It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday

Just hum a little Boyz II Men while you follow along...Now that my Parents are moving I've had to take possession of a trunks worth of my childhood.    It's all memorabilia of from my early life.  The stuff that the Parents lovingly saved (report cards, kindergarten papers, awards, etc) but not something that I need to or should hang onto for the shrine of Me.  Basically I was happy to know that it all existed but I don't want it at my house!  Last night I made it through the first of several boxes.  Almost all of it will go to recycling but there are a few things that made me laugh/cry and I thought I'd share.

Here I've signed my name to the top of a paper brought home from Kindergarten.

I'm left handed and when I first started writing I wrote from right to left, completely mirrored.  In fact I can still write like that today without a lot of thought. 

Here I am practicing writing my name.  Apparently I also liked to practice writing my sister's name (Alison) as well.  I have her name written all over lots of my papers.

I found my Cabbage Patch dolls' birth certificates.  I had erased their given names and had given them my own.  (Cleveland Yves became Chad Ryan because it was 1985. I feel like it's 1985 just reading that again.  And Callie Calli became Kelly Calli for awhile) But at some point I decided to go back to their original names and had rewritten them back in pencil, including a heart over the i.

The dress I wore while performing 'Tomorrow' from 'Annie' in the school talent show from 4th grade was wadded up in the bottom of the box next to my ribbon for first place.  My Mama made that dress for me.  I loved it.  It's a shame I can't even come close to wearing it now.  I'd still rock it if I could in some way.

Apparently I've been drawing floorplans for my entire life.  I think I was around 12 years old in this one.

 Clearly this was long before I learned anything about scale and proportion.  But I had a vision then and I could see every detail in my head.

But my favorite thing by far in the box was this handmade Christmas card from my sister, sometime during our elementary school days.

I think this sums it up for both of us even now.  She's still my best bud(d)y even though we're sisters and I love her very much. 

Kitchen Deconstruction

On Tuesday I started to show you the Parents new house and all the work that they are doing to make it their own.  Today it's all about the kitchen.  The situation is very similar to the master bath.  Lots of wallpaper and border, unprepped walls,  with lots and lots of hard work.  So hard in fact that we wore out the dog.

Who am I kidding this is what George likes to do everyday!  Okay on to the kitchen!  Again, the existing color palette was mauve and teal...everywhere.  From the walls to the floors to the countertops it was on almost every surface.

Before:

from the dining room looking into the kitchen

the sitting/breakfast area off the kitchen (hi Dad!)

And now the in progress shots during all the hard work.

In Progress:

from the dining room into the kitchen

the sitting/breakfast area off the kitchen

Did I mention that the Parents will have an incredible view from their kitchen and sitting area.  You can start to see it out the windows in that last pic.  It was also close to the peak of color for Fall where they live so I got to fast forward my Fall and see some really beautiful color.

As of last night my Mom and Aunt have been working on the kitchen walls for 11 days, peeling paper, washing down walls, priming and now painting.  I have a great shot of them hard at work but I'm sure they appreciate that I'm not sharing with the world.  They are standing on a ladder, their butts in the air, trying to peel the last of the paper from around the refrigerator.  I can't wait to see it again when I return in a view weeks.  There is still a bit of work to be done.  Walls are being painted, countertops are being selected and I need to get cracking on some great fabrics for the windows.  I'll update you as this story progresses. 

And So It Begins

My parents bought a new house.  This is a huge change for them.  They moved into their old house the year before I was born. Now they are packing it all up and moving to town (with the exception of several boxes of my childhood junk that they sent packing with me over the weekend!) They have been working slavishly hard for several weeks now to make the new house their own.  I went for a visit and to lend a hand over the weekend.

The new house originally had LOTS of wallpaper.  I mean lots, as in two different patterns plus a border in several rooms. But even more heartbreaking, the walls were not properly prepped so the paper was only coming off in tiny little pieces (insert Mom's tears of frustration here).  My Mom and my Aunt have worked for over a week to get all of those little pieces stripped away plus washing the walls several times, patching, standing and priming before the real transformation can happen. Let's all take a look at their hard work.

Behold the Master Bath Before:

Notice the three patterns and a border in that last shot!  Now here it is with all of that stripped away but before Dad and I started priming.

Even it's raw state it feel 100 times better in the room.  Moving forward there are a few things that are still going to have to be worked around.  Did you notice the pink tub, pink vanity counter, pink shower and all the gold fixtures??? Yep, they are all staying for now.  When I shot the before pics a few months ago I didn't even notice all the pink fixtures because of everything else going on in the room.  I had envisioned watery blue walls and clean white fixtures.  Clearly we are going in a different direction now.  I'll keep you posted. 

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you the kitchen progress.