Where all Women Belong

If you guessed this post was about my future kitchen, you would be right.

Whats with the insanely sexist title you ask?  I'm feeling silly.  Overtly and overly sexist ridiculousness is a running joke in my house so I figured I would bring it to the blog, too.  You're welcome.

Anywho. I started writing down what I want to incorporate into the kitchen in the new house.  Then I remembered I started a blog for these sorts of ideas. Derp.

In a nutshell, what I want in the kitchen is practical, usable space, as much storage as possible, light, bright and airy with the whimsical beach cottage slant.  Pretty much like the rest of the house.  Color-wise, I am going white walls, colored cabinetry (shades of celery green), the same dark flooring as the rest of the house and I already have stainless steel appliances.

Now, onto the nitty gritty:

I will be doing 2-tones of the same color on the cabinets.  I am going to reuse the cabinets that currently live in the kitchen as much as possible, and otherwise will go out to ReStore and try to get cheap-o ones.  They are going to be painted anyway, so as long as their bones are good, I don't care if they mach.  That is what paint is for.

There are two ways I can go with getting two shades on the cabinetry. My first thought was to go with something I saw on  http://www.centsationalgirl.com

It is a very subtle difference here. I think doing the faces in one color and the frame in a lighter version is so sophisticated and lovely.  But maybe it is too sophisticated for a casual cottage?  Then I ran across this picture:

Here is a kitchen that is the wrong colors, and too busy for my taste, but there is something so warm and wonderful about it.  Is it the light coming through the window?  The glass shelves above the sink (I might have to incorporate that for a little mini herb garden)? All the greenery (plants, not paint) they have about?  Maybe it is the way the owners have incorporated the 2-tone cabinetry.  I am really leaning more towards this version of 2-tones.

Plus the added fun bonus... Adding glass to some of the cabinet doors (or leaving the doors off completely) and painting the interior of the upper cabs the same color as the lower, darker cabs would be so delightful.  Observe:

Does that looks like they might have painted over beadboard wallpaper inside the cabinets to you, too?

from Martha Stewart

Now, I know that the inside do not match the lower cabinetry in these pictures.  I just wanted to show how cute it is to let insides show like that.  I couldn't actually find a picture of what I have in mind, but I'm pretty sure it is going to work.  Also, how about the farm sink (I think that is what they are called?) in that second photo?  /dies

As far as counter tops go... it's been a real thinker.  I currently have Corian, and I am not happy with it.  It scratches. And it leaves marks if you put something hot on it.  And it just looks cheap. Not as cheap as laminate of course, but I still am not happy with it.  I am against the idea of tile too, so that is just out.  I have never had to live with grout, but I am guessing I would hate it. A lot.  We aren't the cleanest of people, and just the idea of all the little bits getting stuck in the grout-tracks gives me the willies.  I need a nice flat surface that I can run a cloth over and know I got everything up.

Granite and marble are probably out of the picture, even if we find remnants or go to liquidators.  It will just be too much cash to put out at the get go.  So, I have turned to the idea of butcher block counter tops.  The more I think about it, the more I LOVE the idea.  I would not seal them so that 1) they could be usable - I am a cook. I love cooking, and the idea of a counter top that is not food safe boggles the mind 2) the raw wood has natural anti-bacterial qualities 3) although I probably wouldn't cut on them much, over time, the roughening up of the wood surface would totally fit in the with rest of the house decor and 4) it's cheap.  I have been reading you can do the whole kitchen in butcher block from Ikea for $300 bucks in materials.  Yes please.

This one looks to be sealed, but I am not sure.

http://www.theletteredcottage.net/

And this one is not sealed - that or the owners don't care if they poison themselves from the bread sitting on  the sealant (as an aside, how adorable is this kitchen overall?! They even have my farm sink...)

Decorpad.com

Additionally, I am going to re-purpose a JC Penny Kitchen Cart I already own to fit the decor of the room.  The unit I have looks along the lines of this, but it is a bit longer, and is all dark cherry stained wood:

My idea is to sand and paint the unit white, add some feet instead of the wheels, then get a remnant of granite or marble for the top in order to create an island on the cheap.  I hope to find a topper that will overhang enough so that I can tuck a couple of stools at one side and have this double as a food prep (insta cutting board!) station and casual dining space.  Not that we EVER eat anywhere but at the computer desks.    In the house we are looking at, there is a non-load bearing wall in the way if where I want this beastie to go, dividing the kitchen from the dining area and living room.  I smell demolition in it's future.  Barring that (my pockets, they are not so deep), this will just get pushed up against where the wall currently is. I guess. Psh.

