My life right now

This is my new kitchen floor. It looks like tile but it is linoleum. I like it. This is what my kitchen looks like right now. I don't like it. In order to keep this new linoleum in place, we need an additional bit of wood trim to be nailed down in front of the existing molding. I guess if we had pulled up the existing molding before the workman had begun, then this additional step to keep the floor edges from curling up would not have been necessary. No one told us this. And here we are. The trim is already cut and will be stained tomorrow so Bob, our repairman, can nail it down on Thursday. AND, since we already have to pull out the appliances to accomplish this task, it seemed like as good a time as any to strip off the 16-year old wall paper and paint the kitchen (since that was an already-planned project for this year, anyway).

As you can see, I pulled off the top layer of wallpaper this afternoon. Tomorrow I will apply the liquid stripper to peel off the bottom paper. Then fix the holes. And wash the walls. Finally, paint. Hooray for 1-coat Glidden. Speaking of painting, I also get to paint a door frame downstairs. The above-mentioned Bob installed laminate flooring on the downstairs hallway. You can see just a teensy bit of it in the picture below. When we moved into this house, there was a door at the bottom of the stairs and we didn't want it so we just removed the door and hardly even noticed the hinge hardware for the next 16 years. But, when Bob removed all the molding to install the floor, he did. And took the door jam off. And put up a new wood frame to be painted. By me. THEN he will re-apply the molding around the door.

Below is a picture of our new entryway. Bob put in lovely tile. The long cylinder to the left is a roll of low-pile carpet for the stairs. Bob really doesn't want to do this job (and I don't blame him. He is in his 70's and I felt REALLY badly when he was down on his hands and knees putting in the hallway flooring). So, I need to call and find someone to install this. And, since we have so much left-over kitchen linoleum, they can use it up in the downstairs bathroom.


This is the Noah's Ark room where the 10-year old, blind, incontinent Coco-the-rabbit lives and noisy Howard and Eunice-the-finches live. And that is my craft/sewing closet. I need to relocate all of the above so Beckie can move in for two months. Her lease expires the end of May and she needs a place to live until she leaves for more schooling. (she still hasn't decided between Atlanta or Hawaii. It's a no-brainer to me! Just kidding, Beckie.) We will do most of the moving on Memorial Day.



I am delighted to report that we have air conditioning again. BUT, we also have the programmable thermostat that would take an engineer to figure out. I need to sit down with the manual and maybe a help-desk person on the phone to guide me through the steps. Thankfully, Tamara was able to figure out how to set it on a cooler temperature than 85 degrees!






So, that is my life right now. So many things to think about and to do. And I have not even mentioned the WEDDING that is coming up in two and a half months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is Kirsti with Ryan. Aren't they a cute couple? Steve and I are so please with this news. Kirsti is so happy and Ryan is a fine young man. And this summer is going to be a wild one - dress, cake, photos, invitations, where to have a reception, buying plane tickets to Utah........just a few of the things buzzing around in my head.