MetaChat - Pssst! Wanna see some dirty pictures?

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14 November 2007

Pssst! Wanna see some dirty pictures? I tried taking some long-awaited photos of the house last night, for my parents, who ask me every time we speak... but I'm wrangling with my flash, which wants to either blow everything out, or just lay down and die. Anyway... →[More:]

Here are some really dirty bad bad (bad!) photos of my kitchen (which is honestly not a dark, dingy pit, trust me!) that I took last night. I'll take more, in daylight, nicer, more better... but anyway, this is where I'm usually talking to you from. (Old fashioned, '40s-era Athens house, with marvelous high ceilings, cozy in winter, cool in summer. love it.)

post by: taz at: 06:40 | 43 comments

See the teeny fridge? It's pretty teeny.

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Yes, that's Fairy dish soap by the sink. I buy it because I can. It's Fairy Ultra, actually, "Extra Hygiene". I decided on that one over the "Almost No Hygiene At All" variety.

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See that black mass under the water heater (yep, teeny water heater, but works faboo)? That's actually a lovely, feathery, green, leafy plant. Damn you, sucky flash.

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That's fish chowder on the stove. It is way good.

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See the naked windows? We have yet to cut and hem the great cotton and eyelet traditional cafe-curtain fabric we bought to make the curtains... but they are gonna look great, yes they are. Plus no one can see in there. That's marble around the sink/counter/stove area, which is pretty cool.

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Pepper, anyone? Some of these went into the chowder. Along with a small bell pepper, a chili pepper, and banana pepper - maybe. I think it's a banana pepper. Anyway, it's longish, and yellowish-green, and has a really nice flavorful hotness.

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posted by taz 14 November | 06:40

omg I love it, I don't think it looks dirtybad at all! Very warm and inviting. Though I do wonder why the water heater is up so high, is that common practice? I'd be all afraid if it fell off the wall. More, please, more!

posted by WolfDaddy 14 November | 07:50

That kitchen is huge!

posted by gomichild 14 November | 07:55

It's huge by our standards, definitely... Our kitchens always turn out to be closet-size, for some reason, so I'm love-love-lovin' this one.

The water heater is very small, and very securely attached, WolfDaddy. I put the plant there to cover up the mess of pipes and stuff just under it. I don't know nothin' 'bout no plumbin', but that tiny thing manages to heat the entire house (via radiators) and give us as much constant hot water as we ever want for showers, etc. It's a mystery. It does take a minute to get up to temperature, though, once you turn on the hot tap. Natural gas, at last - wowee!

I'm taking more photos now!

posted by taz 14 November | 08:17

How lovely! I want a teeny fridge like that!

posted by crush-onastick 14 November | 08:38

I love that there are plants and flowers and cuttings everywhere. It's so charming! I freaking love when people take pictures of where they live. I should take photos of my ugly kitchen before we redo it this winter.

posted by iconomy 14 November | 08:48

umm... is that a teeny fridge? Looks normal to me...

posted by altolinguistic 14 November | 09:02

o god, the flash really is out of control... don't know what's happened to it. Suspect mr. taz.

Anyway, I'm honour-bound to send more photos to the folks, so I'll post some here as I sloppily process them. Here's the living room, shot from the second front room. I don't know what to call that room, so I call it "second front room" - maybe you'll kind of see what I mean after more photos. Or not.

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posted by taz 14 November | 09:07

alto, it's as teeny as they get without being one of those counter-high ones, I think.

I'm taller than the fridge by a head, and I'm sorry to say it's not actually a lot wider than my hips - about two inches on either side. In a perfect world, that would be three inches on either side.

posted by taz 14 November | 09:11

Taz, be sure to double-seal the marble...I had stone counters, splashes and floor which weren't, didn't know they should have been and they stained, so I replaced them with quartz.

I'd rather the burners had been put against the wall (the owner of the building did this before I bought the place), but I decided to leave them as they are.

posted by brujita 14 November | 09:19

I'm having the floor cleaned, but otherwise leaving it alone.

posted by brujita 14 November | 09:20

My fridge is smaller.

posted by chuckdarwin 14 November | 09:23

Yeah, marble can definitely stain. We haven't done anything with these yet, but I think they've been around for a long, long time... maybe as long as 60+ years. I've been telling my husband that he needs to interview our landlady's mom (a quite old lady now), whose husband built this house for her. I want him to do an audio recording of the story of the house, and then I'd like to transcribe it.

posted by taz 14 November | 09:28

another couple of living room views...

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posted by taz 14 November | 09:39

OMG hardwood floors! Lurvely!!!!

Suspect mr. taz.

Okay, this is one thing that handing him a can of WD-40 won't fix, I suspect.

posted by WolfDaddy 14 November | 09:43

Very nice!

I have an under-counter fridge, so yours looks positively mammoth to me.

posted by amro 14 November | 09:59

I like it, but it won't fit vegetables for a week - or even several days, really... I had a big bag of greens outside because they wouldn't fit in the fridge, and even though it's cool out, they mostly went bad after three days, which pisses me off. We don't even have soft drinks, or juices or anything but the bare essentials in the fridge, but damn... it just fills up in an instant. But if we had a bigger one, it wouldn't leave room for a friendly table in the kitchen, and we love that more than room in the fridge.

