A Little Bit of This and A Whole Lot of That

We had the first little bit of warm weather this week, so we christened our deck by cooking on the grill for the first time! It was a welcome change from cooking in the garage. Especially since Vern takes charge of cooking on the grill. (The white garage in the distance is Vern's shop, and that's my cute little red Jeep.)

Some further progress was made on the kitchen this week. We found out that we needed more structural support for the 12" overhang that will go around our island. The soapstone is very heavy, so we needed something substantial. We decided on some Mission style corbels. It was a mad scramble for them because we wanted to find something that matched the style of our kitchen, but that also was affordable. Affordable being the key because structural corbels in the size that we need are pretty darn expensive. Some of them cost as much as - - - are you sitting down? - - - $1,000 each! Yikes. that was definitely not in the budget.

We were able to find these from Rockler and have them overnighted to us so that we could get them stained and installed before our counters are ready.

Speaking of the soapstone, the great news is that it is being installed on Wednesday! The bad news is that we still won't have a working kitchen for a month or two due to the work that we have left to do and Vern's surgery.

We almost have the beadboard installed around the island. Here's a little peek at it as well as a look at the baseboard we are using around the island.

There will be a small inset bookcase in the area where the clamps are. The soapstone will extend about 12" most of the way around the island.

Here's another view that gives a little more perspective.

This is the view from the former living room/now dining room. There will be a small office in the area where the saw is sitting so that it is easy access from the kitchen but yet separate. You can also see the new door to the deck that we installed this fall. The walls are going to be a neutral tan color, so we're trying to decide on the color for the door. I'm thinking about red to give the room a little punch.

Finally, my "Mission Organization Project of the Day" was actually two projects. I'm working on our family room right now.

Here's a good example of "just because something is neat and tidy and you have room for it, doesn't mean you should keep it."

What the heck was I thinking keeping all of these maps? We had maps for almost every state, several large cities, and many areas of Canada. Do I really think I am going to be driving to Alaska anytime soon? Can I even remember the last time I used a map? And if I did need a map, wouldn't I want a more current map than 2003? Isn't that why we are members of AAA Motor Club? We can get all the free maps we want at any time. For that matter, we have two GPS units - why do I even need a map?

And these . . . .

Do we even have a VCR anymore? I guess we do, but I don't even know where it is, and I'm certain it is not plugged in. Heck, even when we did have one, I couldn't operate the darn thing. We have a DVD recorder and TIVO. I can't imagine I'm ever going to need a VCR tape again in my life.

So it was a pretty easy answer to the question "WWPD?" (What Would Peter Do?) Peter would say pitch them. And so I did.

Welcome to the 21st century.