Before and After: the Kitchen

As promised, kitchen pictures! Unfortunately I don't have any "before" shots for you because my computer is off in Apple never-never land, where computers go to wrack up ridiculous and obscene repair charges that their owners can't afford.

Anyway. The upshot of sending my computer out for repairs is that I have very very little to do. Except paint! Here is my beautiful new kitchen:


Well, beautiful except for all the crap on the counter, but let's be realistic, that's just part of my kitchen. Look at the pretty red!


Oooooooh, ahhhhhhh.

I'm very pleased with it. It took way longer and way more coats than I expected, though. I kept doing one more coat, thinking, "well, surely this will do it". But no, 2 days and 4 1/2 coats later, I'm finally done. I think it was worth it, though!

All of my painting made me work up an appetite. And plus now I have this lovely background for food porn. So here is what I had for lunch just now:


(Are you reading this, George? That one's for you.)

I think my next painting project may be the entryway, but I don't quite feel like starting in on it yet. That's going to take the longest of all, and I kind of need a break from the painting for now.

So, this morning kind of sucked. Well, first, some background. I took my computer in to the Apple store on Monday to have it "diagnosed", because the screen recently started doing this weird flashy thing. Not a huge deal, but somewhat annoying. The guy there said he couldn't tell if it was the graphics card itself or the connector between the graphics card and the screen that was acting up, so he'd have it sent in and replaced and I should get it back within the week. And it would all be covered by my warranty!

So great, excellent news. No computer for a few days, but the flashing would be gone. Fast forward to this morning, when I check my email and get this little gem from Apple saying they found "evidence of liquid damage" on the inside of the computer, which is not covered by my warranty, and which will cost no less than $755 to fix.

Excellent.

I begged, I pleaded, I cried a little, all to no avail. I told him to send it back unrepaired because I don't have $755 to spend on a problem that's only moderately annoying.

But jeez! I was so mad!! Mostly because I KNOW there has NEVER been any liquid anywhere NEAR my computer, unless it is carefully and entirely stored within a container.

Except then I remembered that one day when I got caught in a light rain without an umbrella. :( I guess that's got to be it, right? Gah, I don't know. So I was already bummed about that, and then I moved on to our heating bill...

I will spare you the gory details, but let's just say I had to go for a long run this morning. I wasn't planning on it, either. I was planning on taking the day off from running, because my legs were feeling kind of tired. But I realized I had some stress issues to work out, and absolutely nothing to do today anyway.

And you know what? It ended up great. I went up into the hills, and the ground was wet from the rain last night, and the sun was peeking through the trees, and it just smelled fresh and new. I was looking down at the Bay, and I ran down this road I've never been on before, and there was this amazing canopy of twisting branches with a backdrop of clean winter light, and I just thought, "okay, life is good". I mean really? Life is pretty darn good. So I have to wait a little longer to get my computer back in tip-top shape, and our heating bill was higher this month. I still have a perfectly fine computer, and a roof over my head and a heater to keep me warm, even if our insulation is pretty worthless. No, I don't like spending money, but really, it's just money. Just. Money. And I have a family and friends who love me, and two crazy dogs that get me out the door every morning, and a month off of school, and a bright red kitchen. So what's not to like?

I also was reading this book yesterday that my friend Michelle got me for Christmas, called "Zen and the Art of Running". It talks a lot about how the only thing that is responsible for your emotions is your mind. There is nothing inherently frustrating about having to pay $755 to repair a computer. That is simply a fact, a state of affairs. And I can choose to act with frustration, or I can choose to be kinda bummed out and move on. My reaction to the situation does not in and of itself change anything; the only outcome of me being frustrated is... uh... me being frustrated. So why not stop being frustrated?

I know all of these things, but I think it's handy that I happened to read part of that book last night, before I got the Apple email. It can be hard to be zen-like in the moment, when you're getting yourself all worked up. I'm not saying there aren't things that are worth getting upset over. But most of the time they're not. Life is way too short.

