Time for more pictures! The kitchen is pretty much done; there are just a few small things to do to wrap it up.

This is the view from the cellar stairs.


This is the view from the window in the opposite corner:

My new washer and dryer. Yay! :D

The vanity in the downstairs bathroom.

This is the cabinet across from the washer & dryer:
This is the view from the dining room into the kitchen:
This is the view of the whole kitchen from the living room door:
These are the knobs I'm making for the kitchen:
The knobs are based on these pendant lights:

In a few days I'll take and put up pictures of the bathroom upstairs. It's spectacular.

The people who did the work ( Phillips-Martin Group ) were awesome. I have only good things to say about them and their work. And the subs they used were terrific, too. They did the work for the project in this article. Not really to my tastes, but fabulous work.

They are chopping down all my trees today and I'm so sad.

Yesterday was the 17th, or the 7-month anniversary of my Father's death. On every other 17th since February, I was well aware of the date and its significance. Yesterday was the first 17th that I didn't think of the fact that it was an anniversary, until my mother brought it up after dinner. It's not that I didn't think of my father, because I do every day. I just hadn't thought of the anniversary. Which I think is a good thing. Maybe next month I'll go through the whole day without thinking about it.

Day 63 and counting. The hardwood floor in the kitchen is being installed today, and the painters are painting the dining room. We fixed our first breakfast in the kitchen today - bagels and cream cheese and coffee. It was nice not to have to go out. Having water in the kitchen is also a big plus. I've started to put a few things away, and it's challenging to put it away in a semi-organized way. I have to think about it. Hopefully I've put things where they would logically go but if not, I can always re-arrange. My appliances are being delivered on Friday, and as luck would have it I'm going away for the weekend. I so want to be here instead.

No pictures today, but there have been some improvements to blog about - we have water in the kitchen and in the upstairs bathtub. Now, it's not hot yet, but at least it's wet! The tile is in the upstairs bathroom and the entryway. It looks very pretty.

But there are some concerns as well. When the contractors were replacing the windows, they noticed that the house was not wrapped. The clapboards are up against the plywood, with no moisture barrier inbetween. That, combined with the gazillion trees we have, has led to the house being extremely moist and even rotting in some places. So now we're having the house wrapped ($$$) and resided ($$$). Oh and today they found termites! Ah, the joy of home-ownership. Luckily it seems to be confined to one area and it was cleaned up nicely. The exterminator is coming on Friday.

We got our granite on Friday. It's gorgeous. Here's the island with the sink:

This is the stove area:

Another island/sink view:

And the fireplace. We chose a darker granite, because I thought using the light here would be too much.

The kitchen is still in sort of the same state; but more cabinets are up, along with the crown molding. The bathroom upstairs now has a bathtub and soon will have the tile. We had to go pick out more tile for the entryway as the original that we had chosen was discontinued. Unfortunately, I brought the wrong camera upstairs so the photos of the kitchen and bath will have to wait. The camera I brought is the one I use for closeups of my beads, so instead of showing you the kitchen, I'm going to show you my knobs.

Since the stuff got moved out of the garage on Monday, I've been able to do a little work and start on my knob project. I'm making the knobs for this renovation. I picked out funky light fixtures and I'm making knobs to "go with" them. I'm not "matching" them, rather "going with" them.

Here are the knobs in the downstairs powder room. The lighting glass is a fritted light with topaz and black. I needed only 5 knobs for this room so I started here.


And a close up:


And here's the style I'm making for the laundry room. No cool lighting fixtures in there, so I could make what I wanted. I need 12 for this room.

Time for more kitchen pictures, to show the progress so far. We have cabinets! They are beautiful.

This first picture corresponds to the first picture I posted on the July 13th entry. We are looking at the brick wall (now covered up) and the sliding glass door (replaced).

This next picture corresponds to the second picture I posted on July 13. We are looking at the newly expanded dining room entryway on the left, and the doorway to the side door and garage door and the laundry room. You can see the new island where the sink and the dishwasher will be and straight ahead along the wall will be the new fridge and new oven and microwave.

This next picture is the same area as the 3rd picture on July 13, but it shows a different angle. On the left where there was bare wall is now a coat closet and folding area for laundry and across from that are my washer & dryer with actual cabinets above them! I had that stupid shelf system from the previous owner of the house there before. Yay, cabinets!


This next one shows the bathroom upstairs. We have walls!


