Blogs are not “in style”. It’s why people don’t blog anymore. They find that sharing on Instagram Stories, etc. is sufficient. However, if you’ve ever had a blog, you might better understand what I’m going to say. t’s very, very difficult to close a blog down. It’s very personal. It’s got a bit of history. In mine, it also has some of the history of my community.
I recently lost my blog. I didn’t back it up, and while I maintain a website here and there, I am not highly skilled in the “back end” of a website. At any rate, my blog had a fatal error. While I DID back up my site once about two years ago, it was on my old decrepit laptop that I used last year. When I attempted to find the backup, I had no mouse to look for the folder! My current laptop has a touch pad and all of the laptop mice have scurried away!
However, I started “messing” in WordPress, and I somehow figured out that I might have a recovery method. The long and the short of this is that I got access to the recovered blog, went into the backend and removed the problem plug in. I knew what the plug in was that was giving me issues because WordPress had messaged me. I just could not get into my blog. Instead, I got the white screen of death.
I’m so happy tonight that I have my blog back. I am going to update it weekly. It makes me so much more intentional in how I spend my time, and I need that.
For this week, ending today on Friday, November 20, I have done the following:
Big accomplishment: Recovered this blog. Yay me! I feel like a genius.
Read one book: “The Year of Less” by Cait Flanders. It was a great starting point for January when I like to declutter. I recommend you read it if you find yourself with closets full of things you don’t wear and a habit of shopping when you are out of sorts.
I took one good picture. I did not do this intentionally. I was impressed that when the foliage is turning gray and we’ve had below freezing temperatures several nights, this fading rose was still beautiful and yanked out my iPhone. One of the great things about walking my dog is that I notice things.
And my favorite find of the week has been raspberries for $3.98 at Sam’s Club. I cannot eat enough of these.
Last, I am grateful for so many things this year. While it has been a year of not eating out, not gathering and not doing many things, it still has been a good year. One of the smallest things, but it is still important to me, is this RiverCliff Cottage. I’m thankful it’s back.
Aside from one or two minor details, our kitchen redo is finished. It seemed like it took forever, but it really was under three weeks. However, it’s hard to have all of your cabinets emptied and in boxes all around the house. I’m glad it’s finished both because I really like it and done!
Here’s a picture from before…
And here’s a picture from the present. I was able to save my backsplash with the countertop replacement. It’s still a country kitchen, but it’s so much lighter.
Here’s a photograph of the base cabinets up close. Jon Larson of Refined Finishes in Mendota spray painted my doors and drawer fronts. I brush painted the rest. The paint was Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint, and the green is a Valspar color mix called Leafy Rise. I reused my hardware.
On the opposite side of the room, I left that row of cabinets natural cherry but interrupted them with the new shiplap range hood that Mike made. It’s painted with Benjamin Moore Advance paint in a Sherwin Williams color mix called Vanillin. We haven’t added the crown molding to the range hood yet. I may paint a few of these cabinets but right now, I’m tired of painting and do not want to think about it.
Tom Harmon is a custom cabinet maker in the Tri-Cities area, and I could not have done all of this without Tom. He added the crown molding and modified the cabinets so that they were exactly what I wanted without buying all new cabinets.
Here’s an example. This is the before. The fretwork was dated and this little shelf area was a dust catcher. You can also see the old countertops and the cast iron sink. I’m reusing that sink in the guest house.
Tom just ripped those spindles and shelves off. I realized that each cabinet is really just a box — not so mysterious. Now that area is enclosed.
The front side now has this bar and hooks. I can change things out seasonally or as I want to.
The other big change was removing this…
And adding the open shelves. It gave the whole room a lift. That is my mother’s gravy bowl which is the only thing of hers that I have. Each time I see it, I think of her and am grateful for having the good fortune to have her as my mother.
Aside from a few minor touch ups and some additional painting such as the pantry door, the kitchen is done.
