Fancy pants windows with fancy pants trim

Dad came over Saturday morning and we started working on trimming out the windows in the solarium. We've got a couple more adjustments to make, but otherwise, we're ready for paint!

It's beginning to look a lot like..

..Christmas!
Mom came over one afternoon and hung the greenery, I stuck the wreath up with one of those 3M Command hooks, and the neighbors brought me the Santa this afternoon while I was at work! (It belonged to the woman who lived here before I bought the house...and they feel like it should stay!)

We joked about Santa becoming a traveling fixture in the neighborhood, so - after dark - I snuck it over to the neighbor's house, snapped a picture on my phone, and sent it to them with the caption "Your move."
I'm basically James Bond.

Butcher shop

My grandma's Italian sausage recipe all mixed up and ready to be broken down into one-pound packages and frozen for later use. I would share the ingredients, but then I'd have to kill you.
I've used this in pizzas most often, but it's also great in lasanga and stuffed pastas. Last night's dinner (and today's lunch) was this sausage, onion and garlic, pesto, a little leftover garden tomato sauce from the freezer, and cream all cooked together until the flavors blend. Add a little spaghetti and you're in business!

Diggin' in the dirt

After cutting the old drain pipe out, Dad scooped some crud out of the pipe and we thoroughly cleaned it out with the hose. This way, we're sure there aren't obstructions in the line (for at least 20 or 30 feet) and that water will still drain properly - we didn't ruin anything! ;)

The old clay pipe was - you guessed it - a non-standard size. We used a pair of Fernco rubber couplings to decrease the size of the pipe from the 5" clay down to the 2" PVC. This also insures a better seal as you can't glue or solder to clay. (The skinny white pipe is drainage from the furnace)

Ta-Da! New drain installed and draining like a champ! AND, the sewer gas smell is totally gone from the house!
That little loopy-loop (P-trap) just below the grate stores just enough water to seal out any gas from backing up through the line into the room - the other drain was just a straight pipe with a drain hole, so it makes sense that it would have failed.
This project wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We're letting everything settle for a while before filling the hole in; once we're confident there are no leaks or malfunctions, we'll tamp the dirt, backfill with gravel, and pour new concrete sloping everything toward the new drain. 

What do you want to do today?

I've been having a little bit of a problem with sewer gas, lately. Not the most glamorous subject, but why start with glamorous now? Anyway, the most obvious culprit is the floor drain in the basement. It's a relatively easy fix and one that we can do cheaply enough. If nothing else, we'll be able to check it off the list of possible offenders before moving on to something more expensive.
Step one was scoring the concrete with a masonry blade..which would have been significantly less dusty with a wetsaw..

After scoring the floor with the saw, we broke the concrete out with a sledge hammer and carried it out in buckets. As you can see, we ended up making the hole bigger so that we could work around the drain a little easier. Once we removed some of the debris from the drain, it really started smelling..hence the towel plugging the hole.

This drain is what they call a "bell" style drain. We'll be replacing it with one that has an integrated trap - the trap creates a seal which prevents any sewer gas from backing up through the line and out into the room. Our challenge now is rounding up all the pieces and parts to fit this non-standard-size clay piping. More tonight..stay tuned!

First Light

I had this past Saturday morning/afternoon to myself to putt around and do pretty much whatever I wanted. Not being content to sit around (at that point), I thought I'd try my hand at making a challah. Come to find out, it was also the first night of Hanukkah..so I guess that worked out pretty well. :)

Challah is a traditional Jewish braided bread eaten on holidays and the Sabbath. According to my quick Wikipedia search: each loaf has six strands...traditionally, two loaves are served with a total of 12 strands symbolizing each of the tribes of Israel. You learn something new every day! 

It doesn't taste wildly different than any other homemade bread I've ever had, but I didn't include poppyseeds or any of the other traditional toppings. I'm liking it toasted, and it makes really good French toast..but it also looks like it's really complicated, so people assume you're a genius if you make one :)
The recipe I used was really straightforward AND taught me how to braid it - No problem!
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-challah-bread-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-181004
Shalom :)

Droooooool

I had finally exhausted my supply of leftover pasta, and decided I might carmelize an onion over my lunch break today. I'd use some for lunch, and save the rest for dinner or something else. I had my mind made up that I might like to make..

..a caramelized onion grilled cheese. It's based on one I had here in town at the bakery (which was WAY good dipped in tomato bisque)..pretty easy, too! Saute your sliced onion over medium heat until it's tender, brown, and sweet. Then I layered cheese, onions, cheese, onions, cheese between my bread and toasted warm. I used ColbyJack because I had some in the fridge..but it would be good with anything. You cannot screw up this much oniony goodness!
NOMNOMNOM

'Tis the Season

..what? You thought I was talking about something else? No! It's seed shopping season! Received my Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalogues within a day of one another :)
http://www.seedsavers.org/
http://rareseeds.com/

Party time :)

In addition to just doing things because they needed done, we had the added incentive to finish projects because I had a housewarming party this past Saturday! I invited several good friends from school, and lots of people from around town. Lots of food, lots of drinks, and lots of good people – it was a really great time J

I stayed up late the night before finishing up the window painting project in the solarium. I wanted to get those done and the grilles painted so that people could get a feel for the direction that room was headed, and I’m glad I did. A little more touch-up painting on the walls and everything was ready for deep cleaning!

