photo update

i did finally find some video that we shot of our surf trip last month down in FL. disregard the Tahiti reference, a typo on my part. whew! i thought we'd lost this forever. not bad for a first timer eh?  sorry i couldn't get a tighter shot. we'll try harder next time!

Tweet

have a seat!

we bought these stools not long after we bought the house 10 years ago.  they never fit the counter that faced the river. your knees were always hitting the crazy piece of trim that ran across & underneath that counter. i hate them

there's the crazy trim on the right! see how close the top of the stools are? we never did cut them down so sitting there was pointless.
so after we got the island in, we needed something to go on the end. we've looked at a few options for stools. lots of neat stuff at CB2, DWR, Crate & Barrel, etc.  but i can't bring myself to get rid of these stools.  so a few weeks ago, i found this

Source: blog.2modern.com via DeNacho on Pinterest

and knew i had a solution to our generic stools.  so now this

became this

with a minor Denacho twist. i wanted to create an unfinished feel to it. i'd considered a "dripping" effect on the legs, but just couldn't muster the attention span & patience to do that. instead, i just dragged the brush down & stopped when i felt like it.  the scary thing is, i already owned the blue paint! i'd bought a sample can & used it in our hallway to paint one of the flood lines from 2009.  i've only got 1 done & it's not poly'd yet - i had a little issue with that yesterday so sanded the poly off the top & had to repaint a coat of blue.  i haven't decided if i want to tackle poly again. i don't have good luck with it.  so i need to finish the other one & get them in place for a true After photo.

see?  i don't actually HAVE to spend a bunch of $$ on everything in this remodel!  btw, tours of the faucet are still gonna cost you $20/person.

Tweet

IT'S HERE!!!

i had one of the most excruciating weeks of my life last week.  a 6 day migraine that never let up.  but you know what?  even that couldn't squelch my excitement when this arrived

yeah, i know this picture is totally blurry. i was so excited to snap it right out of the box, that i didn't bother to adjust light settings or anything.  so excuse me for having priorities.  i've been laboring over this one for some time & finally admitted, you can't....or rather shouldn't.....DIY everything.  some thing are just best left to Payin' The Man!  and this is one of them.  it was a bit pricey ($45) but worth every penny cuz i went from this

to this

and now i feel like this

or something very close to that

Tweet

life altering event

i just received my very first Jimmy John's online lunch order AT MY DESK!!! i never got up!  well except to give the guy a tip, but i could have rolled my chair over for that. i have a new goal next time.  I MAY NEVER LEAVE MY CUBICLE EVER AGAIN.  damn work! they foiled me again!

Tweet

Surf & Tuff

i almost forgot to post...so Nacho & i took a bit of an unexpected vaca last weekend. we zipped down to Flagler so he could surf.  did i mention the big surprise 40th i threw for him last year?  i did not, so let me digress a bit....
last year Nacho hit the big 4-0.  the year before, when i turned 40, we had planned to take a trip somewhere so i could surf for my 40th.  i'd just always wanted to try it. not a bucket list kinda thing, cuz i don't have a bucket but i do have a list & it's not the type of list anyone or anything wants to be on. my list also ends in a T, but it doesn't start with a B.  i digress yet again. so in my usual fashion, i cancel any plans for my 40th trip. have you seen me walk UP a flight of stairs w/o falling? never happens, so i figured surfing was $$ wasted on me. later that summer (2009) i decided it would be time, money, & effort better spent on TheMan! so i started a year in advance planning the Ultimate Surprise 40th Birthday Party EVER!!!
Dunaways provided us with the location because they'd been going to Flagler for years & put the kids in surf lessons a few years ago & the whole family just loved it - you can see Dan & his son Cole on the ZWave site. couldn't say enough about it. and since i've been trying to get TheMan to take a warm weather vaca for some time, i figured this was my chance! the more they talked about it, the more interested TheMan seemed so i knew that was where we had to go.
okay, so now i have to book us a place to stay & figure out how to get Nacho from Illinois to Florida without him figuring it out. remember he's always late, not stupid. so i finally find a really cool place right behind ZWave surf shop. i explain my plan to Vicki who owns the apartments & she agrees to let me wait & pay until we get down there. how nice! but then she offers to decorate the apartment that we rent with birthday goodies. really? i get my brother, sister & nephew to agree to meet us.  the Dunaways are already there so they are gonna help out as well.  here's where it got really tricky....
i have Nacho's co-worker Darrell promise to book his calendar for the days we plan to be gone. i also ask him to pretend to take vaca time as well so Nacho would not be tempted to plan something on his own birthday (July 10). about 1 week before the plan is set to go down, i find out Nacho has decided to visit one of his work facilities IN INDIANNA!! GOOD GOD MAN!!! so i have to go above Darrell & contact Nacho's boss, Todd, to try & get him NOT to go. Todd has to then contact HIS boss and somehow it finally makes it's way to the CEO of the company, all trying to help me keep Nacho in town. the CEO makes Nacho cancel the trip & he is not happy! but i listen & try to be "supportive" w/o losing it!  so we're good right?  nay!
the day we are to leave, Nacho goes to visit another facility they have about 30 minutes away. okay, fine, i ask his co-workers to schedule a 2p meeting so we can get him back to the office & i can show up & kidnap him. cuz 2p was the drop-dead for hitting the road - oh, i planned for us to drive cuz i hate flying so i had no intention of dealing with that! a little before 2p Darrell calls; Nacho has decided he won't be attending the 2p, got too much to do at this other facility **palm to forehead**  long story shor...ah screw short, they all lie & say a big announcement is being made & he HAS to get back to the office.
Darrell smuggles me into the building & up to the conference room.  here's where planning went down the tubes.  so say your wife NEVER just shows up at your office. one day she does?  do you think Happy Things or Oh My God Something Terribly wrong has happened?  guess which one Nacho went for? i didn't think that part through, but if he'd done what he was supposed to do....so several "no no no there's nothing to worry about" and one SURPRISE later, we are out the door & in the truck.
but he still has no idea what is up or where he's going.  he just sees the truck packed in the back & i'm driving so he can still attend a conference call.  Flagler Beach is about 19 hours from here, so of course we didn't drive it all in one stretch.  it wasn't until the 2nd day, right about Jacksonville, that he knew where we were going.  you see i'm from northern FL & when we didn't hit I-10 heading West, he knew! but he had no idea MyFam was coming & everyone was waiting in the room.  needless to say he was surprised!  he even had a bottle of wine waiting from the CEO of his company. how cool was that?
i got him in surf lessons the next day & that was all she wrote!  my warm weather vaca was a shoe-in!  so where was i going with this?  oh yeah, unfortunately we let the kitchen remodel this year get in the way of taking a trip sooner & when i was at the end of a very short rope, we snapped & said "let's bail!".  and we were off to Flagler so Nacho could surf....and i could give it a shot too!

