Sketchup is a Pain in My Butt

Our friends, Nick & Hanna (who I'm sure I reference frequently), are planning on re-doing their kitchen in the next couple of months. They are heading to Denver in a few weeks to pick up some cabinets, and offered to grab us a few when they go. We seriously have a TON of planning to do before we're anywhere NEAR ready to buy cabinets, but I want a new kitchen so badly, I've already started messing around with sketchup in my attempt to find the perfect layout.

I have no idea what I'm doing. It's such a pain to move stuff around in this blasted program, but here's what I've done today....

Kitchen Plan 1: 
In this plan, I left the wall between the kitchen and dining rooms because I'd really like to keep the coved ceilings. The sink and stove are in the same place. There is a new door at the bottom of the kitchen to (hopefully) keep traffic out of the middle of my cooking area.

I really want to keep the coved ceilings.....

In these drawings, I kept the stove where it currently is for the sake of venting, but I'd be fine with switching the fridge and oven in real life.

The door to the basement is supposed to be by the oven, but for some reason....I'm going to have to go measure again. It's a bit wonky. Don't know what's up with that.

 The main thoughts I have regarding this plan are as follows:

1. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to sketchup
2. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to kitchen planning
3. I like the feel of the dining room in this plan, it's really nice and formal
4. I really like the idea of another door to route traffic somewhere other than THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE KITCHEN like it is now. Would people use it, though?
5. There wouldn't be a "bar" to sit at (something Eric really wants). Could we make the cabinets by the fridge narrower and pull a couple of stools up there?
6. The extra amount of counter space is AWESOME. So much better than our cabinets now

To sum it up: I like the dining room. Kitchen is too crowded.

Look for other kitchen plans coming soon!

ps- any suggestions on how I can keep my coved ceilings? I would be most grateful!

Over the Weekend: Patagoina & Paint

Huzzah for three day weekends! The weather was wretched, but that didn't stop us from having a heck of a time! We went to dinner at MacKenzie River on Friday night (since our camping plans were shattered), hit up the Patagonia sale Saturday (with Adam), and tinkered about the house on Sunday and Monday. I wish every weekend could be three days. Did you hear me presidential hopefuls? Campaign for three day weekends!

Here's the basic run-down of awesomeness:

Eric waiting for pizza at M.R. It took them all of an hour. But they apologized and gave us a giant discount without us having to make a scene or anything.

Saturday, we woke up to SNOW covering our garden; it got worse as we headed toward Bozeman. 

We picked Adam up in Bozeman, then headed on to Dillon for the Patagonia sale. It was fun. But there were difficult decisions to be made -

Orange with hood? Or grey without? They were running out of sizes so there weren't many options.

As you can see, I went with grey. I seriously wish it had a hood, but it fit better than the orange. Plus, aren't we the most darling matching Patagucchi couple?

We got back to Billings Saturday afternoon, ran to a friend's house for dinner, then crashed into bed.

Sunday.....I painted. Eric tinkered with his bike. It was chill.  

Lookit how midcentury my house looks in this pic! dope!!!

I ended up painting the hallway and living room white. I wish I had done a little bit of a tint so the coved ceilings stood out more, but whatevs. White is bright and fresh and will be perfectly lovely until I decide what I want everything else to look like.

Monday I did the second coat of paint and decided that I desperately needed to get out of the house. So we went to Home Depot to get dining room paint samples.

"Gulf winds" was a dismal failure. Will try again this afternoon. Perhaps "Silvermist," "Comtemplation," or "Rocky Mountain Sky" will be more to my liking.

Less of a failure -

I got a plant! It's cool! And I really the pot I found too!

But enough about me....

Eric spent the weekend working on his bike! He finally bought a fancy new road bike, so he's been working on converting his old bike into a fixed gear. He made some bull horn (is that what they're called?) handlebars and got some new wheels....etc....whatever you do to make a normal bike a fixed gear...there was a dremel involved.....blah blah blah......kind of adorable.....He was really excited, so when he finished, we took a little ride to get a movie and some beer. Lookit how cute!

