On Sunday, exactly a year after we purchased tile for our kitchen's back splash, it was finally installed! We still need to grout and paint the walls (as you can tell by the swatches on the walls), but it's great progress. Why in the world did it take so long? Well, life got in the way. We purchased the tiles when I was practically about to give birth last summer, and Mr. JC underestimated just how much time a newborn would take up; he thought he'd get it all done on his (very short) … [Read more...]

Well, the holidays are over and I'm still recovering! We had an unexpected extended stay in California thanks to a massive snow storm on the East Coast, and while I'm a born-and-bred New Englander and love the snow I was not sorry to miss all of that. It was much nicer to take a stroll in my mother-in-law's garden on a sunny 60-degree day, and go for a drive to Half Moon Bay, than it would have been to dig out from 18" of snow. Fortunately most of it has melted and we're settling back into work … [Read more...]

Our entryway was totally lacking character. In fact, when friends visited our home they thought that the ground floor was common space for other condo units. We live in a townhouse and all three floors are ours, but the first floor is just one hallway to our garage door, and another hallway with the furnace closet and laundry room. Without seeing any other "livable" rooms when you walk in the front door, it wasn't surprising that people were confused. I still need to work on the hallway that … [Read more...]