I was shocked to see, in those house-flipping shows, how renovating the kitchen always brought in more money than the renovations cost.

You can make a kitchen *look* fabulous for very cheap without making any actual functional improvements - refacing cabinets instead of replacing them, swapping in a stainless-steel anything for generic beige, etc.

My current kitchen had brand new looking cabinets when we bought. Unfortunately, the insides are CRAP. The shelves are all the wrong height and I'm constantly having to pop drawer bottoms back in after they collapse under the apparently enourmous weight of my silverware.

What Jessica describes is why I was always leery. Plus, if it is new, let it be my way. One of the reasons I didn't want the seller touching the deck and frankly, wish he hadn't replaced the one door he did. As it is, I'm dealing with a lousy paint job on the trim (no priming) and frankly, some interesting sill replacements. Those I might have to sand in situ or just replace altogether.

T and her dad stopped by. It was great. I'm gonna have to get her here alone, cause he's a rather dominant personality, and of course, she's a teenager. Lots of eyerolling from her. Heh. But he really wants to help too. I swore he was about to install my a/c right then and there. He works for Public Works, in the water division, so was all absorbed in the pipes in the basement. Anyway, it was nice to get to show the house off to them. T knows the busline that stops at the end of my street, so I should see more of her, especially once school starts, since she's going nearby.

Suggestions solicited. These windows: [link]

I want something I can drop in the summer afternoons, because it gets intense. But I like 'em blank. I don't really want blinds there (or I would have ordered them) so what are my other options? Curtains, meh. I was thinking roman blinds, if I could get them to mostly disappear in the valance. If that, I could put something in fairly bold in color, which would just be an accent when raised. Or I could do boring blinds.Or cellular in a rich color that would be hidden when raised. I like the light it lets in when it isn't full on western exposure, so I think I'd want whatever I put in to be fairly invisible when I'm not using them (which is partly why I didn't get blinds. The glory of blinds is to adjust light/privacy and I just don't see them as a benefit here. Either all or nothing. Ditto normal curtains. I'd like to be able to cover just the top half.)

Saw my first lightning bug of the summer (is today the solstice?)!

Finished priming the bedroom (there's so many closets and doors and outlets that the edging out took for-freaking-ever). The washer is so small that I think I did eight loads of laundry, mostly the new sheets and new bath towels. Got rid of yet another trapped chipmunk (alive) that had been here for the past two days. Need to throw the rabbits body a little further from the patio. Noticed a rotted/broken piece of the shingles/roof out back. Need to borrow the power washer to clean out the gutters so the rain stops rotting out the threshold to the front door. Landlady better front the cost of the repairs. I'm still miffed that there's no garbage pick-up in this town.

Mum is visiting next weekend, so I desperately want to get the dining room/kitchen painted before she gets her two cents in. I chose to paint 2 out of 4 walls in each room to paint a buttery creamy yellow, and the other 2 blue-green, so when you look through the door into the other room, it's all the same colour, and yet when I'm lying in my bed looking the other way, it's a different colour but still all the same. But the dining room and kitchen I want to separate and make hot and festive.

And then there's still the trim and the ceilings. So wish I had the money to pay someone to paint.

The campanula outside is starting to fade but the scaevolea I planted is continuing the same shade of purple and looking quite hot with the orange marigolds.

Sara, what about those films you can get at Home Depot/Loew's? They have the pretty pictured ones like stained glass, but they also carry light-reducers that don't destroy visibility, as well as the ones that I got, which look like bubbled glass, let in a lot of light, while giving me privacy and nice filtered light without making it dark and gloomy.

Saw my first lightning bug of the summer

Me too!

(is today the solstice?)!

Indeed it is.

I don't want something to permanently block the light/view.

I miss lightening bugs.

I was watching them tonight as I talked on the phone on my porch. Never had them growing up, always associated them with visiting the grandparents in the midwest. So I think of Rockford and Pipestone and those lazy summers with cousins whenever I see them.

Loki's doing his nightly "I'm gonna die if I don't go outside" routine. He's pining! It's comical. And loud.

Maybe just a sheer white curtain that encompasses all the windows and can be pushed to the edges when wanted? Which is far too much work for me. I've become addicted to my new blinds (faux wooden 2" slats) that with a simple pull open to let the light in, and I can pull them completely out of the way if I want more light. And they look nice (so much classier than the cheap-looking aluminum venetian blinds).

Oh noes, the ants are descending.

Double oh noes, the cats slept all day (the day it wasn't raining) and now I'm ready for bed.