Tag Archives: apartment

May23

Kitchen Counters

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Kitchen Counters

I have a rather awkwardly laid out kitchen.  Our house was built in the 50s, well before the kitchen tools boom, and we have the perfect amount of cabinets for someone who has less of an, um, obsession with the kitchen.  So in order to make my kitchen tools and appliances fit, I’ve had to get a little bit creative.  And downsize some.  Because honestly, I had some things I wasn’t using.

Counter space is also a premium.  When we first moved in, I had my knife block, bread machine, stand mixer, food processor, flour, sugar and powdered sugar crocks, and utensil caddy all sitting on the counter.  I definitely could use my space, but everything looked so cluttered, and certain culinary projects required a full counter rearrange.   For instance, if I was rolling out pastry to fill a 13 inch pie dish.  (Not that I’ve been making any pastry lately; it has butter in it.  GLORIOUS, CREAMY BUTTER.) Several months ago, we got a little baker’s rack to keep my food processor, slow cooker, stock pot, and some various odds and ends.  I keep it the otherwise useless corner under my pots and pans.  The rack eliminated my food processor on the counter, so at the same time I got rid of the bread machine.  His home is now in the closet on the floor, and I think we all prefer it that way.

This morning, I woke up with the realization that I could hide my stand mixer in a cabinet if I just did a few simple tweaks to my cupboard organization.  Which I did immediately after I fed Analie, of course.  It was 7:30 am and Mondays are not the kind of days where you let moss grow on the clock.

Joey came into the kitchen and admired my  handiwork, then suggested we get a magnet strip for the knives we’ve been talking about.  I was all, YES PLEASE.

So we did.

And I love the results!

The knife block used to be in the corner where the laundry basket is sitting now.  We mounted the knives on the side of the cabinet, which I think is safer with Analie anyway.  I’m not sure the laundry basket will stay in the corner there, but for now I like it.  It’s so lame to be taking dirty towels to the hampers twice a day, but I’m not sure I want to sacrifice the counter space just for that luxury.

Like I said, not a lot of counter space.  But what I have is appliance-free now!  The stand mixer and food processor used to be in the corner where my crocks are now.

Aaaaaaand this is the awkward corner.  But hey, look at what’s NOT sitting on my counters, right??

After years and years of apartment living, having a kitchen this size is super awesome.  Even if the counter space isn’t 21st century style, and we have a random awkward corner over by the window.  Joey has made lots of little tweaks to the space I do have that has made it oodles better than it was when we moved in.

Yay for handy husbands!.

WINNING.

Jun28

I Think We’ll Make It

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I Think We’ll Make It

Tonight, our friends Luke & Becca came over to basically save our lives.  (You have saved our lives.  We are eternally grateful.)  We had to sit on the floor to eat our pizza and salad because, well, the dining room table was in the living room and the chairs were stacked up in the den someplace.

After dinner, the boys headed to the bedroom to completely disassemble (no disassemble!) the bed and drag the dressers out into the now-emptyish living room so they could paint the bedroom walls.  Joey shoved the mattress and box spring up against the formerly red wall and wedged the dressers around it, then he and Luke disappeared into the bedroom.  Basically never to be heard from again, or at least for the next 2 1/2 hours.

Becca and I attacked the kitchen.

We boxed up all my dishes and mugs, the last of my Le Creuset pottery, the All-Clad pots & pans, all the utensils and silverware, all the bakeware, and my cookie sheets and cooling racks.  I think we used about 10 boxes doing so.

I have a lot of kitchen gadgets.  I had no idea it had gotten so out of hand.

A couple of hours later, we went to check on the boys.  We discovered the bedframe is now leaning up against the wall in the bathroom, and I think it’s going to be very scary looking in the middle of the night.

The bedroom was about ten degrees warmer than the rest of the apartment because the door had been closed, and it smelled super strong like paint fumes in there.  I was frankly surprised that neither Joey nor Luke had passed out; they both looked pale but still lucid.  That’s good, I guess.

They weren’t quite done painting yet, but Becca and I had had just about enough of packing, so we decided that since the boys weren’t around to tell us not to, we’d just scootch things around so we could get the bed set up in the dining room – the last empty space in the whole apartment large enough to fit a bed.  And we can’t put it back in the bedroom because first of all, the walls are still wet.  And second of all, and perhaps most importantly, it smells like you just shoved your head in a paint can when you walk inside.

Becca did most of the pushing and lifting.  But I helped every now and then when the amount of pushing/lifting appeared to be less than whatever the limit is I am supposed to be abiding by.

Five minutes later, the mattress and box spring were positioned up against the wall where the table used to be.

