Category Archives: Home

A Place for my Paper

During a spring cleaning weekend, Kay finally had time to take a look at our toilet paper holder for the master bath and get that bad boy mounted.

The original plan from the contractor was to have the toilet paper holder go to the upper right of the toilet, because the toilet is a bit too far from the opposite wall to mount it for front access.

Well, I hated the idea of putting it on the wall with the toilet. It’s always a pain to twist back there to grab some TP, and as a lady, it’s not really a “sometimes” option. I also did not want it on the wall between the toilet and the shower because that seemed like a soggy disaster waiting to happen.

The contractor did not want to take responsibility for drilling into our shiny new bathroom cabinet and originally we planned to just sticky mount the holder up there, but that proved impossible with the design of the mount. Soo…. finally after getting the correct size screws, Kay mounted it.

 

I have to say, I’m really happy it’s finally up. The only tad negative thing is that we didn’t open the box for the toilet roll for the longest time, and so we did not realize that there is a problem with the finish of the metal that makes it look like the holder has water on it or is dirty. It kinda bugs me, but I’m still happier to have the toilet paper off the top of the sink and into a real holder.

All this begs the question, which way do you put the toilet paper in your holder? We’re obviously a cat-less household. 😉

Spring Cleaning Monster Windows

Kay and I have been in our flat for nearly two years now and have yet to have washed the windows and shutters that face the street. We cannot just set up a ladder outside on the balcony like we do for the other windows, so I was putting these off for, well, about a year to be honest. But look how dirty they were!Bleach!

It was easier to maneuver in the bedroom and bathroom to get to the windows, but for the office, I had to squeeze the ladder in and out between the desks. We can open the windows easily, but they don’t exactly have a lot of room around them for bulky, heavy ladders that I do not care for at all. (Somebody wants a new step ladder, can you tell?)

For the windows and shutters I cleaned them in phases.First I wiped them down with damp rags, then I soaped them up, then I washed them off with water. Then for the windows, I cleaned them with glass cleaner and a towel and then another round with my special glass-cleaning cloth that has two sides.

After six rounds of wiping split in two sections for the ladder portion, these babies were as “done” as I felt like doing. I mean, let’s be honest here, it’s going to rain and continue dropping pollen down for awhile, but I’m not going to eat off these windows.

They look nice enough now that I don’t feel ashamed to open the curtains and I’m not so worried about the curtains getting dirty if we leave the window open and they blow against the banister.

What’s your big spring cleaning project that you avoid?

Pillow Time

We bought our big Karlstad sectional quite awhile ago and I was always planning on brightening up the room with some throw pillows, but I never got around to it until now.

Some people are anti-throw pillows, but not only did my eyes want something to visually put my mind, and therefore body, at ease, I really wanted pillows to pile up behind me while I watch movies with Kay!

We had these two sad, sad looking (and feeling) pillows from Kay’s parents that I was using, but I wanted a mix of plumper pillows to tie in the green color from the kitchen.

Also, how sad looking is that leather couch? Now that we switched the sofas and TV around, we never sit on it and it looks so lonely and empty. It’s great for parties, but it’s a bit of a black hole otherwise.

I headed to our favorite store, IKEA, one day and decided to at least get myself started on a variety of pillows to fill the space up and make it look more homey and inviting.

For only 180-ish CHF, I bought 11 pillows and 7 pillow covers. I am really loving the new summer 2015 pear pattern from IKEA. It matches our kitchen green almost perfectly!

I just wanted to try out a mix of patterns, textures and colors. In the future, I might still make my own custom covers with more special fabric, but these’ll do for now.

See what a difference the TV area is from when we first moved in?

Even the change from where the TV was at the beginning was quite different, but I like which wall the TV is on right now.

We still plan to actually hang up some photos at some point. Kay and I have been debating for a long time about how to install a photo hanging system because we have cement walls and they are not fun to drill in. We’ll see what happens on that front!

April Garden

Happy Swiss labor day everyone!

I’m excited that my cilantro seeds are actually sprouting! Last year I tried to start them in a pot outside, but I think that I did not keep them moist enough, so they dried out and sort of burned in the sun. Oops.

But not this year! Look at them!

I don’t think the sage likes having the tree bark around it. Whenever I use this bark in pots, it seems to kill whatever plant is there. It must be messing with the Ph or acidity levels too much. But I don’t know enough about horticulture to know why exactly.

Oregano is looking good.

As is the starter cilantro plant.

I planted my starter parsley in the same box as our bamboo and it seems like it is competing with the bamboo. The bamboo in there has not gone totally crazy, so I thought there should still be room for some other things to flourish, but it might be too difficult for the parsley.

Rosemary doing fine in a pot on top of the bamboo box.

Not sure I put enough soil on the basil, it’s kinda flopping already. I’m a little too lazy to re-pot it though this late.

The thyme probably needs moved out of the sun and rain.

The lavender is going nuts in its little corner of its box, next to the clematis, which looks like it’s also doing all right after being planted last summer.

I think these are my tomato seeds sprouting.

…and these should be my… lettuce? I forget which pot this photo is from. 🙂

So, that’s about where things are at this point. Kay’s been walking around the balcony pulling weeds because he gets nervous that they will destroy the roof of the flat below our balcony.

I’ve also been rearranging garden furniture, but I’m not quite happy with it. I always seem to try a new setup each year. We’ll see what I settle on for 2015.

How is your garden doing?

Planting Time

It’s that time of year!

We haven’t been away on holiday yet, but most of our weekends in 2015 have been spent traveling or busy with other things, so it was a struggle to get some plants in the ground before April was over.

I really wanted to go to a gardening center, but that involves organizing a car rental, so I decided to go ahead and try some more seeds this year in addition to my usual starter plants. I bought a lot more varieties than last year!

I’ve got seeds for tomatoes, Swiss chard, cucumbers, peas, carrots, peppers, and a few types of lettuce. I am also using some more yellow squash and cilantro seeds from last year.

I haven’t planted all the seeds yet because I need more pots and soil. Some are OK to plant in May outdoors, so I think I will wait until then. I also planted already the starter plants for basil, parsley, sage, oregano, rosemary, cilantro, thyme and a cherry tomato plant.

Also coming back from last year is the lavender, mint, chives and even one of the parsley plants seems like it is perking up a little.

What are you planting this year?