The Admiral Demolishes a Hated Enemy

Favorite toy. Fortunately, I go shopping enough to keep him in constant supply.

The painting continues....

Eric bought me five gallons of white paint last night so that I can paint the hallway and living room, and while I haven't been thrilled with my color selections for the other rooms, I think I'm going to try again with the dining room. I think I want a color something like this.....

Not too dark, though. Imagine this with a lovely drop-leaf table, wishbone chairs, and a black drum pendant......ah-mazing! Oh, and don't forget our plan to put a door where the dining room windows currently are (hopefully coming to you this fall)..... should be dope!

I think this time I might get paint at Sherwin Williams. Our super-awesome-and-really-rad-friends Hanna & Nick gave me a Sherwin Williams paint wheel, and they have ever so many more colors to choose from. Fun fun fun!

Busy morning

I really like having things to do in the morning. I always wake up energized and ready to go, and I like to take full advantage of that as I'm usually pretty groggy when I get home from work after sitting at a desk all day. This morning, I painted the living room ceiling! I had painted the dining room ceiling a couple of weeks ago and was really excited at how it brightened the room and accentuated the coved ceilings, so I've continued on to the rest of the house. Golly, I love those coved ceilings!!!

Here's the ceiling this morning before I left for work! Can you believe how un-white our walls actually are? They're that weird fleshy pink color that is everywhere in the house.

I'll do another coat when I get home, then I'm going to start on the hall. And next, the walls! I wonder what color I should do.....

Craigslist Wonder

Hoooo-lyyyyy crap. Someone please buy this. Haha!

Acquisitions: Floor Runner

I've been looking for the perfect hall/entryway rugs for a while now so that we can get of the last of the green shag. I'd really like one like this:

But these don't exist in Billings, or the world in general, for less than $500. Sigh.
I found a few runners at TJ Maxx yesterday - not exactly what I want - but you can't beat $20 a pop.

I'm a huge fan of the one in the middle. But I couldn't decide on the other two, so I got all three, planning to return the one I didn't like. The thing is, I forgot how looooong our hall is. Coming in the front door there's a 10 ft hall that needs a rug. Then the hall veers left for another 10, then a right turn for 15. It's long. The rugs, on the other hand are only 20" x 60" so they only fit in the middle section of hallway. Check it:

 This is as you walk in the front door. Definitely need a wider rug. This one is looking a little puny.

 Good width.....could be a bit longer.....but for the most part - ok.

Definitely too short.
The search for the perfect hall runners continues!

Over the Weekend: Ugh

This weekend was equally awesome and awful.

Adam stayed with us Friday night on his way back to Bozeman, and when we awoke in the morning, all four of his tires had been slashed. We found out later that there had been a few other instances down the block, and that our little old neighbor lady Evie had her gates (both front and back) kicked in. It was a frustrating morning. Adam was not very happy. I do not blame him one bit.

That kind of put a damper on our day, but the guys graciously agreed to do what Eric and I had been planning to do (ok, what Eric had agreed to do with me), go to a few estate sales and antique stores. We got a late start, and after realizing the estate sales were way out on the west end, we decided we'd just park on Montana Avenue and work our way toward the antique store I wanted to see. Ok, so this is the part that was equally awesome and tragic. This is the first store in Billings where I have have found furniture I liked; and while I was extremely excited at first, I soon became incredibly disappointed when I discovered the prices of said items. Everything I wanted was either priced at a hundred bucks more than it was worth, or it was "not for sale." Why the heck do you have this stuff in your store if it's not even for sale?!? It was a really discouraging experience. My annoyance was shared by Eric after he inquired about a giant poster detailing the oil refining process and was told "uh….I don't really know what I'm going to do with that. I don't think I'll sell it. It's, like, a historical artifact. I think it needs to be hung in, like, a conference room somewhere. You should get the Exxon execs to come see it. Then we'll talk." So you're saying your stuff is too good for us? Annoying. I'm getting annoyed again just writing this. Rargh. But I will show some stuff that I fell in love with....

