Our family trio spends way too much time in Costco

We haven't blogged about it yet, but our house has gained two inhabitants! Christine and her yellow lab Neo are now living in what was our living room, and our dining room is serving as a living room / office combo. Christine and Neo were intermittently using this space as their home away from home while Christine worked  through some relationship challenges, and they are now officially living with us until Christine decides what's up next for her in terms of housing. She commutes to her awesome job at Mass Eye and Ear every day while Neo hangs out with me and the poodles. 

From a renovation standpoint, its been interesting to get a first hand feel for what it would be like to convert our apartment into a two bedroom, with the dining room serving as the main living space. I think we are in agreement that it is definitely a viable option, but it sacrifices the open feel of the floorplan and would reduce the natural light that we get over the course of the day. It also makes it difficult to have a formal eating table, with our new kitchen design the breakfast bar in the peninsula would be the only permanent seating space. However, should we need it in the future or want to consider it for rental purposes, its nice to know that it is workable. 

This past Saturday Christine joined David and I for what turned into our biggest Costco trip yet. Anyone who knows us knows that David and I (the stress is on the "I" there) are not the fastest shoppers, particularly when it comes to home supplies and groceries. I don't recall how long we were actually in Costco, but it was on the order of 1-2 hours, and I think we left with half of their inventory. We all enjoyed samples along our trek (which basically made up our lunch) and we came away with some good finds, such as: 

• A new very squishy bathroom rug for $12 
• All natural dog food for Neo - 35 pounds for $33
• Bulk chicken thighs and frozen veggies for Pepper (our foster dog who only eats people food)
• Large Dove shampoo and conditioner pump bottles for $4.99 each

As we were walking to the car we couldn't help but laugh at our two carts. It reminded me of the days when Dad used to make Costco runs before our family vacation to Maine, though his carts were filled with fun kid foods rather than the household items and healthy "adult" foods primarily pictured here. 

As we approached the car, Christine remarked on how it was a good thing we brought the "Mama Swankster" (aka, Christine's new swanky Subaru Outback) because the three of us and all of this stuff probably wouldn't have fit in my itty bitty R32.

And here we are demonstrating our ability to fill this vehicle to the brim.

Also while out on our Costco run we stopped and weighed in on all of the backsplash options at Home Depot. After stopping at two Home Depots (one of them didn't have the special order tiles) we decided on a bright blue glass tile mosaic, which will probably be paired with bright blue pendant lights over the island. At Christine's suggestion we were looking for something blue/teal to bring some bold color into the kitchen. I was skeptical at first, but it turns out she was right!

Craigslist backfire....aka, our dishwasher came with mouse poop

So last night we finished dinner and were getting ready for a nice early bedtime. We go to start the dishwasher and discover that the drain is continually running and so the dishwasher cycle won't start - not a good sign. As a reminder, we purchased this fancy Bosch dishwasher on craigslist for $500 and have been using it for about a week now without issue.

David took it apart to investigate the issue, and discovered that there was a leak due to a loose piece. The leak was tripping the drain sensor, causing it to run continuously. This was an easy fix, however while he was in there David realized that the entire cavity under the dishwasher (not where the plates go thankfully, but where the insulation, wires, motor, etc. are located) was filled with mouse poop. GROSS!!! Because of the leak, we were essentially dealing with an unbelievable mess of liquid mouse poop. At 11:00 at night.

Needless to say, the cleanup was less than fun. We took everything apart, and took the larger pieces outside to spray them down with the hose and with bleach. We had to throw away a lot of the insulation pieces because they had been chewed and saturated with nastiness, so we'll have to order new insulation because the dishwasher is already noticeably noisier. Around 1:30am we finished cleaning all of the dishwasher pieces, putting the dishwasher back together, and cleaning the mess off the kitchen floor.

Overall we have been very happy with the value of the appliances, furniture, and cabinets we have purchased from craigslist. However, this just goes to show that it really is a gamble when you make a purchase - especially when its something like a dishwasher where you can't always test the functionality or investigate all of the cavities... for things like the remnants of a mouse infestation. Luckily we have it all cleaned up and the dishwasher seems to be operational again, so this could have been worse. But not much.

