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For people who know me in real life, they know I’ve been talking about building my rock garden for over a year. After 6 months of backbreaking work to build my raised flower bed (all I can say is, that thing better last FOREVER), I was sick of the endeavor, and my flower bed sat empty. Finished, but empty.

Until this last Saturday, when I woke up and decided that it was time. It was time to embrace my sliver of Japanese heritage, and build my rock garden.

All in all, it only took a day to complete. 3 trips to Home Depot, but only an afternoon of work. And I have to say, the completed project looks pretty nice.

I’ve got all my ‘after’ pics in the kitchen album. For dramatic purposes, though, I just wanted to post the pics side by side. Enjoy!

The kitchen is coming along swimmingly! My husband is stressed because everything is a mess - and we can’t watch tv in the living room due to a dining room table being between the couch and the tv. Which means we have to watch tv upstairs, without the benefit of a tivo. Which means we actually have to watch shows when they come on! And with commercials. It’s quite a sacrifice, but I think maybe we can tough it out for a few more days.

In my attempt to converse with the tile guy who doesn’t know much english, I think I may have told him to work 10 hours tomorrow. That really wasn’t my intent - I just wanted to know how much longer it was going to take. I really don’t care if it takes 2 more days or 4 more days, I was just curious. I think he asked me how long he could stay tomorrow, he pointed to his watch and suggested 5 or 6, and I said 5, to try to minimize stranger-in-the-house-stress on my husband. Then I think he asked how early he could come, and I said 7 was fine, we’re both out of the house by then. He seemed very happy about the prospect of coming at 7, so I hope that means he’s excited at the prospect of being able to leave at 3.

The countertop guy is coming tomorrow, to give me a quote on new countertops. Which means I should probably decide on a color. I’m the most useless girl on the planet, I have no eye for color whatsoever. (Back on the west coast, my interior-design-degreed mother is wondering where she went wrong …)

I have another dilemma, with the lighting in the kitchen. Santana suggested recessed lighting, which I think will look really nice. ($$$Resale Value$$$) The problem is, is that recessed lighting is not as bright as the existing 2-tube flourescent light fixture we have in the kitchen now. The flourescent light fixture that my husband LOVES. Because it is so bright. I found a picture at homedepot.com of a kitchen with a flourescent light, as well as recessed lighting, so I’ll see if Santana will do that. I just got back from a trip to the real home depot, where I found the flourescent light fixture that I hate the least. It turns out, I hate all light fixtures. A lot. I think they are all ugly. Why can’t someone make nice light fixtures? Maybe THAT will be my new job. Light fixture designer …

I’m getting a new kitchen! At least, I’m getting as much of a new kitchen as my tax return will buy. At this very moment, iPhoto on my mac mini is uploading the pics I took of my ‘before’ kitchen up to my gallery - and you will get to see the very … interesting … decorating choices that were made by the previous owners. Actually, you won’t get to see ALL the choices. The matching curtains and canisters have long since met their maker.

Day one of the renovation is over, and the wallpaper is GONE!! The linoleum with the little bitty flowers is hidden forever under a layer of those concrete-tile-base things. (If I woulda known they were just putting everything OVER the linoleum, I totally woulda mopped. There’s a gross sticky coke spill that has now been immortalized …)

The bad thing about the renovations, is that we have to lock the kitties up. And they hate being locked up. Especially when there are evil creatures banging about in the kitchen. We both stayed home today and discovered that Havok seems to have discovered how to remove slats from the basement utility room door - so we have decided to lock the kitties up tomorrow in the master suite, upstairs. I’m not entirely thrilled about having a litter box in our master bathroom, but I am even less thrilled about the idea of our kitties running out the open front door to escape from the evil kitchen-mongers. So there will be a litter box in my master bathroom tomorrow … even though I am sure Forge will prefer the bathroom sink. (He’s a sensitive pooper. sigh.)

But the GREAT thing about the renovations, is that I will soon have a new kitchen! At the end of this week, I will have beautiful tile floors and wonderfully clean, freshly painted walls. And did I mention crown molding? And NO hideous frou-frou ceiling fan ceiling dilly bob. And then will come the new appliances. And - if there is money left over - we will get new countertops. And THEN I am going to take up cooking and entertaining in my new kitchen. Ok, so maybe not that last thing …