One Last Paint Job

Projects around our house had slowed considerable since our gung-ho rush the first few months we were in the house.  We knew this would happen, so we gave it everything we had while we could sustain it to get as much done as possible.  We did pretty well, but we still had a glaring project that was still looming over us, painting the living room. 

It's not that we didn't want to paint it, we did, its just its easy to get used to status quo and get comfortable with how things just are.  This is especially true when it's neutral and more of less background noise.  With the help of family and some encouragement, we tackled the living room after Thanksgiving.  We actually got a lot done the day after Thanksgiving or right around then with their help.  We were able to get everything moved to paint, insulation in about half of our attic and even a gutter check (which btw, we found out we have guards on ours - hooray!). 

As a reminder, this is what we were working with for a "before" photo or two.

And hey look at that, a nice reminder of the stair lifts we took out as well.  Sometimes I forget all we have really done around here.  Anywho, here's some of the "after" photos:

While these photos may not really show it, the blue makes the room seem infinitely brighter.  You would think beige wouldn't be so dark, but when it's a flat paint, it really just kind of sucks in all the light in and holds it.  We also changed out all the plugs and switches in this room as well.  They don't show in the photos, but as I have mentioned before, changing out painted over pieces of junk with clean white functioning new parts is quite nice and adds so much to the finished look.

With this project complete, the only other immediate paint project is the space behind the kitchen stove that still needs some attention from where the old stove was.  Feels nice to have another project off the list!

Thanksgiving Prep

This year Rob and I were hosting an additional 6 people for our Thanksgiving meal.  Rob's family and a couple we are friends with and actually did Thanksgiving last year with.  The good news was this year, the food was more proportionate to the amount of people we had than last year. 

I took the day off on Wednesday to prepare a bunch of food for everyone and if I am being honest, avoid the traffic around the beltway.  I wanted to make a lot of this meal from scratch this year.  Call me nuts, but it sounded like fun.  I was able to make everything I wanted to without too much trouble.  My biggest challenge was to try to re-create my grandmother's bread.  I received a lesson with my sister last year from my older brother who makes it at Christmas for us, but it had been almost 11 months, it took a bit of recall to remember what I was supposed to do.  A couple of phone calls to my sister and a lot of kneading later produced this:

 

I thought 3 out of 4 loaves wasn't too bad.  It's not perfection, but it was a really good first attempt.  The best news was it all still tasted amazing and that part made me happy.

Of course, I had a great helper that supervised the whole process.  

Overall I was able to make the 4 loaves of bread, an apple pie, a pumpkin pecan caramel cake, home bread for stuffing, then the stuffing, some corn pudding, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, turkey and even pan gravy.  It was absolutely delicious but probably a bit much work for next year.  I'll let anyone else volunteer to do it all next time. :)

Ryan and Alina Get Married

In September my high school friend Ryan got married to a lovely lady named Alina and they invited Rob and me to partake in their day (along we a lot of other friends and family).  It was a wedding of a few firsts, one being the distance to it.  It wins for closest wedding I have attended and it was nice to just pop up to PA for a day and come back to my own bed at night.  It's also the first wedding I have attended where I knew a lot of people (from pre-Rob days) and got a chance to catch up with some I haven't seen in a long time.

The ceremony was and reception were both really nice.  You could tell the two of them put a lot of thought into it and it reflected them. And they were in the same location so that eliminated the chance to get lost on our way to the party.  Bonus.

They had lots of cake.  All different kinds and they also put donut holes on sticks and dipped them in chocolate.  They were tasty!

The guys, Shawn, Josh, and Adam.  Between them and Ryan, they were the gang I hung around in high school and when I was home from college.  I will never forget the ride back from the Carousel Mall where Shawn was begging me to go to Denny's (or Perkins) I can't remember which.  I said no because I was tired and I was driving.  We had stopped at a red light next to it and Shawn got out of the car and made a run for it.  Needless to say I was too shocked and had to pull in to at least retrieve him, so we stopped and had snacks before returning everyone home.  Lots of fun memories.

