Month: May 2007

I’ve got all my ‘after’ pics in the kitchen album. For dramatic purposes, though, I just wanted to post the pics side by side. Enjoy!

I know that transfats are evil and unnatural, but I really kinda miss them.

Junk food just isn’t the same without transfats. I know that other fats have risen to the challenge to take the place of my dearly departed transfats, but they don’t quite do the job. Doritos, oreos, microwave popcorn and mcdonald’s french fries have suddenly become lacking. There’s something slightly different about the flavors, the textures – and there is certainly something different about the addictive qualities.

I can’t eat a whole bag of microwave popcorn anymore. I get bored with doritos before I get anywhere close to half the bag. Oreos? 2 or 3 will do it. And PLEASE get me a bucket of ketchup if you expect me to eat all the fries in my happy meal.

The death of transfats means that junk food has risen right to the top of my food pyramid, where I guess it shoulda been all along. Goodbye, transfats. Now if they could just do something about high fructose corn syrup, maybe I could kick all my food vices …

As I was walking downstairs this morning, in my big white fluffy robe, I saw my living room and thought, what a nice house! And the feeling continued as I actually got to the main level and was able to see the dining room and kitchen.

I know it’s my house, and I see it every day, but it’s so nice to love the place I live – and for it to feel like home.

Since leaving home for college, this is the longest I have ever lived in the same place. This is the longest I have ever gone without packing all my stuff up and moving somewhere new. I was worried that I would start to get restless, that I would get the itch to move on – but I am finding it’s actually kind of nice to put down some roots.

I know my neighbors! Not all of them, but quite a few. When you plan to live somewhere longer than your 6 or 12 month lease, there’s actually some incentive to chat with the neighbors. There’s the possibility that you could be seeing them for years – and there’s the possibility that these could be life-long friendships.

I have pictures hanging on the walls! I have never decorated the walls of the places I have lived in. The one apartment that I lived in all by myself, no roommates, I didn’t put a single nail in the wall. It was a most barren place. I didn’t actually hang the pictures on the walls myself – my husband’s mother helped me out with that – but I really like having artwork on the walls. I especially love the picture hanging above the couch, it’s the first thing I see when coming downstairs in the morning. I know my husband doesn’t get it – or its price tag (it really was quite a steal, I could have spent $$$$ on artwork that big) – but I love it.

I have matching furniture! The living room has a matching recliner, sofa, and chair. The end tables match the coffee table. The dining room actually has a table in it! I really feel like an adult now – the college days of mismatched goodwill goods are behind me, as well as the newly married merging of random furniture days. Most all the furniture in the house was purchased after we got married – and the few pieces left, we are itching to get rid of.

Our house still needs work – I would love to get rid of the popcorn ceilings upstairs, and there is some stenciling and wallpaper bordering that needs to go – but that doesn’t mean I don’t love my house. It’s my house – it’s a work in progress – and it’s beautiful.

The kitchen is coming along swimmingly! My husband is stressed because everything is a mess – and we can’t watch tv in the living room due to a dining room table being between the couch and the tv. Which means we have to watch tv upstairs, without the benefit of a tivo. Which means we actually have to watch shows when they come on! And with commercials. It’s quite a sacrifice, but I think maybe we can tough it out for a few more days.

In my attempt to converse with the tile guy who doesn’t know much english, I think I may have told him to work 10 hours tomorrow. 🙁 That really wasn’t my intent – I just wanted to know how much longer it was going to take. I really don’t care if it takes 2 more days or 4 more days, I was just curious. I think he asked me how long he could stay tomorrow, he pointed to his watch and suggested 5 or 6, and I said 5, to try to minimize stranger-in-the-house-stress on my husband. Then I think he asked how early he could come, and I said 7 was fine, we’re both out of the house by then. He seemed very happy about the prospect of coming at 7, so I hope that means he’s excited at the prospect of being able to leave at 3.

The countertop guy is coming tomorrow, to give me a quote on new countertops. Which means I should probably decide on a color. I’m the most useless girl on the planet, I have no eye for color whatsoever. (Back on the west coast, my interior-design-degreed mother is wondering where she went wrong …)

I have another dilemma, with the lighting in the kitchen. Santana suggested recessed lighting, which I think will look really nice. ($$$Resale Value$$$) The problem is, is that recessed lighting is not as bright as the existing 2-tube flourescent light fixture we have in the kitchen now. The flourescent light fixture that my husband LOVES. Because it is so bright. I found a picture at homedepot.com of a kitchen with a flourescent light, as well as recessed lighting, so I’ll see if Santana will do that. I just got back from a trip to the real home depot, where I found the flourescent light fixture that I hate the least. It turns out, I hate all light fixtures. A lot. I think they are all ugly. Why can’t someone make nice light fixtures? Maybe THAT will be my new job. Light fixture designer …