Whose idea was this, anyway?

Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy . . .?

JoEllen returns home late on Friday after spending a pret-ty intense day at IKEA buying the kitchen of her dreams.

Saturday is a rest day for Jo. Scott has committed her to picking cherries from our friend Silvia’s orchard. Jo says,”No. You go. I’ll stay and rest my feet.”

Scott comes home with a bagful of cherries. He has boasted to our friend Silvia that JoEllen will bake a lattice-top cherry pie.  JoEllen just looks at him.

Sunday.

Jo has (sort of) recovered from her sore feet and bad shoes and IKEA trauma (it was extremely productive and successful but not without its price).

She goes to work, first following to the letter Cooks Illustrated instructions on pie crust dough for lattice-work cherry pie.

God bless food processors.

Then there’s the cherry pitting. Scott says there’s a tool you can buy to make cherry pitting easy. We don’t have it. Six cups of cherries takes about an hour.

The rest is straight-forward: roll out the dough for the pie crust bottom. Roll out the dough for the lattice strips. Freeze those.

Throw some sugar, corn starch and cinnamon into the pitted cherries.

Assemble.

Bake.

And voila.

Yes, she can bake cherry pie.

 

T plus nine days, and counting

Having accepted the fact that no construction project finishes on time, we still see progress every day out at Chata Diviak.

There are setbacks too.

Toilets had to be exchanged for ones that flush down, not back. (Who knew?) The stairs are going to be two more weeks, which makes them six weeks late.

One tile was not quite what we expected; but turned out okay.  The good news: an all white bathroom replaces the dull institutional brown one. Jo can decorate with all the colors IKEA offers in bath towels.

Mirrors have been ordered for the bathroom. JoEllen learned a really good trick from a friend she used to work with (Vanessa, take note!): fill a tiny bathroom with big mirrors and it’ll seem bigger.

The window guy was worth waiting a month for: his work is excellent. We were asked recently why there’s a gap under the windows. We learned that the builders aren’t quite sure how tall the cabinetry and counters from IKEA will be, so they’ve left enough ‘wiggle room.’  We’ll have an attractive wood panel design in between and enough space to put stuff on the counter without interferring with opening the windows.

Even during all this rain (thunderstorms and steady rains since Sunday) the roofers still manage to get the roof on – in one afternoon!

As you might notice, Sisi insists that she oversee the important work. (The word strecha on the van means 'roof')

The kitchen continues to take shape with the wide entrance from the livingroom and the wood panelling on ceiling and walls. The new entry 'mud room' and little W.C. are shaping up too.

JoEllen has begun to ‘live’ on the IKEA website perusing all the options for the kitchen cabinets. She’s chosen almost all drawers: makes it easier on the back when you don’t have to bend way over to see what’s in there. 

Only one thing is missing and the following photo is certain proof it will be missed: the doggy bath.

But, as we say here: lepšie a lepšie každý deň (better and better every day)