If you’ve been following the adventures of House*Tweaking, you already know that we painted our builder grade oak cabinets white and added modern hardware in an effort to shake off the builder blahs.

You may also know that we’ve been saving to switch out our laminate countertops for something more durable and appealing.  Well, after months of saving up the cash and even more months of making up my mind, we have new granite countertops!

They’re Absolute Black, polished.  I went back and forth so many times between getting honed or polished.  In the end, I decided on polished.  I really don’t know what the big deal was now!  I love the polished finish.  I love to run my palms across the smooth, cool stone.  I love the way our plates and glasses clink when you set them down.  I love the natural variations within the stone…more of that imperfect perfection that makes me breathe easy.  I love how easy it is to clean.  I have 2 lil’ boys and a Handy Hubby who’s messy in the kitchen (at least, he’s in the kitchen, right?)…it is sooooo easy to wipe up at the end of the day.  Especially with an undermount sink to catch all the crumbs. 

That’s right, folks.  We upgraded our sink and faucet too.  They’re both by Kraus and we purchased them from Overstock.  They weren’t cheap but since we gave our kitchen cabinets a facelift for less than $400, we had more money to spend on the plumbing fixtures.  We decided it would be money well spent.  We seldom eat out and instead cook nearly all of our meals at home (even though I detest cooking). 

The depth of that sink is RIDICULOUS.  I could take a bath in it.  I especially like that it hides a tall pile of dirty dishes.

My nightly routine is to clean up the dishes, run the dishwasher and wipe down the countertops before going to bed.  This new faucet makes all that easier…and more fun!  It’s a single lever with a pull-out sprayer. 

Obviously, that’s not our kitchen.  But the picture demonstrates how the sprayer pulls out.  When you hit the black button on the sprayer’s head, the water sprays instead of flowing in a dense stream.  There’s a learning curve involved after having used only standard faucets and sprayers all my life.  Sometimes, I found myself looking for the sprayer and wondering where the heck it went.  “Oh!  Duh!  There you are, right on the faucet!”  It may take me a while.

We still have a little work to do in the kitchen before it’s “done”.  For one, we need a backsplash. 

We’ve got a few samples up but I’m not crazy about them no matter how far I tilt my head and look at them.  I need more time.  Handy Hubby must be itching to do a tiling project because he’s been hounding me all week to pick something.  Here’s what I’m looking at…  (The plastic wrapper is still on them; they actually have a matte finish.)

I kinda like the one in the middle but I’m afraid it may look too brown once it’s sealed.

Besides the backsplash, our island requires some TLC.  Handy Hubby has already made a 9-inch extension that needs primed, painted and installed.  Once that’s complete, we can grab up our new butcher block countertop to slap on.  OH.  And the glass front cabinet still needs addressed. 

It just needs some primer and paint inside but somehow I find a daily excuse for putting it off ’til tomorrow.  If only there were more hours in my day.

Everett, our 2-year-old, got ate up by mosquitos or deer flies over the holiday weekend.  I swear his right ankle looked broken because the bite there was so swollen and purple.  And if any of you have (or know) a 2-year-old, you know that they can’t keep their hands off bug bites.  Everett had his bite looking raw after 1 night alone in his crib.  Sure there are the usual Benadryl and Cortaid creams to help with itching and redness…I should know, I’m a pharmacist by trade and we’re selling that stuff left and right this time of year…but for a 2-year-old who touches that spot 100 times a day then follows up by putting his hands in his mouth, I’m not keen on using medicinal antihistamine or steroid topical applications.  (Not that I haven’t done it in a bind.)  Instead, I turned to my practical aloe house plant.

I cut the end of a shoot off (yes, with a steak knife) and then spliced the skin away to reveal that miraculous gooey gel inside.

I smeared the gel over Everett’s bites and let it air dry.  After just 1 application, his bites were looking much better.  He’s not scratching them anymore either.  My boys always think it’s cool to see the sticky stuff inside our aloe plant.  Plus, it helps take their minds off whatever I’m about to slather it on…cuts, scratches, sunburns, etc.  Gotta love home remedies that really work and are safe for toddlers who’ll put anything in their mouths!

Some girls like to spend their free time shopping for new clothes, getting manicures or watching a chick flick.  Me?  Nope.  I can’t tell you the last time I painted my fingernails or toenails.  (My lil’ boys have picked up on this…you should see them stare at other moms’ pretty colored toenails dazzling in metallic sandals.  Meanwhile, my feet are completely covered in socks and tennis shoes.  My 5-year-old just asked me last week to paint my toenails!)  Instead, I like to pretend I’m looking for a house.  I’ll pass a house for sale on my way to work or on the drive to Layne’s preschool and then search for its MLS number when I get a chance.  It’s all pretend and in the name of fun.   

My recent real estate daydreamings have me pining for this fixer upper.  (I can’t say it’s old because it’s actually younger than me…although it’s reminiscent of a mid-century ranch.)

*WARNING:  Faded goldie-orange carpet ahead.*  

(courtesy of Sibcy Cline realtors)  

It’s a bilevel ranch with a sweet sunroom situated on 5 acres.  The property sits back off of a country road under a canopy of mature trees.  Sure, it needs some TLC but I’m okay with that.  I even went as far to stop and peek in the windows one day.  OMG.  Those windows!  They really let in a lot of natural light.  You enter through a large door at ground level.  

Once inside, there are stairs leading up to the main living space.  When I snuck around and looked inside the other day, the carpet had been removed from the stairs.  The stairs, risers and railing are now painted black and white…what I’d like to do to my own stairs someday.  And I’m not always a fan of tiled floors, but these original tiles are Spanish-esque (Spanish-ish?) and I like ‘em.  They definitely look better in person.  A half bath, laundry room, 2-car garage and large den with wood floors and fireplace round out the lower level.  The lower level has 2 sets of French doors that open up into the backyard.  

Head upstairs to the main living space and try to look past the orange carpet, dated kitchen (at least they were consistent with the orange countertops) and brassy fixtures.  See the windows?!  The vaulted ceilings?!  The wood beams?!  The skylights?!  The brick fireplace?!  The step down sunroom?!  This space has so much potential.  Handy Hubby and I already decided we would knock out the wall between the kitchen and dining area…yeah, the one with the weird interior window hole.  And those sliders to the tiled sunroom would have to come down as well. 

The 3 bedrooms are all nice sizes with MORE ginormous windows.  Again, block out the faded carpet. 

Let’s not forget the exterior constructed of brick and wood.  The wood and trim could be painted to freshen up the outside relatively easily.  Wouldn’t a gray body and white trim look fantastic with the brick?  The flower beds are overgrown and weed-ridden but could look great with a little work (okay, maybe a lot of work) and new shrubs.

And did I mention there’s a porch that wraps around half the house?  And a nice deck off the sunroom? 

With all that land (5 acres!), Handy Hubby would surely need some place to store his riding lawn mower.  This barn would work quite well.

Handy Hubby and I have decided that we’re gonna grow old together, by some rinky-dink fixer upper on a nice plot of land and spend our days bringing it to life.  Awwww.  If the timing were a little better (say, 15-20 years from now), we’d buy this baby in a heartbeat.  Until then, we’ll just drive by and sigh heavily and maybe even peek in the windows now and then…until someone else snatches it up.  Woe is me.

Maybe I should start painting my toenails…