I also got a chance to finally meet Sterling, Shawn and Bonita's baby.  I have seen him in lots of photos, so it was nice to him for real.   He's a very well behaved baby.  And cute too. :)

Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without some awesome dancing.  My husband and Josh and Shawn getting down with their bad selves.

It was a great chance to reunite with a number of people I truly miss.  They are like the extended family you only get to see every now and again with a huge family reunion (or wedding).  I know they will be a part of my life always. :)

New Stove!

*Disclaimer: I know it's been a while so let's all pretend like nothing happened and I just have a lot to share now.  :)

Some of you may recall our kitchen when we bought the place. 

Pretty drab and boring, but also kind of like a blank canvas.  We have since done a lot of work in the kitchen.  We painted the walls (twice) and ceiling and even replaced the lights.  However, we still had our old stove. 

Our old stove was no looker, but more than that, it was terrible to use.  It's really a double oven stove (the big black part up top is the second oven, not a microwave like I first thought) which sounds like it could be a great thing.  I tried to love it, but it burned everything I made in the top oven (aside from tater tots).  Not to mention the door swung out and would burn you if you touched anything other than the itty bitty handle on the bottom.  The stove top was not level and you couldn't really maneuver pots in the back very well because of the second oven.  So with much giddiness I said good bye to the old stove.

 The old sitting next to the new.  What a huge difference.

And finally we have our new stove sitting where the old one used to be.  I don't miss the old one at all.  The wall behind this one definitely needs some paint, but I couldn't very well tell the installers to wait while I busted our brushes and paint. :P  This one cooks way better and made the best cookies I have baked in a long time.  Let's hear it for new working appliances!!

Social Awkwardness Avoidance

I am generally a very sociable person.  I am an extrovert according to Meyers-Briggs and I thrive in the workplace when I have a social outlet to talk to people or hangout.  It energizes me and keeps me going.  There is one exception to this rule.  I am NOT a morning person.  I used up all my morning person abilities in high school to annoy everyone else by laughing and skipping through the halls like a crack addict on a high. 

My poor husband had a learning curve on this.  He wakes up from bed and it's like a switch, "Morning honey" and he's lucky if I generally grumble in his direction.  It's not because I don't appreciate it or whatever, I just am not awake and don't have the capacity to plaster a huge smile on my face and act like I have had 3 cups of coffee.  So I tell you this to show you I am not bias to strangers which is where the real point of this post lies.

I get to work around 7am.  This is pretty early for my workplace and I arrive before the majority of people.  However, because I am coming in close to the start of an hour, a good dozen people also arrive around the same time.  I don't want to socialize with them anymore than I do my husband and in fact, for them, it's far less.  I have no desire to meet new weirdos in my building at 7am to here all about the crazy that's coming from their mouths.  My morning routine consists of arriving in the parking garage, then sit there and take note of who else is in there and what they are doing.  Some people are a "get out of the car and go straight in" people and some are the "I forgot I packed like I was going to Alaska for a week and need to collect my things" people.  I do whatever I can to minimize the slightest possibility of interacting with them.  Sometimes I pretend to be listening to the radio other times I pretend to fart around getting my stuff out of my car.  I do whatever is going to space me out from other people. 

Is this weird?  Absolutely!  However I do this because people have a way of saying the stupidest things to me and I just feel awkward and in some cases trapped (more to follow).  So most mornings I am good with spacing on getting out of the garage and to the building.  The most tricky part is the timing at the elevator.  Again because I am in so early, there's usually one ready to go when I push the button.  On rare occasions it's not.  This gets into the danger zone.  If I didn't space myself quite enough, I now face the risk of having to ride the elevator with them (trapped).  I have been known to just up and take the stairs to the 4th floor (not something I enjoy with all my stuff in the morning) or just go to the bathroom on the first floor for a minute to wait it out. 