And here's the shower:


And the vanity:


We are also taking the opportunity to change some of the windows, to let in more light. This house can be so dark, especially on a rainy day. Here's the new dining room window from the inside:


And from the outside:


And here is a picture of the old living room windows. This is a picture of the opposite side of the room, but the window placement was the same. Small windows before:


Big window after!:


And here's why I haven't been making beads. Last week it was the cabinets; this week it's the bathtub:

Obviously, things aren't finished, but they are coming along nicely. We're pretty pleased with the progress so far.

Well, I'm back at home and things are progressing nicely. Today there were a ton of people here, painters, contractors, installers. All over the place. I'm relegated to the basement with the dogs, where it's cool, so that's OK. The new window in the living room is incredible. I should take some pictures. Maybe later when they're gone.

Oh, it's been a while since I posted anything but I've been having much fun. At least since I left the mess back home. On Wednesday I flew to Minneapolis to go to the ISGB Gathering, the annual convention of beadmakers. It was a ton of fun. I did a whole bunch of glass and tool shopping as well as bead shopping at the Bead Bazaar. It was a perfect weekend, except we didn't get enough sleep.

On Monday, Robert and I both flew to Chicago and spent 2 nights there. We went to the Field Museum of Natural History, the Chicago Art Institute and Second City Comedy Show. We stayed at the Westin on Michigan Ave. It was very nice.

Right now we're in Naperville. My class starts tomorrow. Robert is going to go to the Museum of Science and Industry while I'm in class. Then tomorrow night, we're getting together with our Boston Terrier Friends. I got to meet them in person last year; Robert will be meeting them for the first time. We've been friends for over 7 years on-line. I started visiting the AOL BT Board just after we got Java and that's how we met.

So that's the update. Apparently at home, all the plastering and drywalling is done. The new window in the living room went in today and the new sliding glass door went in yesterday. I can't wait to get home and see it.

OK, I took some pictures. This is the kitchen, looking towards the living room. On the right is the door to the cellar, ahead is the door to the living room and to the left is the door to the porch. We are covering up the brick with wallboard and the fireplace will have a granite surround and a gas insert inside.



This is the kitchen looking the other way. On the left is the door to the dining room. That has been expanded since I took the picture, so it's about twice the width that the picture shows. Ahead is the doorway to the back door and the garage. The wall straight ahead is where my refrigerator and range were.



This is my laundry room and 1/2 bathroom. On the right out of the picture is where the washer and dryer are. The coat closet that we so cleverly turned into a pantry used to be here on the left. Now it's just bare walls.

This is the new master bath we're building. You can see the size of the old bathroom comparatively - it's that square of linoleum on the farthest left side of the floor. Or better yet, look at the window and the surround drywall on the left. That shows the size. Add one of those little single shower stalls and that's the old one. We'll still have a nice-sized bedroom when we're done.

OK, it's day 3 of the renovations. I thought it would be done by now, or at least half-way done. Where is Ty Pennington and the Design Team? I thought I was supposed to get a trip to Disney World. Move that bus! Seriously, though, it is getting old and it's only day 3. Day 3! The floor in the kitchen is gone and we're walking on 1/2 thick plywood. It's kind of squishy if you step when there is no joist. Eek! I guess the work is coming along. I just wish it were done.

My kitchen is gone. The cabinets are gone. The ceiling is gone. The sink is gone. The refrigerator is gone. The closet in the entryway is gone. Gone, gone, gone.

Happy 4th of July! I know I'm a little late, but better late than never. We had a nice little holiday. We dropped the dogs off at the kennel and went to my mom's house on Northwood lake. We stayed Tuesday and Wednesday nights. This was the first time we slept over, as usually there isn't enough room - there are only 2 guest bedrooms - but this time I slept with my mom and Robert slept on a blow-up mattress in the living room. So we had a fun time swimming on Wednesday morning, and both nights we watched other peoples' fireworks. I think the neighbors must have spent in the thousands for their show last night. It's amazing the fireworks you can buy at the store these days. I can't believe it's not illegal.

This morning we woke at the crack of dawn and drove home for my dentist appointment. No cavities! Then I picked up the dogs - who were incredibly happy to see me. Then lunch with my friend Amy at Olive Garden. Yum!

Barney's eye is feeling much better. You could tell last week that he was in a great deal of pain because of his eye. He was lethargic and not playful at all. He barely even barked for his meal. Now he's a different dog. He's playing with Java and very interested in chasing squirrels again. Hopefully his pressure will be OK when we have him checked on Saturday.

Today was one of those glorious summer days that you wish every other summer day could be like. The air was fresh and not too hot. Just wonderful. It made me glad to be alive.

