Our winter projects

While we have been waiting on our paperwork, we've done a few projects that have been our to-do list for a few months (or years). (Note: When I say "we," I really mean Bryan.)

Our sweet old house had very few rooms with overhead lighting, so we put in a couple of overhead lights. Currently they're just bulbs, but maybe we'll get some interesting light fixtures in 2015. 

We also got a lamp from an old, sweet, now deceased friend in 2005. It's been collecting dust since then. About three months ago, Bryan gave it a coat of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint (that stuff is fantastic!) and it began to look more like our style. Well, we finally put that up this weekend. We are not sure how we feel (correction: Bryan is very sure how he feels about it!) about its extra crystal baubles or gold lampshade when our style runs toward burlap and wood.

Then we're in the middle of lambing season, so we have a couple of these:

And I also resigned from my job. Probably. And definitely sadly. I really like my job. I have the best students (they got me the flowers in the picture below) and it's been fulfilling and because of how much I enjoyed it, it's helped me stay positive through some rough patches in my life. But this is a new chapter in our lives. So with some sadness, we turn the page and look forward - with JOY! - for the adventure that awaits us. Officially my last day is July 31, though I want to teach two more classes this fall. But everything depends on when (if) they find a replacement for me. I may end up needing to put in a few more months. We'll see.

But our biggest project has been in our kitchen. I wanted to wait to do anything to it until we had the money saved up to do everything exactly how I wanted to do it. You know:

• new cabinets
• moving the range to an outside wall and get a range hood
• new flooring
• new paint
• new hardware
• new sink
• new countertops
• maybe even move the sink

The most special part of kitchen were the cabinet handles. They had these little pins that you pushed in to open the cabinet door and, if you weren't careful when you shut the door, they flew out and fell on the floor. I was used to it, but it got on the nerves of other people who used our cabinets. And I'm sorry, Shara, but it really amused me.

Anyway, for nearly six years, we stayed with it as is. And our savings went to other things. After some budget analysis recently, we decided that the kitchen really wasn't that important to us, so let's do what we can...cheaply!

So we broke out some paint leftover from my sister's laundry room (maybe four years ago?). And we painted our cabinets, spray painted some light fixtures, and bought some new hardware and new curtain fabric. We kept everything else the same.

Before: 

 After: (actually, this is in progress. As you can see, we don't have all the cabinet doors on yet.)

Not bad for a budget kitchen renovation, right?

Here is the curtain fabric. I love how it matches the counter top that I don't have to change :)!

And here is a look at the kitchen nook - and a better look at our paint. I like the aqua color a lot and sometimes just stare at the contrast between the fresh aqua and the crisp white.

On to more important things...our contact in Poland is working on our embassy paperwork. When we get that next round of paperwork, our court date can be scheduled. While I was hoping to know our dates this week, it may be up to two weeks from now. As long as we have no more delays, we should still be back for my sister's wedding.