Aloha, Hawaii! Day 1 8/17/15

After a summer of crazy busy travel, and the beginnings of a major house renovation, I had nine days left before I had to report back to work in Beijing (add +2 to the travel time, due to crossing the international date line).  Back in February, I planned a girl's trip for Emily, Ellen, and myself. Both girls graduated early with their bachelor's degrees, and Ellen quickly left home for a new career as a news reporter in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  Emily went on to graduate school, and finished her Master's degree this summer.  This was my way to properly acknowledge their hard work and accomplishments- Hawaii or Bust, baby!

I flew Ellie from AR to Dallas.  I flew from Ft.
Myers to Dallas.  I met up with her and we flew on
to Phoenix.  I flew Emily from Indianapolis to
Phoenix direct.  We all three met up in PHX, then
made the long hop to Honolulu, HI, together.
Good thing I'm pretty good with logistics!
Diamond Head, and the ocean, was looking
as LOVELY as ever.  So excited!!!

This was coming in to Waikiki beach, where
we'll be spending the next week together.

And this was the view from Luana Waikiki, our hotel. So nice :)

After a very long day of traveling, we checked in, got our
bearings, and headed out to the Hilton Hawaiian Village for dinner.
I was there, oh, about 35 years ago!  I turned seventeen in
Hawaii on a school trip, marching in the King Kamehameha
parade with my high school marching band- good times!

We had dinner at Tropics, right on the beach.  I had vegetable
stir fry, gearing up for my return to China, I guess :)

Ellie and I hopped up from dinner to catch our first sunset on the beach.

It was glorious :)

We figured this guy to be a local, on a scooter
with his surfboard :)

After dinner, we went to the ABC discount store for some
breakfast and lunch stuffs- the girls had packed plenty of
snacks and booze!  We happened to find these in the store,
Mai Tai flavored condoms...they did not make the cut, lol.
The coconut cigars, did, however, thanks to Ellie bug.
I'll pass, thank you very much.

 G'nite, y'all!

House Renovation Phase Four: The Heart of the Home

We saved the "best" (eh-hem, the worst) for last- a complete
gut and remodel of the former kitchen...and we had just 8-10
days to get it done before I flew out to Hawaii, then Beijing.

Before I left for Indiana at the beginning of my
"summer vacation", we deconstructed about half of it.

The first order of business was tearing down the
wall that got rid of the 5' x 9' ham radio room.

This was our stopping point before we headed north to visit
our families.  Eventually ALL OF IT got torn out.  I had big plans!

So, in the final weeks of school the end of June, I set to work on
designing our kitchen.  I had no graph paper to work with, and I
was having trouble with some software, so I bought some paper
from the school bookstore and set to work!  This is paper that the
Chinese learn to draw their Mandarin characters, lol, or it
also works great to design a kitchen :)

I LOVE POWER TOOLS!!!!  Everything was torn out- GONE!

I loved pitching the ugliness off the balcony and down on
to the yard- so liberating!  I tried to reuse as many upper cabinets
as possible, but all the bases cabinets had to go.  They were
a homemade job out of pine and plywood.  We bought unfinished
cabinets from Home Depot, and the plan is for all of them to
be painted a bright white acrylic paint, with brushed nickel pulls.

Next we set to work measuring and placing the cabinets.
Lee had to move the 220 electric for the stove.

We got to a stopping place with hanging cabinets.
It was after 11pm, but neither of us was tired, really.
What project could we accomplish in a couple of
hours or less?  Len went and got the tile saw set up :)

I measured and marked the cuts for him to make, he ran the saw,
and I glued them down.  Just like me measuring and working the
saw when we were laying down the flooring (he runs the nailer),
once we fall into a rhythym, we are beasts!!!  In under two
hours, every base cabinet in the kitchen and island was tiled. It's
really a genius idea, no more sticky messes or cabinets getting
ruined by leaky pipes- great idea, Len :)

Another late night, hanging upper cabinets.  Remember the
uppers are a different finish, as we tried to reuse as many of
the previous cabinets as we could.  How do you like our
cooktop? We took it out of the old cabinets, lol, so it was
kind of like glorified camping this summer :)  With the cooktop,
a charcoal grill, a Cuban coffee maker, a wine bottle opener,
central AC and indoor plumbin', we were living LARGE, y'all!

Clearly we were living in a construction zone!  The bead board
you see by the stools was used to wrap the island and finish
the end cabinets.  I'm still going for a Southern Plantation feel,
with a touch of modern in the stainless appliances and
brushed nickel cabinet pulls and light fixtures.  You'll see the
full theme emerge....keep reading...

