What's up?

Home improvement of course, but that's old already. Feels like it in anycase.

In other news, Sebastian has had some life altering changes lately. 

He announced out of the blue that avocados are his new favorite food. Funny, he wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole for the first 11 years of his life. 

Seb has also declared tennis to be the new soccer. 

Nothing better than tossing the ball around with your buddies. 

Back on the bike for me. I get to work in 15 minutes and don't really have to pedal (it's mostly downhill). Back home in 15. And I get to pass by this old church tower everyday. This photo is from the courtyard side not the street side, so I can't tell you if the church is still intact but it was an orphanage back in it's day. Now it's a prout prout apartment complex but the church tower with the clock is still there.

Makes me smile like these lovely ladies everytime.

What else....

doing a change of address for my work permit took a whopping 4 hours.Yes, FOUR HOURS! 

 That doesn't include all of the time and effort I am putting in to get my paperwork together for my french citizenship. I have gotten quite used to all the waiting and paperwork though, actually kind of scary.

Hum.....champagne, 

a notable amount of champagne has been shared during the last month or two. 

That evens out for all the waiting and paperwork.

Seb is finished with school tomorrow. A week and a half before the other schools. His school is in charge of grading all of the exams from all of Caen's middle schools taken by the students going to high school.  Does that even make sense? It's now 1:15 in the morning and I feel like I'm slipping a bit. Anyways, yep, school's out. I'm done in one week. 

So, that's what's up in our neck of the woods. 

Lots of cooking, comic book reading, sawing, painting, sunshine, barbecuing,

 purging, discovering and all around good stuff.

Soo funny....

 So remember this picture from 2012?

I wrote.....

 "Our Christmas upgrades......

Not only did Santa bring us a car stereo, he also left us something extra special for the toyota corolla. A gold sphere lance launcher self defense system. (say that fast three times)"

Stephane had found this gold and black coat stand in the street destined for the garbage. Being the recyclers that we are we gave it a home. 

Fast forward five years....

A few weeks ago I was paging thru a home decor magazine at the library when I stumble upon this shot. I was like, hey, isn't that out coat stand?

So as it turns out this coat stand is by a known french designer Roger Féraud and dates from 1950! Hah! So funny! 

You can still find some around on the internet from 350-750€. 

Or you can just look in the garbage.

Our new digs....

So I am hesitant to post pics, since all is not done and I forgot to take pics of Seb and our room actually finished. Perhaps I'll do that when I have actually some time on my hands. But in any case, here it goes, because at least that way you can share a peak in our maddening world as of late. 

                   

So, the kitchen.....

Just a sink and closet with lovely tilework everywhere.

And, shazam...wall tiles are off, cabinets are in.

 No sink or appliances in yet. 

     

 Oak counter top on, above cabinets and half of the exhaust fan.

Washing machine in, cabinet doors on, flooring replaced and backsplash on. 

What's left? Well, put the shelves in the closet, baseboards, sand, paint and put back the kitchen door. Grout the tiles and last but not least move the refridge from the living room to the kitchen. One day maybe we'll take the protective plastic off of the cabinets, but not just yet. Too many paint brushes flying around. So that is the kitchen. It sure is nice to be able to have the three of us in there at the same time. Seb has taken up making cakes and his picnic lunches. Go Seb!

On to the office/guest room. Doesn't it look warm cozy and inviting?

This is the storage room until Lynn and Mark get here at which point I am going to snap my fingers and it is all going to magically disappear......

The main man's bedroom. Seb's got a balcony with a view to the street and parking. Still haven't gotten the proper plants to block the view, but patience my little Jedi, patience.

That's dark burgundy and smoky cigarette smelling off white wall paper 

with a lovely used and abused carpet. 

I did find these treasures penciled on the wall after peeling off the paper. 

Very Tim Burtonish, was sad to paint over them.

Umbrella man, 

an extra back up umbrella and bird man.  

Under that lavish carpet was this ever so lovely blue lino. Here his walls are painted white and I did the back wall in a silver/grey wallpaper. 

Presto, new floor in, ready for the little guy.

Here's the swanky view coming out of the office towards the kitchen. 

I'll spare you the bathroom shots. Just an old outdated bathroom, but functioning so we are happy as clams to be able to be washing our paint brushes as well as our dusty grimy selves in a not so new bathroom for the moment. Patience my little Jedi. 

On to our bedroom.....

More purple...if it's not dark burgundy, it's purple.

Lots and lots of purple. 

Don't have any after shots yet, but it just needs the baseboards installed on three walls and EVERYTHING in there is finished down to the new outlet covers. 

This is the view from our bedroom and I am just realizing that in the month since I took this picture how much all of the shrubs and flowers have grown. There are tons of birds around here and they are pretty loud, better than our old loud neighbors. 

Our stupid cat has also taken to jumping off our window ledge (only at 4am) and then meowing until I wake up and go outside and fetch him. After the third time, he did figure out how to jump onto Seb's balcony but still meows to wake you up and let him in. Thankfully the hot spell is over so we don't have to sleep with the windows open for dodo to jump out. 

And last but not least the living room. 

Not much has changed in here except the fact that there is no longer a washing machine in it. The  couch is still wrapped in plastic up on it's side, and it's more or less our workshop. The walls need repainting, the floor needs to be redone, curtains and floorboards painted. Patience my little Jedi.....

So there you have it.....our crazy work in progress. Not missing the old hood or neighbors. Happy to have a place to invest our time and energy in knowing that it's ours. 

Chenedouit Happenings...

Very proud of my jar and cork idea. 

Seb's garden is kickin' butt.... 

We've got salad.... 

radishes....

red onions....

a forest of kohlrabi

rhubarb for a non bulgar tart this year,

 and shallots born and bred here in Chenedouit, 

graciously offered to me by our 82 year old (still gardening) neighbor

Moving on to the decorative section of our tour.... 

wild purple columbine and first time flowering white lilac.

 My peonies are getting bigger every year.

Last but not least the entertainment section of the program.

 Sebastian and his friend Tituoan making up some smores. It was wonderfully hot that weekend and they enjoyed homemade water slides and hiking, card playing and suntanning, making wildlife out of the leftovers and their personal favorite no shower for two days! I did indulge in my 11 liter shower and God, it felt good. Nothing like a little rinse after a trip to the town dump.

And before signing off, perhaps the biggest news that has hit  is the aquisition of our old washing machine from the old apartment. No hot water or indoor toilet, but hot dog we have a washing mashing and let me tell you, it's a life changer. 

Also worth mentioning...since these photos (three weeks ago) we've had a super hot spell here. Like three days last week it was 90°. SO we'll see if my cucumbers, butternut squash, pickles and zuchinni survived. I'm not holding my breath, but magical things do happen over there. You just never know.....