believe it or not...

this is going to be my new kitchen.  husband began digging it out and tearing down the old in earnest mid-February. in order to have a proper height to the ceiling, we have to dig down more than a half a meter. and by we, i mean husband.

sabin was allowed to spray paint a bit of graffiti on one wall. it doesn't matter much, as everything has to go. the graffiti says "far is cool, and mom is too." she's not a teenager quite yet.

this was part of the barn and we've heard tales from the neighbors that those who lived here before kept a boar in here. when we moved in, we could see that they'd had chickens inside. we've just had things stored here. with some straw bales and a smoke machine, its natural cobwebs made for a wonderfully spooky room for a halloween party.

the bearing beams in the room are metal and were salvaged from a little old railway track that once ran down to our lake, from back when they were digging out peat for fuel. it's really the only nice historical detail in the room. otherwise, husband is running into a wide variety of materials - apparently whatever they could scrounge to cobble things together over the years.

he found a lot of perfect round paving stones when he dug down about 40cm, so it once had a nice cobble floor (you can see a few of those in the foreground on this shot). he's saved them, so we can reuse them somewhere - perhaps in the patio area that will be outside this room when it's finished.

husband's working on the foundation for a new pantry - that's what all this nice brickwork is for. he's never really bricked before, but this is good practice and since he's such a perfectionist, it looks pretty awesome.

he wants to see the new pantry go in, because he says he needs to see some progress. i have to admit that i will be happy to see some as well.

the plan is for this to be a rather industrial kitchen - i've called it the curry kitchen in my head all the way along - as in the kitchen where you make your curries, to keep the rest of the house from smelling like curry all the time. but ultimately, it will be for canning and processing juice and even butchering the odd hog or perhaps even sheep. we'll tile with white subway tiles, have a stainless steel sink and countertop and everything will be easily hosed down and rinsed. i'd like it to be ready to have approved as a restaurant kitchen if we decide to go the bed & breakfast/café route someday.

it is going to be our real kitchen for some years - and as soon as it's in, i can get rid of the horrible pink one and we can tear down that part of the house. eventually, we will build an addition that will have a big new kitchen, heated by and built around an Aga. but this will be pretty good in the meantime. there will be room for a big island and for our kitchen table, so i'm certain it will become our favorite room in the house.

husband wanted me to include a closeup shot of his pretty brickwork. so please praise him! i will keep you posted on how it's going. as you can see, it's a rather big undertaking. and we've only found a few pig bones (at least i hope that's what they were) along the way.

happy weekend!

bread was baked. food was prepared. wine was drunk. cards were played. spirited discussions were discussed. and much laughter was laughed in the famous kitchen today.

happy weekend.

my kitchen is famous!

here it is, the link to the apartment therapy piece on my kitchen!

just another reason to love flickr ! you can get "discovered" there! this just totally made my whole weekend!

before & after

i'm so excited i can't sleep. our kitchen is going to be featured on apartment therapy: SF in the next couple of hours (i'll have to sleep before then, it's almost 1 a.m. now!). it's not up yet, so i can't link to the actual post yet, but will definitely update tomorrow!  i'm so excited because i've been checking out apartment therapy for home decor inspiration for ages and never imagined that my own kitchen would ever appear there!

just to refresh all of our memories, here's what the kitchen looked like last june:

and here's what it looked like yesterday:

and now, it's time for bed. just had to share the excitement! thank you apartment therapy!

whoa, do people actually LIVE here?

progress was made yesterday, i emptied three boxes of books. there are still, sadly (or perhaps shockingly) ELEVEN more to empty (tho' thankfully not all of them are completely full)! which means i have to make ANOTHER run to ikea today. we'll line the whole top of the room with bookshelves, which should just about do it. it will also take some of the stark whiteness away from the room. it's a bit too swedish for me at the moment, but my husband has indulged his inner swede. he grinned and said it had taken him ten years to be allowed to let his swedish side out and paint a room white. i told him i'd do my best to see that it didn't happen again.  i will admit in this case that the room is amazing and part of the reason is that it's white.

the view from ground level:

and above:

and yes, that's a CD player on the red-topped købmandsdisk (what are those things called in english?). my mom would call it a buffet, but it's really a big chest of drawers that once stood in a shop. the one in this picture used to be in my father-in-law's house in, you guessed it, sweden. at least husband thinks it would be sacrilege to paint it white. it must remain as it was in peter's house. anyway, back to the CD player. despite our iPod intensive household, years of music love have resulted in about 1000 CDs, which we still have and still use (can you imagine how much storage space i would need to play those puppies into iTunes?), so yes, there is a CD player in the dining room. i have one of those little cords that enables you to attach an iPod, so we can still play the music we don't have on CD (and which definitely didn't come from limewire or eMule). so it's not entirely retro to have a CD player. the 90s can't really be retro yet, can they?