And I have to tell you about the coolest thing ever. I bought a new hose and hose reel so I would be able to water the mountain laurel without getting dirty. My old hose was covered in pine pitch or something, but it left me water-logged and filthy by the time I was done. The thing that is so great is the hose reel. It winds itself up using water power. You just flip the switch and the hose winds away. It also washes the hose as it's wound up. I am in hose heaven about this gadget. Come over and I'll give you a demo. Seriously.

Barney has glaucoma. The poor thing was fine one minute (Sunday night) and the next (Monday morning) his right eye was swollen, milky and very painful. The vet said that we caught it early and that it is only in one eye at the moment. I do remember it being a little red last week, but it didn't seem to be a major thing. He still has vision in that eye and we're hoping to keep it that way. We've put him on steroids to reduce the swelling and we've put his left eye on prophylactic glaucoma medicine to try to stave off problems. He went to the opthalmologist today and she couldn't find a cause of the swelling, so it's a treatment of the symptoms kind of thing right now. I'm afraid of him losing his sight. Bostons have such bulbous eyes anyway so they can be prone to eye problems. My poor little man.

Martha told me that I don't blog anymore. I just haven't had anything to say. We had a really nice time this weekend with my mother. We were able to make her birthday very special and she was able to talk about my father in a happy way, which was really nice to see. Father's day for me was horrible. I couldn't stop crying all day. Robert didn't know what to do with me. I'm not the kind of person who enjoys being comforted while I'm crying. In fact, I hate it. I don't know why. If I had my way, I would never cry in front of anyone ever. Maybe it's a weakness thing. So I'm bawling and he can't come over and soothe me because he'll get yelled at. LOL.

Soon I'm going to have to empty out my kitchen and bedroom so that the remodeling can begin. It hasn't even started yet and already I'm itching for it to be over. I'm not looking forward to the disruption at all. So the beadmaking is going to be sporadic at best this summer, because of the remodeling. I can't imagine trying to control my dogs around the workmen, etc. They'd be trying to kiss the men and jumping all over them. Plus, once I get back to beadmaking after the remodel, I'll be making all my drawer pulls and cabinet knobs. I'm very excited for that. Most of the kitchen is neutral, except for the pendant lights and the knobs. It's going to look awesome.

Father's day will mark the 4-month anniversary of my Dad's death. Now the ads for Father's day sales, gifts, restaurants, etc. are all over the place and just serve to remind me that this is the first Father's day when I don't have my father with me. Not that we made a huge deal out of this hallmark holiday or anything. I would make a point of seeing him and bring a card, sometimes a gift. Usually we'd gather at my parents' house and it would just be a nice day of being together. My mom's birthday is in the middle of June, so the two days frequently were close. My father would say "where's my gift?" as if he were really expecting us to get him something. He was a hard person to buy things for. If there were something he wanted for himself, he would buy it. Chances are we couldn't have afforded it anyway. I can remember a couple of Father's day presents I gave him in the last few years. One was a key chain with a bead on it that was supposed to look like a golf ball. He said he liked it. The other was a wine bottle stopper with a glass top that I made. He liked that one.

On a happier note, my mom's 70th birthday is this weekend, so we are taking her out to dinner to a favorite restaurant. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, and Amy tagged me, so I will have to figure out who to tag next and what to write. Soon. Soon.

This morning I dreamt about my father. In my dream I knew he was dead, so when I saw him, I ran over to him and gave him a great big hug. He was wearing a peach-colored golf shirt. I hugged him and told him how happy I was to see him. But he didn't really respond to me, except to say that the coffee smelled good. All my family was there and they could see him, too, but he didn't see us. I think this is only the first or maybe second time I've dreamt about him since he died. So immediately on waking, I burst into tears. I still cry when I think about it. And I had been doing so well recently. It's like all the pain has come back. Usually those kinds of dreams for me are comforting -- almost like you've had a visit with your loved one -- but I think in this case the emotions are too new and raw so it was upsetting rather than comforting.

I don't know what happened to summer, because we're back to the Fall weather that makes me long for warmer climes. It's pouring down rain and is only 55 degrees. I had an OK weekend. We stopped by my mother-in-law's house on Saturday and she showed me some of the flowering trees she has that do well in shade. It was nice. She also showed me the cluster of lady slippers that she has in the woods. I've never seen anything like it. Wow.

Anyway, we decided on a Mountain Laurel. They are beautiful and grow nicely in shade. We had a ton of them outside the kitchen window at 226 where I grew up. So it's a good tree for a memorial to my father, I think. Yesterday we went and bought one and hopefully someone is going to come plant it for us. I would do it myself as it's not that big, but the place where I want it to go has a juniper bush that needs to be removed. I don't think I'm up to doing that. Messy. Ick. Here's a picture of what they look like: