Beautiful Day

Oh what a beautiful mornin’ oh what a beautiful day… Spring has finally sprung here in the Pacific Northwest! I have spent a majority of my day sitting in a zero-g chair from Costco, reading my book, and enjoying the sun. One of our rhoddies is in full bloom, and it reminded me of when P and I first toured this house. It was late July or early August, so the weather was quite comparable to today. The yard was full of juniper and out of control blackberries. We (which is to say P) have done a lot of work clearing out and tidying up. The front of our house used to look like this, taken the day we got our keys.

Now, it looks like this!

Not 100% there, but getting closer! It is really quite idyllic.

Happy weekend!

First Foodie: Fusion

I am so excited that I’m finally getting to do a blog post about something that I’ve cooked! As I’ve mentioned before, I have really been looking forward to cooking in our new house. I have so much fun experimenting, even though my tester is usually a reluctant participant. This week, I’ve been trying to get back in to planning meals out for the week, and re-purposing leftovers to make something new. On Monday night, we decided to fire up the grill, and cooked some Italian chicken sausage, which we enjoyed with rice, caramelized onions, and roasted veggies. The sausage came in a package with 5 sausages, and our rice cooker usually makes enough rice for two meals.  I had originally hoped to make some fried rice (which would have used up some leftover carrots and celery) but felt that the Italian flavored sausage would not go well with the Asian flavors of fried rice.

After noodling it for a while, I decided that there was no reason why rice couldn’t be used as a substitution for pasta to make Carbonara Fried Rice. I bought some bacon from the deli, and rendered it while P grilled up the remaining sausage.  While the bacon was rendering, I beat a couple of eggs with a palm-full of Parmesan cheese, and a dash of Penzey’s Pasta Sprinkle. After heating up the rice in the same pan with the cooked bacon, I added the egg mixture, the same way I would fried rice. For some color, I also added a handful of frozen peas, which added some nice pop to the dish.

Carbonara Fried Rice (The measurements are approximate)

Ingredients:

• 3 links of cooked Italian Chicken Sausage cut in coins
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 strips of bacon, chopped roughly
• 2 cups of rice (I use cold, leftover rice when making fried rice)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp of Penzey’s Pasta Sprinkle (basil, oregano, garlic, and thyme)
• 1 cup of frozen peas

Method:

1. Add olive oil and bacon pieces to pan.  Render bacon until chewy, but not crisp, it will continue to cook as the rest of the ingredients are added.
2. Add rice to the pan, and toss with the bacon pieces oils in the pan.
3. While the rice is heating through, beat the egg with Parmesan cheese, and Pasta Sprinkle
4. Once the rice is heated through, pour the egg mixture over the top and stir vigorously to coat the rice, and cook the egg.
5. Add frozen peas, and toss until warmed through.
6. Add coins of chicken sausage, and give one last toss to combine.
7. Top with additional Parmesan cheese to taste (P doesn’t like Parmesan, at all, so when I make dishes that call for it, I tend to cut it down, and then add it to my own portion).

I think it could have used a little more “sauce” to bind it. Usually, when I make fried rice, once I add the egg, I also add a little soy sauce, or teriyaki sauce as a binder. Possibly a touch of chicken stock might work to add a little bit of “binding” to the dish, while keeping with the flavor profile. If anyone tries this out, let me know what you think!

Carpet and Tile

The hardwood has been installed for a while now, but as of today, all of our flooring has been installed! They have some transitions to finish, but P and I can definitely move in this weekend!

I love our bedroom! I’ll be honest, I had been rethinking the teal wall, but after seeing the room 99% put together I’m glad I didn’t change it.

It looks pretty dark in the picture, but I love it!

Here’s the master bathroom! They did a wonderful job tiling around our curved shower.

I had been so worried that the tile was going to end up being too brown (we chose one that was brown and grey so that we wouldn’t be locked into a color scheme) but, I think it turned out great!

I’m so happy! If only I wasn’t sick, I could match P’s enthusiasm… Oh well, better to be sick now than Saturday! Yay!

Home Stretch

In less than one week, we will begin moving into our house! It’s been quite a long haul, but after four months, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! This weekend, P and I did a lot of very tedious finish work. Thank goodness I have a patient husband because I certainly am not. He scooted around, braving splinters in his behind, painting the baseboards before carpet gets installed (Tuesday!). I used Liquid Sander to strip the dark finish off the inside of the front doors. Here is a mid-point photo, showing the difference between stripped and not.

Now I’ve only gotten one coat of primer on, but it gives a good idea of what the final product will look like, since the doors are going to be white.

This process has been fun, challenging, and has really given P and I lots of opportunity for growth in our relationship. T-minus six days. This time, we mean business.

New Floor!