i hope that maybe my fabulous patchwork might arrive from south africa today so i can get started on turning it into a massive "canvas" in the space above the dining room! i'm trying not to hold my breath and be too impatient about it.

in the meantime, i have to make do with heather's vinyl protea stickers. i have one left to put up, it got a little dark on me yesterday (the electrician hasn't yet been here to fix up the lights in the kitchen), so i didn't finish. they look really cool! there will be a little shelf right below, which is why i've left so much room above the backsplash.

well, it's time to get to work on today's tasks. i must get some things done before the big trek to ikea. that list from yesterday isn't really getting any shorter (in fact, i added 5 items to it last night!)!!

and the countdown continues...

what i've been up to this weekend

much progress has been made inside the house this weekend. we sanded and oiled the new oak floors. yes, we did this previously in the kitchen, but now that the floor is laid in the addition as well, the boys decided to sand and treat it all again.

i think the way they joined the old house and the addition is just beautiful!

a single moment to rest and photograph after the first batch of oil treatment.

the entire addition floor after being treated with oil.

we wiped it all down by hand.

that was not easy.

i hung 14 colorful tealight holders in the greenhouse.

they were magical when it got dark.

why is the greenhouse, which has been made of all the odds and ends from the rest of the project, our very favorite place to be?

i made four trips to ikea (3 on friday, 1 today)

one of the results was these new karlstad chairs in an orange & red pattern that's perfect in the kitchen.

i can scarcely believe it, but when i just looked up that link to the chairs, i found out that they are actually about $50 CHEAPER in denmark! it must be the ONLY thing in the world that's cheaper here.

although the windowsills are all still full of painting and sanding supplies,

it starts to looks like people live here!

note my fabulous skinny la minx eep towel on the stove!

ignore the box-laden hallway and the stairs that need painting.

it's starting to be a home again!!

but we have a busy couple of weeks ahead, closing in on the big party on aug. 30!

painting time is thinking time

i continue to paint the big drawer thingie (købmandsdisk--danish just has a better word for it!) in the kitchen and the slow, methodical work lends itself to thinking and flights of fancy. i think i'll be a bit sad when it's finished (which is soon) because i actually feel that the repetitive, not particularly creative act of brushing creamy white paint on wood has awakened inspiration within me at last. 

so many ideas are coming to me--writing ideas (something fun on great restaurants in out-of-the way places for scanorama), ideas for starting a creative "support group," so i have people to do creative stuff with (this means you, janni!), home decor (i'm thinking petroglyphs) and some ideas for more gocco notebooks (also thinking petroglyphs), new earrings, and yes, even scrapping! i printed a whole lot of pictures last night and made what i can only characterize as a breakthrough scrap page. (not because it was particularly good, but mostly because it's the first one i've made in months, despite continuing to buy supplies like there's no tomorrow.)

and although the desk looks a mess, it's just the kind of mess that i've been longing for...

ideas i had ages ago are returning to me...stamping cavafy's ithaca on the stairs is one of them. i'm also getting new ideas...a treasure map painting on a wall in the garden. small colorful tea-light holders hung all over the garden. bright print fabric pillows and cushions and tablecloths. 

all these months of gathering bits of inspiration and tacking them to the board beside my desk, seeking inspiration online and in magazine and books is finally paying off. i just had to give myself time to let the ideas gel.

if only a great name for my etsy shop would come to me, that's currently the obstacle that's stopping me on that front. perhaps it will tomorrow when i finish up the painting.

or perhaps it's all just paint fumes...

and we have a floor!

husband laid the last floorboards in the kitchen today. he's such a keeper.

i think he may have left all that junk in the floor

doesn't he look happy with the big sander?

i've been painting the island.

i'm not done yet.

oak totally rocks.

it's gonna be beautiful!

and totally worth the pain and suffering.

"heavier than a dead preacher"

enough of the oak floor is now in to bring in the centerpiece of our kitchen.

that would be this "købmandsdisk"

we bought it from the long-haired gentleman at the other end.

i wrote about him previously. 

it took quite an effort getting it in (hence the title of this posting).

and here it is standing in its place in the kitchen.

the bit where the wire is sticking up out of the floor on the left

is where the smeg stove is going to stand.

hopefully within the next few days.

the view from the other side.

