We interrupt our regularly scheduled crazy ass renovation update to bring you news of something that has both of us really freaked out. Both Mel and Lulu are having surgery this Friday to remove mast cell tumors.
Last week, on two separate days, we discovered that both of our four legged crew members have a random lump on their furry little bodies. The first discovery came while petting Mel, when I felt a pea sized lump near the tip of his tail. Upon further inspection, it seemed to be a scabbed bump, but it was not obvious where it came from. Being a properly cautious and paranoid pet parent (especially after everything we went through with Oliver's cancer battle) I made an appointment to bring him into the vet for an analysis ASAP.
Mel's a resilient character, and he's been through a few health scares in his nearly 12 years, so we were hopeful our vet would just tell us it was nothing and send us on our merry way. I mean, we'd rather be err on the side of caution, and drag everyone in for an unnecessary check up.
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If recycling bins could talk, ours would have a lot to say about what we've been up to the last week. Gone are the usual magazines that indicate a restful night curled up in the family room chair with Mel and Lulu. Gone are the empty bottles of wine, that would indicate fun-filled evenings with friends, relaxing over a nice glass or two of wine. Instead, this week, our city recycling materials consist of broken down cardboard packaging from our new IKEA cabinets and butcher block counters. There's also not one, not two, but three empty pizza boxes and sadly, a not so empty one inside our refrigerator.
This is all due to the "quick little kitchen upgrades" that resulted from my purchase of a rug, on clearance, several months ago.
The new rug turned into new bamboo blinds...
...which then meant we had to repaint the kitchen and sun porch...
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As you may know if you've seen any of the past week's posts (since we can't seem to shut up about this project), Wendy and I decided to greatly expand the usable storage space in our kitchen with the purchase of several IKEA cabinets and a 6 foot section of butcher block counter top. Though we never really considered the use of IKEA cabinets in the past, our need for a quick and easy temporary solution for storage, and one that didn't break the bank, led us to the massive Scandanavian home store in search of...well, whatever we'd find.
Though much of what we saw wouldn't necessarily fit in with our home's decor, after quite a bit of exhaustive shopping, we had ourselves a purchase. The end result of our adventure was one 30" cabinet with two small and two large drawers, and one 15" cabinet with a lower drawer for garbage, and an upper concealed tray drawer for supplies. We opted for white carcasses and white raised panel MDF drawer and door fronts to try to match the style of our existing cabinets.
Ideally we would have used some of their wood door and drawer fronts, but that would have required us to either paint them ourselves or have them sprayed (I still don't have a sprayer, grumble grumble grumble, but I really need one). Had we gone that route, painting would add unwanted delay to our "quick" project that we're trying to knock out, and since it's a purely temporary solution until we do a full renovation in a couple years, we opted for the MDF. If we ever feel very strongly about it in the future, such as if our quick and temporary solutions lasts for many years, we can always replace the drawers and door fronts at a later time. Besides, it was a long and trying time at IKEA, and I feel like we came away as...not losers.
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Thursday, August 23, 2012
Work in our kitchen and sun porch is continuing, and Alex has been toiling away on the assembly of our new cabinets. This seemingly simple "assemble and go" project has of course has spiraled into baseboard removal, wine fridge platform woodworking, and the like. Plus we're still waiting on two key pieces to be arrive (the estimated delivery date isn't until next Thursday!). We hope to have some after photos to share with you soon.
But while he's been dealing with the downright dirty, I've turned my attention to the "fun" stuff. You know, like painting the white hutch and tackling the window treatments.
While we were in IKEA last weekend purchasing the new cabinets and butcher block counters, I took us on a slight detour through the curtains department. I was on the hunt for inexpensive white panels that we can hang in the sun porch to soften the look of the bamboo blinds. The shopping gods must have been smiling that day because I found exactly what I was looking for. For a mere $10 per panel, the Lenda curtains were my answer.
These beauts are a soft white fabric, are slightly translucent (without looking cheap), and have a really nice vertical line pattern that makes them a little more special. They're sold in packs of two, so I picked up two packages for a total of four panels and home they came.
I'm not a huge fan of the tab tops, so I plan to cut these off while I'm hemming them to length. (Okay, so I use the term "hemming" loosely as I don't know how to sew, nor do I own a sewing machine. I'll be using the iron on tape that came with the curtains.)
So now I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. I know the area on the left will need one long curtain rod, and I'll hang one panel on either side. But the question is, what I should do with the windows on the back wall of the sun porch?
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Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Today, August 22, 2012, would have been Oliver's fourth birthday. Even though we lost Ollie nearly two years ago to cancer, we think about him every day, and consider ourselves so lucky to have been blessed with the short time we got to know and love him.
We'd like to take a moment to remember our crew member with a few of our favorite photos, just as we did last year on his birthday.
Ollie getting in on the DIY action by stealing Alex's safety glasses.
Twins? The only photo of Alex with his short lived (and grown for Halloween) facial hair.
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