Nesting? Perhaps.

I have to admit the fact that there has been some definite “nesting” going on in these last two months until B Day. I think it stems from the desire to squeeze in a few more projects/experiments before the munchkin arrives and our lives change forever. My attempt at canning was a learning experience for sure, but I channeled my inner M. Stewart and can now more fully appreciate the draw of preserving one’s own food. After two attempts at getting the sealing process down, we now have some jars of homemade tomato sauce, some peaches and soon-to-be ratatouille, stored up for those upcoming winter months. Yes, it takes time, yes, it would take some serious planning to really make it money-saving, but to quote my mother, “The results are exactly the taste you want, not what some large manufacturer decides.” So, in the end, I’ll keep working on it.

We also recently decided to hire a professional to repaint our kitchen and side entry/mudroom. For those of you who have been to our house, you know that our kitchen had an *interesting*color scheme. I might choose other descriptors such as ‘electric’, ‘out of place’ or ‘jarring’, but regardless, it was bright yellow and blue…Tiffany blue, to be exact. (In a kitchen with mostly all other earth-tones, I might add.) Needless to say, I haven’t liked the colors since we bought the house. Tom was more accepting and actually appreciated the primary colors, so it has taken us some time time (over two years since we moved in) to agree that the kitchen actually could stand to be repainted. (Thanks to my wonderful hubby, who finally came around :-)

Well, a seemingly simple painting job ended up becoming a bit of a stressful fiasco (mainly due to a flaky painter), and I guess the bottom line is that we learned a few important lessons about choosing and working with contractors. Lesson #1: In the long run, reliability is more valuable than getting the cheapest price. Lesson #2: Choose a contractor based on referrals.

To make a long story short, the job (which he claimed would take one day..ha!) ended up lasting three, he arrived late most days, and he was a serious rambler. (I might be stating the obvious here, but if he spent as much time painting as he did talking, he’d have gotten a lot more actual work done.) The icing on the cake though, happened on the day one of his workers thought it would be a good idea to stand (yes, stand) in our stainless steel kitchen sink, causing it to break away from where it was mounted to the counter. Fortunately, the painter was reasonable and has agreed to absorb the cost of fixing the sink, but that was yet another hassle we had to deal with, and realized that even finding a general handyman to fix the sink was not an easy task! The reason we chose to hire a professional in the first place was ultimately so that we wouldn’t have to deal with it ourselves. So much for that idea!

The upside of the whole painting drama is that we were, in fact, mostly happy with the painting results, and our kitchen now looks really good with some fresh coats of paint. Here are some before and after shots.

To counter all the stressful junk lately, we did have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend away, spending time in Manzanita at the Oregon coast to recharge a little bit. Besides some rain, the weather actually held out really well, so we had fun lazing around the beach, flying a kite, eating fudge and buying a whole tuna directly from a fisherman.

Next big task on the never-ending list is to paint and finish up the nursery. Needless to say, we will be doing the painting ourselves on that one…