August Fun

Here are some of the fun times we had during the month of August.

Uncle Drew and Uncle Reid read books with their niece Miriam and Reid's son Kai. How cute are those kiddos?!

Kramer met a new friend one evening. They didn't get along. She barked and growled at herself for about 20 minutes before we finally made her stop.

I repainted our bedroom. The previous color, chosen well before Drew was in the picture, was a purple-ish color called "Lady Like." The new color is a grey-ish blue called "Raw Steel." Sounds about right.

I created a new tequila-lime-cilantro marinade and we grilled some chicken. Fan. Tastic.

Spinach Artichoke Dip. Better than most of the stuff you get in restaraunts. Thanks, PW!



Since the basement is nearing completion, Kramer got a new bed to use down there. When we gave it to her, she promptly started attacking with the intent of destruction. Thus, the above is what they call an "action shot."

Ribfest came back to town. The weather was fantastic and the BBQ was delicious.

The weak sauce tomatoes I talked about last month are still weak sauce. This is the one tomato we had that actually turned red. There are still 3 or 4 more green ones on there, but BLTs with our own tomatoes is not going to happen in 2012.

Basement Part 3

In case you missed it and want to get caught up, you should check out the first and second installments on the basement remodel. Those installments left us with the drywall up and getting mudded.

Priming the walls.

Drew and I decided to prime the walls and ceiling as soon as the mudders were finished. There was so much dust everywhere (and I do mean everywhere) so we wanted to try and minimize that as much as we could. We figured by priming the walls and ceiling, we'd lock in whatever dust was present on the walls and that had to help. So we primed and then painted the ceiling. Drew's plan was to get the doors and trim up, unfinished, so that we could have a professional come in and stain and lacquer the wood. Since it's a basement and basements are known for their fluctuating humidity levels, Drew felt that making sure that the trim joints were sealed was a good idea. Therefore, the ceilings were painted, but the walls were left with primer on them.

Painting the ceiling.

The trim and doors were delivered in the middle of May and my love was busy every single day until the middle of July. So there were one or two Saturdays he and his dad devoted to the trim, but we weren't able to get it finished until Drew had those days off. He did a phenomenal job. That's all I need to say about that. Phenomenal. We also worked with my dad on getting the outlets and switches wired up. I installed the baffles and trim on the can lights and Drew installed the smoke detectors.

The trim is up! And so are the can lights and smoke detectors.

We also had a custom cabinet built to give us a dry bar of sorts on one end of the basement. It was built to match the door style and we were able to stain it to match the rest of the wood in the basement.

More trim! And a glimpse of the custom cabinets.

We ended up choosing mission style doors mainly due to the sizes of doors that we needed. Specifically the heights associated with the doors. The house is 60 years old so the basement is 7 feet. The soffits dip down even further and some of our doors needed to be quite a bit shorter than standard. We knew we didn't want plain doors, but we also didn't want 6 panel doors since they didn't really fit with our 1950's ranch home. I really like the two panel Roman arch top doors, but by the time you cut the door down to size, the placement of the door knob was going to look funny with the spacing of the panels on the door. We settled on a mission style door since that seemed to be the style that allowed the most flexibility. I think it was an excellent decision.

The mission style doors. See how they still look OK even when they are different heights?

We had a professional come in and stain the wood since we had a lot of wood and the lacquer is so potent. Potent might be too tame of a word. It was toxic. Burn your nose and make your eyes water toxic. We spent two nights with family so we weren't anywhere near the house for the roughest days, but it was still quite stinky when we got back home. Our painter had the store mix up a special stain color for us so that it would match the wood in the previously remodeled bathroom and it matches pretty well. However, we were a bit concerned after we got back and saw the stained wood. I thought it looked pretty yellow and Drew thought it looked pretty red. I'm sure the stain over spray and lovely yellowed tiles didn't help us get a true feel for the color.

The stained wood coupled with the over spray, coupled with the yellowed tiles made it difficult to grasp the true color.

