I think you should know a little bit about how this kitchen is now – mainly for posterity’s sake, but also because I think you REALLY need to understand how terrible this kitchen is. I tell you, we deserve to be on one of those DIY network shows. You have no idea how bad it is.

I have probably a better leg-up on understanding how bad it is, because I am actually a professional cook. (Well, I was anyway. I don’t get paid for it anymore, so … read on, Fisherboy »

Yeah, it’s been a couple of months since I posted last. Things have been very busy around here. It’s funny, I always finish my old year quietly, and the new one always seems to start with a bang!

What I want to talk about today (and hopefully with more frequent updates in the near future) is the biggest project I think I’ve ever taken on. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do since we moved here to CT and bought this house, back in 2005.

See, we loved this … read on, Fisherboy »

So, our house is small. And kind of laid out weird. Everything is all long and narrow, and we’re always trying to find the best furniture configurations to make things nice and maximize space. The living room is the bane of my existence… we have tons of crap and not enough room for it all.

Now, for months, I’ve had a layout idea for the living room that required “going with it” in the “long and narrow” department. If it helps to understand, you can see and old, messy “before” shot … read on, Fisherboy »

Well, Irene passed over us during the weekend. We were lucky, no damage per se, save the power went out around noon on Sunday, and it’s still out now. Mike (my husband) usually leaves work between 5 and 5:30 and is home half an hour later, but today it took him almost 2 hours to get home because almost every road was closed, so everyone was taking the one road that was open.

Anyway, I was assuming the power was going to go out, so I stocked up on some projects … read on, Fisherboy »

So I scored another craigslist find. Hubs was going to build two nightstands for my daughter’s room, but he’s been building SO much stuff lately that I was trying to see if I could find something acceptable on craigslist. I’ve been watching for over a month, but nothing popped out as THE item, so it looked like I was either going to have to force the hubster’s hand, or re-learn how to use power tools.

Then I discovered these.

Now, in this photo, they looked pretty banged up, but … read on, Fisherboy »

Wow – so we’ve been busy. As you recall, I was getting ready to redo my daughter’s room (the youngest, who is 5 and thinks she’s a pretty princess, and her favorite color is rainbow unicorn pink sparkle) and the idea of fixing our linen closet kicked into gear – which set off the need to repaint our hallway. (Funny how these things cascade into each other.) I’ll give you a couple of reminders of how they used to look.

the Hallway:

The Linen Closet:

…and my daughter’s room (from before):

So, there … read on, Fisherboy »

I’ve been Googling on this for days, but results come up with nil. I mentioned it to my husband last night – I’d been stewing on this idea for about a week now – and I knew he’d think I was crazy, but I told him anyway. (And yes, he thought I was crazy.)

I’ve mentioned by kitchen before – and how terrible it is. You can slide all the base cabinets around to anywhere – they aren’t attached to the floor. (You can’t move the one with the … read on, Fisherboy »

Yesterday was Father’s Day (I’m sure you knew that…) and Mike actually spent time doing something he liked doing. His Father’s Day present was a lawn sweeper. We have a 1-acre yard, and every time he mows the lawn, we end up with these clumps of grass that dry out and turn into thatch. By mid-summer, our lawn always look dead because it’s got all these dried-up clumps of grass everywhere. We’ve tried raking it by hand, but it takes forever. So we got him … read on, Fisherboy »