A little trip to Florida to visit a friend and to get away from the projects this old house keeps giving me.

Had an amazing time with girlfriends.  Trip to the beach in Delray,  Lunch at the beautiful Sunset House and gardens and eating at BoneFish Grill a couple of times.

Purchased two orchid plants in one pot for $3.50 at Home Depot.  Brought them home and they are alive although the flowers and stem are not going to survive as they got banged up.  I'm hoping it will grow new and strong with some tender loving care.

Took the train down and back and met some really interesting people.  Round trip cost in coach was about $250.  The trip takes 30 hours from start to finish if on schedule.  We were only an hour off schedule both ways.  Not to bad and only about an hour and 45 minutes in between connections so I only had about 45 minute wait at Penn Central.

Although I left in the middle of the week, the train was full and I didn't have the usual two seats to myself that I can usually spread out on and actually sleep well.  But my sleeping partners, one woman and one man were good.  No problems, no snoring….. lol.  A dinner date with one of the people I met in the dining car at night was wonderful conversation and cute to look at too.  Thank you to Scott for that.

Home now and back to the projects.  Wish spring would arrive and warmer temps so I can get my projects outside to work on and finish.

Thanks for stopping by again and hope you are experiencing good weather and good friends as I am.

I am not quite finished although my countertops are in.  As you can see I still have this built in cabinet to refinish.  Needs paint and doors (stuck in my garage because of the snow.) or I could leave the shelves open which is the trend these days.  Haven't quite decided yet on that.  Currently being used as storage for things I can't fit in the cabinets.

The benches are actually upper cabinets that are 18" tall, which happened to be the same height as my chairs.  I still need to make cushions for the tops.  The base of the table came from an old table that was left by my tenant.    My friend Sam has come back in a different capacity.  Friends only and he has accepted that that is the way it will be or not at all.  He pickled the top of it and it looks really good I think.

He also built me the second drawer down that fits perfectly.

I am undecided as to whether to paint the inside of the cabinet white or the color of the walls.  The color it is is what the kitchen was before the flood.  It appears the same as the new color but is actually a few shades lighter.

Hope all your decorating and projects are going well.  Thanks for stopping by.