Yeah, I know, you are probably thinking, "You're a total whackpot!"  And you know what?  You are 100% correct.  I probably face more stress in the first 10 minutes of my workday than some people do all day.  But considering the people that have tried to talk to me, I consider this almost like sanity insurance.  I have been talked to by complete strangers sharing a bit too much with me, complained to, politics, etc.  Nothing I want to hear and my brain has to process whatever they are saying enough to make a polite coherent response when all I am really thinking is, "Why on earth are you talking to me?"  I have to do this because I have no idea when I might have to actually work with these people. 

Unfortunately, my quirks about people talking to me in the elevator extend into most of the day.  The only difference is, I am able to handle situations better after I am awake.  I still don't want to talk to complete strangers.  This may be because I know there are a lot of ummm... interesting people at my work place who are a bit off.  Kind of like me, but in vastly different ways that freak me out. 

These rules all go out the window when it's someone I know or work with on a regular basis.  However, a good majority of them know I am not a morning person.  It takes some training, but after a while people get it.  I mean I trained the people in Atlanta to let me have my oatmeal time.  It was my first 15 minutes of the morning where I made oatmeal, read my email and wasn't bothered by people.  If people respect my non-morning person personality, then I am pretty much golden the rest of the day. 

So I tell you this story so I can tell you another one and then more in the future.  Now that you are in on all of my avoidance techniques you may or may not appreciate what happens when they do not work and I am forced to shared an elevator or communication with someone against my timeline.  This usually happens about once a week.  Today, it was someone holding the door open for me from an almost too far distance out, so I felt compelled to hurry up (which I hated - hello?! space between!!) and then I was told, "Time to wake up!" to which the dude almost got punched in the face.  Why do morning people do that?  LEAVE ME BE!  I'll come about in about 30 minutes, just let it happen naturally.

Just one of the many quirks that makes me, me. 

Furniture Arrangements

When we moved into our home, the formal living room became the sort of dumping ground for all the misfit items we owned or didn't know what to do with.  For that reason, it looked slap dash and kind of jumbled.  Easily my least favorite room in the house.  Last night we decided we would try and re-arrange the furniture some to see what we could do with it.  As it is, we don't have a lot of furniture, but it felt small and discombobulated.  So how can we make it look bigger and flow into the dining room rather than being completely cut off?

This is the best picture I have of the "before" photo.  There's a large desk to the immediate left in this photo and it's being take from the dining room.  We had put the new pink chairs in the camp chair locations, but it still felt cramped.

And here are the "after" photos:

Generally, I like it.  I think it will take some more tweaking and centering of things, but I think it's a vast improvement over what it was.  I know a coat of paint and new curtains will help immensely, but as we are only two people and loads to do, it will happen when it happens.

Zucchinifest

A guy from work was handing out squash and zucchini from his garden this week.  He had massive zucchini and was begging people to help him eat them before they overran his garden.  I decided, what the heck, I am sure I can find something to do with it.  *grabs gianormous zucchini* 

This thing was huge!  As I was carrying it around the hallways of work (as most people would normally do), a lady offered up a recipe to help me use some of the zucchini.  She pointed me to the Pillsbury website for this recipe Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie.  It looked yummy and so I figured I would give it a shot.

 The zucchini is actually bigger than the cutting board.  Four cups equaled just about half of this beast. 

I meant to take a picture of this right when it came out of the oven, but I was apparently hungry and so, too bad so sad, you get a half eaten pie photo.  Bottom line: this was yummy!  Rob doesn't really like zucchini all that much and he even liked it.

As dinner was cooking and the half used zucchini was staring me down, I said, hmm, I bet I can make zucchini bread!  So I started shredding another 2 cups of zucchini and whipped up a batch to toss in the oven.  It makes two loaves, so I will take one to work.  I have never made this before and have never actually eaten anyone's version of this.  Should be interesting!

Zucchini Bread
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, well beaten
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 t vanilla
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
3 cups flour
1 cup nuts (walnuts)

Blend together oil and sugar, add eggs.  Stir in zucchini, then add the vanilla.  Mix the dry ingredients together and then slowly add to the zucchini mixture.  Then add the nuts(we didn't have any, so I left them out).  Bake at 350* for one hour.

