Renovate Brooklyn! Back to the Task at Hand... Oy.

In the midst of working my more-than-full-time job, prepping my new office, doing secret missions for  The Nate Show, and remembering to breathe deeply and calmly*, I've also been slowly dragging bits and pieces of my Grand Street office out of the apartment and into the new space a dozen blocks away (with the help of my incredibly patient and loving husband John, to whom I owe everything and am eternally indebted. Big smile.)

So far, I have absconded with the tall danish cabinet that used to be in the living room, which I know some of you will be happy to see go. (Yes! Some of my readers have dissenting opinions about my furniture placement. The gall!) In the photo below, the cabinet used to sit to the right of the sofa, now replaced by my 1960's giantess lamp (literally 42" tall! Yow-zah!) and a lithograph by Ralph Steadman. Sweet.

As I mentioned before, the plan is to commandeer what was once the office-area and turn it into a dining room, and then make the kitchen into a more fully functioning kitchen (sans dining table) by building/buying a big counter top and adding some counter stools. I've been scouring Craig's List and local antique shops for a possible candidate, but no winners yet...

The hunt is my favorite phase of the D-I-Y game, except when we get to the part where we actually exchange goods for currency. I like that bit less.

I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Craig's List who is selling the kitchen island pictured at left... Maybe a little too antique-y for our apartment, but very cool looking none the less. And if the price is right, I think I'm feeling fairly flexible aesthetically. And I suspect I'll be even more flexible once there is a big void in our kitchen when I've moved the table into the living room... 

What I really want is something like the shop-style counter pictured below-- which is truly a bargain at only $199.00! Sadly, it is located somewhere deep in Illinois, which would make the price of acquiring this counter SKYROCKET! So, alas... the search continues.

*My friend Mary just taught me about "Square Breathing". Apparently this is going to revolutionize my late-night/early-morning work-related-to-do-list-anxiety... Can't wait to put this into action, as counting down from 100 in french is getting old. I'll report back.