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:
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
We finally got the DVDs / movies for all the wedding events, and I thought it would be cool to share just the dances at our Mehndi on YouTube. They are not publicly listed, so can only be accessed using the URLs below.
Total 17 dances (that I pulled out, some random dancing at the end not pulled out) and a few with multiple angles.
Enjoy :)
So after finishing his Summer @ Stanford, Bashoo man and I headed out to visit a few universities. He had seen Stanford and Berkeley, so the purpose of the trip was to show him as many other universities as possible to give him a better sense of where to apply.
Wed, August 20 – Los Angeles, CA:
First one was UCLA. I was at work, and Bashoo figured out the LA public transport system to get to campus. Don't know what exactly he did there, the only evidence I have are a few pictures :)
Thu, August 21 – Los Angeles, CA:
Bashoo takes a horrible 3+ hour commute trip to Caltech campus during the day, and I get there in the evening to pick him up.
We also take a picture outside Lloyd, the dorm our elder brother was in while he was at Caltech.
Hertz gave me a convertible Mustang, and me and Bashoo have a fun time riding around with the top down.
Our flight out of LAX is ~10 pm. We find a sushi place in Santa Monica, and then head to the airport. Close to the airport, we have a huge plane, close to the ground, fly right over us. It was actually cooler than it sounds :)
Fri, August 22 – Washington, DC:
We get in early morning, rent a car and drive over to Nauman bhai's home in Bethesda, MD. Bashoo as usual, goes to sleep. He sleeps so much. What's up with that?
Anyways, I drop him there, take a shower, and am off to the DC office to work. Nauman bhai is very nice and offers to drop me off. Bashoo and I plan to catch up in the evening once I get off work. Bashoo goes to sleep.
So, the evening approaches and we touch base to figure out when and where to meet up. Bashoo makes his way to Dupont circle. He was initially going to get up, explore DC. But he has instead been sleeping and then managed to get lost on the way to the metro station :)
We walk to Georgetown university, explore the campus, and then head to Georgetown to eat something. Nauman bhai picks us up and treats us to his favorite Pakistani/Indian food place. What was the name... something Kabob house? Sure, Lahore Kabob House. Why not :)
Sat, August 23 – Washington, DC:
After not doing that much on Friday, we are determined to do something great today. We head into DC, are walking around, and run into City Segway Tours. Now you might think this is kinda wimpy, but it actually was a lot of fun.2 hours on a segway, zipping between people and other objects. For example, check out the videos below:
After the segway tour, we head into the Smithsonian museum, the Museum of Natural History and the Freer Art Gallery.
Bashoo’s sleepiness is contagious and we are both beat. So we head back, meet a friend of mine for dinner and play some Playstation 3 games at his place.
Sun, August 24 – off to Philly:
We get up, grab a few things to eat, load the car with snacks, and drive off to Philadelphia.
We go to the UPENN campus as soon as we get in. Have a good time walking around. Then drive off and explore Philadelphia a little more. Most of the neighborhoods aren’t great, and coming from Stanford/Palo Alto, I think Bashoo is not that impressed. We find a Chinese place that is open late and have dinner. Then find our hotel and check in.
Mon, August 25 – from Philadelphia, PA to Princeton, NJ to Ithaca, NY:
On the road again, and this time we drive to Princenton, NJ to see one of my favorite campuses, Princeton University. (My favorite campus is of course the Stanford University campus).
I don’t know what exactly I like about it, but I love the Princeton campus. It’s got the English university campus feel, like an American real world version of Harry Potter’s what’s-the-name-of-the-school-he-goes-to. Anyhoo, we take a campus tour, I have to take a work phone call, but that’s okay. At this point I realize how much Bashoo and I drink Starbuck’s Lite Frappaccianos. They are pretty yummy :)
Back on the road, driving to Ithaca, NY to visit Cornell, and Bashoo does what he does best. Sleep.
The drive is beautiful. We get there pretty late, find our hotel, check in, get recommendations for a place to eat, and go. After we are done with dinner, and Bashoo has had another brainwashing rant from me, we drive into Cornell campus and find a late night movie playing at the student-run movie theater (an auditorium in one of the buildings). It’s [ how I learned to stop worrying and ]. Bashoo hasn’t seen it, so we definitely had to see it.
Tue, August 26 – Cornell campus tour and drive to Yale:
We get up just in time to check out and make the last campus tour. What a perfect day to be at Cornell. Beautiful sky, sunshine, everything clean, new Freshmen moving on campus. It’s great. And Bashoo totally falls in love with it. What he doesn’t know is that this only happens 3 days a year, and the rest of the time it is cold, gray, drizzly, wet. But why worry about that now. Let’s walk around and enjoy.
We find our way to the campus dairy shop, and it is awesome. Highly recommended to anyone visiting Cornell. One the way back, we grab something to eat right off campus, and drive out of Ithaca. Long long drive, and we drive to Yale.
By the time we get there, it’s late, and we just check in, go grab dinner close to campus, and then go to sleep.
Wed, August 27 – Yale in the morning, MIT in the afternoon, Harvard in the evening:
My IQ went up by at least a 100 points today.
We get up early and go to Yale campus and walk around.
Then hop in the car and drive over to Boston, MA. Straight to MIT campus and attend a campus tour.
Once that’s done, we jump on a bus leaving from MIT campus and land in Harvard square. Self-guided campus tour, walk around the square, and I convince Bashoo to get into a bookstore selling new and used books.
Their collection is awesome and I buy maybe 5 books. I feel so smart today. Yes I do.
Rather than taking the bus, I convince Bashoo to walk along the river all the way back to our car. It’s a really long walk, I had no idea, but we get great views of the city.
It was an amazing way to wrap up our trip. Fantastic day.
Thu, August 28 – fly back to San Francisco:
We get up, clean up, return the rental car, and board a flight back to San Francisco.
