Life Overload

Alright folks, here's the deal. In addition to being a part time home renovator/blogger I am also a full time graduate student in the throws of dissertation and internship applications.

I proposed my dissertation last Wednesday, my first set of analyses are due on Thursday (my birthday, what a present!), first draft of results due Oct. 31st, internship applications due Nov. 1st and dissertation defense is scheduled for Dec. the 8th. HOLY CRAP!

So this is to say that my posts will like be sporadic even though we're moving forward on the kitchen. Weekend updates may not be on Monday and my WWL may not be very witty.

We DID make progress this weekend though! We hung ONE cabinet. That's right, one cabinet - and it looks DARN GOOD! Do I have a picture? Yes...on the camera that hasn't been downloaded. So for right now use your imagination. :)

Okay, back to work.

My arm hurts...

...from all this arm twisting I'm getting to show off the orange kitchen!! Okay, so here's the thing. These pictures are bad. There is no way around it - there are NO lights in the kitchen at the moment, only a lamp. And unfortunately I leave before the sun hits the kitchen and get home after the sun leaves the kitchen. So these pictures had to be taken with...(gulp)...flash. Which any blog photographer worth their salt knows really doesn't do the photo justice.

So there is my disclaimer. AND it's still under construction so is kind of a mess.

Stop stalling you say? Alright, here goes!

Before:

After:

I'm SO happy with it!! I mean, it's a LOT of orange right now, but remember that there are cabinets still to go up on the walls that will cover a lot of it. I finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's exciting!

Weekend Update & WWL 9/20/10

Wow, it's been a while since I've written one of these!! Fortunately since we've been back from Paris we've been pretty busy. Let's take a look back at Kitchen Goal List.

1. Finish door and windows
   
   • Metal trim
     
   • Mud
     
   • Sand (some final sanding left to do unfortunately)
2. Walls
   
   • Finish priming gray
     
   • Paint orange - WOO!! One small wall left to do.
3. Cabinets
   
   • Paint - Bottom cabinets done, bottom cabinet doors almost done
     
   • Buy and install handles
     
   • Buy and install hinges
     
   • Put new bottom in under sink cabinet
     
   • Install side panel beside dishwasher
     
   • Put in cork shelf liner
4. Electrical
   
   • Replace all old outlets and switches
     
   • Turn this junction box into the attic and patch ceiling
     
   • Maybe replace ugly light
     
   • Move outlet for microwave
     
   • Install microwave
5. Trim
   
   • Finish sanding window trim - Gave up and took it down, it was messed up.
     
   • Prime and paint window trim
     
   • Finish sanding pantry trim
     
   • Prime and paint pantry trim
     
   • Sand floor trim
     
   • Paint floor trim
6. Ceiling
   
   • Sand
     
   • Remove hooks
     
   • Paint
     
   • *Sand and paint patches
7. Counters
   
   • Remove old counters
     
   • Cut new counters
     
   • Install new counters
8. Backsplash
   
   • Decide on and purchase backsplash tiles
     
   • Remove old vent and patch hole
     
   • Install & grout tiles
9. Buy and install new sink
   
10. Clean grout in floor
    
11. New pantry door

Man it felt good to write all that STRIKE html code!! We showed you the patch over the stove last week and you also saw that the walls were primed gray. And after gray comes... ORANGE - I know you're excited...

More pics to come!

So, WWL:

1. Stink bugs are an epidemic in all of Maryland and NOVA in the fall, not just in our house. And they're back.

2. You need to let drywall mud "cure" fully (the internet provides conflicting views of how long that is) before priming and painting. Otherwise you get peeling paint. (ANNOYING)

3. We have "official" permission to put stuff into our neighbors construction dumpster! (No more late night trips under the cover of night...)

4. Raccoons are SMART little devils!! AND the like kitty food.

5. Indi DOES NOT like raccoons. (POOFY KITTY)

6. Dark colors of paint don't look good until the third coat.

7. Cooking by lamplight isn't all it's cracked up to be.

8. I am the ULTIMATE craigslister!!!

9. My third arm new phone IS AWESOME! It has the wifis...and the bigger GBs...

It still amazes me...

