Our New/Old Dishwasher and a Magazine Shoot with Mom

Hey there!

Are you having a good weekend?
Hope so!

It's been relatively quiet around here this weekend
(more about that later this week),
but last weekend, on the other hand, was nothing short of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
(That's short for "chaotic".)

It started with a phone call to my Mom earlier in the week.



(Ring, ring)

"Hello?" (Mom)

"Hey Mom!" (Me)

"Hey- what's up?" (Mom)

"Are you still thinking about coming up here this weekend?" (please say yes, please say yes)

"Yeah, why?" (Mom)

Now, like any daughter that didn't want to scare her mother out of coming to her house would do, I decided it would be best to tell her the fun news about styling and shooting the house for Cottages and Bungalows magazine- instead of the exciting-yet-not-exactly-fun news about lifting a stainless steel dishwasher into, and out of, the back of a vehicle in 94 degree weather so that it could be in the shots of our kitchen.

"Well, I have to photograph the house for Cottages and Bungalows magazine, and it would be awesome if you could help me style everything. You're so good at that kind of stuff." (me, and a pat of butter)

"Oh. Okay. Yeah, that's fine." (Mom/Saint)

"Awesome, thanks!" (me, trying to figure out how I can at least sort of prepare her for "other" news)

"Oh! I almost forgot!" (me, after I figured out a way to prepare her for the other news)

"What?" (Mom)

"Well, ya know how we haven't had a dishwasher in a couple years?" (me)

"Yeah?" (Mom)

"One of our local readers offered to give us their previously-loved, stainless steel, GE Profile dishwasher! It's only a few years old, but they got a new one, and couldn't justify keeping the "old" one. Isn't that awesome!?" (me, hoping she just focuses on the awesomeness of the situation, and not on how the dishwasher will get from point A to point B.)

"That is pretty awesome." (Mom, smiling, and no doubt amazed that things like this can happen thanks to the internet.)

"I know. It's crazy." (me, just glad she didn't bring up the point A to point B thing.)



Well, long story short, Mom did come up last weekend.

And Mom did nervously drive up a really steep driveway in her PT Cruiser.

And Mom did do a 6-point turn at the top of the really steep driveway so that she could drive backwards up another driveway, so that the back of her PT Cruiser was facing the garage door of the sweet family with the previously-loved, stainless steel GE Profile dishwasher.

And Mom did lift the dishwasher into the back of her PT Cruiser (with the help of Mr. Previously-Loved Dishwasher) in 94 degree weather, while yours truly stood in the garage and told Mrs. Previously-Loved Dishwasher about all the disgusting things we found behind our old dishwasher when we moved it out of the house.
(Let's just say they begin with the letter "R", and rhyme with the word, "COACHES".)

(Note: I really didn't mean for my Mom to do all the stressful driving/heavy lifting. She's just such a go-getter, I tell ya! She has a way of just jumping in there before I even have a chance to stop her from go-getting. I really just wanted her to go with me to pick up the dishwasher. And I thought I was going to borrow a neighbors truck- so she wouldn't have to drive. I should've known Supermom would swoop in a save the day, as usual.)

(LOVE YOU MOM!)



Anywho- the dishwasher alcove in our kitchen has since been cleaned up, exterminated, and is home to a brand new (3-year-old) previously loved, stainless steel GE Profile dishwasher!



It's so pretty.
And SO quiet.
You can hardly even tell it's running!

As you can see from the photo above, we've still gotta get a stainless stove.
But for the first time in a long time, it actually feels like we're making some progress in the appliance department!

And speaking of the stove, my Mom made me unplug it.
Ya see, ever since we moved in, two and half years ago, the stove just randomly comes on by itself, all throughout the day and night.

And when I say, "comes on", I mean ON.
Like, full on "go ahead and throw the pork chops in cuz the oven is 350 degrees right now even though the knob is clearly in the OFF position".

The electrician that helped us install the new dishwasher also thought it was a good idea to unplug it when it wasn't being used.

So I unplugged it.