21 drawers.

we had an oak countertop put on top.

and i will paint it creamy white over the next week.

we were so happy to stumble across this beauty, which once stood in a shop somewhere (we unfortunately do not know where). we had looked in all of the kitchen stores and were not pleased with what you could get for your money there..prefab cupboards that cost a fortune and aren't even solid wood. 

so we decided to make this the centerpiece of the room. there'll be plenty of room for lots of people to roll out and make cookies at once. or chop veggies for fajitas. and lots of storage in all of those drawers. 

i'm certain this will be worth all of the effort! i intend to survive it!

getting back on the proverbial horse...

after friday evening's outdoor cooking mishap, on the principle of getting right back on that horse that just bucked you off, i decided not to let too much time go by before cooking outdoors again (of course, with no kitchen, i haven't got much choice).  so, after a visit to the new fishmonger in town and stocking up on wood for the old outdoor stove i was in business.

large, plump scallops marinated in white wine, organic rapeseed oil, 

orange juice, a shaving of orange peel, fennel tops and fresh garlic were on the menu.

they sizzled away in the pan and were none the worse for having been on the ground because YES, i dropped them AGAIN!!  this time, before cooking, so they could be rinsed and a new marinade quickly whipped up. 

and the main course--red mullet filets slathered in pesto,

which i managed NOT to drop on the ground.

the scallops were served with toast drizzled in golden rapeseed oil.

and so i redeemed the catastrophe of the previous night.  the fish was served with a simple potato salad consisting of new potatoes with the skins on, fresh white new onions tossed in the same pesto as the fish.  and it was an unquestionable success. and made me feel a whole lot better. it almost make it ok, just for a few minutes, not to have a kitchen.

keeping my vibe down

"i am someone easy to leave"

"even easier to forget"

a voice, if inaccurate.

did you ever have one of those days? well, it was otherwise a good day what with the retail therapy and all, but it's definitely been one of THOSE evenings.  

"i'm the one they all run from"

diatribes of clouded sun

someone help me find the pause button

you are all painfully aware of my kitchenless state. however, i was able to begin using my new kitchen sink today, which was a step in the right direction. tho' several times i still found myself taking dishes out to the bathroom. amazing how quickly one learns new habits and has to unlearn them.

all these tapes in my head swirl around

keeping my vibe down

so, inspired by having an actual sink, i bought salmon to cook on the grill. and i bought a mandolin to make a lovely salad of the fennel, zucchini, baby carrots and fresh new garlic that came in my dogme box from årsiderne today. i even went and got salty macadamias from Irma, although i don't even want to think about the food miles on those. i put the salmon in a pan in a bed of lemon, doused it in gorgeous, yellow, local, organic rapeseed oil and an inspire chardonnay blend from spiers (one of my favorite south african wineries--moyo, their restaurant is AWESOME, but i digress) and covered it in the fresh dill that came in the box so it could poach in the pan on the grill. in short, i actually felt inspired.

all these thoughts in my head aren't my own

wreaking havoc

silly me.

"i'm too exhausting to be loved"

"a volatile chemical"

"best to quarantine and cut off"

the kids set the table in the circle.  the sun was shining. the rest of the spiers bottle was chilled and sweating beads of moisture onto the bright linen tablecloth.  the fennel salad and a bowl of tzaziki were on the table awaiting the delicately poached salmon.  

all these tapes in my head swirl around

keeping my vibe down

all these thoughts in my head aren't my own

wreaking havoc

i called everyone to the table. the pan was hot and i had no gloves, relying on my inner chef's asbestos hands, so i set it on a chair that was next to the table.  and before i could do anything, it fell on the ground.  upside down. spilling my lovely salmon into snail trails, leaves and dirt, spoiling the whole thing.