I still have another 2 cups of zucchini left to use.  If I had more eggs and more bread loaf pans, I might make another double batch of bread and just give it away. 

Preserving Summers Bounty

While I was home, my dad hooked me up with a bunch of vegetables from the garden.  Since we are only two people and can only eat so much, we decided to freeze the peas and beans while we enjoy the other vegetables.

 

First you have to get the peas out of the shell.  This is a bit of a lengthy process and yields so little.  Many many shells later there was roughly 4 cups of  peas.  I tossed them in boiling water for about 2-3 minutes, then pulled them and let them cool before bagging.

 Green beans were next and far easier with just trimming off the ends and then boiling for 2-3 minutes.

All told, we have two bags of peas and four bags of green beans to stash in the freezer until we want to use them. 

I'm My Own Artist

As I mentioned before, I have a number of fun photographs I thought might work well as art in our home.   Well, Snapfish gave me some incentive (30% off posters) to order a number of pictures to see this reality through.  My vision was to make the hallway on the lower level reflect our travels around the world so far.  I selected a couple of photos from each major trip we have taken; Germany, St. Lucia, and San Francisco.  The long term thought is as we take more trips we can change out photos or add new ones to the wall or others nearby.

So to hang all these works of art, I waited for a pretty nice sale at Michaels and bought identical frames for the hall.  I thought it would bring a uniform gallery feel to the collection.  Most of our other frames are very eclectic and work well together, but I wanted uniformity for this set.  That and I am not sure I would find enough versions of lighter colored frames at Michaels without it looking like I tried to make a pattern.  Little did I know, this was a bit of a challenge to get 7 frames from Michaels all at once.  The good news?  I was finally able to get them 40% off with another 25% off of that. 

So here are some pictures of the pictures as they were assembled and hung.

Trying to flatten the prints after being in the tube for a week.

Since I bought the frames rather inexpensively, they have awful hooks in the back.  So, I remedied that with putting a new hook on the back.  It was kind of a pain, but it's WAY easier than trying to line up two nails and getting it hooked on there otherwise.

Using a laser level = awesome.

Finished product!  If anyone needs a simple reason to learn math and specifically fractions - it's so you can hang photos like this someday!

Awesome Potato Salad!

This is a "makeover" recipe from the Taste of Home - Healthy Cooking Magazine.  In other words, this is the healthy (and extremely tasty!) version of the typical potato salad.  Great to bring to a summer BBQ!


Makeover Loaded Baked Potato Salad
Prep: 20 min  Bake: 35 min + cooling Servings:12

2.5 lb small unpeeled red potatoes, cubed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 dill pickle, chopped
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/2 cup fat fee mayo
1 tsp. prepared mustard.

1. Place potatoes in a 15"x10"x1" baking pan coated with cooking spray, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Backe, uncovered, at 425* for 30-35 minutes or until tender.  Cool on a wire rack.

2. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, bacon, cheese, onion, and pickle.

3. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, mayo, and mustard.  Pour over the potato mixture and toss to coat.

My New Least Favorite Thing to Do

So in my last post regarding painting in the dining room I mentioned that the paint was actually peeling up on the trim work we were trying to repaint.  Sigh... That was only the beginning.  The square boxes on the lower half of the wall were easy to clean up by comparison to the actual chair rail.  The paint did not want to peel at all but would still come up if we sanded it.  What a loosing situation.

I spent the better part of 6 hours yesterday doing what the picture above shows.  That's right, brute force removing the crappy paint that was there.  This so far has been the worst painting task I have had.  I would rather paint 20 ceilings than repeat this task even once more.  Curse the people that painted this trim like this!

So this was the finished product after all my work yesterday.  Not only did I remove the crappy paint, I sanded to smooth out the bumps and scuff up the base paint some so the new layer would stick.

 Today's task was finally added paint back to the trim.  Thank the heavens.  I could actually see progress!

Meanwhile, Rob tackled painting the new bi-fold door we got in the kitchen.  We replaced the metal door that was there.  It was starting to rust and had to go.  Rob's dad helped install the replacement one.  They did a great job!

