]]>
It's apparently too depressing to write about. I've had this window open for THREE DAYS while I've tried to express how beautiful and sad this film is, but I can't do it. I am apparently not interested in telling you how little I liked Suspicion (nothing new, I've never liked it) either. Screw it. I'm going to go watch Mrs. Miniver.
]]>]]>
There's nothing like the imminent arrival of guests to motivate you to tidy up. I had help, though. Nathan got up early this morning and moved all of the manly tools and things into the garage. Then Tom popped by this afternoon to show me some paint chips, and he wound up helping me put my parents' old table back together.
I think the rug looks a lot better in the dining room. It so didn't work in the living room.
The table still needs a final cleaning and a coat of varnish. The French Provincial table sort of doesn't go with the mostly Transitional Mission style of the house, but I can't afford a Stickley table, and anyway I like this one. It was our dining room table when I was a little kid. My mom gave me "The Facts of Life" talk at it when we were sewing one day, and my sisters used to hide their peas under it.
The chairs ("Early Costco") are what they are, and there's nothing I can do about them. I'm having a hard time finding chairs that are going to bridge the stylistic gap between Provençal and Prairie School. Maybe something Edwardian will work.
Cranky, must tidy.
]]>So that's why neither my housework nor my knitting is done. But I did manage to take a bunch of pictures at Elizabeth's surprise birthday party today. I don't think there have ever been that many people in that house, ever. There were the usual Orlanders, plus us, plus Rob and Nicole, and Steve, and Lisa Eve and Logan, and some lovely young ladies of Elizabeth's acquaintance. It was a fine, fine afternoon with much swimming, drinking of festive adult beverages, card-playing and no heavy lifting.
Is Zoe bad-ass or what?
So we ripped all that stuff out, and after two trips to Ikea (the second of which we couldn't have done if my awesome parents hadn't come to visit), there's a hygenic wonderland. SO there are no doors on the cupboards, I need to paint over the sink where the Formica backsplash was, the window is still a piece of crap, and neither the sink nor the dishwasher are what you might call "hooked up", but damn, it looks good. And there's COUNTERTOP. Praise Jeebus. The toaster and the Kitchenaid are no longer in weird, weird places.
Also, I managed to strip (ha ha, I said "strip") and prime one of the cabinets. We dragged it upstairs and nestled it into place next to the ass-kickin' stove so I don't have to paint it outside (and we can get some COUNTERTOP.) Nobody wants bugs embedded in their cabinets.
All this progress is about to come to a screeching halt, though, as we have Casa registration and a family thing next weekend, Gen's wedding the next weekend, Kim's wedding after that, dress rehearsal for Casa after THAT, and then (you guessed it) Casa. So don't hold your breath for any more cool before-and-after pictures.
Nathan went out to the garage this afternoon and called for me to come out. He was standing there looking bemusedly at the old original kitchen cabinets which had been removed from the house and hung up in the garage in the Carter administration. We'd noticed them a couple of weeks before and wished they weren't in such crappy condition, because, HEY, THEY'RE FREE, and period, and we'd get to recycle and all that green stuff. Turns out, they're just dirty from having been in the garage for 30 years. They're actually in great shape.
There was much rejoicing. Once we'd recovered, we made our daily sojourn to the Despot and got some Citristrip. Dude, I love this shit. It makes a big honkin' mess, but it sure works.
This is a long-winded way of saying "This is why we didn't finish the kitchen floor today." That and we stopped work at 5:30 to to over to Tom and Chris' house for an ass-kickin' dinner party. But the bit of floor we got done DOES look fabulous. If it's done before rehearsal tomorrow it will be an Old-fashioned Christmas Miracle.
]]>
It looks a little unkempt in this photo, but it's a good wall. It just needs another coat of paint and a frame for the door, and it will be spiffy.
I can't say we're "moved in", because the house is a maze of boxes, there's no kitchen floor, and there are new gigantic holes in the kitchen to patch and re-paint (the plumber had to put in a new gas line for the ass-kickin' Wedgewood stove), but we are moved out of the other place.
We do have a fridge, though. And booze.
Now that The Octopus is gone, you can really see it in all its stupid glory.
The soffit is no match for MJOLNIR!
Thor has a moment of panic when he realizes that his life-giving beer is not getting to his mouth for some reason.
Okay, so it doesn't look all that impressive now that it's gone, but TRUST me, it looks way less stupid. And it turns out there was no wiring or anything inside it, and it only marginally supported the cabinets, so it really was totally pointless. Good riddance.
]]>
The second the ink was dry on the papers, we immediately started tearing up our new house.
Here's the the horrible kitchen this morning - behold the horrendous ceramic tile, falling-down acoustic ceiling, 70's cupboards, olive green dishwasher, and Satan's window treatments:
Also, here's the old stove after Nathan unceremoniously yanked it out of the wall. Isn't this the ugliest thing you've ever seen?
Here's Nathan pulling down the supports for Satan's window treatments:
Avast! The world's ugliest vinyl flooring was under that crappy tile! Begone, foul demon!
All that's left is the sink and the dishwasher. That's coming out at the very last second.
Rot. Rotten wood. In a nice big chunk of real estate under where the washing machine was and will go again in what was once and will soon again be the service porch. I can't tell you how thrilled we were to see it. Rot rot rot.
That's what we did today. Not too shabby. Now it is time for gin and sausage.
]]>We went over and tidied up our the bank's front yard. It still looks like shite, but at least it's tidy shite.
Isn't that much nicer? You can actually get into the back yard now without being molested by shrubbery. And we're close to choosing new paint colors. Also, we met some of our the bank's totally rockin' neighbors. That distracted me greatly from the imminent head explosion.
Cranky, going to bed.
]]>AAAAAIIIEEEE. At least we have appliances.
]]>NO, that is not a typo. I got a job. Me. Lazy McSnoozerson. I wasn't even looking for one. It sort of fell into my lap. I'm not going to tell you where it is because I haven't asked my boss if it's okay if I blog endlessly about all the crazy customers we get at this cool place in Napa that makes fancy sausages, but you might be able to figure it out if you were a smarty pants.
All I'm sayin' is that I smell an awful lot like really good beef jerky right now. Yesterday I smelled like thyme and duck confit, and last Thursday you could detect my eau de bacon across the room. It's awesome, but it is SERIOUSLY interfering with my knitting and tv-watching.
]]>The Philadelphia Story is PERFECT. It's magic. If I had to go to a desert island with one movie, this would be it. Seriously, what's not to love? Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. It's witty and romantic and clever and it was ROBBED. It totally should have been Best Picture.
]]>I really liked the red house, but I am bonkers about this one. Yes, the kitchen was last remodeled in the 'sixties (I actually sort of love the avocado green Kitchenaid dishwasher), and some doofus faux-finished the hardwood floors, but that shit is fixable.
I'm going to just shut up now and wait until we see these reports.
]]>