Wonderful Harvard Heights

Here is an advertisement, circa 1903, extolling the virtues of our neat neighborhood.

Spring Break '07

Where did we spend our spring break? Florida? Palm Springs? Nah..we stayed home and worked on the house like good homeowners should. We alternated between putting this nifty brown and white checkerboard pattern on the kitchen floor...

and finishing some more wood in one of the bedrooms upstairs. The kitchen floor was a pain...two coats of primer, two coats of white deck paint, laying out the checkerboard pattern, taping off and adding the brown squares, and finally three coats of polyurethane. That put the kitchen out of commission for most of the week so we ate lots of take out. While waiting for the layer to dry, we went upstairs and did some staining the was supposed to be finished over last winter's break! We're back in the kitchen now, and Raphael is celebrating by making enchiladas. Tomorrow is opening day at Dodger Stadium...the first fun we'll have all week!

A Little Paint in the Kitchen

This was our idea of a "quickie" project that has dragged on way too long. The chipping layers of old paint made for a lot of prep work, and we didn't even do that great of a job. We decided to paint the kitchen cabinets green and yellow to match the old tile. The walls ended up orange just to brighten things up a bit. A few of the many doors still need paint. New drawer pulls, a schoolhouse style lighting fixture, and a brighter bulb have helped to cheer things up considerably. We still plan on painting the plywood floor, and I'll sew a little curtain to hide that trash area under the sink. Also, we bought some old citrus crate labels...those are out being framed. So the quickie kitchen project continues on. More work should get done over spring break.