On that note, I shall sign off. A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Check back in a few days for more crazy paint colors!

Before and After: Bathroom Edition

I guess there are lots of things I could tell you, but the only thing I really want to say right now is, look at this! The Before and After Bathroom Edition!

Before:

After:

I love having bright colors around me, and I've been gathering painting ideas for our house since we moved in. I finally got the okay from our landlady this past week, and my mom got us a gift card to Home Depot, so I picked up some awesome paint yesterday and started in!

So far I've only done the bathroom. But I bought the colors I want for the kitchen and entryway, and I finally decided what I want for our bedroom. So, good thing I've still got some money on that gift card and another few weeks to burn. :)

Merry Christmas to all!

Before and After

I've been a busy bee around these parts! Let me show you what I've been up to over the past few days!

First, Roger's uncle Steve gave us this bench when we first moved out here last year. He had a bunch of furniture and stuff to get rid of, and we had literally nothing, so we took it and have been stowing it for over a year. It's mostly been used as a surface for holding boxes up until now.

Basically I decided that I would start making our house into a home over break. The problem is that we still don't have a bunch of money to go out and buy furniture. We're doing okay, don't get me wrong, but when you move across the country with nothing but a mattress, it costs a lot of money and takes some time to re-accumulate the amount of stuff you take for granted when you've been somewhere for a while.

Anyway, I decided to reupholster the bench. I was intimidated by the idea at first, but it's really not hard at all. You just need a staple gun, fabric, and something to pry out old staples with. And some time. It takes a while.

I found some nice, slightly funky but classy fabric. To complete the look, I decided to also paint the legs, put on some cutesy trim, and use mismatched buttons for the top. The buttons are what's taking forever. I'm almost done threading them through the fabric and cushioning, but each one takes a few minutes. After I get them all threaded, I'll have to secure the cords underneath to get that nice dimpled look on top, but you can see how it's going to turn out:

So yay for that!

Even better, though, is that I decided to finally do something with the front entry way of our house. Until today, it's just been a coat rack with some boxes that we didn't know what to do with. We still don't really have anywhere to put the boxes, since we don't have any cabinets or shelves to store things in/on, but I hid them somewhere else and went to town on the front room. Here it is in its "before" state:

I guess I should note that we moved that big table and chairs in from outside for Thanksgiving. It's really more of an "outside" table, and we've used it for grilling up until now, but we needed more seating/serving space for guests, so we brought it in and it hasn't made it back outside yet. Anyway, here, look at the after shot:

I haven't decided what to put on the wall above the chairs yet, but it's sure crying out for something. I might be adding more snowflakes to the ceiling as time goes on, but what I really want to do is paint. I have all these really great ideas for painting, but I haven't gotten the go-ahead from our land lady yet. I think she'll be okay with it... I hope so! I'm getting really excited about it, so I hope it works out!

Well, I'm tired, for some reason. I think I'm going to sit in my new sitting area and watch TV on my computer or something.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

On Being Home

I think everyone who reads this knows by now what my "secret" was, but in case I have somehow attracted anonymous internet stalkers who need to know, the secret is out: I was in Illinois last week! (And it was wonderful!)

The "secret" aspect was because we (read: my mom) wanted to surprise my Grandma. So Jimmy and I "secretly" flew into Bloomington last Friday morning and went straight to Grandma and Grandpa's house to "surprise" them. No heart attacks were had, but there was some crying and lots of hugging, and thus began my lovely weekend back in Illinois.

I got to see lots of people I had missed very much, and I spent the rest of my time soaking up the delicious Midwest-in-the-summer-ness of it all. I loved the heat and humidity of August; the sweat that drips down your back from just walking around outside, how much more tasty a glass of cool water is, and the way the air is just cool enough after the sun goes down. I took every opportunity to drive through the country and admire the long stretches of open farmland, the corn still lush and green before it starts yellowing and gets harvested, rolled down the windows and drank up the stillness of summer nights with clear starry skies and the droning hum of cicadas and crickets in the fields. Yes, it was very good to be home.

