Custom Shmustom

Ok, I realize that these posts increasingly belong on whitewhine.com (you're welcome for that one) but we've run into yet another oddity that is really putting a kink in our plans.

We set out weeks ago to order new appliances.  Once through the level of hell that is Sears on a holiday weekend, we got those little items delivered.

There was a slight mix-up with the stove because our contractor had not installed the gas line yet. But no prob guys, we could just wait and then contractor man could install it.

Screeeeeech! (that's the brakes)

This ridiculous stove was like custom set into the counter top! So even though it appeared to be a standard 30" guy that we could switch out, it was only 30" between the CABINETS, the nice little overhang of Corian comes in just enough that the new stove won't fit. (insert a ton of curse words that I won't use because my mom reads this).

So now we have to decide what to do.  Corian can be shaved/cut but after reading some horrifying directiosns, including things like: " ...the resin particles tend to float freely and stick to everything as if they are magnetized... tape-seal and tent the work area and rent an air cleaner to extract the dust from the air. Obviously, wearing a micro-filtration particle mask is a must, and eye goggles may help, particularly if working indoors." Well obbbviously...


Ugh, so needless to say we're a little intimidated about this and considering we wanted to replace the medicinal white Corian in the next 6 months to a year we might just move up the plan and get a new counter top... and have no money for food to cook on our nice new stove ;)


In the meantime here are some pics so you can see - I was fuming and snapping away with my phone.
"Really?! You needed to wedge it in there?" "You didn't want to leave ANYTHING standard? You'd never want to replace ANY appliances"? "Bad word, badder word, cursefest"

30 inch range indeed - Lies!

New stove - clearly the right size

Oh little friend, I was so looking forward to using you soon!

See that jerk overhang?! Ugh.

Stay tuned...

Now with pics! Bistro: Round 2

Remember when I emphatically said "But we must have a bistro table!"

Yeah I wasn't so much kidding.

Except I took it to a whole other level. It all started with these ridiculously comfortable rocking chairs at Sam's. Ever since wandering around the joint with Eileen and her 40 oz. icee and randomly coming across these exceptionally comfortable sit-upons I knew they had to be mine!

So I made a special trip with her (and icee, round 2) to pick up these fab guys. We rushed right over to the outdoor section only to find. GRILLS. Just grills grills and more grills. And pool cleaners, and outdoor lights, and coolers, and hoses, and 145 piece dining sets, but NO ROCKERS.

Distraught, I took to the internets, where luckily, I could pretend to be Cath and finally order my rocking chairs!

But as you know, shopping at 11pm can get a little dangerous. Especially when you have a "vision" for your porch. And oh, I've got visions.

So a quick pop over to World Market and I see all of their outdoor stuff is on sale. Ohhh boy.

Now by the time the month is over, our drab, I-started-to-rip-up-the-carpet-but-it-was-hard-and-that's-about-all-I've-done, is going to be a colorful outdoor paradise!

UPDATE: I was able to upload pics! This is the basic layout I sketched up:

And here are pics of the actual items going in:

A pair of these lovelies

With these pillows on them

And a little table in between them

A coffee table in the middle - juuust realized we don't even have one for the living room yet. Great job Katie...

Flanked by floor pillows - we're so boho chic

Then this lovely bench

With these pillows

And these! Mike was worried they look African... I'm not really sure where that came from?  But I'm entertained

The rug pictures were not cooperating, but suffice to say, it's neutral. Tan with a darker brown double border. It will make a nice grounding piece and for sure cover that carpet if it proves harder to rip up than we thought!

So. Who's coming over?!

Adventures in Unpacking

Ok, so we're getting somwhere. I'm even more overwhelmed than I thought I would be, honestly. I probably wasn't being realistic about how much work time and effort this would all take. Or maybe I forgot that we both actually have to attend our jobs and do something for 8-10 hours a day besides beautify our house... My b ya'll.

BUT we do have lovely new appliances! And 3 of them are even functional!

Love the fridge! That cooler / college fridge sitch was not the best of times

Incredibly complicated but awesome dryer

Spaceship / Washing Machine

It makes them taller and stores stuff! Genius

I'm easily impressed by all the buttons and dinging noises

Aaand some appliances that have yet to be installed (there's a microwave in all that mess!)

So there, my hoarder shame is on full display in the picture above, but honestly those boxes and almost all the kitchen stuff is put away now.  There have been some hilarious unpacking moments, mostly when Mike and I try to describe things to each other - as in,

Mike: "Where's the thing? You know the thing for the stuff?"

Katie: "The dog food container?"

Mike: "Yeah, thanks, where is that?" 

Good lord the years with Cath have trained me well...

This was the absolute best though. I was trying to convey, with all my powers of description and charades and everything I had, that I was looking for the water goblets.

Katie: "Where are the water goblets?"

Mike: "All the china is in the basement"

Katie: "No, no the goblets, those things that are like wine glasses sort of but the top is bigger and the stem is pudgy and short? I grab them for water when people come over and I don't want them to drink out of plastic cups we have from Bourbon Cowboy "

Mike: "Oh the regular wine glasses?"

Me: "Aaaauugh!"

Then I had the genius idea of just showing him everything, like, actual pictures. Almost everything we own was purchased in the past few years, it's still on most websites.  Still, this cracked me up to no end.

