Frou FruGal

You Only Have Today

2013-05-23T11:57:00.001-04:00

Today is my Dad's 73rd birthday.

He will spend it in the hospital getting a feeding tube put into his stomach. Sounds like a party to me. Actually, I suspect my dad will be happy to have the feeding tube taken out of his nose.

That's Dad with my cute niece, Jackie. On May 6th, my Dad suffered a stroke. He was doing well that day. My mom works from home and my Dad made Mom some lunch and they sat and ate together. Mom went back to work and Dad was still in his chair eating his lunch. That was 12:30 p.m.

She came back out to the room at 2:45 p.m. after her shift was over and Dad was still sitting in his chair. At first, Mom thought Dad had dozed off but when he failed to respond when she tried to wake him and when he wasn't moving right, she knew he'd had a stroke.

She called the paramedics and by the time they got Dad to the hospital it was getting pretty close to the four-hour window in which they can give medication to stroke patients to alleviate the blockage and stop the damage. Mom called my brother and they quickly determined that it was better to give the medication to Dad and at least try.

If you are wondering why there would be any choice in the matter, the doctors were telling my mom that the medicine could cause my Dad to bleed out and a lot of other scary stuff so it wasn't as clear cut of a decision as you'd expect.

The medicine worked and Dad has since regained the use of both sides of his body. I can't remember now which side wasn't working at first. However, he suffers from Asphasia, which is the inability to speak. Also, he can't swallow yet, hence the feeding tube. Because my Dad has a pacemaker, they can't do the electric stimulation to get those muscles working again.

On Mother's Day, I called to talk to my Mom and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. I reached her just as she was getting to the rehab center where my Dad is now. He was just coming back from his physical therapy session and three of my sisters were there with my Mom. Mom said, "Say Hi to Daddy."

I said, "Hi Dad! Happy Mother's Day! Thank you for giving me such a great Mommy. She is the best and I'm so grateful for both of you." I proceeded to tell him about my day and how excited I was that I would get to talk to my daughter, Ryley, later that day on a Google Hangout. My daughter is serving a mission for our church and she is only allowed to call home on Mother's Day and Christmas. After I was done talking, I heard some sound and then I heard my Mom and my sisters clapping and cheering.

Mom said, "Did you hear that?" I told her I didn't and she said, "Daddy just said, 'Hello, Hello!'" which is often what my Dad says when he answers the phone. It was the first he'd said in six days. Best Mother's Day gift ever.

Dad has continued to speak a few words here and there. When my sons, Nathan and Sam, and I called last Sunday, Sam was talking to Dad and told him it was Sam and Dad said, "Sam I Am!" Dad did ask my sister yesterday to see Sophie, his precious little doggy.

His recovery is slow, though, and I'm left to wonder how much will come back. His care givers tells us there is some cognition loss. All of my siblings (6 of them) have seen my Dad and they can all tell that his humor and personality is intact.

I'm going to send him this card. It will make him laugh. Mom and Dad live in Boise, Idaho, so I will make a side trip to see them when I'm out in Utah in July to pick up Katie, my disabled sister-in-law, who lives with us part of the year.

So, other than being all TMI on you, I have a couple of points. My first is this. Do you know what the signs of a stroke are?

Every second counts, so responding quickly to any sign of a stroke is important.

My second point is this: You only have today.

My Dad's stroke was on a Monday. The Thursday before that I was coming home from taking Sam to play practice in town. As I was driving home, I decided to call my Dad. I'm not going to lie. Calling home is not something that has not been super high on my priority list. It's not something I do as often as my parents would like. But, I did that Thursday.

My Dad loves my blog. He loves reading about the things I've done and he loves the talent that I have and he loves that I tackle projects that most people wouldn't dream of doing. My Dad thinks I'm a female McGuiver and frequently jokes about giving me some gum and a paperclip and seeing what I come up with.

Sometimes it's hard for me to hear his praise. I don't know why, but it just is. It embarrasses me and it's hard for me to know what to say. I feel like this is just me and I don't do that much to be the way I am. It's how I'm made and he and my mom are a large part of that.

But on that Thursday, I was deeply grateful for his words. He was especially effusive in his praise. He really went on and on about it. He told me how proud he was of me and I remember just feeling so touched to hear just how much my Dad loves me. That Thursday, I especially needed to hear those words from him. I'm so very thankful that he spoke them.