After the wood was stained, I got to flex my home improvement muscles. Not to brag or anything, but I've got some mad painting skills. Drew doesn't really enjoy it so I took a few days off of work and took care of the painting. I should also point out that the guy who stained our wood also taped the wood off so I didn't have to tape anything down there. That was huge. While I enjoy painting, taping is not something I relish so I was happy to have him do it for me.

The bedroom with the lovely egress window.

We lucked out on the bedroom paint. My brother had just sold his house and had an extra gallon from one of the rooms. The color was a light green and we thought it would work nicely for the bedroom so he gave it to us. (Thanks bro!) For the main room, Drew and I picked a light grayish-taupe color. We had already decided that we were going with a darker carpet so we wanted to make sure the walls were light enough to keep the basement from looking too dark. So I painted everything, including the walls heading up the steps since half of the walls up the stairs were new drywall.

The main room in the basement. The walls really didn't look like the color they are until the carpet was laid. Here, I think they look white.

After the paint was finished, we had someone come in and install our carpet. The guy was someone Drew knew and he gave us a huge head's up on a carpet deal that allowed us to save some serious cash. It took him a day to install the carpet and two days later we had the furniture delivered. I'm going to leave it here because not all the furniture was delivered the first time and I'll save the big reveal for the final installment.

Carpet going down the stairs.

Kramer gives her approval of the newly carpeted basement. It's a whole other area for her to run around in!

Basement Part 2

In case you missed it, here is the first installment about the basement remodel.

When I last left the story of the basement remodel, Drew had framed the basement and we were shopping at Menards. We're still shopping at Menards, by the way. I also forgot to mention that, in addition to putting in the egress window, Drew replaced all of the other windows in the basement. They were originals and quite drafty and the new windows are very nice! He also rebuilt the stairs. Yes, rebuilt. He and his dad tore them out one day and replaced them because they were serviceable, but not done well. That's just how we roll here, we rebuild stairs.

The rebuilt stairs. They are much sturdier than the old ones and we can put a stair skirt on them when we finish.

Once the framing was in place, we set about getting the duct work in place. When the basement bathroom was being remodeled, I had some HVAC guys come out to add a vent to the bathroom. The bathroom didn't have a finished ceiling and the previous owners had just tapped into a line that went out to the addition. Since we were finishing the ceiling and adding an overhead light and fan unit, the vent needed to be moved to the wall. That bathroom vent was the only air source in the entire basement and we had one return unit near the base of the furnace. Not so efficient or comfortable, right? So the HVAC guys came out again and redid our entire house duct work. It was a large project.

New HVAC duct work.

Previously, all of the registers upstairs were on the interior walls and there was one return basically above the furnace in the kitchen. Drew had them switch the return and supply lines and he cut holes in our wood floors for the new supply lines. All of the new supply registers are under the windows to more effectively heat and cool the house. We noticed a big difference in the continuity of the temperature throughout the house. It's great!

After the duct work was completed, Drew and my dad started in on the wiring. They spent quite a bit of time fixing some of the old stuff as half of the house ended up being wired to one breaker. They were really cute together; I'd come down to offer a snack and a beverage and they'd be sort of staring at something, arms folded across their chests. One of them would say something, they'd shift their weight, the other one would say something, maybe crouch down, and then there'd be more silence. They wired the can lights for the living room, lights for the closest, and all sorts of outlets. I'm fairly certain they increased the number of breakers in the electrical box by at least 50%. They didn't start any fires and no one got zapped. Success.

Once everything was wired up, Drew and I stuffed insulation between the studs around the exterior walls. We're hoping that will make the space down there much more comfortable.

Insulation added in the walls.

Next Drew calculated how much sheetrock he'd need and we, once again, made the trip to Menards. He and Larry hung the rock over the course of 2 days. They pretty much rocked the rock... (thanks, folks, I'll be here all week!) This event marked the start of the appearance of a fine, white dust that permeated all areas of the house. I'm still trying to get rid of it all.

Drywall. Necessary, but so messy.

