So… here’s the before and after shots of our kitchen. We still have some cleanup to do before we move things back in, but all of the hardware’s on, and both Erich and I are very happy with the result. Future additions include curtains (which my mom’s making) and an eventual new floor… but for now, we’re working with the budget we had, which essentially was for paint and new cabinet hardware. It made a huge difference.
So… here’s the before and after shots of our kitchen. We still have some cleanup to do before we move things back in, but all of the hardware’s on, and both Erich and I are very happy with the result. Future additions include curtains (which my mom’s making) and an eventual new floor… but for now, we’re working with the budget we had, which essentially was for paint and new cabinet hardware. It made a huge difference.
BEFORE
And a closeup of the scary wallpaper:
AFTER
Not bad for an approx. $200 remodel, eh? 
Removing old wallpaper & paste:
Get a spraybottle, a wide-blade scraper, and a bottle of fabric softener (of a scent you can stand in pretty strong amounts).
Mix one part fabric softener to one part hot water.
Spray on walls.
Wait a few minutes.
Peel off wallpaper slowly using scraper to pull back corners and slide under center of strip as needed.
Using this method, Erich and Matt completely de-papered the kitchen in an hour. We still need to work on the glue, but considering that we expected the paper to take a long time? We’re already ahead of the game. I’ve read that the fabric softener will work great on removing the old paste, too. Just need to remember to work small areas at a time.
The best thing? No gouges in our walls, and we only had ONE layer of wallpaper. Yay!
Before I do my photo meme post, I jus thave to share this one… Erich found a birds next in our Pyracantha bush yesterday, nestled in a well-hidden patch underneath the thorns. It’s only a couple steps off the driveway, growing next to the house.
We thought there were only a couple birds, but now that I see this photo, there are at least four in there. They’re getting big, too!
We don’t know exactly what they are, but they’re probably a breed of finch or sparrow. We have quite a few of both around here (along with cardinals and blue jays, which these are definitely NOT).
ETA: Nope, robins! We saw Mom fly out of the nest this afternoon.
The first stage of planting is now in the ground – my herb garden is built (as you can see in the photo), and my veggies are now in their earthboxes.
This year’s herbs include: thyme, sage, 4 types of basil, cilantro, dill, mint, lavender, garlic chives, and lemon balm (aka “melissa”). Vegetables include 3 types of tomato (beefsteak, roma, and chocolate cherry), green bell peppers, jalepenos, and cucumbers.
Photos of them and other stuff in my yard, including the daylilies of doom, are up on Flickr, too.
Sometime early next week I plan on getting flowers for pots around the yard – color is good! No idea what I’m planting yet – I’ll just see what looks good and interesting at the nursery.
I’ve also added some photos to the Boston and Rhode Island sections, and finally got the photos from our trip to Chicago up. I haven’t really gone through to delete bad ones yet… so there are quite a few crappy ones, I’m sure.
First, welcome to several new friends I’ve met through memes in WoW and Slash fic writing… hooray!
So far, it’s been a very successful weekend. I have tomorrow off (hooray, Patriots’ Day!), so I’ll be able to devote a good chunk of it to writing, exactly as I’d hoped would happen. I’m feeling VERY pleased. Spring Cleaning success – hooray! And the weather has turned out surprisingly good… the original forecast was for scattered showers all weekend. We had just a bit last night, but otherwise it’s been partly sunny and mild. All of the tree leaves are exploding. The only downside is my allergies – but after this winter, I’ll deal with sniffles!
the big project of the weekend
I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend, full of whatever you celebrate, or productive in resting, recouping, and re-energizing if you don’t.
Ours was very quiet and uneventful. We went to bed on Christmas Eve with about six inches of snow on the ground. Got up on Christmas morning, and the grass was bare. Completely melted off, with the exception of the plow piles on the curbs (and as of Sunday, those are gone, too). Amazing.
Since Mom cancelled out on her trip up from Pennsylvania with my brother in tow, we really didn’t have any plans. All three of us got up late, bummed around for a while, and then headed out around 1 or 2 to find Chinese food.
We drove for a little while, starting first on Wickenden Street, then making a circle literally around College Hill before finding ourselves in North Providence. Nothing had been open. It was a quiet, bright, warm day, and we enjoyed the exploration around the city. I’d checked for places open before we left (just in case), and saw that MuMu on Atwells Ave was open for Thanksgiving, so I presumed they’d be open for Christmas.
And yes, they were. The only thing open in Federal Hill. Seeing Atwells Ave dead silent was just creepy. For anyone who knows Providence (and particularly Federal Hill) – we had our pick of parking. No cars anywhere on the street. This is a Very Weird Thing.
