The Demolition Report: Sweat & Mascara

Yes, I have sweat and mascara in my eyes. It hurts.  And all of the sweaty stuff is making me break out like crazy.

Don't look at me! I'm hideous!

It stings.

But my kitchen demolition is very underway!  Hooray!  I am discovering all sorts of buried treasure, like this old window:

Neat. It would look directly into my shower! Double neat!

 
And a whole bunch of ancient cat food over which the previous contractor installed the cabinets.  Laziness, people. Laziness.

Without further ado, here’s a slew of photo documentation from the last four days:

Not 100% sure this isn't asbestos *laughs nervously*

  

OMFG Do not lick that! There should be no eating right now!

 

And then Petey got sent to our room; too much curiosity, too underfoot.

 

I also found out where the cockroaches had been breeding (behind the fridge):

Dry heave city

And where they had been pooping (on the other side of the room, behind the oven.) I will spare you that picture.  Needless to say, I donned my protector mask for both tasks.  I truly feel that good Feng Shui starts within the walls; just knowing that stuff is in there?? It’s keeping me up at night.  I’ve washed my hands about sixty times today alone, and showered twice.  But I can never unknow the things I have seen…this will be my Vietnam.

But seriously, I’m easily traumatized.  It’s a character defect that I am working on.  Thank goodness I have never experienced the stuff that people actually get PTSD over (like Nam).  No, no. I am just a girl, tearing apart her walls, cleaning up an old cockroach infestation before sealing it all back up again.  Ahhhhh the simple life!

The Jury Is Still Out

So I found the deal-to-end-all deals almost six months ago.  Whilst perusing one of my favorite local antiqueries, I came upon two super industrial (yet oddly romantic) folding chairs.  I just counted at least three things wrong with the last sentence, including that I just called two folding metal chairs “romantic.”
But they are! And it helps that they came in a pair.  A pair that cost me a total of $20 beans.

Here they are, all soul-matey and smooching in the backyard:

See the lace-y detail?  Pretty romantic, no?

Well, this lovely rusting duo has been sitting around gathering cobwebs (which I basically just spray painted over because, oy, do not like the spiders) until I finally decided that I would try to incorporate them into the kitchen plan as a playful pop of color.

I dug through my paint samples, compared them to the lime green Fiesta bowls I got last Christmas (umm, and the dog dish), took the right sample to Home Depot and came back with a new shade of Key Lime.  I used the gray primer I already had on hand and gave the chairs a light sanding before I got to getting.



The metal was pretty rough already -- not ow-my-tushie-will-never-be-the-same rough-- just rough enough to hold paint without a whole lot of prep work.  And I really did spray right over the cobwebs.  They were more fun (crispy!) to break off after the priming was complete. 

Then I applied really light, thin coats to each chair.  It took about four coats per chair to complete, and I had to run back to Home Depot for a second can.  I left them out in the sun for a couple days to cure up, and then brought them under the carport for a few more to really let them air out—VOCs are not good for the Petey and me.

Blimey! Limey!

And they are now super-duper lime.  I like it in the Mood Board, but once the whole thing is together I may go back to the drawing board with these.  At least I know they can hold their paint!

Let me know your thoughts!  Anyone else spray paint something a wacky green? Or yellow? Who else is in a Spring-y color mood?  Or likes to make up words?

The jury is definitely still out and they may refuse to ever come back at this point.

The Demolition Report, Part 1 of ?

My foks are wrapping up a handyman/contractor for my birthday and sending him over to The Knoll (aka Easty’s Home).  So excited!  He is going to teach me how to do the things I should not “wing,” which is how I’ve been operating up until this point.  Considering I could really screw up my kitchen, or hurt myself, we all thought this would be a good idea.

Brett took some measurements last weekend and sent me a list of remaining materials needed to finish Phase 1.  In order to save on disposal fees, I am going to do the majority of the demolition myself; I’ve already started!  Last night I finished removing the last of the old extractor hood.

Here’s the original BEFORE shot:

And in the upper cabinet removal phase:

And here’s where we last left it:

That last piece of the old extractor has been taunting me for a couple months now, so I Tawanda’d it last night.

TAWANDA!!!

It should really think twice before mocking me with it’s “Nah nah nah boo boo! I’m two inches off center.  Whacha gonna do about it?” kind of talk.

BAM. Here’s the most recent state of the kitchen:

  
Note how sparkly clean the counters are; demo is a messy, messy process.  I covered the top of the stove but that didn’t completely stop the drywall dust.  No biggie.  The most important thing is making sure that the drywall doesn’t end up in my eyes (on with the protective eyewear) and that I don’t do anything really nuts that may cause me to fall from the counter to the floor. 

Petey thinks I’ve completely lost it.

What are you doing??

There will be much more demo going on in the next couple of weeks.  I will keep all ya'll posted! Enough about me.  What did you do with your Saturday?  Any fun projects? Time spent with the kiddos? Anyone else weird out their dog too?

The New Herbs

In honor of a certain holiday I used to celebrate (that now just sort of makes me depressed), I rang in April 20th with a different kind of herb experiment: salsa verde!