After the rock was up, we contracted someone to take care of the mudding. Yes, we paid someone to do some of the work on the basement. I mudded the basement bathroom and vowed never again. Drew was already quite knowledgeable on the joys of mudding so I didn't have to work too hard to get him to agree with hiring a contractor for that task. The guys came in and knocked it out in about 3 days and it looks way better than anything I could have ever done down there. The rounded corners on our soffits look amazing.

Mudded drywall.

That's it for this post. More to come soon!

Our First Beer Can Chicken

Last month was Drew's birthday and I gave him a beer can chicken roaster as a present. Well, we tried it out recently and I'd say it was a solid first effort. The chicken was really tasty!

Lime, garlic, and Steel Reserve for the beer can and Lawry's and Tony's for the rub.

We bought some Steel Reserve at the store since it has a high alcohol content and poured some of that in the can. We added the juice from one lime and two cloves of garlic. That was our "beer can" mixture.

Adding beer to the beer can.

Next, we moved on to the chicken. Let me just say that this was my first ever experience with a whole chicken. I have no memory of eating whole chickens when I was a kid so either I blocked it out entirely, or we just didn't do whole birds growing up. So, imagine my surprise when I opened the packaging around the bird and out popped the neck. Like, they just chopped off the head and folded the neck into the body cavity. I kind of stood there for a bit and said something profound like, "Oh, there's the neck." Drew looked over and agreed that it was the neck. After a beat, he mentioned that he had no desire to eat that so we could just cut that part off. So I did. Happily, I might add. I rubbed on some Lawry's and some Tony's and stuck the bird on the can.

The bird has been rubbed and stuck on the can.

I think we're going to want to add more rub on the outside of the chicken as well as try to put some under the skin to get even more flavor in that meat.

Then we put the roaster on the grill and let it cook. Our grill has three burners so I placed the chicken on the left side and kept the middle and right burners at medium while the chicken cooked. It took about 75 minutes for the bird to get up to 165.

The bird has reached 165°F!

We maneuvered the bird off the can and served it with some rosemary potatoes that we also grilled and a salad. All in all, it was a success and pretty low on the effort side of the equation. That's my kind of summer meal!

Chicken and potatoes for dinner!

July Fun

Here are some snapshots from July around our house.

Our raspberry plants started to get some fruit.

Our biggest harvest yet! Seriously. The plants are young and the fruit is tasty!

BLTs! BLTs! BLTs! Granted these were farmer's market tomatoes, but still. Hopefully we'll have some with our own tomatoes soon.

Kramer further solidified her bond with Drew by wriggling herself in between Drew and the back of the couch.

Apple Sharlotka. It's a European apple cake. Not too sweet and 100% delicious.



Tequila Lime Chicken Piccata.

We bit the bullet and bought a foam mattress topper for our bed. Fantastic decision! Both of us are fans of the extra 3 inches of cushion.

Basement Part 1

Ah, the basement. Here's the back story: I bought our current house in 2006 way before I was a Mrs. and back when I knew very little about home improvement. I'm still not an expert on home improvement, but it would be safe to say I'm not as naive as I used to be either. So the basement: the eyesore of the otherwise cute little house in which we live. Where to begin?

I previously posted about the transformation of the bathroom in our basement here, and now I'm going to start sharing about the rest of the basement overhaul. We are finally to the point where we'll be finishing up in the next six weeks or so and I'm going to start posting pictures. There are a LOT of pictures.

A look at the bathroom door from inside the bedroom.

Rewind a few years. The north wall was leaning in about a half an inch and I had a system installed in the spring of 2008 to stabilize the walls and slowly pull them back into their upright position. In preparation for that installation, I had to remove the wood panelling from the walls. Yes, wood panelling. Gross, dingy, cheap wood panelling.

The north wall with one of the stabilizers and the "special" wood panelling on the right.

More pretty wood panelling in the bedroom.

