A House Is Only Done When You Run Out Of Money

Well, $200 later, I have my laptop back, pictures and all. The Geek Squad really worked wonders, but I paid the cheap price! Thank goodness I know something about computers or else it'd be another $250 for them to install Windows XP, etc. on my new hard drive. Yikes. Evidently, I'm in the wrong business. Anyway, I'm back up and running again (knock on wood). Here's the post I wrote way back on October 20th:

I know it’s been a while…sorry bout that. We were so busy with cleaning up the house, etc. that once it got into a normal, livable state, we basically collapsed into inert, commplacent recuperation for a while. To end the cliffhanger, yes the kitchen is now complete, as these pictures clearly show. We can now breathe easily, cook for ourselves and even do wide socks-on-hardwood-floor pirouettes whenever we need to. The kitchen constantly astounds me with its wide open spaces and freedom of movement. Both of us can cook in there and not elbow each other until one gets fed up and retreats to the couch!

We did have some trouble with the stove the first couple of times we really used it. After being on for about an hour, it would really start to smoke. I’d open it up and find a puddle of black Godknowswhat on the floor of the oven. I’d use a damp paper towel on a spatula or a soapy sponge and clean it up and it’d be ok for the rest of the bake. However, the next time we’d use it, it’d start smoking again and the same stuff would be on the bottom of the oven. The ceiling of the oven didn’t seem overly grimy or anything. This happened a number of times, consecutively. We finally got around to running the self-cleaning cycle last weekend and I scrubbed the racks (which seemed to be dripping with whatever stuff was burning). We haven’t had the problem since, so who knows?

Anyway, the countertops turned out excellent. They really look great and I can’t thank John enough for his help and guidance. You’ll notice that we opted to put the microwave on a rolling cart instead of the non-sink counter. It takes up about half of the counter space and we couldn’t bear to part with that much. Now, if we want to use the microwave, we just plug it in under the sink, easy as anything.

Also, notice that the “Tuscan Kitchen” motif has pretty much taken shape…at least art-wise. We got the two cool pieces on the walls by the mud room door from Bed Bath & beyond and they seem to fit perfectly in Jenn’s vision for the kitchen.

The cutting board was a favor at Jenn’s friend’s wedding shower and also happened to fit right in. Perhaps someday we’ll do a tile backsplash on the wall above the sink, but for the time being, I’d be happy with just a little bit of lighting underneath the cabinets.

Also, I really wanted a trash can with a pedal, so we got this nice chrome one. It’s a little smaller than I’d like, but I’d like paying the outrageous price of the bigger ones even less. It gets the job done, hands free.

The bedrooms upstairs are also settling down into some semblance of order.

The guest bedroom at the top of the stairs has become a mostly organized office/retro-gaming repository, thanks to this nice piece from Ikea. Yes, it does contain a number of old game systems and games, dating back to the old NES with the original Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge (and Light Zapper gun!) all the way through to the Sega Dreamcast. There’s still some more work to be done in there, but it’s now officially a useable space.

The master bedroom is also complete, with curtains, lamps and even a nice beachy picture.