Honestly, I was worried about coming back to California. There's just so much wonderful, beautiful space in Illinois, and I remembered the claustrophobic feeling of first moving here and never being able to get away from people/things/cars/houses EVERYWHERE. Row upon row of little California bungalows set so close to the street that they just make you want to scream!

But get this: it's nice to be home in California too. I couldn't believe it - now that I'm back, I love being back, and it really feels like home too. Sure, I miss the wide open spaces and the homey familiarity of Champaign-Urbana, but it's absolutely gorgeous here right now. I love that it's just chilly enough in the mornings and evenings to warrant a jacket or a sweatshirt, but that when the fog burns off in the middle of the day, it's getting up into the 70's now, with big blue sunny skies and a clear view of the Bay once you get up the hill just a little bit. I love that it smells like flowers just walking down the street, and that the Berkeley farmer's market in August has to be just about the greatest thing in the world.

But maybe most of all, I love our new house. It was so very nice to come home to. So very nice, in fact, that I thought I should share some pictures with you now that we have our stuff everywhere. And I decided to take pictures without cleaning so you can see what it actually looks like. So without further ado: House With Stuff.


Entryway, looking towards the kitchen and dining nook.

Kitchen, looking towards the dining nook and front windows.

Rye enjoying the sunspot created by our skylights. He'll follow it across the floor all day if you let him.

Bathroom. I decided to go with curtain panels rather than curtains for here and the big room, since they filter the light without blocking too much out.

Our room. Nothing special. It's small but does the job - room for our bed and two dressers, which you can't see in this picture. I used all of our pictures/decorations for other rooms, so it's very zen right now. I decided to go with it and bought a shelf for some candles. I might keep it minimalist; it's actually kind of nice.

My office. Whoo! We finally got my desk and bookshelf put together the week before I left for Illinois, and I put up some fun decorations. I like it. :)

Other side of my office. Pictures of Paris on the wall above my bike.

Roger's office nook in the big room.

Huck sleeping on the couch below my curtain panels. There are enough black ones to cover all the windows, so we can use our movie projector! That's it sitting on the shelf above the couch.

Rye chilling in the backyard. That dog loves sleeping in the sun.

Huckleberry posing for the camera.

Our apple tree! This thing just doesn't stop. It's actually three different species grafted together, so we have Golden Delicious, Macintosh, and something else (maybe Gala?), but they ripen at different times. So the Golden Delicious are pretty much done now, but the Macs are ripe for the pickin'. I've already made two big batches of apple butter, plus multiple apple pies, though. Other ideas for things to do with apples?

Looking at the back of the house, Huckleberry, and our "grillin' table". Now all we need is a grill!

This always happens: I had other things to tell you, but now I'm tired of typing. I hope you all are well, and I'll try to update again soon. Classes start on Wednesday!

New House Pictures

We just got back from signing the lease for our new house, and while our new landlady admired Roger's bike, I was busy snapping pictures.

I'll be moving small things in this week, and we're planning on finishing up the big stuff on Saturday and spending our first night there that night.

Awesome rec room:


I think this will be the seating area. The half bathroom is on the right, and the laundry/storage room is on the left:

Looking through the kitchen towards the dining area:


Looking down the hall towards the rec room/backyard:


Bathroom (this shot is for my mom):


Entry area as seen from dining room:


Looking into the kitchen from the dining room:


Looking at the dining room from the entry area:


The Galapagos Islands on our kitchen floor:


Looking through the rec room into the backyard, from the hallway:


The other side of the rec room (can you tell this is my favorite room?):

Looking towards the hallway and laundry room. I'm hoping to fit the dog crates under the stairs:


Backyard:


I love it!

House!

We have a house!! I wish I had pictures to share with you, but I don't yet, so you will have to settle for a verbal description (edit: and a roughly sketched floorplan) right now.

So I posted a "housing wanted" ad on Craigslist a while back, and I haven't been getting much feedback as a result. This is undoubtedly because I specifically said that we have two large dogs and would like a house with a yard for them, if possible. That's enough to scare most landlords away, I assure you.

