG-MOCqoYEPuggxe0XtWc_gP14C0ipMBEaINOVGftx6zHtvLFepFA4w5dyA/s640/DSC_0503.jpg" width="382" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After dry fitting all the tiles and numbering each sheet, we layer them down with thin-set. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9Wo-VB3SQ4s2TiSXA5IjMKiE6i-jPkvep8JTA1QYkEYkaecWICNQ35ARCJq4jZLFLsn2w2ToMBPKqTyrriBV0XHaEPF4F0nyvfokNO3RxukF75Hbg6Hejx72G-ah2BnBLYx96IgVLg/s1600/DSC_0505+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9Wo-VB3SQ4s2TiSXA5IjMKiE6i-jPkvep8JTA1QYkEYkaecWICNQ35ARCJq4jZLFLsn2w2ToMBPKqTyrriBV0XHaEPF4F0nyvfokNO3RxukF75Hbg6Hejx72G-ah2BnBLYx96IgVLg/s640/DSC_0505+2.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here they are all thin-stetted down. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcXnE-jVgTNZ2kqMU9Gegmw0IFvz5evFjlEUpxDy8nVSmw5DplPi4-oYnMwSfb6isy21jXn7WU1m5SCx-1CZcQun_QBvcvdaWvdVUo5OTxa13w52l14bXBRPLSKBhavnCrJdWygEvA-Q/s1600/DSC_0507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcXnE-jVgTNZ2kqMU9Gegmw0IFvz5evFjlEUpxDy8nVSmw5DplPi4-oYnMwSfb6isy21jXn7WU1m5SCx-1CZcQun_QBvcvdaWvdVUo5OTxa13w52l14bXBRPLSKBhavnCrJdWygEvA-Q/s640/DSC_0507.JPG" width="428" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day was grouting, then buffing, putting the toilet back on, and more buffing. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all I think it turned out pretty ok for our first ever tiling experience. Definitely not perfect, but good enough to live with. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga0NBSrM4qgkfVLzT0MZ_3A-v4iMeAZrr95aI4ab3RpWddq22vZC3OuPtDDRKAKdSml_vnWzJCbxjBx0Lau9JO7QQZNAVqP0J5GDnms7iRy-cmvdRaYWsPS9wtyYEOzFvv-IimRipHzw/s1600/DSC_0505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga0NBSrM4qgkfVLzT0MZ_3A-v4iMeAZrr95aI4ab3RpWddq22vZC3OuPtDDRKAKdSml_vnWzJCbxjBx0Lau9JO7QQZNAVqP0J5GDnms7iRy-cmvdRaYWsPS9wtyYEOzFvv-IimRipHzw/s400/DSC_0505.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We still need to put the baseboards back on. That should hide some of the roughness around the edges. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijQCHRGMWog25PC0ywhUpRj-aVaAk6cMoW_xKqp9o_P6f5LaMUW7-BkFVY2IZUqI11yl4YREqSubwCODTmlkOVgZH2KS5W0LmxdK_uhhEJ-7o0uKv33ZxgyP0J1HeROE6kA7Ymob48-A/s1600/DSC_0506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijQCHRGMWog25PC0ywhUpRj-aVaAk6cMoW_xKqp9o_P6f5LaMUW7-BkFVY2IZUqI11yl4YREqSubwCODTmlkOVgZH2KS5W0LmxdK_uhhEJ-7o0uKv33ZxgyP0J1HeROE6kA7Ymob48-A/s400/DSC_0506.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it made us more confident in the possibility of tiling the kitchen floor and backsplash at some point and I think it saved us a good chunk of change. </span><br />
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<br />krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-7831033601745218232012-05-23T11:05:00.000-07:002012-05-23T17:10:59.431-07:00Schoolhouse LightThe other day I was pointing out to Nate, how much I liked this <a href="http://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/products/hawkins?category_id=4dfa46769a86656548000003">Hawkins light fixture from Rejuvenation House Parts</a> in their catalogue. Our house still has mostly brass hardware, except in the bathroom and kitchen. And even though it seems like <a href="http://www.designsponge.com/2012/05/icff-2012-copper-brass.html">brass hardware is making a comeback</a> I think we will slowly try to fade it out of our house. We really want to replace the light fixtures in the kitchen, the front entry and the back hallway, but we want the metal on any new fixtures to match the door handles and whatnot near it both now and in the future. When I saw these white porcelain fixtures I thought they would be the perfect solution. They wouldn't be metal so they wouldn't need to match any other metal. The only problem, with the shade, each fixture is $195. More than I want to spend on something we need four of.<br />
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<a class="cloud-zoom" data-cloud-zoom="{"background":"https://rejuvenation.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/products/builder/stripes-9a0b8d8df00f00af86111af8ce49f3c0.png","tintOpacity":0.15,"smoothMove":5,"zoomWidth":500,"adjustY":-4,"adjustX":10}" href="https://rejuvenation.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/mutants/image_group/rejuvenation_image/value/4fb171a6bbddbd304e0000c1/enlarge_hawkins_med.jpg" style="color: #d1512c; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Z020161" height="495" src="https://rejuvenation.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/mutants/image_group/rejuvenation_image/value/4fb171a3bbddbd304e0000c0/pdp_hawkins_med.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; cursor: move; display: block;" width="468" /></a><br />
