A Word With Penelope

A New Kitchen- Fresh out of the Oven

2013-08-08T12:30:00.000-04:00

Part 2 of our Kitchen Renovation is upon us... or upon you... you're the one reading this, after all.

Here are our previous renovation posts:

And now for a couple of scrumptious finishing touches to our lovely kitchen. Now, remember, both Andy and I are renovating a kitchen for the first time. We've never done any of this before. We scratched our heads over what pendant light to choose, cabinet hardware, flooring, and [ahem] the stuff in this post because we had no idea what the design "best practices" were. I liked to use Houzz.com to scroll through hundreds of pictures of purple kitchens. That helped a lot. I say all of this to remind you that you too could renovate something yourself. Don't be afraid!

Ok, now, where we left off:

Our one big splurge was to replace those nasty, discolored, beigy, falling-apart countertops. Can you tell I hated them? Initially we went to Home Depot to get a quote. We could not believe how much granite counters cost. But then, we decided to try a local company, and their quote, for the exact same product, including installation, was about half of what Home Depot quoted us. Can you believe that? Moral of the story: Support a local business, and DO NOT BUY COUNTERS AT HOME DEPOT.

Our local company was a total pleasure to work with. They sent us out to New Jersey to pick out our stone, and we had an adventure at this huge warehouse full of gorgeous granites you didn't even know existed. We didn't want to "overbuild" the apartment, so we went with your basic, sparkly Black Galaxy color. They added a bullnose edge in for free (many dollars per foot at Home Depot). The same day, they sent a guy to create a template. He even came on a weekend. I offered him a Coke while he worked. Mom always did that when someone like a plumber or electrician would come over to the house- she'd offer him a Coke.

We decided to extend the counter peninsula over the half wall a few inches to break up the "we tore down a wall" look.

Then a week later, also on a weekend, they came over and installed the new granite!

Oh, and we got a new under-mount sink (which was also included in the countertop price) and a new faucet. Don't you love my little attempt at home-staging here? A little plate of tomato slices, a white mixer, a random potato on the cook top...?

The final, finishing touch was a tile backsplash. Again, we were first-timers. What kind of tile would go well with both a dark countertop and light cabinets? Had we locked ourselves out of any good options? Since there was glitter in the counters we didn't want glittery tile in the backsplash too... oh, decisions, decisions. There were too many options at the local tile shop, so we ended up going...duh da duh... back to Home Depot.

We ended up with a smoky blue glass subway tile and a travertine mosaic border. I actually turned out to be pretty good at tiling!

Here's our tile up close with the spacers. You can see that the travertine channels the light cabinets and the purple tiles hint at the wall color. Perfect!

We had quite a time cutting down the glass tiles for the corners and around the outlets. We tried everything we could until we resigned ourselves to renting a wet saw.

Just kidding. We borrowed one from Home Depot. My parents were in town so Dad helped out with the tile trimming.

At long last, we were able to grout and seal the tiles, and our kitchen was complete. But before the big reveal, let's remember the raw material we had to work with. The previous owner's take on "kitchen":

And now for the big reveal!

There are a couple of items on the counters now- my iron skillet, mixer, coffee maker, knife block, etc. This is the place where I cook things now- lovely, right? It feels so much cleaner and ergonomic than before. I've been known to hug the countertop and stroke the tiles. That's okay, right?

I Didn't Know a Half-Finished Kitchen Could Look This Good

2013-08-04T20:05:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted about our home renovation- really- a long time. But there's still more to show off!

In case you missed it, here are the previous posts:
Master Bedroom
Hallway
Living Room

Now for the room I'm most proud of- our kitchen. When we viewed the apartment for the first time, it was a total wreck: full of junk, part of the floor ripped out, and very dirty.

So you might look at this picture:

And wonder, "wait, where's the kitchen?" Well, it's through the saloon doors of course. As you cowboy your way in, this is what would greet you.

We came to the conclusion that our seller really liked "holders." That is, anything from a Skymall catalog that would hold something else. A pan holder. A cake holder. A combination plastic wrap, tin foil, and wax paper holder conveniently located on the wall. Over the cabinet towel holder. A counter-top rotisserie oven. That's not a holder, but that's what was there, and it is probably in the Skymall catalog too.

On our first day of renovating, I spent most of the day scrubbing that kitchen with industrial-strength cleaner. You can only imagine what kind of grime was hiding in every nook and cranny of this kitchen. I lifted the face off of the stove top and scraped up a layer of cooked-together crumbs. After scrubbing away the caked grease and gray finger prints, the cabinets turned out to be about 2 shades lighter.

Then we painted the walls a nice purple color.

We decided, daringly, to tear down a wall. By ourselves. Thankfully, Andy works in architecture so he can tell a load-bearing wall from a regular one, and this was the latter. Goodbye, saloon doors, goodbye, wall!

Tearing down the wall opened up the space so much that we couldn't understand why there was a wall designed there in the first place. Maybe it's just because "pass-throughs" were so cool in the 90's, when the building was built. People thought the "pass-through" would be as enduring as big flannel shirts.

Back in the 90's, you didn't want your dinner guests to watch you cook dinner - it had to be done, ready to serve, and perfectly warm when your guests rang the doorbell. Nowadays, food is cool. Cooking is cool. People love to help and/or watch the cook finish cooking and plate the food.

Also, natural light in the kitchen is cool. That is, I think it is!

As you can see, there was quite a bit of electrical stuff in the wall we tore out. We also took out the icky vinyl tile in the kitchen and added hardware to the cabinets.

After a lot of electrical work, Andy added the pendant lights and installed can lights across the ceiling where an old fluorescent light fixture was before. The outlets were so grubby they were almost green, so Andy replaced them with bright white ones.

I worked on patching the wall where we had torn it out- up on the ceiling and in the gap by the fridge.
I also did a little arranging over the microwave. Open shelves are "in" these days, I think! We ran the wood flooring from the rest of the house into the kitchen too.

This is only Part 1 of the kitchen renovation. Part 2 will show off our one big splurge and another major detail that tied the whole room together.

Part of the way there!

A Grave Situation

2013-08-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been to Green-Wood Cemetery? Well, let me tell ya- it's beautiful and, for a cemetery, surprisingly fun.

Our friend Sharon invited us to see the play "Spoon River Project" in the graveyard. We got to ride the Green-Wood trolley through the grounds. The time and care that went into these grave stones, tombs, and vaults was astonishing. Some of the tombs were bigger than some NYC apartments. Green-Wood is a National Historic Landmark and they have an impressive array of programs and tours- you kind of feel like a cemetery isn't supposed to be this fun!

So forget the Rain Room at the MoMA. Do what Victorian New Yorkers did for fun and take a stroll through the cemetery this weekend. Hopefully the photos below will convince you.

The stunning entrance designed by Richard Upjohn (he did Trinity Church Wall Street).

The trolley ride.

3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath?

Haunting.

The beautiful chapel.

The chapel on the inside, looking up.