But now that's it unplugged, I kinda don't want to pull it back out just so I can plug it back in when I wanna cook something in/on it.
Ya know what I mean?

Pain. In. The bootie!

Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of raw fruits and veggies, and microwaveable food this past week.



As for the photo shoot- well, it was pretty sunny outside, and my Mom is the bomb stylist, so we got some great shots. She works with flowers on a daily basis, so her talent came in extra handy when it came to putting together flower arrangements for the rooms we shot.
I believe our house will be featured in the September issue of Cottages and Bungalows, and I'm especially excited about it because the photography and styling was a family affair this time. Every time I see the photos, I'll think about the crazy/fun weekend me and my Mom had preparing the rooms for their close ups!

(LOVE YOU SO MUCH MOM!)



And as if she hadn't already done enough- my Mom also surprised me and Kev with a few early birthday presents last weekend too. (We're both turning 36 in June- SHHHH!)



She hooked us up with the quilt, the duvet and one of the quilted shams.
I love how it all looks together!
The colors just make me feel happy!

(THANK YOU MOM!)

Now I've just gotta get a bedskirt, three euro shams and inserts, and a bed to put it all on- and we'll be on our way to a real life, grown up person bedroom!
Woo hoo!



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Our Stainless Steel Swayder-Fritter

Up until this past Monday, we used this refrigerator to hold our cold and frozen foods...



You can't see it in this photo, but it had a (permanently) red-stained water dispenser lever because of Kevin's obsession with Crystal Light fruit punch.

Let's just say he's not obsessed with cleaning up Crystal Light fruit punch spillage.

I confronted him several times about the hard-to-clean, red messes he was leaving behind each time he got his mix on.

He latest response was quite the doozy...



How dare he make me laugh while I'm trying to lay down the law.



But it really doesn't matter how stained the lever is anymore anyway, because last week, our red/white fridge finally bit the dust.

Yep.

All our food spoiled, and the odor inside it was pretty grody by the time we noticed it wasn't working.

We weren't really planning on buying a refrigerator this month, so I thought I better at least check on Craigslist, to see if I could find anything stainless for under 50 bucks.

I'm kidding.

As the site was loading, I was thinking to myself, "Layla. Come on. You know there's never any stainless steel refrigerators on Craigslist- and whenever there is, they're way above your budget."

But I just had to check.

And guess what?

I'M SO GLAD I CHECKED!

At the top of the page, the very first listing read:



I ran (literally) across the house and told Kevin the good news.

I'm not sure the term "counter depth" meant as much to him as it did to me, but when he heard "stainless" and "$400", he was pretty stoked.

Shortly after Freak-Out Fest 2010, we talked with the owner of the fridge, and then we hit the road to go pay for our spectacular new swayder-fritter.

(That's what I called them when I was a little girl.)



Unlike our slab of butcher block, the fridge (or "fritter") was obviously too big to fit in our little red car...



So we went back to pick it up with Kevin's band trailer a few days later.

Well, the fritter was too tall for the trailer too.

Can you say "nightmare"?

We were forced to drive thirty five miles with it tilted backwards at an extremely severe angle, supported only by a couple of tiny straps and one of the bands road cases.

I think I held my breath the entire way home.

Except for whenever we went over a bump.

Then, I freaked out on Kevin for driving too fast quickly stressed the importance of slowing down.

Needless to say, it was a super tense situation, but thankfully, we (and our new fritter) made it home in one piece.



Here's a photo of her, doin' her thang, in her new home...



We plan to buy another tall cabinet (like the one on the left), and use it on the right side of the fridge. We'll also build some kind of "bridging shelf unit" to tie the two towers together, so it looks all custom-n-stuff.

(Move your cursor back and forth over the photo below to see what I mean.)



I can't tell you how happy we are to have a working fridge again.

There's just nothing cool about a styrofoam cooler in your kitchen.





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Sealing the Butcher Block Countertop

We fiiiiinally took the time to seal our new butcher block countertop over the past couple of days.



Yesss!

We didn't stain it, (we're going to have natural-colored hardwood floors in the dining and living rooms eventually) and we don't plan to use it to chop or prepare food on, so we just used two coats of Tung Oil.

