Thankful

This Thanksgiving, I realized what I'm thankful for:

1. Not having a dead hummingbird in my freezer. I buried him and the katydid before the baby shower:

2. Not having a fridge in the living room:


3. Having a range that is actually hooked up:


4. No musty concrete floors (or stinky chemicals applied to them):


5. No exposed live wires or studs:


6. A drywall dust-free living environment:


7. Having a dining table that no longer looks like this:


8. Not cooking in the powder room:


9. And most of all... not washing dishes in the (upstairs) bathtub:


Although I never cooked a Thanksgiving meal in the old kitchen, or in any kitchen - I'm glad I was able to do it in the new one and make enough food to feed several people. How about y'all?

T-day

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year. Actually it's our first Thanksgiving in this home. And our first with the new kitchen. We invited some friends. Cooked some food. Had a great meal. And watched a comedy horror movie, Drag Me to Hell (it's fun, go watch it).

We started the morning with some hot, spiced, apple cider in the slow cooker:

And preparing some side dishes and dessert:


And setting the table for 4:



On the menu:

Buttermilk mashed potatoes


Stuffing (half cooked inside the turkey, other half outside of the turkey)

Roasted vegetables (squash, sweet potato, carrots, onion, brussel sprouts)

Cranberry sauce

Corn casserole (made by Yuan)

Green bean casserole (made by Yuan)


Whole wheat rolls

Pumpkin pie (photo taken before baking)

And of course the star of the day, maple-glazed turkey:

We made a sensible amount and didn't end up with an unmanageable amount of leftovers. A 9.25 lb turkey turned out to be just right.

How about you, how did you spend your holiday?

Baby Bash - part 2

I know what you're thinking from yesterday's post, "that was it for decorations?" and the answer is no. Tough crowd!

I created some banners using construction paper. I have no idea why I had a stack of pink construction paper but this was a good use for it! And after the party, they will go into the recycle bin.



I used curling ribbon to string through the banner and decided to put some curls on the chandelier over the food table. These can be used again for holiday gifts next month. Or maybe they'll go back up on the chandelier again.




Flowers were a must and of course I like to ravage my garden for this very purpose. I also asked my co-host and guest of honor, to bring samples from their gardens as well. That's the beauty of having outdoor plants! And I cleaned out various glass jars and stuck the snippets in them.



This looks like an expensive bouquet but it's all homegrown (not all by me of course). It is Mexican Sage, Oleander and some red berries growing on a tree outside. Anyone know what it is? Birds like to pick at it, does that help with the identification?



And of course, I'm an equal opportunity garden snipper so I used some greens as well. This is from my Japanese Aralia, also known as Rylie's bush (because she likes to sleep under it). Don't they look exotic?

That's pretty much wraps up my easy and green decor. Simple. Practical. Do you have ideas to share?

Baby Bash - part 1

After all the house prep, it was time for party prep. I'm not one to go crazy with decorations, I like to keep things sensible and practical. So I decided on decor that became useful gifts:

This is a towel cake, a spin on the diaper cake. Why didn't I do a diaper cake? The mother-to-be is going to use disposable diapers instead of cloth. And using disposable diapers seemed unsanitary as they cannot be washed before use.

Plus who couldn't use towels? They can be wash cloths, burp cloths, cleaning rags, snot rags, butt wipes, whatever! I actually put 4 hand towels in the middle of the bottom tier, as filler and for variety. And sort of a little surprise when it's being taken apart.


I also strung up various sized onesies between 2 curtain rods. If I had paid more attention to detail, I would have taken down the clock and painting behind it. Don't judge me.

House Decency - part 10

In addition to the front and back patios, I wanted to spruce up some of the plants around the property.

I hacked away at the New Zealand Flax. I took out my anger from my eye-gouging-incident.


I also hacked away at the Creeping Fig because it can't happen enough or often enough. When in doubt, cut the fig. And then keep cutting some more.

Does anyone know if an electric hedger would work on creeping fig or is this plant too floppy for it?

House Decency - part 9

It may not seem like it after cutting out old drywall and putting in a new piece but raking and general cleaning outside was a lot of work. Let me list the reasons:

1. Raking on an incline is not fun.
   
2. Raking a mostly dirt area is dusty.
   
3. The incline is full of not only dirt, but also little rocks.
   
4. Piles of leaves and little rocks can be heavy.
   
5. At the bottom of the incline is our patio. which meant it got really dirty before getting clean.
   
6. Ditto for the patio furniture.
7. It's autumn so the wind blows. Wind made plants move and therefore I got poked - make that stabbed, directly in my right eyeball by a stiff New Zealand Flax.
8. It's autumn and the leaves won't stop dropping so it's somewhat futile. And the results are really short lived.

After all that labor, we were able to start cleaning it up:


We swept the patio. Hosed off the patio furniture. Hosed down the patio. Scrubbed the cooler.



And then I scored these door mats at Target for $2.50 each (I got 1 for each set of sliding doors). They're great because not only are they dirt cheap (pun intended) but they are wider than most mats, and the boyfriend has a thing for roosters.