See how he's looking at me when I'm a little girl? He's always looked at me like that. Like he just can't wait to see what I do next.

I find great comfort in the fact that I don't ever need to hear my Dad say those words to me again. If his speech never comes back, I will still know that my Dad loves me and that he is proud of the woman I am. He has spoken all the words to me that I need to hear. He's given me a lifetime of great advise and counsel. He has cheered me on and cheered me up when I needed it. He has encouraged me and maddened me and made me think. He has taught me well and I'm so grateful for that.

If Dad never speaks again, I will feel sad for him because I know he has far too many words still inside him. Dad has always been a talker. I get that from him. He could spend hours in a store talking to someone. We'd think he'd be catching up with some long-lost buddy, only to discover that person was a complete stranger. Dad has never lacked for words until now. I can't imagine a bigger challenge for him and for that reason, I want him to recover. But, I don't need him to speak for me, if that makes any sense.

I do want to hear my Dad tell stupid jokes and sing songs and tease my Mom. Theirs is a love story that has been going on for 54 years. They were high school sweethearts. They are still sweethearts.

Here they are playing footsies in the hospital. One of the greatest gifts my Dad has given to all seven of his children is his unconditional love for our mom. He always sings her praises. He loves to tease her and they have stood by each others side through all the trials of their lives. They are good people.

Dad's stroke has reminded me of the importance of living for today. None of us know how much time we have. Are you living each day the best that you can? Are you doing those things that are important to you? What if you could no longer do them? If you couldn't speak tomorrow, would all of your people know how much you love and care for them? Would they know you are proud of them or would they live wondering about those things?

I have been so very blessed to know these things. I hope and pray that my Dad's speech will recover enough one day that he can say all of those things that he left unsaid. He is an amazing man and has so much joy and wisdom to share with us still. I am very proud to be his daughter.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! I love you muchly, much muchly. You are the very best Poppa a girl could ever have.

Three Things I've Learned as a Mother

2013-05-12T14:54:00.001-04:00

This is my 23rd Mother's Day. I'm not one of those girls who always wanted to be a mother. Most of my childhood was spent helping to raise my younger siblings. I had things I wanted to do, places I wanted to see, things I expected to accomplish before I eventually became a mother. In my young mind, being a mother would always be secondary to whatever else I was doing.

Ahhh. What a silly girl I was! Why? Because here is the overriding truth of my life.

Are you ready for it? I LOVE BEING A MOM. Yes, I'm a blog author. I have a Bachelor's degree in communication. I have been a paralegal and exported and imported millions of dollars of goods around the world. I've been a disk jokey and a news reporter and I've designed and sold advertising. I've done lots of things in my life, but at the very core of my being, I am a Mom.

Most importantly, I love being a mom to MY kids. I have been so blessed to have them in my life. Every day, no matter how hard life has gotten, they have brought me such joy. For me, being a Mom is truly the greatest blessing of my life. Since I've been around the block a time or two in the old Motherhood, allow me to share with you some things I've learned as a Mom.

1. Enjoy the Tedium.

When you are deep in the trenches of diapers and bottles and nap times and temper tantrums and all the other "joys" of childhood, there are certain things that you do that just become tedious. They seem unimportant and can wear you out. For me, it was the bed time routine.

Retelling the story of Beauty and the Beast, complete with different voices and interspersed with as many songs as you can remember because your child fell in love with the movie but Disney has not yet released the songs or movie can get really old when done every single night for three months straight.

So can singing one hugely annoying, repetitive song that takes 5+ minutes to get through and kills multiple brain cells with each repetitious verse. Imagine singing it in the dark while you are on your hands and knees, crawling backwards out the door while singing softer and softer praying all the time that she won't wake back up the second you close the door behind you. Let me assure you that six months of that gets very tedious.

When you have to read a story, wiggled noses, turned on the John Denver tape, paper clippped your kid in his blankets (lift their arms up above their head, pull the blankets up their arm pits and then putting their arms back down) for the kid in the lower bunk

and then stood on the edge of the lower bunk while you tried to sausage roll your kid into bed (tuck the blankets around him on both side) and then got all the Lovies (bear army) in place and made sure the DeeDee (favorite blanket) was draped lightly over their face all without falling off the bed and then, and only then, can you leave the room, well, that also get tedious and difficult to enjoy.

