Kitchen Tile Style (Viva Los Links!)

Yes, can you believe it, we did, indeed, tile again (you can see in the photos that Dominic has his “tiling face” on). But this time would be different. Inspired by a beautiful tiled mirror I’d picked up in Guanajuato, Mexico, a couple of years earlier, we chose forgiving Talavera tiles. Heck, the tiles start out irregular, so they’re not supposed to be perfect (we appreciated this lack of pressure). Dominic had the idea to edge the tiles with a wood strip that was stained to match the counter – it really tied everything together. We added a few more fun touches later. A strangely blank part of the cabinetry was decorated with red-bordered Mexican Loteria cards, and Dominic’s stepmom encouraged us to use all different Talavera knobs instead of coordinating to match the tile. We added tin switchplates later to complete the look.

So Jacked Up!

It is not a good sign when your front door is suddenly difficult to close. It means dark forces may be at play underneath your house. In life as in home improvement, "settling" is sometimes inevitable but can lead to disaster. Dominic peeled away some siding and discovered that we'd overlooked a floor joist that was disintegrating due to dryrot. Worried that the whole house would soon tip to the left, we jacked up the house (exactly as if it had a flat tire) gradually over a few days, and then Dominic replaced the joist before gradually lowering the house. Raising and lowering the house?!?! I don't think my concern was an overreaction. In the end, it turned out fine (knock on wood that we don't veer to the side any moment now) with the exception of just a couple character-building cracks in the living room drywall.

The Hippie in the Hardware Store

During this phase of our consumer spending, we tried to spread our money around to the three different hardware stores in our area. We spent more than we would have liked at the big box stores, largely because they sweet-talked us with financing deals that enabled us to stretch our current cash flow farther (we supposed that we'd pay off all the bills when we became millionaire teachers in the near future). Anyhow, Dominic noticed that, some of the time, the (mostly male) employees at the hardware stores treated him as if he didn't know his gasket from his elbow joint. We guessed they didn't expect Dominic to be much of a handyman because of his long hair, but, hey, this is Northern California, and Dominic is full of surprises. That's why I love him.

True Confessions

We had two gates to build, and we went for the classic, cottage look of a pergola (or is it called an arbor?) above each gate. The first gate was a pain to paint due to the perpendicular top pieces, so we began painting the second gate without those pieces. Truthfully, it was still a hassle. And, if I'm being completely honest, both gates could use another coat of white paint today. We never finished painting the top pieces of the second gate, and the first gate was painted but went through a winter without rain gutters, so it's seen better days. I do like the shabby chic look of worn paint, but these two go a bit too far. Hopefully they'll achieve their full potential some time soon!

A Good Premarital Test

Remodeling a home requires lots of teamwork, communication, and flexibility. Dominic and I learned to make decisions together, to work toward our goals, and to maintain a sense of humor, and the process was enjoyable (though not easy). Our home project was even mentioned by the rabbi during our wedding ceremony, which got quite a laugh from everyone. Before you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, I recommend taking on some sort of a big project together. If you don’t kill each other, then it must be true love.

Everything Must Be Yellow

At this point, we were feeling much better about the interior of our house, but not a whole lot had changed on the outside. We wondered if this confused our neighbors, who heard us making an awful lot of racket without showing much progress in our curb appeal. We, on the other hand, embraced our external scruffiness as a valuable anti-theft device and a necessary evil in order to finish the main work inside. We decided, however, that it was time to spiff things up a bit. Dominic was not surprised when I wanted to paint the exterior yellow, but he did ask if every house that we live in would be painted yellow. I told him that I’d have to get back to him. “Lemon Ice” was just so darn cheerful.

Cabinet Chaos

We supposed that we should actually finish putting in the cabinets and countertops. To do so was a little bit of a pain as it required shuffling all of our stuff and moving appliances around, but it was definitely worth it. The free sink (another “flawed” reject) and slightly used stove (another giveaway from Dominic’s stepmom) that we scored really enhanced the look of our kitchen, as did our affordable Ikea countertops. I hadn’t quite realized that cabinets are just boxes affixed to the wall. Hanging them at that critical point between level and the ceiling line was, as usual, a challenge.