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Then we went to the <a href="http://www.habitat.org/restores/defaultABTestUnderWay.aspx">Habitat for Humanity ReStore</a> looking for tile because we are finally going to tile the bathroom floor (hopefully that will be another post soon). They did not have the white hex tile we were looking for, but they did have this lovely vintage schoolhouse light.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKSKDKTuLHYIGwP7fUewlXpdtHMbsWy-2t0NbQOeKZSrQPKHUD7_RuVGdq97XPCcDX9gCBchXAMUoQY2IGVwMsdiff3V-m70-xQr73Cc5fMoIElpHWUkWWTQbx5GO4otutSCdYYYupXQ/s1600/DSC_0512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKSKDKTuLHYIGwP7fUewlXpdtHMbsWy-2t0NbQOeKZSrQPKHUD7_RuVGdq97XPCcDX9gCBchXAMUoQY2IGVwMsdiff3V-m70-xQr73Cc5fMoIElpHWUkWWTQbx5GO4otutSCdYYYupXQ/s640/DSC_0512.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="490" /></a><br />
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It is kind of amazing how similar it is. And it was only $20. Sadly they only had one of them. If they had two of them we would have used them in the kitchen, But since there was only one and it hung down a little too low to use in the entry way, it ended up in the back hallway. This was the old light fixture. Possibly the ugliest shiny brass nipple light ever.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6qZCVuRkD6ZsfV2N05bfJqUQkQIuW2otLbdatML7UEZMzctLWBKMLcAYzRajyI9FujeamNl0_pLUkMUWXCKGnEtR1CFDBY6y63HD_67HcvMNX1qINJ70I6tQQUCh-xBm80UBZtbpJQ/s1600/DSC_0503.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6qZCVuRkD6ZsfV2N05bfJqUQkQIuW2otLbdatML7UEZMzctLWBKMLcAYzRajyI9FujeamNl0_pLUkMUWXCKGnEtR1CFDBY6y63HD_67HcvMNX1qINJ70I6tQQUCh-xBm80UBZtbpJQ/s400/DSC_0503.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here is what the hallway looked like before. This was before painting the hallway grey and when we only had curtains on the washing machine closet. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3wp7UfitEOO15FpsLv1eUqAWILj6ZcV3Pb9DruXmo7v89og_idk2x-TceoBdGxCIPHkGgl4OIr63kWxHANhiMCt0Pqh6pMc154g8CbV0bG6GmtYqJiUkIlezr6o9g6whpl46xNWLqg/s1600/hall+before.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3wp7UfitEOO15FpsLv1eUqAWILj6ZcV3Pb9DruXmo7v89og_idk2x-TceoBdGxCIPHkGgl4OIr63kWxHANhiMCt0Pqh6pMc154g8CbV0bG6GmtYqJiUkIlezr6o9g6whpl46xNWLqg/s640/hall+before.JPG" width="428" /></a></div>
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With just a little paint, magically finding the closet doors in the garage rafters and a new light fixture it looks so much better. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5RjptggW5CzSpT-sUqrZMjHl9l6zzQRneHt1TqZv5VWNvQymQU0OdbhcjXF1TqL-hHtmHP-FZ8sXKdPoPsw3HGGNiZoEvaqnP2dHdVZc16Q2spG624g4kI3_pn3-mw4kYjOckaG1Oow/s1600/DSC_0507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5RjptggW5CzSpT-sUqrZMjHl9l6zzQRneHt1TqZv5VWNvQymQU0OdbhcjXF1TqL-hHtmHP-FZ8sXKdPoPsw3HGGNiZoEvaqnP2dHdVZc16Q2spG624g4kI3_pn3-mw4kYjOckaG1Oow/s640/DSC_0507.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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I think we are going to need to stop by the ReStore more often to see if we can score some more vintage schoolhouse lights and to donate that old brass monstrosity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxmMTWB0ho4YJalIMLWammCuvHFdNYLXspMrxLMigY1RiELIxkLXJOBZz5jYuqglxA22QIoTrlOaT1VumA5tyiftC0Q-cSpXAmXVj8HjKacD-m9UtW3x7j4N0xZ5Nv77ZH4c_MUXGKA/s1600/DSC_0509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxmMTWB0ho4YJalIMLWammCuvHFdNYLXspMrxLMigY1RiELIxkLXJOBZz5jYuqglxA22QIoTrlOaT1VumA5tyiftC0Q-cSpXAmXVj8HjKacD-m9UtW3x7j4N0xZ5Nv77ZH4c_MUXGKA/s640/DSC_0509.