Ever after

Ever after
Time for a look at how it all turned out. Like a child, this kitchen truly seems as if it's always been here. And I take that to mean it fits us and suits our house. Thanks for all your support during the long, long gestation period!

Office with a view

Office with a view

Iowa gothic

Iowa gothic
Spotting similar cabinets in a magazine got this whole kitchen started. Thanks for the inspiration!

Nice niche

Nice niche
So handy to have pepper, olive oil, and salt at the ready.

A clean mud room

A clean mud room
Look fast - before the kids come home and dump all their stuff on the window seat!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Floored

As I'm now in the disgruntled, over-due, ungainly and irritable stage of kitchen gestation, I've been avoiding posting recently, but thought I should give you an update.

The floor finishing/refinishing, done by professionals while we were on vacation the week of June 27, did not go well. We came home to find unlevel spots still unlevel, boards with large knotholes that weren't replaced, deep and obvious scratches that should have been sanded out or had boards replaced, and bubbles in the finish.

We were, to succumb to a bad pun, floored that anyone would think this was satisfactory work.

I'll accept full responsibility for the eight loads of post-vacation laundry that came out of the dryer smelling like polyurethane. But I'm beyond unhappy that we came home to find floors that look we did them ourselves.

Actually, that's an unfair statement, since the entryway floor Doyle single-handedly refinished at our old house turned out great.

This job, not so much.

The floor people (name available upon request) have agreed to re-do the floors. Their current plan is to remove the defective boards and replace them, re-sand the areas that need it, re-finish those areas and try to get them to match the rest of the floor, then cover everything with one more coat. We'll likely have to move out for the duration again.

Because the living room has the majority of problems and the largest area to be re-re-done, I'm considering asking them to refinish all of it rather than attempting to patch in the repair.

We meet tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Please send good flooring thoughts our way!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Just call me Mrs. Blandings

A friend said my description of "warm, goldish, buttery tan" made her think of this clip from "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"!