The great wallpaper hunt

We really do like that wallpaper, but the price is just too high to consider, no matter how we try to justify it. So we've been considering alternatives. And looking at wallpaper in every shop we've been near. Largely to no avail. Last Saturday, Kaye went with a friend to Angoulême for lunch and to look at wallpaper. Sally knew of a wallpaper shop which they checked out and took a couple of "desperation" samples. The shop next door advertised papier peint, so they walked over there to find a showroom full of carpets and rugs, with a wallpaper section tucked at one side. They looked at many books and found several "possibles." The shop let Kaye take two books home for the weekend, to be returned on Monday. From these we ended up with one we'll-use-it-if-we-can't-do-better choice, neither of us being especially happy about it. 

Monday afternoon Ed and Kaye took the books back to the shop and the two of us began a systematic search of all the books available. We turned up one possibility which still seemed doubtful. As we were getting ready to leave, Kaye went through one last book. Bingo! It looks like we've found our wallpaper, at one third the cost of our first favorite. (For a peek, this pdf file from a Dutch site shows examples. The color is like the one on the lower right; the pattern is the one at the far right of that picture. It is more clearly visible in the pinker photo on the left. When you see it in person, people who know us will understand why we like it.) We'll go back for another visit, just to be sure, but will probably order this next week. 

On our return home from Angoulême, we found a box waiting with corn tortillas! Kaye ordered these after Thanksgiving, but for one reason or another it only got shipped at the end of last week. Tomorrow night we'll have enchiladas for dinner. Hooray! (Four more dozen are in the freezer now.)

As we drove in, we noticed that one of our neighbor's chickens was outside its pen, walking back and forth along the fence. We notified our neighbors and enjoyed watching them corral the errant hen to toss her back into the chicken yard. They clearly are very experienced with this. 

In celebration of finding an agreeable wallpaper, we took ourselves to dinner at our closest local restaurant. They were open on Monday evening, but we were the only customers -- rather sad. Nevertheless we had a nice dinner, starting with a soup that featured chopped pig's ear (which is very chewy) and ending with a delicious clafoutis of pears and almonds. 

Further not much has been happening. Ed's working away on (re)finishing our Ivar shelving. The first section of the "pantry" shelves is installed in the kitchen. The second will replace some narrower shelving next to the stove that we've been using until we get a proper stove and install built-in cabinets there. (It will eventually join the first section as one of three making up our "pantry.") As more shelving gets finished, we will set it up in the living room and on the mezzanine. Before we call for our stuff from storage we'll also install some of the built-in kitchen cabinets (over the sink) and a cabinet that will hang on the mezzanine wall over the plexiglass "window" in the floor. We also need to add more coats of finish to the floor on the mezzanine, which still doesn't have a decent surface. 

The weather is warming a bit, but remains variable, one sunny day followed by two rainy ones. Bulbs are coming up and birds are investigating the houses.