Just a quick post to give you an update on my friend’s cat Binky. I also wanted to post this because it’s nice to be reminded that there are really good people out there.

Yesterday I had an email sitting in my inbox from Laurel, who lives here in Ottawa. She said she wanted to foster Binky. !!!!!!! I figured she was too late because I thought Binky’s appointment at the Humane Society was yesterday. Turns out his appointment was today! Laurel and her boyfriend rushed over to Jenny’s place last night to meet him and they’re picking him up tomorrow morning. I am so happy, and so relieved. I would have felt such guilt if he ended up going to the Humane Society. They’ve agreed to foster him for now, but like I told Laurel, he’ll end up being their new pet. I know it. Look at my cat #6…I’m “fostering” him and he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. 🙂 Laurel promises to keep me updated and will send me photos of Binky on her teak credenza, or her flokati rug….which made me laugh because she knows they will surely end up on the blog.

So Laurel, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You did a really sweet thing for this poor little guy. (Oh GAWD, get me a kleenex….)

(I had to include a photo, and since I don’t have one of Binky, here’s my “foster” kitty Felix, on one of my favourite chairs)

Photographer Lucas Allen was featured here about a year ago, and his portfolio is so smashing I thought I’d have another go. Here are photos I didn’t share last time.

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their kitchen cabinets, and I’m taking care of the rest.

If you’d like to be brought up to date, check out my kitchen remodel blog for an archive of previous posts. I started talking about some of the fun purchases that goes along with a kitchen renovation in my last post….now it’s time for appliances.

My selection of appliances follows a common look and feel with my lighting choices. It’s all about a sleek and industrial look, in stainless steel. And frankly, anything would be better than the appliances that came with the house. The current fridge is a full fridge, with no freezer. ???? The freezer is a large chest freezer located in the basement. I used to have a small and very cheap hood fan (that someone had spray painted white), but it was rusty and dirty and installed too low so I threw it out a couple months after moving in.

When I started thinking about appliances, I knew I had to go with stainless steel. Now, sometimes I think stainless appliances are over-rated, with fingerprints and dents showing up so much more than on black or white ones, but these days they come in brushed stainless, which tends to masks prints. So I’ve slowly grown to love them. Had I redone my kitchen with white cabinets like I had initially planned before this partnership with Greentea began, I may have been tempted to go with white appliances. I like the look of them blended in with the cabinets. But since my cabinets are sort of a teak coloured wood, and I want to keep the space as bright as possible, I decided to go with stainless. Black would have been way too dark, and white I think would have stood out too much against the cabinets. Plus, I really like how the stainless looks in the Chalet Chic kitchen on Greentea’s site.

I really love the pairing of the Asian style and colour of the cabinets (almost rustic looking) with the sleek look of stainless appliances. I think it’s a nice juxtaposition. (The fridge above is a Liebherr that I saw in a showroom…and sadly it was pricey).

To see how easy it was to blow a serious amount of money, click HERE.

Several months ago Jo posted about an eco-friendly home designed by Lori Dennis of the Dennis Design Group. I loved the photos Jo posted and came across their website again with many more fabulous photos. Her style is youthful and modern and hip, with lots of bold artwork. I am totally impressed by the importance this firm places on “green” design. Lori even has a blog called Glamorous Green, about green design and living. (My favourite is that walk-in closet. YUM)

Things are a little nutty at my house, as I’m trying to get some projects finished before the kitchen renovation work needs to start. I had 2 things I was determined to complete, the renovation of my staircase to the second floor, and my basement.

I took Friday off from work to start the stairs and I managed to get them pretty much done. A couple paint touch ups and a few nail holes left to fill but I am too tired to finish it. I thought I’d show some before photos first so you can see what I’ve been living with since December. This first photo is what the stairs looked like for about a month after I moved in.

I ripped the carpeting off because it was so dirty (from moving in a snowstorm) and not installed properly – I almost took a tumble down them a few times. This is the horror that was underneath. Linoleum tiles, aluminum trim and lots of paint splotches.

I am dying to paint all the floors in my house white, so the stairs were no exception. I painted them white, and the staircase is now so much brighter than it was. Now if I could just figure out how to get them to clean themselves…

Here is why I am too tired to finish the stairs. Below are photos of the remnants of what was on the floor in my damp and leaky basement (there’s more that has to come out but I’m too tired and need help with the rest). I am so pissed off that someone was stupid enough to decide to hide leaks by putting down layer upon layer of plywood on a damp floor. The smell once the top layer of linoleum was removed was so disgusting. The wood in some places was BLACK and crumbly. I am afraid my cats and I will get sick from the mold. I wore a mask while I was working down there but the smell was so bad I can still smell it, and I feel kind of nauseous. There are alot of annoying and poorly executed things I keep finding around this house, but this one definitively tops the list of bad judgement.