Yes, that’s right, I actually remembered to take pictures. Amazing! So, now I can update you on the crazy weekend we had.

I finished putting poly on the trim for Prince Charming's office. And then, because we're crazy like that, we took down the stair railing, sanded it back to bare wood, re-stained it and are in the process of polying it too (it's the roundish thing next to the white thing - very technical, i know). I've got three coats of poly on it right now, and I'd like to get up to at least 5. Railings get awfully dirty, and quite abused.

We did some work on the irrigation system. I know, it doesn't look like much, but here's the deal: there used to be a big trench there, and we spent part of Saturday burying the pipe we'd laid / re-filling it with all the dirt we'd removed. I've been saving irrigation system pics for another post, but since this was such yucky work (it was hot and sunny), I thought I'd include it here.

While we’re on the sticky and gross idea… we spent two hours on Sunday morning cleaning the garage. I didn’t take a picture for you, because garage pictures are never pretty (and I forgot to take one), but it was a major effort. It is now conceivable that I could get my car inside by snowfall (which, of course, will involve more construction, or rather deconstruction – thinning down the ramp so my slightly wider Rav4 fits).

We worked on the spare bedroom too. If you need a refresher, it’s a dark, odd room where we’ve been keeping lots of boxes and random things (because the room is unused). Also, the server rack takes up a large corner of the room. It used to have my old twin bed in it, but in the great bed switch-up this month, it now contains a queen! And I spent part of my vacation organizing the linen closet, so now the room is all set up.

This looks more like a place you'd like to stay, right? White bedding, down comforter and pillows (I'm working on pillow covers for those two square ones), art on the wall...

We had a spare side table after the bed switch-up too, so it found a new home here. The chair came from the living room (actually, the chair came with the house).

As a side note…

Prince Charming loves having a chair by the front door, where the earlier one used to be. So, he found this replacement on CL. Cute, no? It's actually a designer chair that retails for over $1,000. Crazy, right? That red boucle on the seat just has to go, though.

Back to the decorating… our next stop was making the downstairs hallway also look a bit more lived in (instead of just storage area for ongoing projects, like the trim at the top). Pardon the picture quality – it’s pretty dark down there, and still a bit messy, and even with some artful cropping and adjusting the exposure, I could only do so much.

Right outside the guest bedroom

I asked if it would be OK if I decorated the hallway with all of my coffee / French stuff. He said that was fine, and I went to unpack several boxes of “decorations” that we haven’t yet used. I sure came up with a lot (four pieces didn’t make it onto the walls, and there’s probably more I’m not remembering).

The hallway (door in the middle is the bathroom, door at the end is the spare bedroom).

I had to do a little collage for these, because the bathroom is notoriously hard to photograph (exhibit 1, exhibit 2). Also, it’s kind of ugly. The sink area is painted bright blue, but the rest is white (and cracked and peeling). There are all these weird corners… but I digress. I wanted to make it look more like we actually used the bathroom on a regular basis.

Slight improvement. Great artwork for a bathroom, right? The calla lilies used to be above our dining table in the old house, and were a gift. I love them, but they need to be re-matted before we could use them anywhere else in the house. This works just fine.

After hanging the pictures and getting a bunch of boxes into storage (and out of the spare bedroom), we tackled the “library.”

This may not look like much, but trust me, it's a huge improvement.

We got rid of 7 grocery bags of books – sold them to Half Price Books, so someone else can use them.

Formerly, there were two overflowing boxes under the shelves of my books labeled "to read," and we found two more boxes in the spare bedroom. We had to get rid of some to fit everything in, obviously, but it was needed. This is about all the work we're going to do on the library until the family room remodel this winter, when these bookshelves will get replaced with something that is not dirty, dusty, crappy, raw plywood.

And, because that wasn’t enough, we started on a new project. Just some hints for you, though I’m sure you can figure it out. Full reveal… next Monday perhaps?

Well, hello!

Lovely lines.

And lastly, an update on the garden (I sacrificed my body to get you these pictures – the mosquitoes are out like crazy in the mornings, since the sprinkler runs at 6).

