The Great Kitchen Renovation

Yes, this is the third kitchen we've renovated.  Every house we've ever owned, we've made major changes to the kitchen. It helps when your dad is a cabinet-maker, of course.  ::grin::  But I think this is my FAVORITE kitchen so far.  I've always wanted white beadboard (even when it wasn't fashionable) and I love the mossy green color in contrast with the floors and the counters.  But the coolest thing is the rolling cabinet - the kitchen is tiny, so my dad built another cabinet on wheels so we can move it around to use, and tuck it up under the window when we don't need it.  It also added tons of storage, which was also a critical addition.

So without further ado, here's the "Before" - yeah, it looks all nice and pretty, but the philosopher pulled those off the walls with almost no tools.  Cheap, crappy fiberboard and they weren't even put together correctly.  We were afraid to put anything heavy on the top cabinets for fear they'd actually fall off the walls.  Bad, I'm telling you... BAD.

 

So we started the disassembly on Sunday evening.  We took everything out and stacked it in the living room and the dining room (making sure the toaster oven would be accessible, and moving the dish rack to the bathroom since we wouldn't have a kitchen sink for a few days!)  

Oh, yeah - and the coffeepot - that was the LAST thing to be moved!

The philosopher finished up the demolition on Monday, while I was at work.  Apparently he tossed the cabinets off the back deck, and they broke into lots of tiny pieces that he then had to go and clean up.  (But really, that was probably easier than one guy trying to haul sections down the stairs, right?  And it made large crashing sounds, which is always satisfying!)

What a mess.  What a BIG mess.  So this happened on Monday.  Tuesday morning my dad and one of his guys showed up with a trailer full of cabinets.  The philosopher actually worked for dad for a semester, so he was able to help do a lot too - dad's crew got the cabinets hung, leveled, and installed, then G and I hung the doors.  

 We also put on the knobs and pulls - which doesn't sound so hard until you realize that we also had to drill the screw holes in the right spot for each one.  (I won't as you to look for the ones that may not be *exactly* even....).  Then, finally, I added the new paint. Whew!

 VOILA!  And the first meal cooked in our spiffy new kitchen?  A vegetable pot pie with a cheddar biscuit crust.... YUM.

A long time coming...

This blog post has been a long time coming, that is!  I just got back from a trip to Seattle (!!!) and boy oh boy - I gotta tell you... talk about weather shock!  It was 72 degrees most day, sunny except for one cloudy drizzly day, and no humidity.  I slept with my windows open (no screens, but no bugs bothered me either!)

I spent a week on the campus of Seattle University attending a library conference/educational program called Immersion 2011.


The campus was simply astounding in its lushness.  Deep green beds of all kinds of wonderful plants, gardens and courtyards everywhere... and the lavender.  Wow.  So I'll just share some of my favorite pictures....

 See what I mean?







And since it was Seattle, a group of us ventured out to the famous Pike's Place Market to witness some fish tossing, glass blowing, coffee grinding and cruise ship docking.  It's right on Puget Sound, and (I'll say again) simply beautiful.

We also visited the Seattle Public Library, a wierdly famous library that is...goofy as all get-out.  (Really - check out the photo at the link!!)  They have one floor dedicated to conference room space.  The rooms are pleasantly pastel and comfortable.  The halls of the conference floor?

Red.  Everything.  Red. (And no, my camera wasn't malfunctioning!)  I kept thinking of bad Stephen King short stories - is was CREEPY.  The whole place is really industrial modern (*so* not my style) but I have to give them credit - while I don't like their form, the function was spot-on.  The six floors of book stacks were arranges in a gradual spiral, so you didn't have to navigate stairs to move from floor to floor (and in the core of the book spiral was a large lime-green escalator, so you didn't have to wind your way all the way up if you needed to go to the upper floors).

All in all, the conference was fantastic, I brought home some fabulous Caffe Vida coffee and Washington State wine, and I enjoyed the weather immensely.  But I'm a southern girl, and it was good to come back home to the deep south where mosquitoes thrive, the humidity curls your hair, and where folks know about sweet iced tea and grits.  Yeah.

The Great Sociological Experiment, revisited

For my long-time readers, (both of you!) you will recall that when the philosopher and I endeavored to find a new church, we visited quite a number of different flavors and varieties.  I blogged about them in posts labelled "The Great Sociological Experiment", or G.S.E.

So two weeks ago we began again, in a new city. 

