Chaos :-)

And I love it!

About quarter past eight, the delivery guys called to say they would be here in about half an hour. And they were!

All the trash got dumped out front (and they took it with them, too!)  But of course the little fuzzy four-legged one had to check it out.

Some of the stuff got put in the diningroom.  (Yes, that used to be a diningroom!)

And here:  the first view of the new kitchen, in a totally incomplete state!

And here the other wall:

Looks pretty funny so far, I must admit.

Oh, and there's a lot of stuff in the living room, too.

One of the main features Norbert wanted was granite countertops.  And here they are!

And because they are so wonderful, here they are again.

The appliances are living temporarily in the garage, all seem to have discretely turned their backs.

The installers will be here tomorrow to actually make it into a kitchen.  Which will be total chaos, plus I do have to work, since the Tour de France starts Saturday......

But still, I can't wait!

Susan

As the Kitchen turns.....

This will be a longer installment to bring us up to date.

The trouble with moving everything out of the kitchen -- literally, everything! -- is where do you put it?

On the terrace, for one:

Don't know many other people with a dishwasher on the patio!

Speaking of washing dishes, I have been using this high-tech method:

The problem is that it is very NON back-friendly.  I had to swipe my little stool from the laundry room to sit on.  Not a perfect solution but it helps.

So all those boxes of stuff got moved into my office.

Finally we got to the point where Norbert could start hanging the wallpaper!

Pretty, yes?

Then it was time for the new floor tiles.  Big, dark gray ones.  And we used the Child Labour for this, our son Lucas and his friend Lukas got their first lesson in tile-laying.

Norbert finished it off this morning.

And this is how my kitchen looks right now!

Don't those wallpaper and tiles go well together?

And the good news is that the company called yesterday to confirm delivery Thursday morning!  Hooray!

Susan

The Kitchen Adventures continue!

The destruction of the kitchen continued.  First a plastic "curtain" was hung, to keep the dust and dirt out of the living area.  Would have been nice if we had thought of this earlier...

Kitty is not thrilled by this new action and sought a refuge, unfortunately for her on the diningroom table.  Well, I suppose we have never really said "You are not allowed to sleep in baskets on the diningroom table."

The wallpaper is gone and the hanging cabinets are about to depart.

And just about everything that was over there has moved to the other side of the kitchen.

 The contents of those cabinets has moved to the dining room table.

See?  Empty!

The cabinets are gone and the dreadful patterned wallpaper behind them comes to light.

But soon that wallpaper and the tile backsplash are gone, too.

More to come......

Susan

Kitchen!

This is how my kitchen looked just a few short weeks ago:

Little did it know that its days were numbered.  Here is a clue as to how it will look in the future:

The body of the cabinets will be the dark gray, the doors will be the light gray.  The countertop is black granite, and the floor tiles are a medium/dark gray.

 The first victim was the oak wood panel ceiling.

Although Norbert does look like wonders whether he did the right thing.....

The hanging lamp went away too.  A new white/extremely light gray wood panel ceiling was installed, along with built-in lights. (In this photo they are wires.) (There are advantages in being married to a man who started his career as an electrician.)

Next to go was the counter between the kitchen and living room. For nearly 17 years it looked like this:

Someone was curious.....

My two men hard at work.

 And then it was gone!  The whole area looks so much bigger without it there.

 The laundry baskets served as a visual reminder that the Grand Canyon was there. You can't realy see it, but there is a pit about six inches wide and deep.  Just perfect for someone (like me) to fall into and break their leg.

We have come further since then, more tomorrow!

A kitcheny sort of day

It was a kitcheny sort of day on Friday.  Actually I was supposed to work on Friday (and have Thursday off), but my boss asked me to switch with him.  So I did. (Always a good idea to do what the boss asks, no?)

It turned out to be an excellent idea, as the local grocery store announced a huge sale on Friday. I got there later than I wanted (8:45) and ended up waiting about 10 minutes to get to the meat counter.  Spent a lot of money too!  But I think it was worth it.

Got home and got to work.  (And you thought a day off work meant a day with no work -- ha ha!) First I tackled these items: 

That is one package of spaghetti sauce; 8 hamburgers with buns; two packages of Bratwurst; and three pork roasts.

Next up:

12 chicken breasts got divided up into four packages of three.  One Chicken Creole for the crockpot; one lemon chicken; and two packages of pre-seasoned breasts to grill. Unfortunately I forgot that one set of chicken breasts was to be dinner that evening, so I had to pull it out of the freezer in the late afternoon.

And then:

Did I mention the store also had strawberries on sale for €1.11 a pound?  Couldn't say no to that, now could I? So a strawberry cake to eat this weekend (and which is now already half gone....). Made a batch of chocolate chip muffins to freeze, and a container of Mom's incredibly wonderful pepper steak, and even cooked and froze separately the rice to serve it with.

Not pictured but also now in the freezer are a package of frikadellen (German meatballs/hamburgers/whatever) and three bags of baked rice.

I love days like this, makes me feel good!

And I am amazed at how fast this week has gone by -- having a lot to do makes the time fly by, I guess.

Susan

A work in progress -- clothes-wise

Taking more steps in adjusting my wardrobe.  I know what colours are good for me, and pretty much what styles.  Still working on the latter, so that everything I own doesn't look the same!

I found a lovely pair of navy linen slacks.  They were very expensive (for me, that is) but I bought them anyway as they were perfect. One of my goals was to find some summer-weight slacks, as most of what I have is far too heavy for really hot weather.  (Jeans, when it is 90°F and 90% humidity, or more?  No!)

I also bought a blue-and-pink checked short-sleeved top, and a blue t-shrt with a little neckline detail to go with it, can also wear pink or white underneath it.  Or even wear the top alone.  Love being flexible like that.

I feel that I have way too many clothes so I am really giving things the test.  Do I love it? Or am I hanging on to it because I feel I "ought to"?  Gettng dressed yesterday I decided on a certain dress (yes, I do still own a few.) As I pulled it out of the wardrobe, I thought, "I hope this doesn't fit so I can get rid of it."  This should have been a clue, right?  If I feel that way, why was it taking up space in my wardrobe (and my life)?

Out it went!  And yes, it didn't really fit right, either.

I even went through my collection of sweat pants, lounge clothes, whatever you want to call them, and tossed a number of things from there, too.

I love clothes and love going through what I have and figuring out different combinations, or the best way to store them and so on.  Right now there is so much to do in the house, plus of course my work, but frankly it is nice to be able to go "play" with my clothes for a break!