The Spoon River Project was a selection of monologues from the Spoon River Anthology, by Edward Lee Masters. The free-verse monologues are delivered by residents of an imaginary Illinois town in the 1890s (or so) as if they could speak beyond the grave. It's an American literature classic, so despite how depressing it was, we felt a little more cultured for it.

From the introduction to the Spoon River Anthology:
Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all are sleeping on the hill.
One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in a jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife—
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?—
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

What to do with Your CSA Veggies: Part 3

2013-07-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

We're toward the end of our series on using up leftover or mystery veggies you might get in your CSA/farm share box. My farm share is called Corbin Hill Food Project, and it's marvelous. If you live in upper Manhattan or the Bronx, you should consider joining! Just $18/week, and you can pay weekly or up front. We pay a few dollars more for a fruit share too!

I've been trolling the blogosphere for good ideas for my new friends like swiss chard, mustard greens, collards, and kohlrabi. I've also been given a whole lot of radishes over the past few weeks. Previous posts:
Anything can go in a quiche.
Anything can go in a dumpling.

For today's installment, we're going to talk pasta. We're going to talk meatballs.

Anything can go in pasta. A LOT of things can go in meatballs.
One of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, features this recipe and this recipe that I used as a model. Dinner: A Love Story featured another pasta concoction that I modified a bit.

There's no one way to incorporate seasonal vegetables into pasta. Here are some principles to remember:

For extra greens, like collards or chard, saute with garlic and olive oil until they wilt, then stir them in to the rest of the dish.

For veggies like summer squash, zucchini or snap peas, you can chop them up and throw them into the pot of cooking pasta for the final two minutes of cooking.

I haven't tried this yet, but someday I want to make ravioli with my extra vegetables. You could also fold any number of veggies into a lasagna.

Chopped snow peas and crumbled bacon

Now for sauce options (sauptions?). I picked up a tub of ricotta cheese and using it to make a variety of pasta dishes. You can use butter, heavy cream and parmesan reggiano for a make-shift alfredo. You can open a can of peeled whole tomatoes, squash them with your hands in a bowl and season it for your own red sauce. If you make your own sauce, especially for cheesy sauce, reserve a cup or so of the pasta cooking water to pour in as needed- just so the pasta doesn't stick together. No shame in using canned white or red sauce!

To add protein to your veggie pasta, here are some simple options, then we'll get to the meatballs:

> Cook up a sweet Italian sausage then slice it and put it on top when you serve.

> Crumble up a few cooked bacon slices (above).

> Ground sausage is nice for making a meat sauce

> Pan sear a chicken breast.

For meatballs, I used the New York Times recipe for lamb meatballs and used ground beef instead. The main thing is to season them enough. I like the combination of seasonings they suggested, though cut back a little on the cumin. I included garlic scapes and fresh parsley in my meatball mixture (which came in my farm share). I rolled them into ball shapes and used my cast iron skillet to broil them for a few minutes. Voila!

Swiss chard pasta with ricotta and meatballs.

Enjoy your week of veggies. Comment with your other ideas!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

2013-07-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today is Grandpa's birthday!

Happy Birthday to you, Grandpa! You taught me to love and treasure our unique family history. You show me what it means to work hard and choose to invest yourself where it matters. I love your curious mind, generous heart, and warm hugs. Thank you for being such a special part of my life.

Wish I could be with you in Indiana today!

psst... here's a birthday post for my Dad from several years back.

What to do with Your CSA Veggies: Part 2

2013-07-22T13:20:00.000-04:00

Last week we talked about extra and mysterious vegetables from our farm share/CSA that we pick up each week. What to do? What to do?

Last week's sure-fire way to use them up is to put them in a quiche, and this week I have another suggestion- dumplings. And pssst... here's a third idea!

These posts were inspired because of my receipt of what I like to call the Yoda veggie:

Today, Padewan Learners, I'm going to show you what I did with my Kohlrabi (its real name).

Suggestion 2: When-In-Doubt-Dumplings

I name this recipe affectionately after the blog post where I found this idea (on Dinner: A Love Story). I modified it slightly- that is, I made all the ingredients optional except garlic and ginger. By optional, I mean you should replace them with other stuff. Nobody wants to eat an all-garlic-and-ginger dumpling. Gross.

Anything can go in dumplings. Did you know that?

I've made these twice. The first time I put in extra firm tofu, garlic scapes, radishes and ginger. The second time I used shredded kohlrabi, cooked ground pork, mustard greens, garlic and ginger.

Here is the method:

Step one: Buy wonton/dumpling wrappers in the frozen food section at the grocery store. Defrost in fridge.
Step two: Cook up any meat that you are putting in- I used ground pork. If there's no meat, skip this step.
Step three: Shred any veggies you are using along with garlic and ginger in a food processor. If you have any "heartier" veggies in the mix, you might want to cook them a little. For example, the mustard greens would have been too chewy if they were raw inside the dumpling. I shredded them then sauteed them until they wilted a bit.
Step four: Mix it all together and get out a few dumpling wrappers.

This is the pork, kohlrabi, and mustard green mix.

Step five: Spoon out a little bit of filling on to each dumpling wrapper.

You can get more filling in if you gently stretch the wrapper a little.

Step six: Dip your finger in water and trace around the outer edge of the wrapper.

I had a little bowl of water to the side for dipping my finger.

Step seven: Fold it shut, and squeeze the edges together. My artist friend was over for dinner on this night, so beautiful dumpling credit to him!

You don't have to be an artist to make a beautiful dumpling.

Step eight: Freeze the ones you can't eat right away, and pan fry the rest! Medium-high heat, a few tablespoons of oil in the pan, 2 minutes on each side. Add more oil as necessary.

I don't have a picture of a cooked one. Trust me, though. They are delicious.

Harlem Churches

2013-07-21T12:31:00.000-04:00

Christian believers are few and far between in NYC, but not in Harlem. Though I am in the minority ethnically, this neighborhood is full of brothers and sisters in the faith. Our local taco shop plays gospel music on Sundays. We see families coming and going from church in their Sunday best (oh the hats!). All kinds of buildings have been repurposed as churches- movie theaters, synagogues, schools, store fronts.

In this significant sense, Harlem is a gift to me. It is well documented that church attendance and faith are declining among the white population, while in most other ethnic groups church numbers stay steady, or they are rising. Faith in Jesus doesn't erase ethnic and cultural differences- in fact, New York City is full of "ethnic churches" that express their faith their unique cultural way. Friends who stayed with us recently visited a Nigerian Catholic church here in Harlem and said there was dancing and rhythmic music.

Believers have a special bond that has nothing to do with race and culture. Harlem is a haven for me in that way. I work on the Upper West Side, which is mostly white, and in a spiritual sense I feel like more of a minority there than I do in Harlem, which is historically black.

Here are a few photographs of churches large and small in our neighborhood.

Perhaps an repurposed school or movie theater?

The End is Near.

"It's more than a symbol- it's a solution! Bring your family back to church"

Prayer-n-Tarry

Salvation and Deliverance

Gospel choir music pours out onto 116th St.

psst... Here are some cool vintagey Harlem Barber Shop signs. and five consecutive days of Harlem morning skies.

