Kitchen at last

Just when you think you’ll never have a kitchen, it all comes together. Counters, a fixture, a range and range hood, dishwasher, you name it – we now have it. 

One of the first meals: a pot of vegetable soup. 

A recent visit to our local café.

Noise, and more noise

If only it were just one guy with one jackhammer. But it seems our neighbors are jack-hammering the neighborhood into the ground. The house next to mine is under an onslaught of construction (since we moved in). The cross street, a stone's throw from me, is Jackhammer City. Huge city machines, chunking up concrete: all. day. long. And two doors down I hear they're tearing down a rental to build a new house. Awesome.

Time to break out the Bose noise-cancelling earphones. Grabbing them now and going "under." James got these for me for Christmas; pricey yes, but they'll turn any seat on a plane into a first-class seat. I never forget them when flying -- they transform the experience and make it bearable.

The cure for a wall: English ivy

So, we have this wall that sort of covers the front of our house. I am not thrilled with it, because I feel like it walls us off, or in. While I am a bit of an introvert, I do love saying "hi there" to passing neighbors. But I digress. For this wall, I think I've found an answer. English ivy! Which I love! I cracked up at this picture, though, because while it is quite gorgeous, it does look like the ivy is SWALLOWING the house. I can totally see us getting too busy, accidentally letting it go a bit long, and *POOF* we're buried in the stuff.

Did you know this about English ivy? English ivy uses a chemical adhesive secreted by its adventitious rootlet ends in order to stick to a vertical surface – it can even cling to something as smooth as glass. The secretion is yellowish and forms circular dots on the vertical surface. It is very sticky, and becomes stickier as it dehydrates. More info to be found here.

Flash update: I went out at 5:00, after working, and planted the ivy! It was already almost dark, and definitely dark as I was finishing up. I'm sure the neighbors, coming home/driving by, thought I was nuts. But, the entire flat is in the ground, all along the bottom of the wall. And I let it know we have high hopes for it. :o) Of course, as I read more on it, everyone says it's pretty awful, pulls down your wall, and brings rats! How positively romantic! And from what I read, I planted way to much of it. Fun! Stay tuned for me battling rats and trying to prop up my house with sticks. On the upside, we eventually want that wall to come down, so let's let the ivy do it! Ack!

Salute to Vienna

On New Year’s Day, we attended the Salute to Vienna event at Copley Symphony Hall. We got our fill of Viennese music, and dancing by the Kiev Aniko Ballet of Ukraine, and I think my grandmother and mom were “there” somewhere, seeing it with me.

Random darling dog

Random darling dog - enjoy.

Home Depot kitchen fail

I'm usually the one that writes that bad Yelp review in my head a thousand times, but never posts it. Wow, are we having a heck of a time with Home Depot. I don't even know where to begin except to say that my cheery post about the kitchen install starting has taken an ugly turn. It's now 2 months later, and we're using the utility sink that hubby installed because doing dishes in the bathroom sink was getting REALLY old. Awesome huh?

After the install botch job, we’re now in the color match nightmare of trying to create new cabinets in the same color. It’s really almost funny at this point. I used to have a vision in my head of what the kitchen would look like. Now, I’m like, meh…who needs a kitchen. This was also going to be my first Christmas dinner for the entire family. Not gonna happen now. Okay, sunshine innnnnnnnnn, negativity ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut.

I promise to post something happy soon.

Random Thursday

Kate and Gwynneth: laying on the couch outside. It was a pretty day today, and a productive workday. Gwynnie always digs herself under whatever she can, fashioning herself a little sun shade. I think her Mom must have told her to limit her exposure to the elements (her barn Mommy, as I’m her current Mom). I think in this case she’s also trying to not freak Kate out by being so close to her. They love each other—to a point.

Later, inside, next to my desk , I see this. Tongue sticking out while sleeping. So cute! And it looks like she has more than four legs, doesn’t it?

So, I know I’ve waxed on about BBC television--I’m obsessed with it. From Downton Abbey, to Mr. Selfridge, to The Bletchley Circle, and now THE PARADISE! It’s so ridiculously charming. I sometimes have to watch it again on Monday night so I can crawl into the era, the clothes, the language, the customs, the interiors—for one more night. I love all of it… Here’s a little video about The Paradise.

And, most importantly: TOMORROW IS FRIDAY! Have a great weekend, blog peeps!

One day at a time

Selling a house and buying another is a journey. My orderly, tidy, aromatherapy-scented life on Eagle Street seems like it was ages ago. While I know it will all be great eventually, we have a long, dusty road ahead to get there. So instead, let’s feast our eyes on the colors in Gail’s gorgeous rug. 



