Home Improvements

This wouldn't be a legit China blog with out Mickey Mouse scattered
throughout. This is the local, over-priced "Home Depot" called B&Q
(I think it is British). One can of paint cost about $60.00 or more. You see,
if you buy the $15.00 can it will come off on your clothes as you walk by and
brush up against it. So what choice did we have other than get ripped off by
Mickey-Mouse-loving, uneducated-about-paint (but very nice) , B&Q sales people?

Here we chose our colors. For some reason they have a very hard time making
truly deep colors. They had to redo my grey several times. They only had one
can of the paint we wanted so this process took several days and trips to
different places.

PAINT! We had someone paint, then spend several days re-edging and
cleaning paint off the floors, but we were happy to help out a village guy
in his endeavor to become a painter to get through university. I have found
that most normal things here you can do while helping someone at the same
time. Like buying coffee for example, I can buy great coffee while at the same
time helping women receive fair treatment, etc.

LIGHTS! What to choose?

Resting from our decision making.

The light I chose, no those are not fish, they are modern ribbons.
This does not give off all the light I will need so I am going to get a really
neat lamp I saw (pictures to come) and a bedside reading lamp too.

Measuring the Sun Room/Great room for lights.
They ended up looking perfect. They, of course,
were installed for free : )

Now this is funny. Of course China would have what the local-foreigners (oxymoron)
have wisely dubbed "fak-kea". This is Furniture 11 and it is
basically an over priced Ikea, they even had
the infamous Swedish dala horses.

We didn't buy any furniture, we just got ideas and planned our cheaper solutions. 

I did, however, buy some neat jars for a tea corner I am making in my room(!!!!),
Also a neat loofah and some wooden flower pot holders sewn together. I think
I might paint them and hang them in a pattern on my wall, or something.
Pictures to come.

Fabric market. Seriously, they have huge markets for
EVERYTHING! Here L. M. picks out her fabric.
She really likes pink : )

K reads.

Here is my fabric! Well, the back of it...

This is a really poor picture, but the only one I was
able to get at Hearts and Hands. It is a carpentry
shop where they teach deaf people the skills of
carpentry. They came and installed my newly,
handmade bed yesterday. I can't wait to share it
with you. They did a great job and were very kind.

I am very excited about this! I designed this cabinet
to hide some ugly pipes in the bathroom (see below).
I told the guy what I wanted through an interpreter
(K) and I wasn't sure how he understood my idea.

Ugly corner pipes.

The solution! He understood pretty well, put a
Chinese twist to it, and here we go! No more pipes!

We had new counter tops installed, but there was the problem of the pipes
again... SO, we had another cabinet built.

The color doesn't match, mind you, but it is better than the alternative.
We just pretend it is a dishwasher : ) The counters turned out great.
No more white counters and white tiled floor.

This guy was awesome and funny (but I don't think
he knows it). He installed our clothes racks, they don't
have dryers here (why???). This is a pretty great invention.
They are racks on a pulley system, so when you are done
hanging or using them, you just reel them out of
 sight. Sort of hard to explain. I will try to get a picture soon.

Thought I should mention the brand name of this great contraption...
'Good Wife'. We were thinking of writing the company and asking them
if they would consider calling it 'Good Husband'...

I began the arduous task of cleaning the terrance... I only got half way by
the end of the day, but what a difference! I scrubbed all the green off
the green and yellow sponge.

Ah, the curtain maker. What an adventure this was. Here everyone tries
to talk at once : )

No, he didn't hit us with that.

Lah-ronda (that's what I've dubbed her). She matched her fabric.

Here is a sneak peak at the fabric I chose.

Mostly black and white with hints of muted yellow/mustard and purple/grey.

Which one of these ugly ones would you chose?

I decided on one of these...you'll have to wait for my room post to find out.
Oh, the suspense! 

Too many numbers and people and rooms and measurements.
Alas, I was not the one burdened with this task... Thank heavens.

Well, all you fine folks, I hope you had quite a feast for your eyes. I am sure I have been taking photos non stop for you to get a visual tour of all of our happenings. Hope you're enjoying. There are more posts to come THIS WEEK: A rainy day, food, and moving. Once my room is semi-unpacked, I will show it to you.

Until Next Time,

Lindsay

My New Room

   

Our apartment is on the 5th floor
(built in workout as T would say) and the location is
AWESOME. This is kind of like the China version
of a backyard. Ours has a swing, stone pathways
and little waterways with koi fish. Very peaceful.

We have 3 balconies, a rooftop terrance, as well as an almost-spiral-staircase,
living room,sun room/great room and dining room, 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
Here is the view from the living room looking into the sun room/great room
(we haven't named it yet) and the dining room. Here is T and her daughter K.

Here is my room.

This is what it looked like when I picked it.
They gave me the choice of 1 of 3 rooms.

I chose this room for several reasons: the window seat,
the L shape which gives it more dimension and a bit more room and
the location, near a bathroom on the first floor.

Let the painting begin! I bought the paint (which is exorbitant, wow) and
painted the room myself. It took me about 2.5 days
(I did the base boards as well).
A special thanks to my Grandpa for teaching me and
Uncle Jim and Peggy for keeping my summer jobs full of painting,
because of them I knew just what to do . 

Painting in China is not like painting in America. No way, no how.
First buying the paint is like, well, frustrating. They can do it, no, wait,
they can't, oh, but they can. Sure we can give you this, ok I want 3 cans, oh, we only have 1....
Anyway, after the buying and delivering is done (btw most everything here is delivered
directly to your apt. for free, awesome), there is the problem of the quality of supplies.
For example, I practically died (large exaggeration) of a sneezing attack
while trying to sand the putty (which filled everything but the hole once dried...).
I literally sneezed almost-straight for 10 min. 

The other issue was the tape. AH! The tape, don't get me started on the tape.
I had to retouch many, many times. Here I am laying on my floor because
(A) I was tried and had just finished the first coat and (B) because I could.

View from the window seat.

Paint everywhere. All different colors for all the different rooms.
We hired someone to paint the rest of the house (thank goodness).
Well, it was bitter sweet.  Let's just say that when you live in China you can't
compare it to home (for many valid reasons) and
therefore your standards for certain things being to change, like,
 for example, painting. The things that are a priority in the US suddenly
 become dim in this new environment. And so they probably should. 

We are getting new counters installed next week (yay!). 

Some more of those helpful (or sometimes not so much) tools.

This is only the introduction, there will be more room/design posts in the near future....

Most likely tomorrow : ) 

As you can imagine, life here as kept me busy the past week. I have been in China for a little over a week already. The jet lag is still here, the digestion, not so good, BUT life here, overall, has been new and exciting. Can't wait to show you my life through my photos!!