Kitchen activity

Here's the real reason I've been MIA these past few months - remember this post?  With these Before pictures?

Prepare yourselves...

And the custom woodwork by my bro...

It's kinda hard to tell in the photos, but the window sash and door are matte black, and the base cabinets are deep navy (Benjamin Moore "Polo Blue" to be precise).  The chalkboard panel is black chalkboard paint (duh).

Lots and lots of work, but very worth it.  I still have some minor touchups to do (invisible to anyone but an anal-retentive like me), and some artwork to hang.  But for now I am still reveling in the beauty that is this small but lovely kitchen o' mine.

Deck activity

Progress has been made y'all.  The door slab I'm using for the tabletop is birch on one side....

...and WALNUT on the other.  The only finish on this is clear poly - how great does that look??

Also, the legs are done and ready for paint:

Getting closer...

Deck furniture

Our deck furniture is obviously rather pitiful, and frankly, not very functional.  Eventually, we hope to lay a patio down where the BBQ is, and put our cheapy Adirondack chairs down there.  So the deck will be the table-and-chairs spot - it's sooo nice to have dinner out there in the warm months.

I want to use this door slab as a table top...

...to make a trestle table with legs like these.

Beautiful, right?  I think clear poly the top and paint the legs.  These outdoor chairs from IKEA would finish it off nicely...

I tried them out - they are quite comfortable, plus they allegedly stack - bonus!

The Great Outdoors

Our house sits on a pretty weird lot - it's super long and skinny, most of which is the backyard.  It backs up to a ravine/creek, so the majority of said backyard is rather untamed at the moment.  But in the 2+ years we've lived here, Niko has spent countless hours back there, and has made some serious progress.

Here's what I could scrounge together for Before/During pics:

And now:

We've come a long way, but there's still LOTS to do.

Roman shade porn

Some more living room curtain pics for ya...

Aren't they great??  Life-changing, for us.  No longer on display, on display, on display...