Foodie Friday...

Well hullo there Mr. Blog! Haven't seen you in a while... We've been pretty busy with our beautiful Bug.

I've been inspired by the wonderful Nini to document some of my culinary experiments. Most people stare at me like I've grown a spare head when I tell them that I generally cook without a recipe. Once you have a general idea of what goes with what (and in what quantities - I can't wait to check out THIS cookbook) you are free to create whatever you want! I recently started making pasta from scratch (thanks for the birthday pasta roller & cutter, Mom!) and I can't even begin to describe how luscious homemade pasta is compared to the dried boxed crapola from the grocer. Oi. Amazing. But I digress...

I had fun creating a variation of a classic Italian Stromboli last night for dinner. A stromboli is a type of turnover made with dough and a variety of fillings, including meats, cheeses, veggies, spices... After consulting the contents of the fridge I settled on a pulled BBQ chicken, spinach, oregano, basil and quattro formaggio filling. 425*F for 30 minutes and helllooooo beauty! Quite tasty. This would work with most any meat leftovers and roughage combo, paired with a flavorful cheese like provolone or Swiss.

I am ecstatic to be harvesting over half of salad fixings straight from the garden already - with much more in the works. (C'mon tomatoes and pole beans!) Our Thursday night salad consisted of BlackSeededSimpson lettuce, FrenchBreakfast radishes, Nantes carrots, oregano, SugarSnap peas, mushrooms, radicchio, edamame, Fuji apple and slivered almonds in a miso dressing. I'm a bit of a salad-fiend.

The meal served up nicely and would even make a good first course for a dinner party. Be sure to adequately flour your dough so that your creation doesn't come apart while transferring from pastry board to baking sheet. Also be sure to oil up that baking sheet!

Dessert was homemade non-dairy strawberry chocolate chip ice cream. Now before you go thumbing your nose at non-dairy ice cream, let me tell you that even my mother (who generally HATES deviations from the meat/potatoes/butter/cream formula) loves this recipe. Those of us who are *painfully* done in by dairy (that would be me and the hubby) will be amazed at the creamy texture of this frozen delight. Doesn't that sound like a cookbook header? Hmmm, recipe should follow, eh?

Eat-It-And-Weep (for joy) Ice Cream

2C coconut milk (full fat - this is ice cream, people)

1C almond milk

1+ pint fresh, ripe strawberries (or more, as you see fit)

1/4C agave nectar (they have this at Trader Joe's)

pinch sea salt

1T vanilla (not imitation -c'mon and eat well, peeps!)

Blend ingredients well. Pour into ice cream maker and churn at LEAST 30 minutes. (I normally go longer - up to an hour.) Add chocolate chips (minis work best - about 1/3C) five minutes before your ice cream is finished. VOILA. Mmmm. And darned if I didn't get a picture of the final product (two nights in a row!) Just too excited to eat my ice cream, I guess.

Happy Cookin'!

Mobile Blogging?!?!

Mobile blogging?!? Get out!

Testing, testing, is this thing on???

Life is Bug.

There are some things in this world that are predictable. Democrats and Republicans unable to agree. Health care expenses annual increases. The general deliciousness of See's dark chocolate molasses chips. Hilarious strife over the holidays.

Other things take you by surprise, like the volume of love you are capable of when you become a parent. Perhaps we're lucky... While all babies are special and beautiful in their own way, not all babies are cute. (It's true, even if it is something you only talk about behind closed doors with your best friend. Feeling slightly guilty. Kinda...) We struck gold - talk about a cute kid. Geesh.

Blogosphere, meet our Bug. Dang do we love her!

Day Twenty Three: Moving in to Hell's Furnace...

Dude. It was 110 degrees today in Felton. ONE-HUNDRED-AND-TEN-DEGREES-FAHRENHEIT-IN-FELTON. Hottest day on record since 1965.

And we decided to move today. Of course.

Our ridiculously wonderful friends showed up at 9:30, worked like crazed ants and were up at the house by 11:30 with almost 80% of our stuff!!! (SAY WHAT?) They hauled, they sweated, they smiled, they cursed, they laughed, they almost died from heat stroke... but they kept working. Box after box after sofa after bed after chair. We have some ridiculously fabulous friends.

