mother earth

Anders and I love Earth Day, but, to be honest, I wasn't that excited about it falling on a rainy, cold and miserable Tuesday when Anders and I both had to work. However, despite the weather reports, the sun did grace us with her presence for the afternoon, so Anders surprised me by getting off work an hour early! We were able to have a small (albeit cold) celebration. We planted a few flowers and vegetables that we had bought and cleaned up a few more beds for planting. It was a small work party, but it felt good to be outside and celebrate Mother Earth who really is so beautiful and wonderful. 

252 bottles of wine on the wall

Anders and I decided to glue wine corks to our wall because we thought they looked cool. And while we didn't actually drink all 252 bottles of wine that it took to make this wall (our favorite Italian shop, DeLaurenti, helped us out), we did put back a few in the process. 

Before and After!

kitchen update

I haven't done an update on our kitchen project in awhile, so here are some new pictures. It sure has come a long way from where it was. The contractors are about finished, but we are by no means "done." All that means is that that the work starts for Anders and I! We still have trim to paint, chairs to find, curtains to hang, walls to decorate etc. etc. but we at least have a functioning kitchen!

 Anders gets cozy on our new bench seating

  We are going to add a colorful back splash behind the oven. Painting the ceiling is on the agenda too.

 Our new table! The chair are temporary until we can find something we love.

 These bar stools are temporary too. We are having custom ones made that will be done in October. To the right of our bar stools is our new spice cabinet.

 Our new pantry. The doors still have to be stained and we need handles, but we are pretty excited about all the extra space.

This has truly been a long and stressful process, but we couldn't be more excited about the outcome. There is just so much more room and it makes cooking way more enjoyable. I can't wait until it's totally finished.

red to green

Some people spend Labor Day weekend camping or boating or grilling out and enjoying the sun. We, on the other hand, spend it painting. It might sound terrible, but it is actually super fun cause we paint with the Grateful Dead and champagne!

How many different pictures of painting can you take? Let's see!

house update

The kitchen project is a bit behind. It was supposed to be done last Wednesday, but, well, not so much. Maggie will show you a few updates, though..

We have plastered and textured walls now. 

And we have floors made out of recycled fir.

And we have the start of our new island...but no sink. or running water. Dishes are still being done in the bathtub.

Oh and shingles...we now have shingles. Woohoo!

That's about it. Fingers crossed A LOT gets done this week.

down one wall!

Our contractors busted through our kitchen wall the other day! Eep! It's crazy how much more space we are going to have. It's not even close to being finished and it already feels so good. I'm liking this project more and more.

We are testing out a new wall color too. 

It's not every day you get to sit in the middle of  a wall!

construction update

This project is moving along nicely. We now have walls and a ceiling!

YAY! YAY! YAY!

under construction

Anders and I have been talking, wishing, planning, thinking about expanding our tiny little kitchen into a bigger space for years, and we FINALLY have made it happen this year. We spend a great deal of time in our kitchen because cooking and eating and entertaining is such a major aspect of our lives. The problem is, we don't have enough room, and we don't have a dining room table. When friends come over, we have to eat around our little coffee table, and our storage is so limited that our blender and juicer sits on top of our refrigerator. But not for too much longer! In the next 6 weeks, we'll have a expanded kitchen with a new wall pantry and a dining room table (with bench seating!). I can't wait to show you all the after pictures, but here are a few befores and the progress so far.

Before Inside: Please note the crap important equipment on top of the frig. Our counter will be expanded and turned into an island, and the sink wall (kinda hard to see in the picture) will be gone.

Before Outside: Look at this big empty space we have just waiting to be turned into a dining room!

And how about this terrible dirt patch. It needs to go! Maggie is going to be sad, though. It's her favorite mud pit.

Day 1! Here we go! Shingles off!

Day 2! The dirt is dug up and we have a big metal pole. Woo!

And they removed our chimney...hi Maggie!

And now we have beams. Not sure what they are for, but it's still exciting.

Not a lot of progress just yet, but we are still super excited. Stay tuned!

ahhhhhhh.....

After owning this beautiful hammock a long time (it was a gift at our wedding! and handmade in Brazil!), we finally got around to hanging her up. To be honest, our yard hasn't been worthy of a nice hammock until recently. But after all the hard work we have done (here, here, here and here), I think it's time she finds a home in our yard. I'm pretty excited to have all major yard projects done. Other than still needing to plant a few flowers, I plan to spend the rest of my summer riiiiiight here. 

(although who ordered the rain the day after we hung it up? I tried to get Anders to lay in it for a picture and it was drenched! Fail.)

(oh, we also added marbles to our fence for quick and easy garden art. Such a cool idea. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't come out)

my favorite room

Anders and I have this quirky little room in our tiny house that hasn't served much of a purpose for a long time. It's an open room visible from the kitchen, and you have to walk through it to get to the back bedroom. For the longest time, it held a desk to make it an office, but it was never used and the desk held so much clutter that the room was mostly just an eyesore. Anders and I finally decided to change it up in there by removing the desk and adding a little table and chairs, family pictures, pike place fish memorabilia and tons and tons of plants. It's officially my new favorite spot in the house. You can even see our neighbor's blooming tree outside the window, and with all the green and natural light, it's the prefect place to wait for spring time. Also, I'm thinking the rest of the house needs more plants as well. They just make me so happy!