What to do with Your CSA Veggies: Part 1

2013-07-16T12:48:00.000-04:00

We just joined the Corbin Hill Food Project and we get to pick up fresh in-season fruits and vegetables every week here in Harlem. It's like a CSA. If you live in Harlem or the Bronx- join! There's no waiting list!

Because they only deliver what's in season, I have wound up with some pretty unusual veggies- or a large quantity of one thing. What am I going to with a huge bunch of radishes for three weeks straight? How do you prepare collard greens? Swiss chard? Garlic scapes? Turnips? Sometimes you pick up a vegetable that looks like it must grow in Yoda's swamp in a galaxy far, far away.

Kohlrabi it is called.

It's been a crash course in learning to cook- and I'm loving it. I've been all over the blogosphere looking for recipes for the odds and ends that are left over when I cook through the stuff I know (like lettuce).

According to Yoda, it is do or do not. There is no try. So, here on the blog I'll share with you a few no-fail ways to use your extra or mysterious CSA/farm share vegetables.

psst... here are suggestion 2 and suggestion 3!

Suggestion 1: The Quiche

Anything can go in a quiche. Did you know that? Greens (kale, chard, spinach, collards, etc.). Fresh herbs. Radishes! Onions or onion-like items (like garlic scapes). Whatever else you want to add- ham, bacon, broccoli. Use your smarts to come up with great-tasting combinations. I put ham, garlic scapes, cilantro and radishes in mine.

Step one: Buy a deep dish pie crust.
Step two: Chop up whatever needs to go in, mix it with 1 or 2 cups of cheese, and 3 TB flour. Put it in the pie crust. Make sure to add salt and pepper.
Step three: Lightly beat 5 eggs together with 1 1/2 cups of half-and-half.
Step four: Pour egg mixture over the chopped mixture.
Step five: Bake it at 350 for an hour, and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

I had enough mixture to make two, so I froze one. I've been enjoying it as a protein-rich breakfast food.

Anything can go in a quiche. Remember that!

Testimony of the Iron Skillet

2013-07-13T11:24:00.002-04:00

Bacon & Eggs

I'm not a Southerner, so until recently, the words "Iron Skillet" conjured up the image of a mediocre all-you-can-eat buffet with stale croutons at the end- Not the wonderful cooking tool that I now enjoy.

Last summer, I was engaged to be married, and living in a sublet apartment for the summer with a Southern-and-proud-of-it roommate. She even has a blog about being a Southerner in NYC.

She gave me iron skillet lessons, and I ended up registering for one as a wedding gift. It has changed my life. I'm here to tell you why.

Cornbread

Top reasons to love the Iron Skillet:

It can move between the stove and the oven
It is truly non-stick- this is a different ball game than my stainless steel pans.
It is easy to take care of.
It is an heirloom- people pass skillets down through families.
You can buy an antique, rusty one and restore it easily.
It distributes heat evenly and stays hot (and I have an old cooktop, so that's pretty nice).

Besides the usual cornbread and bacon and eggs, here are some other ways I've used my iron skillet:

Deep Dish Pizza (you can see here that we did not yet have floors in our kitchen when I made this).

Blistering tortillas for tacos. Just a touch of oil in the pan and 1 minute or less on each side makes the tortillas bubble a bit and get little crunchy sections.

Rack of lamb for Easter. I could sear it on both sides to seal in the juices, then stick the whole thing in the oven for a little bit. Easy as that!

What else can you use an iron skillet to do? Any other tricks to share?

Harlem Barber Shop Signs

2013-07-04T10:42:00.000-04:00

As I have written before, hair is a big deal in Harlem. I tried to break into that scene with only moderate success. However, I can still admire from afar.

Here are three photos of old barber shop signs in my immediate neighborhood. Coincidentally, they are of generally patriotic colors. Happy 4th!

psst...for more Harlem, check out some cool storefront churches here. And five days of moody Harlem skies.

And speaking of haircuts, I got one of my own! What do you think!?

Twinning

2013-06-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

I'm a little obsessed with babies. I'll admit it. My friends are all having 'em, my neighborhood is full of 'em, and so is the neighborhood where I work. Babies are taking over the world... or, that is, my world.

It might be because I need a DIY project now that our apartment renovation is done. I know we'll wait a while longer before having kiddos, but I'm planning ahead. I'd like a set of twins, please. Maybe, quite literally, my eyes are bigger than my stomach. But twins, down the road, could be fun.

Here's why:

Watching my friends become new moms makes me think that when (Lord willing) I have my first baby, it might as well be twins. If I'm going to go months and months without sleep, I might as well get two kids' worth of infancy out of the way, right? And double the cuteness.

Having twins is also Biblical!
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor... (Ecc.4:9)
I can only think that has to do with labor and delivery.

Apparently there is a special enzyme in yams that makes you more likely to have twins. I learned that on About.com.

And "twinning"- yep, that's a verb, but it sounds kind of animalistic.

Someone's been twinning!

psst... here's another extreme birth experience that I fantasize about. Also, Brazilian birth goes inter-generational.

Why I Stopped Journaling

2013-06-23T22:29:00.002-04:00

I've been keeping a faithful journal since I was about 10. It was a record of all of my impressions, friendships, boys, and rants about life. I re-read journal entries to solidify my opinion on something or re-live an emotion of some kind. I was convinced that journaling would give me answers and add meaning to my life. It was my security blanket.

In the last year or so, however, I've stepped back and reconsidered. Journaling had trained me to have a secret emotional world where I thrived on drama instead of on peace; where I looked to myself for the answers instead of waiting for God to pull me through. The seed of this reconsideration was from C.S. Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy.

Here is what good ol' Clive has to say about journaling (or diary keeping):

…One of the first results of my Theistic conversion was a marked decrease… in the fussy attentiveness which I had so long paid to he progress of my own opinions and the states of my own mind. For many healthy extroverts self-examination first begins with conversion. For me it was the other way round… I had been, as they say, “taken out of myself.”…
If Theism had done nothing else for me, I should still be thankful that it cured me of the time-wasting and foolish practice of keeping a diary (Even for autobiographical purposes a diary is nothing like so useful as I had hoped. You put down each day what you think important; but of course you cannot each day see what will prove to have been so important in the long run.).

C.S. Lewis was naturally introspective, and as an athiest he had turned introspection into a sort of religion for himself. When he realized that God was there, he didn't feel the need focus inward to make sense of his world. I saw my own heart in his words. I realized that there are things God chooses not to reveal, and by speculating in writing, I was just creating the illusion of being in control instead of submitting to God's control. Self-examination isn't always good- sometimes it's just fear.

So where to from here? I stopped my introspective journaling. But as a verbal-processor, writing helps me learn and internalize information, so I still need to write stuff down. Here's a quote from Susan Wise Bauer, a scholar and teacher, about a useful way to think about journaling:

For earlier generations, the journal wasn’t- as it is in modern times- primarily a tool to reflect on your feelings. Present-day use of the word journal tens to imply that you’re creating a subjective, intensively inward-focused collection of thoughts and musings.

