This Is Me #7

I just got in for the day.  I started off at my house.  Worked there for a few hours. Got home.  Showered.  Tried to find my maxi dress, but couldn't and had to come up with an alternative.  Decided that if I was going to wear sandals I had to paint my toe nails.  Painted my toes mint green.  With my sandals on, I might add.  I didn't get a lick of nail polish on my dainty kicks.  I know. I rock. :)  Then we went out to dinner to celebrate my brother's engagement.  This was the first time we got to meet his fiance's family, and they are really great.  I'm so glad we got acquainted.  I'm looking forward to more time spent getting to know them.  We ate at this amazing restaurant called Half Moon.  They specialize in game meat.  I ate kangaroo meat, elk chili, venison sausage, and fantastic crab nachos.  If you live anywhere near kennet square, PA make reservations today!  Well ya know, if your into eating meat, especially exotic meat.  Though they do offer a veggie burger and a regular cow burger.  

Anyway onto my saturday series This Is Me.  

#1.  I eat meat.  And like it.  I tried out the vegetarian thing for a couple years, but meat just fills me in a way other foods just don't.  I don't think it's a good idea for me to eat meat everyday with every meal, but it is good to have in moderation.  Ideally I wish I could only eat meat I grew myself.  I know that's a tall order, and killing my beloved wilbur would be hard, but I'd know exactly what kind of life that pig had lived, and what went into that nutritious meat that would fill me for months.  

#2.  The idea of meeting new people terrifies me, but I always leave the encounters happier for having done so.  

#3.  I hate talking on the phone.  When it comes to calling people/companies, if I can foist it off on Aaron, I'll try.  So I'm sorry if you were hoping for a phone call.  I'd really love to talk.  Just not on the phone.  Though I should mention I worked in collections on two separate occasions.  I hated the phone before the collection gig.  I took the job in the hopes it would get me less panicked about the idea of picking up the phone and dialing someone's number.  No such luck, but I did learn what NOT to do with debt.  

#4.  I hate sleeping in past 7:30, and if I'm still in my pjs come nine I feel like I've wasted the whole day.  

#5.  I try to put photos first with my blog, but sometimes my camera and I need a break.  Making photos a priority means that I usually take at least twenty photos a day, but a good day is closer to a few hundred.  Back when people only used film, a famous photographer said he could go through ten rolls of 36 frames before ever taking a good photo.  After days of clicking the shutter that part of my brain needs a break to rewind.  Thus no photos today.  

I'm speaking gibberish, and I'm sleepy.  Plus it's almost too late for this to be considered a saturday post.  Goodnight, and happy DIYing, chris.  

Fun Friday Fasinations #14

#1.  My new home is covered in wood paneling.  So I've been thinking a contemporary Scandinavian design aesthetic might be a good way to modernize all the wood.  While looking for some photo inspiration I found this amazing blue ceiling over on Design Shuffle.  The room glows.  It's so inviting I just want to lounge around and read a book in this room.  

#2.  Love the green sinks and orange faucets.  Perfect with all the black and white tiling.  This room is from Aprill Aprill, it's in Swedish.  I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how I could do this look in my house.  Would it be as powerful with just one sink?  

#3.  Fantastic coffee table make-over from We Can Re-Do It.  Love her use of colors and shapes.  

#4.  These curtain rods from Selina Lake's photos for Byron & Byron are amazing.  The colors!  The shapes and texture of the flowers!  I'm thinking that maybe I can DIY my own version of these with antique knobs and thick dowels.  

#5.  I've been hanging out in jeans and t-shirts working on the house lately, and I miss dressing up and feeling pretty.  I haven't taken any cute outfit photos in ages.  This photo from I Love You To The Moon is beyond cute.  Totally inspires me to try my hand at more interesting outfit photos.  Plus this cutie definitely makes me want to cut my hair short on one side again.  

#6.  I love little fun tattoos, and this cat tattoo is perfect.  This model also has a cute lil' giraffe tattoo on her ribs too.  Photo found on Because I'm Addicted.  

Happy Friday, and happy DIYing folks, chris!