Squash! And a pumpkin (also, technically squash)! How cool is that? (Disclosure: these are the only two fruits from the huge squash plant monstrosity that we have going on.)

Whew! Now you know that I wasn’t joking when I said our weekend was crazy busy, and that we did a lot of work. The pace has to slow down soon, because classes are starting and I won’t have time for frivolous things like making our house look presentable to non-family members. Seriously, vacuuming is a luxury during the semester.

OK, that might be an exaggeration, but it really did seem like the parts we ordered to reassemble the grill would never show up. They finally arrived on Thursday (was it a whole month ago that we ordered those?), and we spent the evening reassembling the grill.

Here's the "Before" shot from last summer. You might not be able to see all the rust and flaking paint in this picture, but trust me, it's there. Also note the lack of a proper handle, the lack of any sort of markings on the knobs, and the thermometer that doesn't work.

Logically, this meant we needed to use the grill as much as possible. So, I did some research, and realized that I didn’t have any grill-worthy recipes for another Linkfest post. Why? Because I’ve had quite a few grilling Linkfest posts in the past, some quite recent: 5/20/08, 9/14/08, 10/9/9, and 4/21/10.

The whole thing needed to be sandblasted (to remove the flaking paint and rust) and repainted, so Prince Charming spent a month doing that. Even the inside had been painted, which you're not supposed to do, so it actually looks better in this picture than it used to. You might just have to trust me on that. Just about every part of the grill was replaced, as you can tell by this picture. That's the shiny new... reflector thingy. The gas comes in through a thing that goes on top of this (one of the original parts kept). Very technical, I know.

Halfway there! All of the hardware (nuts, bolts, screws, etc) was replaced with shiny new rust-proof stuff.

I settled on the only one I hadn’t already shared (it was the lone bookmark that was for grilled anything), Grilled Soy-Glazed Chicken and Scallions from The Kitchen Sink, mostly because it was the only one that I didn’t have to go to the grocery store to get additional ingredients (I was interested in the tequila-lime chicken, but we don’t have any tequila in the house, and it seemed like an important ingredient). OK, technically we didn’t have sherry, but I figured I could make a substitution on that without ruining the recipe.

New bricks to replace the completely disintegrated lava rock that used to be here. I think these serve as a heat retention unit. That's me, by the way.

Because logically, if you have to do a task like this, you ask the most OCD person in the house to do it. Voila! (No, let's not focus on the fact that there weren't enough for that last row. Let's not be too OCD.)

New handle, new knobs, new thermometer... lookin' good!

Even the back looks pretty (though it's missing a piece - we can't figure out how to put it back on or where it goes, and it doesn't seem to serve any function).

Glamor shot.

Oh, you wanted to know about the food too? Turned out great! I highly recommend Grilled Soy-Glazed Chicken and Scallions. No pictures – it was too yummy, and we ate it up before I could even think about getting a shot. Add corn on the cob and watermelon, and you have the perfect summer dinner!

Obligatory shot of grill in action.

All that hard work has really paid off! Grilling is on the menu several times this week, and we used the grill twice over the weekend. We really missed our grill and are glad it’s back!

(For those of you who are wondering why we did all that work, a new Broilmaster of the same series, which would arguably be a bit fancier, costs upwards of $1500. So, yeah, a couple hundred dollars and some manual labor? Totally worth it. Also, we will be buying a cover for it so that it will be protected from the elements, especially Minnesota’s harsh winters. That was too much work to let it sit out in the weather!)

Now that I have a real house, it feels like any “new” furniture we get should be, well, real furniture. Or, at least, furniture we plan on having for a while. Not “this will do for now” furniture. There are exceptions, and arguably most things from Ikea may be considered “this will do for now.” However, their website is relatively easy to navigate and they have good pictures.

But here’s the thing: I have had a really hard time nailing down exactly what my personal “style” is. There are quite a few design blogs I read, and from those I have learned what I don’t like. Well, those and Craigslist.

