So close

Check in with our remodel here. SO MUCH easier than blogger. YAY!

http://erikag.posterous.com/so-close

Midnight All Alone in the Moonlight

Feels like we are getting our life back, a little bit at a time, amid a ton of change. On the home front, not many changes. The exterior painting of our house is done (almost). There are spots where soggy wood prevented completion. The kitchen is still in flux, with new appliances, which means nothing since most are still in boxes. In a fit last weekend, I decided to get the kitchen moved out of our living room and bathroom. I just couldn't take a weekend at home in a living room covered in dust, empty wine bottles, and sticky old coffee. In true Erika fashion (yes I used the third person), this meant a deep spring cleaning for all non-impacted rooms, and an unfortunate hour spent repainting an area of the living room where I decided to test the impact of cleaning dark paint with a bleach-based cleaner. The 16 hours of time spent cleaning was worth it this morning to wake up to an open, airy living room, and a basically new mud room. Check out our progress below.

Cash: taking in the scenery from his favorite position on the couch. Last week this section of the couch was covered in mail. Now, not only are the cushions clean, but so are the windows, and perfectly primed for Cashie's wet nose. Cashie, at peace in the window, barking at strangers, trees and bugs.

The view of our clean, wide open living room, note the new Ikea Poang chair.

Where all of the shit was displaced - the non-functioning kitchen.

Finally, looking East toward Cashie's large bed.

During the remodel, we moved out of the mudroom to make room for Goodwill items. Once those were taken away, it was empty, and I cleaned it. Then I asked (forced) Jim to repaint it from pale purple to the same bland taupe we have in our kitchen. Last week was quarter end for him, and after 60+ of work, he complained his way to a new mudroom.

We used to have a coat tree that my coat collection caused to lean heavily to the east, and blocked a ton of light from coming into the kitchen. Jim wisely refused to let it back in the room. A quick Sunday trip to Ikea with the rest of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties provided a streamlined solution. Jim's patience struggled with the simple 3-picture instructions, but me being bilingual in Ikea, got us through with only a little bit of throwing and stomping.

So what happens when you move your kitchen out of the living room? This. Crazy chaos in your empty, remodel-in-progress kitchen. Note the new, sleek, SD card enabled Kenmore Elite refrigerator. I'll post centerfolds of all of the appliances when we're finished. Yum.

The new exterior paint. Note the rotting, wet piece of railing. The trim is a grey/white, the house is blue (obviously), and the accent color is Midnight Oil, which I chose purely on the name of the paint.

Not only are our windows trimmed in Midnight Oil, but we also painted our green chimney to match. HUGE! It's barely hanging on to the house, now at least it looks attached. Unfortunately, our back door was not included in the original scope of work for the painter, so we have to paint it, e.g. Jim has to sand, prime and paint it next weekend. Also note, our security doors are now black instead of green. Why not Midnight Oil? Because it doesn't come in a "rattle", per our painter's discretion this is the best form of paint for the security door surface, oh and is a whole hell of a lot cheaper than PAINT!

In other news, I moved to the South Lake Union offices of Amazon today in advance of my new job on 4/25. I moved with my new team to save at least $260 in parking, and to also have access to a whole new world of dining and coffee options on our campus. I am very busy working as you can see from this photo. For you non-corporate folks, I bet this picture makes you want to scratch your eyes out.

For the near future, I am the only one in this office, well at least until tomorrow when CASHIE COMES TO WORK WITH ME!!! The Amazon campus is dog-friendly, and if he was vaccinated I would have brought him to work today. He'll be there tomorrow after his AM appointment at WS Animal Hospital. Poor boy, I am sure he'd rather watch the world go by rotating from pillow to pillow on my couch. Too bad, so sad Cashie.

In the spirit of last weekend's AWESOME trip to Walla Walla (if you want photos, visit my posterous blog at erikag.posterous.com), here's a rockin' nieceylicious photo - auntie Rik loves her moo!

Oh, and why the EV photo? I seemed to have purchased 6 tickets to three Eddie Vedder solo shows, which rocks, but leaves me somewhat impoverished, for now.

My next update? A finished kitchen. In the meantime, all of the activity from the past two weeks makes this photo seem like a distant.... Memory...