so where's the photo of Nacho surfing?  well, i have a folder titled Nacho40, but nothing in it & i can't find the pics i took last year anywhere.  as for this last trip....well....i didn't check the battery on my point & shoot & the only photo i got before it died was of a live sand dollar that i found first day. but how cool was that?  and the only photo i got of us together, a little old lady was nice enough to take on my phone.  so until i can find that 1 pic, i guess we all just have to assume Nacho really has surfed, but we only have proof that 1 of us actually has.

Tweet

Dinner is Served

thanks a comment i made on Chezerby's Kitchen Follow-up, another reader asked for some info on the Boxer Feeding Station we incorporated into our remodel.  at least, i think she asked me. hmm, now that i say that... oh well, whatevers! you know i was gonna post this anyway!
let me tell you, in all seriousness, that we planned this kitchen remodel starting with the Boxer Feeding Station. really!  ask Terry.  when we sat down with  him last Fall, i said "here are the things that have to happen in this remodel..." and first on our list was the Feeding Station.  yeah, our kids are spoiled, but seriously, this is the smartest thing you can do if you have dogs & live in a small space - which we do.  and this is not a new concept to us!  in our original kitchen, we had a bottom drawer that was not being used.  i had Nacho create a Feeding Station there that served us well for gosh, 8 years?  in simplest instructions, he put a board across the open drawer, cut out 2 holes, then dropped the bowls in.  it was probably the smartest thing we did in our little space because everything was put away when they were done eating.
now on to the show!  BFS v2.0 looks something like this....

and the full cabinet...

okay, but here's the problem, neither one of us remember exactly how this was ordered, but here's the gist:   

we started by using 2 upper cabinets for the "back side" of our island. we used uppers because base cabinets back to back would have created a 48" wide island & that was simply too big in our minds. so the wonderful people at IKEA, who also thought it was awesome we were designing a part of our kitchen with the kids in mind, suggested the uppers.  we also saw a vignette in the store where they used this same config for uppers that sat right on the counter top instead of up on the wall.  these uppers are 12" deep & that's just enough room for the feeding bowls.  Nacho built a frame that sits down in the drawers & the bowls drop into that frame:

so you can see, it's simple plywood on top, a board across the back for stability, & 2 boards coming forward for more stability. where you don't have to get so fancy, is with the hinged top that creates the little storage place on right hand side in the above pic. you could simply do one solid piece across the top & cut your hole for your bowl in the center. i suggested the hinged piece so we can store extra collars, etc. there if we want...which we have not yet!

and it's nothin fancy people!

this was Stage1 before Nacho got all FancyPants on me & decided to cover it in the same Marmoelum we used on the floor. oh, and also, you can see he planned on them both eating out of 1 drawer! i mean really!? the nerve!  it was the Inspector who said, that will not do - 1 bowl per drawer is code!

