Ready, Set, Cabinets

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cabinets5

My horrible headache started yesterday and I have a feeling it won’t subside until I get through this project. Lets hope I make it. The wonderful “Jerry” showed up yesterday to begin setting the cabinet boxes. Richie took the day off to play his handsome and capable assistant. I think they had a good time taking a break to look at old cars and cool tools at Jerry’s house. Richie learned a lot and when the day came to an end, they accomplished a lot.

My excitement and anxiety just won’t allow me to sit still so I snapped a few ….

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Demo and Hot Rods

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P1090136

The kitchen project is right on schedule and our cabinet maker gave us the green light to demo the kitchen and remove all those horrible cabinets WHOO HOO! So the fun begins and so does life without a kitchen. We went 8 weeks without hot water and laundry when we moved in… so I think we’ll be okay with this. Another project to “get through”. Still, we’re excited.

Richie and his father handled the tear out and I tried to create a “make shift” kitchen in the back of the house. We have a counter and small sink in the back ….

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Our house in Texas Architect

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TACover

It’s always so surprising to get the news that your house is shown in a publication…not to mention the magazine Texas Architect. I was so pleased to receive two copies from the Editor yesterday and was even more pleased to look through this beautiful magazine. I think I MUST subscribe. We have always followed Austin’s Lake/Flato Archtiects and LOVE seeing their work at Shangri La Gardens in Orange. The September/October issue features them along with many others for their award-winning designs. AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL!

Our interest in Art and Architecture has allowed us to meet the most creative and wonderful people. ….

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Kitchen and Art

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MagritteMan-with-the-Bowler-Hat

I’m getting bad about postings and I HATE THAT! I’m just so busy that I can’t find time to sit down and do it… not to mention that I keep forgetting to charge my camera battery. But here’s what we’ve been up to…

Richie had been working with the Art Museum to design and build these very large “boxes” for their fundraising gala (which I mentioned in an earlier post). He finished that up and we saw the finished product last Friday night. Part of the evening featured a gallery of “living art” inside these “boxes”. It was so amazing I ….

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Kitchen Decisions

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faucet2

I’m finally starting to feel good about our kitchen project and I’ve quit chewing my fingers from anxiety! (it’s a horrible stress related habit. It’s disgusting!)
Decisions have to be made and sometimes I get frozen from all the options. This kitchen was a nice change of pace for me, as my options on many things were limited to what would fit in this small space. That certainly narrows down your choices. Here’s what it boils down to. (no pun intended.)

We decided to hire “Jerry” the carpenter to make the cabinets. After having many cabinet makers in and out of the ….

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Paint, Art, Rocks, and Websites

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frameback

What the hell am I talking about? Good grief, it’s been a crazy week around here. Paint, Art, Rocks, Websites… and one more thing… CABINETS!

I’m about as tired as this little girl….

Isn’t she sweet. I walked past the doorway and saw her in there so tired she almost looks dead. Couldn’t resist taking a picture, because Richie and I are exactly that tired.

It’s been a really crazy week and I haven’t posted anything for a while because there just hasn’t been time. So lets catch up. I spent the week having cabinet makers come to the house to give me ….

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Master Work

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Ceiling White3

Since taking the week off from work, Richie and I got a really great start to the master bedroom. I’m happy to finally get to this space, as I haven’t really had a closet to speak of in over 2 years. I’ve just been shoving everything in and sliding a hideous curtain across the front to hide everything. No offense to the previous owners choice… but I couldn’t live with only a curtain to conceal all my crap. Women just have too many damn shoes and way too many clothes… mostly stuff that I could probably get rid of but ….

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Twenty-One Years Ago

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weddingpix

Hard to believe that 21 years ago today Richie and I tied the knot! This wedding picture made me laugh and cry a little too. We look like babies!
Richie claims that he looks exactly the same. Okay, I think he’s delusional. This house renovation has made him lose his mind. He’s still cute, though. Delusional, but cute. And he’s good with tools!  Check out his eyes… he’s was drunk and nervous.  I was just nervous… drunk came later.  All kidding aside, it was just the beginning of what has been a fun-filled, adventurous, life together.  He always remembers our anniversary ….

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Birds on My Back

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P1090038_web

Over the last few weeks I’ve really been taking it easy with my work load, as I seriously injured my back while working on sheetrock in the bedroom. Richie claims that I stood on that damn step stool too long while leaning over and holding myself up for two days straight.

I really think he’s right.
Don’t you just love that lamp! Richie found that years ago at some crazy sale. I think it use to be a heat lamp used in a hospital or doctors office. We took all the “heat” part out of it and made a lamp out of ….

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He Lights up my Life!

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WHITE is better

While the rain moves in and constantly stays over our house… Richie decided to move inside and tackle the electrical chaos that is going on in our “studio” area of the house.
We hired electricians to do the front part but the back part was something Richie knew he could handle when the time came. (saved us a couple thousand, too!) So with the help and knowledge of his father they have been working on it for the last couple of days. I snapped a few pictures. Boring pictures… probably, but trust me when I say we’re happy to be getting ….

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Finally Fenced!

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P1090025_web

It’s been a while since I posted an update but I wanted to wait until the fence was done. The rain showers (even though we needed them) really slowed things down…. actually things came to a screeching halt for a while. Richie continued to work every chance he could to finish the gate and fence and there were lots of little things to wrap up. Finally, it’s done. He made me promise that I would wait a few weeks before I stained it so all the wood could dry out.. but of course I’m chomping at the bit!

A view from ….

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One Picket at a Time

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New Fence View

Work on the front fence and gate continues….

Now that the front fence and gate are pretty well done, it was time to set new posts for the redesigned fence. Most of the fence was setting above ground on concrete blocks, which was really great, but we decided to go ahead and dig holes and do it the “standard” way. Here you can see the new poles as they set up. Now we have to play the waiting game…… Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.  Only time will cure that crete!

While that dries I lend a hand and help Richie remove ….

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Fence & Gate Update

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New Siding and Pickets

Here’s an update on our front fence/gate project. It’s been a really hard, very hot, totally exhausting week for Richie, Dean, and Ben. Thanks to our helpers we’ve made some progress. This house is fabulous and part of what we love about it is that there are fences and walls, courtyards and special places that surround this house and keep it very private. With walls and walls of windows we absolutely MUST have these fences. Time, weather, 2 hurricanes, and over grown vegetation left pretty much every fence around the house in terrible shape. Most of it is hanging by ….

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Come Sail Away

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P1080944_web

This week we’ve been jumping from one thing to the next (yes, short attention span strikes again!). That’s okay. When everything has to be done, anything getting done is good! Richie was determined to hang up our Coolaroo shade sail that we bought right after we moved in. We love being outside and have such a nice back porch but we desperately needed to have some shade.

After getting all the “stuff” out of the box it was obvious that is was going to be a little bit more work than we expected, only because we really don’t have siding to ….

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Kitchen Plan

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modern kitchen plan drawing

The weekends and time-off-work are usually packed with projects at our house, but the weekdays are just as busy. While Richie is off work and doing his projects, I have assignments too. FIGURE OUT WHAT I WANT IN THE KITCHEN! (this week, or else!) Richie really wants to move on the kitchen renovation and honestly I do too.. it’s just a little scary. Most DIY’ers are DIY’ers because they find satisfaction in doing a job themselves, are limited on funds and must do the work, or they’ve had bad luck hiring contractors to do work for them and in the ….

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