Kitchen Update and More

Sorry Folks, no photos of the kitchen's finished-ness yet, but we're getting very close. Yesterday, I ordered two Gel-Pro mats for the island area and for the sink area. They are in transit as well as some nifty trays to put into the plant window of the dining room. Yes, it's true. John and I are doing our best to bolster the economy during these tough times.

Outside of the rugs, we also updated a light fixture above the kitchen island. There was much cursing involved as John battled with the ill-constructed box holding the electrical works. The end result is that it looks much brighter in that part of the kitchen, and I won't have to clip a shop light to my bookshelves anymore when I take photos of food. In fact, the bookshelves have moved to the dining room, and the Aerogarden now sits on top of the mini fridge which holds all the flours, nuts, and dried fruits.

Finally, we're still in search of an ideal replacement full-size fridge. It's pretty much impossible to find a top or bottom mount energy star fridge that meets our specifications. We should have bought the fridge prior to measuring for the cabinets. We will most likely need to compromise and find a french door fridge that doesn't have gallon-sized shelves on the doors. The limitation is that the fridge will be located adjacent to the garage door on one side and next to John's custom spice cabinet on the other. We need one that is counter-depth to fit in the space. In order to pull out any interior drawers the fridge may have, most fridge doors must open wider than the space we have (or, ideally, be a single door that opens from the left as ours currently does). Nothing about any of the work we've done on the house has been easy.

For example, you'd think that painting the new trim would be a breeze just like it's been in the past. Nope. The flooring guys used MDF on the shoe molding and wood for the baseboards. I wish they had used wood for the shoe because when I pulled up the tape after painting, the tape above the wood came off like a dream, with only two spots on the entire downstairs project to touch up (and those were small). However, on the shoe molding, the paint pulled off the MDF like it would on most plastic. It was very frustrating. I was able to smooth some pieces out, but in most of the ripped areas, I had to spend extra time touching up. No more MDF for us.

Overall, I'm the happiest about the fact that nearly all the cleaning is finally done, and I can focus on getting back to cooking/baking and doing my work for the semester. This summer session is far and away much more interesting than the spring. I'm taking a class called Art Librarianship, which is riveting. The professor is a fascinating fellow full of very interesting art history. Makes me wish I was an art history major for my undergrad, that's for sure.

The other course is highly theoretical so far. It's called Human Information Behavior, and deals with how people deal with information retrieval and other issues pertinent to knowledge workers. Sometimes the readings put me to sleep, but the class discussions and lectures are worth it.

Next week, my life becomes increasingly complex when I begin my internship at the Zimmerli Museum, specifically working for the Registrar. She's like the hub of the place. She gave me an interesting little project regarding artwork that used to be the covers of New Jersey telephone books. I had no idea Bell Telephone had commissioned New Jersey artists to produce art for telephone book covers for 30 years or so. The museum is deaccessioning (a new term for me) the artwork and giving it to the New Jersey Historical Society, so my work will be tied to that. Very cool and much more interesting than I expected.

I will be able to photograph some of the work to blog about, and when I have that set up, I'll link to it from here so you'll be able to see some of it too!