Another detail: bead board backsplash.  So adorable!  I have been seeing the look a lot on decorator blogs.  Honestly though, how can you not love it.  It is no wonder it has caught on with gusto.

http://kleypas.blogspot.com

The place we are looking at does not have a pantry, so I thought that this was a great idea when I saw it on  http://kleypas.blogspot.com (her redone kitchen sure looks a lot like what I envision for my future home...).  Using free-standing cabinetry as a pantry, and then replacing the solid door with curtained frame is such a good idea.  Plus, you can make the curtain tie in colors to your liking, easily clean it, and change it on it whim.
Not that I would get that whim very often.

Finally, lighting.  I hate how dreary my current kitchen is, and it isn't even that dreary.  I am just in the kitchen for most of my free time on weekdays and having fun creating fun foods on weekends, so I demand LIGHT. I want recessed lights all over the ceiling and over the sink (or maybe a pendant lamp there, but husband would hit his head on the rare occasions he does dishes).  I want undercab lighting.  And I want a pendant lamp in lieu of a chandelier or whatever over my island seating.  If it is half as cute as this one, I will just squee:

from Coastal Living

House by the beach? Make it a Beach Cottage. Duh.

I'm caught up in the Pinterest craze. Holy smokes what a great little tool!  I don't really browse other people's boards so much as pin my own stuff incessantly.  Up until now I have been keeping several Google docs that have images of things I like, and to keep track of links to tuts and whatnot.  Pinterest is much easier!

The great thing about it is that I learned what the style of the new house will be - well, this is after a discussion with the hubs regarding his choices for paint tones (the man is colorblind and ergo gets no say on the color, but I allowed him to choose brights, versus whites.  I'm effing generous, right?).  We are going pastel, with the dark floors (probably not the black) and I am going to try my hand at beach cottage style.  It's so easy! It will just take time...

The last week I have been reading a lot of "how do I make my house beach cottage style"and I read the best tip ever: white slip covers.  Now, knowing our life is the dogs, you might think this is a crazy notion, but this is where the tip (that never even occurred to me) comes in:  white can be easily bleached, which means stains are easily removed, never fades, and keeping it spiffy is a quick fix.  So awesome.

As an aside but related, I saw this yesterday and I couldn't agree more! I am glad there are more people out there like us, at least enough to necessitate this awesome sign:

Looove it!

Anyway, my head is starting to fill with actual plans now that I have tones decided, colors semi picked (waiting on some more paint chips to arrive, and might have to hit Ye Olde Home Depot this weekend if the chips I got don't satisfy me), and a style truly decided.  The weird thing is, I think that this has been my style and I just never knew it.  I am always drawn to plain white ceramics, or clear glass (which all my dishes currently are).  I hate clutter and knick knacks.  Casual comfort is the way I choose to live.  I am drawn to ocotopi, jellyfish and mermaids like no ones business. I think I'll survive the whites.

I am not sure why I didn't lean towards "beach cottage" sooner.  Probably because plain white bores the bejesus out of me, but I am learning the way to get my color in is with 'pops'.  White can be fun and dramatic if you bring enough eye candy in.  As long as I stay away from beige and tan I should be quite happy!

Taste the Rainbow

Mmmmm colors colors colors.  One of my favorite things in the world is just playing with color.  I am one of those freaks that can color match anything to anything else.  I can "see" shades of color within other colors.  I am the dope who looks at something purple and can honestly tell you there is too much orange in it.  The color thing is pretty much my only natural talent.

And that means that when it comes to picking paint colors, I am having a hell of a time.

I know the general colors I want and where I want them to go.  The trouble lies in whether or not it will fit with the feel we want for the house: casual, cozy, whimsical, cottage, low-maintenance and airy.  That IS a style right?  haha!  What I envision for the style of this joint will be the subject of a future post (I just deleted an entire paragraph of info I decided to save for later).

