Christmas 2010

The Juliano-Zibel family had a great, quiet, cozy Christmas weekend at home. On Christmas Eve, we took Benjamin to see the train exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Gardens before having some friends over for dinner. On Christmas Day, Benjamin spent the day opening presents and making coffee in his new kitchen. His parents did a little cooking in the real kitchen for our neighbors who came over for dinner with Benjamin's little (girl)friend, Lizzie. See pics below.

Christmas 2010

A New Seat!

As Benji has become quite the foodie of late (bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, & peas) -- we knew we had to up the ante on his eating arrangement. Luckily, we were ready to go with Benji's new highchair. He's quite the fan!

Benji tries the high chair!

We've Been Remiss

We're sorry - we've left our adoring fans (ok, really, Benji's adoring fans) hanging with little to no information or pictures. We promise that we will share some new pics soon (truth be told, we haven't really taken any recently...), but we did want to update you on the little guy's progress.

We started Benjamin on "solids" nearly 3 weeks ago, and just this week, we are starting to make some progress. Benjamin eats rice cereal twice a day at school (the teachers think he wants to eat because he sees his friends doing so, we're not so sure) and has been experimenting with fruits and vegetables at home for dinner. Last night he ate half a banana and a cube of pureed sweet potato with no fuss. He swallowed it without the aid of a pacifier or a bottle - previously we've had to help him with the concept by giving him something to suck on.

Later this week we plan to introduce oatmeal and butternut squash.

And really, we promise to give you some pics soon!

And Then There Was Color!

So the kitchen is painted!!!! They need to come back and do a little touch up, but it's mostly done. And go us, we like the color.

It's hard to tell from the pics below, but we tried to capture the color. We also had the upstairs bath painted, which we will share when it is done (other stuff needs to be finalized, the paint is done).

We're off to the beach on Friday morning (with Ezra and the rest of the Zibel/Kolb clan), so enjoy your respective heat wave weekends!

Tried to do a close up here:



Under the bar (stools to come):



And in the context of the kitchen:

Granite? Who Needs Granite!

Many months ago, while just in the planning stages for the kitchen, we picked out the world's most expensive granite (we didn't know it at the time). As we were trying to reduce the price tag on the kitchen, we opted to go with silestone, a quartz composite that is more environmentally friendly and allegedly better than granite (even though it does not have the chi-chi value that granite does). It was also the original counter material we wanted (before falling in love with the previously mentioned granite).

NOW, we look wise beyond our years! Yesterday's New York Times article about radon seems to have started a firestorm of granite warnings (maybe it wasn't the NYT article that started, but that's what started it for me!). If you haven't heard about the granite-cancer connection, check out the Times story and this Washington Post blog.

While I am totally using this to make us look smart, this will probably get filed in the same category as "saccharin and Nutrasweet might give you cancer," but we all drink it anyway. In the meantime, however, lots of soccer moms are going to be very stressed!

Let There Be Light!

So the kitchen folks were back yesterday to put in 2 of the 3 pendant lights - the last one is backordered. The light by the back door (which might have been the worse specimen of everything that has been removed) was also replaced.

Today we had a different electrician come to put in the new chandelier.

Now that the electrical work is done the painting can commence! On Monday, the kitchen, upstairs bath, and various touch up work downstairs will begin.

We have decided we live in a totally different house than the one we bought 2 years ago!

See pics below.

FINALLY... some new pics!

Sorry for the long delay in posting... we meant to update over the holiday weekend, but getting the house back together seemed a bit more important.

SO, the pics below illustrate and almost done kitchen. The pendant lights are still on back order and painting won't be done until the end of the month, but it looks pretty much what it is going to look like and we love it! And most of our stuff has found it's new home in the cabinets.

The plumber was here again yesterday so we finally have working ice maker/filtered water to drink.




The hood went in early last week and the exhaust fan nearly blew us away as it is really powerful.

What a week!

So we apologize for the lack of photographic updates to the blog.  It's been quite a week.  We survived the Great Israeli Countertop Scandal of 2008 and have suddenly found ourselves with a functioning kitchen!

The counters went in last Thursday.  The backsplash tile also went in last Thursday.  On Friday the plumber came to hook up the appliances. (Sadly, he had to come back on Saturday -- but that's neither here nor there.)  The plumber should be coming back on Monday to hook the water/ice line up for the fridge and to put our much-needed heat in.   At some point, the electrician needs to come back to finish the lights.  The hood also needs to be put up. We assume that's happening in the very near future.

But as you can see -- we've got a kitchen!  The pictures don't quite do it justice.

We have counters!

We apologize for the lack of pictures, but we are happy to report that we do in fact have countertops!

And, we love the last minute substitution more than the original one we picked out.

Fingers crossed that our appliances go in today. We will post pictures over the weekend!

Countergate

So hopefully, countergate is coming to an end. We met with Joe on Tuesday morning, to select new counters. Needless to say, we're sticking with non-Israeli counters, as apparently the counter top industry in Israel is in the middle of a crisis. Oy vey.

Anyhow -- we've moved onward to a coffee brown silestone, a material which which should match the kitchen quite well. Apparently, it's somewhat environmentally friendly quartz. The current plan is for the counters to be installed on Thursday, with the plumber coming on Friday to get us functional.

Why you should always buy American...

