The secret of jet lag

I was in China last week. Arrived back home on Saturday.
I slept awesomely on schedule through Tuesday morning.
Til the wee hours of Wednesday, when my body kicked into FULL GEAR.

I was ready to throw on my sneakers and run for a FEW HOURS. My heart was racing!

NO JOKE. It was 1:30am.

It always snags me on Wednesday.

---

The kicker was I didn't want to disturb John's sleep.
So I hung out on the couch in the living room.
I set my phone alarm to 7am, in case I actually, you know...
FELL ASLEEP.

But I forgot one crucial step.
I left the phone on vibrate.
And slept until 8:15am!

I accidentally heard the phone vibrate.

John was going to be home from the gym any minute.
And I had a train to catch!

On the way racing to the train, I realized that the AC was left on downstairs
I made John turn around, and raced into the house to turn it off.
He dropped me at the train at exactly 8:45, the train was pulling in!
I was so proud of myself - I made it!

But wait!

I had to call John because I accidentally grabbed his bag and was about to bring it to work with me!
The train is in the station! Next train doesn't come through for 30 minutes!
What to do?

He picked me up and drove me to another station.
He was late to work because of my stupidity.
He is also the greatest husband.

Love you, babe.

---

The secret of jet lag?
It rears it's ugly head 4 days later.
It has nothing to do with being tired when you're supposed to be awake.

It doesn't let you sleep.
That's real jet lag.

The State of Our Space

Our dining room and living room have come a long way. We have painted every surface - ceiling wall and trim - and refinished the floor. While I admire our time and effort so far, it feels like time for a major overhaul with the furniture and decoration!

Let's start with our living room:

then

now

The staircase has undergone a huge transformation. We need a window covering in the staircase window. I would also like to see a more modern console and chunky lamp along this wall. Perhaps a decorative chair.

then

now

I've never shown a full view photo of this room since, for the most part, our furniture is a little down-trodden. We have an old Macy's sofa bed, which is horribly uncomfortable to sleep on, and an even older IKEA Klippan couch, which has held up surprisingly well, but looks like it belongs in someone's dorm room. Our coffee table is really too little tables from Target. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the tops are all busted up. Our "media console" I love, however, it needs a little DIY paint and to be moved into the dining room for china storage. We have nothing hanging on the walls, no rug, and our fireplace needs to be re-lined. Also the lighting situation is almost non-existent. The windows needs some kind of covering for privacy.


Next up is the dining room:

then

now

The dining room is actually a nice large size. We can easily fit an 80" table and have room on 2 sides for a couple of credenzas. The country-kitchen table and chairs need to start making like a tree... Our chandelier is just plain silly. I have looked high and low for a replacement, but nothing has struck our fancy just yet. We would like to modernize this space and actually use the table for eating, instead of parking ourselves on the couch in front of the tv every night. We have gone so far as to hang curtains, which was a major, major step but there is a lot more to do here!

So lots to do here, I hope to at least do some of the DIY and lighting projects in here by summer's end. Stay tuned...

I'm having significant issues making decisions without the help of Photoshop

We have a problem. After an especially icy winter, our front steps look like this:

Items in image appear worse in real life

I've been scared that cement contractors would tell me the entire structure was unstable and that we should tear the whole thing out and start from scratch for, like, a million dollars. This guy was over yesterday, and he was whacking the stairs, trying to determine -- what, the shakiness? Anyway, he recommended the following solutions:

1) patch with cement - $600
2) add limestone treads and patch remaining areas - $1200

He explained in further detail - since the stairs are 14" deep, we would need a 15" piece of limestone to fill in the appropriate amount (14" deep step plus 1" overhang). Trouble is, the pieces of limestone only come in 8", 10", 12" and 24", so we would need the 24" cut down to size. Yes, that would make it pricier. As usual, everything in our house is an "odd size" that needs "custom" materials. Yes, yes, I get it.

To be completely honest, I think the $1200 is a fairly reasonable amount of money to spend on new, quality, steps. I notice everyone in our town has limestone, so I know it will last and give the house much better curb appeal, etc, etc. So I was thinking maybe we should do it. Definitely better than just patching, and much, much less than the cost of tearing everything out and starting from scratch.

But.

But I have a problem now!!! A domino effect, if you will...

This is Photoshopped

What is this? Blue cement risers? What the eff? Seriously?

Do I have to paint the entire foundation of my house to make this look better? Do I have to paint the entire foundation and also fill in limestone on the top stoop and side pieces of the stairs?

See exhibit A:
The. Entire. Foundation. Of. Our. House. Is. Painted. Blue.

Please someone tell me what to do?!?!?

Curtains

We finally have curtains in the dining room!

before - naked!

after - curtains!

Of course, nothing is ever easy or straight-forward in my life, and I'm on the look out for white curtains to go inside the dark curtains. Not just white, but something semi-transparent in a lattice-work or eyelet type of way. I'll know it when i see it :)

Next on the dining room list - table, chairs, chandelier...

Clearly I have a problem...

Recently, I noticed a theme in our home...


I really really like perforated and textured white ceramic tchotchkes. Thinking this junk would look good together, I placed them on my radiator cover... that was also white and perforated.

Also, I did not realize this until I looked at the photo.

After discovering this illness, I have researched further into its official name - ceramicus perforitis.

Not really - but you saw it here first.

* and everything is from Marshall's/HomeGoods/TJMaxx!

A pointless exercise in aesthetics

I've been pretty adamant so far about one thing when it comes to the house - we do it once and we do it right: no re-dos.

But the kitchen turned out to be the exception.

I was going to leave it be for awhile, but it's the kitchen! We're in here everyday, all day sometimes. We just couldn't keep it the same. And the gut-reno is maybe a few years off.

So after removing the country kitchen wallpaper as mentioned last week, I painted the wall today:
Voila!

As I put it to my mother earlier today, I totally understand that what I've been doing to the kitchen is comparable to putting a band-aid on a broken leg (hence the title). This entire wall I just painted will someday be torn to bits, covered with cabinets, or tiled within an inch of its life.

- - -

A couple things I should point out...

1) A major upgrade which was totally easy, cheap, and worthwhile was staining the cabinets. As you can see in the below photo, most of the cabinets are in this condition - worn, and ragged.

I simply took an old rag, dipped a corner in a small can of Minwax Jacobean stain and ran it over the cabinets, wiping with a dry rag as I went. It made a noticeable difference in the appearance of the cabinets. Cost: $0 (I already had the stain left over from another project) and about 20 minutes of labor. Yes, I could have taken the cabinets apart and refinished or painted, but the main point of this makeover was "cheap and quick" - this step made a pretty big difference for such a tiny amount of time and money.

2) I also painted the doorbell thingy to match the wall:
Much better than yellow-ed plastic!

- - -

And because everybody loves before/after photos:

Before
Country Blue Kitchen


After


Before


After

The paint color is Benjamin Moore "SIlver Fox" - I used the Ben line, eggshell finish.

So far I've spent $35 on this "in progress" makeover (on a gallon of paint). And about 4 days of on-and-off labor. And a ton of elbow grease.

Ok, no, THIS is my dream kitchen... almost...

How perfect is this?

I love the subway tiles with dark grout, and that the tiles reach all the way up - almost to the ceiling.

What about the antique white stove and white hood?

Also the juxtaposition of the white counter with black granite top / black island with white marble top.

But - I could do without the brass hardware. Chrome would be much better in my world.