So finally after two coats on the trim and a touch up of "Pecan Sandie", this was our final product.  So far so good.  I just have one more wall to do.  (Not shown here).

Dilbert Appreciation

When I was co-oping in college my boss tried to tell me how funny Dilbert was, but I just didn't see the humor in it.  I mean I sort of did, but clearly not to the level that he was getting it.  Now, 7 years into the work place, I completely understand Dilbert and think I have some catching up to do. 

In the hallways around my workplace I see many of the strips tapped to peoples doors or in their offices.  There was one guy that had about 25 of them outside his office and I stopped to read them after hours one day.  Holy cow, a few too many were a bit close to home, which I suspect is why they made his wall. Many people at my company often wonder if Scott Adams actually works for us or has an inside scoop on what's going on because the strips are all too relevant to what's going on in the office.

Speaking of too close to home, this week I was in a Program Management class learning how to manage programs (should I have any in the future).  During all the various topics, our presenter had Dilbert cartoons linked in appropriate spots to poke fun of a topic he was trying to teach us.  The class would knowingly chuckle along with them like, been there, done that.  Especially ones involving the pointy-hair boss.

This is one that I have taped up on my office to express how I currently feel about getting a masters degree:

This is one that expresses an exact conversation I had with someone in a previous job (me being the one with the question in this situation).  

I equate it to having a new appreciation for Office Space which I acquired in Georgia when the team I was on gathered around a birthday cake to sing to saddest version of Happy Birthday I had ever heard.  This was followed by one person cutting said cake and saying, "Pass it around".  I immediately left to keep myself from having a mental break down.  The only thing different is I have always liked Office Space.

So, I might have to browse the Dilbert website or see if there are any books at the library.  I feel like I am missing out on a lot of laughs.

Salmon on the Grill

Now that we finally own a grill, we are getting to try all sorts of new recipes.  Some are ones we had to adapt to cook in an oven and are getting a new life in the way they were intended to be cooked.  My sister gave me this recipe, Grilled Salmon Marinade.  We have had it prepared on the grill, but we have had to cook it in the oven for a long time.  We were super excited to grill it for the first time ourselves. 

Grilled Salmon Marinade
1/4 cup olive oil
3 T. Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
2 Green Onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 t. fresh ginger, grated

Mix oil, soy sauce, onions, garlic, and ginger to make marinade.  Place salmon in a plastic bag and pour in marinade.  Marinate for 1 to 6 hours (or more, to your preference), rotating the bag every 1/2 hour or so.

To grill on a cedar plank - soak plank at least 30 minutes before grilling.  Place salmon on board, pour marinade over salmon and grill 10-20 minutes.  Check for doneness with a thermometer.  Rare is 140, medium is 160, well is 180.

We also have found we like corn on the grill as well.  Easy method for preparing corn (without fancy add ins), soak in water with the husks on for 30 minutes.  To cook, place on the upper rack of your grill for about 20 minutes.  Some people will tell you to peel back the husks and remove the stringy hair, add butter, salt, pepper and other things, but we are perfectly happy with just cooking it and dressing it afterward like normal.

It was good food for a summer cookout.

Accidental Gardening

Last year I bought an amazing petunia hanging planter from the Farmers Market in Syracuse.  It became my kind of zen garden I took to pruning and watering every day when I got home from work.  I would pick all the dead heads off the plant and prune back the dead branches.  Since I had one flowering plant at the time, I could manage it to this level.  When the fall came, we brought all the plants inside, including the dead carcass of what was my petunia plant.  It spent the winter inside with all it's dead branches hanging around above a bookcase.  Why do you ask?  Well because I was lazy, forgot about it and then it became scenery and I stopped noticing.

Fast forward to this spring, around May/June.  When we moved, we set almost all of the plants outside on the back deck immediately.  We really had to place to put them inside and sunshine would be good for all of them.  This included my hanging basket of dead petunia parts.  I had gotten it in my head that I would finally deal with the dead plant here because I had room and a yard.  Let's just say that didn't happen.  The spring rains came and dowsed all the plants and they began to thrive.