My mom and I took an herb class at William Sonoma last weekend and I got inspired to combine a couple of the recipes.  We learned to make salsa and chicken with compound butter—which was too much butter for me, but still pretty good.  Now that I am actually sitting here looking at the recipe for salsa verde I realized I forgot the onion, which is why it ended up tasting more like a marinade than salsa.  Why wasn’t I looking at the recipe while cooking? Because that’s not how I roll, hommie.

Here’s the shot of the stuff:

Yes, my kitchen is still mid-demo but semi-functional!

 

I’ve never done a single thing with a tomatillo so here’s me trying to figure out how to peel it:

I will conquer you.

Bite. No?

It’s surprisingly sticky under the leafy stuff!  My compost pail got a nice bit of greenery, which I am sure is a welcome change from the coffee grounds.  Tons and tons of coffee grounds…

So here’s the Easty-ized recipe (which needed a small white onion):

6 tomatillos
3 seeded jalapenos
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
3 garlic cloves
1 Tbs. of course sea salt
1 Tbs. ground pepper
2 Tbs. fresh lime juice
1/4 cup EVOO

I threw everything into a food processor and pulverized the heck out of it.  Then I melted a little bit of butter (instead of making a compound) with more EVOO in a pan, tossed in some sliced shallot, more salt & pepper, and cooked up the boneless, skinless chicken tenders.

Meanwhile, I got a call from my bestie in California and caught up on the gossip in between food processor pulses.  “Sorry! Loud noise! <whirrrrrrrr whirrrrrr> He said what??! Oh girl, that’s crazy face!”

Trust me, it tasted way better than this looks.

So I go a shot of the chicken but by the time I was done with everything I was too freakin’ hungry to pause and photograph my salsa.  Boo.  But I ended up putting it on the chicken and it was delish.  Again, better on chicken than as an actual salsa, so I put the rest in the freezer for later.  My Venezuelan officemate told me I should have roasted the tomatillos first too.  I’m going to take his suggestion next time so I can eat it with chips…and cheese. Like a whole bunch of melty cheese…

After dinner I broke into the Heart Smart Bisquick and had myself some strawberry shortcake minus the whip.  Hey, work with what you’ve got!

Anyone else get crafty in the kitchen this week?  Is there anyone out there who likes to experiment without looking at a recipe too?  Or is that just me? 

Up next--some light demo!  My favorite :) ~Easty

Making Tabletops from Lemons

Have I mentioned how much I love reclaimed wood? A lot. And I happened to find some in my house! The previous owners had jimmy-rigged a “storage system” over the toilet in the master bathroom – yes, open storage over the toilet – that left these purty little shapes on my wall when I immediately ripped them down:

I see it; the off-center toilet bugs me too.

I mean, it was like the first thing I did in the house, right after closing.  Sups hid. (“super hideous” if you don’t happen to speak Princess) Face it, this idea of storage was a dud and part of me really wishes they hadn’t painted over the yellow walls; so sunny!

I was able to salvage the shelves by removing the supports and sanding everything down. You may remember this post where I stripped down the longest one (that was over the closet door) and we last left everything looking like this:

Well I finally got my hands on a jig saw and quartered the six footer into submission. When laid together, it was all starting to look like a 3x3.08’ tabletop. Yay!

I even found use for part of the old supports by using them as the connecting pieces.  I laid everything out the way I wanted it and started gluing.

Since each support had two holes predrilled from where it attached to the wall, I used some washers to secure the screws. After those were in, I just screwed directly into the wood in a bunch of other spots. The wood is super soft so I didn't need a drill bit, but I did have to make sure I didn’t get to close to the ends for fear of it splitting.

 

Here it is with everything screwed in:

And here it is all done!

I am storing it indoors and laid flat so that there isn't any warp-age between now and when I actually get the table base and banquette seating together during Phase 2. I will probably need to seal the wood since it will be used for dining, but it feels so good to cross something off of the list!  The stripe-y natural wood is going to be a warm, welcome contrast to all of the stainless steel in the room and the cool blue walls.

Did anyone else get to cross something off their list this weekend? Or rip something apart and put it back together? Do tell!

~Easty

Baby's First Mood Board

So I never really understood the concept of a Mood Board until I watched my favorite DIY/blogger couple whip one up and then start using it for their master bathroom.  Then it made sense!  I am one of those folks who learns by example, a "Kinesthetic" if you will, so I decided to throw one together for my kitchen.  Here it goes:

1.  Track lighting
2.  Apron sink
3.  New countertop
4.  New hardware
5.  New faucet
6.  Red compost pail
7.  Black and white floor tile
8.  Red mixer
9.  Wall mount hood
10. My tea towel art
11. Red microwave
12. Pendant lamp
13. Utility chairs I picked up at an antique store and spray painted grellow for a little kerrrrr-pow

And there you have it! Mood boards really do give you a sense of what the room is going to feel like; it's basically just missing the walls.  This could get very addictive...I will try to keep my moody addiction on the DL, but I may not be able to help myself.  Consider yourself warned, people!

Go ahead and poke the bear,
~Easty