• I love shabby chic, but I don’t want any of it in my home. Please stop distressing the edges of every single piece of furniture (furniture remodeling blogs, I’m talking to you).
• French, modern, Victorian, country – I might like a few of the pieces (very, very few), but again, I don’t want them in my house. I do, however, like Mission style. They seem to have clean lines and square corners and not too much flourish. I want pieces to have personality, but not overbearing ones.
• Sometimes, style opinions that I’ve had for a long time change, and sometimes they stay the same. I used to love cherry furniture. Still do, actually, but I find it incredibly formal, fussy, and fancy (the 3 Fs), which does not belong in my house which I want to be calm, comfortable, and classic. (Wow, I really worked the alliteration there, didn’t I?) I used to think that it was a good idea if all my furniture was painted white, because then it would be easy to quickly change the decor of a room just by painting the walls, and the furniture could all stay. I still hold to this opinion, though perhaps for different reasons. White looks clean, and it does coordinate with almost everything. I love cream and brown, but it is just too difficult to decorate with, and looks a little more dated than I wish.
• Let’s talk about Honey Oak. I really don’t like this color, especially when there are heart cutouts or something else equally “cute.”
• Painting furniture bright colors is really cool, and I am totally not brave enough to do this. I’ll stick with white or wood, thank you very much.

All that said, what I’ve really found is a lot of dislikes, without much guidance for actual likes. Bummer. This isn’t really a problem, since we have no immediate needs for furniture. I would like to have a general vision for the house, though, so that I have a goal to work towards.

To that end, I have quite a few pictures that I’ve printed out and put in a notebook. Since I did it that way, I can’t actually share them with you, because I have no idea where any of them come from. So instead, I’ll share with you my thoughts on some current Ikea furniture. Seem random? Perhaps, but I started this post two months ago, and after being in draft status that long, I can’t really remember what I meant to say. That happens sometimes.

Being in the process of refinishing some of the bedroom furniture (and I use that phrase “in process” very loosely), I’m drawn to dressers. I dream of the day when we have a headboard, and a cedar-lined chest at the end of the bed. Also, some day in the future (a long way in the future unless I find something fabulous for $25 on Craigslist), I would like a corner hutch for the dining room. Yes, we do have one whole corner in that room, and I have a plan for it (not everyone in the house agrees with me on this, but seeing as how this is a plan that won’t come to fruition for quite some time, that’s not really a problem).

(Clicking on the pictures will take you to the appropriate section of the Ikea site.)

Ikea Hemnes - I do like these. Of course, white doesn't work for our bed, and neither does the footboard, but the basic idea is nice. The dressers are clean with just a hint of personality, and I think I could easily vacuum under those (once you have two cats and hardwood floors, you understand how important this is).

Ikea Hemnes - I really, really wish this came in a color other than red. Alas, it does not. Wouldn't this look lovely holding all of the quilts I haven't made yet?

Ikea Edland - OK, not a fan of the black, but look at their pretty curved legs. Stylish without being ostentatious or frou-frou, I think. Again, nice clean lines, and vacuum-under possibilities.

So, to end this random, pieced-together post, I will not complain about the difficulties of figuring out one’s own style while having to negotiate a significant other’s [quite different] style, or muse about couches and how I don’t even want to think about the day when we have to pick one of those out together. Instead, I’ll say this: it’s a good thing there’s so much variety out there, even if it does make decisions* like these difficult. How boring would it be if we all had to decorate with Malm?

*By “difficult decisions” what I really mean is “first world” problems, or “rich people” problems. I mean, it’s not like we’re struggling to find food to eat or pay our mortgage. These are really quite petty things in the big picture. But, what else is one to talk about on one’s blog, if not petty things?

It was a typical Spring weekend: busy. Pardon the photo quality – these were taken with my iPhone, not our fancy camera.

Thursday night I noticed that the carpet in the spare bedroom (in the basement) was wet. Very wet. Conveniently nothing was damaged. Friday night we cleaned the room out, moved the server rack, and ‘s dad brought over a large fan to start the process of drying out.

You can't really tell, because it's carpet, but there's a lot of water there.