Of course we had to document the process on video.

I should forewarn you about this particular video though.
Kevin edited it while I was at the salon, and although I love him to death for putting together a super sweet video for us to look back and smile at one day, this one's not super-informative folks. (Sorry!)



But, since we're not real good about printing, dating, and organizing our photos in big, beautiful photo albums, or burning all of our video footage onto DVD's and storing them in pretty file boxes for future reference, I'll probably be very glad we created this "interactive diary" of ours when we're too old to dance a jig, or smooch through protective masks because we're sealing a countertop with stinky oil.





I am curious about one thing though.

Should I/can I do a top coat of Waterlox?

I just read a couple of fabulous blog posts about staining and Waterloxing your wood countertops, and now I'm starting to think we may want to do it to really create a super-durable surface that doesn't require any re-coating throughout the years.

Vanessa from "This and That" wrote a super-detailed post about the staining and Waterloxing of her butcher block countertop...



And Kristi from "Addicted 2 Decorating" also wrote an awesome post about staining and Waterloxing her butcher block countertops...



Those gals are smart as whips, I tell ya!



Maybe I'll call Waterlox on Monday and ask them about it.
I'm guessing it'll be okay because Waterlox is a combination of Tung Oil and Resin- but I'll let you know what I find out!



As for the wall above the countertop, I'm going to use this photo as inspiration when designing our "free-floating hutch"...



Our hutch won't be quite as "feminine" looking, but the overall concept will be the same.

And maybe the inside of ours can be painted a different color than the outside is? (The outside of our hutch will be painted "Alabaster" white to match the upper cabinets across the way.)


(Not this particular color, but maybe something fun and blue-based?)

Or maybe I should back it with some more mirrors, to reflect the natural light coming in through the window over our kitchen sink?

I'm also gonna install a couple of wall sconces like they did in the inspiration photo above too. Maybe something like these?



They're $18.00 at Lowes, and I've always liked the way they looked.

What do you think of them?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!



Well, there's a nasty storm rollin' into town- so I better shut this thing off for the night before the lightning shuts it off for me!

Happy weekend friend-



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Open Cabinetry

I get a lot of emails from folks asking me for my advice on open kitchen cabinets.

To remove the doors...or not to remove the doors.

That- is the question!

I think it's really a matter of personal taste.

I, for one, happen to like the look.

I like it ahh-lawt...



To me, open cabinets aren't a whole lot different than open bookcases.

Bookcases display books- open cabinets display dishes.



Here's a photo of our cabinets that was taken back in October of '07...



MAN there was a lot of doors on those things!

I suggested we remove some of them so that the room wouldn't be quite as "door-ey".

(Okay, fine. I really just didn't want to have to paint twenty four cabinet doors. Can you say "wrist fatigue"?)

Kevin was down with my idea, so we took the doors off the six upper cabinets on the left.

Why did we remove those particular doors, you ask?

Because if you're going to remove some doors, you'll probably want to display your prettiest pieces in the cabinets that are open, and conceal "foodie" type stuff in the ones nearest your stove and fridge.



Once you've figured out which ones you're going to remove the doors from, you can decide which items you're going to display in them, and if you want to add any additional molding to them.

Here's what we did...



FYI-

Each piece of mirror was around ten bucks.
The "squishy shelf liner stuff" was about four bucks a roll.
And, for the record, the twelve little vintage wine glasses were SIX DOLLARS, not twelve.
(I don't know why I said they were twelve dollars. Silly rabbit.)

And, hey, as long as you don't throw away the doors after you remove them, you can always put them back on if you decide you don't dig the way it looks.

Ooh!
And remember, decorative molding is your friend.
Use it, and no one will ever know your cabinets had doors on them!

Unless you blog about it.

Oops.





PS-

Think you can't have open cabinets because it's too dusty where you live?
It's dusty in Alabama too!
(cough, cough)
But we use the dishes in our open cabinets A LOT, so they usually don't have time to grow sweaters.
But, if something does happen to collect a little dust, we just give it a quick rinse before we use it, and it's as good as new!

