A Week of HGTV...I Am Inspired!

Ugh, the plague hit our humble adobe and smacked me hard. In the form of strep throat and two rubtured ear drums. That crap seems to worsen with age; at one point I had only one sense remaining. I am always blind so couldn't see shit, couldn't hear shit because of the ear situation, couldn't taste shit because of the throat, and sure as hell couldn't smell shit because of the snot. Pretty much awesome. That thing they say about one sense being heightened when the others aren't working...I found it to be oh so true, as I felt all over all kinds of SHITTY.

I am happy to report that I got some drugs, am on the mend, and have learned some great tricks from laying on my ass for a week straight. Here is what I did:

Watch football. Eat toast. Watch HGTV. Nap. And given that 98% of the football games sucked, watch even more HGTV (my head hurt too much to read).

Alas, now that I am feeling groovy, the home improvement projects have begun. I am, of course convinced that I too can remodel my entire house for less than $1,000 and that at any moment a hot guy in rugged jeans with lovely biceps will show up to help. And he'll show up weilding an air nailer.

Riiight.

Nonetheless, I am giving it the 'ole HGTV try. I figure I'd best get my house in order for a short sale given that I am going to soon win this (of course you'll all be invited to my first wine party, if you are lucky). So, first up....new hardware for the kitchen cupboards.

For some architectural relevance/reference...we start with a photo of my 100 year old abode (only in your head you should add approximately one foot of snow and ICE to everything...and then add me slipping and falling on my ass as I try and shovel the driveway, for good measure):
Now, we move to the kitchen, which absolutely does not resemble the appropriate period of the home, but was lovingly updated prior to my purchase of said home with linoleum floors, oak cupboards, gold hardware, a really lovely berry type wallpaper border, and green checkboard wallpaper below said border:

So of course I pulled the berry border off. Next, I began the arduous process of peeling off the green checkerboard wallpaper below the chair rail, lovely as it was. And BTW, those twigs and weeds above the door are so not mine. I snapped these three pics at the inspection.

So yesterday I found some new knobs and pulls from the correct period on sale at Lowes, and I ditched the old hardware as a very do-able baby first step. I am totally itching to paint the cupboards, and see what lies beneath that linoleum but those little projects will have to wait a bit. Out with the old:

And wala!...project one, complete ('skuse the crappy bberry pics):

Given that I hate painting in cramped spaces and all the bigger chunks of my wallpaper border were off, my self diagnosed ADD kicked in and I was on to the next project. Painting my living room. There will be many more pics of this mess to come, but I forgot my camera today, so here are a few I snapped from my Blackberry. Before:

During:

To be continued....