making a list, checking it off

we had a little boxer emergency last week that took precedence over anything kitchen related. and after re-reading this i realized, there weren't really any pics to post. most of the links took care of everything, with the exception of the Steps pic below.  

we're making progress bit by bit. you know, it gets hard when summer rolls around. not that we're out on the river boating, cuz we're not & it's killing us!  it's just that it's hard to motivate yourself to stay inside this time of year. i'm actually enjoying cutting grass for the 1st summer in what 2 years since we lost our yard to the big flood?  oh, i'll have to post that pic later as well!  but here's what got accomplished in the last week:

Painting
okay, i was supposed to at least get primer on the windows last week while Nacho was out of town & of course i didn't.  but we spent yesterday getting the windows primed.  i know i know, we're painting natural wood. i really don't get the paint vs stain thing. who cares? color is color & i don't care how you get it on there.  this task, i would hire out in the future. i like painting but i hate painting trim. i took a cue from one of the MANY design blogs i follow & decided it was much easier to scrape paint off a window than it was to tape all that off. i know, some of you are assuming the "palm to forehead" position as we speak.
update: Nacho & i did get primer on the windows last Sunday. but really who needs to see that pic?

Steps
Terry's guys got the steps installed including our cool little cubby storage underneath. i think we're going to actually have more storage than we really need!  yippee!  they primed those for me so i just have to paint them. yes, i haven't given up my love of a painted floor!  this was originally planned for Monster storage of course, but we may change a couple cubbies to WINE STORAGE!  that's a win-win folks! and GENIUS i might add - i think Tom came up with that one.  so now i'm off to find some sort of horizontal goodness for wine storage that we can either make or fit into these drawers.

Dining Seating
that's all installed & secured, but you already saw that. i'm on the hunt for fabric for the cushions and, of course, found a terribly expensive mod fabric i love. i'm also thinking of doing something multi-functional.  something i could take outside & use on paitio chairs but use on the banquette when not in use outside?? hmmm ideas anyone??? who wants to store cushions all over the place?!

Dining Table
Terry's guys delivered the bamboo top last Friday - sorry guys for my appearance. it was not my finest morning! seems the desire to repurpose our existing table base is not going to happen.  instead we are having a base made to resemble this

Shelving (Dining & Kitchen)
this is the hanging ladder system that will go on the West wall of the dining room & NE corner of kitchen.  the idea came from here.  we still have to decide what the shelves in the dining unit will be but the shelves for the kitchen will be glass.  the steel tubing is in & Terry's having those made as we speak. those could potentially be installed this week. to prep for that we have to repaint the walls in the dining room. update: and again with the boxer drama, this got put off as well. and we spent Sat/Sun (25th/26th) at Mosers helping him with a water heater install & getting Cookie Therapy Dog Certified, so we decided to relax when we got home today (26th). We have to get the dining walls painted by Wed.

Lights
Nacho got the island lights installed this weekend & we really like them. i'll do a separate post about that saga. suffice it to say, have you priced lighting recently? wholy crap it's expensive!!! so i found a cool DIY here that inspired me to use this light instead.  i must say, i'm satisfied with the outcome & will post....i promise (wink nod wink nod) - they are installed & i realized i never took an "after" photo. DOH!.  and as i mentioned in a previous post, we ordered the dining light jsut waiting for that to come in, oh and be billed for it of course! ugh!

Hardware
yes, i finally committed & we got all the hardware installed "permanently".  my commitmentphobia paid off cuz we had to relocate 2 sets as they didn't work well the under the original config.  so don't be harshin' on my issues man!!!

Concrete
Nacho sealed the concrete island top on Sat. whew! we'd had about all the "be careful" we could take.  of course we didn't make it without a few stains before the seal, but i think it adds character! only 1 OCD item at a time people & i'm pretty heavily invested in my commitment issues thank you!

Backsplash
i was able to find a nice 4x6 tile for the back splash (Crossville WT07 Seventh Inning Stretch). we're going to lay it in a horizontal pattern & intersperse some 4x6 sheets of glass tile (MC Pacific frosted mix gray mix - i'm not having luck finding a pic/link for this) in about 10 spaces. i'm pretty jazzed about it cuz it's the color combo i was envisioning.  so that spec is off to Terry & we just have to get it ordered & lay it out.  i was surprised at how well we did on price for it. we're looking at about $300 for the whole thing.

i really should put together some sort of punch list at this point cuz i know we're gonna miss lots of little odds & ends that will show up at some horribly inconvenient time & we'll never get to.  but for now, we have progress & i'm good with that.

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