It can seem really difficult to enjoy those moments day in and day out. But, here is the truth. Those moments? They really are just moments. I used to get mad when older moms would tell me to enjoy them while they were young because they grow up so fast. I was constantly exhausted and sleep tortured and battling depression through most of my children's early years. Sometimes, it felt like I'd be doing crazy bedtime routines and wading through toys and wiping sticky fingers forEVER. There was no light at the end of that tunnel or so it seemed and also no joy in those moments.

It really does go fast, though, and you don't get those sweet, precious moments back. I wish I would have tried harder to enjoy it more then. You blink and he is no longer a sweet little boy who just wants to cling on to his mom. Before you know it, he is a giant teenager, towering over you and fully capable of spending large amounts of time out of your sight. Thankfully, mine is still sweet enough to try and let me recreate a photo for this blog.

ps. He had to scrunch way down to get his chin in the right spot. He's nearly a full foot taller than me these days. Also, he was very happy to do this with me, he was just trying to get the same expression on his face as in the first picture.

I love it when my adult children still want to spend time with me and talk to me. I love being a part of their lives. Now that this tall guy is out of the house, I can't tell you how much I wish that I had listened more attentively as he was recounting the intricate details of a great book he'd just read, or spent an hour or two longer with him playing Super Mario World, or just played another round of H-O-R-S-E in the backyard with him.

Even when you are tired and worn out, try to find the joy in those moments. Those little people are worth your joy and your effort and you will be able to look back and feel good about your time in the trenches.

2. "Motivation" Is A Skill Worth Learning.

By "motivation," what I really mean is bribes. I tripped over this technique one day in late Spring when it was just me and the kids at home with a bag of leftover Easter jelly beans and a house that needed to be quickly cleaned before some friends came over.

What was born in that moment was a game. "Hey, Nate. How would you like to earn THREE green jelly beans? All you have to do is pick up all the trucks and get them back to your room." Suddenly, picking up toys was never so much fun. To be properly used, this parenting technique comes with a bit of caution: Be VERY judicious about how you use this.

Kids are savvy negotiators that could break the mind of the hardest of criminal in their negotiating tactics. You MUST be careful. It didn't take long for my kids to try to get more jelly beans or request their favorite color. I quickly learned to make the easiest jobs a one bean/You-Get-What-You-Get-And-You-Don't-Have-A-Fit job while the least pleasant jobs went for more beans and in their favorite colors. Those jobs that were not done fast enough earned a black jelly bean penalty (no one likes them in my family).

I stumbled back upon this technique during the Girl Child's teenage years. Her insatiable love of shoes "motivated" her into painting bathroom cabinets and doing other home improvement projects that had to be done before we could sell our house. It also may, or may not have helped her finish out her last few high school classes in order to graduate. My "motivation techniques" bought me an equal share in that particular diploma.

It's a skill worth learning, but, again - don't uses this technique for the minor stuff or it will lose its effectiveness. But, when used sparingly, it is a valuable parenting tool to have in your arsenal.

3. Time Matters

When I was starting out on this road of motherhood, the big buzz phrase making it's way around was this: "Quality time spent with children is more important than quantity time." This was a way of easing the hearts and minds of all the working mothers who were not able to be with their kids every minute of every day.

It was a load of crap. Well, let me clarify. I don't believe that if you have to work to help provide for your family and you miss your child's first steps that you have missed out on something precious. When you see your child's first steps it's one of life's great moments. Regardless of whether those steps are the actual very first steps that child ever takes or are just the first steps you are seeing, it's a special moment. Do NOT beat yourself up over those things.

Quality time does matter. Taking the time to do things together as a family is hugely valuable. Children need to feel connected to their families and shared memories are a great way to do that.

Epic trips to New York City,

Washington, DC,

and Nauvoo, Illinois

will always rank up there as some of our great family adventures, just to name a few. Less epic, but equal in building quality times are other family activities. Like fishing trips,

the annual trip to King's Island,

hiking and camping trips,

holidays and birthdays and the like are things that create unity within a family. Those shared memories are vital to the health and strength of the family unit.

But equally important and less heralded are all the lesser moments. The quantity time. Those can not be ignored or disregarded as less important toward building a strong family and happy, well-adjusted kids.

