• Goals for 2019

    Clean up / clean out the garage Try 10 new recipes Pickle all of the things, but specifically: bread and butter cauliflower, dill beans, something involving carrots Burn the last of the zen garden in the back yard Finish laying trim on the main floor Celebrate the remodel Find someone to share all of this…

  • Recipe: Thanksigiving Stuffing

    Because in this family, a Stove Top is something you cook on, not shove inside a bird. Stuffing (yes, stuffing, not dressing) is one of those things that’s kind of like, well, basically everything else about Thanksgiving: highly customized and open to interpretation. Disregarding the above statement, maybe your definition of Thanksgiving is what you…

  • House Update – March-August 2017 Edition

    After a crazy warm weekend in February when I took advantage of the weather and routed 600+ board-feet of lumber (no, don’t ask me how much of it’s been primed, painted, and put on walls), I decided to take advantage of the early spring weather that started a few weeks later and get some landscaping…

  • New Recipe(s): Marinades for Kebabs, Two Ways

    New Recipe(s): Marinades for Kebabs, Two Ways

    One of the nicer aspects of my job also happens to be one of my unofficial job duties: cooking for our bi-weekly team lunch meeting. It’s no secret that I love to cook, and since our office has a full kitchen and a decent-sized gas grill, I’ve got some room to play. It’s consistently one…

  • Eighteen Months (and more) Later: Life with Nest

    Eighteen Months (and more) Later: Life with Nest

    Due to what’s probably the collision of boundary-pushing architecture and city fire codes, I had some less than great experiences with smoke detectors in the condo I lived in before I got the house. The smoke detectors in the bedroom and hallway (which was right off a bathroom) went off whenever I so much as…

  • A long-overdue update – it’s been a beautiful weekend

    A long-overdue update – it’s been a beautiful weekend

    It’s not that I’ve forgotten that I have a blog with a readership of…maybe, in a good week, 1 (plus about a thousand bots)…but I may have realized that my last post to this thing is almost 18 months old. A lot has changed since then. This post isn’t meant to cover the contents of…

  • Room Complete*: Living Room

    Room Complete*: Living Room

    Two months after closing on the house, I am ready to declare the living room update complete. Here’s a couple of before shots: This room was one of the first rooms I took a paintbrush to, largely because there was no wallpaper to deal with and we could move things around with relative ease. Two…

  • Kitchen Remodel, Phase 1: Complete

    Kitchen Remodel, Phase 1: Complete

    Gather round, my children, and let me tell you the tale of a month-long saga to purchase and install a range, a microwave, and a dishwasher. First, some background. When I bought the house, I knew I wasn’t buying it for the kitchen it had, but rather the kitchen it could have, after I had…

  • And, And, And.

    This afternoon, after much procrastination, I finally finished moving myself out of the condo. My keyring is a couple of keys lighter, and I only have one garage door remote in my car now. Now that I’m down to one place to deal with, I need to sit down and map out what I want…

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