I NEED TO CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW. I mean, it's just a pile of fill dirt. A giantpile, but dirt nonetheless. It's making me so damn happy.
Dirt angels, anyone?
This dirt pile means that my back yard is finally (!!! all the exclamations) going to get some major overhauling. It also means that a life-size Tonka toy is going to be delivered soon to help me move this pile into place and grade things out. And a group of my friends will be coming over this weekend to watch it all go down, where we will possibly make crude jokes using phrases like “dirty hoe” (or whatever, it's not like I've been writing them down on a list or anything). It's going to be pretty great.
Folks, I am literally moving the earth. I'm pretty sure that means I'm going to be obnoxious to all of my friends and speak in a loud, booming, blasphemous voice for a few days. It's a good thing then that we're also going to be videotaping a lot of it for my Youtube channel. I expect lots and lots of laughs… and free labor.
The dirt is here… the equipment is arriving soon… 811 has my utility lines marked off… and I'm ready to go. I'll be keeping you posted on Facebook Live, Instagram stories, Snapchat, and maybe even Pokemon Go or whatever other of-the-moment social media frenzy suddenly decides to announce itself until the Youtube video recapping the whole thing is finished, as well as take tons of photos to share soon on the blog for how everything went down, what you need to know when doing this yourself, etc. At this point, I'm praying everything will go smoothly and that we will all have a good time while still making sure people don't do something stupid, like ripping down my power lines. Wish me luck. ;)
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy & effectiveness of the information displayed on this website, The Ugly Duckling House is for entertainment purposes only. All tutorials and demonstrations are not intended to be professional advice (nor substitute as such), and I make no guarantees as to the procedures and information here. Creating with my suggested methods, materials, and tools is under your own risk. Please ensure you are following proper guidelines with anything used, and seek professional advice if you don't know how to do something! Read my complete disclosure here.
For those that only like DIY and don't like the personal stuff, skip ahead to tomorrow's post or peruse the project gallery… there are some BIG things happening at the UDH this weekend that you won't want to miss!
It's Wednesday afternoon, which means that around this time three days ago, I was at the end of one of the most mentally exhausting experiences of my life. And although the events and my emotions leading into the Haven Conference this year were certainly different from years past, I can honestly say that this experience was, at this exact point in time, what I needed, where I needed to be, and with the people I needed to be with. If this is your first time hearing about the Haven Conference, I'll allow Kirsten Thompson to recap it for me:
350 home decor & DIY bloggers gather in a gorgeous hotel in Atlanta for 3 1/2 days to mingle with brand reps and other bloggers while learning gobs of stuff to help improve their blogs, eating too much yummy food, and dancing the night away at a soiree. Oh, and swag. SO. MUCH. SWAG.
While it would take way, way too long to go over every little detail (and I don't even have enough pictures for that), I decided today to share some highlights about what teaching for the first time at a blog conference taught me. You can also watch some video recaps on Periscope and Facebook Live that I published yesterday if you want to see words come out of my actual face instead of reading and see the things I hauled home, but there are different things I covered below versus in those two videos, so choose your own adventure. If you want to see past years' recaps, you can find them here, here, and here too. Here were this year's takeaways.
Find Your Voice… Over and Over Again
I strive to be transparent on this blog, on social media, everywhere - sometimes ramblingly, clumsily so. I share the mistakes I make so that you guys don't wind up accidentally imprisoning a family of squirrels in your attic… that sort of thing. Normally, I don't really have a hard time putting my thoughts onto paper or even talking to perfect strangers (I consider myself an extreme extrovert under most circumstances), but I'm also a very nervous public speaker. It's also hard to find that line of wanting to share my life, the funny-to-me things that happen in this house, the DIY lessons I learn, etc. with you guys while also having some common sense of what can or even should be shared. There's really no manual, so it's kind of like fumbling around in the dark, hoping to hit something and stay consistent enough (hell, I know a thing or two about that - the breakers in this house are all mislabeled!). It's also the unforgiving beast that is the internet, where everything is permanent, screenshotted, and people are frequently both strangers and friends at the same time. It's experimenting and testing my comfort level, and I feel like I make a lot of mistakes and then spend a long time reassuring myself that I didn't so that I can find the courage to say something again.
