Huge project progress

Suddenly, it’s the last day of February. Did this month just whiz by or what? Maybe that’s because the kitchen has been quite a project. Just finding the materials and designing the patterns was enough for one month! We decided to get as many of the raw materials as possible from local stores, which was interesting. It’s definitely kept me busy on weekends, and I’ll be busy for a couple more weekends finishing. I’ll post about the non-kitchen goals separately.

By the way, our kitchen projects were inspired by this blue and yellow distressed shelf and letters that Jeff got me for Christmas from OldNewAgain. I love the sunny feel of it, and that there’s a little jam jar for flowers. I’m also trying to work within our kitchen’s lingering fifties feel and the simple, quirky aesthetic of my sixties-era dish collection. There are elements from the kitchen shown in the cutout below (I can’t remember what magazine it’s from), but the benches and table seemed right for our little space. I don’t like the chairs though. I’ve actually read horror stories about children and animals getting stuck in hairpin legs like that and getting hurt.

1. Kitchen table: Yes! We got it Saturday and had dinner at it last night. Jeff and I got super picky about the table. We decided the optimal table was a 40″ round table – not easy to find – and similar to a Saarinen tulip table. Those are expensive and hard to find second-hand, but there are a variety of knock-offs. We settled on the CB2 Odyssey based on sturdiness and build quality.

2. Benches for the kitchen: Almost! Progress is slow owing to my lack of expertise. After I designed them we went to a local lumber store for materials, where Jeff and I faced the fact that we were woefully out of place. We are giant nerds, and though we were willing it was a good thing my brother was there and knew what to do. Much sanding, fiddly math and drilling later, we nearly have some pretty and sturdy custom benches. They’ll also double as bookshelf-storage underneath. I named them Woodhenge, haha … see?

3. Cushions, pillows, curtains, appliance cover, oven mitt: Almost! I am awaiting special accent fabrics  – I had to wait to order them until after I knew the bench sizes, the style of the table, and what sort of coordinating linen I’d find. I was going to use Central Park, but we decided we liked Kate Spain’s Fandango collection more. I picked these fabrics: Portico in celadon for the bench cushions and Sarabande for the curtains, plus coordinating fabric. I ordered enough for future projects like napkins, a round table mat, and placemats.

The other fabrics I’m using are a white cotton I already had and a heavyweight linen. I got the linen and other supplies at local store Discount Fabrics. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven in there. Also, in case my inventiveness fails me, I got this pattern to get me through making box cushions with cording. So now everything’s washed, measured, ironed, cut out and partially sewn. Just awaiting the other fabric.

The challenge in making everything yourself is mostly about pulling together a thousand tiny details. I really like how things are turning out so far, so hopefully that will give me the inspiration to spend a bunch more hours working on it!

My Lizard Brain Thinks I’m On Vacation

I’ve never tried to write about one of my Big Moves before. It’s always been just something I did, and my reflections afterward seldom seem to touch on what it felt at first to to live in that new place. I forgot what it feels like to have everything and everyone be unfamiliar. I’ve glossed over it, knowing that after a few months that feeling of displacement goes away.

A Saturday trip to the Bazaar Bizarre craft show.

This has been a rougher move than I remember others being. Perhaps it is that method the brain has of hiding unpleasant truth. Perhaps it is that I am older, and therefore less resilient and adaptable. Perhaps it really has been more stressful somehow, in some ways. Maybe I’m just tired now, and things seem more stressful than they really are. I’m not sure. I’ve never really tried to write about it before.

Bikes and pier at Fort Mason Center

I think I’ve written four posts that I deleted since the end of November’s blog-a-thon. I’d write about one aspect or another of all this. I wrote about what it was like to purge all my stuff over the past year, until you can’t remember what you have anymore. I wrote about it being quiet now, and being grateful we could move to a better place to live. One day I wrote about the “lizard brain” concept and how it feels like I’m on vacation all the time. Delete. Delete. None of that is what it’s really like. They’re all just little problems to solve.

Puzzles abound, though. If my house is 2+ miles away, it’s raining, I have no car and no idea how to get there, do I panic? Hop a bus? Walk? What if I have to write a report and don’t know the people or acronyms? Google is your friend! What if it’s a holiday, your fridge is empty, and all the grocery stores you know are closed? Go hungry? Drive until you find a buffet? What if you must walk the dog and you don’t know if the neighborhood’s safe or if you’ll get mugged? Chance it!

Decisions, decisions. It’s hard being rational and reasonable enough to cope every day. Now that I’m finally three months in and have a decent place to live my brain wants to check out in a big way. I don’t want to unpack, or go to Home Depot again, or think about curtains, or visit the grocery store. I want to hibernate, and be one with my horizontal nature.

This, too, will pass. In six months it will feel, if not like home, familiar. I will have developed opinions about whose coffee and pizza is the best. I’ll know where to stand for optimal Bart travel. I will have curtains, and my clothing will be in or near the closet. I will be able to select books at will off my bookshelves and take vacation time again.

But for now, nothing is really quite comfortable.

This Could Be A Problem

“I can smell the red lentil dish from my porch. I had to come as soon as possible.”

That was me tonight, being a big dork in front of the waitress at the Ethiopian restaurant that’s 233 feet from my new front door. It turns out this neighborhood of mine features a mix of Italian, Ethiopian and Korean immigrants. I don’t know what it will be like otherwise, but there certainly isn’t a shortage of tasty restaurants.

As I remarked on Twitter a couple of days ago, I no longer have an Internet connection, so posting during these last days of NaBloPoMo will be a challenge. I may persevere. I refuse to promise anything at this point. I’m incredibly exhausted by the challenges of the last few days, and indeed, the challenges of the past few months. I’m not unhappy about them, nope. Nevertheless, it’s become an annoying and unfortunate habit for me to drop exhausted into bed at midnight only to wake up worrying about something at 4:30 am. That is a very bad habit.

I’m going to try to make a real blog post tomorrow at a convenient nearby cafe with wifi. Meanwhile, I’m going to fall into bed. If you’re on Twitter at 4:30 am Pacific, say hi. I’ll be up.

-M