The front patio required very little work. Just sweeping, moving some plants around, and placing a couple chairs and moving the coffee table under here:

We decided to hang my house number sign here. It matches the coffee table and the door. And makes sense to put it in the front of the house, right?

Does it look like a lot of effort into this? Probably not.

House Decency - part 8

Next up, clean the fireplace. Why? Well it was going to be the gift mantle for the shower, my spin on the gift table. Because I don't have any more tables, or room for one. And the mantle would be dead space anyway.
So I gave it a good wipe down with soapy warm water, so it would be ready for clean little baby gifts.


I think it worked out pretty well. Where do you put gifts? How do you clean a brick fireplace?

House Decency - part 7

A huge home urgency is the kitchen is when you are without one. Ironically, once it is to a completely functional state, the details become hardly a priority at all. For over 6 months.

On our list for the kitchen:

1. Filler strips for the gaps on each side of the dishwasher


When we installed the dishwasher, we pretty much just plugged it in and rolled it into place. There were gaps on either side that exposed the insulation surrounding the exterior. We could just remove the insulation so it would be more inconspicuous, but then it wouldn't be as quiet or as heat efficient. So we rolled out the dishwasher, ripped some filler strips, installed with metal brackets behind them, and wheeled the dishwasher back into place. I think it gives a more polished look. No?

2. Install dishwasher air gap

Technically, our dishwasher model doesn't require it (I think most newer dishwashers don't). But it's always a good idea to build and install to code, so when you decide to sell, you won't have to explain or argue this. Just do it. And plan for it (we had an extra hole cut in the granite for it, during the installation). An air gap connects between the dishwasher to the disposer and prevents dirty drain water from backing up into the appliance. To install, connect a flexible hose from the dishwasher drain to the disposer's inlet (or if you don't have a disposer, to the sink's drain trap). You can also form the hose into a high arc for bonus points or if you're not using an air gap but want to take precaution.

3. Install last cabinet filler strip above fridge


I've been pondering what to do with this last gap. Ideally it would be functional, squeezing one last bit of storage out of this tiny kitchen. The only thing I've been able to think of is a place to put cookbooks, but books are heavy. And making this little sliver of a space strong enough to hold heavy books while keeping all brackets and hardware discreet would be a challenge. So for now, we wedged a piece of filler strip there. Should we keep it like this? Any other ideas?

4. Mount ice maker water filter

It was just lying in the back of the sink cabinet. It came with mounting brackets, so why not use them and get it out of the way?

5. Install toe kick under base cabinets


You may have noticed from the icemaker waterline installation that we hadn't put in the toe kick. It just wasn't a high priority. But had we done it right after we installed the waterline to the freezer, I'm sure there wouldn't be massive dust bunnies under there. Or the random garlic clove. Or baby carrot. Or two.

6. Burial for found creatures

While doing said home projects, I discovered a dead green leaf bug in the garage (I think it's called a Katydid). I took this opportunity to bury him, along with the hummingbird that's been in our freezer for 9 months. I put the 2 together in the deep hole left by the For Sale post in our front lawn. I hope that hummingbirds and katydids get along...

So now the kitchen is complete. Almost. I would deem it 99.5% finished. The last 2 things to do are install crown molding and some corner shelves. We have the materials for both projects, it's just figuring out how and when to do this...

House Decency - part 6

Since we had some electrical items on our to-do list, we had to turn off the electricity to the house. So we figured we might as well do all the electrical things at once (and during daylight hours for heat and light reasons) so that we only had to deal with the lack of power once. We rely on our modem for internet for music and entertainment. And to power our landline (cordless phones). And to power our coffeemaker.

1. The bathrooms were the only rooms left that did not have rocker switches and screwless outlet faceplates installed to match those throughout the house.

Before

After

2. The outlet in the kitchen in the granite was white. It was supposed to be temporary but we hadn't gotten around to purchasing the black GFCi outlet, even though we special ordered the ebony screwless faceplate. I don't have a before pic but here's the after:

That was supposed to be it on our list of electrical things to do. However in doing the guest bath upstairs we rewired wrong and it ended up controlling the garage's electrical work. And then in fixing that, we blew a circuit. We left our house in a very vulnerable state in search of replacement - with the garage door wide open, new motorcycle exposed, dog with broken leg at home uncrated, but we did leave the main breakers off.

Luckily the hardware store is only a few miles away and our favorite staff member (Jason) was working that day. And he knew electrical. And us. And the dogs. And the dogs love him. And I like to think we get special treatment. So we replaced the breaker and after a couple unplanned additional hours, we finally were able to scratch electrical off our list. BTW, circuit breakers are expensive! Those are the things they keep locked up in cases.


Plus it's annoying to reset all the clocks on the microwave, range, and clock radio, and coffeemaker*.

*Have you noticed that we are a household run by coffee? More specifically caffeine, because we use our electric kettle for tea as well. We are equal opportunity caffeine addicts.