teresa.peters@live.com

Our Kitchen Floor Fiasco

Feeling a bit cocky, I strutted into the kitchen & poured my coffee over a splash of half & half – today was the day. I poached 2 eggs instead of 1, I knew I was going to need the extra energy for what was about to take place.

The resurrection of our kitchen floor was happening today.

Photo taken during the process of popping up tiles.

Blink if you have ever been disappointed with a purchase? I saw you, you blinked…

It’s happened to all of us. It looked absolutely fabulous on the size 2 model. You order it. You get the long-awaited “Your package has been delivered” text – you race to the mailbox through the snow in your house slippers – rip open the box…

wait a minute….

this just ain’t right.

That describes how I felt about our kitchen floor.

In the store it looked great. It was rustic, with all the right colors and a design that would not show dirt.

The perfect floor for our kitchen…. right????

WRONG!!

We have the same flooring in our bathroom

and it looks great…

in there.

But, in our kitchen??

I knew it was wrong before the installation was complete. I wanted to say something but we had 2 pallets of this stuff.

It was awful, it was clashing with my countertop. Two busy patterns in conflict.

This was a bitter pill to swallow.

When you are working on a project of this magnitude, the last thing you want is to redo something you have already spent time and money on.

I tried to find something good. The only good thing about it was that it hid the dirt well… but when I thought about it –

dirt hiding on my kitchen floor did not seem like something I really wanted.

So, after 2 years of witnessing a daily tug of war in my kitchen, I decided today was the day. After my breakfast of caffeine and protein, I marched out to the garage, got the hammer and a chisel, and took it all up.

I hammered and chiseled to “Boom Boom Pow” until every last piece of that tile was out of there.

My version went like this….

tap-tap Popppp……. tap-tap Popppp…..

Thank you to the Black Eyed Peas for keeping my hammer in perfect rhythm.

When all the dust settled from the hammering, chiseling, and sweeping we decided to extend the same living room flooring into the kitchen.

Sir Lots-a-Wit installed the flooring (both times).

I got the honor of trimming the base of the cabinets at the floor.

I used 1×3 oak – mitered the corners and stained them to match the existing cabinets which are knotty alder and nailed in place.

This new floor looks fabulous – it does show dirt… but I am okay with that.

Lesson learned?

When picking flooring or countertops or backsplash, consider the big picture. Make sure it all flows.

Sidenote – through all the hammering and chiseling and shop vac noise, our sweet Bella is always right there, she has no flooring preference.

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All photos, thoughts, experiences, and opinions are my own.

Lost Mule Lodgic – Latte, Focaccia & Pure Chaos

Did you notice….? The new title…? It’s not a typo… Look again, Lost Mule Lodgic…? Clever huh? You will be seeing this on occasion.

When I have some chaotic thoughts bouncing off the walls in my head, something I know will brighten your day, I will share it with you!

Stepping over three dogs in the darkness, I wake each morning way too early.

I welcome the moonlight from the western sky although filtered by gnarled tree branches – it’s light casts dark shadows as my boots break the crust on the frosty grass.

This is what my soul has spent a lifetime searching for.

I am not a professional decorator kinda gal… for the sake of my self-esteem – try to act surprised. My decorating skills come from more of a trial and error type of experience.

I know what looks good – it just takes a while getting there. Some people can pull together some loose legos and a photo of a gingham rooster and your heart stops at the beauty, I am not that gal.

Alright – perhaps the legos and rooster were a bit of an exaggeration – but we all know people that have a gift for making common everyday items look amazing!

This will be the first Christmas with the fireplaces complete. I was pretty excited about decking them out for the holidays. When I pulled out the boxes of Christmas decorations I tried every combination of every stocking, pine cone, and holly bough available.

Then with garden snips in hand, I wandered our woods gathering the perfect cedar branches. Once they were elegantly displayed on our mantles – I was reminded of just how flammable those once live branches can be. So, after removing my budget outdoor branches, my next jaunt was to our local Hobby Lobby.

I experimented with one display after another and still another – combining this with that and that with this… standing back to admire each new creation, they all shared one problem, none of those creations were that admirable… until I started removing items one by one – it seems the more I took down the better I liked it!

My biggest challenge in decorating is knowing when to leave well enough alone. When it comes to decorating my home – I am learning that less is best.

Like the fireplace in the kitchen… This is the same topiary that is always there – I just added some Christmas pics and a Skinny Santa. Anything else would get roasted on that shelf.

Some extra pine branches on the mantle just under the snowshoes created the look I was after on this mantle in our family room. So simple.

Each of our fireplaces provides the warmth and peaceful spirit of Christmas. Especially when I am sipping a cup of hot cocoa seated on one of the hearths.

Bottom line: Simple can be beautiful.

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All photos, thoughts, experiences, and opinions are my own unless otherwise stated.

“But for the Grace of God Go I…”

This is not the post I was going to write today.

This is actually a re-vamped re-run from last year. But Wait!!! I promise you there is nothing I could have written that would be any better or more pure, than this true story during this season of gratitude.

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