Kitchen Cabinets part 10 and Christmas Spirit

After two weekends off (well one, really, but I havent written an update in two weeks), we are back at it!

We spent Thanksgiving week with some of our family in Indiana. It was a short trip with a packed agenda, so we didn't get to see everyone, but we still had a great time! We got back last weekend, fully expecting to be exhausted, but after 17 hours in the car on the way home all we wanted to do was *not* sit.

We decided to do the very thing I've been super against: we got a storage unit. In Indiana people have basements, and attics, and garages, and extra storage spaces all over so I've always had the mindset that if you need a storage unit you probably have things you don't need (not judging anyone else, this is MY theory for me). However, it's very different in Florida: no basements, the attics are too hot to store much, our garage is our workshop, and our closets are small. So, a storage unit we got!

It was surprising just how much could fit in a little 5x5 unit, we have plenty of space, and a lot of what's in there will have a home in our house once the pantry and upper cabinets are built.

With a bunch of the boxes out of the boys' room, Scott wanted to start making it feel like a usable space. I work from home snd my desk has been in the dining room; an ok space, but not ideal, so we moved it into the closet. We set up my monitors, added a lamp, moved in the chair Toby sits in, and it's ready for work on Monday!

we Also started hanging some things o. The walls. This is technically the boys' room (the other guest room is the girls' room, it has my craft stuff in the closet), so Scott hung some sports items, including the Ditka jersey he got from his dad.

We ordered a beanbag chair for this room that unfolds into a queen size bed (just in case) and will eventually get a tv in here, but for now it's no longer a big storage room, but is instead usable space!

I'm not sure what we'll do with the space in the dining room. Where my desk was, Scott floated the idea of building a China cabinet along the wall, but we'll see (vacuum for scale):

We worked on the cabinets a little, just attached the two front doors to the sink cabinet.

We have a Kreg Jig my parents got us for drilling the holes for the concealed hinges. We cut practice holes in a scrap piece of wood before we cut into the doors:

Once we were sure we had them adjust right Scott cut two holes in each door and then attached the hinges:

Once the holes were cut he brought them inside to attach them and add the handles:

We have two bottom cabinets to finish: the lazy susan cabinet which just needs a door, and the pull out to the left of the sink, which is waiting for a drawer slide that should be here next week. Exciting!!

Before we headed to Indiana for Thanksgiving our sweet neighbor gave us some Christmas decorations he was no longer using so we put up the tree. We haven't had a "real" (it's fake, but a normal-sized tree) in three years. Last year we didn't do a tree at all because we were laying floors over Christmas and the year before we had a 2.5 foot tabletop tree because we were in the apartment. It feels nice to have a tree this year.

We also hung some garland and Scott put up Christmas lights outside along with a light-up tree from the neighbor as well.

Did you spy anything else "new" in the top photo? We took down the (unlighted) ceiling fan in the front room over a year ago and have been without a light. We have thought about moving the position if the light, adding a second, or even doing some recessed lighting, but haven't been able to make up our minds. I've spent hours scouring the internet for the perfect light because there are two others, the entry light, and the living room fan, that it really needs to coordinate with. Finally I decided to clean up the original entry light, give it a new coat of paint, and Scott hung it for me.

It may not be the forever light, but for the cost of a can of spray paint and less than 1 hour of work, it'll do just fine for now.

Over the Thanksgiving break I celebrated a birthday, so my parents brought Ms my gifts when we got back. Yes, gifts plural, I am the favorite daughter after all 😉. Kidding, of course! They picked me up three new fruit trees: a Narbie Pink Guava, a Barbados Cherry, and a Lemon tree. Mom helped me plant the trees, along with another guava and cherry I had, a coconut palm (that we picked up in the canal a few months ago!), two Bougainvilleas, and a croton.

Planting in Florida is easy, the soil is just sand, but cutting through the grass was hard work, it has tons of "runners" that make it difficult to cut through. We managed just fine though.

Prior to us owning the home there were lots of palm trees in the landscaping, but they were affected by a fungus called butt rot (yep, that's what it's called) and had to be removed and we can't plant new palms for a very long time. Slowly but surely we are getting more plants for our landscaping, it's a work in progress.

We rounded out the weekend with a boat day, some cooking (homemade chicken and noodles and blackberry jam), and some relaxing.

It's good to be home!