Je Mange la Ville is going on a break until the 26th or 27th of December. I hope everyone has a great few days. My first post next week will probably be of our Christmas dinner: Roasted Cornish Game Hens, Creamed Spinach and Roasted Root Vegetables. Mmm!

Yesterday, we had our marmoleum kitchen floor installed and we love it. It’s completely worth not having a refrigerator in the kitchen for the next 36 hours while it continues doing whatever it’s doing before we seal it Wednesday night. We do have a fridge in the garage though, so that is helpful. I’m just not doing much cooking for the next couple of days. Again, though, completely worth it!

The Details
I seriously thought this would never happen. We started by going to Marion’s Carpets, which stocks marmoleum and in the beginning, seemed that they would be easy to work with. Nope. Now, perhaps carpet through them is fine, but trying to get Marmoleum purchased and installed through Marion’s was like trying to get the kitchen floor covered in gold, with the work only being able to be completed by exotic and highly-skilled, yet surly circus animals. Also, Marion’s was very bad at returning phone calls. In addition, we had to put a deposit down for materials before we could get an estimate (we got this back). Oh and they are overpriced. Blah.

Plus, the contractor they sent out never left us with a bid sheet or an estimate of his costs — we just got the cost for the marmoleum (about $800!!?). While trying to get an answer as to why the estimate was so high, our salesman asked if jwa (the male) was home while the measurements were taken on the kitchen. Because, I kid you not, as a female, apparently, I may not have noticed if the contractor had accidentally measured the dining room and the living room as well. Uh. Okay. Buh-bye, Marion’s. You suck.

We next tried to get a few basic installation estimates from other contractors but without much luck. Why is it so hard to find someone who is bonded, reliable and knows what they are doing?

The marmoleum sits in the dining room…waiting

Finally, we turned to (and should have used from the beginning) Linoleum City. Their Marmoleum prices are about $10 less per square yard than Marion’s. Plus, they work with Dave from DJs Floors for installation, who, in a word, is awesome. Our materials costs came to about $450 through Linoleum City — oh, don’t ask me how the hell the Marion’s contractor measured — I’m just a girl!

About a 1/3 done…Hooray!

Dave and his son came early Monday morning and patched up the old floor where it was coming up and covered the whole floor lightly with a cement-like topping. Let it dry and scuffed it up so the Marmoleum adhesive would have something to hold on to well. Then, they started to put the Indian Summer floor down.

Almost there!

Another good thing is that DJ’s Floors is bonded and insured. Seems like a given but you’d be surprised at how many contractors we met with that were not. This is a good source for finding out that information (in Oregon — I’m sure every state has this type of information online, you should seek it out).

So, we will be eating out the next couple of days (Detour Cafe for Breakfast on Monday and PokPok for dinner that night — basement dining room opening in about a month, by the way. Oh and the new lamb skewer special is really good!)

The kitchen when we first bought the house (almost) 4 years ago and now. The counter tops are the next to go.

Resources

We recently decided to get a TV armoir to hide the television when not in use and to make the living room look a little nicer. Not wanting to spend thousands of dollars, we opted to buy something we would assemble ourselves. We did and it was pretty much hitchless. Sure, the first item assembled — a drawer — got taken apart twice (!) to fix misreading the directions (twice), but after that, it came together nicely.

And so it begins. Everthing is unpacked and laid out on the floor. Huh. That’s a lot of pieces.

jwa devises an evil plan for world domination with a Target armoir. It involves a screwdriver, wood glue and some salty language.

It’s starting to take form around 10:15 pm. We began the project around 7:00 but had an hour break for dinner around 8:00. We had a really tasty sake poached salmon dish with udon noodles and a soy, wasabi and citrus dressing. This was topped with mango slices, green onions and sesame seeds. Don’t worry, recipe coming this week!

jwa devises part two of his evil genius plan with the help of the instructions.

Chelsea is rather unimpressed. Her plan for world domination is really so much further along.

It’s upright around 10:45 PM.

Now it’s even in the right position. And with the tv in the designated tv position!

Next morning, it’s all still standing. Hooray! Project screaming cabinet doors of freedom commences. It’s successful.

Now we just need to try and fit the stereo equipment in there too. It might involve building a new shelf. Perhaps next weekend?

So, my SHF dish is done but my extra-credit materials are not. So, SHF post this weekend. Today, we bask in the glory that is my finished (!) mosaic project — see, the last post was almost a year ago.

We live in a bungalow. When you go up the stairs, there is a counter with built-in bookshelves, a bathroom and three bedrooms. When we first moved in, I knew I wanted to do something fun with this large 12 foot by 1 1/2 foot counter top space. I just didn’t know what exactly. I just wanted to add something to the house that would be here after we left. Sort of like adding a piece of mine and jwa’s history to our house.