This year, there was a new person in my life after having spent a majority of this blog's existence without, and I was struggling for many months to get used to the idea of even putting their presence whatsoever on the blog. Things seemed to be going well enough to think it might last awhile, but second-guessing and cautious planning are kind of my default settings, so I had a lot of internalized questions. Would it look weird? Would not providing info be more confusing? Would I feel dishonest to not share and my writing changes in some obvious way? etc. etc. And just like I wasn't prepared for someone suddenly arriving to this independent, strange world I've created, I wasn't prepared when they were suddenly gone from it, either. And within a matter of weeks, I was heading to a conference of mostly married-with-children women who (I thought) couldn't possibly relate to any of these things while also telling them how I do things my way. I felt in over my head and procrastinated like the day was never going to actually arrive.
Leading up to the very minute I was sitting in front of the first of my two-day panel discussion, I didn't know whether to skip lunch, cry, or take a run around the hotel to work off my nerves. I did none of those things. Instead, I built a piece of furniture with Jaime from That's My Letter. ;)
Find Humility
This entire feeling i'm describing above is more commonly known as Impostor Syndrome… or some variation of it, assuming I'm probably wrong and don't even know what that is. Put more simply in a way that I understand, it's really just arrogance, because it's believing myself to be more important than I am while feeling anxiety over not being the thing I just told myself I was. And that kind of magical thinking is probably how aneurysms form.
The good news about a niche blog conference like this was that it's full of people who feel the exact same way. Each of us are entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and obsessive hobbyists who never learn to take breaks, who beat themselves silly with comparisons, and yet still file into rooms with each other to share notes and secrets and build each other up. There will always be someone more successful than us in each of our eyes - someone with a larger Pinterest following, a better eye for photography, or a better understanding of web analytics. Still, whether it's a “community” or a “tribe” or simply a room full of people, we're all doing this one weird thing because we enjoy it enough to pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket and then hundreds more to travel and stay in a hotel and then stay up until 2AM with each other… even though we're already exhausted and losing our voices. We talk about things that only we get because our significant others, parents, and friends strangers don't always have the passion and enthusiasm for it like we do. And then we have a dance and get dressed up. It's fucking awesome.
Me on the left, a childhood friend I randomly ran into at this conference on the right. Crazy, small world!
Soak It In
No joke: I took more photos of this donut door than I did of my friends while at the conference. Which is the coolest way I've ever seen someone display breakfast:
But the fact was, I wasn't sitting around in groups and trying to document the moments. I was trying to absorb what people were saying, relating to people about my own anxious feelings, and getting really, really into my panel. My confidence grew back because I felt I actually knew what I was talking about and could answer the questions asked. I got back tenfold, and the discussion went far better than I expected. People feverishly wrote down notes and gave us feedback on how they are already going about fixing their blogs based on our discussion. Two of my clients came to introduce themselves at the end of the first panel, and one even gave me a gift to thank me for my help on her blog. I was stunned.
I got to have big bear hugs with some of my favorite people and keep tradition on the dance floor with Chelsea from Two Twenty One (the utter ridiculousness of which I hope everyone experiences at some point). I had long talks with Jacque from The DIY Village and got to finally meet some of my other friends in person (and make a few new ones!).
The closing ceremony speakers were John and Sherry from Young House Love, who after years of admiring, I'm very happy to now call them friends. They gave out some great advice about their famous decision to quit blogging (or in most of our cases, how to avoid burnout and then quitting), and I thought this image they shared from Waiting on Martha was especially cool. In fact, it brought back memories of a post I wrote a while ago, written at a time where once again, I was struggling to get all the words right. So, I guess what I thought was a new feeling for me… really wasn't at all.
In the end, I started off in a kind of weird place leading up to this conference, and even though there were times I probably acted like a total weirdo, these are exactly the kind of folks where being a freak is what it's all about. Worth it, worth it, worth it. <3
Another post is coming up for you guys tomorrow. I have some BIG deliveries making their way to my house as we speak, and I'll be sharing some of it as I go live on Facebook and Instagram. Stay tuned!
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy & effectiveness of the information displayed on this website, The Ugly Duckling House is for entertainment purposes only. All tutorials and demonstrations are not intended to be professional advice (nor substitute as such), and I make no guarantees as to the procedures and information here. Creating with my suggested methods, materials, and tools is under your own risk. Please ensure you are following proper guidelines with anything used, and seek professional advice if you don't know how to do something! Read my complete disclosure here.
Time for a little family update. It's been a while since I've mentioned her on the blog, but you guys remember Em, right?
