Kate Flaim (Girl Reporter)

We have a beautiful dining table, a 1790 antique drop-leaf made of New England maple, but it seats four and we can’t patch together that and the kitchen table as easily in this apartment as we could in Hanover. Meanwhile, the table we’re using behind the couch (first thing you see when you walk in) [...]

Ok, we’re just missing cabinet pulls, lighting, art…The fun stuff! I ordered cabinet pulls but something mysterious has happened to the order so I think I need to try again. I also need to do some more treatments of the counter to make sure it has a good thick finish on it. But at least [...]

By the way, we are two cabinet doors (and some baseboards, and cabinet pulls, and more coats of oil on the counter) away from finished in the kitchen. I need stainless steel cleaner; that stuff gets fingerprints like crazy. I don’t understand why they haven’t worked that out yet–our SimpleHuman trash can is fingerprint resistant [...]

Well, we’re nearly there! To recap, as of Saturday morning the kitchen looked like this: At eight p.m. last night it looked like this (the bearded fellow is my brother Tom, who is overqualified for Ikea assembly): This morning it looked like this (we like to clean up at night!): After a very busy afternoon [...]

Ok, here are some photos of the in-progress kitchen… The cabinets and counters have arrived (courtesy of an incredibly rude and insulting outsourced delivery guy) and are in the dining room, along with the old fridge. (Anyone need a fridge?) I added pictures to the Before and After photo set on Flickr, though I need [...]

The lightening kitchen reno is underway. We picked the cabinets, appliances and counters a week and a half ago, and the plumber and electrician came yesterday, swapped around radiators, took out the huge sink, and roughed in the outlets! The fridge and cabinets/counters come tomorrow, as does my talented brother, who will be helping us [...]

I’m in NYC for a while, and hopefully will be able to cook soon–our accommodations do have a kitchen and internet access! Meanwhile here are some before and not-quite-after pictures of the apartment. I haven’t even started to hang art, really arrange the furniture, etc. I’m struggling with how to balance out all of Ben’s [...]

Yesterday I managed to get the oven turned on! This is big news and a big relief. There is actually an active oven pilot light, I found out when I took apart the bottom of the oven. It just doesn’t do anything unless you turn the oven dial to 400 or so, get it lit, [...]

*Sigh* Until a few days ago I had the cord for my camera handy. Now that I’m dying to upload a ton of photos of the apartment and a couple things I’ve made lately, it is nowhere to be found. I will update once I find it!

Well, we moved. And now it looks like this: Actually that was on Thursday, and things are slightly better now, but the painter hadn’t finished when we arrived, so we have everything piled in the middle of the living and dining rooms. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to, say, unpack a few pots [...]