The Kitchen Remodel: Phase 20

And then there was a backsplash.  Almost.

My parents had some packs of tongue and groove cedar planks they weren't going to use, so they passed them on to us.  The Dad got them cut and installed over the weekend.  He found some tiny trim at Home Depot that he used at the base, and where we ended it on the peninsula wall.  I wanted it to be flush with the cabinet, rather than the counter, so the trim was just to finish off that edge.

You can see the strip of trim up against the counter here.

Some more in-progress shots.

He pulled the stove out to do the wall behind it.

You would not BELIEVE the crap that was back there.

Marbles, hot wheels, a toy phone, magnets, a plate, all kinds of stuff.

Here's the whole wall, finished for the night.

I moved all my stuff back over to make dinner.

Does everyone have this much crap on their counters?!

I blame it on a small space.

I went into this 100% certain I would paint the cedar the same white as all our trim.  

Now, I'm kinda undecided.

Kinda.

It's SO pretty.

The cedar is gorgeous.

But it's a lot of wood with the back of the peninsula and the floors.

So today I started priming the small section to the left of the window.

And it proceeded to suck up primer like crazy.

I put a total of four coats on, then got my first coat of semi-gloss trim paint on it tonight.

Sorry, it's dark, no pictures yet.

I put the coffee makin' stuff back over there, and will check it out in the morning to see what I think.

Until then, I took a bunch of pictures of the other side with the natural wood.

Feel free to voice your opinion.

Just ignore all the junk piled on the counters.

It looks really busy to me in photos, but I wonder if, once the ceiling is finished, and if I painted the soffit the same color as the cabinets, if it would still be too busy.

Yes, I know there's a lot of "stuff", but this is real life and it's stayin'.

The blue glass might blend in better up against white, though.

Or should I just suck it up, get over the destruction of the beautiful cedar, and do what I was originally planning - paint, paint, baby.

Your two cents - GO.....

Jello Mold Lights

So ya know that new favorite thing I talked about the other day? This would be the one.

I can not even tell you how much I love these.

I grin like an idiot every time I walk into the kitchen and see them lit up.

I found a stack of Jello molds in an antique mall by our house.

I snagged them up so fast I nearly knocked everything else over.

There were only seven of them, but I didn't care, I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do with them.

Then, the next day, the stars aligned and I came across another stack of four at a junk store.

The hardest part was finding a short strand of lights.

I ended up with two strands of twenty that I wrapped around the fake garland.

 The Dad drilled holes in the bottoms of the molds and slipped them over the bulbs for me, while I lay on the couch like an exhausted pile of goo.

He did a pretty good job at placement, eh?

Did I mention how much I love them?

There's no way I'll be able to put them away after Christmas.

I'll have to find lights with white cords so I can have them up around the window year round.

In love.

I didn't buy them, but the junk store had a bunch of mini bundt pans, too.

I wracked my brain trying to come up with an excuse to buy them, but I couldn't think of anything fun.

So I left them there.

Now, I'll probably come across something fantastic on Pinterest and they'll be gone.

That's okay, I still have my new favorite thing.

And speaking of favorite things, today is my birthday, and even though I still feel like a big pile of crap, I'm going out to dinner, without kids.

Woohoo!!!!