But the journal of self-education has a more outward focus. It is modeled on the last century’s “commonplace book,” a looseleaf or bound blank book in which readers copied down quotes and snippets that they wanted to remember. (The Well-Educated Mind)

The outward vs. inward focus is the operating distinction here. People use journaling for all kinds of things- for me, though, personal journaling was unhealthy, even idolatrous. Since I quit, I don't feel the loss of my compulsive inner-searchings on paper. Turns out I didn't need them after all.

Lately, I've been using a blank book to write reflections on my Bible reading and take notes on other books. Recently, I went to a museum exhibition, saw a documentary on the same topic, read a chapter of a book on the topic, and in my "commonplace book" I wrote up a synthesized mini-essay on what I had learned and how I should respond. Instead of using journaling to understand the self, the journal is helping me understand the world. I obviously blog too, which is outward-facing in the sense that people read it, and it forces me to evaluate my thoughts before I put them "out there."

Finally, one more quote from my favorite writer, Mark Twain. He always gives me the giggles. It's from Innocents Abroad which is (surprise!) a journal of his travels to the Holy Land:

At certain periods it becomes the dearest ambition of a man to keep a faithful record of his performances in a book; and he dashes at this work with an enthusiasm that imposes on him the notion that keeping a journal is the veriest pastime in the world, and the pleasantest. But if only lives twenty-one days, he will find out that only those rare natures that are made up of pluck, endurance, devotion to duty for duty’s sake, and invincible determination may hope to venture upon so tremendous an enterprise as the keeping of a journal and not sustain a shameful defeat…If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal for a year.

Of course, the fact that these words are written in his own journal give this quote an extra layer of irony.

Are you a "journaler"? What do you think about the quotes and assessment above? What kind of journal do you keep? If you aren't a journal-writer I want to know what you think too!

Garden Progress

2013-06-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Remember how my basil plant just wouldn't grow? Well, look what happened:

Time to welcome a new plant into the family. Truth is, I adopted him today. I bought a seedling and transplanted him. The chives are starting to sprout a bit too, as you can see.

My pea plant has reached the height of the balcony railing and it looks as if it is starting to produce fruit!

I added stakes to the tomato plant and filled up the pot a little more. The hope is that by covering the stem a little more, the root system will develop. The tomatoes got some rough treatment during a windstorm recently, so I'm glad they're doing a little better!

The windstorm killed one of my spinach plants, so I sowed a few more seeds today. Here's the progress thus far.

I also adopted a cilantro and rosemary plant from the store today, so my herbs could all hang out together. Things are looking up!

500 Memories

2013-06-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Andy and I went to visit my family in Indianapolis and to celebrate Indy 500 and Memorial Day weekend. Before we left, Andy asked if there were any family traditions surrounding the race. Are there any family traditions? TONS! Andy was subsequently exposed to them all. We had a wonderful time and it went by so fast.

It starts by going to the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade. This is a serious parade with all kinds of celebs and balloons, and boy scouts telling you stay behind the blue line.

There were Angry Birds balloons. Storm Troopers, and of course, all the drivers go by.

This is the delivery guy from the Miller High Life commercials

My favorite driver, Tony Kanaan

After the parade we stayed inside and played a game of Monopoly. Dad won, of course. We went over to Grannie's for dinner, and out of nowhere a Les Mis vs. Phantom of the Opera showdown erupted among the entire extended family. It devolved into finger-pointing, side-taking, and ultimately, a sing-off. Oh, family drama.

Team "Phantom" delivers "The Music of the Night"

Team "Les Mis" dreams a dream.

Believe it or not, there was barely any alcohol at this karaoke-at-Grandma's party. Part way through "Master of the House," my uncle's former-NFL player friend dropped by. We didn't stop singing, even though he has a Wikipedia page and a Super Bowl ring. This family prides itself on having no shame whatsoever.

Sunday was Race Day. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is 2 1/2 miles around, and can seat over 200,000 people. It's nestled in the middle of the little town of Speedway, Indiana. On Race Day, residents of Speedway turn their yards into parking lots and each spot costs a small fee. We call them Lawn-trepreneurs. Dad called Dan, in whose lawn we had previously parked, and made a reservation in advance.

Tailgating Lawn-trepreneurs

We had to wait in a security checkpoint line that was pretty long, so while we were waiting, I tried my hand at fashion photography. Scroll quickly if your eyes can't take it.

The Hicktastic + desert boots

The Betsy Ross

One of the best parts of the race is the opening ceremony festivities. It's Memorial Day weekend, so much of it is very patriotic and lovely. Then the drivers get in their cars and the famous words are spoken...

Right after "Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!"

Waving the checkered flag!

My favorite driver, Tony Kanaan (who is in the picture from the parade) won the race! It was his first time winning, even though he's had multiple top-5 finishes before. Everyone was thrilled for him, including the other drivers, which was nice to see. This photo is just seconds before he crossed the finish line. You can see "Lap 199" on the jumbo-tron. The lead changed 68 times throughout the 500 miles, one of the most exciting races ever- usually the lead changes only 7-8 times.

Best of all was sharing Race Day with Andy and my family. The following morning we had breakfast with my Grandpa and Nana, and enjoyed sweet conversation and swapped stories. It was a really special time- and Andy was around for it all. One of the best parts of being married is that suddenly you have a new participant (victim?) to include in family traditions, and it makes them fresh somehow.

Andy was impressed. Yay.

I Miss Asia

2013-05-18T12:07:00.000-04:00

I've been working a lot these days, and I got a little stir-crazy. I realized that I hadn't been out of the city since Thanksgiving. As a remedy, Andy and I did a quick trip to Connecticut where we attended a dogwood festival, ran into four of his elementary school teachers at once, and played a game of Cashflow with my in-laws (think Monopoly + Life Lessons= way more fun that you would expect!).

Here's Connecticut in the Spring:

But sometimes when I say "I really want to get out of the city," I mean "I really want to get out of the US of A!"

Today is one of those days. I took an almost two-week trip to Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong) last Fall and there are so many stories and pictures and wondrous things, that I think the trip will have to make cameo appearances on this blog for years to come.

Let's talk about food in Singapore on this lovely Saturday morning, shall we? If you're like me and you only care about the quality of coffee in a country, skip to the bottom of this post and then take a trip to Albania.

Singapore is a very diverse country- there are many Chinese, Malays and Indians there, along with native Singaporeans, so the cookery is also diverse and interesting. We were pleased after eating our way through a week of arroz con pollo on our honeymoon to go somewhere that had a big food culture.

But what do you know, the most popular street food in Singapore:

Picture menus are ubiquitous in Asia. We bought ours at a booth in a mall. There's one booth for drinks, one for chicken rice, one for noodles, and on and on. These food malls are usually owned by one person or family and they run the drinks stand because it has the biggest profit margin.
Everything is served on real plates and dish collectors come and take it away.

Here's our chicken rice:

Just like the picture! Bok Choy with fried onions, salt-boiled chicken, miso soup, and a "Festive Rice Cone." Add hot sauce (I did) and together it is just delicious.

