Progress

I thought I’d share photos of the end results of the projects I’ve shared recently.

First up, the new bookshelf on the end of the counter.  Here is the before. Some people would call this a wine rack, but I called it the dusty pit. There was no easy way to keep this clean and it was a very tedious place to dust.

Here’s the after!

Did I tell you before, that in the houses we built or remodeled I had this added to the end of the islands?  Once it was done and I got to appreciate it for an hour or so,  I told Richard, “Now this feels like home.”

Not only do I like the look of it better, having my cookbooks here frees up a ton of counter space and allows me to move my junk pile, which is semi-corralled in a wire basket, further back on the side of the fridge. I can also move my “big Bertha” food processor to that side of the kitchen, a much less noticeable area.

Getting the pine shelves to match the existing cabinet was harder than I thought.  I started with staining with a poly shades but then realized that in order to get it dark enough, it was also going to be too glossy.  So I sanded most of that off and tried just staining it.   I ended up using a glaze on top to get it dark enough. Even after leaving it overnight it still hadn’t dried, I  moved it out of the garage to dry on a table in the backand it rained while I was gone. I had to remove the glaze entirely and start over. 🙁 I finished it off with a spray matte finish to protect the glaze.

Next up is another look at my photo gallery wall.  After I had finished and saw the photos on the blog,  I thought it needed to go a little further out. It wasn’t hard for me to find more favorite photos to add. 😉

The signs of spring are progressing around here as well.  Not that it feels like spring today with a high of only 46 degrees, but we have had some nice weather lately.

Some of my daffodils are up and blooming.

And the crab apple tree is sprouting leaves, the blossoms will come along shortly.

While we were outside enjoying the warm weather on Monday, I got a nice photo of Emily in her new glasses. (This is for you, mom!)