Kate F____, Girl Reporter

There will be cooking this week. It’s just been a rough and busy few weeks with lots of late work for one or both of us/meals in the office/travel, etc.

A few weekends ago when we had the three-day weekend all at home (bliss!), we knocked out lots of little tasks that needed doing around the house. The most satisfying (and life-improving) was finally buying a nightstand. I had been using a $6 Ikea tv tray as a nightstand since 2001. I painted the top at one point, but it was mostly unfinished pine, and just…not good. Because there was no drawer it tended to be cluttered with romantic things like eyeshades (our blinds aren’t great), and it just looked horrible all the time. Plus I kept an old magazine container under it, which was always too full and so I’d stack books and magazines on top of the holder, and….yeah, here’s what it looked like:

Wow, classy.

The new nightstand is simple but it lets me tidy things up. I required a shelf and a drawer, and I got both (I also replaced my lampshade):

So much better! Now I can tuck things away and keep the top neat! I have since moved the book to the bottom shelf. One thing that does stay out, and which you can barely see in that picture, is my new friend, who Christy gave me for Christmas:

Love!

As I said in the last post, we spent a lot of time this weekend working around the apartment. While the kitchen didn’t get any new touches, we did talk and think a lot about what it needs to make it feel complete… I need to upload a more recent photo, since we have added door pulls, etc. since this was taken, but as a reminder this is basically where the kitchen stands now:

We are struggling with how to hang art and shelves–the walls really are not in good shape, and we’re worried that we’ll make major trouble if we drill into them. On the other hand, I desperately want to run two shelves along that long left wall, one at the height of the top of the fridge surround, and one enough lower that I can store the coffee canister, etc. on it. I’d paint them white and we’d give them enough of a lip in front that we could have under-shelf lighting under the bottom one to light the counter. That would help with problem 2, which is lighting, which….sigh. I can’t even think about that right now.

We don’t know how to start with shelves. Do we shell out and have a professional come in? Do we experiment a bit with the lathing? I have become quite adept at using self-adhesive wire mesh and putty to patch large holes. Still, it’s overwhelming! But once we work out the shelf problem, we can also figure out how to hang some art above the sink–probably just my “Tea Revives You” print (which I need to frame), but maybe that plus a bunch of smaller things if we work out a good system. Maybe a hanging rail or something for a flexible system and fewer holes?

Keep Calm, Tea

On a simpler front, I am trying to decide between these two completely different clocks, both from Urban Outfitters. We nearly bought a really amazing vintage clock in France but we decided not to get entangled in issues of ancient battery sizes or hard wiring…

Choice One:

Choice Two:

Tricky! (By the way, the orange one is 8 inches wide; the white is 15 inches!)

Almost two weeks ago we were home for the weekend, without guests or a trip, for the first time since…. Hmm, early September. There was a crazy storm on Saturday, which I was excited to see forecast since Ben had studying to do and I wanted nothing so much as an excuse to laze around all day. Friday I got a delivery of a lovely loaf of challah from a guy in the office, and I stopped after work to pick up essential groceries so we wouldn’t have to go outside all day.

Witness, a perfect day (half of the Sunday NY Times comes Saturday, so we had that handy!):

I wandered out to the dining room around 9:30, greeted by steaming steel-cut oatmeal cooked by Ben, who is the Oatmeal Master. His other areas of expertise: brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and pancakes. I’m not going to argue with that skill set!

After a very leisurely breakfast we retired to the living room and lit a fire, which we kept going all day. It was a violent storm, extremely windy with sheets of rain and dramatic whipping-about of all the trees.

When we got hungry for a little lunch, I got out the naan I’d bought the night before, drizzled them with olive oil, and topped Ben’s with goat cheese and mine with ricotta salata and leftover beets, and heated them up:

Later there was mint tea (I love the Trader Joe’s brand):

And through the day, the fire and my annual re-read of Pride & Prejudice. What could be better?

We were supposed to go to a party that night but we didn’t end up heading out into the rain. A friend from b-school came over and we had a casual pasta dinner. So cozy! As much as I envy the outdoor living thing you can do in Southern CA, I could never give up late fall/winter days.

Ben ordered the new stove, and we’re thinking about hoods; scary and exciting stuff. Here’s what we’re thinking:

Hood: We need a recirculating hood because drilling through to the outside for ventilation will be a nightmare. Not sure what to do yet.

Stove: I saw the white enamel Viking in Domino at least a year ago and flagged the page, never imagining I might actually have a place to put it. Over the summer I saw it in person at the kitchen showroom where E worked. Stunning. Supposedly it is coming Friday! We will see if the plumber can actually detach our old stove in time, and come hook up the new one. Sadly, I leave for London Saturday night so I won’t get to play with the new stove much at all. (The photo is of the 36″ version–we’re getting the 30″, which will free up some space on that side of the room.)

I have ordered a bunch of prints over the last couple months (for all over the house), and when the last one arrives I will start thinking about how to frame them. I mocked these up at Frames by Mail… I’m thinking these first two, with some other stuff, would be good in the kitchen:
Amy Ross, Manshroom

Keep Calm, Tea

I adore Etsy artist Sk8ordiehard, and I’ve been eyeing her Fungi poster for many moons. But the bright colors definitely send things in a different direction than those mellow browns. Hmmmm.

I already have those first two prints (well, “Tea” is on its way), but they could live in other places in the Funghi poster seems like a better fit in the kitchen. What do you think?

