Office Supply

Yesterday Lou (who we now realize spells his name L-O-U and not L-E-W) came in and installed a few items. Of note was the addition of handles for our files cabinets in the office. We found these from Rejuvenation Hardware. Initially the cabinets were able to be opened without handles and used a hidden edge instead. However, we were not able to fit the files inside—this is the solution we came up with. We like how the handles differentiate the drawers from the rest of the cabinets. Also, we like how they sort match the style of the vintage lighting.

Rotisserie Chicken

This evening we tried out the rotisserie feature on our oven. It is SO. AWESOME. It actually rotates and everything. We found a simple, yummy recipe on epicurious.com. You combine 2 tablespoons butter + 1 tablespoon coarse salt + 2 tablespoons herbs de provence. Then you rub this under and over the skin of the chicken and let it sit in the fridge for about 6 hours. Then, finally, you rotisserie it for 50 minutes. Then, awesomeness ensues. We had this with ginger garlic green beans (a recipe from the Moosewood Cafe). Yum-a-licious all the way around.

Time to Decorate

After almost a month of keeping our pictures under wraps, we finally unpacked the boxes containing our artwork. We always envisioned the Paris map being a focal point, but had some decisions to make on where to put the other items. Here you can see the three pictures we hung in the main room. Although we wish that the pictures were more spread out, we really focused on hanging them in the ideal location for each—despite their proximity to each other. The other large Paris map is in our bedroom for now, and several other pictures are still waiting to be hung in other rooms.

46"

Yesterday our new 46" LED Samsung TV was installed. We no longer have the smallest TV on the block. Which, speaking of our old TV, now seems awfully small in comparison—26" will do that. Needless to say, the new TV was on all evening while we cleaned the apartment in preparation for the arrival of our cats. We'll be picking them up tonight from my sister, where they have been residing since we moved. We anticipate some very frightened and not-too-happy cats. We think they are likely to go straight under the bed and stay there, which is why we did such a deep clean last night. Once they get past the newness of it all, though, we know they will love it (not that they have a choice). We would take bets on what their favorite spot will be, but we think it's pretty clear that all the long, wide window ledges will be the hands down winner.

Work Hard

I just discovered a new website called Reform School. It has all sorts of great things grouped into all sorts of odd categories. The website was linked through a product I saw and liked on the Design*Sponge website. That website took me to the Dwell site, which in turn took me to Reform School. While perusing Reform School I found this wonderful poster I'd love to get for our office. Unfortunately, it's sold out. Maybe they will print more. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see it too.

Guest Bathroom Progress

The guest bathroom is now mainly done—the sink faucet is in place, as are the bath "accessories" (aka towel bars). However (you knew there was going to be a "however" didn't you?) we still have a few things that need to be tweaked. The tub is not draining. The glass tiles keep cracking whenever we screw something into them (ie. said bath accessories). The sink seems too close to the medicine cabinets—so much so that it feels like you are going to bump your head whenever you bend down to use the sink. Despite these hick-ups, we're thankful to have at least one working bathroom. We're still waiting for the sink delivery in our master bathroom, and the glass for the shower will be delivered and installed tomorrow...

Homemade

To celebrate both our new apartment and the season, we had our first official home-cooked meal. We decided on a pumpkin risotto recipe, using a butternut squash in lieu of the pumpkin. We found all ingredients at our local stores—places like Murray's Cheese (already a favorite), which not only specializes in cheese (duh), but also pastas and grains. While we cooked the risotto we chose a nice bottle of red to pair with it—a 2000 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano that we got in Italy when we went there in 2003 with Nicole and Dan. Salute!

Kitchenette

On Saturday I met my friend Aimee at a local pop-up shop for Liddabit Sweets and McClure's Pickles. Since the pop-up shop was located in Tribeca, I was able to walk there from our new apartment. After we both picked up some pickles and caramels (yum, though probably not good if you eat them together), we walked over to Kitchenette. I'm not sure how I have lived in New York as long as I have without ever going there. It's adorable. Sort of retro-y, vintage cuteness. A bit like Serendity (which is on the Upper East Side), but edgier and filled with cooler, downtown people. It was packed and no wonder—the brunch menu was wonderful! There are lots of great choices, but in the end both Aimee and I opted for a chickpea burger. Which, incidentally, is more like a lightly fried pancake of hummus on a pita. I'm definitely going back and bringing Steve (and maybe even my parents, if they can handle the wait for seating).