If not, allow me to introduce you again: this is my gorgeous, hilarious little sister, Emily. I call her Em (as does pretty much everyone else in our immediate family). People say we look alike, but I don't really see it other than our mutual cheesy smile from Dad (my lighter eye and hair color is more from my Dad's German side, while her darker hair and eyes are Mom's Italian side). We are just shy of three years apart.
About a year ago, Em went through kind of a nasty divorce. The details are pretty unsavory (the words “emotional dumpster fire” come to mind), but let's just say that if the best revenge is to live well, she is exacting hers pretty flawlessly. Recently, Em bought her first house (woot!) and we all came over to celebrate. It's a cute little place, but it's definitely going to take her some time to make it her own. Her awesome new dude has recently moved in with her too, so they are tackling quite a few projects right out of the gate (if she takes my advice and snaps before photos, I'll share some of the progress so you can see those transformations). ***This post contains affiliate links that help support this site. For more, see my disclosure page.**
As a sort of gag gift for housewarmings, I often bring over the largest package of toilet paper I can find (with a giant bow, of course). It usually gets a few laughs, but as I've heard on more than one occasion from friends I've given it to, it's strangely one of those products that people forget to buy in the chaos of moving (and discovering you're out of TP after a full day of heavy boxes is the last thing you'd want to deal with!). In the same spirit of things-that-are-forgotten-until-they're-desperately-needed-on-moving-day, I brought Em something I thought was even more perfect for her circumstances as an owner of multiple dogs: a giant green box full of Swiffer goodies. I've been a Swiffer brand ambassador for this past year and have given out a number of these boxes before, so I knew it would be a solid fit for her “clean slate” home (they often give these boxes to new Habitat for Humanity homeowners too, which is one of the reasons I enjoy working with them). Inside, she found a Swiffer Duster, Swiffer Duster refills, a Swiffer Sweeper, and wet and dry cloths - basically $50 worth of “home clean home.”
Her response? “YASSSSSSS.”
No joke, Em makes this face every time she's excited about something.
As for the dogs themselves, they now have their very own muddy backyard to sniff and dig to their heart's content. Known in our family as LemonandLana (because they are never apart), Lemon (the red one in the back) is her very own piddle factory, while Lana (the black one) tends to be a lot more outgoing and affectionate. On this particular day, I was thrilled because Lemon actually approached me to give me a quick cuddle before retreating to the corner again (even though they are sisters, they have completely different temperaments). Perhaps she was just really into her gifts?
And speaking of canine family members, I had one more stop to make on this day, because we also have a tiny, new addition to my parents' house: Buddy!
When our family dog, Lucy, passed a couple of years ago, my mother was adamant: she and Dad would. not. adopt another pet until she retired. But despite her declarations, I knew it was only a matter of time before Em (who volunteers and fosters with dogs regularly) wore her down. She wasn't even subtle about it; I wasn't exactly stopping her, either (hey, I love dogs too!). Mom is still shy of retirement, but when they gave in and agreed to go meet “Clyde” at the rescue center, it was all over. We debated changing his name a few times because he's still a puppy (I was campaigning for Oliver/Ollie), and my parents settled on Buddy.
Now, they are pretty much smitten, and every day is as if they've never had a dog before. It's really quite hilarious, especially because he's so tiny compared to the other dogs (though as a dachshund, he makes up for it in attitude, of course). For instance, I've recently learned that he hates school buses. And trailers. As part of my dropoff of gifts to Em's new place, I swung by my parents' home and gave Buddy a gift of his own from Swiffer: a Bark Box complete with treats, toys, and a few items that replaced things he thought were toys.
New dogs, new homes, new adventures… 2016 is full of change for the Fogle family!
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy & effectiveness of the information displayed on this website, The Ugly Duckling House is for entertainment purposes only. All tutorials and demonstrations are not intended to be professional advice (nor substitute as such), and I make no guarantees as to the procedures and information here. Creating with my suggested methods, materials, and tools is under your own risk. Please ensure you are following proper guidelines with anything used, and seek professional advice if you don't know how to do something! Read my complete disclosure here.
Confession: I have a thing for cafe lights. I know - it's crazy, since these things are so ugly, they don't add any ambiance whatsoever, and I'm totally lying. I like them as much as I wish every morning started with a huge pot of coffee and a basketful of puppies. And since I seem to not be the only one in blogland with a fondness for them and I'm planning on doing some major overhauling of the back yard soon, I have found quite a few ideas to ogle on an almost daily basis. Here are some of my favorite ways designers and bloggers have used them in their outdoor spaces.*
*Note: the pin-it button has been turned off on this post for most of these since they have original sources elsewhere; please click through to the individual project if you'd like to pin them!
