It's a plaid, plaid, plaid world.

The biggest project in any house remodel is usually the kitchen.

Ours was no different.

Here's what we started with:

60+ year-old appliances.

One short wall of cabinets with minimal counter top space.

Disconnected plumbing.

Worn through linoleum.

Peeling plaster walls.

And wallpaper. 

Lots of wallpaper


On the walls

 


And on the ceiling.


I kind of liked it.




I wanted to keep it.


I got out-voted.



But it all worked out in the end.

A little Deja Vu

We had an ice storm in Wichita this week.

The trees sparkled in the sun.  It was a beautiful sight.

So I took this photo looking south on Perry Avenue.
 

Then it occurred to me that I had seen another picture that looked amazingly similar.

Only this one is 55 years older.

It was also taken in April. 
But this one was taken after a snow storm, not ice.
It's in about the same place on Perry - looking south. 
You can see the same houses.

Years may pass, but some things stay the same.
I do love that.

A sandwich and a song

Tucked in the corner of the kitchen is a charming arched doorway that leads into a cozy little breakfast nook.

And above the chair rail in this little room, hangs this wallpaper with snow white dogwood blossoms, emerald green leaves and the most amazing vivid red birds on it.


















When I was young, we would visit my Grandmother and Uncle Leroy and we would sit in this room and have sandwiches.  And butter brickle ice cream from the deep freeze.

And while we would sit, my Uncle Leroy would whistle, like a songbird, and tell me that the birds on the walls were singing for me.

And, of course, I believed him.

That little room felt like a forest full of birds to a little girl.

And I loved it.

 
I still do.

The smallest room in the house - Part 2

Remember what it looked like before we started?

It was a beauty, no?  NO!

We could have slapped on some paint and put in a new potty and called it good, but that's just not how we roll.

We gotta get dirty, man.  And let me tell you, tearing out lathe and plaster is DIRTY work.

YUCK!

We tore out the wall behind the sink.

And the wall behind the toilet.

And the wall behind the tub.   (When we did that we found another access point to the attic, which was nice when we did the electrical and the insulation!)

  

And the floor - which freaked some people out - because you could see through the planks right to the basement!

After the plumbing was done, we put in a cool new window and called the drywall guys and they gave us a blank canvas so we could start over...

And that's when the fun really began.

The smallest room in the house...

One little bathroom.  That's what we have here.

To say that this bathroom is in desperate need of a makeover is an understatement.

It's yellow, which I don't love. 

The "tile" really isn't tile at all.  It's 4x4 plastic-ish squares that look like tile which are stuck to the plaster. Hmmm...

The lathe and plaster walls are blistered and peeling.

It has a tiny little sink that's mounted too low on the wall and a toilet with a cracked tank.

There is one small window.  In the tub.  Which is impractical for a myriad of reasons.

The bathtub itself is awesome, though.  It's a huge cast iron tub that's extra deep and extra long, which will be wonderful to sit and soak in - once we get it cleaned up.

Stay tuned.  You won't believe the transformation...

Rocky Road

is great if you're talking about ice cream.

Not so much if you're talking about a driveway.

A driveway should be smooth and, well, driveable.

Ours wasn't.

It was narrow.  And broken.  And full of weeds.  And the approach could do a serious number on the wheels of your car.

Aside from the fact that it didn't look pretty, it held water when it rained and that made the south wall of the basement weep.  Which made me weep. 

I wanted it fixed.

So, I found me an awesome concrete guy and he took this:

 

And did this:

 Then he did this:

 And it's been smooth sailing ever since...


Special thanks to Jason Thomas at McGuire Flatwork - Your guys did a great job!

This little boy

was born on a farm in Kansas.

This little boy had two older brothers, a mom who raised him, and a dad who died when he was only three.

 

This little boy was a three sport athlete in high school and a four-year track letterman in college.

This little boy worked his way through college, graduate school and dental school.  He also spent a little time in the Army in the middle of all that.

This little boy grew up to be my dad.

This little boy would have been 84 today.

This little girl still misses him.