The food at MuMu was fantastic – in fact, quite possibly the best I’ve had since moving to New England, outside of the very authentic “I don’t know what I’m eating and don’t want to know… because it tastes good” food you get in Boston’s Chinatown. Nothing was greasy, everything had lots of flavor and the presentation was great. We shared a scorpion bowl (in a beta fish bowl… hee!) between the three of us and stuffed ourselves on a variety of foods. We will definitely be going back there.
After dinner, we just came home and bummed around. Watched the new Who episode, which I thought was cute but definitely not my favorite of the pack (of the four Christmas specials, it’s sitting tied at the bottom with Voyage of the Damned). Lots of World of Warcraft. I finished the couple bubbles I had to level to 75 – and then by yesterday levelled to 76. Otherwise we’ve been doing a lot of the low level quests available to gain reputation with our faction’s cities. Both of us are gearing to get the Ambassador, Exploration and the Loremaster achievements. Erich has already gained Loremaster of Outland and Eastern Kingdoms. I have only Northrend to finish exploring. Geekdom geekdom, yadda yadda yadda.
On Friday, Erich had to work. I did a bit of project work but not as much as I’d hoped – some beta work, some fic drafting, but mostly just recouping because I’ve been exhausted at work. I made a delayed Christmas dinner – a new roast recipe I found on Recipezaar that had a lot of very positive rankings (4.5 out of 5). I followed the recipe exactly, but sadly it’s probably the blandest pot roast I can recall. Not sure how that happened, considering the recipe had quite a bit of grated horseradish and dijon mustard in the mix, but both tastes were virtually eliminated in cooking. It was wonderfully tender and the carrots and potatoes came out nice and tender – but the roast and broth gravy were a disappointment flavor-wise. Thankfully for the leftovers, I still have plenty of the grated horseradish to top the meat slices. And if need be, I’ll make the mustard sauce I normally use to make mustard carrots.
For Saturday, we spent most of the day up with friends, catching up with a couple of the guys who have moved out of New England but were home for the holidays. A massive Risk boardgame battle ensued, as well as some Rock Band goodness. Relaxing, nothing particularly special, but good to see them and spend some time. A couple of the guys are pressuring me to take part in Erich’s Star Wars d20 campaign, but I honestly am enjoying my time NOT gaming these days. I just can’t handle the 6-12 hours sitting in a chair like they can. My attention span to that just isn’t good anymore. And honestly, I have other things I want to do – writing, WoW, stitching (one of these days), and just getting a few little projects done.
Sunday was project day – going out to get me a new monitor since my desktop LCD has decided to start draining itself (and therefore turning black) – they were out of the type I wanted, so we’ll go back later. Went to Home Depot for a couple things, and the pet store for the standard supplies. We also took down our tree. I prefer to keep it up until the first week of January, but this year it just could not happen. The tree stopped taking on water a couple weeks ago and was tinder dry, so fire safety had to rule the day this year. 
So now I’m back at work for another short week. I took Friday off to allow for another 4-day weekend, and I’m hoping to be a lot more productive. Erich’s gaming on Saturday, which should allow me plenty of time (and quiet) to finish my Support Stacie fic for wiggiemomsi. If work continues to be dead quiet this week, I’m planning on spending a lot of time going through beta work for others so it makes me look busy.
And then to figure out what I’m doing New Year’s Eve. Anyone up for anything?
I feel like an ass for not getting to beta work. Really do. *sigh*
This weekend, sadly, wound up not being the “getting shit done” weekend I’d hoped it would be. Fatigue just rolled in, my back was on that “going to be sore but not quite yet” line, keeping me paranoid about it.
I did get some stuff done, though – lots of little errands around town, a bit f tidying in the house (mostly the bathroom). And then I spent about eight hours straight (I kid you not) stitching on the couch in front of the TV, partially to try to beat the Stitching Olympics deadline and partially for some mental therapy. I watched some Olympic coverage, but then switched over to very old-school Measi stitching – while watching The X-Files. Saturday night’s offerings were: Momento Mori, Kaddish, Zero Sum, and Elegy.
I’ll post my stitching progress tonight. Even though I didn’t reach any of the goals I’d set, I made some VERY good progress toward them. So I’m content and pleased, even while being my typical beat-myself-up self.
Yesterday was just too dead tired to do anything. My brain was on strike. So out of it that I didn’t watch the closing ceremonies. I taped it, though – maybe I’ll watch them tonight. *shrug*
So yeah. Weekend. Whee.
