Kitchen, Bathroom, and Yard Update ...

Finally, an update! After numerous paint samples on the kitchen wall ranging from mint green to yellow, we decided on a pretty green color called "Cooking Apple Green." It's a paint color by Farrow and Ball, but we were able to go to Sherwin Williams and get the paint matched. A small money saver here... :) Martin's parents came up a few weekends ago for yet another work weekend. Needless to say we're very lucky and extremely grateful for their help! In the course of this weekend we were able to get the entire kitchen painted, trim and all!! Above is a before and after picture.

Not only did we get the kitchen painted, but we got the bathroom started. Martin, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Martin worked really hard to get the wallpaper off and the walls sanded so we could then proceed to paint. Miss Janet put the first coat on like a pro, and Martin and I finished the second coat later in the week. We decided on a color called "Quiet Moments" by Benjamin Moore. It's a very soothing and calm blue color, just one shade darker than our bedroom color. As you can see here, we're still working on that trim. :)

Picture of our bedroom

We also had the cabinets painted by our lovely painter, Fransisco and crew. I have never witnessed or heard cabinets being painted until now, but it is quite a process. It took about 3 days to remove all of the cabinets and then spray 2 coats of paint on the cabinets. The wait was well worth it because they look great!

Mr. Simpson, Martin's granddad, came with a helper, John, to tackle our wild yard. Martin insisted on doing it all himself, but his mom finally convinced him to let someone help get it started. Thank you, Miss Janet! John did a fabulous job trimming the hedges, clearing out all of the wisteria, and most of all cleaning up the magnolia tree in our front yard. We still have work to do, but it does look like a new yard!

Last, I'll also have to update you on our pool. Martin decided last weekend that we needed to take the cover off so the rain we were about to get would help fill the pool. (The pool is full, but the water level is down about 10 inches or so.) Now this was a process as well because there was a good bit of water on the pool cover. Thanks to dad, Martin learned the trick of creating suction with a hose to remove water from the pool cover. We were both slightly doubtful, but it worked! Thanks, Dad! Slowly, but surely, we were able to remove the pool cover only to find a giant pool filled with leaves and what looked to be a darkened version of Mountain Dew. Martin began worrying very quickly that we would not be able to use the pool, so I called our own pool guy, Brian. He assured us that it was not completely abnormal for a pool to be green when you first took the pool cover off. Now all was well!

We are having quite a time fixing up this old house. Next comes our kitchen and bathroom counter tops. We are going this morning to pick out our slab of Uba Tuba granite, which will go in the kitchen, and look at remnants to use in our bathroom. Hopefully these will be installed this week.