Turns out the little AC unit that the previous owners massacred a window to install (with half-assed plywood and a little plastic accordion piece, no less) actually works! Not very well, but you don't knock ANY form of cooling when it is that dang hot. We cranked it all the way on for our lunch of pizza and beer - it was less than uncomfortable in the front room with all our friends perched on furniture and boxes, so obviously the AC thingy was doing something! I was petrified that someone would keel over and have a stroke on the front steps, so I tried to steer people to stand in front of the AC unit for at least five minutes with a bottle of ice water whenever possible. It gave me the excuse of standing near the cooler air, too, to try to bring down the swelling that turned my feet into blimps and my fingers in to bratwursts. Not fun.

The crew was all done by mid-afternoon and even volunteered to help us unpack and get settled in. (Did I mention that our friends are ridiculously fabulous? Geesh.) We shooed them out to their air conditioned cars and off to their hopefully cooler homes. And then the nesting bug hit. And I just had to unpack every box in the kitchen. The bug started to subside when my feet started throbbing, but not by much.

Thru all of this, our buddy Joel was tiling our bathroom floor. Inside, in 110 degree heat. What a guy. The floor looks GREAT (oh my gosh, look at those little curved pieces around the tub!) and he will be back tomorrow to grout the tub and floor. Wahoo!

We took our first outdoor shower at the new house tonight - can I just say that this is a PERK of moving into a house without a working bath? A full view of redwoods, stars up above, warm water run thru a hose out the back window... Fabulous. It was so nice to remove an inch-thick layer of sweat buildup at the end of the day.

Matisse did OK with the move, but was really worrying me with her panting and lethargy. Extreme even for a cat. Poor baby, she was so hot on top of the stress of moving to a new place - I can't imagine having a fur coat today. She'll be better off than us in the winter, but for now... no bueno. She plopped herself down on the cool-ish stone hearth (and then kept moving slightly when she over-warmed that spot...) and looked up at us with sad, sad "why are you doing this to me???" eyes. *sniff* I try to be a good cat mommy!

So... we're living in BOXLANDIA for now... in ridiculous heat... in an old house that creaks... without a shower... and it is *awesome.*

(And yes, Matt *is* wearing board shorts in this picture.)

Day Twenty: Meet Your Neighbors...

TileWatch’09 continued today; Dad made great strides and finished the shower tile... AT 8:30 p.m.!!!! He then packed up and went home, much to my mother’s relief. Sometimes the cats just aren’t enough company...

When I stopped in to have lunch with Dad today we discovered a lovely congregation of GINORMOUS ANTS in the garage. Some even had wings! For some reason they absolutely love the quickset and were making a nuisance of themselves in the powder bag. We tried our best to smash them into oblivion (they made large crunching noises... and I was in flip flops.) Matt will do a *wonderful* job taking care of them later. You should see him attack ants – it’s more than a hobby for my husband. It’s a mission!

We’re winding down on the house in preparation for the move this weekend... While we are nowhere NEAR done, the time has come for us to make it happen. Oh Lord.

Day Nineteen: Do we name her Paulina?

Following a crazy work-packed weekend, my dad, Paul, took three days of vacation time to… work on our house?!? Yesterday he started on the subway tile in the bathroom between coats of floor varithane. Can I just say that our floors are AMAZING!?!??!!??! It looks like we had them professionally refinished! Who says you need to spend $2K and stay out of your house for two weeks to have great looking floors? (You just need crazy talented parents who are really good at home repairs/remodels…) I can’t believe Dad is up here for three days.

The tile is coming along, slowly but surely. Dad is a *very* meticulous worker (read: borderline over-the-top-perfectionist… ;o) His mantra is measure three (or four) times, cut once. And his work is GORGEOUS. I’m more of a measure twice, cut once person. Matt is a “you measured?” type – but more often than not is dead on. Darn talented booger. *smooch*

It was extra special to come up to the house on a week day and have lunch with Dad – two days in a row now! I attacked the dead caulking behind the kitchen sink with a vengeance, but still only one third the energy I’m used to being able to expend on repair projects. This remodeling-while-preggo thing is getting old.

Matt came by after work and continued working on the bathroom walls, covering screws with another layer of mudd. There is much debate over how we will finish the walls – I want a smooth wall finish but have been informed that this is beyond the skill/patience level of the workers on hand (mainly Matt and dad.) Ugh. We’d better not have to do the orange peel finish. I hate that. Maybe I’ll grab a palate knife and see what kind of mischief I can get into… Or not.

Day Seventeen: Are we there yet?

Another fun-filled Sunday! Just think.... this time next week we will be waking up for the FIRST TIME in our NEW(ish) HOUSE! Wahoo!

Matt and I rarely get to sleep in together... or have breakfast together... or even just spend time alone together these days! Being an electrician means that his hours lean more towards the first half of the day - as in he starts before most people are awake! So we stole a few minutes of luxurious together time this morning, joking around and mentally preparing to get back to work on our project, er, I mean house. Needless to say, it was quite lovely. Boy do I love that man!

I was treated to a lovely Peet's coffee on the way up and arrived oh-so-ready to keep painting. (Well, actually I was ready for a nap, but that didn't seem to be one of the options available, so painting won out.) It didn't take long for me to realize that I just do not have quite the reach I did, say, six months ago... There seems to be something in the way! It was great when mom and dad showed up after church; the cabinet interiors got taped along the backs and I was able to get two coats of paint applied.

Dad had the enviable task of sorting thru the kitchen window trim pieces and tacking them back up. There is still one piece that we cannot for the life of us figure out... In retrospect, I really should have painted the trim pieces red while they were off... but with half of the strips being good-condition-old-growth-redwood pieces, it was more of a commitment than I was ready to make when we started in on the kitchen painting process. Now that mom has done such a kick-butt job painting the room, the trim looks shabby in comparison. Ah well, an easily remedied situation... but not this week!

Matt and Dad continue to steam ahead in the bathroom, finishing the sheetrock and wonderboard today! Now all is ready for tile... and my too-good-to-be-true father is taking off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to tile our bathroom. Holy underpants, Batman!

Mom buzzed around like a cleaning lady on speed today, continuing the floor scrubbing and helping to clear the WayBack of extra tools and garbage. Dad plans on varithaning the floors tomorrow, so Mom had them in eat-off-me-order by nightfall.

I ended up running errands for three hours in the afternoon, searching for semi-gloss floor varithane (HD only had one gallon, OSH had none... what's a girl to do?!?), lighting fixtures, switch plates, wonderboard screws and more. Needless to say, my feet hurt. Quite a bit. Ugh.

We all sat down to our first full home cooked meal *inside* the house, using our scaffolding as a makeshift table and plopped into the four folding chairs that have been our only furniture for the past 16 days. Mom cooked, therefore it was delicious. I must say that I am REALLY looking forward to finally cooking in my own kitchen!

Home to bed, aching and exhausted but thrilled that we are still making good progress. We are behind schedule, of course, but at this point I'm not going to worry about it. I'm too tired to worry. Matt's too tired to worry. Dad's almost too tired to worry. And Mom is a VERY talented worrier, so she can be really tired AND worry enough for all of us. It's a Johnson women trait.

I still need to pack. A lot. Tomorrow. Everything tomorrow.

Day Sixteen: Are we having fun yet?

Today was another ridiculously full Saturday. I don't know how my parents and Matt do it... they are working like crazy people! We will all need naps when this is done... or part done... But HEY! We didn't go to the Depot of Homes today! Woot!!!

Matt and Dad have reached the turning point on the bathroom - from here on out, everything is progress towards a completed, fully remodeled bathroom! (As opposed to demolition of the old one...) We were all blown away by Matt's drywall skills - he measures quick, cuts quick, installs quick... and is RIGHT ON with his calculations and cuts!

My dad is a *very* precise worker... measure ten times, cut once. The results are always impressive (Matt's brother Mike was trying to figure out last weekend if Dad is a contractor in addition to being a chemist, due to his staggering depth of knowledge in all things home repair. Go Dad!) Matt, however, approaches all these projects with the confidence of a tradesman - measure once, cut once, thank you have a nice day. It has been really fun to see the two styles working together - the perfectionist and the professional. They make a great team (and their hilarious banter provides much-needed entertainment for mom and I as the endless paint-o-rama continues...)

Mom painted the kitchen today while I painted the inside of the cabinets. After removing the layers of funky vintage contact paper, it was clear that the shelves needed some love and attention. The layers of paint have helped refresh the kitchen (and helped refinish surfaces that the OCD side of me did NOT want touching anything that might come in contact with our mouths.)

We have decided to varithane the floors to help protect the soft-ish wood against our less-than-gentle lifestyle. Mom bravely tackled the floor-cleaning process on hands and knees with a scrub brush, damp mop and enough pine sol to scald your nose hairs right off. The floors look exponentially better already - can't wait to see what the floor varithane does!