2:00am aaaaand DONE!

I even received a couple new plants! Greenhouse, here we come ;)

I dusted, scrubbed, and swept EVERYTHING really well…I’m always amazed how well the house cleans up. When we were covered in insulation and plaster dust, I thought – for sure – I’d never get the house cleaned ever again. Luckily, I was wrong!

Housewarming party turned Slumber party!

This was after we had been semi-cleaning throughout the night..

Thankfully (but against my instructions) my friends were kind enough to help clean up before they left. I suppose, in retrospect, we did make kind of a mess. The true sign of a successful party.

With the landscaping stones put in place last weekend, my leftover siding sold on Craigslist, and the lot next door cleaned up, even the outside of the house was looking pretty good. The pallet the siding was shipped on was going to be used for a fire the night of the party, but we had such a good time inside, we never made it back OUTside. Sunday morning after my friends had gone, I decided I would go ahead and start the fire anyway. There were a couple other things for the pile, too…..I decided to burn everything all at once J Mwahaha!

My little fire ring before being loaded up with scrap wood.

Who knew the driveway was so big?! I'm now down to two piles left up here :)

...oops.

Otherwise, a pretty quiet day. A little more cleaning..a little movie watching..a short nap, and all was right with the world.

Tying up loose ends

Well folks, the weather is turning colder and we’re running short on daylight most days after I get off work. That means we’re having to take better advantage of our weekends..before the snow starts flying!

Finished up some of the trim pieces around the bay window that hadn't been done. Looking pretty good up front!

This past weekend was a long one, thanks to Veteran’s Day. Saturday was a busy day for a number of reasons (more on that below) and my office was closed Monday, so we were able to get quite a lot accomplished in a fairly short amount of time.

Story time: Friday night was spent doing a little grocery shopping and getting ready for my mom’s surprise party the following night. She specifically requested no party, but it was her 50^th – we HAD to! So, Friday night was prep night. Saturday, it was my job to keep her distracted from my dad and sister while they put the pieces together and got everybody rounded up. I find the best way to distract anybody is to have them haul stones for most of the day..

Get to work.

Anyway, the party was a success and the birthday girl was REALLY surprised, so that was a lot of fun. Mom and Dad have both helped me out a lot over the last year and half (..or 25, but who’s counting) so it was nice to be able to do a little something for her.

The day after the party was pretty much a lost cause. I did do a little laundry and a couple dishes, but it was mostly a day of recovery from Saturday’s festivities. I hadn’t over-indulged as much as some, but I had hauled enough of that rock to have difficulty climbing stairs! Basically anything from my butt cheeks down was feeling the burn from all of our landscaping.

This was the process: string line, spade for trenching, gloves for moving stones. woof..

I rolled the stones back out of the trench and lined it with landscaping fabric to (hopefully) keep weeds from popping through.

I'll fill this with mulch - it's going to look so good! :)

I couldn't believe how far the stone went! I thought for sure I'd run out before we got everything done, but we actually had a few little pieces left over. That's good living.

Monday saw more work inside as the temperature dropped – that meant finishing up some of the baseboard and random trim pieces that hadn’t been done before, filling holes, and touch-up painting. This detail work takes a little longer, but makes such a big difference when it’s done!

I had to have my (new) drywall patched to account for the new windows being slightly smaller than the old ones.

I also put in a special order for these grilles to give the look of divided panes - I think it makes the house look better AND is more in keeping with the details in the old pictures I was given. 

Testing out my grilles....ignore the painters tape :)

We also trimmed out the front door and finished up the baseboard in the solarium. I'm always amazed how FINISHED that baseboard makes everything look!

Never thought I'd see the day..

We had hung siding as far as we could without making some more decisions..

First, the window needed to be re-installed.

..and trimmed

We added those pieces along the top of the bay window to make siding up to the shingles easier and cleaner looking.

Progress: Day One

Paint samples and completed siding. Dad even mulched my leaves!





I never see it from over here - it looks so small!

Sunday progress. Siding: COMPLETE!
A couple little pieces of trim left to hang around the bay window and two new porch columns to set. For now though, I think I'll catch up on some sleep :)

Happy 100th!

For my 100^th post, I have for you (drum roll) MORE WINDOWS! J Specifically, the LAST windows of this renovation – the tall, skinny bay windows in the living room. A pretty fitting 100th post celebration, I'd say!

Before: single pane replacement windows that had some small issues. 

We had a lot of fresh air flowing through the house Sunday afternoon!

First window: DONE! This one took the longest - after we had a system worked out, the other two took no time at all!

Not too shabby!

All I have to say is: thank you baby Jesus for friends and family. I wouldn’t have any of this without them!

We'll trim around the new windows, install the stained glass window above the bay, set my new/old porch columns, and finish up the siding! It's almost too easy...