Here is proof of some stuff being put away - those glass cabinets are making me nervous. So much pressure! Everybody is going to see all my business! So I decided the smaller one would be filled with white kitchen things and the larger right double cabinet would be filled with nice glasses glass canisters with food in them.

Old fashioned strainer, some dessert places (and Lilly Pulitzer animal crackers) and my milkglass "collection "

In the larger right side I have mostly glass - bottom left - goblets! - and some cereal for good measure - which Mike asked if I planned since the cereal matched. Nope. Just love frosted mini wheats.

Here's a wider view. Ignore the partly taken apart cabinet and old stove

Oh! And the new couch was delivered! It's excellent for folding laundry on... 

But it's not all stress and mess. Mike's birthday is coming up and I found him this AWESOME present on Craigslist! He asked that I not spend more than like $25 so I was up for the challenge!

It is a vintage cooler on wheels! And it's a schnazzy orangey red color that will look even better when we do a little sprucing up to our porch. 

He randomly brought home sunflowers. See? We still like each other. 

Built-in bottle opener and cap catcher!

A side view, and the little water spout

By Sunday I needed a little retail therapy, so Eileen and I headed to Home Goods. DANGER. But awesome. I had a gift card, so the damage wasn't too severe.  I stuck with the white and glass stuff knowing it can move around the house and work in pretty much any room. Plus I'm a sucker for white lacquer - I might have said it 38.5 million times while shopping.

My treasures

I also found this cool Manzanita branch. Mike was not impressed. But I love  it! Where it will live in the house? TBD

And last but not least, another fun find was kitchen decor on ebay.  I want to have fun with the big blank wall along the back. And I've always always wanted big cast iron utensils like my mom's mom has in her breakfast room. I've been scouring the internets and found these bad boys.  See Vanna Mike showing them off / losing his mind below:

"Hey! I can eat soup with these!" What???

Worst Blogger Ever!

Hi friends - sorry it's been so long since I've updated!  I severely underestimated how overwhelming this whole moving process would be.

I vow (vows are super serious!) to take some pictures tonight and expand on some plans we're working on!

In the meantime, I'll just share a small list of what needs to be tackled right now so you can cut me a tiny bit of slack - and then judge me for catching up on our DVR instead of doing these things...

1. Gas conversion for new stove
2. Build a mounting apparatus for the new venting microwave
3. New floors in kitchen and den
4. Clean kitchen cabinets so all of our stuff can be put away!
5. Paint dining room
6. Build out judges paneling in dining room
7. Frame out opening between kitchen and dining room
8. Paint fireplace
9. Strip wallpaper and paint powder room
10. New lighting and mirror and cabinet for powder room
11. Rearrange furniture
12. Make curtains
13. Learn how to sew
14. Buy coffee table
15. Paint vintage side table
16. Paint & get hardware for vintage cabinet
17. Paint & get hardware for corner china holder (the real name for that is escaping me right now)
18. Find buffet table
19. Paint entry way and get new door handles for the coat closet
20. Get newel post and new stairway handrail and posts
21. Replace the runner going up the stairs
22. Find little vintage mail table and make it cute
23. Cry in a corner
24. Dear god this is only the downstairs

Are you still reading? Are you good at landscaping? Or bathroom remodels? Oh good, come over...

No, really, you are all welcome any time. I'll make you PB&J! Or cereal! Or toast! Or anything that doesn't require a range or microwave... cause... see numbers 1 and 2...

For reals yo

Oh man! Way way way too many things have happened since my last post, and hopefully I will be able to get into all of them in detail soon, but we are IN the house full time as of yesterday!

The morning started bright and EARLY at about 6am, finishing up some packing random throwing things into bags/boxes.  Then the movers arrived in all their hipster glory right on time at 9am.  They were almost cartoon-like but really nice and stronger than they looked! I did NOT put on my ipod for fear of judgement though.

My job was basically to keep the dog and myself out of the way, and once they (and Mike) left for Wilmington, I stayed behind to clean the apartment top to bottom! I have never seen so many dust bunnies in my life! At one point Mike was like "hmm I guess our spring cleaning should become like a real thing. Like maybe we should move furniture or something" then he saw my face and wisely shut it.

Anyway, I keep referring to the place as an audition for Hoarders, and I think people think I'm exaggerating...

Without further ado, I am baring it all - here she is, our house in her current "oh crap we just moved in" state:

The living room.  Nothing is really staying but the TV and stand - couch is for den, but we're waiting on the new floors 

Traumatized Lemon and bookshelves that are also for the den

The dining room looks semi put together! Except the wall color is changing and there's a large unfinished hole in the wall juuuust out of view

Just womp. This will hopefully look VERY different in the next couple weeks

Waiting for new floors!

Laundry room, ready for action!

I don't think that whole parking cars inside the garage is going to happen too soon

Walking in the front door... This is the highlight of the audition tape obvs

We should probably move that stuff before the actual master bed comes

Master dressing area, featuring a shop vac for all your getting-ready needs

The first thing I did yesterday was rip the carpet out of the master closet so I could start hanging my clothes, yay!

Mike said I could have the whole thing!

Office / Fire Hazard

Ughh where does all this stuff come from?!

Crack den aka smaller guest room

Bigger guest room where we're camping out until the bed is delivered.  Yes that is the corner from our couch. This is it's new home.  And you better not be judging the doggie steps! Don't do it!

Mike's Closet!

This really did make me smile this morning - Magnolia tree in our side yard!