Staying Busy

November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 ~ veronimama ~ Leave a comment

I don’t do well when I’m bored. My head is clearest when I have nine projects going at once and 4 of them are in disaster mode. I feel the most in control when our apartment is total chaos, with the contents of the kitchen cabinet strewn all over the living room, watercolors laying open in the middle of the floor, and a couple X-actos laying blade-up on the couch. The last few weeks have been stressful (understatement of the century) with Brian spending 99% of every single day glued to his laptop working on his Masters Project, so I’ve channeled my stress into what feels like a million projects.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, OUR KITCHEN IS FINALLY SEEING SOME PROGRESS. omg.
Our landlord stopped by with the plumber on Saturday morning to take a look, and told us how to prepare for when he comes back on Tuesday morning to move the sink. I spent Sunday afternoon tearing out the old countertop, sink, and lower cabinets and then rebuilding the new kitchen cabinet with Margaret. It’s still a complete mess, but we got to lay the new countertop on for the first time and it looks amazing. I cannot wait for the sink to go in!

before…

mid-demo

cabinet frame built and ready for the plumber!

Since we were already low on counter space due to the aforementioned construction, I figured it was also a good time to reseal the counter on the island. It’s coming along nicely, but we now have 85% of our counter space compromised in one way or another, so that blows. Thank god I’m not in charge of baking/cooking for Thanksgiving.

Brian found an illustration by one of his favorite coffee roasters (Counter Culture) and asked me to recreate it for him for Christmas. Again, with limited apartment space and a million messy projects going, I whipped out my watercolors and Microns and got to work. It was a really fun project and nice to use my fine motor skills instead of power tools and a blunt object. We’re going to hang this on our newly empty wall in the kitchen… once I find a big enough frame. Check Instagram for the finished product in a few weeks!

Among other things, I washed the inside+outside of the windows, put up the shrink-wrap window insulation, and swapped our summer/winter clothes in storage. It was a perfectly busy weekend.

veronimama kitchen reno – a brief introduction

September 30, 2016October 12, 2016 ~ veronimama ~ Leave a comment

Hi! If you follow me on instagram, you probably know that I’m redoing our kitchen. Like full-on tearing out the countertops, stripping and painting the cabinets, moving the sink/plumbing, and installing a new tile backsplash. Our little kitchen desperately needed an upgrade from the current green particleboard countertops (!!), so we’re SO excited that our landlord is letting us get started. The only catch – we’re doing all of the work ourselves (minus the plumbing). It’s a big job but I’m loving it so far.

I’m working on some much more detailed posts about our process and a full step-by-step DIY post for anyone else looking to redo their kitchen, but for now I wanted to give a quick update. Our rough plan is something like this:

Right now, we’re in the thick of it with the cabinets, with everything primed and ready for final coats. I’m aiming to get the doors finished and mounted by the end of the weekend, but that’s going to be pushing it since we’ll be out of town all day Sunday. I’m just dying to get the 19 cabinet doors off of our living room floor so we have space to walk!

I’m going to keep updating the status of the reno on instagram for now, and save all the good film and DSLR pics for the detailed posts. Follow along on insta, or maybe just stop by and help me paint for a few hours????? Just a suggestion…

stüpdate #2: fall 2016

September 22, 2016September 22, 2016 ~ veronimama ~ 2 Comments

Dry leaves rustling in the street, chilly early mornings, and empty canned pumpkin shelves at the grocery store can only mean one thing… Fall! As a September birthday, I’ve always felt like my birthday meant the official beginning of fall, and considered myself an official pumpkin ambassador. Pumpkin pies on my birthday, PSL for my free Starbucks birthday drink, and pumpkin picking at the apple orchards. This year was no different, except we bought mini pumpkins at the store instead of trekking to an apple orchard. I don’t mind though, it holds that same quirky city appeal as buying your christmas tree at Home Depot.

I finally spotted some mums at our local nursery, and loaded up my bike with ~~as many as~~ more than I could carry. I ended up hugging/balancing two giant mums on my knees after filling the rest of my bags and racks to the top. Who can say no to $0.99 perennials at the end of the season?! I got a few chuckles on my way home, so here’s to hoping my overeager plant-love spread a little happiness through the neighborhood.

Our alley-picked Red Flyer came through for us again and is the perfect backdrop to my fall-ish decor on the stoop. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with it over the winter, but after putting this together, I’m starting to get some ideas that involve pine trees…. stay tuned.

Our garden is transitioning itself for fall too, and while some plants are on their way out, others are really starting to thrive. Our roma tomatoes appear to be late bloomers – pun intended – since we’ve finally gotten our first few popping up this week. I feel like I’m always posting pictures of green tomatoes that are almost ready to pick, but I promise we’ve had a few red ones too! Also, our vine started to bloom… what?! We had no idea it was a blooming type of vine, so it was quite the surprise when the first flower burst open.

Brian was playing around with his very first film camera, so I’ll update the post with his pictures once they’re developed. Please ignore our messy entryway, but notice our nice new built in shelves… courtesy of me. In the meantime, here’s a little video of us getting creative to get some pumpkins up on our ledge on a rainy morning. Taking bets on how long until they get smashed.