"i'm but a thorn in your sweet side"

"you'd be better off without me"

"it'd be best to leave at once"

initially i swore up a storm, even inventing a few new swear words in the process. to salvage things and feed my family i went down to the grill where you can get quite delicious rotisserie chickens, which we could at least eat with the fennel salad and tzaziki i made.

all these tapes in my head swirl around

keeping my vibe down

all these thoughts in my head aren't my own

wreaking havoc

looking back, i think where it began to go wrong was when we opened the mail and received this invitation to a symposium in honor of my father-in-law that will be held this fall:

he died just after the first of the year two years ago. he was such a special person and we have so many of his books in our home. the invitation has a watermark of his signature in it. and it got me all on the wrong foot. he was very dear to me and made it clear that he loved me and accepted me wholeheartedly into the family. i worked closely with him on his technolution project, translating and editing for him to ensure the english was correct, my translations even being part of his exhibition at the library in alexandria, egypt a number of years ago.

when i ordered the wegner chairs today, it was to complement the first 4 he gave to us. as i photographed my bookshelves yesterday, he was on my mind, as our whole evolution collection was his. i love so much enountering his marginalia as i read his books, but somehow seeing his handwriting makes me realize he's no longer here.

he was a brilliant man. he invented a field of study of which he was the first professor at lund university in sweden. he surely had so much left to think and write and discuss. and i suddenly miss him so much.

but listening to alanis morissette helps me and it's her song tapes which i wove into the beginning of this posting.  sometimes you just have to wallow in your sorrow and cry your eyes out.

the spirit is willing...

....oh, ok, i admit it, the spirit is also very weak. in theory i want to live more simply, not have so much stuff, not define myself so much by the stuff. i love the IDEA of that. however, i'm trying to put together a brand new kitchen here. like the kitchen of my dreams. and that involves stuff. pretty stuff. stuff like this:

hans j. wegner's classic "y" chair

i know, we already have 4, but we need 8

we're gonna have guests!

and this tom rossau lamp was just so gorgeous.

so i heard myself say, "give me two."

oh. and one of those, please.  in red, to match my retro smeg fridge.

and i do so adore a good café latté. 

and it has that retro feel to go with the...

yes, i believe i already mentioned the smeg fridge.

what is even more worrying is the high i get from such an expedition. the sheer elation that infuses my being when i acquire (or even just order) gorgeous, high quality kitchen and dining room items (disturbingly close to the happy feeling i had last week when i bought my iMac and brought it home and just gazed upon it, caressing it ever-so-lightly). it makes me SOOOoooo happy! like jump for joy, do cartwheels right there in the middle of shop (luckily i did not, as they have a lot of breakable things), engage in insane happy dance kind of pure happiness. i will appreciate these things in my new kitchen. we will use them every day. because they are good quality, they are an investment in sabin's future as well (ok, that smacks a little bit of self-justification, I GET THAT).

as soon as the house is done, we're totally on track towards a simpler life...i'm sure of it.

progress in the kitchen

new oak floor going in.  

husband is a brilliant handyman!

the circle he cut out in the floor around the brændeovn is brilliant

we'll have tile there to protect from fire.

the stove has arrived (in the shop) and is ready to be delivered later this week.

refrigerator is in too!  and so is the dishwasher (it just made for a boring pic)

this brændeovn went in a couple of weeks ago, but i don't think i really showed it before

it's wonderful because it's both stove for efficient heating and fireplace with the glass open.

we will get through this and it will be worth it.

and we're going to keep the walls yellow, we decided today.

of clogged brains and coping (or lack thereof)

there are so many things i haven't been doing of late:

1. blogging
2. dusting/vacuuming
3. cooking
4. laundry
5. commenting on all my favorite blogs (i'm still reading them in sneaked moments, however i'm but a lurker at the moment)

but i blame this:

still no sink, no dishwasher, no floor, no refrigerator, no nuthin'!

floorboards stacked.  junk everywhere. and did i mention the dust?

living like this does something to clog your mind.  it inhibits you.  it fogs your thinking.

or is that just the junk food i'm eating since i can't cook?  too many pizzas and shawarmas.  and salty chicken from the chicken grill.  and too many fries.

this lack of kitchen, this was my CHANCE.  my chance to eat a raw diet.  to eat more salads.  to be healthier.  i was not supposed to eat a bunch of junk!!  of course, it's not too late.  i could still kick in and do something about it. especially in light of the fact that the end is NOWHERE IN SIGHT!!!!   and in fact, for dinner this evening, i did.  i made a big bowl of salady bits (arugula, kohlrabi, tomato, cucumber, yellow pepper, lettuce, artichoke), took 3 forks, went out to the table in the circle and ate this lovely salad in the evening sunshine with my family.  

maybe i feel sluggish because i haven't been eating right.  all that junk clogs your brain. you are, after all, what you eat.  so i am one giant pizza with shawarma on it at the moment.  this is not good.  

i want my kitchen back!!