Kitchen Catastrophe

Last week, I alluded to our accidental kitchen remodel adventure and I know you've been dying to hear the whole story. Let the horror fest begin!

This was the listing photo. It actually looked WORSE in person.

I will never forget walking through this kitchen for the first time; I saw what I thought was hideous 1970's linoleum and was horrified when I found myself squishing through mildew-y CARPET. Who in their right mind puts carpet in the kitchen?

The cabinets were in bad shape and the cabinet hardware was sticky from years of kitchen grease. 

The thought of that nasty carpet still makes me shudder. In spite of it, a more optimistic version of myself looked around the room and thought, "It's ugly, but with some paint and new floors, it has so much potential." It had a great layout, plenty of cabinets and counter top space, and even a spacious pantry. I knew we'd have to live with the buttered popcorn tile for a while before we could afford to replace it, but it was certainly the lesser of the evils.

Oh that tile. It was cream with yellow flecks just like a buttered popcorn Jelly Belly Bean.

As soon as they handed us the keys, we donned our gas masks and giddily ripped out that carpet. We bought the cheapest peel and stick tile we could find on Amazon, slapped some paint on the walls and moved on to the next project. We also put a new kitchen faucet in and fixed a small leak under the kitchen sink. We noted that there was some minor water damage from the leak, but we had bigger fish to fry. There were so many urgent problems (like toilets that wouldn't flush, showers that didn't drain and a room that wasn't ready for new baby that was on the way) we were pretty much putting out fires.

Wallpaper removed and fresh yellow paint to match the tile. 

About a year later, once we had adjusted to the addition of Knox to our family, Mr. Sir decided he was ready to repair the damage under the kitchen sink. It was a seemingly simple job; cut out the damaged wood and replace it with new wood. Except the damage wasn't just under the sink, it seemed to be in the wall and the floor. As he looked closer, the damage went deeper until it became clear that the studs in the wall were rotted and the entire sink and counter would need to be removed to repair it. Ripping out the counter meant damaging the precious buttered popcorn tile and thus began the impromptu kitchen remodel!

Want to see the finished product? Me too. We started this madness in January of 2013 and we are finally getting close to completing it. Stay tuned for a sneak peek next week!

Labors of Love

My fancy red garage door.

Helllloooooo! Everyone back in the swing of things after the long weekend? Yeah, me neither. It was nice to have an extra day off, but long weekends always make me feel like I have to cram five days worth of work into four days. It just makes the week a little more hectic than usual and it's always a little bit hectic around here. But that is another story.

I spent my Labor Day painting my garage door in 100 degree weather and believe it or not, it was awesome. For almost six hours, I had uninterrupted, coherent thoughts. While Mr. Sir wrangled the children all day I worked on a project and completed it. (Ok, almost completed it. I primed it and painted it, but it still needs a second coat.) Regardless, it was so satisfying to accomplish something from start to finish and then stand back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. In motherhood, my job is never done. There's always another dish in the sink, a dirty sock that escaped the washer, another meal to make. Acceptance is the name of the game, and almost clean has to be good enough for this phase of life, because I would go absolutely insane trying to do it all. In fact, after five years of motherhood, I think that I may have forgotten what completing something feels like because finishing this project felt so good. It's almost addicting. And now I've got the project completion bug and let me tell you, there is absolutely no shortage of ongoing projects in this house. 

You see, we have this ridiculous fixer upper house. We knew when we bought it that it needed a lot of love, but we had no idea it was going to be the house from the Money Pit. We also didn't know that (surprise!) we were expecting our son Knox, until the week we closed on the house. All our plans of staying up late after Dash went to bed to power through projects went right out the window.

Over the last four years we have ever so slowly done a project here and another there, trying to balance our growing family with our insane desire to have nice things. The progress has been painstakingly slow, trying to save money by doing all the work ourselves, but right now, maybe even by the end of the month we are about to hit TWO major milestones.

The first, is painting the entire exterior of our house which will be complete when I slap the last coat of paint on our garage door. (For the record, all credit goes to Mr. Sir on that one. He painted every surface of our home except the garage door on weekends and evenings for the better part of the last year. I was busy incubating a different labor of love named Buttercup.) Second, we are getting very close to completing our impromptu kitchen remodel. I'll save the story of the accidental kitchen remodel for another post, but I will tell you that it has been under construction for the better part of two years and that there was CARPET in the kitchen when we bought it four years ago.

Oh, how far we've come! In the meantime, what do you think of my garage door labor of love?

Tiger-tastic Parenting

Like many parents, I prefer to use the TV as an independent activity for my kids. In other words, I plop them down in front of it and walk away so I can do something productive like hear my own thoughts or drink coffee in peace. Though I am guilty of using my TV as a babysitter, I have standards. I don't just let them lose with the remote and go willy-nilly watching anything they please. 

Rule # 1: Does not annoy me. I put up with a lot of annoying thing from my kids, but I do that because I love them. I do not love Caillou and I don't want to listen to him whine in the background during coffee time. I turned on the TV to avoid listening to my own children whine. Turning on an annoying show defeats the purpose of TV all together.

Rule # 2: Is more educational than mind numbing. If I am rotting their brains with screen time, they should learn something to counteract the damage.

Though my oldest is outgrowing it, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is one of my favorite kids shows lately. Not only does it fit the not annoying/educational requirements, it has actually taught me a thing or two. Since I went to school to be an elementary school teacher I have taken a ton of classes on childhood development, but honestly I'm a little rusty. I know the concepts I want to teach my kids but sometimes I have a hard time translating them into kid speak. 

Each lesson has a catchy little song which really helps the kids (and you) remember it. The bad news is, sometimes you can't fall asleep at night because you have to potty song stuck in your head. You win some, you lose some. Am I right?

Saying I'm sorry is the first step, then how can I help? Or as we say in our house, First we say I'm sorry, then how can I make it better? Telling someone you are sorry is like sticking a Band-aid on a scraped knee. It looks better on the surface, but doesn't instantly heal the wound underneath. So how do we teach our kids that a quick I'm sorry doesn't always right the wrong? 

In some ways we are different, but in so many ways, we are the same. I want my kids to know that being an individual is ok. They don't have to look or act just like their friends. I also want them to treat others who look differently, whether it's their size, shape, color of their skin or their ability, with kindness and acceptance. Kids are very observant, even at a young age and this is a great way to start talking about the differences they see in the world. 

If you have to go potty, stop and go right away. Flush and wash and be on your way. We just finished potty training Knox and we watched this episode of Daniel Tiger for inspiration daily. I love that it incorporates all the basics wrapped up into one simple song. 

And there you have it. I'm 31 years old and I'm still learning from PBS. Bravo, PBS. *slow clap* BRAVO.