I’ve never slept in the dining room before.  This is going to be very exciting.

And, regardless of the fact it is now 10:10 p.m., I think I need to take a shower.  I never got around to that today.  But…OH DEAR…I just realized I haven’t got the foggiest idea where my clean clothes and pajamas are.  I think I packed them earlier today.

That wasn’t so smart.

Jun28

Today’s…progress

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Today’s…progress

Joey and I keep working and packing and moving things around, and every night when we go to bed we look around and we’re all, um…DID WE EVEN DO ANYTHING TODAY?  What did we spend all those hours on because we really can’t tell anything has happened?

Well, finally…we’re getting there.  The room that used to be our study is no longer accessible because it is stuffed full of furniture and boxes.  Joey was about to go all ninja-box-stacker on it and play Tetris to make it fit perfectly in there, until I pointed out that we have two other perfectly empty rooms and we probably didn’t need to squash just to say we could fit it all in one room.

And then Joey looked at me after  I made this suggestion, and he was like, you know what…YOU’RE RIGHT.  And that was the end of the squashing.

I hereby present to you…today’s progress.

Firstoff, I spent the afternoon cleaning out from under the bed, packing the bedthings (bye-bye duvet we weren’t using anyway because it’s so HOT), cleaning out the walk-in closet, and packing for Mexico.

All the business on the right is what we are taking to Mexico.  The large bag and box are clothes and shoes from the closet…and yes, it appears there are rolls of toilet paper on the bed.  I do not understand this either.

Joey informs me that the bed frame will be gone after this evening, I guess he and Luke are going to take it down and pack it up someplace.  It’s going to be super weird to sleep on a mattress on the floor…ten bucks says I wipe out when I get up in the night because I won’t be expecting the floor to be so close.  Hehehe.

And this used to be the office.  Please note Thunder on the bottom of the bike rack.  Thunder is the coolest bike in the world. (Sorry that your bike has to be second best.)  Thunder is eager to get all up in the Monon Trail’s business.

Wow, that was an aside.  Anyway, not only is all our living room furniture smashed back in there, but I guess we’ll be sitting on the floor to eat going forward.  Looks like Joey put the kitchen table in there too.  Somewhere…

Well, I found the kitchen table.  Hello, kitchen table.  This used to be the living room…yesterday anyway.  Today it is just messy.  And also out of focus.

And here are the faithful slaves, I MEAN JOSH AND JACKSON.  Joey conscripted their labor because apparently I am some kind of pregnant woman weenie and when I paint my entire body aches for hours afterwards.  They have been total rockstars because they painted the entire living room and dining room.

And while they did that, I took the car to the shop and got the oil changed and surfed the internet.

We’re making progress.  I think maybe, JUST MAYBE, we’re going to get this all done!

Jun24

First Day….

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First Day….

So, starting a new job is always kind of weird and stressful.  Yesterday was my last day of Corporate America for a very long time, if ever again.  Today is my first day of not working.  It’s weird.

I was all sobby yesterday afternoon carrying my canvas bag of personal belongings from my desk down the elevators.  I knew it would be hard to leave all my friends, but I didn’t expect to be such a crybaby about it.  (Then again, I didn’t expect to sob and hyperventilate in Toy Story 3 either, so maybe I should just trash my expectations these days.)

Today, so far, I:

  • Slept in until 9, completely on accident
  • Went to the spa for two hours and am now feeling very relaxed
  • Ate my Brisket Taco leftovers from Mi Cocina for lunch
  • Picked up all the random cups we had laying around the house
  • Started the dishwasher
  • Made the bed
  • Started the washer

I am really worried I’ll be lazy until the baby comes.  I’m thinking about making myself a daily schedule so I can be sure I am using my time wisely and not just laying around reading books or watching TV and movies.

With our house in this state of packing upheaval, I am ashamed to say we have let a few things go to the dogs.  For instance, we have two laundry baskets overflowing right now, and we did not dust any surfaces over the weekend.  Actually, I don’t even think I scrubbed out the toilet.  EW.  I am such a dirty person.

Just for “fun” (for you, not for me), I took some pictures of our poor apartment looking all disheveled.  Please enjoy them.  I do not.

This used to be our study/den.  Its walls used to be a nice shade of green.  Now they are barfy white and obviously there is no where to study or sit around in here.  Prior to the demise of The Futon Whose Next Home Will Be The Dumpster, this is where we watched movies.  (Incidentally, some poor person took The Futon from the Dumpster not 24 hours after we set it there.  We are sure they will realize their mistake as soon as they sit on it and they feel the broken support boards poking them in their hindquarters.  We expect to see it back at the Dumpster any day now.)