My sister bought me two sets of outdoor cafe lights last Christmas, but I'm pretty certain I'll be adding to that number once my outdoor space is planned out. Chatfield Court did an excellent job in her tutorial for how to hang several strings of lights together in one space (and without it looking like a tangled mess of wires or extra hardware). Saving this!
Most cafe lights are strung overhead, but my friends Jacque and Matt from The DIY Village changed things up and added some to their deck along the railing. I can imagine this adds a nice little glow at night!
One of the things that I'm taking diligent notes on are how people create the posts that the lights hang from. I took out a bunch of trees last year, so I have fewer spots around the yard that are up high enough. Posts, poles, and hardware are going to play a big role in my own yard transformation (when the time comes, of course). Design, Dining and Diapers used metal poles and added a wooden topper for a little polish, while blue i style covered in extensive detail (my favorite kind of detail) how to plan for them (spacing, type, etc.).
And how cute are these? Alexis from Persia Lou added some sweet little tassels between each light, which in her words “definitely upped the magic factor.” Since these are paper, they won't last as a permanent addition, but I'm keeping this idea in mind for the first party I throw outside.
Most of the pictures I've found for cafe lights are strung underneath a ceiling or pergola, just like this patio makeover from Table and Hearth.
I am also digging smaller light projects, like this Anthro-inspired hurricane created by Sadie Seasongoods.
Elizabeth Joan Designs only spent $30 on her patio makeover, but the lights are my favorite part. And that pegboard luminary is so clever! I think I'll have to make a few of those myself.
In my case, I will need to probably do the pole version and figure out an interesting way to blend them into the surroundings. I am simply in awe of Brittany's transformation to her patio. Her lights are installed with copper pipe… and you all know how partial I am to copper!
Ultimately, I just want to create the kind of charm and cozy feeling that French Country Cottage did with her outdoor setup. Simply lovely… I just want to grab a blanket and a glass of wine and curl up.
Sometimes when I'm finding it difficult to get started on a big project, keeping my mind on some of the accessories I get to add at the end spurs me through the tedious parts. I'm sure I'll be coming back to look at these ideas over and over until the back yard makeover is complete. Can't wait to finally see these in my yard!
It's been a while since we had a Charlie update, so I thought it might be fun just to look at how my sweet, wild pup handled her first (and only, to date) vacation since she became a part of the Fogle family.
During my recent road trip up to the Richmond & DC area, Charlie came along for the ride. I have to say, it was quite a treat to take her traveling with me for the first time (normally when I travel, she has a dog sitter or goes to a day camp). She didn't stay still much, (there were just too many fun things going on), but I did manage to snap a few photos of her throughout the trip. She isn't the kind of dog who can run around in a new place without a leash, so I bought a tie-out and thought we'd be good to go. Those ears still kill me!
For the record, she did not behave herself very well for the first few days. The first part of the trip started in a place called Deltaville, Virginia, which had a beautiful view (I love those cotton-candy sunsets!) and a convenient dock to enjoy the river. The fireworks spooked her though, and she escaped not one, but three times during the first 48 hours of the trip (I was very embarrassed for inconveniencing people because of it, but everyone was extremely understanding and helped track her down… phew). As a result, she's now got a brand new harness that seems to really keep my strong but skittish gal in check.
She also really liked barking at the fireflies whenever the sun went down.
But unlike how I struggled at first, Charlie definitely figured out the whole relaxation thing pretty fast. This was, like, Day One.
The guest house pictured in these photos was dog-friendly, so I (thankfully) didn't have to feel self-conscious when she made herself at home on the furniture (the owner had another dog who was also lounging around, so I guess Charlie just decided to go along with local customs to fit in, ha).
Later on in the trip, Charlie also came along for a quick two-day stay in Virginia Beach. The guy I went with and I thought we were pretty well-covered by finding a dog-friendly hotel, but for whatever reason, the hotel turned out to be several miles away the area of the beach that would actually allow dogs. No matter - we just drove over and walked her down to the water's edge. Which turned out to be… well… interesting.
