Maybe it’s the May grey, June gloom SoCal weather but I can’t believe summer is right around the corner. Where is 2012 going? Spring found us busy with some small but important projects around the house and was rounded out by my parents’ visit for Sophia’s birthday.

The first project was a minor kitchen renovation to address an eyesore we’ve overlooked the last two years (yes, we’ve been home owners for two years already). The eyesore was our elevated dishwasher and the gap in cabinetry between said eyesore and the sink. We wanted to fill in the cabinetry and lower the dishwasher which we didn’t think would be much of a problem. Once we began investigating, we found out the cabinet maker didn’t make a cabinet small enough to fit the space. This explains why the previous owners who did the remodel left the gap; obviously a design flaw in the kitchen. We then began investigating custom cabinetry hoping to match the existing cabinets. That left us with another road block since the blade/router to make the inlay for the cabinets is proprietary to the cabinet maker, meaning we couldn’t duplicate it. We were also advised that the stain of our cabinets (which apparently in cabinetry land is a Santa Fe whitewash) is very difficult to match.

Instead of building a cabinet with a door and stain that didn’t quite match we opted to have our cabinet guy build a bookshelf. This way the gap and cabinet is filled and functional with as little detail as possibly so you don’t notice it’s not an exact match. Once this teeny tiny cabinet and another piece below the stove around the warming drawer was complete (it only took 3 months!) we moved on to tackling the counter top. We were told it could be done but the contractor and granite guy kept cautioning us that it might not look great and weren’t sure what type of seam we would end up with. Fortunately, the turn around time to fix the counter was light years faster than the cabinets and that small piece was wrapped up in a short week. Turns out, the seam is nearly invisible and we now have one long stretch of shiny quartz counter top instead of the eyesore of a dishwasher breaking up otherwise useful counter space. After two years of delaying this project we are so happy with the finished outcome and glad to have it D-O-N-E!

The other project we tackled this spring, which is part of the big switcheroo in preparation for William’s arrival, was mounting the TV above the fireplace in the living room. Previously, the TV was in the other living room which we refer to as the sun room. It was nice having it separate from the main dining and entertaining area in the house but we needed to make space for Phil’s office. The bedroom Phil’s office currently occupies will become Sophia’s room and the sun room is now being converted into Phil’s office/guest room. There are pocket doors to the sun room so it should work out nicely giving Phil a quiet space when he needs to get work done, or privacy when we have guests. The great part about mounting the TV above the fireplace was that it gave Phil an excuse to buy a new set of surround sound speakers. Now all the electrical work is done and we finally have something hanging above our fireplace, another area that was overlooked the last two years.

And now to the fun stuff – visitors! After the kitchen was done, but before the TV project was tackled, my parents visited us for six days. In addition to celebrating Sophia’s birthday we got out for some other adventures. Saturday was the art festival in Little Italy followed by a bbq with some good friends. Sunday we wandered the Carlsbad Flower Fields. The ranunculus were so beautiful; it was easy to overlook the windy and overcast day. The rest of their visit was rounded out with a trip to the San Diego Safari Park, shopping, swim lessons and lots of good eats. Our time with family always goes by too quickly and this visit was no exception.

More to come soon…