We have a beautiful dining table, a 1790 antique drop-leaf made of New England maple, but it seats four and we can’t patch together that and the kitchen table as easily in this apartment as we could in Hanover. Meanwhile, the table we’re using behind the couch (first thing you see when you walk in) is too small, and the dining table would be perfect in that spot, as a landing pad and grounding element. We need a dining table that can seat six, and hopefully eight in a squeeze, and yet won’t be too big for everyday. The dining room is almost square, with the door in and the door to the kitchen diagonally across from each other, so that a table in the middle of the room will force an annoying weave through the room. Oh well! I want a chandelier, and that needs to be centered, and the table needs to be centered under it. But it does mean I think we need a round table that expands to an oval, and this weekend we saw this one at Pottery Barn and finally were ready to bite the bullet. We’ve been looking and looking at antique stores, flea markets, every furniture store we pass…Nothing has been quite right. This one *is* solid wood, which we felt strongly about. And it’s nice and simple? The photo in the right finish shows it unexpanded, which will be the everyday size (45″):

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Here it is expanded, with giant chairs and not my style of stuff surrounding it (why is there Sooooooo much stuff on it? Weird.):

Simple, right? Next up: Chairs. I like these from West Elm, but maybe we’ll get something really plain and upholstered, like these from CB2.

West Elm:

CB2:

And then there’s lighting. We saw some promising specimens at Restoration Hardware this weekend:

(Ok, that last one is more like something I’d want in the living room…)

But I think I’ll at least give it another couple months of looking for something vintage before I give in to the box stores on the lighting!

Ok, we’re just missing cabinet pulls, lighting, art…The fun stuff! I ordered cabinet pulls but something mysterious has happened to the order so I think I need to try again.

I also need to do some more treatments of the counter to make sure it has a good thick finish on it. But at least we have cabinet doors! I also added a couple more recent living rooms pictures to the apartment Flickr set.

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Big thanks to Scrappy Girl and Another Shade of Gray, both of whom have given nice links to the blog in the last couple days! I’m touched and flattered; I love both of their blogs.

Xander, a world traveler who is currently living in Bangkok, writes about travels, food, and culture at his blog Primitive Culture. I am always fascinated by the gorgeous photos he posts of daily living around the world–he has a great eye and captures a lot of details that you don’t see in vacation pictures. Today he launched a new series, Bangkok Colors, which I think is going to be so inspirational. Today: Pink! All those pinks and spring greens are so preppy and the opposite of the autumnal colors that surround us here in Boston right now. Fun.

And finally, a random obsession. I loved love love white ceramic and porcelain stuff, and have been slowly building up a few pieces at home. In today’s House and Home section there was a fun slideshow about hits and busts at various home stores, and I was pleased to see the porcelain logs that I adore posted as a hit. The same shop, Koo de Kir, said a Jason Miller porcelain Hostess Cupcake was a total bust for them. But I love it (it’s down at the bottom)! So fun.

(photo from Koo de Kir)

By the way, we are two cabinet doors (and some baseboards, and cabinet pulls, and more coats of oil on the counter) away from finished in the kitchen. I need stainless steel cleaner; that stuff gets fingerprints like crazy. I don’t understand why they haven’t worked that out yet–our SimpleHuman trash can is fingerprint resistant and always looks great. Well, dented (thanks, construction guys!) but print-free.

Can you guess where the missing doors go? Isn’t Ben’s solution subtle?

Well, we’re nearly there! To recap, as of Saturday morning the kitchen looked like this:

At eight p.m. last night it looked like this (the bearded fellow is my brother Tom, who is overqualified for Ikea assembly):

This morning it looked like this (we like to clean up at night!):

After a very busy afternoon and bullying Tom into spending one more night here, we have this:

Why yes, it is a new color! And yes, I’m thrilled that I spent ages painting that blue “backsplash” yesterday, and then repainting most of it when the paint bubbled off the wallboard after I used painter’s tape on it.

Ben got a bee in his bonnet that we should paint before installing everything (which, to be fair, was something I’d been saying but then had figured was impossible. He single-handedly put at least two coats on, with a brush, this afternoon. The big counter and the sink aren’t really installed yet, we’d just placed them to cut the slot to fit the sink into the….never mind. The plumber and electrician are supposedly coming back tomorrow, at which point the sink will be installed and we will screw the countertop on. On Wednesday the dishwasher and fridge will come–the fridge came Friday but was dented so we have to try again. We built that box to slot the fridge into because slide-in fridges now come with stainless steel fronts but the regular shiny black pebbly fridge material on the sides. We wanted everything to be paler than that, so we bought these sheets from Ikea and built the case.

This weekend we’ve eaten falafel, sandwiches, bbq takeout, and pizza. I can’t wait to have a sink again–if this works, it will be one week from demo to completion!!!

Ok, here are some photos of the in-progress kitchen… The cabinets and counters have arrived (courtesy of an incredibly rude and insulting outsourced delivery guy) and are in the dining room, along with the old fridge. (Anyone need a fridge?)

I added pictures to the Before and After photo set on Flickr, though I need to update that now that our living room looks totally different.

Meanwhile, here what it looked like until Wednesday morning if you looked into the kitchen through the butler’s pantry (well, the fridge wasn’t usually pulled out like that…):

Here it is now:

The sink (sporting a stylish map of where the electrician needs to install outlets):

R.I.P., gorgeous but enormous and impractical sink. Someday maybe I can have one like you again. If only you weren’t four feet wide. (Anyone need a huge cast iron double-bowl sink, with drain board?):

I’m now waiting for the new fridge to arrive, which is very exciting.

The lightening kitchen reno is underway. We picked the cabinets, appliances and counters a week and a half ago, and the plumber and electrician came yesterday, swapped around radiators, took out the huge sink, and roughed in the outlets! The fridge and cabinets/counters come tomorrow, as does my talented brother, who will be helping us install everything this weekend. Next week the plumber and electrician will come back and finish everything, and the dishwasher comes on Wednesday!!! The wall behind the counter is less damaged than I expected, though it’s pretty scary. I will shoot pics tonight.