July 4th, painting & house ideas

The princess and I were in a parade on the holiday, in conjunction with my work - we had an entry. Actually I walked with my co-workers, while she rode in the horse drawn wagon! It was a long, hot walk.

Afterwards we joined the rest of the family at Rick & Theresa's house. It was a fun afternoon/evening. Lots of good conversation and food and even fire works at the end.

The kids (my nephews helped too) helped Grampy paint primer on the new drywall in the entryway yesterday. They had a pretty good time and did a decent job. I had to scrub paint out of Punky Sue's hair though!


Pat is helping Grampy put siding on the new entryway this morning (Sat). The prince is cleaning his "old" room - getting ready for Pat & Grampy to start work in there (windows/floors).

I am thinking about how I want the kitchen (dining & living rooms also) to be (layout, style, colors, etc) so when I get to have it redone (how many years down the road...?) - I will have a solid plan. I have seen some kitchens plans that I like some pieces of, but still thinking about how it would work best. Any ideas? You know the landing at the bottom of the steps? We have thrown around the idea of opening that piece into the kitchen with a step down there... There was a doorway there once (before we redid the stairs) - that made a circle kind of - which the grandkids all used to love when visiting... I want to put a pocket door between the family room and the living room (to block/separate the noise of competing TVs/conversations!), put a bay or bow window in the living room. We want to open the wall more between the dining & living room. It is load bearing, so we will have to have a beam or something to carry the weight across the opening. The from the kitchen into the dining room - do the same type of thing - open the wall - but have a beam carry the load again. We thought about putting a small mudroom/place for our coats & shoes, between the garage & the kitchen (take a few feet off of the back of the kitchen), but I am kind of rethinking that one some. I am thinking about putting the washer and dryer behind doors in the kitchen and taking the room they are in as a pantry/ big closet with shelves floor to ceiling and with a place for vacuum, broom, etc also. I want to put a big continuous window on the outside wall- where the refrigerator is currently. Only have lower cupboads there on that wall. Maybe the sink under the center of the window, or where the kitchen & dining room meet - thought about lower cupboards (peninsula like) dividing the rooms - with the sink/ dishwsher there? The kitchen will be a big rectangle - not skinny like it is currently (old entry will be knocked out and middle wall there behind stove gone). Thought about moving stove to where sink is currently...oh well...any ideas or plans for me? The best part will be getting rid of the old kitchen walls and dropped ceiling!!
It's fun to dream a little...