Then I noticed the hanging basket started to get all kinds of little green dots on it.  It wasn't mold, but growth of some sort.  I thought, well that's odd, I wonder what kind of weeds I am going to get.  In the spirit of letting nature take it's course, I would throw water on it while I was out watering the other plants and then one day, I saw the most remarkable thing.  A petunia bud!  What in the world?!  Apparently when I brought them inside last fall, it prevented them from freezing, so they basically re-seeded themselves and began anew this year!  How delightful lazy gardening can be!

Peeling Paint

We decided we should spend another day trying to wrap up the dining room.  Rob painted the second coat of color on the walls while I started prepping the trim for new paint.  What a crappy task.

We knew they hired painters to come in a "neutralize" the place before putting it on the market.  From the little bits of "what used to be there" paint and wall paper we have seen, it was worth their money to do this.  No one in their right mind would have bought this home otherwise.  We also knew from accidentally bumping the chair rail that it used to be red.  And that it was glossy paint which was painted over with another glossy paint.  For those of you who don't know what this means, essentially the last paint you put on will peel.  Glossy on glossy means it has nothing to stick to.  The good news?  If you catch it right, you can peel long strips at a time.

Here's progress with one stripped and the other waiting.  I am sure when this is done no one is going to be able to tell from a picture, but we will know the white we are painting it much brighter than this dull cream that's on there now.  The other thing is, even if we didn't want to paint and liked the color as it, eventually, with wear and tear, the red would eventually show through because it's not on there well.  

All I can say is sitting on the hardwood made my back hurt and my finger nails are in pretty awful shape.  At least Sparky was checking up on me on a regular basis. 

Dining Room in Stages

The dining room was the next room on the list to be tackled in our home renovation/repaint list.  We had decided we wanted to go with a blue, but not sure what what shade.  That actually proved a little challenging, but in the end we got the color we wanted.  We actually took a vote over the fourth of July with the in-laws.

The paint samples are shown left.  We ended up going with the top color, Pale Sky and had planned to do a deep blue (shown on bottom) for the base.  That plan sort of changed along the way.

Rob decided to pick up the Home Depot 1-2-3 Book over that weekend and read that walls should be sanded for a "velvety smooth finish".  We figured what the hell.   We had to patch holes anyway, so off sanding we went.

Of course our ever present supervisors had to oversee this event as well.  One Rob finished up with that portion, I started cutting in the walls.  It's surprising how fast you can paint a room when you are only painting the top two thirds of a wall and have only 3 to paint.

Rob does pretty good at coloring inside the lines.

After the paint went up on the walls, we knew we had really nailed the color.  It also showed us that our initial selection of dark blue on the bottom may have been a little premature.  We decided we actually liked the idea of having a sand color on the bottom half.  We wanted something darker than what was there however to give it some contrast.  After another round of voting we decided on "Pecan  Sandie" for the bottom third.  (As a random aside, I want to work for Behr naming colors)

This picture shows the difference in the colors pretty well.  It also shows ME painting in my lovely hobo clothes.  You got to love your paint outfit.  There's giant holes in the armpits and I have made it a point to get some of every color I paint on that shirt.  You can't see if from this side, but it's quite a grubby looking shirt now.
 

This is the latest picture of the dining room (minus the updated plugs).  Our final step will be to do the trim work.  We bought Ultra Bright White to make the rails pop.  Right now they are some weird version of cream and look kind of crappy.  We also need to scuff up the edges because they painted them in a high gloss of a high glass and it's peeling up in some places to show the awful prior colors beneath it.

Eventually when it's not 3,000 degrees outside, we are going to take down the chandelier and spray it another color.  I hate brass (it reminds me of cheap hotels) so we were thinking to try either a silver or white.  If it looks like crap, we'll be out $15 for spray paint.  We were going to straight up replace the thing, but in the interest of saving $150-$200 we thought spray paint might be a fun experiment first.  There's nothing functionally wrong with it (aside from a bulb being out) so it's hard to justify tossing it because "I don't like the color".  Stay tuned as the next phases come to fruition!