Messes

If you dropped by unexpected for coffee (no one ever does), this is what you would find: minions, hot wheels, discarded socks, books, ABCs, blue couch. Plus a mountain of clean tupperware that refuses to dry itself.

Cleaning up

Here are the contents of my cooking/baking cupboards: before, during and after a deep clean.

Chinese New Year is around the corner - and cleaning up is the thing to do! I started today! I have big plans to wipe down the insides of every cupboard and drawer in the entire house. Big plans! So big that I need to blog about them, to make sure everyone knows how amazing I am. (Kidding*, to procrastinate, I could have finished already if I had stuck with it!)

Anyways, I love snooping inside other people's cupboards...it's fun! Fun because I am crazy judgy. I can't believe the stuff you guys have lurking in there! (Kidding*)

ps. Can I say that I love that my sister-in-law knows where things are when she comes over? It's amazing because: a) this means she cooks here sometimes; b) it makes me feel organized!


*Not kidding

UPDATE: Finished the kitchen...now I just need to unload and wipe down the sideboard (horror), the foyer console (shudder), the hall closet (yikes!) and the bookshelves, to be thorough! (Then on to the bedrooms...)

 

 

Four chairs

We now have four! A set of four vintage chairs! The last one came all the way from Cambridge, Ontario.

The plan was to paint them white. Now I'm not so sure! You should see the gunk I wash off of these bad boys! Perhaps glossy black is better? Even though the moooi is white? The counters are dark.

What do you think? Black or White?

ps. Thanks again Jennifer for hooking us up with a fourth chair!

Kitchen Window

I removed the sky planters from the corner of the kitchen (where I never bothered to water them...), and nailed them to the window shelf, over the kitchen sink.

Better, no?!

New chair, $15

Here's chair, at Sally Ann

Here's chair, waiting for the subway train

Here's chair, on the train

Here's chair, home at last

Searched Leslieville vintage furniture stores during this afternoon's rain storm, then dropped into the Salvation army on Parliament...that's where I found a single matching chair! It's rickety and falling apart, but all the important parts are intact (no broken spokes or anything)...I will try new screws in the legs to tighten everything up! They were asking $19.99 and I tried to get it for $10, but she would only come down to $15 (with two hotwheels cars for free)...

Next week, I will sand them, prime them, and get ready to paint!  Is there a special type of paint that should be used on furniture? A high gloss maybe? Something formulated for heavy use? Or just anything oil based? How long should they cure? In the garage at this time of year ok?  Let me know what has worked for you!

ps. we were considering buying salt chairs from DWR. They are almost affordable, at $109usd, and DWR is having a dining room sale, 15% off, in September/October. We haven't seen the salt chairs in person, and the shipping to Canada is pretty stiff, so I am happy I found a vintage chair instead. I will hold out hope of finding a fourth!   

Two of my kitchen chairs have cracked

Two of our panton-esque kitchen chairs have cracked where the seat bends into the back. I need to replace them with new chairs, but I don't want to buy these again (since they only lasted 4 years). I also don't want to go for the real pantons (should have in the first place, I suppose) because of the boys, and the cost ($300 each).

I brought up the two thrift store chairs from the basement. I will paint them white. If only I could find two more! You know I saw them at the Salvation Army on Parlaiment about a month ago, for $20 each. I didn't need them at the time and I felt pretty smug about only paying $5 for mine. What are the chances of finding them a third time?

ps. the wooden chairs are way more comfortable, and stable.  
pps. I need to nudge the table to the left a bit...
ppps. Mix n' match is cool too! Once they are white I think I can pull it off!

Coat hooks by the back door

I can't decide if this is a good idea. Will it help clean up a mess, or will it seem like a mess?

Only two holes (with anchors) in the wall...should I give it a whirl?

ps. rug from ebay

UPDATE: BETTER IDEA! In the cloak closet for the umbrellas! 

 

Skip the general contractor when installing a new kitchen

 

If you read the title and thought, "What? You can DO that?' Boy, do I have a story for you!

A little about our white shaker style kitchen:
 - it was designed by an architect
 - custom cabinets, oversized doors
 - installed in 2008
 - in sad shape today: dings and faded paint and gouges and water damage and drawers that slide out when kids run by

Over the weekend, our kitchen guy came over to listen to my complaints. He explained the situation to me. Simply put,

"You get what you pay for"

Our contractor negotiated and squeezed the kitchen installer. The contractor insisted on a kitchen for X price. So we have MDF doors (without a melamine backing) and a laquer finish. There are three problems with the quality:

1 - The edges of the mdf shaker doors are sharp, so paint doesn't really stick. Over time, the process of keeping the doors clean (dirt collects in the shaker detail at the bottom), is wearing away the finish.

2 - A laquer finish is not as strong as Polyurethane. Poly would have cost $6-7k more. The kitchen installer recommends to all his clients with children to invest in the poly finish. We didn't have children at the time...