In this latest issue of goop, it almost identically lay out my 50th birthday trip. We went to Stellina and stayed at Manka’s. One of the most memorable trips of my life.

Fall, in love with Portland

Pics from Portland, from Megan. I was there last year for my birthday around this same time and it was so cold I thought my hair would freeze to my head. The last pic is someone's Halloween decorated yard. Slightly blurry, but no less colorful.

Kitchen progress

Is that the beginnings of a kitchen there? Why yes it is! The first phase of the install has happened! We’ve had no kitchen since August 7th, but here’s proof that doing dishes in the bathroom sink is coming to an end. There’s a slight hitch with the installer dude, but hoping to get that remedied soon.

That’s the old kitchen above. It has been sold back to the previous owner and he’s refinished it to a dark stain. I haven’t seen it, but I bet it will look great. It was very French, but really impractical and not very functional. It was actually a long sideboard that he repurposed into a kitchen. That’s why the cabinets were very high. Instead of being around waist high, they were ~3 inches taller than a normal counter. And can you say pink granite and green cabinets? I actually loved it for a while, but then I fell out of love.

Unfortunately, there’s no new gardening progress to show. While Gabriele is great with a shovel and clippers, his understanding of I’ll see you in two weeks fell a tad short. And of course my Spanish is muy mala. But this Saturday, it’s on.

I spied a Torrey Pine (or I think that’s what it is) this weekend. I want to plant one somewhere in the yard. I think they are so amazing the way you can bonzai them, tying various branches down low to direct the shape.

This candelabra was entangled in a mass of weeds in the back courtyard. A Mexican menora? You tell me.  I pulled it out, put some candles in this weekend, and lit it up. Interestingly, in the back courtyard at night, the candles burned fairly upright. There was no wind in there, just cool night air. I’m always digging up bits of metal, finials, chunks of marble, various and sundry items. It’s like excavating. The tiki, by the way, was found in the yard at our last house. (Also, strangely, the face that appears on the tiki here in this picture doesn’t really look like the actual face on the tiki. Hm? A haunted tiki, just in time for Halloween?)

Laundry room love, and more

No, it’s not the title of a saucy novel, but the happiness of having a laundry room right off the kitchen. This picture is pre-window. I love the palm tree shadow on the wall.

Random neighborhood sunset, taken while I was on a walk. Glorious.

Making progress in the front bed. Here, a few new plantings. Lavender, rosemary, and farther left not in the picture: a Cleveland Sage (first seen, I might add, in Sherri’s backyard. The biggest, most beautiful sage I had ever seen.) To that I will also share that I had the curse of the couldn’t-grown-a-sage, until the curse lifted about 3 years ago. Now I can grow them like mad. I have high hopes for my new fledgling sage.

This is my trusty gardening companion, Gabriele. We have worked like dogs three Saturdays in a row. I took last Saturday off, but this weekend it’s back on! Slowly working our way around the perimeter of the side yard. I dug out all of these rocks you see here, which had created a burm, all ensconced in weeds. They have since been freed, and heaved to the “grotto” as we call it. Pictures of the grotto after this weekend’s work is done.

Husband helping me extract a ginormous root ball from an equally ginormous pot. This pot used to sit at the top of the stairs, sort of blocking the doors to the front courtyard. Gone! I hacked at it for two hours, and James then took pity on me and got it out in like 10 minutes with a pressure washer and some elbow grease. The man is talented. 

A nice segue from my sweetie, I will end this little summary with a random heart that I happened upon on another walk. It jumped up at me and said notice me!
Sweet dreams, all…

Home improving, slowly but surely

There’s really only one motto you can have when you’re renovating a house: slowly but surely. Here are some pictures, finally, of various parts of the house, in various stages. Top photo is the side yard, with some of the marble fountain showing.
Below is the dining room, with the new floors in. This picture does not do them justice. They are a greyish color; very cool. No base molding yet, but that starts tomorrow!

Below is the kitchen, exposed down to the studs. Where you see daylight coming through there is now a nice, new  4’ x 4’ window.

This is Salvador hooking up a light switch, standing next to another new window that is over where the sink will be. The kitchen install begins Wednesday. I can hardly believe it. I made a really awful meal in the crock pot tonight. We were laughing almost hysterically when I realized I had nowhere to throw it! We have no sink. We debated putting it down the toilet, but instead I put it in the garbage bag and out it went. I laugh now just thinking of it. It was soup. Really. Bad. Soup.

Below is that large window. It lets in lots of light! More pics soon, and hopefully by “soon” I mean sooner than when I last said soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

New (old) house post coming soon, I swear

There's no excuse other than the 9,475 things that all of a sudden land on your plate when you buy a 1926 house. We have our hands full! But I swear I'm going to get some posts out soon!