it finally feels like progress

The last two days have really been great. I meant to post in the morning but once I was up I started going for it.

I will start with yesterday. I was out running an errand and decided to swing by one of my old favorites, SCRAP. I haven't been there for a long while but I have always had amazing fortune finding both necessary gems and frivolous beginnings of craft projects. Anyway...for weeks I have looked for Flor tiles on Craig's List . I keep hoping for an amazing grouping of tiles for free or something. (our budget is pretty small so free is always nice) It occurred to me that a few times a year SCRAP has fabric and carpet samples donated by various showrooms in the Design Center and that they might have a few squares that would work for our hallway. Well guess what I TOTALLY LUCKED OUT! I found a gorgeous grouping of square tiles in great colors all I need to do is cut them to fit. Done and done. The best part is that the whole stack cost....five bucks.

After that I was ready for the kitchen. We put up shelves, emptied boxes of plates and cute ceramics into our cabinet, cleaned the stove and floor and even managed to hang a little art. Richard sprayed the lil door with chalkboard paint, finished painting the bathroom and kept me focused on one project at a time. He also painted an old bread box of mine red to match our new red shelves. For some reason I did not take a picture but I will in the morning. The bottom line is that the kitchen and kitchenette are up and running. We can actually cook a meal and then sit down and eat that meal. I had a few pictures of the kitchen that I wanted to post but I hate the way they turned out. I will take more in the morning once we have better light in there. For now I have this photo of our silverware shelf. We don't have a silverware drawer so the flatware will have to share space on a small shelf occupied by owls.

We also managed to put the flat file into the closet/office and I think it looks great. here is a before and after.



I can't belive that I just summed up yesterday in a short paragraph but once I post the before and after of yesterday you will be able to see the amazing transformation. Today was great because things that we started yesterday were polished up today. As I mentioned before Richard painted the bathroom and so today I went in and put up shelves, put stuff on the shelves and hung a painting that my little friend Cole painted for me. Here are a few photos that show the love.



I have a great before picture that I will post tomorrow once I have the shower curtain in place.

So here is the checked off punch list for the bathroom:

1. patched and sanded wood work and walls.
2. scrubbed shelving in cabinet and covered with 'vintage' Martha Stewart contact paper.
3. painted all trim with Kelly Moore Soft Sesame eggshell finish
   
4. painted ceiling and 3 walls Glidden Bright White semi-gloss
   
5. painted one wall Kelly Moore Crystal Cathedral semi-gloss ( the best and lightest blush )
   
6. replaced vanity light
   
7. removed medicine cabinet and await the arrival of the gorgeous vintage cabinet from L.A.
8. scrubbed floors and all porcelain and tile work on floor and in shower
9. removed tension rod shower curtain situation
10. installed cute towel hooks
11. installed glass shelving
    
12. hung art

Tomorrow promises to be another big one. We still need to convert the previous ironing board area into a pantry. We bought and cut the wood for shelves today. Richard painted all of the shelves so they should be ready tomorrow. I am also planning on fine tuning the bathroom and kitchen as well as putting up shelves in the office. We have been trying to do this for a while so I hope it makes it on the punch list for tomorrow. We shall see.

I also want to thank everyone for their kind words of support these last few weeks. You have no idea how much it helps. In addition I need to do a post that talks about the plaster wall and how we did that as well as the hallway and the color. Emma over at Emmas DesignBlogg asked about the plaster wall a while back and I promise to do that over the weekend. Thanks Emma for the interest and the question.