I refinished the interior window casings in a
rich walnut stain, and we continue with the
same fluted casing and corner blocks to trim it
out- the same as the guest bedroom. Notice the
upper cabinet to the right.  It was formerly a
microwave cabinet.  We cut it down, shortened
the height, and Len is going to install dowel
rods to make a plate rack for me to display
my Grandma's fiesta ware. I love that our home
will be filled with bits and pieces from both of our
  families, some from many generations back. 

It's starting to look like the little drawing I made back in China :)

This gives you a view of the island- it will be 40" x 80" inches of
stainless steel counter space to prep food. Len and I really love
to prepare and cook food together, so this was an essential :)

Painting done, crown molding up, ceiling painted- time for
light fixtures.  I am in love with my pendant light over the
sink, and the matching drum light over the dining area.  They
remind me of the top of a lighthouse.  Are you seeing a theme yet?

Next we laid the bamboo flooring in the kitchen, and later, the
dining area and the first several feet of the great room.  We had
a guy coming to measure for the granite counter tops, and our
stainless appliances were being delivered on that same day. We
wanted the flooring down before the appliances came- we made it!

Making the template for the granite looked like putting a puzzle
together for some craft project.  He went through five glue sticks for
his hot glue gun, lol.  I just had to take this pic as it has MY NAME
on the template.  I have never had granite kitchen counters in my life.
 I am so excited :)

Not long after the granite guy left, the appliance
delivery guys showed up!  Sans refrigerator- boo :(

I've never had stainless appliances, either.  We're building my
DREAM KITCHEN, y'all!

Once they left, Len set to work wiring and installing the
above stove microwave.  How sexy is he, working with
his shirt off and his hat backwards?!?!  Oh. my. stars.

Tah-Dah!!!

With bamboo flooring down, paint up, cabinets and
appliances in, I had to go digging through my suitcase!
I grabbed a sheet of glass tiles that will be used for our
back splash, and I dug out the rug I bought in Indiana
when I visited my Emily.  It all matches beautifully:)
So, I wanted my kitchen and great room to be a rather
subtle tribute to the ocean, my first love.  I didn't
want it to be in-your-face nautical, or Keys' kitsch. There is
the blue paint color on the kitchen walls, what looks like sea
 glass in the back splash, the stainless appliances like the grey
sky when storms appear on the horizon, the white cabinets
like the white sea foam on the waves, the nautical looking
lights, the sand colored paint in the great room, and all of it
is anchored in these rich bamboo floors. It's like sailing in to a
safe harbor in the islands. I freakin' love it!!!

In a moment of post wine celebrations toasting our
hard work, we took it upon ourselves to put up
the wavy stainless track light over the island.  It was
like a one inch wide 6 ' roll of stainless that you could bend
in to any shape at all. In spite of two bottles of wine...
I think it also came out beautifully. No whine was involved.

I JUST LOVE IT WHEN A P-L-A-N COMES TOGETHER!

Unfortunately, the kitchen was only about 85% finished when I had to leave.  We couldn't install the tile back splash until the granite gets installed (in September). Len wants to change out all the cheapo plastic slides in all the drawers to ball bearing ones (to satisfy the former cabinet maker in him :) Then he will paint the cabinets and install their hardware. We also need to locate a metal shop in Ft. Myers that will make the stainless steel island counter top for us, and he has the plate rack to finish....when all of that happens, we'll be the next ones to host the neighborhood happy hour at 5 o'clock on Fridays.  We have some awesome new neighbors :)

G'nite, y'all!

(10 days' work as far as we could take it, two days of rest, and then off to Hawaii- stay tuned)

House Renovation Phase Three: Building Walls

If you recall from an earlier post, my first five days on the ground
in the U.S. was doing major deconstruction on our new home before we
 left for Indiana and New Jersey. This was the former state of one part of the
kitchen/great room area.  To the left was a U shaped kitchen.  Left of the kitchen
was a small ham radio operation, and to the right of the kitchen was
this cavernous space of an office.  Both had to go to expand the kitchen :)

The first order of business was removing the non-working
 wood stove, tearing down the brick wall and hearth around
it, and removing the cabinets in the office area. The doorway
that you see on the right, next to the bookcase was the doorway
to the newly completed 9' x 11' guest bedroom.

By removing the ham radio/kitchen wall on the left, we needed
to extend the right kitchen wall by two feet, to make room for
the appliances, and the 18" tall pantry cabinet.  This extended
our kitchen wall from 10' to 12'.  We then built a 7' wall
perpendicular to that to create an "accent wall" when you enter
the front door.  If you turn the corner toward the window of the
former office space, we had plans to build a hallway to the guest
bedroom with a laundry closet becoming the hallway wall, and a guest
bathroom at the end of the hall.  While our guest bath is not en suite,
they will only have to walk out the bedroom door, and in to the bathroom
door to their immediate right.  When we have parties or gatherings,
we can tell people to use the bathroom at the end of the hall :)

With the wall framed up, next we hung drywall.
This angle is actually the kitchen extension and part
of the "accent wall" which boxes in the 18" tall pantry.