It's not supposed to be multi-colored.

The more it "dried," the more the carpet was stained. Joy.

Saturday morning, we went to the previously-mentioned turf care [free] seminar at Bachman’s. Very cool. Only six people showed up, so we basically got our own personalized recommendations. We picked up some lawn care products (and purple fountain grass for ), and then stopped to rent a carpet cleaner on the way home.

After lunch, we decided to get some yard work done. We got the back yard raked (the north side, not the south garden), met our new neighbors (very nice, young couple like us, no kids, and they’re not flipping it), and cleaned out the gutters on that side of the house. While around the corner (towards the front of the house), I noticed that the downspout was not actually connected to the gutter, and it was clogged. This happens to be right above the flooded room.

fixed the downspout (a temporary fix until we get new gutters, which are a tad pricey, though they come with a lifetime guarantee), and then he realized something. Last summer, as we dug up rocks from the numerous gardens, we dumped them in front of the house where some ugly bushes used to be (those got ripped out early on). Perhaps, he thought, the pile of rocks, sitting the way it was, provided a nice conduit for rainwater to go towards the house, instead of away.

So, he got to digging.

Lots and lots of digging. Many wheelbarrows of rocks. (I contributed by carting the rocks to the new storage spot. And by taking these pictures. And providing moral support.)

Until finally the ground sloped down, away from the house. A level was used to be sure.

It is not fun to realize that you may have contributed to the flooding of your own basement. But, on the bright side, we won’t make that mistake again. (The rocks were piled up on the driveway this time, far away from the house.)

While we were outside, I decided to take a picture of Cornelius, our rooster statue. What, don't you have a rooster statue? Prince Charming's dad gave him to us, and we love him. We find the idea of roosters (used as decoration) incredibly humorous. This guy stands over two feet high, and has his own pedastal! He might be cooler than our neighbor's griffins (yes, plural).

There's no rest for the weary. Before taking a break, we had to get started on that carpet situation (the cleaner had to be returned by noon Sunday).

Prince Charming did the whole flooded area once with just plain water, which helped a great deal. Then the fan went back on.

Later that night, we cleared the hallway and floors in the rest of the basement, and cleaned the carpet (with product this time, not straight water) in the whole basement. When you’ve paid for a steam cleaner, you might as well get your money out of it.

I did a lot of homework on Sunday. That back one is the "big" paper for my ELL class that's due in two weeks. Then my case study, and two copies of my strategy log (which were finished Friday, but weren't bound until Sunday).

Sunday I also got seeds started for our vegetable garden, and ‘s dad helped him hang the cabinet in his office (one step closer to being finished). After dinner I made two batches of lemon bars: one with the “ultimate” recipe I linked to on Friday, and one straight out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (but I used lime juice and zest instead of lemon*).

I bought books for the summer semester today. There are no traditional (read: expensive) textbooks, so the bookstore price was $63-66 (only one was available used) total. However, I don’t buy my textbooks from the school bookstore (unless I have to). My Amazon total, with shipping, for the four books (all used) was $36.24. That makes me happy. Hopefully I will plan my fall semester far enough in advance to have those books delivered well before the start of classes (though there’s no announcement as to when that course data will be uploaded to the bookstore website).

After tonight’s class, I should know exactly how much homework I have left for the semester. I think it’s just lesson plans and an end of semester reflection,  but it might be that I have to prepare a presentation on my bilingualism paper. The professor hasn’t talked about that at all yet, so… who knows what will happen. I’m just glad the paper is done. It’s quite boring, so I’m not sure what I’ll do if I have to give a presentation on it.

That means I can make plans with friends! Oh my! And I’ve promised myself that I’ll be homework-free in California, which should work out unless my professor assigns any homework next Monday (since I fly out less than 12 hours after class ends, and don’t return until about 24 hours before the next, and final, class).

*Note: lime juice doesn’t color the bars green – they stay yellow. Plus, the lime zest turns a bit brown in the baking, so it looks like I made an herbed egg bake. However, they taste absolutely divine. I haven’t tasted the ultimate lemon ones yet, since they still had to cool and it was time to go to bed. I’ll update you later on that, but I will note now that I had difficulty making the lemon curd.