I talked about our goals with our kitchen renovation in a prior post you may read here. This post is solely on modifications we are making to our existing Kraftmaid semi-custom cabinetry to give them an updated look and make them more functional. I searched the internet for something like this and could not find it, so I’m hoping others find this and learn from what we did right or wrong.
Our kitchen cabinet update is based on reusing and modifying our existing semi-custom Kraftmaid cabinetry. Once finished, there will be three colors of cabinetry — one will be the current natural cherry; one will be a creamy Sherwin Williams color called Vanillin; and the remaining is a Valspar green color called Leafy Rise. This process is not a simple cabinet reface. In fact, we are not refacing any of the cabinets. For this to be successful, we had to find a custom cabinet maker willing to work on a small job. In Bristol, Virginia, this person for us was Tom Harmon. He has been awesome to work with, and if you are reading this locally, message me and I’ll provide his contact information.
My cabinets had galley rail which dated them. We are replacing the galley rail with crown moulding. The cabinets are varying heights and it’s tricky to get crown on all of the cabinets and still be able to open all of the doors. This is where the skill of an experienced cabinet maker is working in our favor. The crown is not yet installed so I don’t yet have pictures.
In the photograph below, the left side shows small shelves that were too shallow to be useful and they were a trap for dust and fur. On the right side of the photograph, Tom has enclosed that area and made a door which matches the other lower cabinet doors once painted. Had we opted to buy a Kraftmaid door, it would have been a special order and the shipping would have been exorbitant. I was told you must order at least five “pieces” of Kraftmaid to get a break on the shipping. Tom had the talent and equipment to match the doors, and it was more cost effective for him to make a custom door.
Next, 20 years ago we “created” a small shelf at the end of our upper cabinets. It was going to be “styled” and look nice but it became a repository of Mike’s wallet, receipts and basic junk. Worse yet, what didn’t fit in the shelves got stacked below on the kitchen counter. It was a source of contention that the cabinet was always cluttered. I’m not exactly a neat person, but this was something that really bothered me.
So, the solution was to provide him with a place where he could stash his things yet I would not have to look at them. So the shelves below were removed…
And in place of those shelves, an enclosed end-cap cabinet was installed.
So… as shown in the photograph below, when you open that end cap cabinet door which will be painted to match the upper cabinets, you’ll see a place for all that clutter. (The door has been removed for painting in this photograph.). There’s a lot of stuff on the cabinet in this picture and I’m not certain why. I must have had to empty a cabinet for some reason while this work was going on.
I also wanted to provide a place to hang the Swiffer mop and the Bona mop. Tom found a close match to the existing Kraftmaid cherry wood cabinetry (this section is not being painted) and build it as an end cabinet add on. It is slightly lighter than my existing natural cherry, but this will change over time. This is photographed below.
And here is is open. I really like it. Sorry for the bad photos.
In the photograph below, you’ll see a plate rack. I’ve enjoyed that plate rack, and I still like it, but I want my kitchen to feel more open, so I removed it and in it’s place there will be open shelving.
And finally, the picture below shows my range hood. Replacing the range hood did not start out as part of the update plan.
However, we needed a new fan/light/vent kit. Here’s a shameful truth. I did not know how to pull this out and clean it. It had not been deep cleaned in 20 years. Honestly, it had not been cleaned in 20 years. Seriously. There will be a new one installed which I am going to read the cleaning instructions on as soon as it’s operational; and since we are doing that, Mike is building me a new range hood. This was a surprise! My inspiration was this.
These custom range hoods run between $800-$1500 on ETSY. By Mike doing it himself, it will save us money, and it was such a nice gesture on his part. It will also be an opportunity to bring some paint over to an area of cabinetry that I was not painting. I need to “move the color” around the room a little bit and this is a good opportunity.
For scale and to ensure we were on the same page — when you’re husband makes you something you don’t want to look up and say “hmmm…don’t really like that!” … we drew and taped what I wanted so that Mike was sure he understood. This will be made of shiplap.
These are all of the modifications we have made to the kitchen cabinetry.