Len roughed in the wiring for the new wall, and worked on the
joint compound, while I took to sanding and refinishing the
guest bathroom and dining windows.  I also started making the
rounds on the drywall repair to the kitchen ceiling- working on the
patches Len made where the left kitchen/ham radio wall came down.

As we could begin to see the layout of our new
walls for the laundry, hall, and guest bathroom,
we were tossing and turning one night, unable to
sleep as we were in 'remodel overdrive.'  By about
2am, we gave up on sleep, got up, and Len moved an
air conditioning vent from the former 'office' to the
new hallway.  The present placement of the vent
was directly where we needed to construct the
guest bathroom wall at the end of the hall, so it
had to be moved.  Best to be crawling around in the
attic when it is not 120 degrees up there during the day!

The next day, walls went up for the bathroom.
Where the desk is will one day be the toilet.
To the left of the doorway, where you see the
framing will be a shower unit, and the vanity will
be on the same wall that the bathroom door swings
open to, in part, under the window :)

Len took the door from the Jack and Jill doorway that was
removed in the guest bedroom, and reused it for the new
guest bathroom.  He began hanging drywall, and to the left
you see the white plantation style bifold doors that will be
used in the laundry area.  Two of the three cabinets that you
saw in the "office" (the very first picture of this post) will
also be rehung in the 'laundry room' for storage above the
stainless washer and dryer unit we'll get one day. While most of
the reno pictures are of Len, I assure you I was swinging a hammer
and helping to put up framing and drywall, too.  I can do more
than hold a paint brush or a sanding sponge! We're quite the
good working partners- great partners, actually :)

With the 'accent wall' painted a blue-grey, same as the kitchen,
you can see the rough opening for the laundry, and the doorway for
the guest bathroom.  We stalled out on this project for the time
being as it was time to turn our attention to the REAL grunt work,
and that was to gut and rebuild a kitchen in 8-10 days.  We have the
tile for the guest bathroom, Len has the kits and parts needed for the
electric and plumbing for the W/D, and he has plenty to keep him
busy when he occasionally goes up to the house to mow the yard.
He can work on the laundry and guest bath at his leisure.  No hurry!

The plan is that once this guest bathroom is up and working, ALL of the Jack and Jill bathroom mess will get torn down, walls will get torn out, and the tiny bedroom will get expanded out into the great room a bit. There is presently about 5 feet of 'dead space' behind the front door) We plan to expand the bedroom by four feet, and the remaining one foot depth of an L shaped wall space behind the front door will become a library for all of Len's philosophy books and such, and what is left of my 'sailing' collection of books. When all of that bathroom mess gets torn out, we will be left with about a 16' x 18' blank space to create the plans for a master bedroom suite, to include an en suite bathroom and walk in master closet. We can't even think about that at the moment! Besides, those master bedroom floor plans will likely go through at least a dozen revisions before we ever lift a hammer to deconstruct.  We presently are working from our sketch of House Plan #28, so I'm thinking House Plan #43 for the master bedroom/suite sounds about right :)

While I worked on and painted the kitchen ceiling
and walls two coats, Len spent time doing more
wiring; in the kitchen, 220 for the stove, light
fixtures for the kitchen, dining, and over the island,
and he began installing canned lights in the great
room.  This is a 6' dresser/sideboard from Len's
uncle, and it fits perfectly on our new 7' accent wall.
The lobster boat model was made by Len's father,
and one day I hope we will complete a sailboat
model he has been working on.  The two boats,
side by side on our accent wall, sets the tone
for the color scheme and nautical theme for
the rest of the kitchen, dining, and great room :)

I can 'see' it all in my mind's eye, and it is going to be beautiful.  I love it when a plan comes together! All total, these 'wall projects' took about three days to complete.

The only other thing missing from my accent wall is a
beautiful sailboat painting.  I found this at a gallery in Key
West.  It is in a grey frame, and has the shades of blue and
blue-green glass that you will see in my kitchen tile back splash.
It was painted on an old nautical chart that is part the Bahamas
island chain. It would be perfect on the accent wall, but I cannot
afford to part with $15,000 to make that happen- YIKES!!!  So I
will keep looking...maybe one of my former students will
offer to commission it for me :)  Any takers?!

With Phase Three well at hand, it was time to move on to Phase Four- the kitchen renovation.  Phase Three was briefly interrupted by a quick run down to Conch Key so that Len could help Lobster Dick set his 300+ lobster traps after mini season was over.  We had just 8-10 days left to tackle the kitchen, as I was hoping for at least a few days respite on Conch Key before I was due to fly out of Miami. I was bound for Hawaii for a much needed vacation with my daughters, Emily and Ellen on August 17th, so there was no rest within sight!