you can see it can't you?  that look of "you really expect me to eat from the same drawer as her?"  and so it was to be, separate dining facilities for each boxer!  although SOME PEOPLE (ahem BOXERS) eat from whatever drawer they like!

this would be the boss for those that don't know!

the finishing touch is the little latch you see in the center

that's just a magnetic spring loaded latch.  why you ask?  we found that the glide on the drawers was so good that when they were eating, the drawer wanted to close. we never thought of that in our old drawer because that drawer was such a piece of crap, you actually had to lift the drawer up to close it. so they're eating & the drawer is slowly closing on them.  now, we simply push down on the latch, it pops up in a locked position. when they are done, push the spring down & close the drawer!

and it's like it was never there.  one word of caution though....it's probably just the combinatin of Nexus Black/Brown & Boxer, but our guys can get a little messy when they eat, so i have to make sure & keep the doors & drawer fronts wiped down.

and where do we keep the food?  on the opposite side of the island

this was not our ideal size, but, again, because we didn't want our island to turn into a monster, we had to compromise on the width of this cabinet.  we would have LOVED to been able to do the 24" wide with the 3 bins, but this has worked out nicely. we do keep a container of Senior food in the pantry behind (to the left) of this but since it's all right there together it works perfectly!  and i love that i can keep doggie meds, brushes, etc in the drawers above the bins. it's all very convenient.

Tweet

Projects Sneak Peek

it's not like things have stopped on the kitchen, they've just ground to a halt with me personlly.  but i'm working through that.  amazingly enough, we are through most of the big reno items.  i couldn't believe it when Terry told me they were pretty much through billing us.  so here are a  couple of catch-up pics & i have to thank Chezerbey's Kitchen Follow-up for getting me motivated to post SOMETHING, my god ANYTHING about where we're at!
Windows
when we last visited these, i think the interior had been primed but not painted. it took me an entire weekend, but i (and by i, i mean I, NOT NACHO) finally got them painted.

sorry the photo isn't the greatest, but i still don't know how to get an interior shot to look good when all that sunlight is pouring in.  have i ever mentioned how much i HATE painting trim?  and Nacho "loves to paint" but apparently that love does not extend to trim cuz i one point he said "i guess i should help you paint" & next thing you know he's out sandbonying the beach!  **heavy sigh**
in addition i (and by i, i mean I & NOT NACHO) have gone the distance & painted the exterior as well!  okay, props to Nacho cuz he did prime them!

and can you believe that at one time all we had was this...

what a difference a little glass makes!
Shelving
you may have noticed in the background of that first photo a little shelving unit hanging there.  and while i could make this it's own post, cuz they are so awesome, i go ahead & give them to you here.  i think i'd mentioned at the beginning of this project that our upper cabinet layout was going to stop at the hood thingy.  i can't tell you how many people were wondering what exactly we were going to put to the right of that hood.  well, here's what we did...

i think i also mentioned that the idea actually came from here.  it's more decorative than anything, & i have a couple more items to put on it, but i love it!
we carried this same shelving idea over onto the big dining room wall...

KABLAAM!!! is that a statment or what?  i mean the shelves of course, but it's hard not to notice The Kids isn't it?  We actually designed the shelving unit around the portraits. i had those done as a gift for Nacho last Christmas.  my plan had been to hang them side by side over our headboard, but when Terry saw them, he said you have to put them here so people can see them.  you know what?  i think this guy knows what he's doing!

Dining Seating

and while we're in this part of the house, i think i've found my solution to the bench cushions!  i'm a beginner at sewing, but i did manage to make this a few weeks ago.  i figure if i can wing my way through a zipper without looking at anything, then surely i can make seat cushions.  and i found this posting at Sew Mamma Sew

Source: sewmamasew.com via DeNacho on Pinterest

after reading it, i really think i can do it!  right now i'm trying to decide between two "fabrics" that i found at Target...

as much as i love the punch of color in the one on the left, i'm thinking i better go with the more neutral one on the right because that dining corner is all green!  perhaps i'll do back cushions in various patterns/shades to add a punch of color.  oh, and did you notice?  these are shower curtains. funny thing is, i came up with this idea about 2 months ago and, wouldn't you know it, someone else did too!

Source: thecsiproject.com via DeNacho on Pinterest

and did you notice where she found her fabric? so i must be on the right track! i really hope i can report back successfully on this one!
okay, that's all for now. don't want to give it all away in one long post! i have all my pictures taken & downloaded from the camera, so there really is no excuse for me not to trickle the updates in right?

Tweet

vaca couple

and nacho was complaining how we NEVER get a picture of us together on vacation.  well, here you go!  i'd like to thank the nice old lady that took the photo for us using my phone. priceless!

Tweet