Luna del'Corvo

So, we are redoing our kitchen. It's about damned time - our kitchen is small, and it was a jumble of everything from original 1940s built-ins, 1960s add-ins, and all the cutting edge interior design savvy one would expect from the 1980s. Ew.

We looked at buying salvaged cabinets, but honestly, with a kitchen as small as ours we just didn't have much wiggle room to work with whatever we ended up finding. And I really wanted to go for a classic arts & crafts/Stickly/mission style, which you just do not find in salvaged cabinets. So we went the Home Depot route, and have custom designed cabinets arriving in two weeks. Which means I am in crazy mad demolition mode!

Actually it's rather fun, finally being able to demolish this stuff I've been cursing at for three years. So far, all the cabinets but the sink base are out, we are stripping wallpaper (my new worst job ever!) and I am stripping roughly 50 years of paint off of the window and door frames (my number 2 worst job ever!). Although I did find this awesome soy-based gel stripper that is no oder and water washable - makes it SO much easier!

After that's done, I'll paint the whole thing (one coat primer, one or two coats base, and then a rag finish in a slightly lighter color), and stain the woodwork. That *should* just about get me to delivery date. Then we get the cabinets, but no counter. We have to get that remeasured after the install, and wait another 3 weeks.

Then I am putting in a tile backsplash that I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with yet. I'm waiting for samples to figure out what I CAN do (arts and crafts style tile is frakkin' expensive y'all!). This will also determine my final choice of paint, so I hope they get here soon, cause clock is ticking! Then I will take the glass panels from the 2 cabinets that have them, and do a mock-stained glass design on them (depending on what I end up doing with the tile and paint colors...) I still have to find a facet, and pick an over-the-range microwave.

Whew! First world problems, right? I have ordered the cabinet hardware (OMG gorgeousness and love!). Here is our door style: Gettysburgh in Maple Auburn Glaze. I'm thinking a sort of toned down golden parchment yellow for the walls, and a sort of sage-green tiles with rust-colored grout for the backsplash. I'll post pics as it starts to come together.... meanwhile, more stripping! (If only that was as much fun as it implies....)

(In other words, nothing terribly entertaining to report.)

I got a second raised bed built in the back, I am working on another in a back corner for some shade flowers (foxglove, bleeding hearts, lilly of the valley, etc.). I pulled out some rather ugly and sprawling hostas from either side of the front walk, and moved them under the tree in the front lawn (less grass to have to cut if they sprawl there!) and put in an azalea on one side and a small juniper on the other. I still have a few other flowers to plant along the front porch.

Once my seedlings sprout and get big enough, I will plant the second raised bed with peppers, beans, and cucumber. I'm hoping to go snag enough mulch and soil to put tomatoes along the back fence, too. Of course, it also needs to stop raining long enough for me to be able to dig! I am hoping to get everything I have planted this week, weather allowing.

Of course I do stop and teach now and then, which is going so well! Just finished student presentations of their research papers, and for the most part I'm pleased! A few groaners, but generally very good work. Then yesterday we covered the 'spiritual warfare' movement, and they were suitable dumbfounded that people actually go places (from New jersey to Mt. Everest) to battle demons.... I am hopeful that several minds have been cracked open, and some serious questions have begun to be asked. If so, my work here is done!

I told the 'for profit' university thanks, but no thanks. While the cash would have been nice, I feel SO much better having it off my back. Nothing about the whole thing ever felt right, so I'm happy to be free of the whole sordid business!