Tropical Creamsicle Smoothie

Today wasn't that productive, and I needed something cool and creamy to soothe my nerves when I got home.  This is a tasty kid friendly drink for this week's Thirsty Thursday.  I made a yummy Tropical Creamsicle Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- half a banana

- half a kiwi

-  3 tablespoons of frozen orange juice concentrate

- 4 heaping tablespoons of cool whip

- 1/4 cup milk

Blend everything together in a blender, and it is ready to be served.  If it's too thick you can add more milk.  It tasted similar to an orange creamsicle from Orange Julius, but wasn't overly orangey like some can be.  The banana balanced out the strong flavor of the citric acid.  Perfect drink for all this hot weather. 

While enjoying my tasty treat I discovered we have a thief.  Squirrels have been stealing our tomatoes before we are able to enjoy them!  I was really looking forward to this plump cherokee purple that was getting close to being ripe enough to pick.   This guy had a twin, but the squirrel ate half of it, and I threw it in the sea of english ivy in a burst of anger.  

Lil' jerks!  Protect yo' tomatoes from those rascally bandits!  Have a lovely thursday, and happy DIYing, chris.

Moving Upstairs

As I promised yesterday here are some photos of the upstair half of my home.  Starting off with the girl's bedroom.  It's pink, and the door says "Lisa's".  

Here is a detail shot of the creepy little attic door.  If the little door isn't creepy enough, that little girl drawing should do the trick.

This is the light switch, also a bit creepy.  Plus why did this girl have three (one not shown) locks on her door?  

The upstairs bathroom.  

The blue bedroom.  The downstairs bedroom had this same paneling in it, but we took it down.  

Ick, it was soooo hot today.  We worked for a couple hours taking down the shoe molding, but we were sweating buckets, so we decided to make it a short work day.  When I got home I was too beat to do anything but snack and nap. Maybe I'll hang out in the air conditioning, watch some movies, and paint my fingernails.  Hope ya'll are having a lovely Wednesday, and happy DIYing, chris.   

Working At It Again.

Back at the workhorse again.  Aaron removed all the large trash from the house yesterday, so today I took some photos of how the house is looking.  First here is a reminder of how the living room originally looked.  Awesome carpet right?  

This is how it is currently looking.  We finished removing the carpet (the easy part), then we spent hours scraping at the padding that had became one with the floor beneath, and removing staples along with the tack strips.  I still have some scrapping to do in front of the bathroom.  Then it will be time to rent a floor sander.  I can't wait to see how these floors polish up.  

This is the downstairs bathroom.  Behind the green curtain on the left is a large standing shower.  You can also see just how grimy the walls are here.  Look on the doorframe to the left.  Everywhere in this house around hand height the paint has been worn down on the walls.   I'm willing to be the old lady who lived here previously spent very little time cleaning in her last decade of life.  

This is the downstairs bedroom.  I've been spending the most time working on this room so far.  It used to have wood paneling in it, but my stepdad helped take that down.  My mom helped me remove the drywall and insulation from the two exterior walls.  Today I spent the day vacuuming and scrubbing this room down.  The floor is still a bit wet in these photos from me mopping.  We want to flash and insulate the windows better, and the walls.  Hopefully we will be able to do a better job keeping moisture from getting in than the previous owner did.  

This is the dining room.  We were storing the trash in here, and now it's the tool storage area.  For now we are just going to give the room a light sanding.  Clean the heck out of it, then cover everything in paint.  I definitely need to think about doing something with that hanging light.  I'll try giving it a makeover, and see how that goes, but it might just get replaced.  Currently half the times Aaron walks through this room he runs his head smack into it.  We don't currently own a dining room table, so this room might not get used much.  Buying a dining table isn't really a priority,  right now.  Though we have been pricing some fun tables at the local used furniture joints.  Can you tell I'm excited to get to the decorating part.  

This is the kitchen.  It's a great size, just a bit awkward.  This is another room we will be scrubbing down, coating in paint, and then it will be good to go.  Someday we'll give this guy a complete makeover.  It will be super fun to make this our own style.  