Next up is painting these cabinets prior to the installation of the quartz countertops. Paint will be my next post. We’ve learned a lot about painting cabinets and while it is not expensive compared to new cabinetry, it still was a significant cost.
When I left my job at AGC in 2012, I talked about changing my Corian countertops to granite. However, we took the money set aside for the granite and bought a Generic whole house generator. That was a good decision.
In the years that followed, I’ve had a Pinterest Board where I’ve pinned new kitchen ideas and while I continued to think about how I’d like to update my kitchen, I have become more satisfied with my kitchen. When I was younger, I was such a consumer–discarding things simply because I wanted something different. I’m much less that way today. I have a very functional kitchen, and I am grateful for it. Many would love to have this kitchen.
Prior to the pandemic, we talked about selling our home and property in Mendota and moving elsewhere. We spoke with a realtor, arrived at a price, and then for whatever reason, we stalled. Once we were told to “stay at home,” we both realized we liked our home, we liked living in the country, and we liked living near my sister and brother in law. We wanted this pretty view and quiet place to continue to be our home for hopefully another five years or so.
We opted to make a few investments in the property we were now going to keep beginning with things like guttering and heat pumps. Then, we realized we needed to do a few things to our guest house which is an airbnb — mainly swapping out lighting, adding some shiplap, putting new flooring down in the laundry room and removing carpet from the steps to keep it fresh and as a desired place to stay. (Funny…as we did this, we also blocked off dates because we really didn’t want guests to stay during the pandemic so we were getting it ready for no one!)
About 2 weeks ago, the guest house was finished. I thought we were through, but Mike then asked me what I’d like to do to my kitchen since we now planned to stay. My kitchen is now 21 years old — old enough to drink! My Kraftmaid semi-custom cabinetry is looking dated and the lower cabinets near the sink are showing some wear and tear. I told him that I would not want to tackle the kitchen unless he was totally onboard. I knew I could be happy with my existing kitchen; it worked fine, and if it wasn’t something he was invested in, then I’d rather forego the stress of even a small kitchen redo. He wanted to go ahead but we had to be mindful of the budget for this project. New cabinets were not in the budget.
I do not want simply a repaint or reface. While I do want to paint a portion of the cabinetry, I also want to modify my existing cabinets, yet about half of them will be exactly as they are today with the natural cherry finish.
Here’s the modifications I want:
I want all of the fretwork removed from the kitchen.
I want a place for a broom and a few cleaning products.
I want the galley rail replaced with crown moulding.
I want the plate rack and enclosed shelf above it replaced with open shelving.
I want the range hood to be replaced/updated.
I want a place for Mike’s “stuff” that he drops off on the corner of the kitchen counter and always creates clutter. He likes to pile things up. Ugh.
I want quartz countertops since mine have a flaw that I’d unwisely accepted when they were first installed. Plus, I want a lighter color and sheen to help brighten the kitchen.
I want to paint a portion of my cabinets.
For the painted portion of my cabinets, I want one color for the lower and another color for the upper.
I want to consider replacing my recessed light and pot rack over the kitchen sink. I still love that pot rack but it blocks light.
I want an undermount sink with new faucet.
Things I want to retain:
Keep the kitchen layout.
Keep the flooring.
Keep the tiled backsplash. I loved it 20 years ago and still love it today.
Keep all of my appliances.
Keep some of the natural cherry cabinetry.
Keep the cabinet hardware.
Not a lot of pictures in this post, but I want to get started sharing my journey because while I could find information on cabinet refacing, I did not find much on modifying existing semi-custom cabinetry. Surely there are others out there who have comparable thoughts?
My budget is $10,000. Twenty one years ago, my kitchen cabinets were $18,000 (not installed).
I know how someone feels that has received a bonus or how a hunter feels when he or she gets the big prey. Look what I found this morning. 32 ounces. Yeah…the big one.
