Panoramas from Portugal and Spain

Here are some of the panoramas shot with Microsoft Photosynth (www.photosynth.net).



Cascais, Portugal:

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Seville, Spain:

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Alhambra, Grenada, Spain:

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Cordoba, Spain:

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Cordoba, Spain:

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Pictures from the Portugal + Spain trip

Click here to access the full set on Flickr -->  Portugal + Spain -- June 2013

Here is a search for the must see pictures  -->   http://goo.gl/QPKjM

In addition to the pictures above, there are also a few videos on Youtube:

Lisbon outside cafe

Sintra castle

Lisbon late night Fado

Seville flamenco 1

Seville flamenco 2

Seville flamenco 3

Seville crowd member starts singing

Lisbon driving in streets 1

Lisbon driving in streets 2



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Projects around the apartment: Painting walls

We are going with a yellow theme, to complement the dark gray walls. Our yellow table is not here yet, but we got yellow paint and decided to do vertical stripes on the main wall when you enter the apartment, and then a dripping background for a funky face artwork we got from New Orleans. See the progress below.

A lot of hard work went into this, including items from Home Depot:


We put up a bunch of tape on the wall, keeping it straights, and doing all the corners was a pain in the butt:





Look at Sameen's agility:


Finally, the walls are done and the artwork is up:




Here is a full view of the lounge right now:

Some cool people in our apartment

We have names for a few people we would like you to meet:

James, the bookend:

Pete and Petite, the keyholders:

Tintin on our wall :)

Wanted to share something fun. We were in Montreal, in a cute little art shop, and the lady had these nice little Tintin prints, on wood blocks. Different sizes, big square ones with action scenes and small rectangular ones with comic covers, in French. We got a few and arranged them underneath our cool bookshelf :)

Projects around the apartment: Bookshelf / platform

Today was another project in the apartment. We wanted to put our books on a couple of platforms on the wall. We have this random alcove in the lounge, not sure what to do with it, so thought it would be a good idea to fill it with books.

Started out thinking about different variations on how to put the planks on the wall. Given our new found confidence from the prior projects, we went the same route, i.e. DIY (do it yourself).

Decided on 1 big plank / shelf, and 2 smaller ones. Initially thought the smaller ones would be underneath the big one. However, our wall is solid, and our drill is not so strong. So we could not drill any holes in it :(

This made us think about different arrangements. We discovered that the adjoining walls were drill-able, so we decided to have the book shelves / platform become like an L-shaped, with the corner on the wall that could be drilled. And have the long big plank supported by wires on the far end.

Sameen and Nuzhat auntie stained the wood planks, while I measured and drilled holes in the wall.

The result is below. The big shelf / platform is not fully stable. We put a screw coming out of the wall in the middle of it to give it more support. We are leaving it overnight to see if it still stays up :) We think it will. And then we will put some more brackets or hinges to support it tomorrow / over the weekend.

Projects around the apartment

We are still in the process of setting up the apartment. Today, after many hours of work, we were able to complete two of them.

Project #1: Custom shelf unit
We saw an awesome shelf unit at Crate and Barrel, and thought we would make it ourselves from IKEA box shelves and wood from Home Depot (and construction adhesive / glue and screws).
We got 6 black EXPEDIT wall shelves from IKEA and wood planks cut into the lengths we wanted from Home Depot.
We then got to work. First, we stained the wood to the color we wanted. Then we started gluing and screwing the pieces into place. Below are some pictures of the work in progress and the final version. We love it. It looks really nice.

Project #2: Lattice hanging fixture:
We also wanted to have this lattice fence, modified to fit on the ceiling of the apartment. We have a bunch of random geometric shapes on the ceiling and wanted to break it with some funky something.  We got a lattice fence from Home Depot, drilled holes in it to screw in some hooks, got yellow colored chains, and hooks to put in the ceiling. The result is below. Looks pretty awesome actually.




Can't wait for you all to see it in person :)

Apartment... mostly furnished

We got and set up the couches, media console, etc. yesterday. Looks pretty awesome :) See panorama pictures below. The only thing left is the main table that will come in a few weeks.

Our apartment in the Broderick, Detroit

We just got the keys to our new apartment in Detroit. It's in the Broderick Tower (their own website: http://brodericktower.com/), which is a newly renovated high rise, right next to the Tigers stadium, the Opera, and lots of downtown attractions.

Here are a few pictures of the new place. No stuff in it yet :)

Click on the images to open up the full image:

• When you enter the apartment: 
• When you walk across to the other side: 
• From the end of the kitchen: 
• From the lounge: 
• From the lounge 2: 
• From the lounge 3: 
• The bathroom: 
• And washing machine: 
• View of the stadium: 
• View of downtown: 
• View of downtown 2: 
• View of downtown 3: 

Will update once we have a few things moved in :)