Anyway...

The majority of the house is going to be the same green I have in my current place.  I love it so much. I have also decided that most of the new house is going to have faux wainscoting with white or off-white on the bottom so I can go bolder with my colors on the upper half.

Here is my green. So yummy! (by the way, my home monitor makes this look way different from my work monitor, which means who the hell knows what it looks like on YOUR monitor.  If I were to name the color this should be, it would be Asparagus Tips)

And just an idea of what it would kind of look like in a room with the dark floor:

Of course, I would never, ever have a light-colored couch.  That is a recipe for disaster.  Any couch we might one day have will be in a dark version of the green, or possibly brown/neutrals. The majority of the wood furnishings in the rooms will be white.

Kitchen, dining room and hallways are all going to follow the same color as the living room since chances are they will all be touching anyway.  I want white cabinets in the kitchen, dark counter top to match the floor, white backsplash, and then a stronger version of the green on whatever walls show, which won't be very much.

Under Foot

Well, we are still on pins and needles waiting to hear about the De Solo house.  The yucky news is that we found out the package STILL hasn't gone to the bank. Apparently the sellers went out of town the day after they accepted our offer, and their agent is "very part-time".  Sometimes no news is good news.  And sometimes no news is no news because nothing is freaking happening.  Our house is a pile of paper sitting on some nimrods desk.  le sigh.

Regardless of which house we end up in, we have to get it furnished and decorated and all that good stuff.  I am already working on my paint colors, and I know the wall treatments I want, both of which are subjects of future posts when I get some prime examples to post up.  Today though, I am pondering floors.

I have long hated the carpets in my current house.  I am sick of carpeting at all.  We have dogs.  WEll, that is an understatement.  We pretty much live for our dogs and they are the only children that we will ever have and so we have planned this move around them for the most part.  With that in mind, there is no reason to keep carpets.  So we are doing the hard flooring thing.

I have contemplated doing concrete floors, but I think that will cost an arm and a leg compared to good ol' laminate flooring.  It is not the best, but it is sturdy and easy to clean.  That about sums up the way we live too. We need something that will last, that we can be lazy with, and not have a heart attack over when the dogs poop on it.  Which they will.  With gusto.

So, I looked at colors today of the popular name brand and I have picked out my favorites. Luckily, one of them is also Eric's favorite, too!  Here is what we were looking at:

Madagaskar Teak (LF 000052) Nice and dark with just a hint of cherry to it.


Dark Cherry (PH 4710) I love the warmth of cherry woods. This is the darkest I saw.  But i'm leaning towards it not being quite dark enough:




Charleston Oak (080110).  Might be a little grey maybe?  It is sort of lacking warmth, but maybe that is because the first two I am drawn to have so much red in them:

And finally, Ebonized Oak (080107).  This one may very well end up being the winner. I love it.  Eric loves it.  It really depends how its going to look up against the walls and whatnot.  I need to do a style board before settling on anything.

So, there is that.  Seeing them all together like this is helpful.  Of course, I have not seen any of them in person. And I haven't put them next to my colors yet, so it is really up in the air as yet.  But hey, at least it is a start.

Stalking

No, not in the insidious way.

I think it is fairly normal for people to stalk the house they are trying to get (please tell me it is...).  I have driven by twice since it is on the way home from the market.  And I keep looking at it online.

This morning, however, when I began my stalker routine, the (my!) house is gone.  Gone from Redfin. Missing from Zillow.  401'd on BayAreaHomes.  I did find it on a couple other sites though after my mini heart attack.  The status changed from 'Active' to 'Pending With Release'.  As a first time home-buyer, I have no idea what this means.  I'm waiting for Pete's reply email with the answer.  From what I can gather though, it's a good thing and just means they aren't going to accept other offers on it.  Can I get a woot woot!!

Today marks one week since we submitted to the seller.  They accepted on Monday of this week, and I hope they have forwarded our offer to the bank by now (this is a short sale home, like almost all the homes that are currently on the market in our area).

Sitting on pins and needles for a full week sucketh.

The De Solo House

Do you think talking about something too much jinxes your chances of it happening for you?  If so, you are probably going to think I have royally effed myself with this post.  Good thing I don't believe in all that hooey (... much).  I mentioned the De Solo house in my last post.

As soon as I saw this Linda Mar rancher pop up on Redfin, I knew we had to go see it. Who cares that the listing clearly states, "needs a little TLC" and that it is a, "great starter home for the handy person." I can be handy! I can give it some luffs!  Right guys?? None of you know how truly lazy I am, so you can go ahead and agree with me just to make me feel better.

Honestly,  I am handy and creative.  If I put my mind to something, I will do a great job of making it (whatever 'it' may be) happen. I get tons of really great ideas, constantly.  Sometimes I even write them down.  The bad thing is only 20% or so ever comes to fruition.  Despite knowing this about myself, and in the face of the dire warning of NEEDS WORK insert flashing skull and crossbones here, there was something that I couldn't pass up.

The thing that really drew me to this place is the location. To the rear of the house is part of the San Pedro Valley County Park and San Pedro Creek!  So not only is there privacy,  we will still have deer, coyote and raccoons visiting the backyard, and there is NO chance anyone can build behind this place.  Heaven!

Here is a lovely overhead map of the general area:

When we first drove by, it was being shown to another couple, apparently for the second time.  This fact has not left my mind during the last week since seeing it.  I feel like these people are just around the proverbial corner about to strike with a better offer than what we were able to throw down.  They haven't yet, but the fear is there.

We came back an hour later and were able to go in.  The first thing that struck a chord was that the front porch area has been enclosed and converted into a mudroom.  A mudroom! How charming is that?!  It is small  to be sure, but that is something I have always wanted.  You can see it (and the diminutiveness of it) in this picture.  The white door and small window represent the length of the room in it's entirety.

The layout of the house is the typical Linda Mar ranch style home.  If you have been in one, you have been in them all.  The only thing that varies is the amount of updating (if any) that has been done.  In essence, all the listings read like this:

BEDS:	3
BATHS:	1
SQ. FT.:	1,040
PROPERTY TYPE:	Attached Single Family
STORIES:	1

So, what has been done on this one?  The bathroom is a full remodel.  It's terrific! Pedestal sink. Floor to ceiling ceramic tile.  A shower over a new tub.  And it is all in pristine white so you can do just about anything with it decorating wise.

They added central heat and got rid of the wall heaters.  They also got rid of the fireplace in the process and forgot to plaster over and repaint the room it came from, but that is just aesthetics and nothing a little elbow grease can't fix.  It also left an ugly scar on the side of the house.  So, it probably will need to be painted soon.

And nothing else.

In fact, I am quite sure some of the upgrades that have been done have ended up as bigger messes then when it was started.

They added new cabinets to the tiny kitchen.  I think they added new cabinets twice.  I say this because there are three distinct, non-fitting, and very greasy, styles of cabinets rather haphazardly placed in odd places.  They did vent the gas stove though, which is a big plus.  There is a wall in the kitchen dividing it from the dining area that I am itching to have down.  It will be high on the "makeover" list and will open this place up like nobodies business.

There seems to be new copper plumbing from what we were able to see in the garage.  I imagine this went in when the bathroom was redone.  We have to wait for an inspector on that though.

But the back yard just makes me SQUEE in delight.  There is a huge deck (fake wood *sadface*) that already has a gas and a water line running to it.  It looks like they had an outdoor bar/sink at some point (you can see the fading on the deck) which they took out.  There is also a hot tub.  We aren't sure if they plan on taking it with them, but regardless, we know there is electricity running to the spot.

There is a large shed that has electricity running to it that looks like it was converted into a workshop.  The door was locked so I couldn't really get in there to see.

Beyond the deck and workshop area the yard is terraced thrice.  The bottom level I think has some grass and is about 3-4 deep.  The next level up is only 2-3 feet deep but has lovely bricks which enables raised bed planting (can you say tomato plants).  The final level is a good 20 feet deep and is grass all the way to the back fence.  There is a gate in the fence in back so that you can exit the yard and go down to the creek :)  I see planting rosemary along the back fence on the outside.