Then it came to me. A mosaic. There’s shattering glass involved, toxic fumes, grout, it’s some-what permanent and it involves hours and hours (and hours) of tedious work! It’s perfect. It started well. I think I finished laying out half the glass tile designs in the first three months. But then…

I had longer and longer breaks between work sessions. Then, two years passed. Well, finally last week I laid the last piece of cut glass down and then I grouted the whole damn thing. (Very messy!)

But it’s done. And I feel a huuuuuge sense of accomplishment. Yay!

Today is a kind of lazy posting day. Today is about the backyard and garden. Last year we got a table and two chairs on clearance at Fred Meyer. We only got two chairs, as that is all they had left. This year we picked up two matching chairs (well, very slightly different but it’s pretty unnoticeable). Thank you, FM and your predictable seasonal stock!

We also got an umbrella which provides shade and nice shots like this.

The sky was so incredibly blue that day. I sat outside and took pictures while jwa did all the yard work. Excellent. But then, he sits on the couch and watches TV with a bag of cheesy poofs while I unpack all the groceries on occasion, so I think it’s fair.

I recently captured a bumble bee in a squash blossom. We call this the mystery squash. It just came up this year ad we have no idea which kind it is. We’re thinking maybe pumpkin but we’ve also grown acorn, spaghetti, butternut and zucchini.

Dahlia in the backyard.

A shot of the garden beds. This year we have tomatoes, a few mystery squash, carrots, radishes and leeks. We also have basil, bay, oregano and thyme growing in the beds.

A couple of months ago we bought a bag of live lady bugs at Fred Meyer and had a Lady Bug Release Party. It was fun — I only got a little freaked out when about 50 of them stormed the bag opening and started crawling up my arm. Then, I handed the bag back to jwa.

We placed them in the front and back yards. I love that I live in a place where I can go to the store and buy eggs, cotton balls, wheat pasta, new jeans and oh, a bag of 1200 live lady bugs!

Here’s a shot of one of the tomato plants. This one’s a Roma. We also have an heirloom variety but I forget which kind and I’m too lazy to run down and check.

Okay, tomorrow is Greek Chicken Pie (finally!) and Friday will be my SHF post.

Indian Summer

Thank you, Photoshop
Last night, I took our three contenders, Indian Summer, Red Copper and Henna (jwa got the sample finally), laid them out, took pictures and made somewhat-crappy-yet-still-helpful photoshop images showing each floor choice color.

Henna

The whole look that we are going for is relatively bright and cheery with warm tones. We want it to be inviting — to wake us up in the morning and welcome us home at night. Is that too much to ask? Oh, and hide pasta sauce spills! Still kidding!

Red Copper

I think Indian Summer is our favorite. I love Henna, but it seems a little dark. Red Copper seems a little bright. Indian Summer might be just right. I also think the Indian Summer is a balanced tone with the walls, where again, the Copper is a bit bright and the Henna is a bit dark.

And, I did consider briefly putting in patterns or using more than one color but jwa really didn’t like that idea — and he’s paying for it so I guess he gets a vote. I still think patterns would be cool but I’m going to be extremely happy with a new floor — and an orange one at that! Plus, the more cuts they need to do (for patterns and designs and even around corners and stuff), the more expensive it is. And marmoleum, as awesome as it is, isn’t super cheap…

Speaking of which, next comes getting the estimate, which is never as much fun as picking out the color….

Next week: IMBB/SHF, Chicken stuffed with pistachios and mushrooms, oh, I think WCC is coming up, and perhaps an orange cake.

Since I spend so much time cooking and making messes in the kitchen, it’s an environment that is very important to me. Since we’ve moved into the house, I’ve painted the walls, the cabinets, gotten new hardware for the cabinets and we’ve replaced the old refrigerator.

Now, we are starting to investigate new kitchen floor options. I think I have it narrowed down to the material a least — now we just need a color. But first, let me talk about how much I dislike the current floor. It’s gray and dingy and coming apart at the seams. Literally. I’ve tripped over the seam many times and even ripped some of the flooring off the…well…floor. The old floor is gross and shows all kinds of kitchen mishaps and spills. And it’s dangerous! One day I will be carrying a beautiful plate of tuna or something similarly tasty and I will trip and the tuna will go sailing across the dining room, like only a plate of seared tuna with a soy-ginger dipping sauce can…

Okay, with that out of my system, I’ll now move on and profess my love for Marmoleum — what will hopefully become the new floor. It’s pretty, comes in great colors, easy to walk on, natural, biodegradable and endorsed by hippies. What more could one want in a flooring material?