3 - Melamine backing would have enhanced the durability. Our doors aren't warping or anything, so neglecting this detail has not hurt us... yet?

At the time, we were completely unaware of our options. The price we paid for the kitchen seemed awfully expensive to us. I am not sure what mark up padded the numbers.

If we had dealt directly with the kitchen installer, we might have understood our options, and what we were getting for what price. Plus the entire kitchen budget would have been allocated towards the quality of the cabinets.

As it stands, our kitchen could use a new coat of paint. Going poly will require new doors. Ironic, I know, but we still aren't choosing to invest that much in our kitchen. We can buy another 5 years with a few coats of laquer (and two new doors where there is water damage) for a reasonable price. The kitchen guy suggested I go back to the contractor to discuss it. I left a voice mail for the contractor.

We have two other options: Shop around for other painting quotes, or DIY.  Let me know what you think of going the DIY route? I would be doing it by myself. Do you think roller marks vs spray would lessen the percieved value of the doors?

Anyways, the moral of this very long blog post is:
- work with a kitchen installer directly, cut out the general contractor. Call me if you want a referral, I trust our guy, we were just clueless 5 years ago. Of course your contractor doesn't WANT you to do this!
- Invest in your doors!

ps. I feel like this was our dirty little secret. I don't like to complain about our home. I am still in love with it! I really want to maintain it! Maybe this is not realistic when you have kids? I never thought a custom kitchen would be in the pooper after 5 years. If we decide to do nothing, just let it erode (also an option) we will invest in new doors when these finally go. Actually, that's why DIY is appealing, it's a patch until we are ready to invest in the house again.
pps. how is your latest reno holding up? 
ppps. there is no shady blog-related you-scratch-my-back-I-will-scratch-yours conversation going on behind the scenes. I would use this cabinet maker again, if we ever renovate again. We were overwhelmed the first time around. Renovations are not for the meek! 

Primping and Preening

I have been switching things up, moving things around, freshening paint, you know, being a busy little bee. When the boys go down for bed I go into full on try-this-try-that-stand back-take-iphone-pic-switch-things-try-something-else-then-put-all-the-extra-stuff-back-away mode.

Here are a few changes:

1- Hung a second framed postcard in the bathroom - the higher one. Why didn't I do this sooner? We had the matching frame just sitting in the storage room - duh!

I also switched back to a white shower curtain and donated the busy print shower curtain to goodwill. I liked the wild yellow green and blue ikat print, but it really wasn't me...I was inspired by blogs. I say that's like it's a bad thing, but, I am happy I gave it a shot! Inevitably, I was going to switch back to something neutral.

2- Switched to the grey rug in the foyer. The cream one needs to be taken in to the dry cleaners after all the snow we had last winter. Maybe it's a little too early to speak about winter in the past tense, there is still snow on the ground, after all!

3- Shopping and putting together some bright spring outfits...(camera worthy bright spring outfits)
 
4- Herb garden on the kitchen window shelf! The herbs are from Loblaws ($2.99, or maybe $3.99, I should have paid more attention...they were $3.99 at metro, I noticed)...they are a little yellow so I better get cooking!!

5 - Ditched the tray of cooking oil, salt & pepper and other miscellaneous things that was sitting on the counter next to the stove. (For now, you can see it in the house tour) I remember when I set this up! I was so excited! It was something else that I saw on a blog. I even ordered the vintage tin tray from etsy specifically for this purpose! Except, when I took a good hard look at the kitchen the other night, I knew I had to tuck the clutter back away. I stashed everything the cupboard immediately above where the tray was. Everything is still very accessible.

I also bought some new wooden spoons. My little guy loves to play with spoons, whenever he sees me stirring something he begs at my legs to be up. He only knows a handful of words, 'HOT' is one of them!

6 - Using the covered dish from last year's Blogpodium Swag bag. The dish is from Chapter/Indigo and is a great size to secretly hold my Nespresso pods. My previous apple shaped dish was pretty cute, but didn't have a lid.

7 - Painted the stairwell in the basement as well as the desk/wall under the stairs. Fresh and white and clean! A few hours (no taping, no drop clothes) and it was done! Now I will want to repaint every time the walls get scuffed!

8 - Taped a bunch of new roads on the toy mat. At first I went all random, and then decided to try and make a pattern...I like it! It's graphic!

The IKEA slide has been downstairs since the fall, I am not sure I mentioned it? I haven't met a kid that doesn't love it! The IKEA circus tent comes out periodically, then gets folded up and put away when the boys start to ignore it.  Right now the game is to zoom hot wheels down the slide into the tent. Hours of fun! (ok, minutes of fun!)

9- Hung a small painting over the thermometer. I thought since it is almost time to turn the furnace off anyways (not really, I wish!)...ok, maybe this was only temporary but I love it!

Ask me what's up!  I'm begging to be asked!