Choices

I'm going to bring up the kitchen again. I'm very tired of talking about it, but it is still a work in progress. I have had to make so many choices that my brain hurts! Lowe's is coming Jan. 6 to rip out Diamond-damaged cabinets and install replacements, and to finish all the little details that were left undone. This is supposed to be the last time. After this, it's all on Conrad. We still have to choose flooring (we've moved on from lovely cork to durable tile), backsplash (I am seriously leaning toward white subway tile--simple) and we need some sort of light for over the kitchen island. Also, when we planned this kitchen, we did not plan for a spot for our trash can! So it is in the way, against my John Boos kitchen work island that I must sell, because it's too big and in the middle of the kitchen. I love it and we constantly use it, so felt very ambivalent about putting it on Craigslist, and was partly relieved when the people that contacted me never showed up (typical Craislist!).

Kitchen Lights & Floors

Conrad removed the dusty, ugly 1980's chandelier that was reminiscent of a wagon wheel, but with less charm, and replaced it with these cool track lights. He worked really hard getting them up and they are gorgeous, but the result is a dark kitchen! We are so disappointed. I hope there is a way to make them work without having to take it all down and replace it with another chandelier. I don't know if our ceilings are so high that the light isn't reaching all the way down. I wonder if we need to reposition the lights, or the bulbs can be replaced with something brighter, or if we add more lights to the track that will give me the bright kitchen I want.

We went shopping for cork floors. Based on reviews, I like US Floors, but they only sell through dealers. Their cork was about $9/s.f. Very expensive. We found cork at Lumber Liquidators for about $3/s.f., but the sample they gave us was so soft that I could tear it and dent it with my fingernails. That's not going to work for me. I'm so sad to have to reconsider my dream of cushy cork floors, but need something durable. I guess Conrad can put the same tile in the kitchen that he's putting by the front and back doors, and I can buy squishy foam rugs for all the standing I do in front of the stove and sink.

Who Needs A Kitchen Anyway?

Conrad ripped up the flooring in the kitchen yesterday, so now it's down to bare concrete. We are again debating...this time over whether to install floors before or after the cabinets are installed. I've googled that question, and apparently it's a personal opinion because I read pros and cons for both. We're concerned about putting our expensive new cabinets directly onto an area of the concrete that he discovered was damp under the laminate. We would really love cork flooring, so I'm reading up on that too. Tile is great, but we spend so much time standing at the sink and stove, and drop dishes all the time, so I'm leaning toward the more forgiving, squishy qualities of cork. Beautiful too. It's not as indestructible as tile, but tile chips and scratches anyway.

The older boys moved out last week and are living over the river with my parents. They have a big light, roomy space and hope that helps them study. They started working on their Bachelor's at a new college this week. It's nice they're around in the evenings to help their grandparents, and I think so far my parents enjoy their company. I wonder if our prolonged kitchen remodel had anything to do with them moving out?

We had a week of homeschool in our house mess, and once I cleared off half the dining room table so we could lay out the books, we were able to tune out our surroundings and concentrate on schoolwork. Piano lessons have continued as normal. We have a path to the piano and a path to the couch in the family room, and there haven't been any injuries or complaints from piano students and families, even those with little ones.

Jacob's friend is staying here a few days, so we're taking vacation already! It's been fun, and I thanked Conrad again for giving me this beautiful life where I could take the boys to the pool at 10 a.m. I thoroughly enjoy my "job" of homeschooling Jacob, but even my "job" of teaching piano is a joy, and many students are Jacob's friends, so they become weekly playdates (wait--he's 12 and says that word should not be used anymore). Okay, I mean they hang out.