Friday...

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Today I am going to actually do some work! John has an audition in Chicago. And I am drawing Flower Doodles. This is done in my head and trying hard to get out.

This is how much stuff I can haul over daily in my teeny, tiny car.

And there is still a whiff of 'old people' in the condo so I am burning scented candles all day long. But as more old stuff is taken out like a wall of old, stained, cobwebbed vertical blinds I hope more of the scent goes too. I am sure painting helps too.

Louvered doors are everywhere. 10 places that I can think of, probably more if I was to go and count them. Very 70s... Since I am going to start out with a mod, 70s look they will stay for a bit. I find these especially interesting. The one on the left goes towards the front door. The one is the middle is a broom closet and the one on the right goes to the dining area. This was from that time when you put doors on your kitchen so you could I think hide your mess when you entertained.

Now the work begins...

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I haven't been posting much as I have been at the condo and there is no internet/cable there yet. Each time we go over we fill our cars with stuff. This is a far easier way to move as I get to put that carload away. But we go home this weekend with a big U-Haul truck to get everything that has been in storage for a year. So lots of boxes of small stuff will be here soon. I hate seeing that hill of boxes, but that is moving.

And now the real work begins. The condo has been empty for a long time, was built in the 70s and needs work. In order to get in we have to paint the inside of all drawers and cupboards. All cabinetry is original. That will probably be a project for next year. Flooring and windows are ordered. John is painting the basement floor right now. I scoured the refrigerator today along with doing some work.

John and Ryan and a friend put in the condo dock. Some pieces are missing...

But it totally and completely feels like home. And as John said it is easier to put in new windows than to put in a lake.

The fun begins...

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We closed yesterday and then headed for the condo with a load of stuff. No one had lived in the condo for over a year and a half so I scoured bathrooms. We had the locks changed. And John spend a lot of his time talking to window people. Before we move in we want to have new windows and new flooring in the living room. Big job, big money, lots of comparison shopping. John is doing a good job with this. He has an excel spreadsheet full of info. I would just go with my gut. His way is much better for this project.

Today we will work on closets and kitchen cupboards and I'll clean the fridge. Next year we will put a new kitchen in. For now we will paint the inside of the cupboards. Closets too.

We can't believe we are finally in.

12 days... mystery solved!

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As I have said... this condo has some 70s touches. This was a total mystery. This is a metal plate in the kitchen counter.

And if you look in the cabinet underneath this is what you see.

LOOK! We have a Foodmatic Preparation Center! The metal plate flips around and up comes this thing. The bar on the left comes up. Some pieces are apparently missing but a bowl of some kind must go into the circular thing on the plate.

Apparently this must be some old blender or mixer, it works and appears to have a forward and backward motion. Of course all the pieces are not there. This metal plate was camouflaged with a lovely large wine opener.

Foodmatic Preparation Center... this was from that era of words that had suffixes like 'matic' and 'tronic' and 'phonic'. I guess Foodmatic Preparation Center is another way of saying blender.

14 days...

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Today we head over to spend half the day in our condo getting bids from contractors. When not talking to anyone I will be sitting in my new office working!!!! Yes that cute little space with a lake view will be my future office. Since this is really in the corner of the living room I am going to have to learn to keep my desk tidy, very, very tidy. You can't really see it but there is a lovely glass chandelier with mismatched prisms over the desk. It looks like something I would have done.

And John will work from the finished basement. Most of it is finished and there is daylight filtering down from the staircase He will get a nice man-cave.

16 days...

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This is the living room. To the left is the lake and to the right is the dining area.

Another thing we are pondering is the fireplace and the brick hearth area. This is an inefficient wood fireplace. Right now the only place for the TV is in the wood bin area. In that corner because of serious lack of wall space and the light coming in the wall of windows. Before we move in we will replace the parquet floor and the door and windows. This needs to be done.

John thinks we should tear out the brick hearth so that we don't have to do it at a later date and have to piece the floor. I don't want to tear out a working fireplace with no solution. We would like a gas fireplace but don't like the look of the stand alone stoves. They all look country or Victorian. I actually like this 70s stove and intend to do a mod/retro look. We did ask about a gas log insert, that is possible but will still leave us with an inefficient fireplace.
Any thoughts anyone?