Once all the drywall was up, it was time for Matt's introduction to mudd and tape. Hooboy. He's doing a GREAT job... but the process is less than foolproof. Dad fully admits that this is NOT his area of expertise... but he and Matt are still trying their darnedest to get it right. At one point I peeked in to the bathroom and found dad with his hand on his forehead, bemoaning the fact that this is "the blind leading the blind." Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but it made for a great picture.

No rest for the wicked - we'll be back bright and early tomorrow! (Mainly because everything is going so slow that we're entering the frantic panic phase of pre-move/pre-baby home remodel... WHATEVER. If we need to, we hook a hose up to the utility sink, run it to the back patio and shower outside for a few days.

Longer than a few days? Time to panic.

Day Fifteen: Wait, we're moving? We need to pack up the old house?!?

I was hit today by the sickening realization that we will be MOVING in to the new house next weekend... which means that we will be MOVING EVERY SINGLE LAST BELONGING WE HAVE next weekend.

And I have just started packing... while 34 weeks pregnant... or is it 35? Either way, it is *super* slow-going.

Today I took some time to organize much of the baby stuff that we have been accumulating over the past few months. I washed and folded a sickeningly-adorable pile of newborn clothes that we have been blessed to have handed down from friends ('cause they only wear this size for a minute!) Do you know how TINY newborn socks are?!?! Do you have any idea how bizarre it is to fold postage stamp-sized onesies? (And exciting... we're entering the home stretch!)

Our wonderful friend Jon came over to the new house tonight to help Matt with bathroom demo and framing. It was great to get him out to the house and use his enthusiastic manpower! I gave the boys plenty of room (as the bathroom is pretty darn tiny... particularly once you add in two working stud muffins [I can call your husband a stud muffin, right S?] and power tools.)

The greatest part of Jon's visit was dinner - hell froze over, and we got pizza. Wahoo! Due to Matt's dietary constraints we *almost* NEVER eat pizza... this was such a treat! Dinner was also fantastic because it involved conversation with Jon... He and his wife are two of the most beautifully social people we know. Getting together always means laughter, easy conversation and a reminder that we need to get out more often with awesome people like them!

So... not much of an update on the house, but we're still going strong. Dead on our feet, panicking that we won't be ready in time, dazed by the remodeling process... but still going....

Day Fourteen: (Does he know what he's doing in there?)

Yesterday I spent three hours tangled with the shop vac, trying to suck up all the roof pucky that had rained down over the past week. It was not a pretty sight. I took all the drop cloths out for a good shake over the edge of our new patio and tried to hold my breath as they released clouds of sawdust, dirt, composite roof "sand," leaves and unknown other substances. It felt GREAT to clean up, even just a little bit, as the house was looking pretty wrecked and the sandy junk from the roof had to be no bueno for our soft-ish fir floors. Note to self: never have a roof replaced in an exposed ceiling house when you are living in said house. OK. Got it.

The roof is on and almost finished - they still need to complete a small section on the garage. Apparently there were four roofs on the garage as well - just removing the previous roofing material properly will supposedly help with the slight sag to the roof line over the workshop. Whatever. I'm shocked that the roofers didn't just reframe the whole garage roof without asking and then hand us a bill. (Sorry, still upset.) The final roof does look quite lovely on the house - I'm glad that we went with the hickory color the roofer suggested.

Matt met with the owner of the roofing company this evening; apparently they had a good talk about our concerns and their workmanship. There is no conversation that can fix the problem, but I defer to Matt's judgement and expertise on the house. (But I do have to say, I may be hormonal, but POLKA DOTS?!?! ON OUR CEILING?!?! ARGH.) OK. Moving on.

Danny and Megan came down tonight to see the new casa and lend a helping hand. I worked today and thus wasn't there to greet them graciously from the front porch (apron and pearls optional) but was able to show up with bueno Taqueria food in hand. We had a great time catching up over burritos, sitting in our fabulous flimsy folding chairs outside around a small work table. (I will miss these kinds of moments when we are fully moved in with furniture and other modern conveniences...) I do love how much we laugh when these two are around!

Danny was Matt's best man at our wedding - a total goofball and loveable party person. Those of you who where there might remember his fabulous toast ("Kadoosh!") and his date (my grandmother.) I don't know Danny's entire work history, so when I walked in to find Danny with a skill saw attacking our bathroom floor, I must admit I was slightly alarmed. I pulled Matt off his ladder where he was installing switches in the WayBack to ask, "Does Danny know what he's doing?!?" in my most positive, upbeat, neutral and quiet whisper. Turns out Daniel worked in construction for several years. Whew. My bad. Sorry to ever doubt you dude... I'm just slightly concerned when I see someone with a skil saw in one hand, a beer in the other, coming out of the bathroom to say, "I may have just hit a pipe. There were sparks."

