86'n It

This morning, Marc sent me an email with 9 cabinet door pull options. I ranked them according to my preference and emailed him back. Thru some divine intervention, we both ranked the same pull as #1. Excellent right?

I'm currently trying to get an architect discount and then we will order them. Then I can FINALLY take the blue plastic wrap off the doors. Yippee!

The pulls are from Hafele. I strongly recommend them for quality pulls. They have a HUGE catalog and sell just about every piece of hardware you've ever dreamed of buying. These are from the Decorative Hardware's Modern Zinc Line.

Does that say "to scare" or "to scar" up there? Either way it is pretty fitting and it's after midnight, so I'm leaving it.

I just managed to hang the curtains in the parlor tonight in between getting home from work, eating and watching The Bachelor (seriously, don't judge me.) We've had the curtains (thermal ones from JCP I got on super sale) for months, but we just found the rods (also on super sale at JCP - sorry no link, but they were $17 each for a double satin nickel rod set!).

We ended up customizing them a bit, of course. We ended up cutting the extra bar from the single window to extend the rods to go beyond the window trim. Pretty easy. There will be white sheers hung on the inside, but I don't have them yet. Next on the list.


It just makes me feel like an adult to have curtains. Plus now I can watch all the What Not To Wear and Lockdown: Inside Maximum Security without fearing that all the neighbors and every person on the sidewalk is thinking that I'm a total freak.

And yes, I know I need to iron them. I'm just impatient and wanted to see how they looked. Ok, that's a half-truth. I'm actually hoping that the wrinkles will "hang themselves out", so to say.

We officially inaugurated the oven this weekend, and just like Obama, it hit the ground running:

First came pizza, then 6 trays of lemon meringues, only 1 of which didn't stick horribly to the pan. I didn't mind. Honestly, what else was I going to do with 24 egg whites leftover from ice cream making?

Next up was 3 trays of croûtons and some bread crumbs,


Followed up by a delicious mac and cheese with shallots and goat cheese.

This weekend I'm going to make a cake!

We also hosted a fondue dinner party this past weekend. The dining room looks nice. We need some more chairs obviously, but all and all, not too bad considering that ~1 month ago it was a tool room and wood shop.

Now We Are Cookin' with oil! (As my Bulgarian coworker would say.)

But check out the success! I can't wait to make the mac and cheese that I already bought all the ingredients to make!

Oh just another Wednesday, you know, swimming with 4 of largest fish in the world at the Georgia Aquarium!! (Ok, technically they are still teenage whale sharks, but 25' long is plenty grown up for me!) I surprised Marc with an early birthday present of a scuba dive in the largest fish tank in the world. It's as big as a football field and holds 6.3 million gallons of water. It was pretty amazing! We swam with a hammerhead, 2 sawtooth sharks, a HUGE 9' manta ray, giant mean grouper, sharks, humphead wrasse, tons of other rays, tuna, etc. etc.

Here are just a couple of photos of Marc and I in the tank. Above is me and my anti-paparazzi fish. :) I'm going to upload more tomorrow too.

Here is a really funny video. The dramatic music just add that special touch, don't you think?

Very special thanks to Joe & Sue for helping us be able to do this!

And here are more photos & two videos.

Here's a reenactment of Marc's surprised face when I told him we were diving! & Heather & Quinn by the Jelly Fish.

Quinn originallyy thought they were just flying in the air. So when Heather went to put her hand to the glass, he said, "Mommy, don't touch!". Heather then had to explain that there was glass and the jelly fish were in water! hee hee!

Here is the hammerhead (scary!) swimming sideways with some rays. Next is the giant grouper. He's much bigger than he looks. He weighs about 350lbs and is about 6 feet long!! (And mean! Grouper are very territorial and recently, one bite on of the dive masters on the leg! Ouch!) These were both in the tank that we swam in.

Here's a video showing the 2 sawtooth sharks at the beginning (they like to hang at the bottom) and the whale shark (at the top).

And one last video of the awesome manta ray. She is only (!) 9' wide now and will get to 20' wide. She doens't look so impressive until the end of the video when you see my nephews for scale! She swam right by me when we were scuba'ing. So incredibly beautiful and graceful!

Ok, more house stuff to come. While in Atlanta, we bought the cabinet for above the fridge and got the screws to attach the oven panel, so hopefully I'll have updates on those soon.

With the shipping cost making the soapstone a little more expensive then we thought (due to the Charlotte store not having big stones), we are open to maybe getting a new countertop material.

I stumbled upon a post on Grassroots Modern about Tops Lab Plus from Trespa. Check out GM's kitchen - very similar to what we are going for with the black/white.

The Tops Lab Plus is primarily used in chemistry labs, just like soapstone was originally. It is a resin-based product that is manufactured, which makes it a lot greener then a stone that is mined and shipped from Brazil. Here is Trespa's blurb: "Trespa TopLabPLUS is a self-supporting flat panel with a patented cellulose fiber reinforced phenolic resin core. Its integrated, decorative surface based on pigmented, electron beam cured resins, is resistant to the most aggressive chemicals and easy to clean and maintain. TopLabPLUS can easily be cut or formed, allowing a whole new level of design freedom."

Does anyone have any feedback on this product or a similar one? (Richlite & Paperstone are both resin-based materials too.)

I should be posting about the floor patch that Marc is doing from the dining room to the hallway, but I'm way more excited about something else.


Having a Halfway Kitchen means that you can pull all your wedding gifts out of their boxes (after over 2 years!) and finally start using them. This includes my awesome tangerine orange kitchen aid mixer. For Christmas this year, my Mother-in-law gave me the ice cream maker attachment. Trial #1 (grapefruit sorbet) was absolutely delicious!

Notice how I said "cleaner" not "clean". It's pretty hard to have a clean kitchen when you have a plywood countertop. My splinter count is at 3, but still, I'm not complaining. I love having even a half-way kitchen.

 

After a 4 day all out kitchen blitz, we have a half-way kitchen. I'm so excited! Unfortunately, I'm also sick as a dog. I think all the hard work finally caught up with me. Maybe I was running on fumes for a little too long. :(

Here is Marc mad-pimpin with the new fridge. And LOADS of thanks go out to the blitz addition of Gerry to Team 86n'. We could not have done it without you Gerry.


Here's some party prepping pics. We finally hung the fixture in the dining room.


As you can see, we still have a ways to go. We need to get the new table, and put the wood on the walls and the bar seating area. (Right now you can see the back of the cabinets and dishwasher).


Here is the post-party messy temporary plywood counter area with the dishwasher, stove and new temporary sink in place. We need to get the new countertops, cooktop, range hood and undermount sink. Also cabinet doors on the sink cabinet would be nice. :)


Marc wouldn't let me take the blue protective film off of the cabinets for the party. Under that blue are the crisp white high gloss cabinets!! So here we want to change the swing of the window to be operate top swinging in, trim it out, and make the bench area next to the tall cabinets.

Long way to go, but this feels so good right now. No more cooking feet from the litter box and no more dishes in the bathtub! Yippee!