hmmm I may have found a name for my poodles...

A friend and I were talking about rabbits, yes I have a few and my rabbitry name that is registered with ARBA is Kismet Rabbits. I mentioned that I would use it for my poodles also except it is already taken.. So she started brainstorming for names meaning about the same but that are not used for poodle kennels already. She came up with Moirai poodles :-) I like the sound.

I think they do also ;-)

changes, changes and more changes

I am starting to think I am crazy for making this trip but I am making a lot of folks happy with the number of animals I am moving around.

More delays...

But this time I am responsible.  A recent charity auction has me running over to NC to pick up stock and bring it back to points in between our start in Colorado and our eastern point in NC.   This is the route we will probably be taking.  We will be hauling rabbits, chickens and possibly even turkey poults.   It should be an interesting trip...

Moving Forward...

Well my original plans for a kitchen with purple, cream, green and tan to amber tones have vanished but the new color choices are going to be rather interesting I think.  So not a lot of quirky and colorful stained glass etc but instead I get to play with an even more fun transitional style. 
Color choices are being controlled by our choice of Blue Pearl granite for the future counter top.  The back splash will have a stick mosaic tile that has the granite, blue, black, and clear glass tiles in it.   The floor will be a blue-gray color similar to the blue dove Marmoleum I posted earlier.

 The counter and backsplash will look similar to this photo from Houzz.

Contemporary Kitchen by Stamford Tile, Stone & Countertops Stamford marble and tile

 My lamp for over the dining table got changed to this neat minimal Tiffany style

And I am thinking of this quirky little pendant for over my sink.  I think it will add a touch of color to the blue/stainless/grey tones of the granite and backsplash.

We are also working with stains to find a "cherry" wood color we like to add some warmth. I am actually starting to get excited again about this renovation.

Choices, Choices, and more Choices

Still plugging away at pulling together the colors for the kitchen.  DH thinks I am just wasting time as he doesn't realize how important it is to make sure all your choices will work well together BEFORE you spend the money to buy them.

Last post I mentioned that we had chosen the type of floor we wanted Marmoleum which is a brand of linoleum.   I posted a picture of one color we were considering and mentioned I was still looking at colors.  Well today my second set of samples came in and I think we may have a winner.   :)  I have mentioned Bluestone to DH a few times as a dream floor but of course it is STONE and therefore not what we need in this house.   Today in my samples look what I found....

Contemporary Wall And Floor Tile by San Luis Obispo Building Supplies Green Goods Products

And this is what Bluestone looks like...

What do yall think have I found my floor?

Changes, changes, and more changes...

The floor continues to be a problem child but we have settled on the type of flooring.  It is a "green" product called marmoleum aka linoleum.  The product is very thick, if the dogs have an accident it will clean up easily without damaging the floor.   There is both a floating version AND a glue down version.  The colors we like are in the glue down sheet version so the next step is to find a local installer and see how much it will cost us to have it put in.   

This is called Granada and should look nice but I am still looking at other colors as I would like more color and more contrast with my pale gold cabinets.

The counter is down to three choices, blue pearl granite, soapstone, or one of the new laminates.   

Yes the cabinets are picked they are unfinished birch that we will finish with Tung oil which is another "green" finish.  It turns the pale birch a lovely soft pale gold that will contrast nicely with the darker colors in the floor and counter.  

Next thing to pick back splash and wall colors...

Problems and Solutions

The kitchen renovation is moving slowly forward. 

The floor has been a stumbling block, it has areas where the old tile have lifted, broken, and left holes in the tile floor.  Unfortunately the 9 by 9 inch tile size and the age of the tile means it is probably vinyl asbestos.  Sigh current recommendation for this type of floor is to leave it in place and float a floor over it if it is in good shape.  Well most of ours is but there are those two damaged areas....  and those areas have seemed to be an insolvable problem.   

If our floor was on a slab the recommendation to use a self leveling flooring compound would work but our floor is on top of a wood floor on top of a wood subfloor.  Our damaged areas are bare wood so anything liquid you put on them would cause problems as the wood absorbs the moisture from the liquid and then swells.  This would cause more tiles to lift and break which would totally defeat the purpose of the self leveling compound.  

Today a salesman at Menards had another suggestion.  This wonderful man suggested we find a tile that is the same thickness as our old tiles and use a modern adhesive to use the new tiles to patch our holes forming a level floor ready for us to install a floating floor system of our choice.   :-) Tomorrow we will start looking for cheap tile of the right size.

So with the floor problem hopefully solved we again looked at various floating floor options.  Sigh once again product weakness and our house design conspired against us to limit our choices.    We have lovely large windows on the south and the west side of our kitchen/breakfast nook.   That area gets lots of sun during the summer months.   The vinyl laminate floating tiles we had first chosen have a problem with sunlight and heat on them but there is another workable solution for our kitchen a floating porcelain tile system.  We need to do a bit more research but for now this is what we will be going with.

recycled kitchen...

WOW! It has been a long time since we did anything in the house but within the last month we have had some more movement on my projects.   First off the stove stopped working, wry grin it is only 23 years old but instead of trying to repair it we opted to buy a new more efficient stove that will work better with the way we cook now.    Removing the old stove revealed how bad off the kitchen really is.  So off we went to look into options.   Working with the designers at a couple of big box stores we came up with a much more workable layout then the current one. 

 

Then we found some discontinued unfinished cabinets on sale for 20% off  AND we found all the cabinets we needed for our new plan :) total cost under $500 a much sweeter price then the over 2 grand price we were being quoted for the low end pre-finished cabinets.  

The counter tops will be a fairly new Formica laminate called Travertine Silver that very successfully mimics the Silver Travertine tile I had fallen in love with.   Sigh it is a special order but is still less then the other options we explored for the counter tops. 

Back splash will eventually be glass tiles.  Floors probably vinyl in planks or squares depending on if we go for a wood or stone look on the floor....  Toli is leaning towards a hickory color/pattern while I am still being transfixed by those lovely stones imposters.