Our poor living room.  There are almost no words for this.  The computer setup has totally taken over what used to be our coffee table, and Henry’s kennel and toys are pretty much everywhere.  Even the couches look mad about the fact that we’re moving, they look all frumpy.

The only nice thing in this picture are the flowers Joey got me for my last day of work yesterday.  But everything else cluttering the counter up is decreasing their property value.  As soon as I’m done posting this, that counter is going to be dealt with straightaway.

As I mentioned previously, the laundry situation is flat out of control.

Having our home in such a state of confusion does motivate us to do one thing though: pack it up, baby.  Let’s get moved so we can settle in up in INDIANAPOLIS!

I hope it’s much cooler up there than it is down here.  It’s hot like fire and I say, I don’t care for it this year.

Jun22

Unproductive

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Unproductive

Everyone.

Hello.

So, I’m moving to Indianapolis in a couple of weeks. Maybe you’d heard. I need to keep remembering this, though, because packing is NOT GOING SO WELL all up in the Woestman apartment. Last night we had Macaroni and Cheese because apparently I needed to eat it for dinner or my life could not continue. Then I felt so sick from all the chemicals and additives that are in it that we did nothing but watch Invictus for the rest of the evening. And after the movie was over we just kind of sat there looking all confused trying to decide if we liked the movie or if we were just confused by it, or if maybe the poor movie had just left out some parts of its plot line.

We really wanted to like it. We really did.

But we were so tired and basically confused about the movie, so…we just went to bed early. I wish I were kidding you. We didn’t pack a single box, paint a single wall, or really do anything productive last night.

I keep saying “It’ll come. Next weekend. I’ll be AWESOME next weekend.”

This is kind of a-typical of my personality. I think it’s because I’m so overwhelmed by everything coming up. Either that or Dr. Babyplease transferred some embryos AND a batch of the lazies back in February.

In other news, my friend Bianca rocked my face off and gave me a 6 pack each of Limonata and Aranciata San Pellegrino sodas as an (extremely early) birthday gift. I am staring at them right now!! I want to take them out of their package and drink them all at the same time, but I am trying to restrain myself.

Is very difficult.

I am not sure Joey will be able to entice me to share with him. MINE MINE MINE.

So far all that is left on my birthday list is several tempered glass cutting boards in varying sizes. All I need to do is add towels to that list and my birthday is going to rock its socks off this year. It’s still two months away. I have time to add those towels.

Actually, as soon as we buy a house I will have two showers and I will need more towels.   Towels, consider yourselves added to my birthday list.

Now I feel super old. Towels and cutting boards. Who even asks for that stuff for their birthday besides my mom?

(Hi Mom. But it’s true, you DO ask for that kind of thing for your birthday. I remember when you got the blue towels.)

Jun20

The Criminals

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The Criminals

Yesterday afternoon we were gearing up to paint the bathroom and hallway.  I was in the bathroom taking everything out (Joey just about had a coronary when he saw my method for removing the shower curtain, apparently there is a more efficient way to do so) and Joey went to the front porch to fill our little paint buckets.

A few moments later, he came bursting in with the most amazing look on his face, carrying two containers full of paint and two brushes..

He was all, I just overheard half of THE BEST EVER phone conversation involving on of the new neighbors downstairs.

Ahh, the new neighbors.  The ones who leave beer cans and at least 40-50 cigarette butts outside their door at all times, I think they do this just so Henry can chew on them when I’m not looking.  We love the new neighbors.

And I was like, SO TELL ME ALREADY!

Downstairs Dude was standing outside on his phone, and the conversation went something like this.

Downstairs Dude:  DUDE.  I am ON YOUR SIDE.  Stop flipping out like I am going to turn on you or something.  We got this.

…Pause…

Downstairs Dude: I know, I know.  If they subpeona me, I’ll just go in and talk to your lawyer first so I can get my story straight.

…Pause…

Downstairs Dude:  OR I can just skip town, it’s not like they can make me testify if I’m not here.  It’ll be fine, dude.

And unfortunately at this point, Joey had to come back inside so he didn’t get to hear the rest of it.  We are kind of curious what Downstairs Dude’s friend did that he’d possibly get subpoenaed.  And…maybe somebody should explain being held in Contempt of Court for not showing up for a subpoena to the dude before he goes and does it.

We now refer to the new downstairs neighbors as The Criminals, just for fun.

We are not really going to miss them.  I think Henry may miss the cigarette butts though.