We took a trip down to Orchard Road, which is a mile-long stretch with 4-8 story malls on both sides of the street. Thousands of people flock there every day to shop in the hundreds of designer stores. We visited an ice cream sandwich cart, where a little old man cuts a slice off a "loaf" of ice cream and slaps Wonderbread on both sides. He used a wafer for us, probably because we were foreigners.

That's red bean ice-cream.

Our final stop on our Singapore food crawl is a hawker center.

The closest comparison I could make to describe a Singapore Hawker Center is a food court at a mall mixed with a State Fair. Just add palm trees.

This is where just regular folks might come on their lunch break every day.

More picture menus. There are multiple booths that sell the same food, which is why I draw the comparison to a State Fair, but really, there's nothing like a Hawker Center here in the US.

Our menu selections:

Juice drinks. I believe we have a watermelon one here.

Carrot Cake- the white parts are the carrot. Think "omelette with hot sauce and chopsticks" and you've got the idea. We ordered ours without oysters.

This item I wasn't crazy about- Ice Kachang- it's shaved ice with a variety of gummies (jellies), pieces of corn, red beans, and some sort of syrup. You are supposed to eat it before it melts together into a soupy gooey dessert mess.

Click here to see what it looks like before it melts (and more pictures of hawker centers).

The crown jewel of Singaporean food is Chili Crab. It is exactly what it sounds like. An entire crab, doused in a chili sauce that's about the consistency of marinara.

You are supposed to eat with your hands, and they provide a bowl of water for rinsing.

And finally, Singaporean coffee, Kopi, it's sweet and thick- really good.
You can get in a mug, or if you're on the go, in a bag.
Yes, a bag; with a straw and a nylon string to carry it around. Andy went to Singapore a lot to consult on a construction project, and he said people have hooks by their desks where they hang their coffee.

I couldn't leave Singapore without trying coffee-in-a-bag.

Here are a couple of pictures in the Chinatown hawker street:

And it's always good to end with some funny food moments from Asia:

The most unsatisfying breakfast of all time at a place called Toastbox. It's my fault because I thought the place looked cute. The buttered toast (one slice) did come cut into squares with a cute toothpick, at least.

And an American-themed establishment:

Isn't it nice to get away now and then? Enjoy your Saturday!

Basil Hates Me

2013-04-26T10:29:00.000-04:00

So remember when I wrote a post about cultivation... that our urge to build and cultivate comes from the Garden of Eden?

Well that spiritual ideal is still a bit out of reach for me at the moment.

Remember this picture?

Confession time. The chives (in the terra-cotta pot) were grocery store chives that I cut up for dinner one night then transplanted the roots into the pot. They grew right back, which was cool, but in a floppy and weak sort of way.

Eventually, all of the plants in the terra cotta pots died (not that they look so vivacious above).   I transplanted the rest out on our balcony and started a container of spinach. The spinach, tomatoes, and pea plants are doing okay. Every pea plant is latching on to the trellis like a champ. The spinach has already sprouted, and the tomatoes look happy.

I dumped the dead plants in the terra cotta pots and tried to reseed outdoors in the same pots. Chives and Basil.   Both are refusing to grow. I imagine these seeds just stubbornly hanging out under the dirt, germinated, but not willing to break to the surface- kind of like when I'm warm under the covers in the morning. Yeah, seeds, I know how it feels, but I still get up and go to work.

I am watering faithfully, giving them plenty of sun. I have dreams of fresh basil on a homemade pizza, but these plants have totally gone prodigal on me.   Any ideas on what to do?

This being my first foray into home gardening, I have formed the opinion that my vegetables aren't growing fast enough. Isn't gardening supposed to be this "miracle of life" kind of experience, where every day is different and special? Maybe I'm confusing gardening with pregnancy.

I just want some juicy red tomatoes sooner rather than later.

How long, O Lord, until the wicked are no more and I can make fresh salsa?

Sitting Prettier

2013-04-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

It's Friday! Friday! Everyone g'down on Friday!! Gotta get a bowl, gotta get cere-ole.

Ahem.

A side project for our living room renovation was reupholstering our dining chairs.
They had a light pink velvety fabric, which was probably real pretty in the 1920s when this chair was made, but it sure doesn't match our gray-turquoise-yellow-red scheme.

Chair BEFORE

This was my first reupholstery project ever, so it definitely felt risky to venture on it, but my mom was in town and we worked on it together which boosted my confidence!

We removed the seats of the chairs and pulled out the original staples. The foam inside was totally pulverized into a fine yellow dust. Such a mess!

We knew we needed to buy some new foam as well as pick out some new pretty fabric.
After our shopping trip, Mom had to hop in the car with Dad (who had been grouting with Andy- moe to come on that!) and I was on my own.

As the final four games played in the background, I traced each seat on the foam with a Sharpie and cut it out:

I moved the foam over to the backside of the fabric and lined up the pattern to be centered on the seat.

The fabric was stretched over the foam for a solid stapling!

After each seat cushion received a generous coat of Scotchguard, Andy helped me screw the seats back on to the chairs (there were 6) and

And voila! New chairs!

The foam gave the seats a little more "poof," which makes them look even newer.

I like how the curly-cues in the fabric pick up the curly-cue arm rests.

Ok- ready for a before-and-after animation (my favorite!)?

So, what do you think?

Pick-Up Weekend

2013-04-17T10:43:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was the slowest we've had in a long time. The most rigorous thing we did was vacuum and clean the windows. It's kind of weird not to have a huge project going.

On Sunday we invested in a basketball and Frisbee and played in Marcus Garvey Park. There are two basketball courts- one where all the "big kids" and adults play a full court game where tempers flare at moments, but the hotdogging is pretty impressive. The other court is where all the little kids play- more shooting around, 2-on-2's, sometimes saying bad words to impress each other. Andy and I thought we could jump in there, so we did. We learned the two rules really quickly:

> Everyone shares all the basketballs. Ours changed hands dozens of times.
> If someone makes a basket, they get the ball back. It's about respect. Nothing like a kid half your size lecturing you about it. (I didn't know!)

One of the littlest kids poked Andy in the back with his basketball and challenged him to a one-on-one. I have a camera phone picture of them playing each other, but this is the internet and I'm not going to put up pictures of kiddos without parental permission. If you see me sometime, ask and I'll show you!

When we were playing Frisbee, people on the benches by the lawn kept commenting on how bad I was. Not that it's a big secret or anything.

It was really special to connect to our neighborhood in this positive way.

Living Room Makeover!

2013-04-12T13:28:00.000-04:00

Every morning this week, I have sleepily made my coffee and admired my living room. It's so pretty.

But it hasn't been pretty for long. My mom and dad came to visit and brought a little more furniture, and now the space is "finished." Certainly things will be added and subtracted over time, but for now it's done!

We first saw the apartment about a year ago now. Just like the bedroom and the hall it was still full of the previous owner's furnishings and nothing had ever been painted or updated. Here's my mom-in-law and I sitting in the living room on the first day we saw the place.

