So the kitchen in the Pink House had a wood floor.

Perfectly lovely

What you can’t see is some water damage under the rugs that needed repair.  It was going to cost a couple hundred smackers to get it repaired so I thought for a couple hundred more, (Isn’t that a Clint Eastwood movie?) I could get slate.  I love slate floors.  My kitchen floor is slate and I think it’s just about the prettiest “God-made” material ever, with the exception of granite.  So who ya gonna call???  Boomba, of course.

Getting the old wood up was killer!!! We found lots more water damage when he started tearing it out.

After the boards were gone, he put down the hard backer board.

A not-so-fun puzzle.

Then, he started putting in the tile with some very annoying help from me.

I didn’t want two similar tiles together so I handed them to him based on their different colors and patterns.

Boomba tolerated my “help” with great patience.

I was very pleased with the result!

I think the little kitchen is so cute!

It’s basically finished but I have one more chore for Jim in here for it to be totally complete. Poor Jim. 😦

And for my readers who are disappointed that the KITTYBUNNYCHICKEN has turned into a home improvement blog, I have a fun picture for you.  We’ve been leaving cat food on the porch at night for the stray kitties and also in hopes that GT would return.  Lately the food has been disappearing very fast, yet we’ve not seen any cats partaking of midnight snacks.  Rowdy alerted us to the window last week and stared in disbelief at the creature eating our cat food.

Well hello Mr. O’Possum!

Needless to say, we don’t leave food out at night anymore.  This guy is very cute, but I hear possums don’t enjoy human affection so I refrained from trying to pet him. Actually, Jim wouldn’t let me.  😦  He’s such a party pooper!

As we’ve been preparing the Pink House for its first paying guests, our cats have been very curious (as cats can be) about what is going on inside.  Slowly and tentatively each one has ventured indoors to take a look around.  One kitty in particular has taken a shine to the little cottage and has decided to make it her very own vacation home.

Can I get a 10% CUTNESS discount?

Rowdy was a shelter cat and I fostered her and Sammy for the Montgomery Humane Shelter about four years ago.  We never care about what breeds our animals are and actually prefer mutts, but we’ve been very lucky to have some beautiful and possibly pedigreed critters in our home over the years.  I began to investigate Rowdy’s particular breed when I saw the U Tube internet sensation Maru-The Cat Who Likes to Jump in Boxes. http://boingboing.net/2008/11/08/magu-the-cat.html

Maru is a male Scottish Fold Straight, and also a twin of our Rowdy girl. Normally a Scottish Fold will have the flattened ears, but one variety of the breed does not have the flat ear gene so they have all the characteristics of a Scottish Fold except for the ears. This breed is quiet compared to most cats and does not have a true “meow”.  Mainly they chatter and “chirp” when they DO make sounds, but they only vocalize when they have something really important to say.  Interestingly, Rowdy is a chatterbox in the Pink House.  She goes from room to room explaining her particular decorating ideas and expressing her pleasure (or displeasure) with some of mine.  She inspects furniture for softness and biscuit-making potential all the while sizing the place up for her own personal getaway.

This chair COULD be softer!

She has made batches and batches of biscuits all over the place and still finds time in her busy schedule to make more on each visit.  She’ll watch me walk in the direction of the cottage and follow me to the door.  If I don’t let her in, (I’m TRYING to keep the pet hair to a minimum over there!) she’ll cry and paw at the door.

You may need to get one of those mattress topper thingies, Mom.

The look of a regular Scottish Fold is hilariously cute.  They look sort of like owls with their moon-pie faces and huge round eyes.

Maybe Buster could give Rowdy some tips on how to make her ears lie down.

I was born dis way Wowdy.

So, I guess I’ll have to add an attraction to THE PINK HOUSE amenities.  KITTY COMPANION OPTION–Ten cents extra per night.

Now this is worth way more than 10 cents, right?

Although my little fat cat has much to say in the way of improvements to our rental cottage, she is highly complimentary on my choice of refrigerator magnets.

You just can’t go wrong with cat-butt magnets.

🙂

So after we retiled the fireplace with the beautiful green onyx, I set my sights on a new backsplash for the kitchen.

Tumbled travertine. Very nice tile, but not in my color palette.

I searched the usual suspects (Home Despot & Lowes) to no avail. I wanted to do subway tile, but all that could be found was white.  I made a special order from Lowes and got a shipment of very pretty tile that really brightened up the kitchen.

But first…demolition.

Boomba, my excellent tile guy to the rescue.

The job only took him a few hours and WOW, vive la difference!

Very “splashy”

My goofy brother-in-law said that when you get old you start to really like bright colors and shiny things.

I must be 95. 🙂

Now that the backsplash is done, my next project will be the kitchen floor.  Stay tuned.  Meanwhile the painters have officially finished.  The last part of the job was stripping the brown paint off the front and back porches and applying a burgundy semi-transparent stain.  After that was dry, I was finally able to put a few things on the porch that make the little house look a bit more “lived in.”

Back porch at sunset.

Front porch. I’ve ordered a small swing, but these rockers look inviting for now.

We’ve had to push our target date to February 17th for our first paying guest, but we’ve had some friends and family stay over a few times to work out the kinks.  I’ve slumbered here a handful of nights and tried out the bed, tub, shower, etc.  I’m still looking for a few guinea pigs who are savvy in this sort of real estate endeavor to volunteer to spend a night in our Pink House and leave me a detailed list of what they like, and more importantly, what they don’t.  We’re new to the VRBO world and could use all the help we can get.  Volunteers?