Here are our first round of choices: Indian Summer (the darker orange), Red Copper (the lighter orange) and Eucalyptus (green). We also picked Henna, but that sample didn’t come in yet. That’s a very dark orange.

I am currently torn between the two oranges shown above, where as jwa likes the Red Copper best. Although, both will hide pasta sauce spills quite nicely, so I am happy either way. Joking! I clean the floor! Yeah! Ha!

My only concern with Red Copper, is that it may contrast (or not contrast at all) weirdly against the oak floor in the dining room. I like the bolder marbling effect in Indian Summer, but the lighter orange does look great against the white cabinets. They pop! Pop, I say.

Currently, the walls are a color called “squash” and the cabinets are bright white. jwa is going to pick up a Henna marmoleum sample (right?) from a different store today, but I think that may be too dark. We’ll see.

So, any ideas on the three floor color choices so far? Are we all leaning towards Red Copper? Or will Indian Summer make a comeback? And the green — meh?

Today’s post was supposed to be about Bay Area hotels but my chair was just delivered and well…I’m slightly giddy with happiness. It’s so BIG and COMFY and I love it! LOVE IT! The chair is from Dania and I have longed for it for over two years.

I need to go into work now but honestly, I just want to sit in it all day and maybe take a comfy little nap.

Sure, there will most likely be hairballs and spilled wine and who knows what else in the future. But right now? It’s just perfect!

Soon: hotels, dinner at Farallon, creamy roasted garlic and tomato soup and more phyllo! Whee!

We carved our pumpkins Friday night (after bowls of butternut squash risotto — recipe coming later in the week) and some wine. It’s always fun to use knives after a bottle of wine! Yay!

Hollowing out the pumpkin is always my least favorite part. It’s very messy but a necessary step, I suppose.

jwa works on his pumpkin in a way that makes me concerned for his fingers. Spencer, (to the right, under the chair), remains uninterested.

I like the way mine turned out this year. Sharp, pointy teeth! Grrr!

jwa made a robot pumpkin. Eep.

Robot pumpkin in profile. Robot pumpkin hungry. Robot pumpkin eat stool. ::crunch:: ::munch:: ::crunch::

Pumpkin teeth cam! Huh, I hope the camera doesn’t smell like pumpkin now…

My pumpkin surveys the living room with his evil, glowy teeth of doom.

Guarding the door. Excellent. More candy for us.

Today is a house post and is heavy on the visuals. It’s one of those this room used to look like this — but now it looks like this deals. I hope eventually, to do this for every room in the house that we’ve altered. I’ve already done the kitchen and the hallway posts, now I just have my office, the bedroom and the back porch to go!

The Dining Room:
When we first moved into the house, the dining room did not look like the above picture. It had a light, floral wallpaper and lacy curtains. Which, I’m sure some people really like. We, however, hated it. One of the main problems, besides the fugly wallpaper, was the fact that ivory, faint wallpaper next to off-white crown moulding provides no contrast. It seriously begs the question, what’s the point? If you have nice moulding and trim around doorways, windows and the ceiling, it’s nice to be able to see it. That way, people can go, “ooohhhh, crown moulding.”

So, without further introduction, here is the chronicle the dining room transformation from this:

To this:

Wallpaper Stripping is Evil:
The first step, sadly, was stripping the wallpaper. I’m not sure if you’ve done this before but it is a messy, long, tedious and boring experience. In addition, tall ceilings add nothing but more pain to the experience. I will be quite happy if I live the whole rest of my life and never have to strip wallpaper again. After asking several people for advice, we ended up using that spray on stripping gel. You spray it on a section, let it sit, then use this scrubbing tool to strip off the wet, gummy wallpaper. Fun! If you’re really lucky, you will also strip off parts of the wall like I did, as well as drip the stripping gel onto the wood floors.

As I had stripped chunks of plaster off of the walls, next came wall patching paste — dubbed miracle paste by me. Miricle paste became my best friend. I think I rebuilt whole sections of the wall surface with that stuff. Ha! And it is all still standing.

Taping & Painting:
When all of the wallpaper was gone and the wall surfaces were as uniform and smooth as they were going to get, I started the painting prep. Taping is by no means fun but by this point, I felt I was in the home stretch. Since the paint was a dark color, it took a couple of coats even after being primed. I’m sure, if you looked closely at the walls, there are even places now that could use a touch-up. Too bad, I say! One observation though, painting is nice in that it is instant gratification. Especially after all of the stripping and the wall-fixing and the assorted what-not that seemed to take forever. And, the dark red walls look great againt the white trim. Contrast!

I think the whole project probably took three or four weekends but was completely worth it.

Thus ends the saga of the comfy, dark red dining room.