August 10th, 2010

So I think everyone can see that a) I am not a great photographer, b) I could use a better camera and c) that I have yet to post any pics with actual furniture, plants, books, etc...working on that. We are now living in our new abode, sleeping in two little single beds as our bed has yet to arrive, and sitting in two strange chairs in the living room instead of a sofa as we don't have one...details. We are, however, so excited about our new home and are working daily to make it just how we want it to be. The nesting urges brought on by 6 months pregnancy are helping oodles to stay motivated while I organize and re-organize and edit and polish belongings, pushing and shoving furniture from one place to another to find the best place, lining shelves, making curtains, etc... I have now cooked our first meals in our new kitchen and even given the cat a bath in the new bathroom...official acts of making a new apartment "ours".

Alejandra's room

Dining/ family room/ entryway

Bathroom!

Kitchen!!

Entrada/entry with mystery plant (not great foto)

Kitchen without counter tops...

Final stretch!

And we're almost there!! After returning from vacation, and seeing that no catastrophes had happened, no seagulls had taken over the premises, and no water damage was done on the new kitchen floor/walls, one month later we are almost ready to move in! The carpenters finished on Monday (installation of all new climalit windows for entire house, kitchen remodelling--moving wall and destroying small "terraza lavadera" to create breakfast area/make the kitchen bigger and sunnier, changing all light fixtures from 1980's dome-like smokey glass things to modern, built-in "focos" (not sure about that one in English, someone help me out here), all new electrical wiring throughout the apartment, new toilets, sinks, towel racks and faucets in both bathrooms, new mirrors), the painters finished on Saturday (I went with greyish tones for most of the house, and yes, I gave in, Alejandra's room is a sort of light lilac color), Paco "el pullidor" will finish polishing the marble floors this morning (he should be here any minute!) and the kitchen is "mostly" installed. The marble-man is coming today to install the counter tops and the kitchen design company will then finish up tomorrow installing the fridge, oven, microwave, etc.. I have started on the industrial cleaning aspects, washing, scrubbing and waxing all of the wood doors/closets, washing the windows, etc and this afternoon, with the help of Ana, my super house-cleaner, we will leave the house ready to be inhabited!

Ripping things apart...

Windowless...

Tiles! Wet tiles!!

Vacations and remodeling...

Leaving for Sicily for 6 days right in the middle of remodeling was daring, but leaving for California for 3 weeks is just crazy! When we arrived from our first trip, the tiles had been set, the windows (and strange cement, window-covering thing) had been removed and the bathroom pieces had arrived. We are leaving tomorrow and work has stopped momentarily as the new windows won't arrive until Monday....I am anxious to leave a window-less house....and not quite sure what to do about a surprise rain/wind storm in June in Cádiz! Everything is wet, wind is rushing through the entire apartment nonstop and it doesn't seem to be letting up...

old kitchen (before)

Old kitchen (during)

Progress

It´s been more than a month since my last post, things in Spain take their time. Since then, things have picked up speed! The old kitchen has been destroyed, walls have been knocked down and built up again in new places, wall and floor tiles will arrive this Wednesday and more than 400 large bags of debris have been heaved down the 7 floors... Manolo, our dear family carpenter, is working hard with his Brazilian assistant, Luis, who can be caught singing in Portuguese at any time as he hacks and smacks and tugs and pulls and pushes and lifts away...hard workers! We are leaving for Sicily next week and then California after that, and are hoping that bounds will be made this week before we go...(however, mom-in-law will be left in charge during our travels, nothing to worry about, she's tough!).

View left from bedrooms/dining-family room

View straight down from bedrooms/family-dining room

View right from bedrooms/family dining room

Our bedroom

Our bedroom! Waves crashing through dreams and sleep and awwwww!! A bit small, but can we really complain?

Bedroom Two

Bedroom two! (For guests or future children...come visit while you can!!)

The office!

Inspiring! This room is probably in the worst condition of the entire house...the rock the sits under the window (there is an english word for this...but I don't remember) has cracked and water has seeped into the wall causing mildew and fun fungus. The rock will need to be replaced and the wall treated...

Window covering of small kitchen closet room

This has to go....

Small terrace-closet room off kitchen

This little space has one of the biggest windows in the entire house...that is shamelessly covered with a strange cement latice-like structure...big things will come out of this little area...Cafe con leche while feeling the first rays of the morning sun trickling into the little breakfast room? I think so!

Kitchen window

Add a bit of sea-air to that fresh fish dish!

Kitchen

Hmmm...we love the light, the sneak view of the sea while cutting onions and maybe even the colors of the counters/cupboards....but check out those tiles! The grime! The grit!!! Help!

Family/dining room (with a blue lightbulb?)

This picture is not taken from inside of a boat! The walls are dirty, the floor needs to be polished, the window is aching for some light, flowy, white curtains and there is NO cat hair ANYWHERE!

View from the family/dining room

It's finally ours! Yesterday we signed and received the keys to our new abode! We are so excited! There is lots of work to be done, but each step will be taken with joy. We've had our eye on this one for many years, but thought we would never really be able to buy it. For those of you that don't know, its in our same building, 4 floors lower, 2 bedrooms bigger, and facing the sea!! Lots of light, lots of air and AMAZING views! I've created this blog to follow our progress as we slowly make this new apartment into our long-desired home. Here are some "before" pics from about 10 minutes ago...