...that we regularly wake up to this:

This is our happy deer family! Mom and two babes.


Look! You can still see his spots!

Even though they've eaten all but one of my hostas (I guess I'll have to plant more of that breed next year!) they make us happy so it's an okay trade-off.

Back to Business

Thank you all for scrolling quickly through indulging my two weeks of Paris posts. We had a lot to do to get back into the swing of home renovations and I didn't have anything else to post! It was also my best coping mechanism for the question "tell me about your trip" - when you've spent a week in Paris where do you start!?! On Day 1...in your blog.

But now it's back to home renovation and I'm really excited about the progress we're making on the kitchen. The biggest accomplisment we've made since returning from Paris is the patch up a huge hole in our kitchen!


See that sorry excuse for an "exhaust fan" over the cooktop? No your eyes are not fooling you, there is SUNLIGHT coming in through the fan. It's essentially a hole to the outside with a small fan wired into it. Hello bugs, good-bye heat/cooling!

So that guy had to go. You can see here that we actually filled the hole with spray foam over the winter because we were losing so much heat.



The FIRST thing Micheal did when we got home was get to work tearing it all out and sealing it up.




Nasty...


He was excited. :)

Then we went about patching up the hole. He used the same technique that we used to patch up the big hole around the dryer vent to patch the hole outside. (Once we have enough money we'll pay a mason to come fix all the little brick problems around the house.)

Then we cut out the sheetrock around the hole so we would have some studs to attached the drywall patch to. Then TRIED to use spray foam to fill the hole...

Kinda drooping...

Drooping a bit more...

After this shot it all starts pulling away from the brick and sludging down the wall towards my beautiful cooktop! Instinct kicked in and I tried to catch it...with my hands. Bad idea. Upon inspection of the can it says no contact with skin, and it means it. I had yellow hands for about 5 days and it essentially worked like a chemical peel - my hands are very exfoliated though!

So ultimately we filled it with the pink insulation and patched with drywall. Now the hole is no more!!


Sorry about the light source...we also removed all the lighting because we're going to be installing recessed lights soon!

Last night we primed the ceiling, tonight there are a few spots that need to be touched up with patches and then it'll be time to paint the ceiling. THEN comes orange walls!!! I'm so ready.

Day 6 - Final Day

The last day, what to do, what to do... Eat, shop, check out some modern art, stop for a tea and hot chocolate, go do some thinking, and go out for a great dinner! OKAY!

Our first stop called out to us from across the street:


How could I resist the Morgan store??

Next we headed to the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. Mostly we were attracted to the cool entrance!


You walk up the tube to get to the art!


Here we are having a picnic lunch with the pigeons in front of the Pomp.

We headed into the museum only to be distracted by the gift shop - but in our defense, it had some cool stuff!


The Parisian solution to not having a yard to garden in!


Or plant a tree!

Did your shovel break?

Use it to make a...serving dish?!

Here is a little tour of the museum of modern art, these first paintings I thought were nice, but as things progressed we got to a lot of stuff that I did NOT "get"









Of course I loved the furniture they displayed. :)







This on the other hand... Art?


Next we headed to the Musee Rodin where "The Thinker" is proudly displayed in the garden. I learned something I didn't know about The Thinker from Steve's Guide to Paris - The Thinker was actually intended to be part of a large recreation of "The Gates of Hell" inspired by Dante's Inferno.

Here is model of what the finished product would have looked like - with the scale of The Thinker compared to this model the finished piece would have been enormous.



See The Thinker there at the top?


I think the rain gave it a cool effect. :)

The detail is astonishing


Again I stopped to take some pictures of flowers...


...and Micheal took a moment to contemplate life's great mysteries with the most pensive man of all times.



When we left we did a little window shopping and found some cool modern shops.


LOVE these starburst mirrors


Funky lamp, don't even think about asking how much...


Micheal liked the funky colored hanging lights


Liking the glass shelf

Then we headed back to the hotel to get changed and a little dressed up for our last night out.



We had planned on going fancy, but fancy just seemed to elude us this trip. Which turned out to be great on this dining trip. We had the most delicious cheeseburger, fries and wine AND amazing service (hard to come by) at The Royal Turenne.


