Kitchen

Remember this? Yeah, it's still happening. Very slowly. It looked like this a week after it was started.    

Five months later the ceiling is almost entirely covered in new wood, except for about five inches at the very end. Apparently the first half was cake and the second half was a slog and that last five inches could take days.

We thought we'd see see if we liked the natural wood on the ceiling and then decide whether to seal it or paint it. I'm opting for paint. A glossy-ish white, I think.

Work on the kitchen has totally stalled, thanks to the economic meltdown. Rex was taking off time to work on the kitchen, but now that no one is buying books (go buy some books and bring your friends!), we have no money to pay employees to work at the bookstore while he works on the kitchen. So our plans to convert the large back window into french doors are on hold. At one point we thought that would be done before it got cold. Ha. The next step was to rip up the very gross old floor and put in a new wood floor. I think I want wide plank wood stained a very dark brown, to contrast with the orangey maple on the rest of the first floor.

I've been looking at kitchen pictures obsessively to get ideas. I find that I love open shelving, however, it's totally impractical for us. We are a dirty housework-avoidant people and open shelving in our house would soon become covered with disgusting dusty kitchen grease. But I still want it! I love this picture:

 

(Found on Door Sixteen - Mette Antero Kjaaer's kitchen from this house tour.)

Maybe we could do a little bit of open shelves, like in that picture, just two shelves, with hanging pots, which we need anyway. Really what we need is a giant purge of all our stuff. Who wants to do that for us?

I also really like the spice rack. We have a lot of spices and actually use them.

Now that other plans are on hold, potentially forever, I'm back to thinking about house projects, but there are so many I feel a teensy bit paralyzed. I want to paint the risers on the stairs black, I even have the paint, but there is sanding to be done and.... The bathroom also needs a second coat of paint (in addition to other work that requires a plumber), but there is more sanding to be done first.... The girls should have been moved into the large bedroom months ago, but we can't find affordable cute matching twin beds, and the floor needs to be repainted and the walls need to be painted and the built-in book shelves need to be painted. The third floor, which is in some sort of unhappy indeterminate state between bedroom and attic, needs a thorough cleaning and decluttering. And then that floor needs to be painted, as do the walls. There is so much to do and I am so lazy and there is so much else to be done, Christmas shopping, cooking, laundry, fixing the damn virus-infested computer, and oh, yes, playing with those children I wanted so much.