Kitchen Update

When we moved into our home this summer, we knew that we wanted to do some updates to the kitchen. I love seeing before and after pictures of any decorating project, so I photographed the progress along the way.

The biggest realization I had going through this is that I could never live in a house during a true remodel. All of the changes “we” (term used loosely for contractors, painters, etc.) did were cosmetic. I can’t imagine doing anything structural and having to live through it. From the beginning stages of estimates to the final, final cabinet touch-ups just a few days ago, was about 3+ months. Man, that gets old…and messy. But it’s done, and I love it!

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

Black cabinets are not for everyone and some may find it odd, but I'm a huge fan. In fact, the cabinets in our previous house were black as well. This time, the weathered glaze adds an even different look to them, which I love.

The people who we bought the house from had just installed the granite in the kitchen, except for the bar/serving area. So the projects “we” did were finding a match and installing the remaining granite, painting and glazing the cabinets, installing new hardware, installing new appliances, and painting the walls.

Of course, no decorating project is ever 100% complete. The original homeowners decided not to under mount the sink. Bummer because now I’m having a hard time finding a granite company that will do that after granite is already installed. Still holding out hope.

I might possibly be in a never-ending quest for barstools. Why do most have to be too short, ugly, or way too expensive? And there is much more accessorizing and personalizing to do to finish out the kitchen. But overall, I’m very pleased with the pretty close to final product.

And an added treat that sometimes just makes me giddy is this:

My sister and her type-A self organized the kitchen cabinets. Yes, she organized someone else’s cabinets. She’s weird like that and enjoys it. :) I enjoy that she enjoys it. If not, it would one pile of mess that you would see. Thank you again Shannon!

Now onto actually putting things on the wall in the rest of the house…

San Diego ~ 2009

Will I ever feel caught up with blogging? Probably not since I realized I have our 10-year college reunion and Lake Tahoe trip that still haven’t made it on a blog page. They both occurred in 2008. That might be past the point of no return? But for now, here is a post from the business/fun trip we took in early October to San Diego.

Wade and his dad (Poppy) were going to a conference there, so MoMere (Wade’s mom), Tate, and I all tagged along. I had never been to San Diego before and have to say that I fell in love. I’m pretty sure it’s fair to say that they have flawless weather. And when we were there, the locals were saying it was cold. Sunny with highs in the low 60s. To me it was perfection.

The trip started off on a good note with Tate doing great on the plane. What a difference from when we flew with him last year. This time around, he was so excited to ride in an airplane, and he really got it that we were up in the sky. He loved looking out the window, reading the SkyMall magazine, and eating lots of snacks with chocolate milk.



And bless this child…he even took a 2-hour nap!

The trip was great all around. We only had one mishap. We forgot the umbrella stroller. He rarely uses it anymore, but when we’re doing a lot of walking around, there are times when it’s pretty much critical. And with Wade being in the conference most days and me being pregnant, I really didn’t want to have to carry 30+ lbs. around a lot. So the wild goose chase began. We searched all over the downtown area the first night there to find nothing resembling a stroller. The nearest Wal-Mart was a $50 cab fare away. I was getting nervous.

We had some time before the conference began on Sunday, so we all headed over to Coronado Island. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I’m pretty sure I could live right there. The hotel was impressive. And I loved walking down on the beach.

This may look like a picture mid-tantrum. Not quite. This is what Tate does when he is over-the-moon excited to be on a beach with waves and sand. He throws himself onto the sand and rolls around in it while squealing and laughing. I cleaned out sand for days.

Keep Off? These Strzineks are a bunch of rule breakers. :)

And eureka! We found the one and only shop that rented strollers. It ended up costing $45 (nice), but there were no other options. And we never saw another stroller shop the rest of the trip. So glad to find this place.

For the ride back to the hotel, we decided to live like the locals and took the bus. Not sure the last time I was on a city bus since they don’t have any around where we live. Despite that it takes about four times as long to get where you were going, I was impressed. And Tate of course thought it was pretty cool.

After dinner that night, we headed over to a Ghirardelli ice cream shop. The picture doesn’t even need much of a caption. Except maybe a 2 y.o.’s version of heaven. We did stop him about half way through as he would’ve eaten every last bite.

So once the guys were off to learn everything you wanted to know about clinical research (crazy fun!), we headed to the San Diego Zoo. After hearing about it forever, I had pretty high expectations. But I have to say, I quickly realized that we are pretty spoiled with our own local zoo. It’s so much easier to get around and really just about the same types of animals. It was still a really fun day.

Tate’s favorite part may have been riding the Skyfari Airtram that took you from one side to another.

The rest of the trip was spent walking around downtown, the Gaslamp Quarter, and the pier right by the hotel. We found a little park for Tate to play cars and throw the football for hours (infamous stroller in background).

A fun night for me was having dinner with my freshman year college roommate, Jamie, who now lives in the area. We hadn’t seen each other in almost 12 years and had a great dinner with hours and hours of catch-up conversation. How did I not take any pictures?

And for the last night, Tate stayed with Wade’s parents while they sweetly let he and I have a night out. We walked around and had dinner on the waterfront.

Wade loved all of the history around since it’s such a military city/port. Here is a huge statue of the famous picture “Unconditional Surrender” from WWII. I love the photograph, but if I was that girl, I’m not sure I would want something depicting my feet in such an enormous way. It was really kind of odd-looking to be that large scale.

And for the final day, we got to finish all the modes of transportation taken so far (plane, bus, taxi, train) with a boat ride back across to return the stroller on Coronado Island.

Then it was time to head back home. We all enjoyed spending time together, and Tate loved having a few days with Poppy & MoMere. It was a beautiful city and a really fun family trip!

Halloween 2009

If you've been around Tate in recent months, you know that he is all about sports. And more specifically, the kid LOVES to play golf. He turns anything that comes close to it into a golf club. I'm not sure where this came from, because Wade doesn't even really play anymore. But somehow, he has a love for all things golf. So when he saw this costume in a Halloween catalog and talked about it non-stop, we knew that was "the one." And lucky for us, his friend Weston had worn it the year before and was so nice to loan it to Tate.

So we had three days of Halloween festivities around here. It started with the costume parade at Tate's preschool. All of the kiddos were pretty cute.

Then on Friday, we continued the tradition for the 3rd year of trick-or-treating at each of his grandfather's offices (Poppy & Grandpa). This year was even more fun because now Poppy's office is also Daddy's office. :)

And finally the real deal...Halloween. I have to say that this year was so much fun for him and us. One year makes a big difference, because last year he was kind of oblivious to it all. This year he got it. It was so fun to watch him walk up and say (or yell) "trick-or-treat!" The evening was made even more fun since his pumpkin friends, Weston & Taylor, got to come along. They all had a blast. In fact, I don't have many good pictures of the evening because they were running full speed from house to house. Such good friends!

There were a couple of houses that had some greeters open the door with big masks on. That gave everyone a little scare. You can't see it in the video (I had some reassuring to do), but both of the boys quickly ran the other direction as soon as the door opened. Thankfully the second they realized the trick-or-treaters were little kids, they took off the masks. And thankfully, we all recovered and moved on to the next house.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And just to document and remember the big news story of 2009, this was posted in front of a house.

And of course, the best part of the night is finishing up and checking out your loot back at the house. These boys scored big with a few full-size candy bars and a ginormous rice krispie treat. A fun finish to a fun night!