Perfect Timing !

Yesterday on NPR I heard a story that really made us feel good. We knew we had bought our house at a good time, when housing prices were down, but apparently we timed things absolutely perfectly.

House prices in Charlotte have risen for the past three months ... meaning we literally bought at the bottom and are making money! Ok, so prices only rose by .6% in July, so its not much money - but at least its moving in the right direction. Of course, prices in Charlotte are still down 9% from last year - but that isn't our problem!

Bajram Serif Mubarek Olsun !

That means happy Bajram!

Today is the first day of the 3-day holiday of Bajram (you may know it by its Arabic name of Eid, but in Bosnia they use the Turkish word Bajram). Its a huge holiday in Bosnia involving lots of food, family and gifts. We weren't paying attention and just figured out two days ago that it started today. Since Islamic Holidays are linked to a lunar calendar, they move, so its not like Christmas which has a set date, or Thanksgiving which is always the last Thursday in November; instead Bajram moves all over the calendar.

Anyway, we didn't have time to do much, not to mention its hard to make a big deal out of holidays here since we don't have any family to visit and no one else around us is celebrating this holiday. But I did make some Baklava for Miran, since that is the traditional desert served in Bosnia on Bajram. I just made a small pan since its so sweet we eat it very slowly.

honors seminar

To demonstrate that we actually do other stuff than play with our house, I thought I'd post about other things going on. I'm teaching an honors seminar this semester that involves participating in cultural activities around Charlotte. Here is a picture of my students and a colleague of mine on a public art walking tour of downtown that we took last week-end.




Friday night we went to the ballet and saw three short pieces. One was Tyla Tharp's "9 Sinatra Songs" that included a series of ballet duets inspired by ballroom dancing and set to the music of Frank Sinatra (with costumes by Oscar de la Renta). The middle piece was a more normative modern ballet piece called MAP. The third piece was the best - it was called "Shindig" and was accompanied by live bluegrass music. It was so much fun and full of energy. I had arranged for the choreographer of that piece, who is the director of the North Carolina Dance Theatre to come talk to the students during the intermission. So that was neat. Here is a video from youtube of a minute of that ballet:

clean stairs

Today I also got a coat of polyurethane on the stairs, that Dad had sanded last week when he was here since he pulled the carpet off for me. Luckily it was finished under the carpet and we just needed to sand a little where the nails and staples had been. I like the look much better now. Notice also the handrail I painted black.

The Kitchen is done, sort of

I finally finished the half done projects in the kitchen - I painted and polyurethaned the backsplash, painted the wall (not in the pictures), got everything back in the cabinets and got the doors on. Here are the before and after shots and another view of the kitchen.


I broke down and ordered some new hardware today online because I found some inexpensive stuff. Plan A had been to spray paint the frilly brass stuff black as a temporary solution, and to save money by not replacing the hardware now because we hope to rip the cabinets out before too long and redo the whole kitchen. But since that will probably be years and I don't like the black hardware on the black cabinets, I ordered some.

The kitchen in progress

We've also been working on the kitchen. The trim in that room got painted white and the wall will be beige as soon as I get too it. The cabinets we painted black on the outside and white on the inside. Its not done yet but it looks really fabulous. We are excited.

Here are some pictures of it all exposed with the cabinet doors off, the doors getting painted outside, and the cabinets black. Since Mom and Dad left on Saturday morning, all I've managed to finish up some spots we missed on the cabinets, get the second coat on the trip, tape so I can paint the walls beige, and start getting some stuff back into the cabinets. Hopefully some night this week I'll get that room done because its quite chaotic to rummage through boxes in the dining room to find food and dishes, and then go to the living room to find glasses and the microwave.

Finished Family Room !

So with the french door installed and the fireplace and windows painted - we could finally clean up, wall mount the TV, and get the furniture back in. We still need to replace the lighting to something more modern and get something on the walls, and get something under the TV to hold the components, but the room is starting to feel done and much more our style.

Here are before and after shots.

The fireplace

We went crazy when we got to the fireplace and put down the black paint .... and instead used gray! There were lots of different schemes for the fireplace ... painting it white, black, some sort of faux finish involving sponges and multiple shades of gray and beige. The mortar joints are pretty deep so each one had to be painted with a paintbrush before the surface of the bricks could be painted. For the second coat we were using a tiny artists brush to really get paint in each joint. Mommy did most of the work, but I think everyone was involved at some point on this major project. Here is an in progress picture.

Things Painted Black !

As mentioned earlier, we really went to town with a couple of cans of black paint. Both the master and hall bath vanities upstairs got painted (and new hardware), as did all of the doors to different rooms downstairs (later I'll get to the upstairs doors), and the two windows in the family room (much later I'll consider other windows in the house).

Finishing the French Door

Sorry I've been so bad about posting stuff as we made progress this week. I have to say it was one of the most exhausting weeks I can remember. I tried to go to work but was pretty distracted by all the fun and hard work at home. I guess it was almost a week ago - last Monday night, that we hung the French door. It took another day to get the molding up and painted and the wallboard fixed. Matthew as here on Sunday and Monday to help put it back together. They did such a wonderful and professional looking job, but all agreed they'd never do it again!

Painting

Meanwhile, Mommy and I have been painting. We painted Azra's bedroom and bathroom daffodil yellow, the downstairs vestibule beige, and stripped the hideous floral borders out of the bathrooms, primed the one bathroom that didn't already have white paint over the rest of the wall paper. Actually, Mommy did most of the painting - but I did the rolling in the bedroom and bath.

We also painted a bunch of miscellaneous furniture charcoal black to try to tie a lot of our random pieces together better. They came out so good I am sure there will be another round. I've been walking around the house saying "I see a table and I want to paint it black" ... "I see a banister and I want to paint it black" and so on.

Labor Day French Door Project

Mom and Dad came to visit to help with our first large scale intervention into the house. We are installing a French door between the family room and the bird room. Dad and Miran have been working on it for two days, calling Mommy and I in to assist every now and then. These pictures make it look like it goes quickly - steps 1, 2, 3 - but its really been quite a project with lots of trips to home depot and lowe's. Its after 9:00 and they are still at it down there. I think the door is actually in by now - I'll post pictures of that tomorrow. Then they have to put the wall back together!

New grill!

We benifited from an end of summer sale and upgraded our grill to go with our house. The little red one just wasn't big enough anymore! It was so hard to find a nice, big charcoal grill with storage space and counter space and a warming rack. There are hundreds of varities of fancy gas grills, but for us the whole point of grilling is to get that charcoal taste. We finally found one we liked at a good price and it is the latest addition to our carport!

Visit from Cecilia and Harald

Two weeks ago Cecilia and Harald visited for a much needed baby free week-end. It was Cecilia's first time away from the girls and both mother and twins did fine. We did lots of adult only activities - like eat in nice restaurants, get manicures, and stroll leisurely through the mall. I took a picture of them in my office at work which they stopped by to inspect

Pure Water

We we didn't win anything from home depot but we did buy a water purification system after the guy tested our water and we had high chlorine, high alkaline and high mineral content. He even tested the water in our britta filter and it was no better. Now we have ultra pure and healthy water. The filtration system was installed in our basement.