Holy poop. ;o)

(Thanks Danny and Megan - was great to see you, and Danny did a great job removing the old bathroom floor in preparation for this weekend's big bathroom showdown!)

Day Thirteen: I am not a happy camper...

I forgot to take a picture of my concrete art the day they poured (with a giant, awesome, totally rad concrete mixing truck! Still excited!) Do you like the line of trees I scratched in? I was under a whole heap of pressure - the concrete guys were standing over me to see what I wrote. Not bueno. I could have done a Starry Night or Guernica if they weren't watching... ;o)


We're having a bit of an issue with the roofer... namely an issue with the NAILS that are coming THRU our BEAUTIFUL EXPOSED PINE ROOF. Nails on their own would be one thing, but the roofers apparently tried to cover their mistake by REPEATEDLY POUNDING THE NAILS FROM THE INSIDE WITH A HAMMER ON THE SOFT, AGED WOOD. Thus, we have polka dots on our ceiling. Don't you think that, were you to do this once on a client's ceiling, producing said marks, you would stop and find an alternative method of removing the exposed nail ends? Yeah, me too. But apparently this crew didn't seem to mind that they were giving our lovely ceiling pox scars. I'm pretty miffed. There are still nails hanging down in the bathroom... hopefully they won't continue to bash our poor wood ceiling in after Matt's discussion with the owner.

And the gutters were supposed to be pre-primed. They are not. But at least the house now has gutters.


Argh.


I met Matt up at the house tonight and made us our standard sandwiches and chips for dinner. Today I baked an apple crisp with fruit from our very own tree for our dessert. These apples are delicious! Tart, crisp and with great flavor, perfect for baking, eating raw or applesauce. A co-worker let me know about a great local homebrew supplier that has the presses and crushers to make our own apple cider! Now if only I could actually REACH all those apples!


Matt continues to kick booty rewiring the *entire* house. Have I mentioned what a stud my husband is? Yeah, he rocks. There are beautiful new light fixtures and ceiling fans in the front room, master bedroom and nursery. We now have LIGHTS in the closets! The kitchen and the WayBack are coming along, and the bathroom will be rewired this weekend after we re-frame and insulate. Crazy.


Speaking of the WayBack........ it is a total mess...... hurricane-thrashed-status-disarray. I can't wait for this to all be over so that we can clean up and enjoy our house (even more than we are enjoying it thus far!) Have I explained the name of our enclosed porch room yet? Hmmm. Preggo-brain.


When Matt was little, their family had a big ol' 1970's station wagon (the indestructible all-metal kind) and four young kids. Three sat on the back bench seat, but one lucky kid got to sit in the "way back" of the station wagon - the fun area with room to relax away from the siblings. Thus, our "fun room" has been dubbed the WayBack. Here's to years of relaxation, games, storm-watching and sleepovers to come in our own WayBack.

Day Twelve: on which I am brought to my knees by tile...

I just have to say that making decisions about remodeling a house that *we* own is far harder than anything I have ever done related to any housing situation, ever. Case in point: today, I had a panic attack while driving when I started to think about the floor tile in the bathroom. Over the past few days I have looked at every sample of tile offered by the Depot of Homes, a reputable local tile outlet, the design blogosphere... I have poured over years of Sunset bathroom pics online and in their design books, on cottage-decor-related websites, restoration DIY resources and This Old House magazines.

And what great insights have I found?

Always allow more than one week to redesign an entire bathroom.

My parents redid one of their downstairs bathrooms a few years ago in very tasteful, modern and neutral materials and colors. I've always loved the floor tile in that bathroom, so when Dad called up to say that the discount tile source still had that tile in stock, I was pretty stoked. Then he said that it would be a custom order and non-returnable. And that they did their ordering tomorrow morning at 10 am. Thus I needed to make a decision with Matt within 12 hours.

Bring on the panic attack. I'm such a wuss.

Matt gamely joined me in a mad dash about town and thru design books, searching for alternatives. I had a nasty experience with rude salespeople who seemed to not want to answer my basic questions about ordering tile from their warehouse. We arranged tile samples all around the HD floor, trying to visualize the different natural stone tiles next to the white subway tile that we've already decided on for the bath. I was trying to find something that we both really like, as the tile Dad could special order for us was not his first choice.

At ten at night, however, we decided that it is just tile. The special order tile goes with the subway tile better than the other options we had looked at. And of all the things we have to worry about these days, tile should not have to be high on the list.

Thanks, Dad, for ordering our tile. Now we need to learn how to set it... I feel another panic attack coming on...

Day Ten: A big one.

Today was a BIG day.

We were first on the scene today at the house – yeehaw! (We even had time to stop for an extra-special treat: Peet’s mochas! Mmmmm… makes life better!)

Matt met a plumber through his work who lives in Santa Cruz… and was interested in trading electrical work for plumbing! Hot dog! Alex was a great sport, getting up to the house nice and early to get cracking (ha…) even after working up at the current job site until EIGHT PM the night before! (A solid 13 hour day… and then he put in at least nine at our place. What a trooper.) The bathroom continues to reek of rat pee… and now the WayBack (aka the enclosed rear porch) is starting to smell as the stench wafts out the back window… We’re going to try bleach tonight… Dad got the rest of the bathroom walls off while Alex went in search of supplies. Just when you thought the smell couldn’t get any worse… he uncovered an even bigger nest area. Ugh. Again, my hero! Dad and Matt put their heads together to finalize wall plans for the bathroom – I see another trip to Home Depot on the horizon! (BIG ugh.)

Matt’s brother Mike showed up early to help tackle the massive project of re-wiring half the house in one day… The house had wire mold run every which way to get power to ceiling fixtures, fans, etc. As of this afternoon, however, there were miles of romex run on the exposed plywood for the roof, covered with hard metal strips to ensure the roofers don’t nail thru our wire when they put the new roof on tomorrow. Mike and Matt working together are such a trip – they have a seemingly endless supply of goofy nicknames and inside jokes that they throw at one another all day whilst performing super-ninja-electrical-tricks. It was great to get Mike out to see the property (and even better that his lovely wife and awesome kids let us work him to the bone *all day.*) They had matching sunhats and sunglasses on while working on the roof – it was hilarious that their hats match the chapeau favored by their other brother, Mark. Someday I need to get a picture of the three boys in their matching fishing hats! I wonder if their dad has one, too?!?!

The carpet came up in the master bedroom, exposing the last major expanse of potentially questionable fir flooring – THREE FOR THREE! We rock! Yes, that’s right, all our flooring is kick-butt. Yeehaw. Wow. Dad did a great job pulling up ALL the tack strip and prying out all the carpet staples. We’re so stoked. I was worried about the bedroom – it had not been taking on the feel that I envisioned when we decided to go for this place… BUT I am happy to report that the finished product is absolutely lovely. The undertones of the ceiling and floor look beautiful against the white walls. (Now if only I had a few magic privacy hedges to hide the neighbor’s house/roof… Perhaps next week!)

Mom continued to kick butt applying a second layer of primer to the kitchen walls. I painted the inside shelves of one of the cabinet units and discovered that it wasn’t looking too great with just the shelves painted – we need to paint the entire inside. Joy. At least the ten layers of funky contact paper are gone!

I crashed big time in the afternoon – too much on-my-feet time combined with lack of sleep caught up with me. I threw a towel down on the floor in our bedroom and took a short nap. Methinks more sleep will be necessary in order for my continued involvement in the house projects. I can’t imagine how Matt is still standing – he’s basically working 12 hour days, seven days a week when you add up his job and home work schedule. Too much work and not enough sleep – when is CrankyMatt going to emerge? ;o)

Alex did a great job – the new copper is in and ready for our bathroom fixtures. Now if only the smell would disappear… (yes, it really IS that bad.)

We ended the day by ripping out the old hood and marking the skylight placement for the roofers. They start tomorrow – it will be interesting to see what their work is like. They started work a day early without asking us last week: we arrived up at the house on Thursday evening to find that we no longer had a roof! Then the owner stopped by at 10am instead of 2pm yesterday to discuss the work for next week (when Matt was at work.) Again, without calling first. We haven’t signed anything with them, so this is rather bizarre behavior from a contractor. But they seem to be highly regarded by our friends in the local residential construction business, so hopefully it will all work out!

Late dinner at the Taqueria, even later grocery shopping at SnobHill… then home to fall in to bed, exhausted. But hey! We made it a whole day without having to visit the Depot of Homes! And that is a good, GOOD thing.