Extreme Home Makeover, Chez S-W Edition

We're nearing completion of the changes to the condo. It's our own little version of my Reality TV guilty pleasure. Below I've posted some pics of the before and after - I think we've made some great changes to the place and I hope it sells quickly and for our desired price! My fingers are crossed.

Kitchen - Before
This was previously my most used/least enjoyed room. It was cramped and very closed it. It took no time for the room to overheat and then no one wanted to hang with me. When we moved in the appliances were caked with some unknown brown gummy substance, left behind by the previous owners for our enjoyment. I used lots of elbow grease in cleaning it - but it never felt like mine.

View from the entrance:


View from the door:


Kitchen - After
Now this room I can't get enough of. I'd move the bed in here if it could fit a California King. We replaced the wall with a breakfast bar, installed new granite countertops, bought all new GE Stainless Steel Appliances anout the wall and removed a pocket door, replaceWe replaced the crappy counters with black granite, painted it a lovely green. The opened wall has completely changed the feel of the kitchen. No more overheating, and it now flows with the rest of the condo. I am typing this from the breakfast bar- which is a convenient place to work or eat all of my meals.

View from the breakfast bar:


View from the door (we're waiting for cabinet doors under the breakfast bar):


View of the Fridge/Oven:


And then the Master Bathroom...

Master Bath - Before:
This bathroom was the epitome of an "eye sore." The color was overwhelmingly bad. While it was original tile from the 50's...the salmon pink was just not cutting it. The vanity had been "updated" probably in the 70's...it didn't quite match the tile and was generally awful. Look for yourself...


The vanity was slightly newer than the tile, but probably more hideous.


Master Bath - After:
We love subway tile. So we replaced the 50's salmon pink with a cleaner look of white subway tile. We changed the vanity and updated the cabinets adding more storage space..and overall I am quite happy with how this bathroom turned out. Now we just need to get new towels.

View from the door:



New cabinets!


Lovely vanity with the apron front sink...



So there you have it people. We have redone our kitchen and bath. Now we need to box up a lot of crap we don't use, clean the condo and finally put it on the market. Keep your fingers crossed...I'll try to keep you posted on the progress.

merriment

HAPPY 2008!

It's been a fun winter season - with plenty of time at home and with family. We've had a Thanksgiving feast, a Christmas party, a Drake alumni event, a Christmas in Chicago, a "tweener" weekend in Wisconsin and a very relaxed welcome to 2008. Looking back on the past month+ of activity - it feels like one big extended return to childhood. Ok, childhood with a few perks...but it has been a fun month. I'm sad to see it end as it has been a very happy time for me and the family.

Here are some pictures chronicling our adventures.

Our work "Holiday" Party. Ole!

Drake Alumni Event...Sara and Stephanie came in for the weekend
- and we enjoyed a really fun dinner and comedy event. However -
the best part of the weekend was seeing my Drake girls. (note: Sara left Des Moines to come to Chicago for a Drake alumni event...there was no end to jokes about that).





If this doesn't capture "laid back Christmas" (carhart's and a santa's hat)...I don't know what does.

Wisconsin...how we love you. In our trek up to Wisconsin, we were able got to see John's ma and pa, as well as spending time with John's cousin Jim, his sons Jeff & Carl, his lovely grandma Lorraine, the always engaging Uncle Bob and his incredible hostess of an aunt Ann. I wish there would have been more time for snowshoeing and snowshoes... but alas we have to return to the world of being an adult. One of the best experiences was having Tycho off leash and enjoying the big wide world, without leaving us too far behind.

Here is a shot of me in Natarajasana (Dancer pose). I can't explain how balanced, free and strong I feel in this pose - and I hope to carry this feeling with me throughout 2008. Balancing in snowshoes was pretty fun.

Here is little Tycho, pooped after so much snow and running.

And, while no photos were taken this morning, we had an awesome laugh-fest of a brunch with the lovely, charming and beautiful Chandra & Venus. Life is made so much richer having these wonderful women in our life.