As you can see, the space is generally shabby and run-down, needing a major makeover. Check out the wall of mirrors and the spider-like lamp thing. Yikes.

Directly behind where I'm sitting is the dining area, also rather worn looking.

The wall of mirrors was my job to take down. Some of them shattered when we ripped them off the walls, all of them pulled some drywall down or left sticky spots on the walls that would have shown through the paint. It was a mess. I ended up using a razor blade to cut around each splotch then scraped out the paper layer of the sheet rock. I spackled each one (about 45 splotches) three times, with a good sanding in between coats. The wall turned out smooth and seamless. It's my part of the renovation that I'm most proud of!

One more before picture with a great view of the mirrors:

In addition to the mirror-wall splotch patching, we had a ton of other wall patching to do, carpet (and carpet staples) to pull up, water damage to repair, and a whole lot of amateur electrical work to carefully remove!

It is so hard to see in the pictures, but everything, EVERYTHING was so dingy and stained. We think the previous owner must have been a smoker, because everything had that icky smokey layer on it. We think that he left the door and windows open all the time, even when it rained, because there was water damage in the floor and window sills.

We used our paint sprayer to paint the ceiling (with white) and walls a cool light gray (Reflecting Pool, by Behr), which meant we had to cover everything with newspaper- even the windows.

We chose a dark teal for our accent wall (Cathedral by Behr) and painted the door to the patio red (Cherry Cobbler by Behr).

And now for the unveiling. Take a painted room (with a very smoooooooth back wall!) add floors, blinds, curtains, wall art, furniture, and decor and this is what you get:

I love the rotating book shelf in the corner. A friend of ours joked that we should have all our "Christian books" on one side that we rotate out when our Bible study group comes over. Or the philosophical/erudite side for when we have smart friends over that we want to impress. Ha.

My friend Kate and I used to call this the "fainting couch" when we were kids:

I love the yellow, red, teal, and gray together. Most of this furniture came from the free stash and some of it is family furniture (also free). The only new items are the gray couch, ottoman, and TV stand, and chandelier. The other lamps were wedding gifts.

I reupholstered those dining chairs (finished product above), which I shall share in a later post.

I love how the white baseboards pop against the teal wall!

...and that's the prettiest living room I've ever designed!! It was super hard work, but we're awfully proud of it.

How

2013-04-09T09:26:00.000-04:00

Ever since reading the remembrance of Edith Schaeffer last week, I've been thinking a lot about "living my life as a work of art." That's what I want to "lean in" to.

I want to learn how to:
Grow a tomato
Make croissants
Dribble a basketball (well)
Listen to classical music better
Sing harmonies with hymns
... and many more things

I already know how to:
Re-upholster a dining chair (coming soon!)
Sew a dress
Paint a wall
Bake a pie
Whip cream to go with it

I also want to learn how to write a really good email, since that's what I do at work. Why not start my emails with "Dear Richard" instead of just writing it quickly and haphazardly? Why not write emails that honor the recipient? It's possible, you know! (I preach to myself!) You know that Edith wrote a birthday card to someone she knew every day, even as her mind started to fade.

But generally what goes neglected are those hands-on things. We were made to live in the material world - not only communicate with ideas and words, but to have a rich vocabulary of the senses, to engage in creation with our noses, hands, mouths, and ears.

Working on our home renovation these past few months felt new and special. I grew to love the feel of spackle (so much spackle!), the concrete dust, and the feeling of accomplishment once another surface was covered in paint, wood, tile, or fabric. It felt good to make something new and to add palpable value and beauty to something.

I don't mean to romanticize it too much- my feet hurt all the time walking for days straight on those concrete floors. I threw out my elbow rolling paint once. But ever since we finished, I've been intentionally giving myself hands-on work to do. As a child, I used to make things, build things, and "invent" things- somewhere, probably when busy in my studies in college, I let those pursuits slip by the wayside.

I have a windowsill garden now, and I've started some chives, tomatoes, peas, and basil. I ate my first chive recently, and it felt new and good to just cut something down and eat it. I assume farmers get used to it, but it's no wonder U-Pick strawberry farms and apple orchards are so popular for us city dwellers on getaway weekends.

To take it a step further, I think there is a good reason that DIY blogs and Pinterest have such a wide appeal, and why the home renovation woke up something in me- the reason is in Genesis 2:15:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

We were made for this. The garden is a metaphor for all the work we do- with ideas and emails, but also under clear skies with a spade and seeds. It's the latter that gets neglected for me and many of my peers. Don't get your "creative fix" from pictures on the internet- learn how to do it in the real world- you were created to create with your mind and your hands.

The life of the mind and the life of the body go together. They nourish one another. Francis and Edith Schaeffer embodied this at their home in L'Abri. Bill Edgar, a L'Abri alum from the 1960s writes, "The daily life in this community was quite diverse, but all of it converged on the centrality of the gospel, the 'good news' of meaning, victory over evil, artistic expression. Hard physical work was combined with prayer, intense discussions, long walks in the mountains, and Bible study." Sounds like heaven.

So how do we live well? We grow a healthy tomato and write good emails- all in the same day.

Enjoy whatever you're cultivating today.

She Lived Her Life as a Work of Art

2013-04-01T09:38:00.001-04:00

Readers-
I received this beautiful rememberance of Edith Schaeffer in my email inbox yesterday after she died on March 30. I had Edith and Frances Schaeffer's son-in-law as a professor in college, and he sent this around to his mailing list. I found it so inspiring, especially as I am thinking a lot about how to bring "life that is truly life" to people around me.
-Penelope

Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer died on March 30, 2013 in her home in Gryon, Switzerland, where she had moved 13 years ago to be surrounded by memories, her music, her son’s paintings and the detailed care organized daily by her daughter Deborah Middelmann. She was born on November 3, 1914 as the third daughter of Dr. George Hugh and Jessie Maude Seville in Wenchau, China, where her parents ran a school for girls and taught the Bible in Mandarin.

Edith Schaeffer marked her life with the expression of rich ideas, often rebellious against the staid and superficial life she saw among Christians. The oldest sister became a communist in New York of the 30ies, the second eloped. Edith Seville married Francis August Schaeffer in 1935 and in no way was she the typical pastor’s or missionary wife. She turned her active mind to work with her husband, teaching first seminary wives to think and to question, to create and make of life something of integrity, as her husband so wanted her to do.

To put her husband through 3 years of seminary she tailored men’s suits, made ball room gowns and wedding dresses for private clients. From whole cow skins she made belts sold in New York stores. With very little money she prepared tasteful and varied meals. She painted a fresco on the ceiling of the vestibule in the little church her husband pastored in Grove City, while he attached a steeple to it with the elders’ help. They lectured together and encouraged many to use their minds to understand what they believed and how to respond to the intellectual and cultural ideas around them. Together they travelled and taught in churches and university halls from Finland to Portugal, helping people understand Christianity as the truth of the universe, not a personal faith, and pointing out the cultural and philosophical pitfalls in everyone’s way.