While I haven’t exactly done a lot of shopping recently, I have not seen any hand sanitizer in stores or online in over a month. I still have some, and I purchased alcohol and aloe vera gel to make my own, but all that stuff is still in the closet. I went this morning for the 8 am grocery pickup at Walmart, a stop by the laundry to wash a quilt, and a quick trip to Target to see if there were any Lysol wipes. I got nowhere on the wipes but I was so happy that I almost skipped out of the store with my Germ-X. I messaged everyone to share my good news. Crazy. I cannot imagine having ever gotten so excited about a bottle of Germ-X in the past but there ya go!
By shopping early, I’m home by 9 am and it was so pretty. I was so productive. Then..just like “poof” … it became windy and gray. I remained productive, sort of…
Last week I made a couple of denim valances for one of the bedrooms. I thought it would take a couple of hours. This is a bad picture but I want you to get the idea of just how simple this project was. It was not even lined. I just wanted something to somewhat “finish” the window since it has blinds.
Saying something like “it’ll be easy” is a bad omen when you are getting ready to make something–or at least for me it is. On the first valance, I failed to “finish” the left and right sides of the valance, so while everything else was fine, I had raw edges. It meant that I had to seam rip the valances to take them apart and correct my error. I was so annoyed. These were simple. So simple. Yet, I made them so difficult.
Tippy Jo stays right with me when I’m doing something which is so difficult. I have to watch cords, pins, etc. as she’ll eat or steal just about anything. Here’s her take on things.
I did finally get both of them finished. The second one was a breeze but good grief…how in the world did that first one become so difficult? At least I have plenty of time to do things. Lots of time. Lots and lots.
While it’s fun to make humorous comments about the days drifting during this time of staying at home, I don’t really want to not know what day it is or wear pajamas all day. I DO drift some days, but I don’t want to do that very often. It’s better for me to get up, shower, put on some makeup and start the day. It’s also good if I have a small goal that is accomplished each day.
Today I got the groceries I meant to get yesterday but could not due to the flooding. I also hooked up with the long-arm quilting person who will be quilting my recent quilt. We practiced social distancing. We met at the K-Mart parking lot in Bristol (Now a U-Haul lot but I’ve not yet got used to calling it that). I hopped out of the car, handed her the quilts — I had my sister’s quilt as well — and left.
Here’s what Tippy Jo had to say about the whole thing. She’s a know it all.
Going to the grocery store is a BIG deal now that COVID-19 is part of our world. First of all, it’s just nice to get out. Second of all, we cannot get grocery delivery because we live so far out in the country, and while I use grocery pickup, I can’t schedule Sam’s Club, Walmart and Food City pickups on the same day. I need things from each of these stores, so while I use the Walmart pickup, I go to Sam’s Club and Food City early when the store is not crowded. It’s a coordinated effort, and one that I do between 7 am and 9:30 am once every 10 days.
Before heading to the grocery store, I walked River. It was beautiful walking down the hill. If we have to “stay at home,” I’m grateful for this pretty place to do so.
It rained a lot on Easter Sunday, but I did not even THINK that we’d have flooding on Monday. We’d just had a big flood 8 or 9 weeks ago. On Monday, I saw my neighbor drive up the road and he did not return, so I thought I would be able to go to town even though the river was up. I’d go and come back quickly–that was my plan. We started out, but I got scared, and we turned around which meant that we drove through a small amount of river water on the way back. I’m glad we turned around. We would not have been able to get back in.
It rose so fast. In 12 hours, the North Fork of the Holston rose 10 ft. In the picture below, here’s the fence row that runs along side the road in front of our house. By 11 am, our fence row looked like this. Remember…at around 7:20 when I walked River, it was not in the road in front of our house (even though it was in the road further up the road).
We were completely surrounded by water. So in this world of doing things so differently than we normally do, I decided to cut Mike’s hair. That is a first!!
While I thought I did a decent job, no pictures were allowed. Drat! Even though I did do a pretty good job, the person who does his hair has no worries. He will definitely be back. It’s just that desperate times calls for desperate measures.