So if you've been keeping track, things have gone very smoothly with the kitchen, except for the countertops. The plot thickened today when we found out that the replacement for the original material had a similar streak in it as the first. Turns out, the material is fabricated in Israel. So if we want to wait for a fresh piece, we're talking 6 to 9 months. Thus, tomorrow we will pick out a new countertop.

Schlueter Strips

In an effort to avoid our continued posting about nothing in light of the delays... we can proudly report that we have received our schlueter strips. Yup. That's right. We have a set of schlueter strips in our living room, waiting to be installed.

What, you ask, are schlueter strips? They are apparently strips that will be the edge of the backsplash tile. Not very exciting. But we've got 'em!

Joe (the designer) was at the house this morning. Counters are now supposed to be installed either Monday or Tuesday, and then -- as soon as the plumber comes -- we'll hopefully have a functioning, though not finished, kitchen.

Not to sound like a broken record...

But we are really at a stand still now. The material for our counters was not up to snuff when the company received it so they are not going to fabricate the counters with it. Which means about another week. SO sad. But it's still been less stressful than we thought so we can't complain that much (Dan, who was the messenger of this news this morning, however, might disagree with the concept of me not complaining about it!).

Update... Sort of.

So we've hit our first set back - the counters, which were supposed to go in yesterday (Monday), are delayed until Thursday, so we are really at a stand still now. That said, we are hoping the plumber can hook everything up Friday so that we are at least functional while other finish work takes place. There is a little more electrical to do, but we are close on that front as well.

Sorry for the lack of pics, but there really isn't much noticeable change to photograph. (BRAND NEW MOLDING just doesn't really come through the computer!) Stay tuned, but probably no updates until Thursday night.

Now no pictures... and no progress

We seem to have hit a standstill.

There is no news. We do not think anyone was here today. Except for Mr. or Ms. Verizon -- who fixed our phone service. Phew. If only Mr./Ms. Verizon could install countertops and finish the plumbing/electrical. Then we'd be golden.

Progress Without Pictures...

So in the sty that is our house right now we can't find our camera... and due - we think - to the storms that swept through the area yesterday, we don't have phone or internet.

Thus, we thought we'd pass along the progress the old fashion way... by word of mouth :-)

Our new refrigerator is plugged in (albeit without the water hooked up) and the old one has been taken away (may it rest in peace). The new microwave we bought over the weekend is sitting on it's own personal shelf, and both the dishwasher and range are in place, though not hooked up, as the plumber needs to do that. The new radiator is sitting in front of its assigned wall also awaiting the plumber.

Additionally, the dust wall and all the dust mats that were covering the floors are gone so cleaning can happen soon. The contractor thinks we may be done (with the exception of some minor fixes) by the end of next week (for those keeping track, that would be the end of week 4).

Hopefully, we will find our camera and Verizon will fix our service today (I think the former is more likely than the latter).

We're absolutely floored!!!!

Literally.

It truly is a historic day in America. The great divide has been bridged. It's amazing. No longer will anyone be able to look at our floor and see plywood. It's been tiled.

Actually, the kitchen really looks a lot like a kitchen. We've got the new flooring, the dishwasher is in place (though not hooked up), and most of the molding has been finished. The counters are in progress, and are supposed to be installed next Monday. There's still a lot to be done, but they seem to think we could be nearing completion by the end of next week!







But we still have 2 fridges in the living room... which should we use?!?!??!?!

Housing Crisis?!?!?!

Despite the fact that the WCPHD Honorary Kitchen Project continues, that doesn't hide the fact that there is still a crunch in the housing market these days. For an in-depth, hard-nosed interview with the CEO of Freddie Mac that aired on C-SPAN this weekend, click here. See if anyone looks familiar.

But back to our kitchen...
As of last night we had hardware on the cabinets, and we have been told that they measured for the counter yesterday (which takes about a week to fabricate).

And, we learned this morning that it's not a bunch of house elves that do the work, as we met one of the carpenters. We might have a floor later today!!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

A KITCHEN!

So we've been a little delinquent on posting. But what a few days it's been!

The pictures don't really do it justice -- but the cabinets are all up and look great. It's really opening up the room -- and looks quite nice.



Above is the view from the living room through to the kitchen (yes, we are going to get a new chandelier and move it too!).



The empty space between the cabinets is where the range will go, and the empty box on the back wall where the microwave will go.



Newly framed out windows and real sills - we may not have real window sills anywhere in this house!



Dan is playing the role of the fridge here. There's been a slight glitch in the color of the side panels, but they'll fix it. No biggie!

Preview: We have appliances sitting in our dining room...

One more day this week -- who knows what sort of fun tomorrow will bring!!

We interrupt this kichen renovation....

...for a movie review! We went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night so got home too late to update the blog. All in all, it was fun to see Indy back on the big screen. The plot was fairly weak - think Temple of Doom, not Last Crusade - but the way they brought the story full circle worked. The stunts were still outrageous and proved that Harrison Ford still has it! And bringing back Marian - played fabulously by Karen Allen, who also still has it - was quite possible the best part of the movie. Like I said, fun, but no Oscar for this movie, which is fine. Beware - really gross bug scene (and don't think it's just the scorpions... there's more).

Back to our previously scheduled blog, a preview for this evening: The cabinets are in!