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-54675457494057557542012-05-11T10:47:00.001-07:002012-05-11T10:47:59.494-07:00In the Garden May 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Just wanted to post another garden update. We built one more planter box. This one is an an odd space that looks like it wouldn't get much sun since it is wedged in-between the barn and the wall of the back planter box. But this is the south side of the barn, so it actually ends up getting sun pretty much all day. I wanted to try growing a three sisters garden which is a companion planting of corn, beans and squash common in Iroquois gardens. The corn acts as a support for the beans, the beans fix nitrogen in the soil and the squash covers the soil to prevent weeds and hold in moisture. The corn is Stowell's evergreen sweet corn. I planted it in about mid April. I planted the beans a couple of weeks later. When I read up on three sisters gardens, it said to wait until your corn is 6" tall before planting the beans or else the beans will outgrow the corn. I think mine was almost that tall, but some of the beans are already taller than the corn next to them. The beans are rattlesnake snap beans. I bought both the corn and bean <a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/">seeds savers exchange</a>. The squash was just butternut squash seeds that I saved from one from the CSA and some transplanted mystery squash that has been sprouting all over the garden, probably from the compost bin. </div>
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I finally pulled out the end of the fava beans from main raised vegetable garden. I love fava beans, but they just took up way too much room. They kept flowering and producing more fava beans so it was really hard to just give up on them and pull them out. I wanted to get tomatoes and tomatillos in the ground though, so I finally just composted them. If I plant them again next year I think I will put them in the new narrow planter box so they will be confined to a smaller space and won't flop over on other things. Before I pulled out the favas some of my tomatillo plants that I started from seed were just getting too big for their tiny pots. I gave up and just planted two in big pots. They are blooming now and have such pretty blossoms. Supposedly they aren't self fertile so I put the pots right next to each other so the bees have an easy time going from one flower to the next. </div>
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The blueberries on my tiny blueberry bush are starting to get ripe.<br />
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The first strawberry is just about ready to pick. I have to make sure I get to it before the slugs or squirrels.<br />
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The plums are getting bigger.<br />
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Lots of flowers in the herb garden.krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-76037328413812242012012-05-09T13:54:00.000-07:002012-05-09T14:40:41.426-07:00Mini Saint Berweiler Poo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Keita had her first birthday back in April. Sadly we kind of forgot about it, so I think we are going to be celebrating her adoption day instead of her actual (as estimated by the vet) birthday. I did get one birthday present from Nate which was kind of a birthday present for Keita, a <a href="http://www.wisdompanel.com/insights/?gclid=CLvOw8OE9K8CFU6MtgodfiBkUw">dog DNA test</a>. </div>
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When we adopted Keita the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/StarPawsRescue">rescue group</a> told us that they thought she was a labradoodle. When she and her litter mates were being dropped off at the pound someone from the rescue group happened to be there to pick up another dog at the same time and ended picking them up too. I guess the owner of her mother who was dropping off the litter said that she thought they were labradoodles. <a href="http://www.krakencrafts.blogspot.com/2011/06/keita.html">When she was a puppy</a> it was kind of believable, but as she got older we became pretty positive there was neither any lab or any doodle in her. She definitely looks like some kind of terrier mix and that is what just about everyone who saw her guessed she was. </div>
