Painting Changes Things

I traveled to Kansas City for two weeks to get started on the house remodeling.  It may not have been the first thing that should've been done, but I had the main floor painted.  My painter's week of availability was the last week of July/first of August.  I was anxious to get the wall colors changed.  So, up I went.  

First are some "before pictures" of the house.  This a screen shot off of Zillow and shows it partially furnished from the previous owners.  

Here is a tighter picture of it empty. I obviously don't have a wide angle lens.

Here is the painted version.  The walls are painted Sherwin Williams Creamy and the fireplace was painted SW Anchors Aweigh.  The floors will be wood and probably a chandelier will replace the ceiling fan.  

Same for the dining room.  

Sorry for the different angle.  The chandelier will be changed as well. 

Here is a different angle with the painter's tape yet to be removed. I didn't really want the trim to be a different color than the walls, but I had difficulty identifying the trim color and not enough time to figure it out before the painters arrived.  I went with Creamy on the main floor except for our bedroom. 

Here is the entry staircase "before". This first photo is very old.  

You can barely see a brass chandelier at the top of the photo.  

 This current chandelier is bronze.  But I recently noticed that the chain and cap are brass.  

Strange.

"After" These aren't from the same angles, but you can see the color change. 

It is a very dark area and I think the SW Creamy white will help a lot.  

The door straight ahead leads to the Master Bedroom.  I will have the wallpaper removed and painted or re-wallpapered.  The room on the right is the library.  It is the same color as the other rooms.  It looks blue because of the northern exposure.  It was a gold color as shown in the Zillow photo below and is now also Creamy white. Evidently I never took an after photo. 

The Master Bedroom was dark brown, much like our bedroom in California.  I was very tired of that color and never picked it in the first place.  So this time we went with a gray/blue/green color.  It is SW Silver Strand.  

Again, I lack a wide angle lens. I think you can see the improvement though.  

Much better, don't you think? 

So, there you have some progress pictures.  I met with two contractors and am waiting on their bids then we will start making decisions and picking out surfaces and fixtures for the kitchen and the Master Bathroom.  I'll keep you posted! Any advice you can give to me since I'm new at renovations will be much appreciated.  

Our Home Away from Home

Our apartment is starting to feel like home.  We have learned that different companies have different systems for their expats.  Many people I know here arrived with only what they could fit into suitcases and bought everything they needed once they got here.  Some people moved all of their home furniture to Japan.  Obviously, probably only what they needed, since homes are smaller here than in the US.  A couple of friends got rid of pretty much everything they owned, brought the essentials and bought the rest here.  Some people get an allowance and what they don't spend, they get in the end when they return home.  We get an allowance for rental furniture and shipping.  We chose to ship our own furniture here to Japan.  Some of the larger items we are renting.  

We are renting a washer/dryer, refrigerator, sofa, recliner, table and chairs, bed and living room drapes.  

This chair is very comfortable.

We also received a set of linens when we arrived.  That included a bottom sheet and a duvet with a heavy down comforter inside.  No top sheet. No towels.  We had to hurry and buy those.

Our sea shipment made its way from Los Angeles to Nagoya, Japan, ever so slowly.

First our air shipment arrived with the rest of our clothes which were very welcome.

Not enough closet space at first.

 Finally our sea shipment arrives!

 The second bedroom will be the craft/office/exercise room.  

A few things didn't work very well.  Our soft mattress pad is too small for the Japanese "queen" size bed.  Our coffee table is too tall for the low Japanese sofa.  My Calaphon pans don't work on the induction stove top and my dinner plates don't fit into the tiny dishwasher.  

 I decided to take the legs off of our ugly ottoman and use it for the coffee table. I had plans to cover it already.

 The bedside tables are a little tall for the low Japanese bed.  I also cannot hang anything on these walls.  I knew this before we left California.  I wanted some pictures anyway and planned on leaning them on the bookshelves, etc.

 We closed one of the slider doors and are using it as a wall for our dressers.

This looks sort of lonely here, but it works very well.  I based the colors of the apartment off of the front door (bright green) the bathroom door (bright yellow) and this distressed TV cabinet that has aqua shades in it.

I didn't plan on bringing this glass greenhouse, but realized that it had gotten packed and shipped.  I'm amazed that it arrived unbroken.  So, now it sits on our coffee table, turned sofa table.  I'm going to buy a plant to put inside one of these days.

My Target rug works really well and the linen I already purchased probably a couple of years ago to cover this ottoman has a gold tone to it.  I'm going to sew a slipcover for it and plan on getting that done next week.  