Then we headed home to pack up and say goodbye. It was a great trip, thank you for letting me write it all down so we can look back on it and remember fondly our first trip to Paris.

Paris Days 5 - Markets, Miracles, and Munchies

Well, I was going to try and do one review a day, but THAT obviously didn't work out. Dang job and being a full time graduate student and renovating a kitchen!

The first half of the day has no pictures from me because my camera had died and it seemed as is EVERY Monoprix in Paris was sold out of converters!

So Day 5 - we headed over near the Bastille to try and find some Parisian markets! We were lucky to find a HUGE one right next to the Bastille and man was it awesome. Fresh vegetables, amazingly sweet and juicy fruit, lots of fruits we had never heard of before! (The following photo was borrowed from the Duke Study Abroad Website)



There were lots of "non-Parisian" vendors as well selling...well...junk. But it's fun to look at junk right? Well the fun had JUST begun.

The second market we went to was an antique/junk market. :) Some tables had lotsa cool stuff - some tables...you just didn't go near. Particularly the table by the guy sitting on the ground mixing something in his Smirnoff Ice bottle. Amazingly I made it out of both without buying anything! We did stock up though on fruits for our planned picnic that night on the Pont du Art!

After much wandering we started walking back towards the hotel. I wanted to ride these bikes that were all over Paris (image borrowed from guardian.uk.co)



You're supposed to be able to kind of check them out and return them to any bike rack (and they're everywhere.) So we head up to the pay station and begin to navigate the complicated instructions (image borrowed from geographypages.co.uk)



Only to find that our stupid American Credit Card doesn't work because it doesn't have this fancy chip thing. I was so sad. (I made Micheal try twice, and at another machine later because I was in denial.)

God must have been watching and wanted to help with my disappointment because a true Kari miracle happened at this point. I hadn't had a Dr Pepper for 5 days because no one carries them in Paris. COKE must own Paris. I drank a few Cokes but I was definitely over it by day 4. As we walked away from the bicycle stand I saw a man walk by with what else...a cold can of Dr Pepper! Me: "HEEEEYYYY!!!!!!! Where did you get THAT?!?!" (Thank goodness he was American...) Him: "Right down the street at the restaurant called "Great American Breakfast." 5 euros later I had two of the most expensive and yet most delicious Dr Peppers ever. Sigh...


On the walk back we FINALLY found a Monoprix with a converter so we headed home to charge up (both the camera and me) before we headed back out.

On the way to dinner and in theory the Musee D'Orsay we ran across a cool comic book store and I lost my husband. :)

The coolest thing I found in the store were the fancy Harry Potter wands!


Pretty sweet eh?

We spent a little too long browsing so decided we'd go see The Musee D'Orsay next time we went to Paris. :)

While wandering to dinner I HAD to take this picture, it's SO Paris.

Get it? Wine and Cheese?? :) And a girl holding a baguette... so French.

Well that Wine and Cheese made me hungry so it was dinner time! We started with what seemed like a very safe dish - shrimp with avocado. Sounds good right?


I've seen bigger and fresher looking shrimp come out of a fancy feast can! AND to top it off, dive into the avocado...and find every single onion ever grown in the history of Paris. No lie. Dis.gus.ting.

Fortunately dinner was much tastier and FUN!


Grill your own dinner! Granted, we didn't expected it to come out raw, we thought the meat would come out sizzling on the stone, but hey - when in Paris right?


We've got duck, chicken, beef and one prawn. The duck was the best.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to grab the fruit we bought earlier in the day, some wine, and our lock to put on the bridge for our after dinner picnic. And it started to rain. Great night for a picnic! But as with most Paris rains it didn't last long and came and went throughout the night. The bridge was a little slow because of the rain but we did see some kids drinking and a couple of pot transactions, so a little excitement.


Micheal enjoying his wine (even if he doesn't look like it.)


Look at the size of those grapes!


Our love lock...awww...


Fruit, wine, a wonderful husband, Paris and surrounded by decades of love - what else could a girl ask for?!

This concludes Day 5. Markets, Miracles, and Munchies. :)