Superbase

This weekend was the last I’ll see of the dogs for a while. The parents made it back from Texas late Friday night, and took the dogs Saturday afternoon. I took lunch over to their place and we got a game plan for the weekend.

My little carpentry project last weekend: lining the closet with wood, hanging shelves, and painting. One or two more coats should do it..the roommate got antsy to move her things back in..

Dad and I decided we’d like to get started hanging the baseboard. And while the thought was nice, the execution was going to drive me crazy.

For a while now, every time I’ve gone to look for something it has miraculously gone missing... either because I’m a crazy person or because everyone puts things in a different place when they’re done. So, rather than wander the house for an hour looking for tape measures and things like that, we decided to clean and organize the garage as it has needed it for quite a while.

You can tell we cleaned, right?

Believe me, it's so much better than it was!

We finished up with that project and had dinner at my place. Take-out = no dishes.

Sunday morning, I got the chance to work on my surround sound system a bit. I ordered a system through our local Radio Shack and it came in! I started putzing around with it Friday on my lunch break, but quickly decided that I was probably going to need to focus on this project for longer than the extra 25 minutes I had at the time. In addition to the speakers, I bought a kit that will mount each unit to the ceiling and orient the speakers so the sound hits me in the teeth while I’m sitting on the couch J

Tiny rear surround speaker. It rocks :)

We had computer speakers rigged up to the TV for sound. Shouldn't need those anymore!

Dad stopped over just in time to lend a hand with this project and it went together pretty smoothly.

After that, we got to work on the baseboard. After messing with the table saw for a bit, we got to work and got quite a bit done considering we were sort of learning as we went along.

This is what we were up against..

Because the floors slope toward the front of the house (remember, my “greenhouse” was originally a porch.. and the floor still sheds water!), we thought for a while about the best way to hang the baseboard. I decided that I’d like the trim to be at the same level all the way through the house. Whether that’s the easy way to do it or the hard way, I don’t know.. Anyway, I bought 8” and 10” baseboard so that we would have plenty of excess board when scribing it to the variations in the floor.

We still need to lay some quarter-round along the bottom to hide any gaps, but it already looks so much better!

We got to the point where we’ll have to switch over to the 10” boards before calling it a night. More work on this tonight, I imagine.

One corner hung, waiting for holes to be filled and sanded. See the need for quarter-round here?

And you can see the floor sinking slightly here. The closer you get to the front door, the more the floor drops. We've got taller boards to make up the difference.

As I write this, Dad is on his way to the store to pick up materials for cabinet-making! We measured everything before he left for Texas, and once the baseboard is hung, we should have room in the garage to build a few boxes. Pictures and posts to follow…wish us luck! J

This is what the door/drawer fronts should look like (we hope!) when done. They'll be painted the same white as the trim, door jambs, and fireplace brick. Again, wish us luck :)

Did I Mention I had Roommates?

So, in one of my last updates I talked about my new roommates. Since that time, I’ve added two more..dogs.

They have decided that anywhere I go, they go.

Roz seems happy about it.

That’s right, in a matter of a couple weeks my house went from just me – all by my lonesome, doing whatever I wanted – to having a female roommate, a cat, and two yappy little dogs. Animal House.

The dogs are from my parents’ house. The parents took a Spring Break trip to Texas with a couple friends and I figured watching the dogs was the least I could do given that they gave up most of last summer and the better part of a years-worth of weekends to help me put my house back together. So far the dog-watching has been alright.

That’s not to say it hasn’t come without ANY hiccups, though.

Of course, there was the mandatory marking of the territory upon entering a new place. Luckily the wood floors wipe clean easily enough. There’s also the incessant click-clacking of dog claws on the hardwood, which is something to get used to. Watching them run around and slide on the wood floors is kind of funny, though. J

Then there was the matter of the cat. Apparently cats and dogs don’t get along?

I thought this would work well, being the naïve young man I sometimes am. Charlie the cat has lived with a dog before, and Tripp (the darker black dog) has lived with a cat before. Piece of cake, I thought.

Wrong.

Tripp and Charlie detest each other.. It might have something to do with Tripp peeing in Charlie’s food bowl, but I’m not sure.

Roz, our old, deaf dog is just along for the ride. She, very likely, doesn’t know where she is, nor does she seem to care. As long as the Milk Bones keep coming, she’s a happy camper.

Coming home to let the dogs out did cut our St. Patrick’s Day plans a bit short. We walked home only to let them relieve themselves and ended up taking a five hour nap. Oops. J It was fun up to that point though!

Maybe just one more before bed..

And, because I don’t have stunning progress pictures for you just yet, I took a picture of dinner from Monday night. I will call it “Cleaning out the Fridge Risotto” It’s what you make when you want risotto but only have four carrots, a partial bag of spinach, and some Parmesan cheese in the fridge.

"Cleaning out the Fridge Risotto" made a nice big dinner and a couple lunches. Tasty!

It was delicious. But it’s still time for grocery shopping.

Chicken Update

Oh my God, you guys..

This chicken was the best f-ing chicken I’ve ever had. No exaggeration.

I had stored her in the freezer after buying her because I didn’t know when I’d have time to make a full-on chicken dinner. I pulled it out and stuck it in the fridge to defrost Friday..and it didn’t thaw. At all. So, I made my brine and figured I’d let her thaw in the brine. When she’s ready, I’ll roast. Fast forward two days…

Chicken taking a brine bath.

The brine solution was really simple. I sautéed a chopped white onion in a pot with a few carrots and whole peppercorns – the heat makes the pepper flavor a little more intense. Once the onions and carrots had a chance to brown just a bit, add a clove or two of garlic and heat. I then added maybe ½ a cup of dry white wine to deglaze the bottom of the pot and add more flavor.

I let the wine cook down a bit until it was more concentrated in color and flavor, then I added ¼ cup of sugar, and maybe 1/3 – ½ cup of salt and a bay leaf. Pour in a few cups of water – just enough that it will cover (or mostly cover) the chicken when you put the chicken in the pot. Boil this mixture until the sugar and salt have dissolved and the flavors have been distributed throughout the solution. Let cool to room temperature, add your chicken to the pot, and cover. Let the chicken soak in this solution for a couple hours, overnight, or for two days because you’re painting baseboard in the garage and shopping for kitchen cabinets.

Monday night, I pulled the chicken out of its brine to make sure it wasn’t still freaking frozen. Not only was it not frozen, but the little bird smelled awesome! Always a good sign. A note here: don’t be discouraged or freaked out when your brine smells awful as you’re making it. It smells better when it’s not cooking, and it will make your bird taste great.

Pat the skin dry with a paper towel, drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper the chicken inside and out. I then roasted the little gal at 375F for just under an hour – the skin was crispy and brown, and the juices at the leg joint ran clear when pierced with a knife.

In the activity of preparing the chicken, I had totally forgotten to make anything else to go with it. You know..to balance the meal. Vegetables and shit.



Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Then I remembered I had more wine. Problem solved!

No, I'm not dead.

I’m just a really bad updater.

But I’ve been busy!

Not only did I have my first (birthday!) party in the house, but I’ve welcomed two new roommates..one of whom is a cat.

A house-warming palm! And my giganto aloe..I told you I was turning this into a greehouse!

The birthday party was really great. 20-25 people..just big enough that we could have a dance party in the living room, and small enough that I got to talk to everyone and thank them for coming J It was also just a really good excuse to see people I haven’t seen in a while. Some of my best friends made the trip from Cedar Rapids or Des Moines just for the night..and I was so glad to have them! Everybody gets so busy that we don’t always take the time to hop in the car and go see one another on the weekends.

Wal-Mart plants on the window ledge in the dining room.

It was also pretty cool because I invited a bunch of people that I like, but didn’t necessarily know all that well outside of work or the occasional run-in. By the end of the night, I think everyone had met somebody new and become closer to people they hadn’t known as well before. Mission: Accomplished.

Lots of compliments on the house – especially the light fixtures. It made me feel like all the work we’ve been doing has really paid off (not that having a roof over my head wasn’t payment enough, but you get the idea).

My new (old) cupboard in the dining room! It's currently holding every dish, cup, fork and spoon I own..in addition to displaying all my moonshinin' stuff on top.
Disclosure: I don't actually make my own booze. I bought this because I thought it looked cool. Though, after watching "Moonshiners" last weekend, I think I might like to try it one day :)

The roommate thing has been in the works for a couple weeks. I didn’t say anything because I have this tendency to say things with regard to the house that don’t materialize.. (i.e. I’m moving in THIS WEEKEND!!  ..three months later). I thought pretty hard about it, and decided that it would probably be alright, even though I really like my alone time.

From the laundry, looking through the kitchen into the dining room (with more pieces of the whiskey still) and the living room beyond.

Granted, it’s only been a little while; but, so far, I think things are going well. The cat is actually providing a valuable service by killing any spiders it sees roaming the floor, and the roommate Swiffers said floor almost every day before I get home from work. It’s apparently a cat-hair-related Swiffering, but it’s a Swiffering nonetheless.

The cat-roommate is entirely against everything I have ever said I would do. Ever. I am not a cat person and don’t know that I ever truly will be. But, this cat comes with my friend who comes with a few hundred dollars a month in rent. Which is nice. Also, the aforementioned spider-killing is reassuring. As long as I stay on his good side, Charlie the cat will patrol the house for movement.

Charlie the Spider Slayer. I caught him between yawns..it's been another rough afternoon.

That said: if he pees outside his litter box, I’m sending him to “the farm” where he can “play with the other cats.”

Progress has slowed slightly since the roommate moved in. Helping her move in and then re-situating everything in the kitchen and bathroom took some time. But, this past weekend we got back after it and finishing routing, sanding, and painting the baseboard.

8 & 10" baseboard routed, sanded, and painted. Boom.

This has been a pretty cool project, actually. I was dreading it because I don’t know how to run the router. I tried two boards: the first was fine; the second looked like cooked bacon…a little wavy. Luckily, the former Roommates spent a good chunk of the weekend over here in the garage and we got it knocked out.

Now to hang it and finish it with quarter round. Then on to a new project!

I saw a version of this on another blog: using a painters canvas dropcloth as a curtain. I'll hang it from the 1/2" conduit and have a custom, made-to-fit system for my baywindow. Total cost: $18. I like the color and texture of this stuff.. More to come!

Tonights dinner: I've had this chicken soaking in a brine overnight (all the onions and carrots have sunk to the bottom)..I'll let you know how it tastes. By the way, those are peppercorns...just so you know! ;)