Monthly Archives: August 2014

mini kitchens disguised as furniture

Now this is a fascinating idea!

mecc interiors | design bites

It isn’t all that long ago that, if you saw a large armoire sitting out in the open, you would assume it hid a TV from view. Times change. These days, it might be more likely to disguise a kitchen.

Without a doubt, many of the best armoire kitchens come from YesterTec. The variety in design styles, colours, and configurations is extensive and they have clearly thought out ventilation methods that enable moisture and heat to escape, even when all the doors and drawers are closed.

The problem with typical small exposed mini-kitchens is that they never disappear.

When [kitchens] are not being used, they are still part of the room. Dishes in the sink, ovens and cooktops staring you in the face. On the other hand, the Armoire Kitchen is so beautiful that it can actually become the focal point of the room!

“We designed this piece (and its many…

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Categories: ordinary life | Leave a comment

Vardo update #1

So, it’s payday. About time, too!
Life is a funny thing, sometimes…like when you announce to all and sundry via the internet that you are going to be working overtime and saving like crazy so you can afford to build a vardo/Gypsy wagon and your car breaks down the following week and you get a nasty cold the week after that.
Yep. That’s just my luck. Last Friday, I took my brother to see Guardians of the Galaxy (good movie, by the way) and on our way home, the stick that shifts gears pulled out of its console by a couple inches. It’s not shifting gears anymore, obviously.
I didn’t have enough money to get it fixed until payday, so my car has just been sitting in the driveway and I’ve been catching rides into work with dad.
Can’t work much overtime when you have to be picked up at a certain time; but apparently by that time I’d worked enough overtime to induce a state of exhaustion, crippling both my immune system and my cheerful demeanor. The reason I’m blogging at this exact moment is that I’m home sick with a nasty cold. Fever, chills, body aches, sore throat, bleary eyes: I’ve got it all. According to my loving family, I look as bad as I complain I feel. Yuck. I’ve been gargling with salt water, sucking on cough drops and gulping down criminally over-steeped and under-sweetened green tea like there’s no tomorrow.
To anyone caught in the wake of my frustration and lack of filter: I’m really sorry. It’s been a bad couple weeks. Hopefully I can get my car fixed, my health improved and my attitude adjusted over the next two days. I hate calling in sick. I hate working sick even more. I promise you, I feel like I’m dying right now.

Anyways, woes aside, here’s the progress report.
In two weeks, I worked 96.5 hours. For reference, I usually work between 75 and 80 hours. 16.5 hours of overtime, with all the shift diff, bonuses and OT pay rate that comes with it = $500 extra to put back for vardo construction (assuming I’m not going to have to dip into that for car repairs). My target amount is $5,000 before the start of construction.
So, in the first two weeks, I earned 10% of my target amount. If I could keep up that pace, I’d be done with the financing phase in 4.5 months or nine more paychecks. Yeah…I don’t think that’s going to happen. For the sake of my well being and my fellow man, I’m probably going to have to slow down just a hair.
Let’s shoot for an April construction, shall we? That gives me almost 8 months and 17 pay periods to earn the remaining 90%. That means I’ll have to shoot for earning $265 extra each pay period…about half what I worked/earned this time. Only 8-9 hours of over time every two weeks? I think I can do that!
Without killing myself or anyone else around me, that is.

Categories: Micro cottage, ordinary life | 2 Comments

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