housework

And by housework, I mean the good kind. Sure, we could be cleaning our bathroom this week or maybe pulling out a vacuum, but we're way more motivated to finish up some lingering projects. The back "cubby" off our kitchen was a god awful thing when we moved in and when I was on maternity leave Jay and a dear friend started to renovate it. Hilariously, we never squared anything up, but we sided it with cedar, drywalled the inside, painted the exposed brick and put a bunch of shelf brackets up so it could become our little Alice-In-Wonderland pantry. Unfortunately, we had a blocked eavestrough directly above and so sustained water damage soon after I painted the interior, and then raccoons took to eating the insulation Jay had put under the floor on the exterior. Fixing these two annoying problems became our numero uno procrastination reason for never getting back to the project. Fast forward to this fall; my Dad suggested Jay take the floor out and insulate above a masonite surface (take that raccoons!), we remembered the black and gray linoleum tiles sitting around (originally meant for our kitchen) which would really make the Alice thing work, and I had an urge to paint...anything. So now we're almost finished. As I type, Jay is working on more shelves (made from the tongue and groove floorbaords he salvaged from our attic - have I ever mentioned how industrious and talented my husband is?) and I have some quarter round to finish painting so the baseboards can get the final touch. The Shinzi fabric I've been coveting would be for me to make a curtain panel for the door. Even though it's not quite done, Jay spent some time this morning putting things on the shelves (he's a strange combination of skills - the handyman who also art directs). I'm so excited to have somewhere to display dishes we never get to see, like the polka dotted teacups and the Circa Ceramics bowl, and although you can't see it, the real highlight is that the microwave is on the other side and totally out of sight. All in all, we're pretty happy with it and feel like we almost have a real kitchen. Finally.

The last shot is just our table. With the new functionality in here we're going to try and keep the table empty so that it feels like a place people would actually sit and eat. The other night Jay gave the surface a sand, a new coat of stain and then I waxed it (which is suddenly our new favourite finish). Man, see how obsessed we are? And Jay suggested replacing the curtains with a roman blind of the Shinzi fabric...if I can get the Shinzi fabric. Anyway, that's how we spent our holidays and in a weird way it was relaxing. Though I have to admit, we're not the best at celebrating. There's always next year.