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Yesterday we got the DNA test back. Here are the results:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXh4TipB5ICS-StaasDSrXy1K7BOcg6PHLH4i6xVAJcXVonWqek72e_oxuQcJTFWLxQlZSrmjK6SLmdw2zxKVX9yzjMyVSPcv96AZqT3VqUzvKm2i3CtcoQ4I5o-bGblOXLQkTVWyuQ/s1600/Keita+DNA.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXh4TipB5ICS-StaasDSrXy1K7BOcg6PHLH4i6xVAJcXVonWqek72e_oxuQcJTFWLxQlZSrmjK6SLmdw2zxKVX9yzjMyVSPcv96AZqT3VqUzvKm2i3CtcoQ4I5o-bGblOXLQkTVWyuQ/s400/Keita+DNA.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Even though she doesn't have poodle-like fur and hates the water, she is actually 50% miniature poodle. That wasn't all that shocking. She is small and, like a lot of poodle mixes, has a very cute beard. What is shocking is that she is also 25% saint bernard. In a million years I would never have guessed saint bernard. She is also apparently 11.5% rottweiler, 2% sussex spaniel and less than one percent akita, black russian terrier and lhasa apso. I have dubbed her the new fancy designer breed mini saint berweiler poo.<br />
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Nate sent the rescue group the results so they could forward it on to the people who adopted her litter mates. A couple of them sent back pictures of their mini saint berweiler poos.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsPNq8j5T9EmFr00MM_HTKJXWDORZV7cO6fF3HEL5uhUdqdMltdz3WRkUtvfhDEUL0vo4uAFjFvg7XWqIN9m8hpFeDupH2fL3Ci_LWEXY3FW1FwFANEqtUEeX0Lo_YQM6sNts7lpv6A/s1600/Sam&owners.2.2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsPNq8j5T9EmFr00MM_HTKJXWDORZV7cO6fF3HEL5uhUdqdMltdz3WRkUtvfhDEUL0vo4uAFjFvg7XWqIN9m8hpFeDupH2fL3Ci_LWEXY3FW1FwFANEqtUEeX0Lo_YQM6sNts7lpv6A/s400/Sam&owners.2.2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Keita's brother Sam with his new owners.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And her sister Sadie.</span></td></tr>
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It is amazing how much they look like her. I'm not completely convinced about the test results. But I'm kind of tickled to thing that our little 22 lb. puppy is really part saint bernard and rottweiler. I'm glad she didn't end up being 180 lbs.krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-79846624390446990052012-04-30T12:01:00.000-07:002012-08-02T10:07:29.329-07:00Master Bedroom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We haven't done much of anything to the master bedroom since about a month after we moved it, but somehow I don't think I ever posted pictures of it. </div>
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The mirror came from an estate sale. Originally we were going to hang it on the wall horizontally, but it was too big to fit over the dresser. So we just propped it up against the wall vertically to make an almost full length mirror.<br />
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We got the bed frame on craigslist from a mid-century furniture dealer. It's Danish and from the 70's. I think we got it for about half of what he normally would charge because it had some scratches on it. With the attached floating nigh stands it just barely fits in the room. But I think since it is all one piece the room doesn't look too crowded. <br />
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My aunt made the wooden coat rack. We have another larger one that she made in the entry hall.<br />
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We got this dresser for only $5 at a garage sale near our old house. <br />
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<br />krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-86064132024720819472012-04-19T15:14:00.004-07:002012-04-19T15:26:01.201-07:00Garden Update<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Just wanted to post some pictures of the garden since things are looking extra colorful around here. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6CgRoCNGrevNduRhPa6e2FoKa5GiMV239NMin6DuJpRmLZzCVIy46EdxalAsOsUHyMdYxjZAgLNLvSfxmOURZIfBR4Xcnur6-C1oQX1Vm4PLTAbye9LCxDZdUVAfA3UEXgRgf-5GRvQ/s400/DSC_0372.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733239481969457938" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> The iris' are starting to bloom. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCIVWZh-ir1CpsSSrFuzBVxdoeqTUgZYMRx6-hozg4a7GX2szseNYRKUWWTYLWMRaBid_iVzD9akWMNcuXnfMw2ccMGJY-7jD5iX893lxj6OrX7iYN9UntZE0KM4F5WbLrL3lQrRjzw/s400/DSC_0374.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733239489632314818" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The California poppies are going crazy and attracting tons of bees. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhronHBiuz45dfhOMXdK3zYOMrwJ-qJ9C7vqYdh-pLXoBvAw2W3RcAn8inzjEKWMJQ3E3fJ39mrxlLSLM5JFTHlmKlK1DyI9ei4kb-jwCKr76apB3R-MxOnJzK19WMZu0T_bujOAhMQzA/s400/DSC_0377.