She lived her life as a work of art, an exhibition of true significance and a portrait of a generous, stunning and creative personality. She always sought ways to draw on life’s opportunities to show that human beings are made for the enrichment of everyone’s life, for the encouragement of people. This was a central part of the work she and her husband engaged in from the very start of their life together. She was in all things generous. When books provided royalties she used all of it to give her four children and their families annual reunions for the cousins to know each other.

When she left the work of L’Abri after her husband’s death she started the Francis A Schaeffer Foundation with Udo and Deborah Middelmann to safeguard his papers and the ideas that underline their life, to make them available for a wider audience. She found people interesting anywhere, engaged in conversation and so met the most amazing individuals. She talked, for instance, with the author Andre Aciman, standing in line for tickets to Carnegie Hall in NY and found out that he had had our village doctor, Dr. Gandur, as his pediatrician in Alexandria, Egypt. He was so grateful to be in touch through her with his old doctor.

She enjoyed people in the streets, in airplanes and over the phone, wherever she found them or when they could reach her. She stayed up nights to help someone out of their distress or need. With much imagination she served her meals with stunning decorations made from twigs and moss, field flowers and stones. Duncan from Kenya once remarked: “This is the first place where I see the beauty of the truth of the Bible consistently carried over into all areas of life.”

After the death of her husband in 1984 Edith Schaeffer added a whole new chapter to her life. She continued to write books, lectured widely and returned twice to her place of birth in China. She investigated the making the Baby Grand Piano she had received as a gift at the Steinway factory in New York and presented “Forever Music” in a concert at Alice Tully Hall in New York with the Guarneri Quartet. Through Franz Mohr, the chief piano voicer at Steinway she came to know musicians like Rostropovich, the pianists Horowitz and Rudoph Serkin, the Cellists YoYo Ma and Ya Ya Ling, and also the guitarist Christopher Parkening. She organized concerts and elaborate receptions for musicians and friends in her home in Rochester, MN. When she met B. B. King at the International Jazz Festival in Montreux he gave her his pass to the evening’s concert. Once on vacations on the island of Elba, Sonny Rollins noticed her beauty and rhythm in the audience as she danced during his concert, came off the stage and danced with her.

Today she “slipped into the nearer presence of Jesus”, her Lord, from whom she awaits the promised resurrection to continue her life on earth and to dance once again with a body restored to wholeness.

A Newlywed Moment

2013-03-27T21:35:00.000-04:00

We just hit the 6-month mark in our marriage- woo! People ask me how marriage is going ALL the time. How do you answer that question without:

a) Oversharing
b) Making the asker worried that you're not excited enough
c) Unwittingly disparaging your spouse (like making a sarcastic comment to deflect such a personal question)

So let it be known: Marriage is great. It's amazing how I love Andy more now than I did when I walked down the aisle. I expect it to keep growing and our partnership to get more fruitful and fun.

But sometimes we have newlywed moments.

One week ago, for example. I was making dinner, a task I find very relaxing after working on a computer all day at work. But it was late, and just as I could tell that it wasn't even going to taste that good, I dropped half of it on the kitchen rug. It was pasta with red sauce and chicken. SPLAT. It took us a long time to clean up.

It really was like something right out of a Doris Day movie- the young aproned wife, trying (and failing) at cooking, only to spill it all, and burst in to tears (I almost did!). All I needed was a full circle skirt to balloon out as I crumpled to the floor, and for Andy's sock garters to show when he crouched down to pat me consolingly on the shoulder.

My Meteoric Rise!

2013-03-20T18:50:00.000-04:00

I have developed a very bad habit. It's like there's a little voice in my ear... do it, do it again, AGAIN!
Guess what it is?

It's worse than my new tendency to sit and see if I can see my new basil plant growing (I can't).

It's more reflexive than twirling the ends of my hair when I'm nervous (I do).

And it's all YOUR fault!

I have a bad habit of checking my blog stats too frequently. You know... how many readers I have, how many times people have viewed a certain post, which sites are referring people to mine.

I'm obsessed. You know why? My blog hasn't "taken off" yet, but my following is definitely growing! I've been blogging since 2008, when my politics prof asked us to start blogs and focus on current events. I immediately branched out from current events and into more creative stuff. Read my first post here (Which is rather literary, I must say. You won't see any Emperor's New Groove references- gosh, my professor would've seen it!).

I've been reasonably addicted (oxymoron?) to blogging ever since. Another anti-blogging professor of mine called it "Pontificating in your Pajamas," which is how it felt when I wrote about current events. That's why I started writing more silly stuff, and first-hand experiences.

Even so, blogging still seems kind of self-indulgent on one level- self-publishing your thoughts and opinions without anybody asking you to.

WARNING Amateur Sociology Ahead: I would love to survey all the most successful bloggers and find out if they are eldest children. My sister and brother don't blog and both of them are excellent writers, and both are funnier and cleverer than me. I've read that eldest children tend to be overly celebrated (especially if they are only children) because they do everything first. Eldest children tend to think everyone cares about what they do and say, which, in fact, is an illusion.

I think the best way to combat self-indulgence on a blog is to avoid "hyper-reality" in your posts, as I mentioned in my post-mortem notes on wedding blogs here. I like blogs that keep it real. I've unsubscribed from blogs that are too "propped" or create an illusion of having a perfect/glam/cooler-than-thou life. I wish I could share my black list of hyper-reality blogs with you, but that wouldn't be very nice. One good example of a keep-it-real blog is Nice Girl Notes. Just discovered it, and loving it!

However, judging from my blog stats, you like me! You really, really like me! Yeah, I know someone said that at the Oscars once.

Just check out the rise in my page view stats over the life of my blog:
You may have noticed that I left out the vertical axis... that was on purpose. But let's just say that the February and March 2013 page view count was in the thousands!

Sally Field likes those stats. And they like her back.

Thanks for liking me, everyone! Hoping to keep you around.
Topic for discussion:
Are you a blogger? Are you an eldest child?
What is a consistent feature of the blogs that you follow? Great images, interaction in the comments area, giveaways, hair-do tutorials? ;)

Furniture that Says "We're Staying!"

2013-03-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

I promised I would tell about how we got a ton of beautiful furniture for free. So here it is.

We've lived in our new place for about two months now. Being in this new phase of life with a permanent "roommate" in my husband, and the dream come true of owning an apartment in New York, has made me look back.

I felt drawn to New York when I was 15. This is me at 15, by the way.

Me+ Minivan= Awkward

I ended up going to college here which was itself a miracle. Being a student here was fantastic, but I remember a night when I was walking in Madison Square Park, and God spoke to me- he said "let yourself fall in love with this city." I had held New York so loosely for my years at school, in fear that it would be taken away, but God was saying, "Let go and see what I will do."

Since then, I've written quite a bit here on this blog about the little delights of life in New York, from laundromats to thunderstorms. I've written about the concept of incarnating into a broken city like Jesus incarnated into our broken world. I started studying this city's history and befriending my neighbors. I have definitely fallen in love.

Hm... still awkward 10 years later.