I planned on using these IKEA bookshelves along this wall, for storage of books, etc.  One main reason was to put pictures here.  There are hooks along the ceiling on this wall that I can hang pictures from.  We finally found and bought the wire systems they use to hang pictures.  I'm going to try it out soon.  I will still have some leaning.  The two center pictures are new from Hobby Lobby with their 50% off sale.

 This is my little craft area in the second bedroom.  I was regretting bringing it all while I was unpacking, but amazingly have found a place for everything.  My husband has a table with his computer and printer.  This room also has a stationary bike and rolling cart for more closet space.

 He was happy that his binoculars arrived.  It wouldn't be our house without a telescope or binoculars in the window.

 We also finally found light bulbs which we were so thankful to finally get.  It made a huge difference in how the apartment feels.  More like a home and less like an office building in our opinion.

Well, I hope you have a better feel for our apartment now.  I'm sure things will continue to evolve, but we are happy with how it's coming together.  It feels like our home.

Lost In, Not On the Subway

Things are progressing.  Very slowly in some instances.  Since my last post a couple pieces of our rental furniture arrived.  We now have a sofa and recliner, which makes for much more comfortable seating. 

Our air shipment also arrived this week.  When Japanese movers bring in your boxes, they cover the floors with either pads or paper.  They remove their shoes AS they carry things in!  Think about that for a minute.  It's no big deal for them, but seems incredibly time consuming and annoying, in my mind.  They just use slip on shoes, in and out, in and out.  Customer service in Japan is unparalleled.  

                                    

Now we have all of our clothes and our IRONING BOARD!  Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy.  This week, it was finally receiving the ironing board.  I thought that our bedding and towels were included in the air shipment.  But, alas, I evidently did not watch the packers closely enough.  We have purchased two towels each and two wash cloths.  Their towels are very thin and small.  American's are use to oversize everything, I believe.  The little ones do the job.  In fact, I'm wondering if our towels will ever dry out here, at least during this time of year.  

We were told our sea shipment was underway on this ship.  Then low and behold, were notified that the American customs took off our little crate to inspect.  Or to be exact, never let it on.  We are thinking they should be worried about our dishes, lamps, kitchen supplies and of course, my craft supplies!!

 We have been exploring the downtown area of Nagoya.  There is a lot to take in.  We live only a few blocks away and it is an easy walking distance.  My Fitbit miles are increasing, that's for sure.

 This is the sunset view from our apartment balcony.  We have had mostly rainy days here, so this was a welcome sight.  Sunset in the city.

Yesterday, we walked all over kingdom come trying to find this little barber shop. Around and around and around. We knew it was in the subway. There are hundreds of stores in the subway. We knew the area it was in.  Nothing in sight.  When I finally used charades to ask a maintenance man, he pointed down stairs. So, it was two floors down into the subway next to the tracks!  Crazy. You take a ticket and sit in a row until it's your turn.  Then it costs 10 Yen and it takes 10 minutes. We will see if my husband will be brave and try it next weekend.  From what I understand a normal men's haircut includes cleaning your ears, cutting your hair and a massage.  I don't think they do that in this barber shop.  Me, I'm heading to a salon. Which will probably be another huge learning experience.  Then  we had to exit the subway and for some reason, my card wouldn't work.  I was permanently stuck in the subway system!  Thank goodness for men behind windows at each subway entrance.  I still have no idea what happened.  

As we were wandering around the subway I happened upon this art store.  It is tiny.  Sorry for the not so well set up photo.  It is crammed with all the art supply essentials a girl would need.  I'm very excited.  I basically took this picture so I could find it again.

This is a cantaloupe.  This is a very expensive cantaloupe. Basically this translates to $58/cantaloupe.  There evidently is a You Tube video on the 10 most expensive fruit in the world.  A "perfect" cantaloupe is included.  I can never, ever tell when a cantaloupe is ripe.  I wonder who eats the "day old" ones?  Maybe they're priced like ours in the U.S.  Crazy, isn't it?

 My husband loves the little trucks.  I think we need these in Southern California where parking is tight and there are too many cars.  Don't you think?

We have found a great Mexican restaurant called Desperados.  In fact, many found it before us.  The great thing is, it is two blocks from our apartment.  It's a tiny bar.  Basically every restaurant here seems to be a tiny bar.  You walk up some stairs like you're going to someone's apartment.  This has stools along the bar and four tables.  Four square tables with four chairs each.  Sixteen seats in all.  That is fairly typical of most restaurants here.  The food, even though the quantities are smaller and prices are higher, is very good.

Some other time we will talk about the French pastry shops.