Ceiling Fans

Right now we have a couple ugly ceiling fans in the house. The one in the living room belongs in a tropical breeze house, and I just don't like the bedroom one. I've been looking for some other fans. Here's a few I like.

Our current living room fan.

I like the simplicity of this one. I think it's my favorite one, but it has not light on it :(


This looks cool, but I'm worried it might look cheap in person.

This might be too big for the space, but it's cool.


I like this a lot.

Another nice one. It may hang too low, though.

How's this one?
Or this?

Temporary Kitchen

Since we have no kitchen right now, we've set up a little temporary kitchen in the dining room. It kind of reminds me of a hotel room, only without the mini-fridge stocked with mini liquor bottles and candy bars! We've got a microwave, a coffee maker for Jose, and some non-perishable food items. It was weird shopping for only food that could be microwaved...I didn't know what to eat! I settled on baked beans, many cans of various soups, chips, out meal, and peanut butter. Now if only we could find the can opener...

Hardware Dilemma

I have to choose hardware for the kitchen (sink faucet, bin pulls for the drawers, and knobs for the cupboards). The only other pieces of hardware we've bought so far for the house are the back door dead bolt and knob, which are black. I think I want all the door knobs in the house to be black like those (I think the look is called oil rubbed bronze). So my dilemma...if all the door knobs are black (and maybe even eventually the light fixtures, light switch covers, etc), do the bin pulls and knobs in the kitchen need to be black too? And does the kitchen faucet have to match or is it ok to be chrome or some other metal? All the appliances are brushed stainless steel, so I don't know if that makes a difference. What do I do??

I love the look of this one, but the color probably won't work. It also comes in chrome, brushed nickel, and some others. Not black.

I really like this one. I like the tall, movable pot filler spout. It comes in chrome, polished or matte nickel. Matte nickel might be cool. Not as shiny.

This one is cool, but the faucet may be too low to fill pots.

Brushed nickel bin pull from Rejuvenation

Same one in black.

Another Rejuvenation pull. You can choose any metal finish.

I like the rustic look.

Some more options.

I like the shape and color of this one.

I like the matte finish on these door sets from Rejuvenation (all their door knobs are ridiculously priced though!)

Some more cool, expensive sets.

I love this one. I'd like it for the front door.

We Moved In!!!

Yep, that’s right! It felt like it would never happen, but just in time for Christmas, Jose and I moved into our new house! Never mind that we have no hot water and our kitchen is still just a hole in the ground. The other ¾ of the house is livable so we loaded up Jose’s van and started moving in as soon as the floors were done Tuesday night. I don’t think we slept at all that first night though. I was scared of creepy, crawly things coming in through the kitchen hole so I made sure the plastic covering where our bedroom door was supposed to be was sealed tightly. And the fish tank that has been living on the bathroom sink was noisy, so we had that door closed too. Unfortunately, this made our bedroom into a sealed, hot bubble of varnish fumes, and in the middle of the night, I felt like I was suffocating and had to rip all the plastic down so we could breathe! I woke up tired and with a headache, but it was totally worth it!
Now the fumes and the plastic are gone and we’re working on finding places to unload all of our many, many boxes of crap! I can’t believe how much stuff we have. We’re trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible and next weekend we’re going to have a yard sale, but letting go of things is never as easy as I think it’s going to be! We’re slowly getting through it though, and with each box emptied, the house is looking better and better! We’re so excited!!

Our first night in the house! Note the plastic on the door.

Piles and piles of boxes!

Our new flea market clock and lamps. The clock actually works, which is more than I can say for one of the lamps!

My dad's in the process of building new shelves in the closets.

I was hoping for a real tree this year, but these will have to do!

For an old house, the closets actually aren't too bad. Lots of room for clothes!

My new flea market lamp fits in well in the bedroom.

The fish finally moved out of the bathroom! It's not a perfect set-up, but it'll do for now.

Jose is VERY happy to have a place to listen to all his records again! They're the first things he unpacked.

Before and (Almost) Afters

Move in date is so close we can almost taste it! The floors are sanded and stained with one layer of varnish and two to go. The floor guy says we can start moving in on Tuesday! They look amazing already. The kitchen's still all open but we don't care, we'll deal with it. At least we can move in the stuff for the rest of the house so we finally have access to all our stuff and a bit of our own space.
Here some progress pictures. I wish they real finished after pictures but that might still be a bit and I'm too excited!

Before: Ugly carpets, cute paint, white trim.

After: Beautiful! Still shiny and wet.

Before: Old water heater and pantry.

After: New plumbing for washer and dryer and framing for the new wall.

After: New tankless water heater. We'll have to get a box to hide it somehow, but it takes up a lot less space now!

Before: The old kitchen.

After: No more kitchen.

Before: Flimsy interior door being used as an exterior door.

After: New door waiting for trim. It'll be perfect once there's a beautiful garden to look out on!

More Pics

Here's some random photos of what we've been doing lately. The hardwood was delivered yesterday, so he should start installing it Tuesday and our back door is getting installed on Saturday! The kitchen floor is ready to be closed up as soon as the plumber fixes the pipes (sometime next week). It's exciting...things are finally coming together. I'm still tweaking the kitchen design and trying to figure everything out (like how to fit a 25" deep dishwasher under a 23" counter). I ordered an apron sink though! Not the Ikea one unfortunately...it was too wide for the narrow counter area. I just got a call that it will be in tomorrow! That was fast. It's funny, I've actually been reading my Bungalow Kitchens book instead of just looking at the pictures and she talks about everything that I'm dealing with right now (fitting modern appliances into narrow old counters, designing cabinets, DIY vs hiring people). It's kinda cool to realize that this is just how it goes with old houses!

We finally got the old heater out of the wall...now we have a huge hole :(

The backside of the original lath and plaster (We had to rip it all out for the new pantry wall).

With the heater gone, you can see all the way through the wall now! All this will be moved over and cleaned up for the new stove.

Leveling the corner of the house out with shims (the wedges between the concrete and the wood).

I spent a couple days pruning the neglected trees in the backyard and cutting them away from the badly leaning garage. I want to plant a few fruit trees eventually.