Times when you are just spending time together for no real reason or when you are working together to accomplish a goal, or eating dinner together or hanging out watching a favorite TV show as a family are also so meaningful and important. Quantity time is just as important to your children as the quality time is. It is a rare child who is going to wish their parents spent less time with them.

Being a mother is hard. It's not for wussies. It takes strength and courage and dedication and time. It means putting your needs last nearly all of the time. It means getting puked on and pooped on and squished in a bed not designed for so many people. It means sacrifice and patience and creativity and love and so many more things.

It means taking a stand and sticking to your guns and not backing down on the important things, because they are important. This is my Don't Mess with Mom pose and all three of these boys know it well.

You have to be tough enough to handle the hard stuff that comes. Because it comes.

But the joy comes, too. One day, they write to you and tell you that they recognize how bratty they were to you and how much they respect and love you. It's true. It happened to me just last week!

Those moments are sweet and wonderful and make this whole Mom thing so worthwhile.

At any rate, those are my pearls of wisdom. Try to enjoy the hard parts, be willing to bribe them when necessary and put in your time. Happy Mother's Day and, if your mom is still around, tell her you love her and that you are sorry you were a bratty kid. Chances are she's been waiting a while to hear that.

ps. Dear Mommy: I love you! Thank you for being such a wonderful mom to me. I know I was a brat but you loved me anyways. You are everything I hope to be and so much more. Happy Mother's Day!

Hometalk & Lucketts = Awesome

2013-05-11T13:41:00.001-04:00

Are you on Hometalk yet? Awhile back I got invited to join by the fabulous Miriam at Hometalk who saw my Chair Bench and thought the Hometalk community would enjoy it.

I quickly checked out the site and loved it and linked up my Chair Bench photos.

I added a few more projects but life really got in my way and I got a bit sidelined from nearly all my blogging/online activities. Life is settling down again and lately I've been hanging out at Hometalk to find answers to some of my gardening questions as well as get inspiration for some home projects I have in the hopper.

Hometalk is similar to Pinterest in that you have images you can clip or save onto project boards. However, Hometalk is focused primarily on home and garden. You don't have a ton of food photo to drool over or hairstyle pictures to make you wish you, too, could have long, lush hair. Not that I ever do that.

Hometalk is the largest online home & garden knowledge hub. It’s fueled by the firsthand experience & advice of hundreds of thousands of home enthusiasts and professionals.There is a community of professionals on Hometalk and if you have a question about a project you are working on, someone there probably has an answer for you.

A lot of your favorite bloggers are on Hometalk. Like Donna, Miss Funky Junk, herself. Donna was one of the first big bloggers to give me a shout out. Donna featured my Brace and Bit Coat Rack on one of her parties.

(Warning: If you go check out the link on this post, I apologize for the REALLY bad photos on it. I was new to blogging and my little cell phone camera was not conducive to good photos. I reshot the photo of the rack in my new house with my new camera below so as to not scare people away).

Also hanging out on Hometalk is Marian, aka Miss Mustard Seed. That woman never ceases to amaze me with her beautiful designs and ideas. Marian was sweet and allowed me to do a guest post on her blog on How To Replace Cane on a chair.

Another blogger on Hometalk is Karen, The Graphics Fairy. I used a tricycle image from her site for the chair I did during my bedroom makeover. She has so many great images. Every time I'm on her site I get so many ideas for projects I want to do.

Wouldn't it be great to meet these ladies and visit with them? Guess what? Hometalk is giving someone a free trip to meet these three fabulous women at The Lucketts Market. AWE-some!!!

If you haven't heard of Lucketts Market, it is considered the best antique market in the country. How cool is that? Not only would you get to meet three amazing women, but you'd get to do it at Lucketts! The winner will receive transportation to Lucketts from anywhere in the country, and a two night stay at the gorgeous Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, VA.Woot-to-the-Woo!

I bet you are wondering how you can help me win this contest, right? Simply follow me on Hometalk by clicking below. I need 10 new followers to qualify. If you are already on Hometalk but don't follow me yet, please consider following me on Hometalk.

If you haven't checked out Hometalk, go take a look. It's easy to sign up for an account. And, if you want to enter the giveaway for yourself, you can find out how to do that here. Be sure to let me know if you are trying to win the contest yourself. I will happily be one of your 10 followers, if I'm not already one.

