Pendant Lights

Just when I was thinking this kitchen couldn't get any better, the pendant light went in. We built the island up and placed it under the pendants and...well...I think the picture speaks for itself! They seem to complete the room somehow. I know this is no big deal to most people, especially the contractors who do this all the time, but I am thoroughly impressed with how things have turned out.


Installation of the rest of the upper cabinet molding and handles will be on the agenda for today.

The dryer plug got replaced with one compatible with the new outlet installed in the wall, so we did two glorious loads of laundry yesterday! The dryer, come to find out, was purchased in 1990 so is pretty old, but seems to work just fine. The washer, though, is a pretty nifty little piece of machinery. It's a front-loader and is really quiet. Bonus! One of my concerns was that it would be noisy to have the W/D in the same room as the kitchen, but even running both at the same time was fine.

The electrician finished all his work yesterday, which included installing the chandelier in the dining room. Hard-wiring in a light fixture meant I had to be really, really sure about the furniture layout, so I measured all the furniture and taped out where they will be sitting on the floor. I hope it works!!

But of course amidst the glamor that is the emerging kitchen, there's still chaos reigning elsewhere...like this door that is hanging out on the stair landing, waiting to be reclaimed and put somewhere...




...or the pile of rubble sitting outside. The pile is also a trash dump where boxes have been tossed and scraps of whatever else could be throw away is thrown away here. It's $25/cubit yard to take it to the Sunnyvale dump, so whatever can fit in the trash can or recycled is being moved! Neighbors (I think) have been coming by to sort through the pile also, taking planks of old wood and whatever else they feel like taking. If it's being reused and will cost me less to haul, I'm happy!

The one thing we did decide to do ourselves was to paint the ceiling of the basement. We picked a darker color than the walls to give it a movie theater feel (side note: neither of us are experts at this and we totally made up the darker-ceiling-to-make-it-a-movie-theater-feel thing). So here's what it looks like. It's a bit hard to tell in the photo because of the flash, but take my word for it that it's much better than the white, flaky, stained paint that was there before.




This is the basement utility room where the fridge that was upstairs now resides and has sustained us since we moved in. It's been the make-shift kitchen for two weeks now and it's getting kind of old. Because the only seating in the house is the bed, we've been eating breakfast down here standing up. A few times lunch or dinner has been eaten here too.

We did manage to make pasta for dinner last night on the nice new stove, but not having unearthed the bowls or non-plastic utensils yet, we ate on the bed using plastic bowls and forks. Not for much longer!!