Ten Days of Little Celebrations – August 2016

August has been hot and humid…punctuated with thunderstorms and downpours of rain. There has been plenty to celebrate:

Lots of tomatoes – Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides so many different kinds – heirloom, cherry, yellow, red, orange…and I am celebrating the bounty for almost two meals a day. Last week we got a bundle of basil and I’ve had it on the counter all week; I add it to salads and sauces so frequently that I don’t think I’ll have any left to dry at the end of the week.

Homemade salsa – I had a jalapeño pepper from the CSA and combined it with tomatoes, cilantro, dried onion flakes and lemon juice/pulp in the food processor. Yummy. We’ve eaten up the first batch and I’ll be making a second one soon. It’s good food worth celebrating.

Lemon Vinaigrette – I discovered a new favorite salad dressing. I’m celebrating the change – even though I still keep a supply of my previous favorite: Green Vinaigrette.

Clean cabinet doors -  I found some Murphy’s Oil Soap that we’ve had for years and cleaned the cabinet doors. There are times that ‘cleaning house’ becomes a celebration of the place we live and this was one of those times.

Home in the 1990s – I scanned pictures we had taken as we moved into the house we live in now…and the rest of the decade. Seeing the pictures again were a celebration of that time of our lives.

New Kitchen Floor – The new floor makes the whole room look new to me. I’m celebrating the end result…and that our decision to ‘do it now.’

Wood Floor – We got the wood floor in the foyer refinished and matching wood in the office to the side of the foyer and the powder. Wow – the whole area of the house looks very clean and full of light, bigger than it looked before. Now we are thinking about where else we will put wood flooring…while we celebrate the success of this project.

Goldfinches – Every time I see the goldfinches enjoying the zinnia and sunflower seeds it is a little celebration of color and motion.

Monarch butterfly – There are not very many Monarch butterflies in our area so the one I did see near our house was a celebration.

Tree hike – The tree hike at Belmont was something I committed to do months and months ago so when it finally happened this month, it was a milestone of 2016 to celebrate.

New Flooring – Part II

I posted about the first two days of our new flooring last Thursday morning. The project was completely finished by Thursday evening and we moved the furniture back into the room on Friday morning. Our cats were leery about leaving the basement where they had been sequestered since Tuesday morning and been terrified by the noises overhead….but food and treats being moved back to the normal place in the kitchen were enough to entice them upstairs. The new floor made the kitchen a ‘new’ place for them and I think it did for me a little as well. I still am surprised at how much the new floor changes the look and feel of the room --- and it all for the better.

The wood floor in the entry, my husband’s office and the half bath is wonderful too. We’ve moved the furniture back to his office but not all the computers – so far. The room looks large! We bought a new mat for his office chair – one that is smooth on the back rather than with little nubs for carpeting. I need to remember to take the knots out of the sheers before we move too many other things back into the room.  The items on the shelves were covered with plastic during the sanding; even the Darth Vader came through in find shape!

Now that the project is done – I’m asking myself why I waited so long to have it done!

New Flooring – Part I

After living in our house over 20 years, we are getting new flooring in two areas:

• Our kitchen, breakfast area, pantry, and laundry room
• Foyer/coat closet (refinish), office, and half bath.

The new wood materials for the office and half bath were delivered on Monday so that it would be at the temperature of the house when it was installed. They were put in the office where they would be installed in a few days.

The crew to replace the kitchen and surround area arrived at mid-day on Tuesday and proceeded take out the old flooring (even though at first they were going to simply install the new Congoleum tiles over the old builder installed sheet vinyl….not what we paid for!). The old flooring has been pieced together and was not very high quality to begin with.

When they left Tuesday night, the refrigerator was in the den (plugged in – fortunately) along with the stove, the washer and dryer was in the garage….the space was ready for the installation of the tiles. There was a fine coating of dust on everything in the den…work for after the project is finished.

Wednesday morning, the crew to work on the kitchen arrived shortly after 8. After more stapling, gooping the seams of the material for under the tiles, and measuring – they were laying tile by 10.

Less than an hour after the kitchen crew arrived, the one for the foyer area arrived. The furniture from the office was moved into the living room, the drapery knotted up to be out of the way, the carpeting was taken out, and the saw was set up in the front yard. They were working on laying the new flooring in the office by 11…after hanging plastic on the spaces leading to the kitchen and the living room. I closed the doors to the rooms upstairs and we’ll just have to thoroughly vacuum the carpeting in the upstairs hallway.

By the end of the day on Wednesday:

The kitchen was finished. The crew worked for 12 hours straight to get it done. This morning we will be cleaning up and moving the table back into breakfast area.

The foyer area had the new wood installed in the half bath and office. Everything was sanded. We'd selected the stain from the sample grid. Thursday would be stain day!

Stay tuned for part II for this post…after the project is finished. I think it will probably come out on Sunday, August 21 (keeping my fingers crossed).