Thanks for helping me and check out Hometalk. You will be glad you did.

Kitchen Renovation - Progress - Sink Wall

2013-05-07T17:36:00.001-04:00

I have slowly been showing you the progress we are making in the kitchen. If you missed it, you can see the progress we've made to the Window Wall and to the Fridge Wall. Probably the biggest change in the kitchen, though, is the sink wall. If you follow me on Facebook, you have seen some of the updates. Here is where we started.

When then progressed to this point and stayed here for several months. If you missed it, I had already shown you that I moved the pantry cupboard to the other side of the kitchen. My plan for this wall is to expose the brick behind the destroyed plaster, install open shelves and a farm sink.

I started my demo over in the corner above the dishwasher to make sure the brick was worth exposing. I was happy with it, so when the project Gods smiled upon me, I started my demo with the section to the left of the door.

Using a chisel and hammer and an oscillating tool, I started chipping away. It didn't take me long to realize this wasn't the best way to do this task.

I started this on a Friday morning about 10. By late afternoon, I had gotten this section done and the part above the door. I knew Hubs was going to be able to help me on Saturday. We wanted to get as much done over the weekend as possible so we went ahead and rented a demolition hammer from Home Depot. It was $38 for 4 hours. Best money I've ever spent.

We knew this was going to be a super messy job, and we were able to keep it fairly contained by setting up a bubble around the work area.

Also, safety first people! Surprisingly, there was not a lot of paint on the walls so I wasn't worried about lead paint, but I also did not want to be inhaling any along with all the dust and mess. Aren't I "totes adorb," as the Daja would say, in my safety gear?

The section to the left of the door and above the doorway took me 8 hours to chisel off and clean up. I like how there are sections in my wall that are wood. It's strange, but I like it.

Once we rented the demolition hammer, pulled all the cabinets and sink out, and went to town, it took us 30 minutes to remove the plaster and another two hours to clean up each individual brick with a wire brush bit on the end of the drill.

The next few pictures were taken with my iPhone. I did not want to break out my nice camera in all this mess. It's funny because you can see Hubs as he started chiseling away. Five minutes into the process there was so much dust in there, you could no longer see him or the ladder.

I did all the clean up work on the brick while Hub returned the hammer. It was hard and messy and just a gross job, but so worth it. If you look on the right side of the brick wall, you can kind of see where some bricks were chiseled out to make room for the outlet that used to be there. We will need to replace those bricks. I am not going to put in an outlet on the right side of the sink since that is mainly for my dish rack.

Also, since the cabinets are about two bricks below that empty space, I didn't do much to really clean off those bricks. I can tell the difference but you might not be able to see that in this picture. Before we put the cabinets back in, I sealed the brick wall with Thompsons Water Seal.

The unsealed brick read of more an orangey color, while the sealed brick looks a little more pinky to me. Hubs doesn't notice the difference at all, but you can see the sealed and unsealed brick here.

The section above the door and to the left of it are still unsealed. Try and ignore the dirty laundry in the other room if you can. I know I do! Obviously, I would rather do home remodeling than laundry. Priorities, People. It's all about priorities around here.

Once we had the bricks all cleaned and ready to go, it was time to put the cabinets, sink and dishwasher back in place. Before we did that, we installed the plywood for our board and batten finish. You can see it on the right in the picture below.

Since we moved the dishwasher from the left side of the sink to the right side, we needed to build a support for the countertop. This was pretty tricky because in a 163-year-old house, NOTHING is level. We had to put the sink base in place where we wanted it, level it, figure out the level marks for the counter support. Hubs is awesome at stuff like this I was all for him completing this part of the program.

I really wanted a farm sink for this kitchen. After much searching, I discovered that Ikea's Domsjo sink is the least expensive farm sink on the market that would fit in our cabinet. It sells for about $300. However, our closest Ikea is in Cincinatti, a 2.5 hour drive from our house. We took the boys and made a day of it, going to the Newport Aquarium

and having dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. It is not easy to take a selfie when you are 8"-10" shorter than your sons! My arms were barely long enough and even then I was standing on tiptoes. It was a great day. It was a rare sunny day in February and was just a super fun time with my boys.