Please excuse any errors in this post, I am posting using the WordPress for Android app on my new phone!

Our new floor is beginning to take shape! Our contractor has installed the floor in the dining room and kitchen!

I’m so pleased with how it’s coming along! We can see the light at the end of this long tunnel we have been travelling through. Finally.

Hiatus

Sorry folks, for the nearly two month long hiatus.  We have been too busy renovating to write about renovating! Big things are happening! We have a new master bathroom, and new flooring is about to be installed.  Never fear, we have captured our journey in pictures and will be doing a before and after post once we’re moved in… if not before. Possibly within the next three weeks… (Let’s hope I didn’t just jinx it!)

Goodbye Sailboats

We got new garage doors installed!

Here is the old:

It may be slightly difficult to see, but please note the sailboats, seagulls, and dolphin that once graced my oh-so-classy one-piece garage door.

Here is the new one:

Beautiful, no? I heart it.

Paint Colors

A word about paint colors.

It is very frustrating when companies that make paint do not organize their colors with like tones.  When I was a kid, Mom and Dad let me paint my room whatever color I wanted, and I decided that I wanted my room to be grades of blue.  We went to the paint store, and I chose the dark color I wanted for the “main” color.  We then bought 3 of the other 4 colors on the card.  It worked out perfectly because they were all the same tone, just progressively lighter shades. There are still some companies who have the 3-5 color per card system, which I think is awesomely convenient.

Of course, P and I didn’t feel like choosing those brands. Instead choosing a “one-off” color through a different brand. The main irritation now is, of course, it’s just a bit too dark, but we can’t find any color that is the same tone, but a tad lighter! We tried one yesterday, and instead of being a rich grey, it was nearly iridescent purple!

We’re just going to suck it up and paint the house the darker color because it’s too frustrating to try and find something different… plus, we already bought a 5 gallon bucket of the original color. I think it will look great once we get the white trim and white doors on… I hope.

Garage Doors and Couches

Last week, we had a consultation with Overhead Door and it went great! We’re going to be getting a very basic model of garage door, but it’s going to have little windows on top! It’s also going to be infinitely better than what we currently have, which is an old, one-piece (even though I will miss the sailboat and seagull pattern!)

Having consultations set up with various people makes me feel like things are moving along as well. For example, tomorrow evening, we’re having a guy over to take a look at where we’d like the island to be in the kitchen, and to look at the master bathroom where we’ve seen some dry rot. It’ll be so nice to have some numbers to work with. I’ve started feeling like we’re stuck in a difficult cycle where we’re never going to move in!

This coming Saturday is going to be a very busy day though! The garage door will be installed and the flooring people are going to come and measure to give us a quote (different flooring folks than the first time…) Also, P and I may take a little trip to Bellingham because, wait for it…

We bought a couch this weekend! Our very good friend J works for DVSAS in Bellingham, and last Saturday was their annual gala/auction. Because of the renovations to the house, P and I had not been intending to bid on any big ticket items, but there was a beautiful couch in the silent auction! It is exactly the kind of couch that we would have looked at buying in a few years (we’d been planning to just make do with the futon that we have). We put our number down in the first slot, assuming that someone must outbid us, but if not, we’d end up with a great couch for a fabulous price! Oddly enough, no one else bid! So, couch it is! Now we just need to figure out a way to get it to our house… and where to keep it while we continue to remodel…

Just Keep Swimming

Surprisingly enough, this post is not going to be about something to do with the house. Well, not entirely…

It has officially been 4 weeks since we took possession, and we have made a lot of progress and learned a lot about ourselves. A couple of things that I have learned are:

1. I am a happier person when I can work out on a regular basis.  I am more productive while I am awake, I am happier to be awake, I don’t feel like I am slowly turning in to The Blob, and my clothes fit better (duh!).  Sister and I went to dinner this week (Seattle Restaurant Week!) and had a discussion about how thankful we are for high school sports, because otherwise we’d have been complete basket cases! (To be fair, I am the drama queen of the family, not her, I don’t think she will ever truly be a basket case)
2. I like to cook. A lot. I’ve known this about myself, but it goes hand in hand with not being able to work out (it’s a stress release, even though, if you ask P, I get a little bit too worked up while I’m cooking time sensitive things).  I get a lot of joy from cooking for my family! A small part of it is hearing praise that what I have created is “soooooo good!” But, really, I just like cooking! Lately, as we get deeper in to fall, I have been craving rich soups with cheesy breads, breakfast extravaganzas with every kind of egg, meat, potato, bread, etc., and I also really want to make Shepherd’s Pie, the real way, with lamb. Once I finally have a working kitchen, I’m going to be unstoppable!
3. I like candy corn way too much.

Last night, I was painting the inside of the master closet, and I got creative:

Biggest cheese ball in the world, right here!