It's hard to keep up!

There's been a flurry of activity around here lately, and it's hard to find time to sit down and blog about it.  I'll try to catch everyone up in an abbreviated fashion.  But before I get to that, you'll notice I changed the name of my blog again.  I forgot to update the area code when we bought our new house.  I kind of like the flow of area codes that I've been able to maintain: 612, 808, 858 now 619.  Since I've been in San Diego I've had some issues with people getting my cell phone number wrong, which is a (612) number.  I'll tell people my number and they hear 6 . . . 1 . . . and then they tune out, thinking I'm about to say "9".  I've learned to preface my recitation with, "It's a Minnesota number," to put people on notice that a "2" is about to rock their 61-world.

Let's see what else is going on at the Kotschwar Gasthaus.  Zac's sister was in town for a handful of days.  Zac had to leave to attend some schooling off on the East coast so he wasn't around for most of her visit.  She and I had a good time despite Zac's absence.  We were able to throw in a few new items in to the entertaining-the-guest repertoire I'm developing.  We took a tour of an U.S. Olympic training facility, hiked the highest point in San Diego, ate at a few new restaurants and took a tour of the Hotel del Coronado.  Throw in a yoga class and some massages and it was a fun visit.

Also currently residing in our Gasthaus are our friends, Claudia and her husband, who I have yet to assign an alias.  I guess I'll go with Claude?  It just seems easier to keep married friends paired up with fake names that match.  Anyhow, like I mentioned last time Claudia and Claude moved to San Diego and have been staying with us for a couple of weeks now.  So far it's been going really well.  Sometimes our dogs get after each other, but for the most part everyone is co-existing peacefully.  C&C (oh! look how easy that is) have been house-hunting like crazy since they've been here.  They've put some bids in on houses, but nothing has happened yet.  They've also signed up for housing but have been put on a wait-list.  They might be able to get into housing sometime in June.  I guess the long and the short of it is that they may be here for a while.  

Adding to their urgency is that their teenage daughter will be moving out here to join them in a few weeks.  They'd like to figure out where they're going to live so at the very least they can figure out which high school she's going to be attending.  PCSing (i.e. moving) is stressful enough when it's just two married adults.  It's even tougher when you've got school-aged children that are in the mix.  I wouldn't even begin to know where to look for information on school districts.  (At least anywhere outside of Minneapolis.)  It's a good thing that if we do have kids I will at least have four or five years to figure that issue out.  And then if we did have kids Zac would be out of the Navy for most of their schooling, so we'd be able to find a place and stay put for the last 8-10 years of their K-12 education.  I guess that's one of the few benefits of having kids later on your Navy career.

The other big news around here is the kitchen remodeling that began last Thursday.  You say you want some pictures?  Well okay, then.  Here you go.

Here's the kitchen.  Not an awful kitchen, granted, but by no means great.  What were our issues?  Let's start listing them, shall we?  1.)  The lighting in the kitchen was bad.  There was no light above the sink and the main lighting fixture was centered such that you always cast a shadow on to the counter top no matter where you stood in the kitchen.  That is, the light was always at your back, instead of where it would be useful for helping you see what you're chopping up.  2.)  The (only) light-switch for the kitchen was located in an inconvenient spot.  You'll see it there, on the right of the photo.  You'll notice that the hinges for the door are right there too.  That means that when the door is open, you have either close the door or go around the counter to reach the switch to turn the light on/off.  It is also the only light switch for the dining room light and outside door light.

  3.) There was an 18" apartment-sized dishwasher.  Not really practical for a family-sized house. Now, while it's true I made it through my formative years without a dishwasher, I feel like if you're going to have one it should be full-sized.  4.) The cabinets were much too high above the counter tops, meaning that only the bottom shelf of the cabinets could be used for storing things that you need to get to regularly.  (The space between most counter tops and cabinets is something like 18".  Ours was 27".)  5.)  The bottom cabinets had no lazy-susans in the corners, meaning that those corners (and there are three of them) were hard to reach.

As you can see, the issues with the kitchen weren't huge by any means, but they were annoying in total.  The kitchen was minimally functional, but not efficient.  And when you have a small kitchen (with little other storage in the house) you need to use your space as efficiently as possible.  We could have waited to do this project, true, but we wanted to be able to enjoy our new kitchen for as long as possible.  What is the point of dropping money on a new kitchen if you're about to move and won't have the opportunity to enjoy your investment?

But you know what's not as fun?  Not having an oven or stove for four weeks or so with four (soon to be five) people living in your house.  It's been manageable so far, but I'm not sure if I'll be so chipper three weeks from now.  I'll just chalk it up as another adventure in homeownership.