So - again, I wish everyone a very happy 2008. May this new year be filled with love, life, strength and joy.

Anniversaries of a sort

Today marks 7 years since I started at my 1st big-time employer. It is an interesting anniversary of sorts. I'm now 2 jobs away and probably happier career wise than I've ever been. It just took a few years of...major frustration...to earn some stripes and create the kind of career that started making me happy. Mostly. Still, I can reflect on my time in big 5 with a lot of fondness and humor. And, it helps me look forward to where I want to go...I still have a lot ahead of me. Also, I've made a month and a half with the current company. And I'm loving it. Yea! It makes life much happier to actually enjoy your work AND employer.

Another anniversary is John's bday. Tomorrow he'll be 37. This weekend his mom came out to Chicago to surprise him for his 37th birthday. We had a great time surprising John by going out to his cousin Laura & Chad's house for the dinner/night. John didn't have any idea his mom was going to be there - so the surprise part was a success. We had a fun time - and John's godparents were there, too, which was very fun. This is Emma and myself spending time with the dogs. Emma was great learning how to make the pups sit/lay down/shake/high five. She loves animals - which clearly shows in how much she loves spending time with Ella & Tycho. Barb also enjoyed seeing the granddogs. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed her time with us, too, though I feel bad because we drug her to about 10 hardware stores looking for the perfect lighting fixtures. Barb was a trooper and we had a great time. Barb also helped advise on the wall color (Ralph Lauren's Linconshire Olive) and on my choice of fingernail polish (OPI's "Romeo and Joliet" looks too black). It was a bonding and educational time.

The other chaos in my life right now- renovating the condo and LSAT class- both seem to be at a peak. The kitchen is completely impassable as we're waiting for the stain/finish to dry on the floor. The wall between the kitchen and dining room was demolished and a hole is sitting there waiting to be filled with cabinetry and a granite breakfast bar. It actually looks really great - I can't wait for it to all come together. We should get appliances on Friday and granite on Saturday! Yea! Order returns! My oven currently is sitting next to the front door...and the fridge is in the dining room. It's just a mess. Don't even get me started on the master bath- cause it's not pretty. It's one big war zone. Suffice it to say that concrete/tile technique of the mid 20th century is...quite...thick...and hard to remove. I look forward to the pretty finished bathroom I have pictured in my head... (Gracias a Marco, Luis y Juan por todo el trabajo).

LSAT prep goes fine- I am delaying until February. I plan to study more (ha?) and take the class over again to reinforce all of the theory. I have found I love the logic games, hate the logical reasoning...and I get very tired by 10pm. I am old.

Tonight I skipped the 2nd half of the class (it was a "jam" session and not an actual lesson...) and did a couple things in anticipation of John's bday...and now I'm sitting in the guest bedroom spending with the dogs. This room is now their doggie jail until the condo is complete. Tycho is pacing around- Ella is sitting under me and is shivering. Ah, dogs. Update: now Tycho is chewing on Ella's front legs....now he's making some sort of head shaking maneuver. now he is boxing. now he's eating fish food. Now he's trying to get in my lap. Back to chewing Ella.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I may post again soon- my parents will be in town for a couple nights, with brother in tow. Should be a good turkey day for all parties involved...as long as I actually have a real kitchen in time. Stay tuned.

PS- thanks again to Barb for the weekend...and for the photos. You were so fun to have here...and you've made my blog more interesting thanks to the pics.

Shelfari Sucks

See below for the text of an email I sent out to all of my contacts in my gmail account. (If you are reading this, you probably got this email...). I joined Shelfari and thought I was inviting a few friends to the site. It has a feature similar to Linkedin that allows you to see all of the contacts you have already in the site. Except, when you invite those friends, you will also invite ALL of the contacts in your email box unless you catch it.