Jun15

The Futon Whose Next Home Will Be The Dumpster

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The Futon Whose Next Home Will Be The Dumpster

Joey stayed home from work today with the intent to empty everything out of the den/office/whatever you want to call it and slapping a coat of Glidden Antique White paint on the walls.

We know it’s Glidden Antique White paint because last night we went to Home Depot and got color samples of all the different shades of white and then taped them to the one remaining wall section in our house that was the original wall color. After turning on all the lights and hauling a floor lamp over to really get some good light on all the paint samples, it was obvious. Glidden Antique White was the winner.

Anyway, Joey got up got going this morning, and at about 10:00 I got a phone call from him. “I…just…finally…got…everything…out…of…the…room.” He was totally out of breath.

And I was all, EVERYTHING? Even The Futon Whose Next Home Will Be The Dumpster?  (I really wish that thing had worked out and not fallen apart like it did.  It’s a very sad story if you ask me.)

“Yeah…” he gasped. “Even that.”

Apparently he managed to wedge the thing through the front door by himself…but it’s still sitting on the front balcony. I am not sure how he got back in the apartment. I basically begged him to not try to get that thing to the Dumpster by himself, three years ago he and I nearly perished shoving the thing from the car, down the sidewalk and up the stairs. I couldn’t imagine him doing such a thing by himself. I have visions of him rupturing a disk or something terrible.

He promised me (but his fingers may have been crossed) that he would call in for backup before trying to get the thing to the Dumpster. Obviously I am not going to be able to help this time.

And now he is currently painting the den with Glidden Antique White in hopes of getting our full deposit back.

Oh, I wonder if he remembered to drop off our notice to vacate at the leasing office…hmm…

P.S. – If that futon is still blocking the front door when I get home tonight, I will laugh my head off. Poor Henry, that futon is his throne.  He loves it with all his puppy heart.

Jun12

Free is Better Than Not Free

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Free is Better Than Not Free

Like I said yesterday, my goal was to pack one box this weekend.  Incidentally, while I cleaned the house last night, Joey boxed up about 10 boxes worth of books and got himself out of doing the dusting.  Sometimes I wish that would happen to me.  But it won’t.

Anyway.

I still personally haven’t boxed up any stuff (I tried this afternoon but Joey told me to quit working and sit down on the couch, so I had to obey) but tomorrow I’m planning to take down most of my knick-knacks.  Ugh – so depressing.

This afternoon, one thing on our list was go to U-Haul to find out how much boxes cost.  We have a nice big stack of empty boxes…but it’s not THAT big.  And we have muchos things that need to go in boxes.  I know, I know, we could go to a liquor store and get boxes there for free, but let me just mention that it probably doesn’t look so very good if about half of the new youth pastor’s belongings are packed in empty tequila boxes.

I’m just saying.

As I was saying, we went to U-Haul and took one look at the cost of one box ($2.85) and our eyeballs fell out of our heads and rolled across the counter and down onto the floor as we mentally calculated that purchasing enough boxes to fill a moving van would just about come out even with what we had to spend on getting pregnant in the first place.

Yay IVF.

Again with this off the topic business.  What is wrong with me, I must be pregnant or something.

OH WAIT, I AM!  IT’S A MIRACLE!

So as we were standing there with lopsided dollar signs in our eyes and me holding a surprisingly heavy box of packing paper, the people in the U-Haul store took pity upon us.

“Well, if don’t need boxes just yet, we do have a free pile for our customers.  It’s out there by that trash can, see it?”  The nice lady indicated a HUGE pile of boxes, most of which were already flattened.

“And we can just….take them?” I asked.

“Sure can, we’ll buzz the gate for you,” she said nicely.

We paid our $9.00 for the box of paper and giddily went out to the car where we loaded the entire back up with box after box.  Perfect sizes.  For free.  (And they aren’t even tequila boxes!!!  OUR REPUTATION IS SAVED!)

Feeling rather proud of ourselves, we hit the UPS store just in case they might have some packing foam.  They didn’t, but the guy behind the counter gave me a big stack that he happened to have that he was about to throw away.  ”Thanks,” I told him.

And then this kind of creepy sunglasses customer dude (who had been awkwardly and intermittently interacting with our conversation with the UPS man) offered us his entire roll of brown packing paper.  Since we were moving and all.

We walked out of the UPS store carrying even more free loot and feeling extremely pleased with our success.

“I’m really glad you came in to the store after you dropped me off,” I said to Joey.  ”That sunglasses dude was giving me the willies.”

I felt bad taking his paper since he had creeped me out so bad.

So now we have about…a jillion unpacked boxes.  We really need to get on this whole packing thing.  We really do.  Or, maybe the case may be that I am the one that needs to get on it.  Joey has packed every single box that is packed in our house so far.