Before this, Charlie had never seen sand, the ocean, or understood any part of how that environment worked. For a dog who gets nervous just trying to go from rug to hardwood floors, it's putting it mildly that Charlie was kind of uncomfortable with the whole concept (except watching all of the other dogs happily running around, digging, and running into the ocean, that is). Sadly, she lasted all of five whole minutes.
The second that evil, cold ocean water hit her front paw (about 30 seconds after I snapped the photo above), she did her best impersonation of a dog in real, mortal danger and promptly flipped out. We took her back to the hotel and continued the trip, but with a few more funny memories for me to share. :)
Charlie may have handled the whole trip pretty much exactly the opposite way I did (relaxation = instantaneous, enjoyable activities for humans = made of NOPE), but I'm thrilled I got to have my crazy pup along for the ride. She is suck a kook, and every new experience is a guaranteed riot!
Have you ever taken your dog on vacation? How do they handle it?
Hey, friends! I was going to share a vacation recap today, but I decided to toss that aside in consideration of some recent events that I'm still trying to process (the only details I'm going to share about it right now are here, but thanks to those of you who have already left comments). Charlie's recap will still be on its way because her experience was just too damn funny not to share, but for today, I think it's better to focus on what it is that I do best: start projects (finishing them is a whole other story, though).
One of these is happening in the interior of the house, while the other is a huge project I'm super excited about, and both are hopefully going to make my home a lot more guest friendly.
Organizing the Entryway
It's been a long while since I did anything to the entryway area, and I realized when I got home from my road trip that this…
… is just ridiculous. This little nook has been really tough for me to figure out how to organize, but the main issue is that because it's not pretty or helpful in any way, I use it as a dumping ground. I hardly ever use the closet, and I brought the coat rack down from the guest bedroom because I kept tossing coats on the bench instead of hanging them up (I'm not proud of the sheer laziness of that, but we all fall into really annoying habits sometimes).
Almost everything above that you see in that picture needs to be installed somewhere else in the house (mostly upstairs), but when I lug things in from the car, this is where it goes first. I've been working with a hardware company this summer, so they have sent me a package full of goodies to help turn this into something that doesn't make me audibly groan anymore. I have some fun ideas, and I'm looking forward to seeing it come together.
Leveling Out the Back Yard
Ok, so I've taken out trees, moved plants over, built some garden beds, and done some makeover stuff back here before, but I'm excited to finally announce that I'm going to begin one of my biggest projects ever. There will be video. There will be lots and lots of labor and sweat. And pretty soon, a spiffy new place to entertain. And, it's all going to be thanks to one amazing brand partnership that I'll be sharing with you guys soon. But first, let's just just take a quick glimpse at what we're now going to call the “before” photo:
And just for shits and giggles, some really lazy Photoshopping to demonstrate my excitement about what's going to be happening. Boom!
I'm going to be renting a giant toy* (eep!) and using it to move the large dirt mound on the left side of the yard into the depressed area along the back (you guys might recall me talking about this sink hole problem before). Then, I'm going to probably have to grab some extra fill dirt to level things out even more. And once that's done, I'm going to add a shed back here (remember, the garage isn't very large, and having extra storage space for the garden supplies will be so helpful) and build a large area that will be my new spot for entertaining (the tiny cement patio that I've worked on before will get some updates as well, but it will be used as a separate space… hopefully for a grill).
Will all of that happen this summer? Ha! Shit no. I have other projects already going on that need to be addressed as well, so I'll be happy if just the ground gets leveled out and I don't do anything stupid. But since even that is a giant first step, I'm going to recap the whole thing in a few posts and show you how it's done. Can you tell how excited I am?!?! My personal life is kind of a shit sundae right now, but this? THIS. My friends have offered to take me to a gun range to do some target practice as a form of catharsis, but I chuckled and thought to myself, “actually… I think I have a better idea!”
*For the record, I know this is a serious piece of machinery, so I'm going to be safe about it and will be encouraging you guys to do the same in the upcoming tutorials. But I'm just also already giddy at thinking of how badass I'm going to feel sitting in this thing, which is kind of funny when you consider how much I loath mowing my grass.
Alrighty, enough for now. I need to go hit something with a hammer.
I've been asked a number of times recently what my favorite project is to date, and hands down, it's still the kitchen (so far). I especially love the area around the kitchen window: the striped window treatment, the sill for my succulents (one of the few spots in the house that gets a good amount of morning sun), the new faucet, and my ultra-deep undermount stainless sink.