Then I fell in love with Andy and married him. It's a long story, but Andy and I connected through a network of longtime New York Christians. These are the people who "set up house" a generation ago for the new wave of urban Christians here, and Andy and I are committed to carrying that forward. I found a like-minded heart in Andy.

Kind of a big build-up for a story about furniture, I know, but stay with me!

As I was thinking (and praying) about how we would decorate our new apartment, I kept coming back to the word "permanence." Our apartment could display the permanence of our marriage commitment and our commitment to New York, in a transient city that is skeptical of marriage.

I wrote a journal entry where I expressed that I would like to have real, heavy furniture in our new apartment. Solid wood, ideally. Back then I was a bit naive about how much high-quality furniture costs (now I know- yikes!), and I shared my journal entry with Andy one night while we were renovating.

Andy said that just that day he had been offered the contents of a storage unit full of furniture. It had belonged to a dear friend and mentor of his from work, who passed away five years ago. This friend had no family, so the company just put all his furniture in storage. Now, they wanted to throw the contents away, unless we wanted any of it.

We went and checked it out- and what do you know- it was all gorgeous antique solid-wood furniture. We took the dining set, sideboard, china cabinet, secretary, drop-leaf table, side tables, accent chairs and more. All for F-R-E-E. Free.

It is significant that the furniture had this antique look. Andy makes fun of what a sucker I am for anything old- furniture, movies, vintage clothes, junk. He's five years older, so there's a self-evident comeback for comments like that! Not only was the furniture totally up my "old-stuff" alley, but belonged to a person Andy admired so much so it is significant to him too. Our house looks like we've lived there for 20 years, answering my prayer about permanence.

Do you ever think that God gives you a desire just for the fun of amazing you when he fulfills it? When you walk with him, something as simple as free furniture can bring up layers of meaning, and those layers just show his knowing love.

Our Hallway, Before & After!

2013-03-08T19:34:00.000-05:00

Hallways?
Really? I expect you to get all excited to look at pictures of my hallway?

YES. I do. First of all, having a hall is kind of a big deal in NYC- apartments are tiny here, so tiny, there is no room for hallways, and so tiny you can see everyone in every room from anywhere.

We have been big-time blessed to have a pretty roomy apartment here in The Harlem. We also have two nooks! Nooks, I say! Wait til you see what we did with them!

So without further ado- our hallways. As you may know, we got a great deal on this apartment partly because it was in such bad shape. We renovated the whole thing by ourselves.
Much of the step-by-step here in the halls is the same as the Master Bedroom.

First step: the "before" phase!

This is nook #1. Behind the wall is the kitchen. We used Rustoleum to spray paint the gray-dinge rusty radiators so they were bright white and shiny!

You can really see all the wall staining that had accumulated over the years.

The old carpet was stapled to the concrete floor, so the little spots on the floor are bits of carpet padding caught in the staples. Andy pulled all those out with our prybar.

If you back up from the window, you can see the doorway to the kitchen, and some extra junk lying around. The owner took forever to get her old stuff out of the apartment.

More carpet staples to pull here too. Notice, while you're at it, the ugly tile kitchen flooring.

If you go around the corner above, this is the view.

Bathroom and 2nd bedroom on the right, two closets on the left, and the Master Bedroom at the end of the hall. Notice the big container of ceiling paint on the floor- that's why there's blue tape all the way down the top edge of the wall. This is right after the ceiling had been painted. You'll see we tried out a few paint colors on the walls here.

Our awesome friends, Audra and Jill, came over and helped us paint the trim in the hall. We bought them Wendy's as a thank you (lame).

Audra, paintbrush, Me, paintbrush, Jill, paintbrush

Our favorite color in our whole apartment is this deep teal called Cathedral by Behr. We ended up painting both nooks in it. Jill did the first coat...

With Andy supervision...?

Andy did coat #2. What did I do? I took pictures, ran to Wendy's, and tried to find a station to listen to on the radio... we found the book of II Kings being read aloud and a Soul station. Better luck next time.

No actually, I painted a ton of trim that day. Just sayin'.

We used the sconces that came with the apartment and used the same Rustoleum to paint the brass bases white. Totally transformed! Here's the freshly painted hall:

The wall color is called Reflecting Pool- it's a super light gray with a teeny bit of blue. The trim color is Hushed White, both are by Behr.

Then Andy put in the floor, as I Goo-Gone'd any patches of flooring glue that got left over along the way. For a long time we were walking around in slippers on the concrete, then taking them off whenever we'd walk on the bits of floor that were done.

One day, the floor in the hallway was done, the trim was painted, the radiator cover was reinstalled, and there was great rejoicing!

Now, the nook above... what do you do with a nook like that?
We thought- inspired by a certain post on Young House Love (here)- we should build in a double desk. Andy's company was moving, so they were getting rid of real nice office chairs and computer monitors, and Andy's second request after asking me to marry him was, "Can we have a file cabinet in our future apartment? I want to be able to file things." Man Moments again.

Not only did I say yes to both questions, I built the file cabinets myself. I have a hidden talent for putting furniture together. I'd do it for a Frosty anytime.

I made two of these.

Tired, Penelope? "Yawn... this is soooo easy"

I'm so good at putting furniture together that I even noticed when the manufacturer made a mistake. They attached the metal drawer shaft to the wrong side of one of the drawer pieces. Yeah.

Meanwhile, Andy was measuring and installing a brace for our desk. We bought a wooden butcher block countertop at Ikea to use as the desktop. It was probably the heaviest thing I've ever lifted.

We had to cut out a small piece so it would "nestle" into the nook.

Then we nestled it!
Look how nice it looks! We also ordered blinds for every window that roughly matched the floor color and installed those too.

Looking good right?

Here is the brace on the right wall. Nice construction, eh?

One of the most ingenious parts was how Andy finagled the holes for all the wires and cables.

The wires go through a 2" hole he drilled in the desk (insert little cap thingy), and they come out behind the file cabinets so you can't see them. They plug into a power strip that is attached to the bottom of the desk. In the end, you only see one cord plugging into the wall next to the desk. The rest is hidden.

Did I mention that my amateur electrician husband also installed new can lights on a dimmer above the desk? So cool!

After adding chairs, computers, office supplies, curtains, etc, we have THIS:

New built-in desk! Naturally, Andy immediately started filing things.

It's probably our favorite feature of our whole renovation. We love it. I'm sitting at it right now! If I turn and look down the hall, I see this:

Check out the pretty white baseboards too!

As for the second nook, we are currently using it as a little reading nook. It's actually wasted space- I'll be honest, I've rarely read there. It's in a south-facing window, so it might be a good place to start a little indoor garden. Hm... ideas, ideas! Do you have any other thoughts?

I'll finish you off with a few Nook #2 details that I like!

Special chair that we inherited.

This marble-top piece belonged to my grandmother.

One of my favorite wedding gifts- it's a print that was in my house growing up. It's a couple sleeping in on a Saturday morning with a city skyline out the window. My mom reframed it and gave it to me.

That's all! What do you think? I'd love to hear any ideas for Nook #2!