kim through
   the looking glass

I just busy. And feeling like I’m not sure what to write. And I haven’t a clue where my camera cable is. Time for a bulleted list, anyone?

• I’m 23 weeks pregnant now. Over halfway, 5 more weeks in my second trimester. Wow. Brad got to feel Love Bug kick this morning. I think that’s one of my favourite pregnancy experiences
• Our kitchen is coming along swimmingly. Cabinets are in, sink and flooring are purchased and the counter-top people are coming on Monday to do the template.
• I’m getting sick of living in renovation-land. I’m ready to have a working kitchen and dining room and to dig my living room out from underneath the paraphenalia associated with each unfinished area. Sooooo ready.
• I’ve been reading quite a bit! I finished ‘Kids Are Worth It!’ by Barbara Coloroso and LOVED IT - thanks for the recommendation, Chelsea! I’m almost finished ‘The Continuum Concept’ by Jean Leidhoff and am enjoying it immensely. Lots of interesting information that’s making me think long and hard about Western life.
• I’m knitting too! I’ve started some Christmas knitting, as well as a pair of socks for Gwen. Too cute.
• My brother-in-law and his girlfriend are spending a few weeks with us, which I love. I love having people here to share my day with - and Gwen loves having more big people to follow around and imitate!
• Next weekend I have an all-day LLL conference to attend. Should be interesting with Gwen.
• I have an appointment with a thrombosis clinic next week to check out my varicose veins - I’m looking forward to finding out what’s going on in there.
• I’m pretty sure we’re not doing the H1N1 vaccine. 99.8% of me is comfortable not being vaccinated - after all, I don’t ever get the seasonal flu shot … but there is 0.02% of me that’s terrified by all the fear-mongering. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be 100% sure I wasn’t getting it.
• I’m newly addicted to the show Gossip Girl. It’s horrid. But good knitting entertainment!

What with the 15% tax credit by the government this year, the coming birth of our second child, and a vastly useless kitchen, we’ve decided to go ahead and renovate this fall.

Our current dining room will become the kitchen, our current kitchen will become the dining room. The current wall between the two will be mostly torn down, allowing for a beautiful flooding of light from a massive south-facing window into the new kitchen space. Then, we will be tearing out a portion of wall between our living room and the soon-to-be dining room - a portion that, if looked at in the right light, you can tell was drywalled in and used to be a double door opening.

I’m so darn excited!

We have chosen oak inset face frame, raised panel cabinets like those below (with concealed hinges) in a stain that is a similar shade to our beautiful hardwood floors.

We aren’t yet sure what we’re doing for our countertop and/or backsplash, as we would like to go with either a natural stone or solid surface - neither of which we can really afford right now. We were thinking of using Paperstone, but the colours are just too dark for our small space and dark cabinetry. We may just put down plywood for a year or two. Either way, we’ll likely stick with a neutral light colour similar to our flooring. My favourite colour of Corian solid surface countertop is Granola (pictured left) … I think you all know why! We may, though, go with a more solid colour so as not to take away from the effect of the wood and to bring the room in (as per Brad’s brother Dave’s advice).

For our flooring, we’re likely going with Torly’s Cork Flooring, likely in the colour Burl Sand Stone (pictured right), which in the Torly’s catalog looks fantastic next to white trim.

So that’s my current update! We’re not yet sure exactly what things are going to happen when, but we’re in the process of thinking about it!

Holy crap, people! Do you know what that means? It means that June Bug could come at any time and we’d be having him/her arrive at home! Wow. Wow. Wow. Read the rest of this entry »