Our first venture was to a church that bills itself as  "Evangelical Anglican".  It's a very well known church, with over 3000 members and a very visible rector. It's about 45 minutes away from our house, and G professed to want to visit "simply out of curiosity".  So off we ventured!  Our first thought was that the edifice itself brought to mind cathedrals of old, very beautiful and charming.  The interior, once we got out of the parking deck (yes, a church with a PARKING DECK!) was also lovely, but disjointed.  There was a large desk reminiscent of a 4 star hotel lobby, where a number of folks stood by to thrust brochures into your hands.  As we walked down the wide hallway (think "airport-wide") we saw on the walls a beautiful illuminated manuscript page, a sheet of ancient shaped-note music, a (erm) Thomas Kincade-like print, and then ... a large flatscreen tv scrolling announcements.  (??!!??)

The sanctuary was also beautiful, with NIV Bibles in the pew backs, but no prayer books, and the bulletin was all glossy announcements with no real order of service.  The band was warming up, with drums and electric guitars and some brass.  ::sigh::  Ultimately, the folks were incredibly friendly but the service bore no resemblance to any kind of Anglican service.  Indeed, there was no liturgy at all.  No communion.  Lots of extemporaneous prayer and a firey revival sermon, but no quiet reverence.  Definitely not for us.

This past Sunday we visited a local congregation which met in a community center.  Of the ten folks there, we were the youngest there by 20 or so years. (The community center is in a retirement community, and I suspect that everyone attending lives there - not a bad thing generally, but not necessarily what we wanted!)  The rector is a full time police officer, and very pleasant, and we were delighted to hear a sermon on Romans that wasn't Calvinistic in nature.  But we need a church with more to offer folks our age - a place where we can connect with a community of believers and actually be part of that community.  So that definitely won't work either.

Once the philosopher gets back from a visit to his family, and I return the following week from a conference in Seattle, then we'll try again and see were God is leading.  So if you're so inclined, prayers for this new venture would be deeply appreciated!

What's in a name?

We took a trip through north Georgia and the length of Tennessee this past weekend, and noted some... interesting... place names.  So I thought they were worthy of comment (and derision, of course).

First:
Crane Eater Community Church (Somewhere in middle Tennessee.)
We couldn't easily tell if we were passing through a town called Crane Eater, but even if we were... really??  Crane Eater??!?  We spent several minutes trying to determine if there was some theological basis for the name, but we got nuthin'.

Second:
Grinder's Switch Winery (Somewhere in central Tennessee.)
Now, I could come up with tons of great winery names (my favorite?  Philosopher's Folly Winery!)  The area has plenty of beautiful mountains, and gorgeous trees, and stunning vistas.  Grinder's Switch Winery is what you decided on????  REALLY???

Lastly:
Bucksnort, Tennessee. (Also somewhere in central Tennessee.)
Yes.  And the gas station where we stopped was the local big game check site when you're done with hunting for the afternoon.  I believe the philosopher was the only male in the establishment wearing a shirt with a collar... no, wait.  He was the only guy there wearing a shirt!  We thought about purchasing a souvenir shot glass or camouflage coozie, but decided against it. 

Q: When is a door not a door?

A: (All together now...) When it's AJAR!

::snort, chuckle, snort::

Well, let me tell you a story about adventures in doors.  When we bought Misty, we knew right away that the house needed a new door.  (Those rotten jams and the fact that a good solid kick even from a wimp like me would've knocked it out of the frame were dead giveaways.)

So, we did our measurements (yes, twice) and did our research and found a great door online at Home Depot, on sale and with free shipping to the house, even!  Woot!

Well, the door came in.  And we toted it up onto the front porch.  (Did I mention the door weighed about 150 pounds?  And neither of us are weightlifters?)  So "toted" might be too weak.... how about "lugged"?  Or "Strained every fiber of muscle in our bodies"?  Yeah, those are better.

Anyway, Greg got the old door out, and so we had a huge hole in the front of our house, perfectly sized for a new door.  (Some installation required.)  Except that when we got all the packing pulled off, the dadgum door was CRACKED.  Unusable.  Unsatisfactory.  Unhappy!

(It's a lovely door, though, isn't it?)

So we called customer service and they said they'd ship us a new one ASAP.  But we still had this Gaping Hole in our house.  So we got permission to dry fit the door in place with two screws (probably more sturdy than the old one!) until the new one arrived.  And guess what??

It didn't fit.

It was too tall.  Whoda thunk that standard doors are different heights???

So we called customer service and cancelled the reorder.  And hauled the &$%#* thing BACK down the stairs and into the back of the pickup so we could take it back to the store for a refund.

Now, about that hole.

