Thursday, August 28, 2014

Firsts and Faucets

Landon started First Grade on Monday! He looked super handsome in his uniform shirt and shorts- the cleanest and brightest that shirt and shorts are going to look all year. He had a new backpack, old shoes (we ran out for new ones that night; his feet are growing SO big SO fast), and an excited little smile. Who doesn't love the first day of school? I would still like to have one every year.


Landon didn't think the five of us really needed to be in his classroom, and he definitely didn't see why I needed to hug him goodbye, but he was a good sport about our (new) traditional handshake. How many years does it take for something to be a real tradition? Maybe by second or third grade?


This started when my best friend got married last summer and at her bridal shower her dad had a little slideshow of childhood pictures including a series of her and her big brother shaking hands on the first day of school every year from Kindergarten through college. It was adorable and so touching and funny to see them change (along with their attitude towards each other and school) each year. It occurred to me that my kids don't really seem to know what a handshake is, but they're very good at hugs.


Love.


Landon's new teacher seems just amazing. Very like his Kindergarten teacher (who we adored) in that she went to his school for her elementary years, her mom taught at the school, she student-taught at the school, and she's now on her 17th year there as a teacher herself. She is known as the "child-whisperer" and did seem to have an incredible and immediate hold on her class despite the parents, first day craziness, and not ever raising her voice above her soft-spoken drawl.


His first four days have gone great. Our big changes from first to kinder involve daily homework instead of weekly and a requirement to sign his behavior folder each day. So far neither party is finding this overly onerous, but it's early and the homework is all review so far.

In other bits of excitement I ordered four things online at Express.com the other day and all four fit and are perfect and I'm keeping them! This happens exactly never- I order most of my clothes online and always routine about half, but this time I'm keeping ALL of the things and I'm so excited by my success, and the re-purchase of my favorite pair of shorts in two new colors (and smaller sizes!) for only $10 each, that I don't even mind that I'm not getting the credit I assumed I'd get when I returned an item or two. I also got a dress for our anniversary dinner on Saturday- a cute trapezey thing that makes my shoulders look great for $18, so I'm all kinds of pleased with the internet right now.

Also on the internet- the inspiration for our new kitchen! As I mentioned previously, we're knocking out a wall and redoing our kitchen in the next few weeks. We picked out our appliances yesterday (amazing deal at a local store with the sweetest salesman; he helped me pick out and buy our fridge and washer/dryer when we moved here in early 2012. The company recently came out for free to fix a leak in our freezer no questions asked and they have a scratch and dent warehouse that saved us about $1,000 which justified my buying the double-convection-oven gas range of my dreams), and our contractor is coming by tomorrow morning to finalize our cabinets and floor plan. We're picking out granite and tile next week and our whole kitchen should be ripped out by mid-September. Can't wait!

Here's a few of my inspiration photos:




Flooring is going to be the trickiest part- I'm thrilled to get rid of our 70-year-old linoleum, but I need something that goes with my color scheme, doesn't clash with the honey wood floors already running throughout the house, and isn't square or boring or wood (I only like tile in kitchens). But I can't roam the aisles of the tile warehouse until Tuesday, so I'm picking out our faucet and over-peninsula pendant lights in the meantime.

Thoughts? Granite will be white/grey, cabinets will be white Shaker-style, floors will be darker (likely brown, but we'll see), walls will be same blue as living room, all appliances are stainless, and sink is stainless undermount.


Circle Pendant; Downlight Pendant.


Industrial; Curvy.

I still have some googling to do before finalizing those purchases, but I think I'm leaning towards the downlight pendant and industrial type faucet. Does anyone have one of those? Do you like it? After 2.5 years of discussions and savings, we're really just a few google clicks, building permits, and weeks without a kitchen away from a walk-in pantry and the ability to see the kids while I cook dinner each night. I am most excited about that last part. I hate getting home after work and then immediately kicking them out of the kitchen so I can cook (it's too narrow and dangerous to let them stay; my leg bears the scars from run-ins with appliances). I want to see Cora in her pen and Landon doing homework at the island and Claire flitting about between them. 