To be clear, we don't think the mouse poop was from our house. This dishwasher was stored in an old garage at the previous owners house while he was getting ready to sell it. We did have it in our garage for a little bit here, but we have never seen evidence of a mouse out there or in our house. Hopefully we are right about this! Also, we almost took a picture of the mess for you guys, but decided in the end to spare you the details. Happy Friday!

What a difference counter tops make!

We have had so many of you asking for pictures of the cleaned up, counter top-sporting kitchen.  At long last, here they are! We still have quite a bit of finishing to do in the room, but we are fully operational again and actively cooking, eating, and dish washing in our kitchen. We even hosted a brunch with my friend Victoria, her husband Jamie, and their adorable daughter Zoe on Saturday!  In the pictures that follow I'll explain what we've had going on since our last post.

Two weeks ago tomorrow the template maker for Stone Surfaces (where we bought our granite, and we highly recommend them for their professional work, ease of granite picking, and customer service) came by to size out our counter tops.  We had never seen this done, so it was neat to see how he just made a template frame for the more "unique" pieces. For the two square/rectangular pieces next to the stove, he just measured. Having the template down really gave us a feel for the big awesome counter top we were going to have!

Even though the counter under the glass cabinets was a rectangle, our house is "off square" enough that he made a template to ensure it lined up with the back wall.

After the template was made it was time to put some of the finishing touches on in preparation for the granite installation. David put cherry plywood on the back and side of peninsula to cover up the unfinished cabinet areas. We had these unfinished areas because we purchased used cabinets, and in the previous kitchen they were against a wall and so these sides weren't exposed. You can also see next to the stove that David built a small half wall so that we could have a more finished edge for our slide in stove.

Granite installation in progress!!! Getting ready to drill the holes for the faucet, soap dispenser, and water filter faucet. We are so pleased with the granite choice we made - we think it works really well with the cabinets and wall color. We'll add more color accents with lighting, the back splash, and other decor items as we finish the kitchen up.

A finished look!! In this picture, the ceiling has been painted, the window and door trim has been painted, the baseboard molding has been painted and installed, we have a sink with a beautiful faucet, the cabinets have been cleaned and partially stocked, and the counter is completely installed! What a difference....

A view of the side wall. We are still working on stocking the glass cabinets with dishes and glasses, and as you can see we haven't found a home for everything yet so the counter top is a bit cluttered. Off to the right next to the doorway we are still debating whether to hang another cabinet or whether to install open cherry shelving.

A view of the stove and fridge. This is good picture to show the various cabinet hardware pieces we were dealing with. The dark handles above the microwave we think were the original handles, which at some point were replaced with the gaudy gold handles by the previous owner. We are in the process updating all of the hardware to a modern brushed nickle that you can see on the center stack of cabinets. Also, it's hard to tell here, but the stove and microwave combo has undergone a very detailed scrubbing... the previous owners left it covered in grease! There is still more to be cleaned up, but its looking much better and we (or at least I) feel much better putting food in it now. As you can see its missing a handle... just a minor mishap during installation :) David ordered a new one last night so we should hopefully have that on before too long.

A detailed view of the sink / dishwasher area. It's so nice to have a dishwasher! We also love the water filter and the new faucet.

We (really David) has come a long way with this project, and everything looks gorgeous. We still have some things left to do, such as:

- clean the excess grout off of the tiles (we missed some while we were laying tile...)
- clean the remaining cabinets so we can put food away and get things off of the counters
- fix the microwave handle and finish cleaning the stove and microwave
- swap out the light/ceiling fan combo for something more modern (and brighter)
- install shelving or a cabinet next to the dining room door
- install shelving in the pantry/laundry room
- put a back splash behind the stove
- install thresholds in the doorways
- stain the cherry plywood
- find barstools

We'll keep you updated on our progress! For more pictures (scroll down to see the new pictures), click here to visit the G+ album: