Water.org

One of my earliest memories is my mom walking through our village to get water from the well at my grandparent's house. We used this water to drink, do our washing and bathe. We were lucky, even though my mom had to go out to get the water, unlike almost 800 MILLION people, we had access to clean, safe water.

The problem is enormous but we can make a difference. One in eight people don't have safe water meaning each morning they scavenge to survive. Lack of safe water and sanitation impacts a family's health, keeps children from getting an education, and traps millions in a cycle of poverty.

In just over two weeks, I will be turning 30. In memory of where I came from and with the hope of living to see a world where safe water is accessible to everyone, I am asking that instead of going out to lunch or dinner, you contribute that money to water.org. Lets work together to create the type of world we want to live in!

http://give.water.org/f/sumeerayounis/

Internet/Cable-Free Update

Another completely unrelated picture.

So, as promised, here are my final thoughts on our internet/cable-free life and what I have learned from it.

We went internet-free for about six weeks and I held out for about two more weeks after Feraz got internet in the house. One day, I needed to get something done at home and decided to see if I could guess the password. Three tries later, I had "hacked" into our internet and since then its been a bit of a downward spiral.

These are the books I read while we didn't have internet:

What the Dog Saw and Other Stories
The 19th Wife
Detroit: An American Autopsy
The Toss of a Lemon
This is a Book by Dmetri Martin
London Fields
The Invention of Everything Else
The Snows of Kiliminjaro and Other Stories
Casual Vacancy
Running With Scissors
Spot of Bother

This is what I have read since we got the internet again:

On the Road
The Reluctant Fundamentalist

My house is messier, the meals I make are more rushed, I'm less likely to work out, etc. etc. Feraz and I have actually had meals where we are both on our computers. We talk less, spend less time in our family room together and more time watching our own shows or browsing the internet.

So, why am I back on the internet? That devil for who we sacrifice so much - "convenience."

On the bright side, we still don't have cable.

The Outsiders

Do you have a book that has inexplicably stayed with you after you read it? The Outsiders is one of those books for me. Every time I think of Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay, I go through all the emotions of having read the book for the first time when I was just a kid.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down today.
Nothing gold can stay.

There is something about the theme, this intense desire to be something better, to honor something good in ourselves that becomes lost, that always speaks to me in different phases of my life. Is there a way to hold on to the goodness of youth? When I look at my niece, I think of her innocence and I curse the moments when she will begin to understand the cruelty of the world around her. How will that change her? Is there a way to learn about the world and hold onto that gold? I hope so.

"Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold."

$35 Desk Makeover - My First DIY Project

**Warning: Lots of low-quality camera phone pictures in this post. Proceed at your own risk.**

I just completed my first DIY paint job! When we moved to the new place, I started hunting Craigslist for a desk that I could transform.

Here are all the crafts I needed a home for!

After just a few days, I saw an ad from a girl who was trying to sell a beautiful wood desk for just $35! I contacted her and we set the pick up for the next day. Luckily, my friend John, who has a SUV, was available to help out and we headed off to Columbia Heights to get the desk.

Here is what it looked like right when I brought it home.

I loved the shape, but it needed work. It had a fair amount of visible damage, like dings and scratches. The color would not work in our apartment and the hardware looked toxic to touch.

I looked up our local paint store and headed over there for some consulting advice. Your local hardware store is absolutely the best resource for doing anything at home. I am always amazed by how knowledgeable the staff is and how willing they are to talk you through your questions.

I asked about what supplies I would need and what kind of paint would be the best for the job. I ended up buying (1) A beginners painting kit with two rollers and two trays; (2) a quart of water based primer which the clerk tinted grey; and (3) a quart of latex paint in billiard green.  This cost me about $30 after they applied a 30% off promotion they were running.

Back at the house, I got to work.

Step 1: Clean

To prep the desk, I removed all the hardware with a simple flathead screwdriver. Then, I wiped down the entire surface with a soft washcloth to get any dust and debris out of the way. Then, I got to work with my Magic Eraser. It took me two Magic Erasers to get everything clean! I think this may have been the hardest part of the process.

Wait until the desk is completely dry before moving on!

Step 2: Sand

I already had a low/medium grit sand block at home so I just used that to lightly sand the entire desk so the surface would be roughed up. This helps the primer to stick to the wood helping to create a stronger barrier for the paint. For places on the desk where there were lots of dings and dents, I just gave them some extra sanding.

Step 3: Prime

I poured a little primer in the tray and gave the whole desk a nice even coat. I have read that primer can appear very uneven when you apply it and that is not a big deal. Since I hadn’t bought mini rollers, I used painting sponges I had from an art project to do the corners and the edges but was getting a really bad result with those. I think it is better to give the primer two coats but it was late and we wanted to watch a movie, so I just decided to do one and hope for the best.

Let the primer dry overnight!

Step 4: Paint! Or where things took a turn for the worse.

The next morning, the desk looked beautiful. I considered not painting it but knew it wouldn’t last as long without the paint. I went to work on the first coat of paint.

Do you ever have that feeling when you are working on something? Something that you have already put three or four hours into? That feeling like, oh no, I have messed this up and I have no idea how to fix it? With each roll I could see the paint wasn’t going on evenly. There were big smudges and some places were really dark while others were really light. It looked like a third graders project. I didn’t understand what I was doing wrong because I had done the exact same thing for the primer and it went on perfectly.

 I forged ahead and hoped it would dry evenly. An hour later, I could see that it was not going to change.

It was time to go back to the paint store.

The clerk recommended that I get a better roller than the one that comes with the paint set. I bought a roller that had shorter hairs and was better for getting a completely smooth application.

The other problem I was having was that I was dipping my roller right into the paint. Don’t do that! You should roll the roller into the paint, starting the roll at the top of the tray and gently gliding into the paint. This helps the roller be evenly coated in the paint so when it goes on to your surface you will get an even application.

You also want to make sure you are applying even pressure throughout the whole surface to get a consistent color.

As soon as I got home, I got to work. With the new roller and tips, the second coat went on beautifully. The new mini-rollers I bought were amazing! It was so easy to use them and they wasted a lot less paint. I ended up only using the mini roller for all the drawers and the whole front of the desk.

One of the few times when I've used my head lamp. Our family room has dim lighting and I wanted to make sure I could see what I was doing when painting the insides of the desk.

Step 5: Apply hardware

I had planned to order new hardware for the desk. Instead of waiting 7-10 days for it to ship from Home Depot, I decided to see if I could make the old hardware work. I looked up some tutorials on how to clean brass. A cup of lemon water, a big helping of salt and two hours later, I had all the hardware shining like my wedding jewelry.

The top piece had been cleaned once and the lower piece shows how it really began to shine after another scrub down.

After I reapplied the hardware, I just stared at my desk for a few minutes. In one of those rare moments in life, my vision for the desk was completely realized in real life. It was exactly how I imagined it would look and all for less than $80!

Here is the desk in all its glory.

With a few of my things on it now. I'm going to put some of my literary quotes in the frames.

I might be biased, but what a beauty!

Life Without Internet or Cable

This picture has nothing to do with the post. I just really like it.

A few months ago, Feraz and I tried to implement a no-internet from 8-10 rule. We wanted to do this to help reduce screen time and encourage more conversation and fun times. It felt to me that Feraz would come home from work and we would exchange some words here and there but we spent virtually all of our time in front of our computers or watching TV together.

We tried the ban for a few weeks but with varied schedules, guests popping in or having places to go, the 8-10 ban wasn’t practical and we abandoned it after a short while. Even as we both went back to the internet, we lamented that we didn’t like being so attached to screens.

While we were discussing where we would place furniture in the new place, Feraz suggested we keep the TV out of the main room and not get cable at the new place. I thought not having a TV in the family room was a great idea and quickly agreed.

A few days later, I had an idea to take things a step further. I asked Feraz, “What if we don’t have internet as well?”

Feraz seemed a little skeptical but after thinking about it for a few moments, he agreed. We figured we would have a library close by, so we could use that for internet and we could always use our phones to look up directions, places to eat or do quick email check-ins.

This way, we could still benefit from the internet but we would completely eliminate mindless browsing and facebook black holes.

After about five minutes into moving to our new place, Feraz started talking about missing the interent. The first few days were tough on him but pretty soon he stopped missing the internet. I, shockingly, did not miss the internet at all. I went from obsessively reading 10-15 blogs, doing all my shopping online and spending too many hours to admit on facebook to just using my phone every now and then and I loved it.

We have now been internet/cable-free for 21 days. Our goal was to go without these things for one month and then decide if we wanted to stick with it.

The most obvious advantage for me has been that I have been reading more. Since moving to the new place, I have read What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, The 19^th Wife, The Toss of a Lemon, Detroit: An American Autopsy, TheThousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet and This is a Book by Demetri Martin. That is more books than I read in all of winter!

I have also felt much more creative since going internet/cable-free. The ideas and words for stories come much more freely now. I find myself using my imagination frequently. I get a lot more done during the day and Feraz and  I are spending so much more quality time together.

I don't think the internet and cable are terrible things. I love TV. There are so many great shows on and I do miss watching some of my regulars. There are also times in the evening when I just want to put in an old episode of the Office and let my mind just relax. We especially miss finding things to watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime. But by having to think about what we want to watch and going and getting the DVD in advance, I find that I now get much more enjoyment out of watching a movie.

Overall, at this point in the experiment, we think that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.  I will let you guys know if we decide to go back to having internet or cable and what prompted that decision. What about you? Would you ever consider cutting out internet or TV or both? Have you already?

House Tour Number Two

We moved!

The move was relatively painless. We used Bookstore Movers and they did an amazing job. They showed up at a little after 8 am and by 11 am, we were sitting in Kebab Palace having lunch, with all our furniture and boxes safely tucked away in our new place.

I'll tell you all more about the new place soon but lets take a tour of the house we just left.

After I was mugged, Feraz and I wanted to move to the safest place we could find in DC. One day I was parousing Craigslist and saw what looked like the perfect apartment. I immediately contacted the lister and within a few hours, we were standing outside the house waiting to see the place.

Feraz always warns me to not show my reaction to a place so we have negotiating power. Sadly, as soon as I walked in, I said, "I love it! We'll take it." It was such a beautiful space on one of the best streets in Georgetown. I loved the layout and how it felt like you were walking into a home, not an apartment. As much as I loved this place, I learned a lot more about what I didn't want in an apartment than I expected.

Lets start with the living room. The living room had two things that most people traditionally like in a home; a fireplace and skylights. We ended up only using the fireplace once (although that was to make s'mores so it was one time well used). So, although I liked how it looked aesthetically, I realize now that not having fireplaces in the house will not be a relevant consideration for us.

As for the skylights... I curse the skylights! They made the home so energy inefficient. When one service woman came to our house to help figure out why it was so cold all the time, she learned that the temperature was ten degrees cooler at the top of the room opposed to the bottom of the room. Since the vents were high up in this room, the heat was literally being sucked right out of the house. In the summer, the skylights made the family room unbearable. It would get so hot and no amount of cranking up the AC would help. So, if they are not put in correctly, skylights can be a huge problem. I am sure there is better technology available for the glass or that you could get remote controlled blinds for the skylights but to me it just isn't worth it!

Like our last place, this apartment had 2.5 baths. I love this and am of the mindset the more bathrooms the better! I liked that the powder room for guests generally stayed clean and we never had to worry about having guests show up at any time. Feraz used the guest bedroom bathroom and I used the bathroom attached to our own bedroom. We both had our own space and could always get ready without bumping into each other. I loved this and it is going to be a huge adjustment to have just ONE bathroom at the new place.

The master bedroom in this home was ridiculous. It was certainly an impressive room to walk into when we saw the house but there is no reason that this room shouldn't have been broken into two bedrooms. It was such a waste of space! Because of how the windows and closets were placed, we had few options with regards to placing the furniture. There was a lot of dead space and even if it was better laid out to accommodate more furniture, I don't really see the point of putting a bunch of couches and seats in your bedroom. (This might change once we have kids. I guess you might want your own space more then? I doubt it would matter then, either.)

This is a huge bedroom set but looks so dwarfed in this huge room!

The guest bedroom was great. It was a much smaller size and Feraz spent a lot of time watching soccer in here. Since it was smaller, it was actually the warmest room in the house so when our heater broke this winter, we spent a lot of time in here.

For me, a dining area is a must. Even if it were just a small table on the side of a room, I need a place in the home dedicated to eating food. Here, we sectioned off part of the living room to create a dining room.

After having a great big kitchen at the old place, I was a little nervous about having a galley kitchen. Especially since we both love to cook and I bake all the time. The kitchen was amazing! The cabinets were so well laid out and I had just as much storage space as the first apartment. Since the kitchen was small, it was always easy to quickly grab whatever I needed. So, I learned that more than a big kitchen, you just need a well designed kitchen.

Overall, this apartment was a showstopper in one sense but definitely not the right long-term place for us. On to the next one!

There are some more detailed pictures of the place after the jump.

House Tour - 21B Quincy

We are getting ready for move number three in three years in DC! The week passed quickly with getting boxes, organizing drawers and packing everything up.

I have always meant to do house tours on here but never quite got around it. Better late than never? The first place we lived in DC definitely had its charms. The place was newly renovated and everything was shiny, fresh and modern. It was a beautiful row house that was broken into two homes. We lived on the top two floors and had a whopping three bedrooms and two and a half baths. If we could have bought it, we may have ended up staying there but eventually we decided to move. We didn't feel safe walking around in the evenings, there wasn't a grocery store close by and once I got mugged walking to the metro, we knew it was time to move on.

Although we had to leave, we have so many great memories from our first place. We had the best property manager, Makeda, and neighbors that were so sweet and brought us a welcome card and present when we moved in. Here are some pictures of our first place in DC, 21B Quincy, and some notes on what we learned about what we want and don't want in a place. Sadly, we have no pictures of the upstairs! What a shame!

We spent almost all of our time in the family room or the kitchen. When we finally buy a place, we will make sure that these two rooms are where most of the square footage is spent. Some people like big bedrooms but we realized that we only use our bedrooms for sleeping. No need to waste space there!

We had some good height on these ceilings which made the apartment feel pretty open even though it was a narrow row house. When you have a really large family room, the best bet is to break the space up into separate seating areas. A blogger I love recently did a great job discussing how to tackle that design challenge.

I created this second little reading nook that we used pretty sparingly. It was a good place to sit down and have a cup of tea and watch what the neighbors were doing but it was under-utilized space. This time around I would probably put a desk to work at here.

We had a wonderful open kitchen/dining space. I loved all the new appliance and counter-space. Again, I don't think this design was the most space efficient as you had a lot of room to the right where nothing was going on. You can't see it here but the counter curves around and we had some great bar stools there. You could sit at the bar stools and easily chat to whoever was slaving away in the kitchen. I think an island or a bar are a must in any kitchen.

I loved our alley. We had a parking space out back which we didn't use but was nice for guests. I never thought about wide window ledges but we had them on every window on this house and they were great for putting trinkets on. This is definitely an addition I would like in any house we move into. Does anyone else feel like they are in a romance novel whenever they see a room with window seats?

Here is a shot of one of many, many brunches we had in this dining room. It was great to open the door and get some fresh air when the weather was nice. A detailed view of our large art below!

We love our books.

I saw Young House Love use these frames for a large wall and I loved the impact they have. They are 20x20 and when you put 9 of them together, you get the impact of a really large piece of art for just few hundred dollars. I definitely recommend this if you are looking for a budget friendly project for a large wall.

This hutch is my favorite piece in our house. I found it on Craigslist right before we moved to DC and went and paid for the guy to hold it until we moved here a few weeks later. So glad I did! It is a great statement piece and makes me happy whenever I look at it.

Look at that lonely egg. The best part of any home is sharing lots and lots of great meals with people you care about.

And even better than that is breakfast for two!

Hope you enjoyed! Look out for pictures of our Georgetown apartment and the new place soon!