We used plywood and lots of screws.  ::sigh::

Then we started planning our next step - finding a door with a sidelite that WOULD fit.  And guess what?  Yeah - we got nuthin.  So we went with plan B (or maybe this was plan F or V) and started looking for a door that was the right height, and who cares how wide it is!  We finally found one, and thus began the philosopher's first experience in framing.

It wasn't pretty.

But after much cries of "drat", some sledgehammer usage, ripping the new framing out twice, and lots of blood and sweat, we have a NEW DOOR!

(Cue the applause)

We didn't want it to look like we had an off-center door, so we added wide trim to both sides, and I think it turned out fantabulously!

So kudos to the philosopher for *not* kicking the glass out in frustration, and for giving Misty a great new look.  (All I did was the paint!)

Adventures

My apologies.  It's been a while since I've posted.  I think I'll chalk it all up to adventures.  Yeah.  Lots and LOTS of adventures.

Adventures in the lat week of an old job.
Adventures in tornadoes.
Adventures in having no power, and getting it back, and losing it again after the tornado.
Adventures in packing and organizing (or is that supposed to be organizing and packing?)
Adventures in MORE packing, less organized.
Adventures in moving.
Adventures in the movers being very unskilled in Tetris and not fitting everything in the truck.
Adventures in plumbing.
Adventures in replacing front doors.  And taking the new one out, and trying again.  And again.  And finally suceeding!
Adventures in going back to Alabama every week to mow and get more stuff the movers didn't load.
Adventures in starting a new job, and discovering they're still in the throes of renovation.  So instead of learning all the stuff I need to learn, I'm moving books and disassembling shelves.

Adventures in stuff like this make me too tired to blog!

Facebook - the Virtual Lunchroom

Yes, a blog post on Facebook.  How.... unoriginal!!  But I have some thoughts about social media, and figured I may as well get them out of my head and onto paper, as it were.

Now, I have never used FB for games, or applications, or quizzes, or any of that really distracting stuff.  But I do log on several times a day just to see what folks are saying and posting about.  It's like dropping in on friends in a busy lunchroom, and sitting at their table a little while before moving on with my day.  I've reconnected with several dear friends, both from high school and college, and we've even managed to arrange face-to-face meetings when we've found ourselves in the same general location for whatever reason.

When I first signed up for Facebook, I did what most people do - I accepted friend requests from just about everyone as long as I knew who they were.  As I thought about what I use FB for, I've actually unfriended a bunch of acquaintances.  Not because I don't *like* them, but because I would never just sit down at the lunch table with them and have a chat.  Is that rude, or draconian?  Or am I merely being choosy with my online friends, just as I am in real life?  And if it's the latter, then it's not a bad thing. 

Over time, I've also locked down the security on my account more and more, and because they twiddle with their settings I check MY settings on a regular basis.  Right now, you can't google my FB account, and only friends (not even friends of friends) can see what I post or share.  This seems to be the antithesis of what FB - and most of its users - want from social media.  They want people to be instantly accessible to everyone, everywhere, 24/7.  But I'm an introvert, and I can't handle being with people all the time.  I like lots of down time, and quiet time.  (Which is why on the weekends I spend very little time on the computer - I get too much computer time at work, and I want to get away from that at home!)

My two faithful readers may know that I gave up Facebook for Lent (and so did a number of other folks I know). So I've been spending time in the lunchroom at a table for one - and that too has been a good thing.  I've realized several things about myself and my habits, which hopefully will allow me to make some different choices when we move to Georgia next month.  I've discovered that I deeply value some of the friendships I've rediscovered on facebook, and that I hope to keep in contact with those people, even if I give up facebook permanently.  (I probably won't go that far, though!) 

But I've also discovered that I don't have many Good Friends here where I live.  And that is a sad thing.  We've always said that where we are now wasn't a "permanent settling", so neither I nor the philosopher have made any serious attempts to become friends with folks.  We have acquaintances, and folks we spend time with at work.  But there's no one we call to say "Hey, want to come over for burgers this weekend?", and no one who calls us to see if we want to go to the park for a walk.  So that was a good Lenten realization for me, and I know I need to be more intentional in seeking out friends when we get settled in Georgia.  (Not easy for an introvert, but something the needs to be done even if it takes a while!)

At the same time, I will continue to cherish my online friendships.  I am happy that many people who were once part of my face-to-face life can still be part of my life virtually.  I can talk about Scarecrow and Mrs. King, CS Lewis and 80s music, girl scout cookies and Disney, bad golf outings and gardening and outdoor adventures, with the same people I once shared those things with at the *real* lunch table.  And in that sense, Facebook is a great tool for that.  I've missed my friends during my Lenten fast, and I look forward to lunchtime again next week!