What is the view from your window?

Here is a link to a site I enjoy viewing - it shows the views from someone else's window.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5355147,00.html

So, what is the view out our window?

Here we are looking out my kitchen window. Its kind of fun to watch the stream of humanity- lots of dog walkers from my building. Glad I have a cat that uses a litter box, must be smarter than dogs. Our driveway doesn't look too clear yet, we sure got a lot of snow quickly. About 10 inches in a few hours.

Hera likes looking out the window too, seems to enjoy watching the snow. She didn't like Amanda's remark about her weight - everyone gets a little fatter in the winter - Its Genetic!!

This is the front view out my patio doors. This new building is the government building, NRC - Nuclear Reguolatory Commission. They already have the existing building you can see straight ahead. -(NOTE: Photo is clickable to view details larger.)

Which leads me to this interesting observation. The crane operator guy is up in one of those two cranes this morning.
They are actually working!! How cold was his climb up that huge crane?

Ed is busy in the kitchen cooking my breakfast. Nothing like having a personal chef!

This is the view of my sidewalk to Metro - right across from the condo building. Partly plowed.
We are watching a guy try to get his car out of a parking place...plowed in!!

Cool Saturday in N. Bethesda

Things are pretty quiet here in Maryland today. It is in the teens temperature wise, very cold.

For the first time, I have a down coat that is long enough to cover my knees. Thanks to LandsEnd for the e-coupons and free shipping. I think this is the warmest coat I've ever had (or needed.) I love this coat. Topped with my knitted wool hat, lined with soft polar fleece and I'm good to go to Metro.

One more trip to Strosniders Hardware - and Ed is busy working on the kitchen today. He has installed a dimmer switch for the pendant lights over the counter. Works beautifully! He also bought a couple of extra long white screws, so he could attach the switch plates to the kitchen backsplash, which our contractor forgot to do. In minutes, he attached the loose switchplates. Nice clean look!

One of the kitchen work crew guys returned yesterday, with the buffer in hand. He apologized to me about the grout damage to my new sink, and he worked for over an hour cleaning and buffing the sink. It looks really nice, now that he has done all that work. I think it will be OK. We're done with Home Depot though, and Ed is buying his screws and switch plates at Strosniders now...much better. Now a little painting and we are nearly completely finished with the kitchen.

Next we will address the floors - carpet or hardwood?

Ed went through the Harris Teeter produce department yesterday afternoon. He bought rutabagas, potatoes, carrots, edamome, red onion, celery. Today he combined all this with lean ground turkey, Italian seasonings, garlic, and made a big pot of soup. It was wonderful. Perfect for such a cold day.

Its almost 3:30 so maybe we should get out of our pajamas?

Kitchen is back in use!

We're finding all sorts of things in our boxes...going through them slowly...on the left, the pretty vinegar cruit...on the right the lexan camping wine glasses. Haven't been camping since I left California six years ago. But, if I ever get to camp again I'm sure I would like my lexan unbreakable wine glasses...



We have a bottle opener from Brown's Chevrolet in Montgomery WV. That was acquired in 1971. We have at least 4 cheese slicers I've found. Matchbook from K-Paul's Louisana Kitchen...

At least two Iced Tea Makers....Joey's?

New corbels under the pretty breakfast counter. Need to paint though. Like the new bar stools? Pier 1.



These shelves are sturdy and do not sag.



Too many mugs? Throw away?

Well, the good news is that on Friday, January 7th, the work crew returned! They brought the saws and wood trim, hammers, screwdrivers and all - got right to work.

After a full day's work from the crew, we can finally say that our kitchen is functional again! Hurrah!!

They were successful in getting the nice new refrigerator into place, it looks great now, it is "counter depth", which is very important in a limited space environment. All cabinet work is finished, the cabinet pulls are all looking very nice, the crown molding is in place and looks very nice indeed. My Fiesta dinnerware looks awesome in the glass fronted doors. I must have place settings for at least 50.



We are busily unpacking all those couple dozen boxes of our stuff, going through some and throwing away/giving up some things. Anyone need a 10 year old Salad Shooter? Can't remember the last time we used it. Why do we have two large iced tea makers? Joey? Who needs about 50 potholders? Looks like I have service for about 20 in my old Oneida stainless...

We are still concerned about the grout stains in our new stainless steel sink. They will come back someday and actually refinish our new sink. That's a shame! I hope it is effective at removing those stains.

They did NOT finish any drywall work, like patching small nail holes and repainting the drywall, but we can probably do that detail work. We feel that they should have been responsible for those finishing things. Oh Well.

So, all in all, there are many good and happy things we love about the new kitchen! The cabinets are wonderful and so strong and pretty. The counter top is absolutely stunning, I really love it. The new fridge is so nice, so much more room and so much colder in the freezer compartment. It is great to be able to use the kitchen again.

We paid for the kitchen in Sept.

The kitchen was not usable from Nov. 15 - Jan. 7th. Fairly long time for a really small kitchen - nearly 2 months is much too long for a little kitchen.

If you ever get a kitchen done, make them give you a time line in writing!! And go with private contractor that you have multiple personal references for, not a big box store. We think the big box guys aren't cheaper after all, so we probably got screwed on the money too, but it is something like buying a car, we never really get a "good deal" no matter what.

Plan on taking a lot of time off work to supervise - then actually supervise, not just be reading in the living room while they pour grout water down your new sink, into your new garbage disposal and drain.

It felt awkward to "watch" them, and I was not comfortable supervising them, but now I wish I had watched a whole lot more and double checked on them. I was trying to be too polite, and trusting them to do their job, thinking that my hovering over them might be negative. I should have hovered!!

Oh well, a few lessons learned is OK. I love the new kitchen.

One of Ed's favorite memories

When we were having dinner in Scottsdale with the kids, to celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary, Joey ask Ed an interesting question: What are 3 of your favorite memories? This page talks about the 3rd one.

Ed and Amanda in Sept. 1980 when we went to Myrtle Beach, SC with Tommy and Rosie.
Amanda was 2 and a half. I was 5 months pregnant with Joey.
Amanda was totally loving the water, jumping off the diving board and hitting the surf without any fear!

Me, 5 months pregnant with Joey!

Beatrice Walls - January 7 Birthday

Found an old photo of Patsy, Trisha and Beatrice Walls (Stan's Mom) taken in 1980 at Sun Valley.

Beatrice was a very nice lady, today would have been her 107th birthday.

Patsy provided this updated information:

Laurel Beatrice Walls

January 7, 1905 to December 9, 2002

97 years young

She would have been 106 years old this month (2011).

Happy Holiday!