A year ago today, we fell in love with our house. Is it silly to celebrate such an anniversary? Probably. But, if you look back in the archives, it was a HUGE DEAL and all I talked about for weeks (or so it seemed): the second tour, putting in an offer, waiting, waiting, waiting, and the big email.

Good to know – we still love our house. Even after all the work we’ve done, the long list of projects we’d like to do, and the weird things we’ve found, we certainly don’t regret our choice. I’m still telling people we’d like to live here for the rest of our lives, and can wax poetically about the many things we love about our house and its location. For a major investment like this, it is certainly good to feel this positive about it.

Love!

I spent part of Spring Break trying to bring some calm into my office. I didn’t really take before photos, but there are these two on Flickr of the two bookshelves, here and here. The tall bookshelf was next to my desk, and the short one on the wall between the door and the closet (both shelves are 47 1/4″ wide, which just fits in that space, allowing me to open the door almost all the way). They had been in that location ever since we installed the cutting table, and quite frankly there are very few furniture arrangements that are possible in that room. But, after thinking about it, doing some math (I only learned afterward that Ikea has a build-your-own function on their website that would have made it so much easier – check out the link tag on Tumblr), I had a plan. This plan was brilliant because it used both frames, all four drawers, and both doors that we already owned, and only required the purchase of five more doors and a rail (and, as later discovered, some handles for the doors).

The short bookshelf and the tall bookshelf traded spots, which has been a lovely change. It totally makes the part of the room I spent the most time in feel more open.

Most of my time is spent sitting in that chair, facing either the computer or the sewing machine. Sometimes, I'm standing up in front of the bookshelf ironing. Glamorous, I know.

The four drawers that were previously on the short bookshelf were moved to the tall bookshelf, and the doors were moved up to accommodate them. Four more doors were required to completely cover the height, which means that all the “clutter” (organized clutter, but clutter nonetheless) is now hidden, and I can breathe a bit deeper.

Ah, much better. Also, obligatory cat in photo.

The fifth door is a sliding door that goes on the shorter bookshelf, and while I was able to purchase the mounting rails, the door itself is out of stock, with no estimated delivery date. It will be the beech/frosted glass like the top ones on the tall bookshelf.

I also got around to hanging up some of the mini quilts I’ve received in swaps. I had been stalling because hanging them on the walls felt like it would only add to the clutter and claustrophobic feel of the room.

The closet door seemed like the perfect place to hang these two primary color-themed ones, since they don't exactly match the room but I love them so much.

I also hung the first quilt I made in the hallway outside my office, across from my bathroom.

I have another pink quilt to hang above the circle one, but I ran out of clips. (Target didn't have any either! Walgreens to the rescue!)

I have several more mini quilts to hang up as well, including this one that has both the turquoise and the green in it, so it might get placed somewhere prominent. This one is going on the door above the pink circles, and don’t know what to do with these two yet.

While we were picking up paint samples for the master bedroom, I picked some up for my office.

The one on the left is Glidden, and I picked it up on a whim. The other two are Behr. The far right one was shown in a photo on ApartmentTherapy and I loved it, but was afraid it might be too dark. I was right. The middle one, just a step paler, is what I've decided to go with. I'm also going to paint the trim in this room white - a hideous task, but it's all so beat up and dirty and gross, and I think the white will really freshen/brighten up the room. My backpack hangs on that hook when I'm not getting ready for class.

(You can see the Behr paint “in action” in this post on ApartmentTherapy.)

On Sunday while I was at Michael’s, I picked up some trinkets to decorate with, all at 40-50% off.

Gorgeous, no? So cute! I'm thinking that I'll paint the wall behind these guys (on the short bookshelf) a lime-asparagus-avocado-ish color (somewhere in that broad range) as an accent wall, since Prince Charming despises accent walls and it's probably the only room I can have one in without too much argument.

