About Me

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Jane of all trades, Master of none. Still on the search for the occupation that I can love.....

Monday, January 17, 2011

The almost there Kitchen

When we moved into this house there were a few appliances missing. We bought a fridge and a microwave. The microwave on the counter was taking up to much real estate. We decided that we would get stainless with plans in the future to switch out the white ones. That has not happened yet.
I did manage to give the cabinets a face lift. There was really nothing wrong with them other than the normal wear and tear of 10 years also I just didn't like the color. So I sanded them down and used a gel stain to get them to the new color. The thing with builder grade cabinets is that they cover the cabinet ends and most of the island with particle board and you cant stain that. The solution was to replace it with wood wainscoting and stain it to match the cabinets.

Two days before Christmas we said goodbye to the blue Formica counter tops. The Granite was installed by Absolute Stone at a really great price. If you click on the top pic you can see that the Formica has chunks missing from it on the sides. It wont be missed!


A friend suggested Best Tile when I mentioned that I was looking for subway tile. The travertine I found was 3.99 sf. Other places I priced it was a lot more $$. I installed the backslash after the holidays it took about 3 days working 5 hours a day. They make it seem so easy on TV but I guess they skip the prep time and the clean up. I also installed lights under the cabinets. (They are hard to see in the picture because the overhead light is so bright) I'm please with the look so far. All there is left to do is the floor and get rid of the white.
Trim may be needed the bottom of the top cabinets so that the light fixtures are not so visible.

The island stools may be blending in a little to well so I may have to change them to black. What do you think?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

THE DOG DID IT!

This is Friday's great great grandmothers chair. The chair is over 100 years old and has some great detail work on the back. Why is it sitting in my garage you ask? At some point in its history a very naughty dog got to it and I'm going to give it a little TLC for her.

One of the arms had a whole ripped in the fabric. The arm below was ripped off and it looks like it became a chew toy.

Here you can see some of the details of the chair and the old fabric that got pulled away. I had to rebuild and cover the arm that was chewed with an oak veneer. I hated to do it but it was missing to much structure and that was the only way to get it re attached to the back of the chair.

If you click on the first picture to enlarge it you can see that a fair amount of wood looks worn and discolored. I went over the chair and footstool with Danish oil. The oil had a walnut tint to it and that helped to bring the chair it a more even color. It will also protect help protect the wood as it is drying out in some spots.

Friday's year has not started off so great (understatement)and I am glad that I have finished it in time for it to give her a little smile....

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Blanket's

I feel like I have been sprinting the past couple of weeks and now I'm wondering where the time has gone. Don't get me wrong I'm glad for the new year, for my sake and a few people that had a worse set of circumstances than my own.
I have managed to complete a chair for a friend recently. We also had the new counter tops installed 2 days before Christmas. I also got around to re-staining the kitchen cabinets and finished installing the new back splash yesterday. I also managed to squeeze out a couple of cakes in my misplaced kitchen. I'll post photos on all that soon.

The thing that I completed that I wished I had more time for was Felicia's baby Cayden's play blanket. It was hard to make time for it with all of my running around. My seams were not the best and a little crooked. On the way to the shower I realized that I paced the fabric tag on the corner but I didn't add the handmade stamp. (Felicia, just in case you are wondering what the little blue tag in the corner is.)
I had more time last year when I made this one for Jamie and her ladybugs. I had no crazy going on then. I miss that....

However I do like the clean lines of Cadyden's. I have to confess I'm not crazy over the traditional quilt patterns. Remember the one I made for myself was just 2 shades of blue in micro suede. It has come in handy with this real winter that North Carolina has decide that we needed.

I guess I can make it up to Felicia. All she has to do is have another baby and I can redeem myself.