Thank Google maps for the overhead!  It is easier to show the backyard then try to describe it.  Apparently, a picture is worth 214 words (yes, I counted):

Once we hear whether or not the bank accepts the offer, I'll go back and take better pictures.  I would have taken them the first time we visited, but the people who own this place have left it half packed and filthy.  The house belonged to their father who passed away recently, and it looks like they are taking their sweet time getting all his stuff out.  The De Solo house has been on the market for 84 days now and they still haven't gotten it cleaned up.  Eric and I have a feeling that they are going to end up leaving a lot of junk there.

Everything except the appliances.  Did I mention none are included?

The Moana House

During this whole house hunting stage, I have been perusing Redfin like a crazy woman.  I dare say I am straddling that weird border between savvy shopper and straight up compulsive web browser turned obsessive home buyer.  I won't say which descriptor I am leaning more towards.

On one of our first forays out into the big scary world that is Bay Area Real Estate, I spied the house on Moana as coming on the market that very morning.  In fact, our agent (the ever patient and terrific Pete Lommori) hadn't even seen it.

We walked into 6 houses that day.  One of these houses was miraculous.  Redone inside and out, in the neighborhood we wanted (Linda Mar) and the style of house we wanted (ranch). It was also out of our budget, but we put an offer on it anyway.

The other decent house we saw was at 415 Moana.  It was a fine house.  Not in the neighborhood we wanted.  The backyard barely existed.  It needed a fence to go up before we could move in.  It hadn't been updated since 1982.  But, it had good bones.  And it was bigger than any of the other homes in our price range.

So in the flurry of putting the offer on the awesome house, we went ahead and threw down the offer on Moana just 'cos it was easy to do so, and, hey, it was there.

As expected, the cute house we put an offer down on was dismissed out of hand.  As unexpected, the Moana offer was accepted.  And thus began a crazy 6 weeks of things progressing on a house that was a fine house, but not a house we loved.

I was uneasy about this place at first.  I even asked our agent to go back a second time so I could take some pictures.  It wasn't as bad as I remembered it.  In fact, it was sort of cute if you used a lot of imagination.  The layout was really weird, which I actually liked.

And the kitchen was GINORMOUS which, in my book, is the second most important feature of a house (the first being the house itself situated in a good location, which includes a yard and some nearby wilderness).  It would need some updating, but it was generally workable.

I was never 100% comfortable with this place though.  There are a couple of reasons, and some I can't put my finger on.  Some of my concerns included:

• It was just too big for 2 people and 2 dogs.
• We didn't need 2 living rooms
• I really wanted 3 (small) bedrooms
• No wilderness near by
• All the neighbors were situated slightly above the level of the house so could easily see into the backyard / windows (I think this was the big one)

I just wasn't feeling it.  Because of this, I kept going to Redfin to see if anything else was going to pop up.  Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, I was fretting, "What if this goes all the way and we are stuck";  "Should we walk away now?";  "What if we walk away and then don't find something we want in time" (That's a whole 'nother story I am not going to blog about, but basically we are in a situation where we need to vacate our current residence, but we actually don't have a target date - we just know it is coming).  It was a lot of stress.

On Wednesday, April 20th 2011 we heard back from the bank - they negotiated to a price they thought was fair but I wasn't happy with.  Also on April 20th, I saw another rancher in Linda Mar come into our price range due to a price reduction.  On Thursday the 21st, we went to see the rancher on De Solo (more info on this in another post since this one is getting rather tedious, no?).  We put in an offer.

And thus began the most stressful weekend of my life thus far.  So stressful that (TMI) my period decided to start up again after only vacating the premises 10 days prior.  I got a lot of stuff done aroun dthe house though.  Nervous energy will do that for ya :)

On Monday the 25th the bank on Moana came back with an agreed upon price (they were done negotiating, I wasn't quite happy, the Realtor was thrilled).  Also on the 25th, the sellers accepted our offer on the De Solo house.  Since this is a short sale, that is only step one of course.  The bank would still need to see the paperwork and decide if THEY were going to accept the offer.

We needed to make a decision then and there.  Take Moana in all it's luke-warm glory, or hope De Solo, the house and location that has made my heart go pitter-pat, would pull through eventually.

We had to go with our gut on this one.

And so we walked away from 415 Moana.