Condo War and Other Randoms

A couple of updates for y'all, since I'm such an erratic blogger these days...

1) Someone managed to mangle a spider in our mangle (a Daddy Long Legs no less, not some measly tiny spider) and has thus RUINED my laundry experiences.  (It tickles me to be able to use the word mangle to mean BOTH of it's highly opposing meanings at the same time...)

2) I'm knitting a pair of mittens!  I am an amazing housewife!

 

3) I turned 27.  Johan made me a delicious dinner and gave me creepy pillows.

First Course: prawns. Sooooo goooooood

T-bone steak! YUM

No point in asking about the mysterious peace sign, apparently that's "just what happened"

How would you like these babies staring at you in bed all the time?

4) We have friends here in Bergen who are hobby brewers, and they invited us over to brew some Christmas Ale!  Espen has quite the set up going in his garage, he has built a whole high tech system to aid in brewing and keep things consistent.  I had no idea brewing was so involved, or so interesting!  If only we had been able to make beer in Chem 142 I might have stuck through the whole series...

This is me getting ready to add the second batch of hopps at exactly 45 minutes into the boiling time

The cooling system

This refigerator automatically regulated the temperature- turns on when it gets too warm for the beer, turns off when it gets too cold

5) We have FINALLY gotten started on room number 2 in our Condo War.  This time it's the bedroom.  The trim is now painted a nice, crisp white (the trim in our entire condo was/is this disgusting dirty cream color and I HATE IT.  Trim should be white.  If you don't have white trim I will judge you.  Feel free to judge my remaining rooms with ugly colored trim, but you can't judge my kitchen or bedroom anymore.  Seriously, white trim makes rooms feel bigger and brighter.  Don't believe me?  Come over and visit.)  We have gotten our first coat of grey up on the walls and will be painting the second coat tomorrow night!  So excited!

I have to say that the thing I was most excited for with this bedroom makeover (besides getting white trim) was filling in the holes that were all over the room and caulking all of the seams in the molding.  Seriously, someone who had NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE DOING and apparently NO access to the internet and thus How-To guides put up all the molding.  Seams and nail holes EVERYWHERE.  And WHO brings the wallpaper down onto the floorboards?  WHO??  So there was hours and hours of prep work before we could whip out the paint brushes.  But it is so worth it.

We are also putting in new flooring in our bedroom, living room, and guest room.  It will be real wood but the click-style flooring.  Right now we have some sort of linoleum on the floors in the three rooms which is not only ugly, dented and discolored (and really the choice of patterns was horrendous- who wants plastic flooring with a wood grain pattern?  or a cloudy sky pattern?), but it's also really cold on the feetsies.  We don't have central heating so having a well insulated floor is important in helping us survive the long, cold winters here in Norway. 

Johan caulking the joints

Before....

Not full coverage since it's still the first coat, but this gives you an idea of the color!

And this is what the rest of our house looks like after we emptied the bedroom. It's the price of the Condo War.

 And just as an update, remember when we demolished our fan?  Well we bought a new one and hooked it up to the venilation system on the left- just like our previous (non-working) fan had been hooked up.  Then one morning Johan was cooking bacon and I needed to use the restroom.  As I closed the door to the bathroom I realized I was being showered in the smell of cooking bacon.  Yes, that vent has an output in the bathroom.  Why?  I don't think we'll ever know.  So we hooked up the fan to the vent that goes directly outside.  We have yet to put the cover up to finish it, but hey it's still way better than the ugly textured hood.  Ugh.