Kitchen and Hallway

Well, we finally had a break. Patrick left with PJ for a little more than a week, so we dragged out the paint, wood, rags and tools and hit the hallway and Kitchen.

The kitchen was painted by (God, love her sweet soul) Yvonne in a one-coat baby-blue. The entire kitchen. There was original wooden moulding, painted white, and the linoleum floor was white with blue dots (little diamond shapes) in it. Too much blue and white for a kitchen that's as large as grandma Auricchio's - maybe even a few inches longer - with cathedral ceilings. That blue to the sky was, well, made ya dizzy.
Cathy spent all her life as a color technician at the very well known "Magic Marker" company, Dri-Mark. So you can't fool her when it comes to color - even subtile shades. Far be it for me to say I know much about color, I am an artist, but a vector artist (lines, arcs, and circle) so color is her department. The structure comes under my scrutiny. And we both had big plans for these rooms.

We ripped out all the moulding. Redid much of the walls, got a new A/C vent, and removed that wild floor. The light fixture also hit the trash. Cathy painted the walls in Alpine Lace. Which is the same color she used in the vanity in the master bedroom. she extended the color into the kitchen - as you can see in the last image on the left in this section - so that the three major colors used in both rooms (Blue, Feather Soft and Alpine Lace) all collage at the entrance to the living room. New vinyl, oak moulding went up, a new light fixture. I built a frame for our favorite souvenir - a poster from Lowry's Caverns which hangs on the wall; you can see it on the right of top image here. Then I built a built-in hutch at the end of the hallway. I hadn't built a hutch since Patty wanted one in the house on Douglas Avenue, so it's not perfect, but good enough. We then ruined our knees by laying in a initiation slate floor. The pictures you see of Cathy on the left are her trimming up my corners.

We had a hellva time getting the wall prepped between the hall and the kitchen. I don't know if Yvonne had a problem and repaired the wall in a sloppy manner or the house settled and snapped right at that intersection, but Cathy and I spent many hours, spackling, sanding, painting over and over till it was right. And Cathy's Dad was a speciality mason. I relied heaviley on her - and her brother Mike's advice - to get this section of wall just right. We had to. See it in the bottom photo? It is here that both rooms meet and we have that blend of 3 colors and Cathy's fancy wavy moulding scheme. A poorly patched wall would have ruined that affect entirely.

Essentially the hallway is entirely remade except the ceiling and the fire detector. It is much brighter, filled with earth tones and the slate floor gives it a cooling surface and, due to the design, it appears seamless - although it is slate tile..

We needed the shelf space for photos, so up went the lighthouse image followed by photos of Lil Frankie, Barbara & Mike, Julia, and of ourselves during a fun time at Disney.

Here's a challenge for the average Joe - and Cathy. Too much blue, cathedral ceiling, the wrong moulding in several spots, and a floor that might had bode well in 1969, but not today. And here's what we did.

Since we moved in last year, we had done nothing at all to the kitchen but added drapes and curtains for privacy, and a table cloth. Then we discovered Universal's Mardi Gras and started to collect "beads" and hang them on the dinning area's chandelier. We added a clock (for whenever the fancy struck us to know the time) and Cathy hung an old image we keep dear from when we began dating - a thousand years ago or so.

It took most of a day to strip the kitchen. Please don't get the feeling here that this was a major project, it was a 3 plus day ordeal and we actually enjoyed the work. I did go balistic a couple of times when cutting moulding. There were so many angles it drove me nuts.

Take notice of the floor, the moulding and the moulding under the cabinettes. They were the focus of Cathy's design change from the start.

Here is a shot from the hallway looking toward the garage. If you want a peek into the garage, it's that opening picture at the top of the page. And that's not doing it justice. It was a work shop while we remodeled. If you study this image you'll see how Cathy created the wave affect on the wall - and I had to cut the moulding to that wave. Simple, right? (The things I don't do for that lady!)

Well, Yvonne, you didn't paint behind the stove, little cheater you! And the refrig's water vent broke while we were moving it back and forth. You'll notice we also laid the floor before doing the bottom side moulding - we knew that was a mistake but went with it anyway. But, so far, so good.

The image above is that area I spoke of earlier. Where Cathy and I struggled to get the wall's surface right. It is somewhat hidden by the pantry door being opened. Still you can see the area where we will blend the hallway and the two colors and that wave theme from the kitchen.

OK, here's the last of the before images. It's the wall you've seen over and over, in the dinning area, just before I nailed up the wave moulding.

The Feather Soft paint rides atop the moulding and across the halway to decorate the top portion of the kitchen. Feather Soft does has a touch of Florida Flamingo pink in it, in case you thought it was your computer. Under the wave moulding we used sky blue. The Alpine Lace extends from the halway to the end of the top of the dorrway into the living room. In other words, to the extent that the lighting fixture shines into the kitchen. See, there is a method to the maddness - like when I plant a Manderville on the north side of the patio - it is there to bathe in light.

We still have some clean up to do in this photo. And, we still haven't hung the curtians over the sink window as yet - well, PJ returned home, enough said.

All Seemed OK, But Then.................
The vinyl tiles began to lift and spread apart. Took us a year to admit that we needed to get a professional in. So we did. And got a new refig to boot.