G'nite,  y'all!

House Renovation Phase Two: Guest bedroom

We came back from our 2900 miles in six days with a moving van full of furniture and housewares. We quickly filled up the 'shop' downstairs, and in no way was the furniture all going to store down there, anyhow.  The thoughts of keeping an uncluttered work space, where we could work on our 'blank canvas' was quickly becoming unrealistic.  Amidst the clutter, building materials, and drywall dust, we had to get ourselves better organized.

Len's thought was that we needed at least ONE SPACE where everything was completely done.  We needed to be able to shut the door to the rest of the mess, and the bajillion work projects that are in various stages of progress, or lack thereof, lol. When I get stressed, my OCPDness kicks in to high gear, and I have to gain control of my environment.  The likely solution to our sanity was the need for restful sleep, as we had many LONG work days ahead of us.  It was his idea to begin in the larger of the two bedrooms, which will eventually become the guest bedroom. Time for a new plan!!!  Have I told you it brings me great joy and comfort to P-L-A-N?!?!  Phase Two: the guest bedroom.

Before we got too overly ambitious about putting things
back together and making it 'pretty' (i.e., MY job!) Len
needed to deal with the issue of some sagging,  It was going
to be difficult to square up walls, and install kitchen cabinets
if we were dealing with a crooked house! With a couple of
car jacks, some 2 x 12 beams, a fist full of clamps, and a lot
of pounding and muscle, he was able to git 'er done :)

If you remember from the previous post, this was
the 'before look' of the larger bedroom.  To the
right you see the doorway to the Jack & Jill
bathroom set up.  

This was looking in to the Jack & Jill bathroom...

...and this is the nice deep walk in closet that you
faced when laying in the bed in the photo above.
The space had 'good bones', and did not require
us moving entire walls, so it was a logical
and manageable place to begin.

While Len dealt with more serious mechanical matters, I got started
in the guest room by removing all the trim and baseboards.  He
took out the door to the bathroom, built a wall to fill the hole, and
hung the drywall.  My job was applying the tape and joint compound,
and sanding it down.  It took three trips around the room in three
days to make repairs to wall cracks, to cover nail holes, and to generally
 get all the walls and ceiling smoothed out.  Lesson learned: Use
a damp sponge first to knock down the heavy stuff, and only
sand with an extra fine grit sponge for the final finishing.
It equates to far less dust and mess to clean up!

In a 'former life' Len built cabinets and closet
organizers for a living.  Those skills came back into
practice as he laid out a beautiful walk in closet.
It is SO functional, and we gained a TON more storage!

While he worked on the closet, I did lots of painting. Everything
took two coats.  I painted the closet doors, the ceiling, the new
crown molding, baseboards, and shoe moldings in a bright
white semi gloss.  I also sanded and stained (three coats) the
interior casings to the large windows.  They came out a rich
antique walnut, that matches my antique furniture :)  

Len installed a beautiful new ceiling fan with a satin nickel finish
on the light kit, I gave a second going over on the paint in the
closet, together we painted the walls a satin butter cream color,
I stapled down the underlayment for the flooring, and he installed
bamboo shades in the windows.  He also made the corner blocks
with his router for the windows. Looking better already :)
I love the bright white window casings and crown molding,
I was going for a Southern Plantation look-
remember my job is to make it pretty :)  

The next major project was installing the bamboo
flooring.  We ordered 3 pallets, or 36 boxes, of bamboo
flooring that we hauled up to the house with the
trusty winch that Len created.  I have always loved
bamboo floors, and both Len and I LOVE all
the power tools- like our new flooring nailer!

And there you have it- our guest bedroom!
It's an eclectic mix of things that came together
beautifully. The pewter lamp and hand painted
shade was my mother's. The washstand I have
taken with me to every home I have lived in, as
well as the antique bed that has been mine for
thirty years.  Both pieces were in the guest bedroom
of the first home I ever owned with the girls' father.
Eventually the bed became my beloved Grandmother's
bed when we moved her from Texas to Indiana.  The
night stand is actually an antique sewing machine and
cabinet that belonged to Len's mother, and the new
palm tree bedding was ordered from Bed, Bath and Beyond.
In the corner is an antique walnut chair that belonged to Len.
And, of course, no room in any house of mine is complete 
unless there is sailboat picture somewhere, which is hanging
on the far wall above the antique washstand. I included my
'ship's wheel' clock, and my tray of miniature sea
shells and sea glass that I have gathered in my travels.
It is cozy, it is beautiful, it smells lovely, and it is perfect.
Beginning to end, this project took five days.

Now all I need is some guests!!!

G'nite, y'all!