I promise to give you all the details about how to modify a sink base cabinet to fit the Ikea sink, but for now I am just focusing on the progress. When we dry fit the sink in place, we realized we hadn't trimmed enough off the cabinet. You can see the wonky cupboard on the right because the sink was pushing out that side of the cabinet.

We fixed that and installed the faucet and plumbing for under the sink. Of course, we had a hitch in our Getalong once we hit the plumbing. I won't bore you with all the challenges. If you are modifying an old house, mentally prepare yourself for a hitch or two along the way. They will always come along.

I simply did not expect my plumbing to be the hitch. By moving the dishwasher to the other side of the sink, it required us to move the sink base further down. You can see how much we moved it by looking at the hole in the back of the cabinet where the pipe comes through the wall.

Our final solution wasn't that difficult, but it wasn't an out-of-the-box solution, which I am coming to discover is something of a specialty of mine. I have also discovered that very few people who work in home improvement stores share this trait. I am pretty proud of the fact that I was the one that came up with the solution instead of the three experienced plumbing hardware guys that were trying to help me.

I bought the AquaSource Oil-Rubbed Bronze, 1-Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet. I didn't have to use the plate at the bottom since the Ikea sink is a one-hole sink. It cost $168 at Lowe's.

Since I only have one-hole in the sink, I had to get creative with the soap pump. I whipped up my Mason Jar Soap Dispenser below. I love it and it was a 10 minute project. My favorite. As a reminder, my Mason Jar Light that I made will go above the sink area.

Another thing I needed to do on this wall was to add a filler piece to the right of the dishwasher.

We needed the dishwasher a little ways from the wall to give the door room to clear the beefed up casing we'd put around the windows.

I figured out a flush line with the cabinet edge on the opposite side of the opening. I then cut a 1"x2" board to fit the space and nailed it in place.

I notched out the front board to go around the baseboard. This is just a 3" wide piece of MDF that I will also use for the trim under the cabinets.

Here it is with the dishwasher back in place. This fill piece will end up being the color of the cabinets, of course, I must first decide what color that will be.

I love that both of my fur children decided to photo bomb my attempts to show this area off. Brutus is looking at me like, "What? You want me to move so you can take a picture?" And Adam Levine, the cat, is trying to be all casual about his photo bomb. Perhaps he will distract you from the dirty dishes I was too lazy to move before snapping the picture.

Our countertop tile finally arrived and we spent last weekend cutting the plywood and Hardiboard base for the tile. Our hitch with this project is with cutting the tiles along the 24" length of the tile. Our tiles are 12"x24" porcelain tiles. Lowes cut most of them for free, but their saw is not long enough for the 24" length. We do not have any local businesses that will cut these for me either. We are trying to find a solution, but here's what the tile looks like.

I love how the tile is the same color as the darker bricks in the wall. It's darker than Hubs was expecting, but I like that it has the look of soapstone without the cost, weight or maintenance of real soapstone.

That's where we are today. I still need to put in the open shelves above the counters, which I am waiting to do until I plank the ceiling which I can't do until I redo the lighting in the kitchen. I need to install my light above the sink and finish tiling the counter and trimming it out and then painting the cabinets. I also need to replace those sections of brick and reseal the new ones. Oh, and I still have to seal the rest of the brick wall and replace the trim around the door, which was cut to accommodate the old cupboards.

Here is some before and the now shots.

Before:

Progress:

How do you like me now? I love it and I love seeing my ideas become a reality. My next progress will show you the stove area. You can see a sneak peek of the butcher block counter above.

Does anyone have any good color ideas? I'm toying with the idea of an aqua for above the board and batten and a soft grey for the cabinets. If I decide to be really bold, though, I will paint the cupboards the aqua and the walls grey. I was also thinking of yellow or cobalt blue somehow. That will be the hardest part for me. Picking the colors.

What would you do?

Kitchen Renovation - Fridge Wall Progress

2013-04-29T16:38:00.001-04:00

In my last progress update, I showed you the window wall progress. Turning around and facing the opposite wall, let's take a look at the fridge wall. Here was our starting point. That is a chimney stack that is between the upper cabinets. The fridge sits to the right of it.

Here is a view from the sink wall.