So my little brother helped me remove the panelling on the north wall and we found that the previous owners had framed out the walls using 1" x 2" pieces of wood instead of the typical 2" x 4" studs that normal people use. There was no insulation and I'm not going to go into the details of the other "treasures" we have found throughout this process, but we'll just say there were great amounts of frustration, some head scratching, and maybe some not so nice words uttered under our breaths.

The closet area of the bedroom. I can't really call it a closet since the previous owners hung a curtain on a shower curtain rod and used that to close off the space.

Fast forward to last fall when we started to get our basement remodeling thoughts in order. We knew we wanted to put in an egress window so we could get an extra legal bedroom in the house. So, Drew dug a hole in the ground, had someone come out and cut through the cinder block wall, and installed a new window. It really is a lovely hole and an even lovelier window.

Drew digging me the most beautiful hole in the ground I've ever seen. Let me just repeat that: Drew dug me a hole in the ground. How I love this man!

The new window! It lets in so much light and gives us a legal bedroom in the basement.



Then in January of this year and my husband surprised me by starting on the demolition of the basement one day while I was at work. Quite a surprise! The downside is that there are no great before pictures so you'll just have to use your imagination.

What I saw when I walked in the house the day Drew started the demolition.

The bottom of the steps and one of the support beams we had to work around.

Also, even though he didn't say anything out loud, I'm pretty sure Drew had a grand old time tearing that place apart once he got started. With every panel removed, every piece of wood pulled off the wall, he got a little satisfaction in knowing he was destroying a hack job of a finish and that he would eventually get to do it right.

Pulling up the carpet to discover... gross, yellowed, peal and stick tiles.

I was honestly surprised at how quickly he got that basement space completely cleared out.

Everything is cleared out! Well, except the tools and the random piles of stuff we kept moving around the basement while we worked.

Then, he framed the walls. We went from a "sewing room," a living room, and a bedroom to a large living room and a bedroom. The sewing room was so small and it really just felt closed off down there so we got rid of it in favor of more usable space.

My three favorite guys! Drew, Frank (my pops), and Larry (Drew's dad) working hard to get things put together. Larry is no stranger to our home projects.

Drew and Larry getting a wall framed. The line on the floor is where the old wall separating the sewing room from the living room used to sit.

So that's all for now. I'll leave you with this picture of the haul from a spring shopping trip to Menard's. We saved big money.

When we went shopping this spring, this is what we brought home. And we were excited about it! I guess we really are adults now...

Birthday Boy

My husband celebrated a birthday last weekend and we decided to celebrate all weekend and not just his actual birthday. For this reason, I have decided that having your birthday fall on a weekend is the absolute best thing.



Kramer was skeptical about the whole singing "Happy Birthday" notion.

Saturday we went to the farmer's market in town and bought some tomatoes for BLTs this week. Our tomatoes have been a fantastic disappointment thus far. Seriously, the plats are small and they look like they're about to keel over. Probably has something to do with the ridiculous heat over the past 6 weeks, but I'm still hopeful that we can water them enough to get some yummy stuff later this summer.

Hopefully weak sauce tomatoes in July = amazing delicious goodness in August and September.

Saturday night we had Drew's parents and one of his brothers and his family over for some BBQ pulled pork and cake and ice cream. Drew's mom brought a great fruit salad and our sister-in-law brought some delicious cole slaw and we had a yummy summer meal. Dessert was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Drew was delighted when he found out what type of cake I was making him and it was pure bliss when he took his first bite.

The birthday cake.

After church on Sunday we headed out to order carpet for our basement. We're still a few weeks off, but there was a sale and we figured we'd get that taken care of. My parents came over for lunch to help us take care of the leftovers from Saturday night.

Cake and ice cream. This was delicious.

We squeezed in a quick nap in the afternoon and enjoyed a lovely dinner out that night.

Napping buddies.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention what I gave Drew this year for his birthday. If you'll remember, last year it was the coffee press. This year, it's a beer can chicken roaster and we are, I mean HE is, really excited to try this out. Happy Birthday, Love!

If our roasted chicken ever looks like that, we will open a restaurant. Seriously, how good does that look?