I’m a failure.

May16

I must have forgotten my tact at church

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I must have forgotten my tact at church

Joey and I were returning from church this afternoon (12:20 is technically afternoon, right?) and were just walking around the corner of the parking lot and down the path to our apartment when a small, black bulldog came galloping up to us.

Incidentally, bulldogs are not allowed by our apartment complex.  BUT I DIGRESS.

The bulldog jumped around Joey’s legs and sniffed him, then he came and did the same to me.  I used my doggy voice and said, “Hi puppy!” as he was jumping around my feet.

His owners walked (slowly) up to us, apologizing profusely.

“It’s OK,” I said.  ”Our dog does the same thing now and then.”

The dog continued its bouncing, so I bent down a little bit to continue talking to it in my doggy voice.  ”I love you!” I gushed.  ”You are a smashed-face doggy like ours!”  And I patted the bulldog on its head as Joey tugged me down the sidewalk away from the people and their dog.

“Maybe next time don’t call someone’s dog ‘smash-faced’ while they’re standing there,” he mumbled as we rounded the corner, obviously trying not to laugh at me.

“Why?” I asked.  I call Henry smash-faced all the time because, frankly, HE IS.  He’s a Shih-Tzu, and Shih-Tzus have smashed faces.  So do bulldogs, but who’s counting.

“I don’t think that man thought it was very nice of you to say.  You should have seen his face.”

Whoops.  Note to self: my compliments are not always considered compliments by random people who do not understand my ways.  Must exercise discretion.  Duly noted.

Y’all are totally free to refer to Henry as a smash-faced dog whenever you want.  Doesn’t bother me at all.  I, however, shall refrain from saying such things about other people’s dogs.

May1

What a way to wake up

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What a way to wake up

So, the toilet in our house clogged this morning.  I won’t go so far as to actually tell you WHO clogged it, but you’re all smart people.

Henry woke me up at 6:57 because he was feeling like a wild child, he jumped up on the bed and bounced on me until I scratched him behind his ears.  Then he started licking my face and I drew the line there, so I sent him off to play with his Strawberry in the other room.  I just lay there for about ten minutes before thinking I’d never fall back to sleep, so I got up and grabbed my robe and book, intent on making Triple Citrus Cupcakes for Joey to munch on while he’s studying for his exam later.

Joey was still quite asleep.

I was sneaking around, trying to be quiet, when ALL OF A SUDDEN I noticed the toilet in the bathroom was just centimeteres away from overflowing.  (WOAH, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!)

I have this leftover childhood terror of overflowing toilets.  They make me quivery inside and frighten me to my bones.  Once, when I was about four, the toilet overflowed in the bathroom at my Grandpa Richardson’s church, right before he was going to preach.  I guess it traumatized me so bad I have been terrified of the experience ever since.

For a second, I just stared at the water as it kept rising.  Then, I realized What Was Going To Happen, and I started screaming bloody murder.

“JOEY!!!!!!!  THE TOILET!!! It’s OVERFLOWING!!!!”

Poor guy was still asleep.  So I kept screaming.  ”HELP!  IT’S GOING TO GET EVERYWHERE!”

And I was still just standing there, staring at it like a deer in the headlights.  My heart was pounding and I was feeling all cold-sweaty.  Joey was STILL NOT COMING.

So I kept screaming.

And then I started screaming and jumping up and down on the floor, because maybe THAT would make him come sooner?

I heard rustlings in the bedroom, and soon a very, very bleary-eyed Joey came stumbling into the bathroom, shaking his head to wake himself up.  He said, “Pick up the rugs,” and I looked at him like, you want me to get closer to that toilet?

But at least he was awake and he could save the day.

Instead of taking the rugs up, I started taking the tissue box and candles off the top of the toilet because I guess I had taken leave of my senses.  Once I got that stuff off, I grabbed the rugs and ran out of the bathroom.

“Do we even have a plunger?” Joey asked, as he examined The Situation in the Bathroom.

“Um, we used to…” I said.  But we’ve never used it.

Well, the water wound up not overflowing, but we still can’t find the plunger.  I have this really bad feeling like I threw it away.  (I have this problem with throwing stuff out: I threw the ranch dressing away last week because I thought it “looked weird”.  Joey says I’m not allowed to throw stuff away anymore.)

Anyway, the end of the story is that the toilet is still clogged, we’ve torn apart the house to check in all the logical places and can’t find the plunger, and it’s too early in the day to go purchase another one because the stores aren’t open yet.

Let’s hope nobody has to go to the bathroom around here for another couple hours.