Four months of Golden friendship–and counting

Cute, yes.  But what insanity moved us to remodel the kitchen and get a puppy at the same time, I’ll never know…!

The kitchen that was. (And is no more.) (And will be again.)

I don’t do well with chaos and unpredictability and messes.  These things send me.  But I am trying my absolute hardest to be as Zen as possible about this kitchen remodel. 

It is not easy.

My cousin Claudia, who has been through a full kitchen remodel before, told me that it’s a little like childbirth – painful as hell, but worth it when the final result is all yours.

Just so you can vicariously experience my pain (which will bring about my joy), and so you can exclaim, “I’m sure glad that’s not meeee!” here are a few photos that I’ve taken over the past week or so:

ALL the wallboard in the kitchen is coming off.

For a while, I still had a sink, dishwasher, and stove.  Although the place was a mess, it still functioned as a kitchen.

Then I lost my dishwasher…

…and I was down to a sink and a stove.  The fridge and microwave had already been moved to the dining room.

Next weeknight project: removal of the old window and installation of a new, bigger window.

We only got a “teaser view” of the yard with our old window.

A new header…

(And torso.)

NOW look at our view!

Then I lost my stove and my sink, and now the kitchen has been stripped to its studs (by Mr. Stud).

This will me our make-shift kitchen for the next few weeks – though we’ll be washing dishes in the bathtub. (Ugh!)

And this is the rest of our community living area, waiting patiently while chaos swirls all around.

Oh lordy, give me patience!

Tales (OK, mostly photos) from Toronto

I’m on my first business trip for my new company, Sandcastle Educational Consulting.  The days are filled with creativity and hard work and I’m absolutely loving the people and the companies I’m working with. 

Toronto is a beautiful city filled with really friendly people.  I spent a few hours this evening walking around and just enjoying the buzz of the city.  (Can I count that as a workout?  The Danskin tri is this Sunday… Arrrggghh!)

I think these are the North cascade mountains.  But then, what do I know?

Canada, eh?

The first thing that struck me about Toronto is how many people are walking around downtown!  Throngs.

This is a “warm mushroom salad.” It was positively delicious!

Juxtaposition.

This sculpture is at the Toronto Blue Jay’s stadium.  I love the whimsy.

The Toronto tower is HUGE!  It must be 5 times the height of Seattle’s Space Needle!  Wait – lemme do some research on the fly here…

So “5 times” was off, but I still swear it’s at least 3 times the height of the Space Needle!

High rise condo are everywhere!

I love this building.  I did a double take.  Twice.

You can rent a bike in downtown Toronto and just ride it around…

…for a day or two!

Peter, I’d love to bring this home for you to put in your new apartment, but… see comment about throngs of people.

This part of downtown reminds me of Pioneer Square in Seattle.

That’s my hotel.  If you count upwards 17 stories, this is what you see:

I’d have to swim about 100 laps in this pool to do the distance of the tri that I should be training for this week.  Instead I just took a few pictures and visualized the swimming part.  Sigh.

The continuing saga of our dramatic kitchen remodel

This remodel has consumed our lives lately, and my over-riding thought throughout the process has been, ‘How do families with little kids remodel their kitchens?!’  I can’t even imagine…

A few “before” photos always add to the drama:

The first thing we had to do this weekend was empty the fridge so we could move it across the kitchen to a wall we didn’t need to disturb yet.  I had help.

Once it was empty and moved across the room, I took some photos for my future posting to Craigslist to sell the thing.  Anyone want a fridge?

My dear sister-in-law, who came to visit for the weekend, helped out by covering all the furniture in the nearby living room…

… to protect it from what was to come. 

We decided to, um… stay out of Tom’s way by heading to the mall for a few hours.  Nice of us, huh?

When we left, there was still a wall.

We came home to this dramatic undertaking:

“And the walls… come tumbling down!”

And NOW look at the place!

(That low wall is where our bar-height counter will be.)

I love the completely new open feeling!

On the list for today is installation of a new, bigger window.  Stand by for that saga!