Neighborhoods and Kitchens - Paris Friday Update

Where Will We Live? 

If you talked to me this week, you probably heard me babbling about Paris neighborhoods. We're looking at possible schools, timing commutes, touristy vs. non-touristy spots, and hoping to triangulate a few target neighborhoods. Our exploratory trip is coming up, so I want to have a list of arrondissements to walk through, along with schools and apartments.

Paris Arrondissements -- Study Up!

The Kitchen?

One of the most colorful stories our friends who lived in Paris told us was about their kitchen battle. It's unusual to find a rental apartment WITH a kitchen. And their rental didn't have a kitchen, just an empty room with some visible plumbing. Their tale of spending hours at Ikea France, waiting months to get delivery and installation, all the while using a patchwork rental kitchen really got me nervous.

How does one go about life with school-aged kids and no kitchen? I realize we're in a city with restaurants on every block, but yikes. That's a pretty big inconvenience.

But then I started thinking ... I have always wanted to redesign my own kitchen. I love the modern kitchens I see in the Ikea catalog with the open shelves above the counters, produce baskets hanging from the walls, and deep drawers for plates, bowls and other necessities. And now here was my opportunity to customize my own kitchen. In Paris!

If I know I'm going to get something like this (in a smaller space, I know), I might be willing to deal with the inconvenience.


This served as just a reminder to keep an open mind when things get bumpy. And they will surely be bumps coming my way.

That's the Friday Paris update. See you next week.



Related posts:
Pinterest: Decor I Adore
The Paris Move
All my Travel stories



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The $80 Kitchen Pantry Update

Image
It took two days and about $80 in supplies, and now our kitchen pantry is REBORN! Here's a quick review of the project in pictures, starting with the BEFORE pictures: My main issue with the wire shelves were bottles or anything "thin" would tip over. And with my commitment to bulk, I wanted to store glass containers in here but knew they wouldn't be "safe." I foresaw broken glass at some point. Plus, it's a great space, so I knew I could add more storage space if I was strategic. Last, wire shelves are ugly. So then I demo'd the pantry and painted the walls (which was just primer) with leftover paint from the rest of the house. It's called Polar Bear. I paid an electrician to install an outlet at "counter height" in the pantry, so I could move the dumb microwave off the counter. (The electrician did a slew of other small jobs around the house, not just this outlet, including a motion-activated light in this pantry. Tres Fancy
Keep reading »

Family Calendar Improvement

Image
 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don
Keep reading »

Basement Shiplap Project

Image
The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 
Keep reading »