I am incredibly frustrated and also embarrassed I fell for it AND it sent to all of my email contacts. All of them. Business, friends, frenimies, Amazon.com customer service...AGHHH. How very frustrating.

------------------------------------------

Good morning,

I apologize for the emails you may have received inviting you to join "Shelfari" from me. I received an invitation earlier this week and joined with the intent to invite a few of my friends with whom I discuss books. Instead, Shelfari invited all of my email contacts.

Shelfari offers a "friend friend" service which imports your email address book to a) determine who else of your email contacts is on Shelfari and b) help you invite those who aren't. This is similar to other networking sites, so I took them up on this. It found a couple of my friends who were signed up and I clicked on the "invite friends" button before realizing it had imported my entire gmail address book and it was sending to ANY and ALL of my email contacts.

At the time I was embarrassed and horrified. I do not appreciate random forwards or invites, I don't believe anyone does. I consoled myself thinking "No terrible harm done, one email is generally forgettable and perhaps I'll reconnect with some people."

Then yesterday, it came to my attention that a "friendly reminder" was sent on my behalf for anyone who had not signed up for the service. Shelfari began to spam on my behalf. I am personally mortified. I had no idea they would begin to spam ALL of the contacts in my email.

Therefore, I write this email as an apology and a warning. I apologize for the emails from Shelfari. It was not my intent to spam, and hopefully this will be the last email on the subject. If you do sign up for Shelfari, do not choose the "find friend" option without "deselecting all." This was a sneaky trick on Shelfari's part and I fell for it. Please google "Shelfari spam" for more information if you are interested.

Again, my apologies.

Regards,

Kimberly

FYI: To protect yourself and prevent any future Shelfari invitations, go to http://www.shelfari.com/actions/emailoptout.aspx.

We'll make great pets

Many of you are familiar with my two beloved dogs Tycho and Ella. I have posted a couple times about my freakish and lovely goldfish. I have recently added 18 pets to my condo. 17 of them are fish and one of them is a vacuum cleaner.

The 17 fish are community tropical fish- some betas, a pleco, a flying fox and some tetras. They are very cool and I love them. I picked them up last week and have been watching them every night which very quickly puts me to sleep. They are a lively bunch but peaceful, and I don't believe anyone is eating anyone else, which is very important.

The vacuum cleaner is Roomba. I love Roomba. If I ever become a professional athlete, I would court Roomba's sponsorship. If you want a pet but don't want the mess of a dog or cat, get a Roomba! I got Roomba thanks to my friend Emily- who was extolling the virtues of her Roomba which she bought off of woot.com. She emailed me a couple weeks ago saying Roomba was on Woot...so I emailed John to confer about buying one. We bought one. And now, I don't have to vacuum anymore. Instead, I turn on Roomba and he* does it for me. So, right now, Roomba is cleaning my dining room. Yea! I love robots!

As for me & life...this week was stressful but ended well. My job is awesome. I am so glad to be out of G and into consulting again. Seriously. I couldn't be happier working for a client, having the satisfaction that I'm doing good work for them and then getting feedback that I am delivering what they want from me. Yea to consulting.!

The LSAT prep is going well. I should be studying right now, but I spilled water all over my lesson 1 and 2 books. So- I'm letting it dry a bit and then back to logic. The class is really breaking my brain and how I tend to think- so I find myself doing this:

If you are Ella, you hate Roomba.
If you are Roomba, you hate dirt.
Therefore, if you are Ella, you hate dirt.

This doesn't actually work because Ella loves dirt and rolling in it...but according to the LSAT logic...I think this is correct...at least I hope.

John is in CO- things are going well for him...more on that front later. I should go check on Roomba - it is beeping at me. And I should go check on Ella. She hates Roomba so she is sequestered in the back bedroom. Otherwise she chases and bites Roomba...funny to watch, not so efficient for cleaning my floors.

-kksw

*This is very important. Emily is of the firm belief that Roombas have genders, and hers is male. After watching mine a couple times...I have to agree.