Yesterday, we helped my friend John move into his new place in Oakland, and it is really, really great. I know we were both feeling pretty jealous - it's this awesome, great apartment that's bigger than our house now and has fantastic windows, a widow's walk, and a sun room, up on the third floor. It wasn't that much fun actually doing the moving, but that's what friends are for, and we were happy to help, it was just a lot of stairs for one day.

Anyway, we got home all sweaty and tired, and I checked my email and had a really nice email from a lady saying she's a dog lover with a house for rent in South Berkeley that sounds like it might work for us. I called her up, she happened to be there, and I rode my bike over to have a look at it.

Now, it's not that fantastic looking from the outside. That's not to say it's in any way ugly, it's just wholly unremarkable. But as soon as I walked in the front door, I was immediately impressed. It is so airy, bright, and cheerful, and even though there's no furniture in it, very homey. Just inside the front door is a little living room/sitting area, and to the right is a little dining nook. The whole front part of the house has vaulted wood ceilings with these great skylights. Then to the north of the dining area (the upper right quadrant of the front part, if you will) is the kitchen. I love the kitchen. It's somewhat set off from the front part of the house, in that there's a wall between it and the living room area, but it opens to the hallway on one side, and on the side that leads to the dining room, there's a little bar with these cool wine racks on top. Hang on, I'm going to draw a diagram of the floor plan, because this is getting confusing.


And oh, the skylights! If I remember right, there are two skylights over the living room, one over the dining area, and a big one over the kitchen. It's so bright and sunny, I loved it. And, I love this part too, the owner is a biologist, and she has a design in the shape of the Galapagos Islands on the kitchen floor! It is so cool! (The Galapagos is where Charles Darwin did most of his research, and with Roger and me both being very science-minded folks, we both loved this.) She actually worked in the Galapagos for three years, and when she redid the floor, she thought it would be cool to incorporate that part of her life into her new house.

Okay, right, so, all the floors are hardwood. (Yay for no carpet.) Down the hallway is a full bathroom immediately on the left, then the two bedrooms right across from each other, and at the end of the hall is a huge awesome rec-room. It's like a big family room, and we are so so excited about it. There will be room to have one corner be an office area, then one part will be a sitting area (eventually we want to buy a cool projector so we can have people over for movie nights), and we'll even have plenty of space left over for the dog crates to be in one corner. Then there's a utility room with a brand new washer and dryer and storage space along the side, and another half bathroom with an awesome brand new shower stall. I think we'll keep the nice air mattress we have now, and use the rec room as a guest room when people come to visit.

So at the end of the rec room is a big, nice patio door that leads to the back yard. The house is on a very long, narrow lot, so there's a somewhat narrow but decent sized backyard for the dogs, and it extends all along the side of the house for a nifty little dog run area. The fence is very nice and we won't have to worry about it falling apart! And there's an apple tree and a nectarine tree back there too, plus a garage that we won't be able to use, but that's fine. The owner is using it for storage for her stuff, and she said she can make some room for us too, but we'll never be able to put a car in there or anything.

I wish I had pictures to show you. It is so, so great, and we are so excited about it. It will be ready for move-in by July 15th, and I'll be sure to take pictures then. Oh, it's also about a half mile northwest of Ashby BART station, so Roger will be able to walk to BART to go to work! And it's even closer to campus than our house now, so I can easily walk, bike, or take the bus to get to class, just like I do now.

Ahhhhh relief. It was just getting to the point where we were getting a little antsy, and now of course we're really glad we waited. I kept telling myself all along that we should wait until we really find the right place for us, and we did and now it paid off!

So. Our new address, starting in mid-July will be 1633 Ward St, Berkeley, CA 94703. (If you type it into Google Maps and hit "Street View", you can get a look at the front of the house, if you're so inclined.) Easy to get to by public transit, lots of room for entertaining, no excuses for not having visitors!

Hooray!