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733239510669411842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The giant nasturtium which is growing in a tiny crack next to the gas meter has completely engulfed a potted jade and has almost covered the water heater enclosure.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt1Nj7jOjpIHUm8GERunePxHdQxRyl9YL4LkQsi7tJ1cu8JRDi4hOv_PXdnadJGw8pK-0M6VV-0prfb-4iiRfr40kyAa2fThyL3Kyna9fN5jzk8171g82KSOnBqncq77-xGrTq3xhatg/s400/DSC_0378.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733239502186272626" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Also, the hops vines (actually bines is the proper term) are starting to climb up their ropes. The magnum and nugget are doing the best. The cascade and centennial are doing good too, they just aren't quite tall enough to reach the ropes yet. </span></div>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-23482206753656904472012-04-12T16:51:00.004-07:002012-04-12T17:28:41.583-07:00Seder Prep<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We are having our Passover seder on Saturday. I know it is supposed to be on one of the first couple of days of Passover, but this weekend is just more convenient. I wanted to get a few things done ahead of time so I'm not overwhelmed on Saturday.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPgr79hAC0avNvspjDD3714583PPL8ibm0Sq5F5t9BAC38v3I5AL_kt9-LFiHyy5_vILeCakWNi7lP-vJEWhz7cmzJTBGNosNi61EwzsJAqqOfHxkGbH-HJ9OpEBySqXCxQC36pCI3w/s400/7072241241_d0c8b294d4_b.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730671831844475122" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I'm not normally much of a desert maker. I rarely bake, and when we are having people over, I usually count on someone bringing a desert so I don't have to make anything. But, I saw </span><a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/01/chocolatecovere/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">this recipe</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> for chocolate caramel matzoh crunch and it sounded too good not to try. I think I have had something similar with saltine crackers as the base before which was also delicious. I used a little sprinkling of </span><a href="http://www.jacobsensalt.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">this fancy sea salt made by Jacobsen Salt Co.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> that my Mom sent us which is actually made from water from Netarts Bay. Netarts Bay is just south of Oceanside, OR where my family has a cabin and where Nate and I got married. It was really easy to make and the combination of caramel and chocolate and salt is insanely delicious. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinMO9SLDYZauDrfgzKxnjhSXRjT-PYQqh4fVR-SpgcvXiX4OdfidjGqVHzXSQ6UX81OY1d7twUWY9P_VPusWpgktFiuM6WCbZNdEU06wGv92p7lxmiL2MSzPJUA4gVRkSqTtxka4_7Rg/s400/DSC_0375.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730671818707422866" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I also dyed eggs for the seder. My mom has been making onion skin Easter eggs since before I was born. Either by just wrapping an egg with onion skins secured with pantyhose and boiling them. Or by making a dye first and creating silhouettes of leaves or flowers by laying them on the egg and again securing them with pantyhose and boiling the eggs in the dye. The eggs wrapped in onion skins version is simpler and I've been doing that myself either for easter or for the eggs for our Passover seders that we have been having for the past few years. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">This year I decided to try making blue dye out of red cabbage along with the brown onion skin dye. It turned out pretty good. After the blue eggs were done boiling in the dye I let them sit in the cooled down water for a few hours because the red cabbage dye isn't quite as strong as the onion skin dye. I discovered California poppy leaves make the prettiest silhouettes. I love the way the blue dyed eggs look almost like sun prints. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgIPDqzWPufPOPQIQBNzNOgTcrzb04u7lURFGgZ8YRrVeCiyEvebcG15HC81iavtam1WDW7zPVPgDoBn46zAnF2Oph0HRguUdSjys2kHvW2P2RZGOItTN7vSa6kmpoDs-kkv1y6bCmA/s400/DSC_0373.