19. August 2015 · Comments Off on So Much to Catch Up On…Where Do I Begin? · Categories: Uncategorized

Yes, I’m pretty far behind. I think…before the DIY Kitchen Transformation posts…I left off in the middle of our trip to Utah back in March? Yikes, I’m terrible!

Well, for now, let me leave you these photos of the boys on the first day of school. Jacob is getting increasingly annoyed with my photographing him on the first day of school, to which I had to respond, “Get over it, you’re getting photographed.” More »

17. August 2015 · Comments Off on First Day of School 2015 · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

I couldn’t get my boys photographed together, I’m not sure why…but here are their pictures for posterity’s sake!

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15. August 2015 · Comments Off on Weird Al Yankovic In Concert! · Categories: Uncategorized
We don't go to concerts often, but when we can take our kids, all the better!

In front of the Paramount Theater in downtown Denver. We don’t go to concerts often, but when we can take our kids, all the better!

Last August “Weird” Al Yankovic came in concert in Denver. We got tickets for the whole family! This tour was announced in 2014 not long after Weird Al’s Mandatory Fun album was released, and our boys absolutely loved the songs and music videos. More »

22. July 2015 · Comments Off on Review: In the Unlikely Event · Categories: Uncategorized

In the Unlikely Event
In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Judy Blume digs deeps into her past, citing the horrible 1950s aviation tragedies that struck Elizabeth, NJ, one after another. Blume takes us into the hearts and minds of several residents of Elizabeth, including children who were impacted by seeing the crashes and wreckage, as well as stories of several victims themselves.

If you are familiar with her other adult novels, such as Summer Sisters and Smart Women, you will find the style familiar. As always, her ability to capture the thoughts and emotions of pre-teen and teen girls is second-to-none.

The reason I didn’t give this book five stars is that there were simply too many characters to keep track of. Like Smart Women, each chapter changes the point of view of the characters, but there were nearly 20 characters to track (some of whom perished in the aircraft crashes during the story) and I was constantly flipping back and forth to remind myself who was who, and who was related to whom?

I don’t know what I was thinking by reading the last third of this book on a flight between Denver and Baltimore, but that’s exactly what I did. Despite the numerous characters to track, the story will grip you and you won’t want to put the book down.

View all my reviews

We are done!

Today the contractor finished grouting the backsplash tile, and with the exception of some very tiny touch ups and sealing the grout, our kitchen is officially REMODELED!

Before:

This was how the kitchen looked when we were first viewing the house in May 2013.

This was how the kitchen looked when we were first viewing the house in May 2013.

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Can you see what’s changed?

Can you see what's changed?

Can you see what’s changed?

More »

Photo: KRDO

Photo: KRDO

This is a photo of some houses who had suffered some erosion damage from recent rains in Colorado Springs.

But Dave and I like the blue part of the color scheme on the right-most house. I’m putting the picture here for a Pinterest pin. That is all.

Move along, there’s nothing to see here….

07. June 2015 · Comments Off on DIY Kitchen Transformation: The New Floor Revealed · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,
Can you see the difference?

Can you see the difference? The vibrant wood grain should be the biggest difference you see, but we also nudged the color a little bit to make it more brown…less yellow/orange in color.

On Thursday and Friday, we had a contractor come in to sand and re-stain our hardwood floors. Jeff from “A Cut Above Hardwood Flooring” was recommended to us by our carpet cleaning guy.

This piece of floor is continuous from the front door to the kitchen, and to access the front door, garage, basement, and staircase, you will step on the hardwood. I’ll discuss how we dealt with that in a minute.

As mentioned before, there were some areas to the floor that had clearly suffered water damage, but had subsequently dried out. The wood was structurally sound, but the sealer and stain color were messed up. It was important to me that those areas get extra attention, and Jeff did that very well. More »

03. June 2015 · Comments Off on DIY Kitchen Transformation: Overwhelming Choices · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
IMG_1756

So here we are again — time for the next installment of where we are with the kitchen transformation.

As you can see, we have a *very* white kitchen now. I absolutely love my “new” cabinets, and am excited for the next stages of our project. Those stages aren’t DIY, though.

Next up will be the floor refinishing. I’ll make sure to post before and after pictures when that project is done this weekend. The floor is in desperate need of sanding and refinishing, so we will take advantage of that work to darken the color some. I hope it turns out as well as I’m envisioning. More »

31. May 2015 · Comments Off on DIY Kitchen Transformation: Painting the Chairs (and my 1000th post!) · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
Today Dave painted our chairs. They're lovely!

Today Dave painted our chairs. Before on the left, after on the right. I think they’re lovely!

Our renovation continues, with just some little things. Unfortunately, our hardwood floor refinish was bumped from tomorrow to the end of this week, but that’s okay. We have a flexible week and it’ll work out.

Ignore the mess, it's a big-enough task to keep that center island clean. Jacob was off to the side waiting to put some balsa glider parts on it.

Note the bar chairs at the island. We are painting them so they don’t stand out from the new brown and white colors.