Dining Room and Office Update

We took a trip to Ikea a couple weeks ago and got a new light fixture, window shade, table runner, and placemats for the dining room.



We also got some cheap0 bookcases on craigslist and organized in the office a bit.

Dining Room in Progress

I've painted the dining room green:



I'm looking for a new light fixture, curtain, and maybe some art or a new table runner. Eventually, I would like to get comfier dining room chairs, too. Stay tuned...

Backyard

I didn't post any pictures of the backyard before:






OK, that's not literally our backyard, but it is the big park just two blocks away, so I like to think of it as sort of an extension of our backyard. Byrd Park gets really busy on weekend afternoons when the weather's nice, but most the time it's very quiet.

Here's the real backyard.



Our plan is to put in a brick patio through most of the grassy space in the center and to leave a planting strip on both sides of the yard. If Tom's foot is strong enough, we're going to do the patio in the next couple of weeks.

Guest Room Ideas

guest room ideas by fuzzyorb on Polyvore.com

Moved in

Hopefully, there will be lots of little improvements as time goes on, but here's how the house looks now.



Front exterior, obviously.


Living room looking towards the stairs that broke Tom's foot, now conveniently located near his crutches.

Living room from the base of the stairs.


Dining room - I'm thinking I need to paint in here. Originally, I had orange in mind. Now that we're moved in, I see that the floors and all most the wood furniture we have in the room is orange-ish and that I need a new color idea.


Other corner of the dining room.

Here's the kitchen from the backdoor. Pantry is at the end on the left, basement door straight ahead, and door to the dining room on the right.

And here's the kitchen looking towards the backdoor. The chair in front of the sink is for Tom to kneel on while he does the dishes. We can't let him get too lazy during his convalescence.

Here's a fuzzy picture of the room that most needs a complete overhaul, the first floor bathroom. Currently, that strange tin shower enclosure is being used as a cabinet for the litter box.

Our bedroom. The door leads to a little second floor balcony.

Willow and Jack in the Peaceable Kingdom aka our bedroom.

And don't forget Natasha in the foreground.

Looking across the upstairs hallway towards the office. I'm standing with the bathroom behind me and our bedroom off to the right.

And here's a little closer view of our little office - not too organized yet.

Upstairs bathroom. The color on the walls isn't showing up quite like it is in real life. It's a nice lavender color - though like many of the rooms in the house, it could use another coat. There is a comfortable, old-fashioned claw foot tub to my right, but the room is just too small to take a decent picture.

This is looking across the upstairs hallway from the office towards the bathroom.

The guest room. I found the bed for a good deal on Craigslist. (It's nearly identical to Amelie's bed!)

And last, but not least, my favorite architectural feature in the house is this carved banister. Is that the right word? Anyway, I find it very handsome.

The Radish Sandwich

Some things are more than the sum of their parts. Bogart and Bacall. Chocolate and peanut butter. John, Paul, George, and Ringo. This sandwich is like that. When we read the recipe in Lynn Kaspar-Rosetto and Sally Swift's new book How to Eat Supper, we didn't immediately think "delicious." We thought, "simple." Then when our first CSA farm share from Ploughshare Community Farm arrived with some beautiful radishes and spring onions - the die was cast.

I walked down to our local wine store to buy the rest of what we needed--some Billy Bread, a bottle of Chimay, and some cheese. They didn't have any of the soft, tangy cheeses called for in the recipe, so I bought some farmhouse cheddar and hoped for the best.

Here's how you make our version of the Belgian Beer Bar Tartine. Slice some good rustic bread, spread a slice with a good layer of butter, sprinkle liberally with salt. Add a light layer of spring onions, then a heavier layer of thinly sliced radish (we sliced them with our mandoline). Give one more good sprinkle of salt. Then top with a layer of the farmhouse cheddar and serve open faced.

It is a surprisingly wonderful mix of flavors. Chewy bread, peppery radish and onion, creamy butter, tangy cheese. Since we're now in love with this sandwich and since radishes have made a couple more appearances in our CSA box - this sandwich, along side a large green salad, has been a regular simple and delicious dinner around here.