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730671868133450386" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 286px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We finished off the dove rolls that my Mom sends me for Easter every year in record time. For some reason it is so satisfying to rip off and eat their cute little heads. Kind of barbaric, but so tasty. </span></div>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-10584445992516061212012-03-20T13:26:00.004-07:002012-03-20T13:38:48.101-07:00Go 'Cuse<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It was Nate's 30th birthday on Sunday. We were thinking about going camping for his birthday, but as it always seems to, his birthday fell right in the middle of the NCAA tournament. Nate's beloved Syracuse was playing in it's 2nd round game on Saturday, so going out of town, especially somewhere away from tv, was out of the question. Instead we had a few people over to eat corned beef, drink home brew and watch the Sunday games. Luckily Nate was in a pretty good mood since the Orange won on Saturday. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiQSXtXMEmLrQ_75hhZROJBZYJJhEAgljocqi_VFm7IvG3L3fiAMqASQONiSGGPzPN6tIZBYvx88RaPKhSkNK2KUylnJ0YHYpVuAFlbvY95Myon45heDlCXVzDwNTTeKjdxAFgM4WyQ/s400/DSC_0364.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722078521815141506" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 236px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I made this Otto the Orange banner, which turned out pretty cute, out of felt.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpSe3ybT4x1CmDz35LB6BATrmG6-eihCamK84tN7da77m3P5yNescCnZ-ei4eTKfjUznNvno6K75ktHqc0ONi0wm9O60bl7nIoPLw7Z6hrZn0ecoZyoD8cor_FMa9B4OZ73jw5Qda5VA/s400/DSC_0367.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722078549984378306" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 348px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">And I came up with a good way to temporarily label growlers with the type of beer they contain. I might need to buy myself a laminator so the tags will stand up a little better to sitting in a cooler.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpSe3ybT4x1CmDz35LB6BATrmG6-eihCamK84tN7da77m3P5yNescCnZ-ei4eTKfjUznNvno6K75ktHqc0ONi0wm9O60bl7nIoPLw7Z6hrZn0ecoZyoD8cor_FMa9B4OZ73jw5Qda5VA/s1600/DSC_0367.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiQSXtXMEmLrQ_75hhZROJBZYJJhEAgljocqi_VFm7IvG3L3fiAMqASQONiSGGPzPN6tIZBYvx88RaPKhSkNK2KUylnJ0YHYpVuAFlbvY95Myon45heDlCXVzDwNTTeKjdxAFgM4WyQ/s1600/DSC_0364.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5470271235333133077.post-55690061907295932812012-03-01T09:14:00.006-08:002012-03-01T10:05:11.650-08:00Signs of Spring<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Southern California is one of those places where sometimes it is hard to see the changes in the seasons. I was in Hawaii all last week for work (a place even harder to see any difference between the seasons) and when I got back and surveyed the garden it seemed like a whole lot had changed all of a sudden.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">My largest artichoke plant, that I have had at least since last May and has never produced an artichoke, finally has a little one starting to develop.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21fsc-jE3S6KKfdK4EfyApoKvk8skElWEzsDl5h85RfXIh6GkzPZpBzW2EAFvJUgR7buN4MTDSQ_OpoCbCtQ2VSzlNK9cL3vOC5FIMbXgN1FLYJNqpoKrN-nD5kYNSv6aW0GhGWeaKQ/s400/artichoke.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714980746342340754" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I bought 10 UC-157 asparagus crowns online back in January from </span><a href="http://www.seedsofchange.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Seeds of Change</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">. This variety is supposed to do better in California than the Jersey Knight ones that require colder temperatures. I was a little worried that I had planted them wrong, but they are finally sprouting. I can't harvest any this year, but I can't wait for next year.<br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHKRgJk_q_0F9bOpLT6ip7kUF_V21pD-4Bi7elbDtd_iGkoc5eWPT-FpzolDvLtS_8JO-gjTlRs2sqLZ24rjI__5lKiF2TvvDwkbFYlrMb54Q9qtX5pO8MSKNC5OuMCeN4GN2Qrq9tw/s400/asparagus.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714980735474090610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 326px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">At some point in the fall I planted a bunch of sprouted potatoes in the back planter box just to avoid having to compost them. I kind of forgot about them, but all of a sudden I have about 6 little potato plants back there. We'll see if they produce potatoes and if I can manage to dig up the potatoes without disturbing all my other plantings back there. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnmQUJNlU6rl4xw_oa1UhMe0h_x_1CmJ1DuNJ2Gp2YkwMQraaFFbDsa1spaye-QAi4TOKiUsrYfnJuaEnYB4JicU25Vq7DM18WPVgJPPCZ0Dg43efsElLquueDzgoe0j561IBr-Coeg/s400/potato.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714982027500682978" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The plum tree is starting to bloom.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYv6BM7axl2IiPi5kSE-2BLfI7jXKmYLIq5Fy38CGGZ3ryuE2oqh2sIarS_LbhyILTo8gBQMMchkqRc1lXwIQcjf28y4q5PsZuwsnsll1B7ns6ScUbmKMHZcqWmRdBSB40GYN16MGEbA/s400/plum.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714980723116407618" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">I found rhubarb crowns at Lowes a couple weeks back. Supposedly rhubarb isn't supposed to do very well in Southern California because it doesn't get cold enough. Somehow the lack of cold is supposed to prevent the stems from turning red and green stems contain more oxalic acid which can be toxic in large quantities. The stems that have started to come up look pretty red to me though. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6q02g0-b45DfIm2HRzu4QeNAGyVGq9H-w1AquQPcjhVVKdfWguOjCi85_07SoPW_0FtN6IfOp-OTTNMspH7tjr7NlW4cj0W5goYnDLDs56e9PAf6SnStMHKUv_vkfGg30H6zxcaoLtQ/s400/rhubarb.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714982015737924930" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Last summer I bought two California poppy plants. They were so prolific and produced so many seeds that the entire back planter box is covered with them now. Some of our neighbors' poppies have already been blooming for the past month. Ours are just now starting to produce buds. In a couple of weeks it should be really orange back there. </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Tdjaxt_1Yae4krKP8BUepYDi0tsfNHGbqp8OXV6HaDMm847HP9zt91ns7IccqpGzSF3gHB8mXONEgkd2Z_StT4CoMNoArlywYuJewvdelYuQczF8c59L2sni_PCCiWPsZYuFhMPThg/s400/poppy.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714980755785107714" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The fava beans are just starting to produce fava beans of an eatable size. They are a lot of work to prepare, with the double shucking, but so tasty.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1x8Mp0O2BRK6rev3dfwNwq_E9UIvK4BCJDsBPSAjQeEDfaewxLk_h6nQi2YBlcyrpA3qBg0V-yT8ZvoQQeXiQyEMDLiQoHKSpc1AytS8QMhC1zE8fQx5SK6jhFsFzmdQCCUuzJbptiw/s400/fava.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714982035224986930" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px; " /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Finally, Nate built me this planter box and trellis in the side yard. Our neighbors side door and kitchen look strait into our guest bedroom and the trellis is placed so as to obscure the view somewhat. I planted two varieties of blackberry, Navaho and Arapaho, and two varieties of raspberries, Jewel and Brandywine. </span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpFEFXHv8Ce4hB2-rnlvD46t0uNesrK0YdtI50y38RLAdnEaIe43DXtC4ezJsVH61h-3w3QTAcwLhR-73pq4jq89h8iBA64CXEFOJMulrutZp17GaDnHFfcfS9xFr5nF6efcSq8kA7zg/s400/planter+box.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714980732803575330" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Hopefully, eventually, they will grow up the trellis and block the view into the bedroom. And as a bonus produce lots of tasty berries. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zQOFsgGNSoz20vQo2DubJkZbhXxjUQOQlInclxqoOR5hCoAAPTbc4vHRzbV6vkAtCF6BO9pAU-I80KO6HGXkklKNT60q-W4fLH_c62NMno9rTctaXw7qFixkJ8CYmxlOJQxiDYRmIA/s1600/raspberry.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span></span><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zQOFsgGNSoz20vQo2DubJkZbhXxjUQOQlInclxqoOR5hCoAAPTbc4vHRzbV6vkAtCF6BO9pAU-I80KO6HGXkklKNT60q-W4fLH_c62NMno9rTctaXw7qFixkJ8CYmxlOJQxiDYRmIA/s1600/raspberry.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zQOFsgGNSoz20vQo2DubJkZbhXxjUQOQlInclxqoOR5hCoAAPTbc4vHRzbV6vkAtCF6BO9pAU-I80KO6HGXkklKNT60q-W4fLH_c62NMno9rTctaXw7qFixkJ8CYmxlOJQxiDYRmIA/s400/raspberry.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714982044798533074" /></a></div></div></div></div>krakenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465455766487996618noreply@blogger.com2