(oooh! Almost time for another show-us-the-inside-of-your-fridge post!!!)

posted by taz 14 November | 10:07

taz, I love your house. It's so pretty!

posted by LoriFLA 14 November | 10:32

Okay! The "second front room":

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And a couple of not-great ones of the entry hall:

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Okay, parents, that's enough for today... not enough light left to shoot the bedroom. Tomorrow!

posted by taz 14 November | 10:33

It's just lovely taz. I'm jealous.

posted by jrossi4r 14 November | 10:38

Thank you, lori! We only have a couple of pieces of art hung now, but we may have things almost right by the end of this week. I'm feeling very happy.

posted by taz 14 November | 10:38

jinx, jrossi!

I'm such a procrastinator that I never really did get around to doing a decent job of shooting our last place, which is a shame. And this time I've been saying... "after we get the bed"... "after we get the bookcases"... and now, recently, "after we hang the art". But then realized that I was again on my way to not getting any shots down at all, so I'm shooting away.

I'm like ico, though; I love love seeing photos of peoples' homes. I wish everyone would post pics.

posted by taz 14 November | 10:45

Is that a rug in the last photo, or a tile floor?

posted by amro 14 November | 10:55

Tile floor, amro - terrazzo; and there's another one in the central hallway. They're very sweet.

posted by taz 14 November | 10:58

That is such a classy place.

posted by cmonkey 14 November | 11:02

I love the art! It looks great. Very airy and inviting and sophisticated.

posted by LoriFLA 14 November | 11:03

I'm like ico, though; I love love seeing photos of peoples' homes. I wish everyone would post pics.

I do too! You have a lovely home, taz, and now I want to see how everyone lives! And I want to do all the dumb stuff that needs doing (like replacing hideous light fixtures) around my condo, so I can photo it!

posted by crush-onastick 14 November | 11:10

Tile floor, amro - terrazzo;

Awesome.

I love love seeing photos of peoples' homes. I wish everyone would post pics.

I would. Photo Friday?

posted by amro 14 November | 11:11

Crush - or you could just position yourself to miss the hideous bits, like I do!

Cmonkey and Lori, thanks! You guys are warming my cockles. (Not Dirty!) On the art, we've only hung the two largest ones, in the second front room and the entry hall, so far. The green one in the living room is only propped up on the radiator, but will be in essentially the same place. I have a lot of other smaller things that I've mostly not decided about, except two antique mirrors that will probably go above the desk in the living room, a wonderful, colorful mosaic-framed mirror that will probably go above the kitchen table, a really nice serigraph that will probably go above the desk in the second front room. And lots of other bits I haven't figured out at all.

I'll probably post bedroom images tomorrow, and I think I've mostly decided to put no art there... but I do have a decorating challenge for that room that maybe you guys can help me with!

posted by taz 14 November | 11:14

Your place is lovely, taz.

posted by gaspode 14 November | 11:17

It's beautiful, taz! If that's dirty to you, you're never coming over to my place. Thanks for posting the photos.

posted by elizard 14 November | 11:23

Haha! No, the kitchen isn't dirty, but the shots are very dirty; I had to choose between the totally blown shots and the totally dark shots, and the dark were closest to the actual feeling. but there was a frying pan in the sink. Dirty!

Amro, I'm wondering if we should just do a "show us your house" that isn't a Photo Friday... Like maybe a week-long thingy?

posted by taz 14 November | 11:35

Oooooh, seconding (fifthing?) everyone else, I love your home. It's warm and beautiful and looks comfortable, like it is a room I've been in before, but just can't quite remember. Very cool!

posted by Sil 14 November | 12:25

Amro, I'm wondering if we should just do a "show us your house" that isn't a Photo Friday... Like maybe a week-long thingy?

Works for me.

posted by amro 14 November | 12:31

Amro, I'm wondering if we should just do a "show us your house" that isn't a Photo Friday... Like maybe a week-long thingy?

Can we do this after Thanksgiving? No way I can get to it before then. Plus, Christmas decorations!

posted by crush-onastick 14 November | 12:33

Can we do this after Thanksgiving?

Works for me. Guys?

posted by taz 14 November | 12:38

I love your decorating! Very nice, comfy yet classy.

I have that very same fridge in teeny apt Taz! I like it a lot, it prevents me from having ridiculous amounts of food in the house.

posted by LunaticFringe 14 November | 14:00

Come decorate my place! Yours is so beautiful.

posted by mudpuppie 14 November | 14:09

Okay! I'd love to! I bet I could make a fairly good stab at decorating your place to suit your personality... it would be a fun, fun thing!

posted by taz 14 November | 14:19

Hey taz, your second front room could be a sitting room or a parlor. How classy that sounds!

posted by muddgirl 14 November | 14:26

What a gorgeous place, taz! Our kitchens are about the same size. And I second the vote for sitting room or parlor. Is it possible that one of the "front rooms" was intended to be a dining room? Or do you have one that we haven't seen yet?

posted by deborah 14 November | 15:52

The home reflects the person - warm, stylish, cool, interesting, eclectic. It's beautiful.

posted by essexjan 14 November | 16:20

Nice place. Very taz-y.

posted by dg 14 November | 16:22

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