So while I meditate on that happy thought, let me know if you have any kitchen reno wisdom to share. Cabinet configurations, favorite drawer set-ups, things you wish you'd done, things you did that maybe weren't quite worth it in the end- anything! We've renovated three bathrooms, but this is the first kitchen and it means so much to me. Plus, it's expensive, so I'm going to need to love it until we move or the year 2034, whichever comes sooner, so let me know if you have any hard earned advice or other thoughts!

17 comments:

  1. Think of where you will work with your small appliances ( mixer etc .)and visualize where you would need a outlet ! And it is better to have too many outlets then not enough ! I found that out the hard way !

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  2. No advice from me, except that I love the under-cabinet lighting that's in my new kitchen. Especially since I turned 40 and my eyes are performing less than optimally (stupid)! I'm super jealous, and nervous for you all at the same time. Hope it goes by fast and you're baking cookies in that new oven sooner rather than later! Best of luck!

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  3. think of all the stuff you have and where it will go in the new kitchen. Like, how many shelves/drawers/ hooks do you want for plates? glasses? mixing bowls? cookie sheets/casserole dishes? waterbottles? lunch boxes? aprons? literally label every shelf in the design and make sure it works. Put the stuff you use most often on shelves close to your dishwasher. Leave counter space to dry dishes you wash by hand.

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  4. I'm a fan of the curvy faucet... the industrial looks like it could collect grease and crud after awhile and would be hard to keep clean. If you are as meticulous as I am in the kitchen, that will slowly drive you nuts.

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  5. We just remodeled our kitchen and the two things we love so, so much are 1) our double decker cutlery drawer with installed dividers and 2) our pull out trash/recycling drawer. Small things that have made the biggest difference.

    Have fun!

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  6. Since you always seem to research things so thoroughly......I'm curious why you've chosen granite over quartz? It seems like a lot of people are doing quartz these days, saying it's tougher, more stain resistant, not as much upkeep and maintenance, etc. But then again I just heard from one person the other day that that's not really true, and granite is a better product. We'll be replacing our counters this year. Thoughts?

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  7. agree - quartz is better than granite and more streamlined looking. we love ours.

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  8. I will advance the case for 1. A white enameled sink. I love mine with all my heart and it will look lovely with your granite. 2. Cork flooring. Tougher than regular wood, easier on your feet than tile. They have it in the library of congress, need I say more?

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  9. Google: tile that looks like wood.
    We LOVE LOVE LOVE ours.

    JLV

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  10. White enameled sinks do not stay white. I own one. Stainless definitely

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  11. Pull-out shelves for pans/baking items/small appliances. We also put outlets in our island. This ends up being where I do most prep.

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  12. My favorites from our redo ten years ago: deep sink, under cabinet lighting and pull out shelves. Start stocking up on patience:)

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  13. Pull-out drawers for everything. The only non-drawer lower cabinet you need is one small vertical one for storing baking sheets and pans.

    Decorative tile on the walls was pricy, but made our kitchen so much nicer.

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  14. Lurker with kitchen obsession... Hammered copper farmhouse sink (gorgeous and never scratches or looks dirty), pull-out spice racks on either side of vent hood above range, utility cabinet with plugs in it so you can keep all that stuff off the counters (ie: coffee pot, rice cooker, etc...), put outlets/light switches underneath the over-head cabinets to they don't muck up the backsplash.

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  15. having issues posting but will try again - the Kohler smart divide sink is amazing. best remodel decision we made.

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  16. (Tried posting this earlier, so hopefully it doesn't double post.) I had a faucet like the industrial one in my last apartment and for some reason people could never figure out how to turn it on and it was hard to keep clean.

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  17. We have that exact Danzig faucet and love it. We re-did our kitchen recently. We ended up with espresso silestone countertops and cabinets that were antique white with chocolate accent glaze that filled in the miter cuts in the doors / drawers. Our floors are 18x18 ivory travertine. Email me if you want some photos.

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