The Cyclist's Wife: Kitchen Remodel Phase 1 & Training Update

Like many Americans, we suffer from an ugly kitchen. It was #1 on the list of things to do-over, but before we got to it our shower decided it would leak....all the way to the outside wall of our house....so the bathroom got done first. Then we got excited and put in all new doors, bamboo floors, base boards, tile, paint, light fixtures and fans...then said, "oops, I guess we'll have to wait awhile before we do the kitchen".

It is at this point that I must say I am very happy to have a handy husband who is able to do lots of this stuff (he gets credit for pretty much everything listed above) and happy to have friends of husband who often work for beer and food. This was the first project that I also really (truly) had a hand in that counted for something more than dawdling so not only can I say "check out what we did", I can also appreciate the tediousness and time it takes to finish stuff like this. Thank you husband/Cyclist for all your hard work in this project and all the others. I ♥ you.

So, like I said, our kitchen is ugly. You won't really get the ugliness of it until we tackle Phase 2, but you will start to get an idea. I originally thought somebody re-modeled our mid 50's kitchen in the 70's and put in the funky wood cabinets with copper handles, but after watching Mad Men I surmised that someone actually must have put these in originally. Seriously, Betty could really be standing in our kitchen in this photo:

The similarities are eerie.

We started with the dining side of the kitchen which included a "peninsula" (thank you Mr. F) which we called an "island" like the one Betty is standing next to above.

The Cyclist got going a tad before I said, "Stop! Take pictures!", but you get the idea....

BEFORE ↑

and....

Ta-Da! AFTER.

I should point out this was not just as easy as tearing out the ugly cabinet and replacing it with this nifty breakfast bar from IKEA. It included putting in new tile too...

....(you are catching a glimpse of ugly kitchen here)....

My only "final" picture of the tile is the AFTER photo above, but you get the idea.

In addition to putting in the new breakfast bar, we also painted.

BEFORE

...and...

Gotcha! Another BEFORE ↑

and...wait for it....

AFTER

The black wall that you see is actually a magnetic chalkboard. We put this in for The Munchkin and DD, which we thought would be fun. We used magnet paint (yes they make this! Crazy huh?) and then chalkboard paint. It was pretty time consuming since I think we ended up doing 3 coats of each, but it turned out good and it is fun. I believe we decided we will be doing another wall in the kitchen with chalkboard paint too, but you'll have to wait for us to get started and finished before you will see!

Last but not least, training update. Not much has changed. The week before last I managed to ride to work everyday, do my Monday night ride and swim. Last week I rode just about everyday, did my Monday night ride and swam. I rode today too, but I think I'll be shifting some stuff up this week. The ladies at the Rio BBQ filled me in on a women's group ride Tuesday's that I'm going to try and get in on. I'm nervous about my crappy bike handling skills, but The Cyclist assures me that I'll be fine. So hopefully soon I'll have more to report than "I did the same thing as last week". The good news is, I've been fairly consistent, so that's always a plus.

Last week I promised the Mystery Garden and it is still coming! I also have a race report and some other good stuff, so, stay tuned!