Small is Big

Now that we've moved into a new neighborhood, we need to decide where we can do most of our regular shopping. There is an over-abundance of excellent clothing shops here in Soho, so we just need to figure out where to shop for food and basic household items. Although there is no big grocery store in our area, there are a bunch of small specialty shops like Murray's Cheese and Amy's Bread. So in the food department, we're excited to explore and are fairly well covered. The decision that we've been faced with is where to get our household items—things like soap, shampoo, and (most importantly) our prescriptions. Should we patronize the nearby CVS (which is grungy and disheartening)? Or to try an adorable little place called Avignone Chemists (so French!)? Naturally we lean towards the latter. Compared to CVS we were concerned with their more limited hours, but after a first visit we are taken in by their great service and terrific array of products. So what if they aren't open on Sundays? The entire shopping experience at Avignone is so far above CVS that we can surely plan around that one day they are closed.

Organizing

Now that we are moved in, we have finished unpacking all of our boxes. Most things are generally in place, but not as organized as we'd like. In the office we have a lot of rearranging to do—especially in the built-ins. At least everything is looking neat, even if it truly isn't. A similar situation is happening in the kitchen, though not to the same extent. We're most excited about the open shelf in the kitchen becoming a book shelf. We had planned on this being more of a decorative area, but it's great seeing all the books in place. We're looking forward to getting the rest of our cookbooks out of storage and putting them up to complete that shelf.

Settling In

While work continues on the apartment, we continue to settle in. Somehow, the most necessary of this was getting our closets in order. Despite having a good amount of closet space, we had anticipated needing some additional storage. The cabinet we had been using in our rental apartment was really meant for storage and not ideal for clothing (previously we had used it for our china). However, we still really loved this cabinet. So, we went back to Room + Board and bought the same style furniture, but in a more appropriate format. This was easy since the piece is part of their Linear Custom Classic collection. It's great because you can choose the size and whether you want cabinets or drawers. You can also choose the wood and finishes. This is what we ended up with—the cabinet on the far left is for our media (cable box) since we'll put our old (read: small) tv in the bedroom, and the drawers in the center and right side will be for clothing.

Greatness

Yesterday two monumental things happened—the kitchen counter top AND the remaining fixtures for our bathroom showers were installed. While we are still waiting for our bathroom sink faucets to be installed today, we are thrilled thrilled THRILLED with how the other pieces from yesterday are looking. In particular, we are love love LOVING how the kitchen countertop wraps around the island. SO. GREAT. In fact, we're even willing to overlook the fact that the Caesar Stone is disappointingly not as white as we would like it to be. That's how great it is looking. And see how the countertop overhangs the island so we can put our stools there?

More Work

Today Royal Marble Installers are coming to install our Caesarstone countertops. We had debated a fair amount about whether we should go with Corian, Silestone, Caesarstone, or Chroma Quartz (the latter being a last minute suggestion from the supplier). In the end we decided on Caesarstone, partly because of the color and partly because of its qualities. Above you can see the kitchen as it stands today—sans countertop. After today we hope to be able to be able to start using the kitchen, even though the backsplash won't be installed for a bit.



Also happening today (we hope hope hope), will be the installation of the remaining shower fixtures and finishing of the surrounding tile. If this happens, we can forego the make-shift protective canopy we had created for the interim. Really, we're just happy to have workers in our apartment again since they have been M.I.A. for the last two days—don't they know there's work to be done? I'm sure they are as anxious to be out of our place as we are for them to be done.

The Beginning of the End

Last night was our first official night in the new apartment. It was so home-y and quiet there—quite a change from our noisy rental apartment uptown! We were particularly struck by how peaceful it seems in our new place. Perhaps it is the wood floors, which we are both in love with. We took some pictures this morning so you could see how pretty it is in the morning light. Of course, some things are still missing (like our dining room table, which we have yet to move into position) and other things still to be installed (like our kitchen counter top which is coming tomorrow). Even the draft coming in from the AC unit in our bedroom couldn't spoil our mood. We have a very long punch list of things to be fixed (like the drafty AC), but are very pleased with how everything has come together. As our friend Anthony said, "it feels like a spa in here". We'll take that as a good thing.

The Move

Our move on Tuesday went splendidly. The move out of our rental apartment was much quicker than our move in there (likely due to the fact that 1/2 our stuff is currently in storage now) and the move in to our new apartment was smooth. The movers were able to get prime parking spots for the move on both ends, and we had luck on the subway as we went back and forth in between the two apartments. Overall a very lucky transportation day.

We were, however, surprised to see that our contractor decided to work this day. We had instructed them not to, but that clearly went ignored. Not that we minded. The movers moved around the workers. And the workers worked around the movers. It was great. And by the end of the day not only did we have a room full of boxes, but we also had a kick-ass wine rack completed. (There's room for 112 bottles, in case you're counting).