Across the Pond

Six months ago, my husband, Chris, was given responsibility for the London office for his company. He travels there for a week every 4-6 weeks. I had never been to London. I had flown through the airports there on several occasions, but never had the opportunity to spend any time there.

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After 12 years in our home, we had finally begun renovating our kitchen. (Hang in there with me, there is a connection coming.) No structural changes, but a cosmetic overhaul; new flooring, painting cabinets, new countertops and backsplash. You’ve seen glimpses of our kitchen in previous blog posts, in all of it’s burnt orange splendor. The layout of the space is great and works for us, but I have always hated the finishes. But I digress. Anyway, my hubby and I agreed on a budget for the reno, but the more I thought about it, the more I hesitated. I had already made all of my choices in flooring, countertops, etc, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger.

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To toot my own horn just a bit…one of my best qualities, I think, is that I am thrifty and fiscally conservative. When mulling over the budget for our project, I just couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t spend that amount of money on something that we didn’t really need. I shared these feelings with my better half. I suggested that we go ahead with replacing the flooring. (‘Cause good God, the original flooring was horrendous.) The cabinets were painted last summer, and we could postpone the counters and backsplash for next year. (I’m nothing if not patient.)

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Of course Chris LOVED this idea, which I expected. (He doesn’t share my passion for interior design and décor, but whatevs.  AND I was about to save him mucho dinero.) But what I didn’t expect was what he said next. He said, “You know, the London office is having a family picnic in June. If we don’t do the kitchen, we could take the kids [to London].” (GASP!) And to sweeten the deal, he threw in, “We could do a few days in London and then go to Paris for a few days.” (Say what now?!?)

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It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go to Paris. The gorgeous architecture, the food, the wine, the whole gosh-darn vibe; I wanted to experience it at least once in my lifetime. And my husband, a notorious fulfiller of dreams, was working his amazing magic once again to make a dream of mine come true. For the next three months, I had to contain my excitement about our trip just to be able to focus on real life. We were going to London AND PARIS!!!!

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I’m excited to share with you my account of our travels. Come back to the blog on Sunday to read about “LONDON – DAY 1”.

1 The Queen’s Guard – The Tower of London

2 Countertop sample – “Glacier” from Dekton by Cosentino.  Backsplash sample – “Greecian White Interlocking” from Premium Mosaics.

3 Old flooring – “Mystery Meat” (cow meat of course ’cause it looks like orange cowhide). I contacted our builder to see what the name of the tile was, but no one seems to want to remember this monstrosity. New flooring – Somerset Character Collection – Maple Onyx.

4 Photo from memegenerator.net.

5 My love.