Tippy Jo had a little surprise for me on this wet Easter Monday day as well.
Hope your staying at home time is going well. Let me know your plans for your hair! I’ve ordered color from esalon but I hope I do not have to use it!!
People…I do not know the day of the week. If I do not look at my iPhone or ask Alexa, one day might as well be the next. It’s crazy. I’m just drifting. I saw a little thing somewhere that says..
#coronavirus has turned us all into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers. And we get really excited about car rides.
I’ve been working on a quilt top, and I have several other quilt/sewing projects to start and finish; and since it is so easy to have numerous unfinished projects, I wanted to finish this before I took on anything else. Here’s my completed quilt top. It’s comprised for four-quarter blocks of reproduction vintage 30’s fabrics. Many of the fabrics are from a designer named Lori Holt and her Farmgirl Vintage series.
Tippy Jo helps me every step of the way. She thinks she knows a lot about everything, and she’s right, I somehow got my machine stuck in reverse. It’s fine now, but there was a moment….
I just make the quilt top. I don’t even try to quilt my quilts. Someone else can do these on the long arm quilter far better than me. I don’t hand piece them either. I have arthritis in my right hand that would make this difficult. However, I do enjoy putting the color combinations together. This is a scrap quilt so there really isn’t a pattern.
The backing of the fabric is a large print with the same colors. It has a nod to the 30’s as well, but instead of the tiny 30’s patterns, it’s a large pattern. I like the contrast from one side to the other. I am binding the quilt in red. Even though I use good fabrics, I washed and tested the red to ensure it does not run and fade onto the fabric.
This quilting and working with fabrics reminded me what a mess my sewing notions were in. I have several sewing notion storage containers, but this is my favorite. In this picture, it’s all tidied and ready to be closed. Isn’t this amazing?
And look how small it gets. This is important as, like many, my dining room is also my sewing room!
Many things are changing in the world today compared to a few months ago. In recent years in the United States, grocery stores have become our florists. For me, Sam’s Club is where I buy flowers during the offseason when I do not have my own flowers. Now, with closed borders, flowers are not arriving in the United States in the same manner if at all. These are my last purchased flowers for what will probably be a long while. They are two weeks old. I trim them, cull the dead ones, and stick them back in the jar. They have a few more days left.
Looking at this picture reminds me of the two milk sources we had as children. They were Foremost and Pet.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am less wasteful. This is a good lesson. Green peppers freeze well so when they look a little soft, I dice them and put them in the freezer. Grocery stores no longer are “safe” places for many Americans. I use grocery pickup every 7-10 days now.
Everyone I know plans to put out a big garden this year, and we are no exception. Mike had his tractor serviced last week, and we’ll be planting potatoes on Good Friday, green beans shortly thereafter and so on.
I felt that the restrictions on going out would increase and this weekend, while early in the season, I called Evergreen Garden Center in Kingsport to see if they had any of my favorite hanging plants — bridal veils. They had three. They offered curbside pickup with little contact, so I ordered three hanging plants for the back porch. Drove up–called then and told them what vehicle I was in. They told me to open the trunk. They came out, placed them in the trunk and handed me a receipt — from their gloved hand to my gloved hand! I’ll have to move them in and out until it stays warm but I’m so glad I got them. I’m hoping I’ll see some ferns at the grocery store on my next visit since I put ferns on the front porch.
Each day I am going to journal. I love doing this, but honestly, I’m on a MacBook Air now vs. my old trusty Toshiba laptop that was under $400. It’s on its last leg so I’ve had to transition to this Mac, and it’s just so difficult. Now all devices in our house are Apple so we should be working smoothly, right? Well, it’s a heck of a learning curve.
As I journal each day, I’ll note what was accomplished. This will keep me from drifting. Some days they will be little things. Yesterday, it was junk drawer day for two drawers.
The above was the “before”. The drawer had stuff that had fallen behind it. What a mess. Here’s after it was done. Full disclaimer…Mike did this one. Impressive!