Almost immediately upon entering the store, I stumbled across this bad boy.

This is the main cause of my intense excitement and then deep plunge into depression. I still want it. If it were $150 less. Maybe Eric will let me make an offer? Someday?

My next find included a couple of dressers. These were priced a little more reasonably, but had some veneer damage. The guy offered to hook me up with his veneer dealer (uh…what?) but I need another project like I need another hole in my head. Seriously.

We still might go back and get them. Spare bedroom, yo!

Then there was this dresser that is actually awesome. But cost as much as the other two combined. Annoying.

Another Eames chair:

Asking too much, in my opinion.
This light:

Hmm. Apparently no good pictures so please use your imagination. I still kind of want this for one of the bedrooms. It was priced at twice its worth.

Oh and then there was this:

This was possibly the biggest heartbreak of all. A GORGEOUS droop-leaf table. Lovely and long and narrow and EXACTLY what I've been wanting for our dining room. "Not for sale. We're looking for chairs to go with it. And then we're selling it to a long-time customer. By the way, our stuff is too good for you."

Jerkfaces.

Ugh I'm so frustrated right now. Rargh.

Let's change topic and focus on some good things that happened this weekend….
Eric tiled the entryway in our fireplace room (Adam and I helped a little). It still has to be grouted but it's looking awesome!

Another highlight: I may have the best brothers-in-law in the world. Look at what arrived in my mailbox on Saturday:

Watching episode upon episode of Parks and Rec has soothed the hurt left by Oxford Antiques. Though eating an entire block of chocolate didn't hurt, either.

The Admiral at the Forest's Edge

I love lazy summer days!

Flooring Update

We took the mahogany back. I couldn't live with the color. Plus, after reading the [awful] reviews it received on the Home Depot website, I'm not sure I wanted it anymore.

As a result, we are currently floor-less, though not entirely back to square one; we bought tile! Hopefully Eric won't have to work and we can get that knocked out this weekend. 

The only other choice we have for flooring is some acacia from HD. I think we'll look around a bit more before we commit to anything. We'd have to order this one and there's a giant re-stocking fee if we [I] decide to hate it after it arrives.

 Second choice wood: the one on the right.

Oh gosh! It looks really red in this picture too! Sigh. We are never going to have a floor.

Garden Update

Look what has happened in the last two days!!!!!!!

The corn and zucchini are the most noticeable plants, but the carrots, basil and chives are coming in nicely as well! The only thing I'm worried about is the squash - only one little plant has come up in that region... So exciting! Now we just have to keep from killing them!

Happy Birthday to Meeee II

I was sooooo close to ordering this globe online yesterday, but I couldn't go through with it. It was just too pricey. I mean, what if I ended up hating it? So I put it off, and I'm really glad I did because I found this one right after work for only $14! How great is that?! Yes, it's 60 years younger, but it's also $60 cheaper! It's pretty ridiculously awesome at night.

Furniture Arrangement

I want our living room to be wide enough so I can do this to it - put my sofa perpendicular to the door with a table behind it. That would be nice. It'd be groovy to have a place to set things down when I come in the door...... I'm going to have to see if the sofa will fit.

Or maybe something like this.....

Landscaping

I totally forgot to show what my parents and I accomplished while they were here (over a month ago). Ta Da!

We have to get a stump grinder for the big stuff, and poor Eric still has some littler stumps to dig out, but this side yard should soon (and by soon I mean, "most likely next year") be a lush patch of grass.

And this area....I'm not sure....we planted some grass that Bill Murray gave us, it should grow to be pretty tall....maybe a couple of low-ish bushes...? We'll see.

I have continued the rock removal on my own.....

We still have no wheelbarrow so I've been using the flowerpots in this picture to carry the rocks. It's a super good workout :) I've gotten all the way up to the tree in the corner; I'm waiting to finish because the poppy plant plant the other side of the tree is about a day away from blooming. After that happens, I can finish 'er up!

This area was so full of weeds before; it will be really nice to have it turned into low-maintenance grass!