Just a little votive holder. It reminded me of the green color I was thinking of using as an accent, and it was so springy that I just had to take it home. (I think it was $3, which is hard to argue with.)

I’m feeling better about the room now, and having a plan, even if I don’t have time to execute it, helps me hate it less. Conveniently, I don’t have nearly as much homework the second half of the semester, so I have a bit more free time. My professors like to front-load courses (plus one of my classes ended, so that helps), and with only 4-6 weeks of the semester left, it’s almost over! I have virtually no homework the last two weeks of classes (assuming I don’t procrastinate on big projects, which I don’t really do anymore – all nighters ceased being fun a long time ago).

Well, Spring Break officially starts Friday, but I have no more classes this week, so I’m calling it. Some homework tonight and tomorrow should leave me homework-free next week. Additionally, I took off both Thursday and Friday next week, to sleep in and then paint the bedroom, and maybe get an estimate on new gutters. So exciting, I know.

I do have to share with you the picture I promised on Monday. Warning, it’s not that interesting, but it’s got a story, so that’s something.

Remember last week when I showed you our empty humidifier? We finally remedied that situation, but it took more work than just replacing a few parts.

Replacing the guts was fairly easy, even though nothing was labeled. But, when we turned the water (and everything else) on, nothing happened.

figured out that the humidistat upstairs was not communicating with downstairs stuff. In the end, after lots of pulling on wires and looking inside the walls and thinking, he decided to run new wiring from the thermostat and humidistat down to the furnace and humidifier. Guess what happened after that?

It worked! I don't know if you can tell, but there's water coming out of that spout.

That was Sunday night, and of course by Monday morning it wasn’t working again. replaced the valve (the only part not already replaced, other than the big plastic box it all sits in), and we were in business again. Hopefully the floors and the piano will once again be happy (and then I can call a piano tuner, because right now my beautiful upright grand sounds like a high school choir room junker).

It has been quite warm here the last few days, and will supposedly continue on through the weekend (though snow is predicted for next Monday). Of course, by warm, I mean mid to upper 30s, and supposedly we’ll hit 40* today or tomorrow.

All that said, it doesn’t exactly look like Spring around here. I took these this morning before leaving for work (since someone on Facebook had asked me if it was Spring-like here).

The deck. It's an eastern exposure and boxed in on all four sides, so the snow doesn't have anywhere to go. We just shovel/sweep the part between the door and the grill (which has two new knobs, all shiny!) and call it good.

This is the roof that we never see, at least not in the winter. It's over the backyard, which is a northern exposure, with big trees back there, so it never gets any sun. Most of ice has melted off the rest of the roof, but this corner is staying strong.

We’ve been having enough sunlight lately to warrant opening the blinds in the bedroom before I leave for work, which is a wonderful thing. I’m hoping to take the plastic off the windows in there before we paint next weekend (for a window that was painted shut and the crank stripped, one of the windows in our bedroom is quite leaky; the one that is nailed shut from the outside, however, is quite well sealed, go figure). Spring will come soon enough! We really need some fresh air in the house.

Happy Wednesday!

Last week I mentioned that we were getting ready to paint ‘s office. Well, here’s the photo update on that project (and a separate project at the very end). The captions tell the story – if you’re using a reader, the captions are the text below each picture (I know it shows up differently depending on the service you’re using).

Here's how it looked on Wednesday before we primed. We got one coat of primer done on Wednesday night, and a second coat just on the edges (brushwork) on Thursday night. One of the best things about this particular painting project is that there is no trim, so no taping, and there's no ceiling, so the only place you can't get paint is on the carpeting.

About 5 minutes after we started painting on Friday night, we remembered to take shots of the room all primed.

See? We'd already started. Crummy light, but that will be fixed eventually (need a ceiling first).

Two coats of paint later, and here's the room. (Surprisingly, it's about the same color as the kitchen, which was completely unintentional. Prince Charming noted that I probably wanted to repaint the kitchen anyway, and he was right. That's a project that will have to wait until we refinish the cabinets, though.)