I already covered all the details about the faucet in a previous post here, but I also promised at the time to eventually share the details about the sink and answer some FAQs that come my way. So, I'm back today to give you a little bit more detail about it and how I maintain the surrounding countertops. Now that I've been using this sink for a few years, I've gone through a little trial and error and found what works (and even though this post is not sponsored, there are a few referral links in here that help support this site if you were to buy products off of my recommendations, magic-internet style… for more info, you can grab details on my disclosure page).
The sink: it's awesome. But in the below picture, it's also dirty (I did that on purpose, just hold on a sec).
I had a beat up old double sink before, but one of the things I loved about this one was that it was a single basin and deep. It was given to me several years ago by a local company called National Builders Supply, now more simply known as Supply.com (they are based in Austell, GA, which is where I grew up).
This exact model is made by Houzer (similar smaller version here), and my favorite part has to be the drain grooves at the bottom (for whatever reason, they just look more upscale me). I also like the curved corners, though I'll admit that I was in quite a panic when cutting the hole into the countertop didn't work out quite as perfectly as I expected.:
The sink undermounts to the butcher block counters, which can pose two main issues: water splashing up and leaving spots on the surrounding lip of the counters, and rust stains in the sink (you can see one in the basin below on the right side). But hey, since this blog is all about lessons learned in DIY, I wanted to share all about how I've gotten around these two problems and keep the sink area looking pristine.
As you can see from the close-up photo below, these are those water spots I was talking about. Usually, I'm pretty good about wiping the sink down if anything splashes out, but I'm also not the most diligent about oiling down the counter on a regular basis (I do it only every few months, tbh). As a result, stray water spots form on the counter around the lip of the sink pretty easily. From day to day, this isn't really all that bothersome, because you can't really see it unless you get closer.
And whenever I have wet hands or water the plants along the window sill, sometimes a water drop or two will cause the wood to show a few spots along the back of the sink area. It's normal for butcher block to show some “character” over a few years of use, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind! Luckily, there are two products that solve these issues for me every time.
How I clean my stainless steel sink
It probably goes without saying that when it comes to cleaning, I would rather literally haul rocks first. So I make every effort to find a product that does as much as it can for as little effort as possible.
The solution that eventually worked for me is Bar Keepers Friend, which now comes in a convenient spray bottle.
I just spray the foam on and let it sit for a few minutes, then use a little elbow grease to remove rust marks, residues, water marks, old veggie grime, and anything else that falls into the sink (like stray leaves that fell off one of the plants, for example). It quickly polishes to a nice shine, and then I can move on doing things… like not cleaning the sink. End of story.
How I remove water spots on butcher block
For water spots, I use the same exact oil and wax treatment that I've been using since I first installed the counters: Howard Butcher Block Conditioner.
I'll usually throw it in the microwave to nuke it for a few seconds to get the wax to flow out of the tube easier, but I apply it with either a little paper toweling or old t-shirt fabric (since it's well-washed, it doesn't produce lint).
I slather the mixture on and let it soak into the wood, usually overnight. Anything else that doesn't soak in gets wiped back off (to keep the surface from feeling gummy). Sometimes, it takes a couple of applications for spots to totally disappear, but the almost always do.
For anything stubborn, I run a little bit of sandpaper over it, clean off debris, and then oil. Works like a charm.
Thanks to the deeper sink, I'm a lot better about keeping the kitchen looking more cleaned up - I know that there are plenty of folks who are Team “Beside The Sink”, but the deeper basin is great for folks like me on Team “In The Sink”! For you Team “Immediately In The Dishwasher” people, well… being perfect must be nice. ;)
As I mentioned, there was a mistake made when the hole for the sink was cut during its install; the blade bent out around the curve, cutting the underside of the corners closest to the edge a little too much. My uncle and I did our best to help hide it as much as possible (once I stopped freaking out, that is) by cutting a small sliver by hand, re-attaching with wood glue, and filling with a little walnut putty.
The color of the putty doesn't take the oil as richly as the rest of the wood, so I might someday go back in and darken those spots a little, but I really don't notice it anymore. It's on the inside right corner of the sink, so when you're looking around the room, it's pretty much invisible because it faces away and your eyes are drawn elsewhere (plus, imperfections in butcher block that are filled with small bits of putty isn't totally unheard of).
But anyway, one small piece of the puzzle has been figured out, and I love the view!
What's your favorite feature in your kitchen?
For more info on the kitchen makeover and progress to where we are now, check out the House Tour pages.
