The wall

Here is my current project. In a nut shell, Michael's classroom had a giant white wall that needed "something." We brainstormed and decided on making three arched windows that looked out onto scenes of (insert something inspiring here). We don't have an artist to paint said scenes yet, but we had to start somewhere so I took on the project of "THE WALL." Since I'm not feeling particularly chatty tonight (this may change by the end of our time together), I'm just going to explain each phase in brief.

PHASE ONE: Taping

In my great wisdom I thought that it would be a great idea to tape all of the mortar rather than having to paint new mortar in. I can't say exactly which one would have been faster now that I've done it, but it took A LONG TIME to finish this phase alone.

PHASE ONE POINT FIVE: Forming arches

I enlisted the captain to draw the bottom of the arc, and then I went about taping it up and drawing in the new bricks, both behind and within the arch. This is what the wall looked like when all the taping was complete.



PHASE TWO: Painting

As you can see, this wall is quite large(roughly 32' x 11.5'), and boy does it suck paint! This was what I accomplished before school started.

PHASE THREE: Painting (2nd installment)

On Sunday, I finished up the side segments and then started painting the arches with a medium/large artist's brush. I got tuckered out standing on the ladder and twisting to reach the wall so they didn't get completely finished but I will complete them this Sunday. Here's what did make the cut.



So, there it is. On Sunday I will finish up the arch and a half and maybe, just maybe, I will start pulling of the tape. I had thought to texture all the bricks but now that I look at it, I don't know if I need to. We'll see.

We easily have the best friends in the world. You require proof? Alright. For one, our friends helped us move. Three times. In one year. (It's really amazing that they are still our friends at all.) But it's great! We seem to have it down to a science. The movees pack everything up, the boys do the heavy lifting and the girls unpack. It's a sharp system and with 8 people working we can move entire houses in a few short hours.

As much fun as it is hanging out during the moving process, it's quite tedious work and 3 moves in a year is enough to tax even the most loyal comrade. So, as a parting gift to our group of friends as we made our most recent move to Hawaii, we hired movers. Well, actually they were included in the new job contract, (Score!) but that's hardly the point.

In the weeks leading up to the move, the captain and I worked diligently to box up everything we owned, but when the big day finally dawned we still had quite a few things that needed to be stowed away before it was hauled off to the island. We had been told that the packers would be in contact with us the day before the move to set up a time when they would arrive to package up all of our breakables. This sounded great, but when 11:30pm rolled around Monday night and we had not heard from "Ye old moving company" we were somewhat concerned. When were they coming? We had no idea. Figuring that they would probably arrive around noon, we decided to call it a night and finish up in the morning.

Knowing that there was much to do, we got up before 8 the next morning and began our day. I was glad that we had decided to get the early start when, a few minutes after 8, we saw a giant moving van pull up to the curb completely unannounced, a discretion that can be excused between friends, but perhaps not between strangers. (Thankfully the captain and I had showered and were appropriately attired upon their arrival.)

As you can imagine, I was a bit flustered. Suddenly I had to load everything up and I simply wasn't ready! I was relieved to discover this was just the packing crew. The shipping container wouldn't arrive until 1pm. Whew.

With that we set about the task of boxing up "everything else." The captain and I thought we had things pretty well in hand but it was amazing how much they found to put in boxes. The overseer in me had a great time. They would ask, "Hey do you want this boxed up too?" and I would respond, "Yes!" And away it would go. Neat and tidy.
You've got to love that.

Before long our house was a mass of brown boxes and packing paper that spewed out onto the lawn. Quite the sight.




When the shipping container arrived, we just sat back and let the men do what they do. I tried to help, but quickly found that I was more of a nuisance than a help. So I sat down on the stairs and played with my ipod touch. It was the easiest move we'd ever had.



That is until we arrived in Hawaii. Suddenly we realized just how long it took to unpack an apartment. A job that normally took 3 hours suddenly ate up an entire week, and let me tell you, it kinda sucked. A lot. As I opened up box after box of kitchen items I couldn't help but remember our last move where, when we had finished unpacking we all sat down on the kitchen floor and read children's books.

Alas friends, you are missed. -sigh- Here are a few snatches from move number four.

Our new home

The Kitchen:
For any of you who have ever been into one of my kitchens, you know that I require counter space. It's not that I'm a counter hog or snob, I just need space. I believe that all kitchen types need space. It's very hard to create beautiful and tasty things when you have a 6x12" section of "counter top" to work on. Having said this, you can imagine my sight horror when, an hour after our arrival, our new friends Kate and Fred motioned to the dorm kitchen and casually said, "Yeah, your kitchen is about this size."

My heart skipped a beat as I looked at the closet of a kitchen. "Ah! Really?!" I said, before I could stop myself. "Yeah, I mean, it's about this size..." said Kate. I shot a look to Michael that said something to the effect of, "You wouldn't make me cook in a kitchen like that, would you?" or "If it's like this, we're moving." He smiled encouragingly as if to say, "It's okay honey, you can make it work." Yes, perhaps if I took a sledge hammer to that wall there...

Much to my delight, our kitchen was nothing like the closet. Here are some pictures of our apartment before we moved in.

Our door. Just in case you come looking for us.


The Kitchen. Look at all my counter space! It wraps all the way around! That being the case, we are going to get a few bar stools and not bother with getting a table.


Living room. You should see our view off the back balcony. It's lovely. We have these giant mango trees that block out the buildings we are surrounded by and makes it feel as if we are living in the wild jungle rather than the urban jungle.


Master bedroom. This doesn't show our closet on the right wall. It's nice and big, though it always amazes me how much clothing we own.


Spare oom. This also has a closet behind the door.


The bathroom. This bathroom doesn't make a lot of sense. The door frame is 25 inches wide and it doesn't have any plug-ins for a hairdryer, straightener, nightlight, whatever. I mention the door frame because this is also the room we have to fit our washer and dryer into, and if you know anything about washers and dryers 25 inches is not a standard size. The Captain and I went to Sears the other day to see what we could find and the load capacities on machines that fit through a 25 inch door space were laughable. Maybe I should just buy a washboard and do the laundry by hand...

Anyway, that is our new home! Other than the laundry room issue, and the fact that everything is eggshell white it's a great space. I am currently taking color suggestions for our walls so feel free to fire away! Aloha and Mahalo.