When we pulled out the kitchen carpet, we had to remove the countertops and the base cabinets because the carpet was installed before the cabinets were put in. Once all the cabinets were removed, I decided to rearrange them a bit. I didn't like how all the end cabinets overlapped the arched doorway in front of the stairs, or the casing on the door leading into the family room on the sink wall.

After we removed all the wallpaper, rearranged some of the base cabinets and I turned my fridge into a chalkboard, we got to this point.

Since I am only 5'5" tall, there was no way I could reach that cupboard above the fridge. With a limited number of cabinets in this kitchen, it was annoying to have one just for looks. I told my plan to Hubs and he was having a hard time seeing my vision. I kept saying, "Just trust me." I'm glad he did.

We built a surround for the fridge and pulled that little cabinet above it forward so I can reach it. We also moved that little cabinet on the left (third cupboard door on the left) behind the cupboard on the far right. Confusing? Take a look.

I will put my microwave on a table under this section of cupboards. Here is something we have had to deal with in this house. The walls are not level. So much so that when we attached the upper cupboards to the wall, I ended up having to cut a filler piece to close the gap.

Once I put up a piece of quarter round and fill and sand and paint, it won't be so obvious.

To the left of the fridge, I built a little cupboard to fit in front of the chimney stack. It is set back the same depth as this cupboard to the right of the fridge is in the above picture. Basically, the fridge is 8" further out than the cupboards on either side of it.

This cabinet is shallower than a standard cabinet because of the chimney run behind it, but once we put a piece of plywood on the left side that will cover the side of the cabinet and the chimney stack behind it, the cupboard will look like it is normal size. Once we have all the crown molding up and everything painted, it will look like it was meant to be that way all along.

I cannibalized the old cupboard above the stove to make the new one.

I even used the glass doors. We also started putting on the crown molding. Here's where we are today.

Naturally, I will need to make the inside of those glass cupboards a little prettier, but for now I just love how it is coming together.

Another project I knocked out this last week was to build a little shelf on that bottom space to the left of the fridge.

Once we built the fridge surround the water cooler no longer fit in this space, so I decided to make a little shelf. I'm not going to lie. This shelf is pretty craptastic. It is not my finest work. I'm fairly dependent on my pneumatic tools and this space was almost too narrow to use them. It was too narrow for me to get my drill in there.

This is how I discovered the limitations of my tools. Hubs reassures me that I am not Amish and therefore do not need to be held to their standards. I needed these pieces in place to have something to nail the baseboard that will go along the bottom of the cabinets. I also needed a brace for the shelf that will go on top. Therefore, I'm not too terribly worried about how unprofessional this part is. It's solid and that's good enough for me.

I did cut a piece of plywood for the back of the shelf. The surround on the chimney is particle board and I wanted to cover that up. Next I cut a shelf out of some MDF board.

For the next two shelves, I attached the 1x2 to the bottom of the shelf with some brads.

Then I cut a piece of wood as a spacer to give me an even distance between the shelves.

With the shelves in place, I ripped a piece of MDF to frame out the shelf.

Once I fill the nail holes and everything is painted, and the new counter is in place it will look like it was meant to be there all along. It's the perfect size for my ice cream dishes, which are now conveniently located right next to the freezer.

I plan to skim coat over the particle board and I think I will continue the board and batten around the room, so there may be a batten section above this cupboard. I want to put one on the corner so it will hide the seam there, but I will have to see how they space out along this wall.

You can see how much it opened up the archway by taking out that one cupboard. I am thinking of building a little shelf on the end of the upper cabinets to match the shelf I will build on the end of the pantry (you can see the sliver of it to the left of the archway). I don't really mind the upper cupboards not extending as far as the base one, but I would like the storage/decorative space a shelf would give me and I think it will balance things out a bit.

I'm thinking of something along these lines.

However, my shelves won't be deep enough for recipe books. I only have about a dozen recipe books any ways and I think I'm going to toss most of them as I can't remember the last time I used one of them.

That's where I am on this wall.

I still need to make a cart for the microwave for the right side of the fridge. I need to finish the crown molding and skim coat the chimney area. Then I need to redo the counter top and paint the cupboards and walls, trim out the base cabinets and move the outlet for the microwave. Nothing major. Ha!

The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow and I'm hoping I can break out my saw and get back to work. I will show you the sink wall next. It's the biggest change so far!