Today is Quartz Day

Forget Valentines day.  Today is quartz day at my house.

I don't have a working stove, I don't have a sink, heck, I don't even have running water at this point.   But I can see where this is going and I like it!

Stay tuned for the big reveal later.

DIY Stainless Cooktop

What did you do today?  I saved myself $1,000 on a new cook top today.  I tackled the cook top issue and won.

If you remember, our cook top has had peeling paint issues.  The thing is, it works really well but looks like crap.  I think it was a problem with the paint the manufacturer used because it peeled in the sports closest to the heat.  In a word, UGLY.

I went shopping and looked at new cook tops and new stoves this morning.  I just couldn't justify spending $1000 to replace something for cosmetic reasons.

The metal has been bare and exposed in parts for years and hasn't rusted or corroded.  I knew if I could get the white paint off it would be fine.  Getting it off, was a whole other problem.

I've been slowly scraping away at the paint for a few weeks with a paint scrapper but I didn't get very far.  When I was out ferrying around my kids today it hit me - the dremmel tool. I ran to the hardware store and bought a little drum sander attachment.

It worked like a charm!  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.....

Viola.  My ugly damaged white rimmed cook top has a new life in stainless steel land.  I need to find a place to buy some new knobs for it but I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

So there you have it, I spent the afternoon sanding my cook top.  Tomorrow, I rip apart the kitchen!

White Subway Tile Love

I feel in love with white subway tile about 6 years ago.  I love the clean lines and the simplicity of it.

I tiled the back splash in my mother's kitchen with subway tile.  It gave it a cute 40's vibe.

I tiled my mother's bathroom in subway tile.

I have a few spots in my kitchen where I will need to patch after the new counters are in.  I am setting my sights on where else I can put subway tile.  Its a look I don't get tired of.

Our old counters have the yucky up turned back splash.  That will be gone and we will have a gap to fill with tile.

Here is a preview of the counter with the existing tile.

I think once the kitchen is finished, I will move on to the our master bath.  For what ever reason, our builder thought it would be a good idea to use floor tiles on the walls around the tub.  

Rethinking Lower Kitchen Cabinet Storage

The calm after the storm looked like this at my house this morning.  The giant pink thing is a big pig that travels with him.  I woke up and nearly stepped on him.

I had decided to tackle my stupid blind corner cabinet today.  I dumped everying out of it this morning. You'd think there was a party at my house tonight.  I found 6 sets of ice cube trays in there.  Yup my fridge has an icemaker.

This my friends, is the what our builder put for a shelf in this massive cabinet.  My best guess is this cabinet is a good 48" and long with this ONE puny shelf.  No wonder I have no storage in my kitchen.

Years ago, I found this half lazy suzan as-is at Ikea and MacGyvered it into the cabinet.

It helps but it doesn't fit as well as it could.

I also bought two slide out tray drawers for our one other bottom cabinet from Ikea and jimmied them into the cabinet.  You can see the blocks I used to shim them in.  They are the only thing that has kept me sane in this kitchen over the years.

I had myself connvinced that I was going to go to Ikea today and buy a new bottom corner unit and a second set of pot drawers.  The first set I bought when this whole kitchen rejig started was on super discount and discontinued.  They have a similar profile but its in white and its not anywhere near the same white as what I have.  The Lidi, is a polyester finish and I would have to paint it.  I bought a cheap door as-is couple of weeks ago to give painting a whirl.  It looks ok.  I'm really concerned about long term durabilty.  

While in the store, I managed to talk myself out of replacing what I have.  It was REALLY hard.  The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I think I can make some really good roll outs that will fit into the blind cabinet.

I found these really cool roll outs form familyhandyman.  They aren't exactly what I want but they are getting into the ball park.  

Now we are talking.

I made a DIY roll out for one cupboard years ago which has given us a lot of stroage.  I think I can improve on it and add a third shelf to it.  The glides on it need to be replaced so its now my new jumping off point.  At the very least, I need to replace the skinny little shelf with one that is a more reasonable width.  I shouldn't be using a 49" cabinet to store plastic sandwich tubs.  Its a huge waste of precious real estate in a tiny kitchen.

Snow

This blog post is about something we haven't seen in these parts in any quantity in years.  SNOW.

When I was a kid, it snowed in my corner of Canada.  I spent lots of time building igloos and sledding.  Its been five years since we've had a proper snow.

Woof. My girl really likes the snow.  She is even set for valentines day with her little red heart around her neck!  Truth be told, its a tag from 2002 but the red looks so cute on her I've just left it.  Black and white with a splash of red is always lovely!

Farfalle Quilty Dreams

We have a good friend who is a finance guy that is always on trend with things.  When I was pregnant with my 17 year old he gave me some career advice.  I forget exactly what it was now.  When I was pregnant with my 13 year old, though, his sage advice was to start blogging.  Back in 1999, I didn't have the faintest clue what blogging was.  The Internet was ripe and new and I never did quite figure out what he meant until YEARS later.  

In 2009 my friend's husband died of colon cancer and I went to visit her in Florida.  As it happens, I have another good friend who lives two hours from her who I also went to see.  She is a quilter and had the most delicious workroom.  I had visited her in 2003 just before I got pregnant with my youngest son.  She had promised me if I got pregnant, she would send me a birth quilt.   Mere days before he was born, there was a ding dong at my door and much to my surprise a huge box.  My lovely friend had made me this.

It wasn't until the visit in 2009 that the quilt bug hit me.  I came home and couldn't get her lovely quilts out of my head.  I started googling and I found Ashley's Film In the Fridge Blog.  Her blog really was the first blog I followed.   Her work is always simple but has a huge impact which is great for a quilter like me.  I'm not as talented as my lovely friend who made those perfect quilt knots on the birth quilt.  

Ashley does lovely things like this.  I so need one of these for the spring.  

I've only ever attempted one of Ashley's quilts but it turned out really well and I gave it to my cousin as a wedding present.  

This is Ashley's version of the Farfalle quilt.

And this is my version.

Its a lovely simple design.  I cut 4 by 6" rectangles of white fabric and used scraps for the corners.  I then squared up the rectangles and sewed them together.  I would write up a tutorial but it was really so simple it really is unnecessary.  

After seeing Ashley's lovely voile non quilt today, I think I might just have to make myself a copy of her latest offering.  A nice light spring blanket is just the thing I need to warm me up from this miserable weather.  Those "sticks" by the bbq are my lovely black eyed susans in the quilt pic.  

Faucet Reveal

The new faucet came and I must say, its a challenge to my photography skills to get a picture of this sucker.

I really like the soap pump.  I am thrilled with the idea of being able to have dish soap hidden under the counter and dispensed from an attractive pump.

It took me a bit to clue into lying it on the floor and taking a picture.  My floor is gross - whoops.

The end of the faucet pulls out into a sprayer.  Its a clever design.  The end thing also twists and goes between stream or spray.

It passed the looking right with the fridge test.  Hubby doesn`t often voice design opinions but thought a satin finish would be more practical than a shiny one.