Turn and face the strange... ch-ch-changes

Breathtaking entrance.

Last night I headed over to the Kennedy Center to check out part of the month long Nordic Cool festival. Feraz had asked me to meet him there at 7 because he had wanted to surprise me with a show and I decided to make a full evening of it by going early to check out the Gaup Sisters. (Every night at 6pm, the Kennedy Center has free performances on the Millennium Stage.) The sisters would be performing joiks (pronounced yoik) which are a traditional Sami type of song. The sisters talked about how a grandmother would yoik her grandson, or a husband might yoik his wife and that people even yoiked animals! Needless to say, I started laughing like a third grader every time the sisters talked about yoiking something new. To my defense, a lot of other people couldn't stifle their laughter either.

The Gaup Sisters via washingtoncitypaper.

After all the yoiking, I walked around the Kennedy Center to check out the exhibits. My favorite installment was a collection of waterfall photographs that were presented as posters often are in stores.  When you pulled out any particular photograph, the sound of that waterfall would play. I wanted it in my house so badly.

Sarah and I fought over who would get to take this horse lamp home.

Summer wardrobe.

After some meandering around, I got a text that Feraz had arrived and I met up with him. I found out that we were going to see Metamorphosis performed by an Icelandic and British company! Feraz scored us great tickets up front in the orchestra section. I always feel like I should go home in a town car after I sit in orchestra.

I think Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis is one of the greatest short stories ever written. I had no idea how it would translate to the stage and was impressed by the clever set design. The bottom half of the stage was set up as a traditional house and the top half was set up to create the illusion that the audience had a bird's-eye view into Gregor's room. The actor that played Gregor was a phenomenal gymnast. For half the show he was hanging sideways from walls and ceilings. See the picture below.

via Washingtonpost.

Overall, I don't think the performance did justice to Kafka's work but that is a monumental task for anyone cast or production team to take on. Although the play fell short, it was still a great work and worth seeing.

I swear that all these robots live on coffee and donuts

This morning,  Feraz and I went to see our new place. We are moving- again! Third apartment in three years in DC. We are moving to Pentagon City to live closer to Feraz's brother and to down size our life a bit. I was really against living in VA but Feraz found us such an amazing and reasonably priced place that there was no way I could resist. We are going to be able to paint and have more freedom with the space, so I'm really looking forward to that as well! Cheet-o orange walls anyone? Yes, please. 

Salted Caramel donut. Sticky on the fingers but worth the mess.

After we finished meeting with the landlord we drove to the new donut place, Zeke's Donutz in Dupont. Today was their grand opening and they were giving away free donuts for the first 200 customers. Anytime we hear free and donut in the same sentence, we are there! Unless the sentence is "Eat this donut and get shot for free."  There was great music playing so I danced while we waited our turn in line. I figured I could eat the donut guilt free after two minutes of dancing so I helped myself to some of Feraz's donut too.

After the donut run, Feraz wished me luck as I drove home. Although I started driving again toward the middle of last year, I had still been pretty hesitant to drive in the city until about a week ago. A friend needed a ride to the embassy so I offered to take her. It wasn't bad at all! I actually gained so much confidence in my city driving that I even drove in New York while I was there this past weekend! But even with that bevy of accomplishments, I am still a very green city driver and am not used to parallel parking.

Luckily, when I pulled up to our house, I saw a huge spot right out front. As I was about to park, a guy in a Mercedes came and reversed his car to the back of the spot forcing me to parallel park between his car and another. I rolled down my window and asked if he would mind pulling up so I could pull in behind him and he looked at me as if I told him I had murdered his first born and said, "Yes, I would mind." Then he made a show of getting out of the car to make sure I wouldn't hit his. I considered just looking for another spot but the expression on his smug Tagg Romney looking face wouldn't let me. I took a deep breath and pulled into that spot like I was born to perform that one act. It was truly beautiful. I got out of the car, turned to his girlfriend and said, "You should leave this douche bag. He is going to be a horrible father." Well, I didn't really "say" that in the conventional manner but I did say it in my head. Twice.