For those of you who have wondered, Yes. I'm still here.

Just waiting for the holidays to be over with, so we can move forward with a few more things in the house. The big reveal isn't far away. We aren't totally done yet, but it's close. Here are a few teasers:
We got our beautiful Hawaiian clock hung in a great spot on a living room wall. Everyone who comes to the house will be able to see and appreciate it. Note the plantation shutters adjacent to it, looking onto the back patio. To the right, the windows in the back are the dining room windows, which look onto the back yard. The plantation shutters work very well in this home, and completely change the dynamic of the windows. If you can remember the awful window coverings we had before, with those terrible fabric valances over Venetian blinds, you can see this is a fantastic improvement. We love this clock.
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We had purchased a wine cart for the kitchen from Overstock, not because we needed more wine storage, but because we wanted more food prep room. The kitchen counters are a bit lacking, in that they're divided up by the stove and sink. There isn't really enough uncluttered prep space. The cart that came was nice, but not great. It is about four feet long, and about 18 inches wide. The top seemed a bit "weak" for what we wanted, because it was much shorter than the overall cart size, and only about a half inch thick. This is the stock image Overstock used for it on their sales page (all the accessories not included) :
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So, not to be outdone, and being the clever types we are, we bought a 24"X50" Acacia wood countertop at Home Depot. It is very nice, and has a "live edge," which gives it a very dramatic look. We replaced the weak top with the Acacia top. To keep it looking great, then we had a piece of plate glass cut and edge-polished to fit. It all fits like a glove, and the redesigned cart looks and works fantastic. It is precisely what we needed in the kitchen, and it looks very custom:
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Probably the most visual impact of anything we've done so far is that we got the "art niche" set up. We have a very large (3X5 foot) reproduction of Van Gogh's "The Cafe Terrace" aka "The Night Cafe." It's a lovely piece done in a glossy piano lacquer finish on a three-dimensional box frame, with a darker blue background to enhance the brilliant colors of the image. We've had this piece since 2002, and never tire of seeing it, and we wante in a place of prominence. This art niche is in our living room, and is perfect backdrop to this dynamic work. We had the background painted that darkest chocolate color, (see Really #117 upthread for the colors we had the walls painted.) We also had a directional can light installed that can be aimed. It all works great, I think:
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That's it for now. More to come soon.
The new front door is being installed on Thursday. After it's painted and ready, we'll be taking final pictures, to share with everyone on Tug. You've been very patient.
Dave