Prince Charming spent most of Sunday re-installing the electrical outlets and working on the wall mounts for the monitors. Of course, nothing can get tightened down until the paint cures (4 weeks!), but progress is being made. There are a lot of other wires to run, which will keep him busy for a while.

If you want to see the whole remodeling set, here it is.

When we moved into this house, we knew that the humidifier was not working. This was mainly due to the fact that there were no internal parts for the humidifier.

The appliance repair store didn't believe me when I said it was empty. All I did for this photo was remove the cover.

What I wanted to be able to show you next was a picture of the humidifier with all its parts, in working order. We got a replacement kit that had everything we needed to re-create the inner workings, and managed to figure out how it all goes together. Unfortunately, after turning the power on, the water on, and playing around with the humidistat and thermostat, we still can’t get it working. has a few more ideas to try before we have to call in some help.

Aren’t old houses fun? (Answer: yes, yes they are. I am, however, quite glad that there were only two previous owners. I can only imagine if there had been five families who had lived here for ten years each, instead of one family for 50 years. The horror.)

Last night, I threw out a container of cornmeal that expired in 2008, some vinegar that expired in 2006, and a partial bag of shredded coconut that had been opened probably two years ago. I also moved some things around in the kitchen, part of the eternal quest to 1) fit everything into the kitchen, and 2) be able to easily access it when I need it. Now, I really shouldn’t complain, because the cabinet space in our kitchen is beyond generous.

The previous owner actually removed a set of lower cabinets and the kitchen doesn't suffer at all. I counted up how many hinges and handles we'd have to buy when we re-finish the cabinets, and it's a disgustingly high number. 38 hinges, and 34 drawer pulls, give or take a few. Oh, and that cabinet above the refrigerator? Completely empty. It was always going to be blocked off by stuff sitting on top of the fridge, and it seemed smarter to just leave it empty.

Pardon the mess. This was taken the second or third week after moving. See all those cabinets against the far wall, and the countertop? And next to it on the right, the closet? Further on the right there's a pantry. That's a ridiculous quantity of storage space.

(I should note that the sacrifice is that there is absolutely no wall space anywhere. The quantity of paint required to re-paint this room would be so minimal. That means that the only way to decorate the kitchen, aside from paint, is with towels. Or we’d have to replace the tile and the countertops. Ouch, that’d be pricey.)

But, I can honestly tell you that all of the cabinets you see here, with the exception of the lower one under the TV in the second picture and the one above the refrigerator in the first picture, are full. Maxed out. I’m debating moving some things into storage in the basement, or giving some things away to Goodwill. We never use the Panini press. I think the rule is that if you don’t care about it, and you can’t remember who gave it to you (wedding present from Great Aunt So-and-So? have to keep it), then it’s fair to give away.

Last night, in an effort to find more room for coffee mugs (tea mugs? hot cocoa mugs? are they still coffee mugs if they haven’t held coffee in years? discuss), all sorts of things got moved around, which thankfully included remembering to look at the dates on some things.

I was going to continue the madness after dinner, and sort the spices (I know that we have 3 Cream of Tartar containers and it’s driving me crazy!), but we went to the MOA instead, and were exhausted when we returned. now owns several casual long-sleeved shirts, but we didn’t find a little black dress for me (for ‘s wedding in June). I won’t do the spices tonight, because I leave work early to go to a 3-hour class in Minneapolis, which involves a whole lot of bus/train time (I really should have brought some embroidery – thank goodness I have a book and an iPhone!), and a very tired me by the time I get home around 8 pm. Still, the class only meets 4 times, and is much better than a Saturday morning class. Then, I get to sleep in for three whole days. 3! I am so very tired right now. Were this not a post about the house, I’d babble on about school, but I’m trying to keep it focused. Maybe later.

House-related questions: anyone have a good solution to the pile of papers that inevitably shows up on the kitchen counter? thoughts on paint color (a project that is quite a ways off, but I don’t care for the blue – it’s very high gloss and was done very poorly)? curtain ideas? ways to keep a black stovetop clean? kitchen item that I absolutely shouldn’t throw/give away?