I reorganized the armoire in the bedroom and organized sheets and quilts. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture. However, the good thing is…we made progress. We are not just watching tv or sitting around getting depressed.
Here’s what Tippy Jo is doing. Tippy is a little stray dog that arrived here in July of 2019. She could not be touched for at least a month. Now, she’s very loving with us and she’s full of energy and a precocious pup!
I realized as I typed this heading that I did not know the day of the week! Mike and I are practicing “self isolation” so we are staying home. Without the normal cadence of doctor’s appointments, planned trips to do this or that…the days drift from one to another.
Here’s some random thoughts in no order…
While reading the online edition of the Bristol Herald Courier, I feel as if I’m looking at pages that many years from now, others will read as they learn how Americans coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Did we do well? Did we do poorly? How many succumbed? I want to quit reading this stuff as it makes me anxious, but I cannot seem to stop taking occasional peeks.
Groceries. I have plenty but I’m not hoarding. The temptation to book an online pickup order is difficult. If Mike were not here to tell me to stop, I’d probably be booking an order of $30-$40 of more canned goods. I’m questioning why I did not do as much food preservation in 2019. I had a good reason — I was working at Adventure Mendota and the summer months are when you home can and that is when we were very, very busy.
We closed Adventure Mendota this season. We did this early, and some folks raised their eyebrows. However, I’ve been following COVID 19 closely since its onset in China. What many fail to understand is that a small outfitter or bike shop pays for liability insurance and vehicle insurance 12 months of the year yet we only operate 3-4 months (outfitters). These expenses were both due, and at the time, while I did not know if COVID-19 would be a pandemic, Mike and I both felt Adventure Mendota would be adversely affected in terms of guests. If we paid those large amounts out, we might not get any benefit and would not receive a full refund. Likewise, we are in the “vulnerable population” age group, and we didn’t want to expose ourselves or our community to an onset of guests from elsewhere. It just made sense. At first I felt sad, but now, I’m so glad we made that decision early. For tourism in Southwest Virginia, it will be a challenging year.
For everything in Virginia except the grocery business, medical professional and delivery business, it could be a challenging year.
I’ve been cooking and I’ve been trying to be thoughtful of how I cook. Admittedly in the past, I’ve been wasteful. Today, not so much. If I have a green pepper that looks “at risk” for spoilage, I chop it up and place it in a small freezer bag before it goes bad. While I do not think our food chain will stop, it definitely is under pressure and there are shortages. I searched for bread yeast and could not find it. I ended up buying it through eBay at about a $1 more per pack.
And what is this with toilet paper? I’m not part of that chase. Since we live 17 miles from a grocery store, we always have toilet paper. I assume at some point everyone’s houses will become saturated with toilet paper, and I will venture out and buy more. As of now, I’ve not bought any. I’d bought quite a bit on sale in early January so in the area, we are good.
My biggest concern on shortages is dog food. How do I explain to my dogs that we don’t have dog food should that occur?
“Flatten the curve” is a term I’d never heard until about 10 days ago. Now, we are all (hopefully) doing our part by staying at home. This means that Americans are cleaning closets! Everyone I speak with or text with is cleaning a closet. We have a guest bedroom that easily becomes a “holding spot” for things we aren’t sure what to do with. Yesterday I went in, put things in their proper place and vacuumed thoroughly. I pulled out the items in the closet and vacuumed the baseboard inside. Yikes it sure needed it. We are going room by room cleaning, and Mike is painting and doing small projects that we intended to do but never got around to.
I normally attend Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday in Weber City. It’s all online for the coming weeks. If I spend just a few minutes with this daily, I feel more peaceful and less anxious.
I’m working on a quilt. I’ll have it ready to send to the long arm quilter next week. I’m looking forward to that.
What are you doing? If you read this, regardless of when, please comment and leave me a book suggestion. I’m hungry for good books. The physical library is closed but there is always e-books I can check out and I am upping my Audible membership.