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Tales from an Empty Nest

Congratulations!
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Working Out, Kitchen Switches and a New Hue for Hyacinth

Alright- show of hands,

Who loves Springtime?!


(My Knock-Out roses, preparing to explode.)

There's really nothing like it, is there?

Especially days like today when the sun is shining and the birds are singing their little hearts out.

I. LOVE IT!


(One of my favorite houses in town, completely surrounded by Spring!)

All this wonderful weather has got me wanting to bust out my favorite shorts.

Which is exactly what would happen if I tried to squeeze into them right now.

Yeah...I seemed to have packed on another ten pounds this past Winter, and right now my Spring/Summer clothes are fitting just a liiiiiittle too closely for comfort.

And because this ol' girl will always put her house before her self- buying a whole new wardrobe to accommodate my "extra curves" is out of the question.

I've got pillows to purchase people!



But-
I did break down and buy some running shoes from TJ Maxx yesterday...



Oh yeah, I got a pineapple too.

But not at TJ Maxx.
Although I did see lots of things with pineapples ON them at TJ Maxx.

The plan is to start eating better (hence, the pineapple), and to start jogging, to see if I can shed the extra weight before we head to Tybee in June.

That's do-able, right?

And although he doesn't need to lose any weight, Kevin got some new shoes to run in too. He wants to be super fit by the time he leaves to go on tour later this year.

We both took our shoes out for a spin for the first time yesterday morning.

He made it around the pond at the park three times.



I made it from here to here...



By the time I reached that second "X" I was dying.

My legs were so heavy.
It felt like I was running in the water, instead of around it.

And my lungs felt like they were being attacked by a hundred angry hornets.

Angry, fire-breathing hornets.

Angry, fire-breathing hornets with cacti strapped to their feet.

It was brutal.

But I'm not going to give up!

I'm gonna keep at it!

Because no matter how crazy it feels right now, I gotta believe that one day I'll be able to race around that thing like Kevin does.

And that running doesn't always equate to stinging lungs, lead legs and the occasional wave of nausea.



Meanwhile, Kevin will undoubtedly be running circles around me with his big, healthy lungs and springy little sneakers.


(Kevin, on lap #3)

Grrrr.



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On the home front, I've started to think about my Summer mantel already.
(I know. I'm insane.)

The Spring one was a bunch of fun to put together...



...but it's been up for like t h i r t y o n e days already.

That's like ninety one in Decorator days.

So far, I'm visualizing lots of coastal touches...driftwood, seashells, glass floats, sailboats, lanterns, that kind of stuff...but who knows what I'll be inspired by at the flea market this time!

(To see what happened last time around, click HERE. And to see how the story ended, click HERE.)

But before I get too carried away with the anymore mantel mania- there's still that empty wall above the cabinetry we repurposed in the kitchen...



I've always thought it would be kinda cool to move the upper cabinets from the left side of room, over to the right side...



...and then to install windows all the way across the back wall of the kitchen instead...

(Move your mouse back and forth over the photo to see what I mean.)



Not necessarily those exact windows, but some kind of windows would be pretty nifty, wouldn't they?
And boy would that really kick up the natural light factor!
(Always a plus in my book.)
There's about two acres of woods directly behind our house, and I'd love to be able to see more of them while I do the dishes.

Yeah, we're still hand washing over here.
And the plastic spoon that's to blame is still living inside our dishwasher...



Grrr.

Ooh!
Speaking of kitchens-
If you get a chance, swing by the Pioneer Woman's blog to weigh in on what color chalkboard paint Hyacinth should use on the wall that connects her living room to her kitchen...



The Design Team and I have been getting to know Hyacinth over the past couple of months, and I think she's finally ready to get crackin' on the redesign, but she's leaving the final color decision up to you!

And to learn more about my "Design Team Hyacinth" partners, click on their banners below...





...they're two tremendously talented ladies, and it's been such a pleasure collaborating with them.

'Til next time-

Happy Thursday!



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