Wanted to post these before kellybean goes offline for the big move!
Lucie in her oh-so famous doggles!
Why do my mum & dad make me wear these things. (Sigh.)
To whet your appetite, here’s a before & after photo of the living room / fireplace.
BEFORE…
AND AFTER…
So, the movers are scheduled, much to our neighbor’s chagrin, and we are somewhat packed. Whoops! I knew I should’ve started packing once we closed escrow. Oh well. Live & learn.
I’ve been totally discombobulated lately – lack of sleep and overexposure to paint fumes, I suppose.
I slyly recruited my mom to help me paint the last few items that needed to be painted. She’s been such a trooper helping Sylvain & I out with the house. She’s even offered to help us with our last minute packing party!
Edge Flooring – Real Tile Without the Mess…or so their catchphrase goes. Sylvain & I – mostly Sylvain has found this out…Edge Flooring – Real Tile would’ve been easier. ;o) I wish that I could’ve helped him more, but neither my circular saw, nor my jigsaw, nor my math problem solving skills have proved to be much help. :o(
Earlier today, while I was en route to Noah’s on West Portal, I ran into an old friend…no one other than Mr., er um, Officer Steve Coleman. We had worked together for 3 summers at Camp Mather. Our last summer there, Steve & I held the honor of being toliet man & toilet lady, respectively. Fond memories of cleaning bathrooms & gossiping at 5.30am, picking up extra alcohol “left behind” from campers and chasing cows off the baseball / soccer field. Yes, I chased after cows. Sigh…the good ol’ days. But Steve is all grown up now and is a police officer in SF. (He, coincidentally, is stationed with Ray Cruz – who I went to grammar school with. What a small world!!) San Francisco is now safer with Crack (Steve’s nickname) on the streets.
Here’s a bunch of my favorite tv commercial songs ;o)
Sad…for the complete story refer to L’amitie.
So, the house is slowly starting to come together. I hope that it comes along a little more quickly – we move in next week!
The hardwood floor peeps started Monday. I hadn’t seen the floors (sans carpet, carpet padding, etc.) until I brought Wendy (who was here teaching a class with her friend Stephanie) to see the house Tuesday night. I couldn’t get over how the place has transformed! I still can’t get over it! The hardwood floors make the place 200% better. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I promise I will get to that this weekend and post soon.
The room downstairs is slowly, slowly getting there. The walls in the room are not taking the paint as easily as we had hoped. However, the bathroom is almost ready to go – we’re going to lay the tile this weekend and install the toilet.
Our fabulous appliances are scheduled to be delivered after we move in next week. So, the kitchen will get a massive face-lift. I still need to get new knobbies for the cabinets. I saw some great ones at Restoration Hardware – $4.95 a pop though. Then I realized I needed to get like 25 (!) of them (there are a lot of door knobs in this kitchen) and decided that I’m gonna have to find cute and cheap ones elsewhere.
Earlier this year I came across a life studies article on the Chron�s website. It tells the story of two men, Walter and Howard, neighbors in a low-income residence downtown who have become the best of friends.
Today I read a follow up to that piece.
If you have a few minutes to spare, it really is a touching story. (sniff, sniff)
What a weekend!
Friday night, we had the choice to go to the house and start painting the room and bath downstairs or start packing up the house. We opted to stay and pack. Unfortunately, we opted for the 3rd option – pack one box, eat dinner and watch a movie. I think that we both work better under pressure – so us packing last minute will be highly likely.
Saturday was my mom’s birthday – so we (Sylvain, Jean-Claude & I) took her out for an early breakfast at the Sea Breeze Café & Restaurant in the outer Sunset. Then Sylvain, mom & I headed down to Sunnyvale to meet with our contractor to pick out tub, tile & fixtures for our bathroom. We drove through the inner reaches of SiliValley (needless to say, I was completely lost) to find a fabulous tile place in SanJo. We chose the tile and headed to Home Depot in EPA to purchase the toilet and bath and left the items for will call (yes, just like tickets!) We were bad and stopped at Krispy Kreme for lunch / a mid-afternoon snack.
By the time we got home, we had about 1 hour to rest, clean up, and take Lucie to the park before our West Coast Swing Class at City College! One of Sylvain’s colleagues teaches West Coast Swing…and since we’re on a dance lesson frenzy, we decided why not? Well, West Coast Swing was not what we learned for our wedding, which was East Coast Swing, which is COMPLETELY different than what we tried to learn Saturday night. So, Sylvain, my mom and I braved through the class and tried our best. Unanimously, we agreed that we prefer the eastside swing to the westside. We ended the evening with a yummy sushi dinner.
Sunday (the only day to sleep in) morning, while the rest of the Bay Area was getting slammed with rain & hail, we took Lucie to the beach. It was a bit chillier than recent days, but still a beautiful day. We got to the house around 1p and after completing other menial tasks – removing MORE contact paper from the kitchen shelves (contact paper is pure evil folks!) – we started priming the room & bath downstairs. After putting on a coat of primer, we realized that we didn’t have enough. :o( So, we finished what we could and then headed to our home away from home, Home Depot, to pick up more primer and more painting supplies. We ended up painting late into the night (poor Lucie had been home alone most of the day!).
Sylvain & I woke up today with sore shoulders, backs, arms and even feet. Some things are better left to the professionals. ;o)
I’m sorry I had to post her – she is TOO CUTE!
(This is Claire & Alex’s daughter, btw. She’s about 2 months now.)
I found THE MOST PERFECT numbers for our house! They are a bit pricey – but maybe I can buy one number every few months?