Here are the stairs.  Don't they look awesome?  I was so pleased there was nothing wrong with them under that carpet.  I was totally expecting to spend hours scrubbing away.  

And on that happy note I'm going to go!  I'll share the upstairs tomorrow.  Oh by the way we are having another heat wave in my neck of the woods.  I was working in 100º heat with no A/C or fan on today!  We have A/C, but I didn't want to suck up all the nasty dust I was knocking about today.   I've been doing a good job keeping myself hydrated, and a couple times today I even thought, "a hundred degrees isn't so bad.  I can totally handle this".  I must be going crazy.  Hope you're keeping cool in all this heat, and happy DIYing, chris.  

Zucchini Bake with Feta and Fresh Thyme

We were recently given a few giant zucchini, and I trolled the internet looking for some fun recipes.  I came up with this Zucchini Bake with Feta and Thyme from Kalyn's Kitchen.  We had most of the ingredients in the house, so I had to give this one a try for tonight's dinner.

Ingredients:

- 8 cups zucchini

- 1 tablespoon of garlic

- 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup crumbled feta

- 2 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese

- 1/3 cup sour cream

- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Heat the oven to 375ºF.  My mom helped me out, and chopped up all the zucchini after washing it off.  We used about eight cups, and threw in a yellow squash to add some variety to the mix.  

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.  Add the garlic and fresh thyme to the pan, keep the heat on medium, and be sure not to burn the garlic.  It cooks up fast, so keep your eyes on the pan.  

Toss in the zucchini and cook for about four minutes, or until they are just softening up. 

While the zucchini is cooking mix together the eggs, feta, parmesan cheese, sour cream, and lemon juice.  

When the zucchini is ready layer half into an oven safe 2 quart dish.  Then add a layer of the egg-cheese mixture.  Spoon the rest of the zucchini on top, and cover with the rest of the creamy mixture.  

Add a handful of feta and parmesan cheese to the top with some freshly ground black pepper, and pop into the oven for 40 - 45 minutes.  

I served it with some ham, and a creamy tomato pasta dish.  It was tasty.  A great way to cook zucchini, and so easy too.  But maybe I'm biassed since I think anything with cheese is good.  Hope you're having a great Nom Nom Monday, and happy DIYing, chris!

House Update

I thought about bringing my camera to the house today.  I even got it into one of my parent's vehicles, but I never took it out of the car.  I'm not thrilled with the idea of taking the camera into the dirty house, there just isn't a good place to put it or the bag down right now.  My mom has an iPhone, so she snapped a few pics.  I'll share some to show what I've been working my butt off on.  Ha!  I hope it works off a little bit of my thighs.  :)  

I've spent the most time removing padding that stuck to the hardwood floor in the living room.  I still have a little bit to remove, and my step-dad is letting us borrow an awesome tool.  It's basically a battery operated handheld scrapper.  Way faster then doing it by hand.  Wish I knew about it sooner!  I was really worried the same padding that stuck to the living room floor would be under the carpet on the stairs.  I put off ripping it up, but I finally had to see what was under it.  We really lucked out that it was not that horrible green padding.  When I first saw it was yellow I got a second wind I was so excited.  

No after pictures yet, but the stairs look great.  I was so pleased when I tore off that carpeting.  It was more time consuming removing all the tact strips and staples then the carpet and padding on the stairs.  

We also decided that it would be a good idea to remove the paneling at least from the room we want to be our bedroom.  That way when we do get around to removing the paneling around the rest of the home we wont loose our bedroom.  My step-dad, Andy helped with that part while I was working on the stairs.  My mom was working on the floor, and Aaron was at work.  All so busy, busy, busy.  Since Aaron is working everyday I'm super thankful my parents are able and willing to help.  They've been fantastic.  I'm so lucky to have such awesome parents.  :)    

Sorry I don't have more photos.  I'm extra tired!  I have to go back to work tomorrow.  Not work on the house, but work work.  With a paycheck.  Which is good.  Money is helpful, but I sure would like to finish up the work on the house.  I'm excited to be able to get everything done, and be able to move in.  Soon enough.  All within due time, right?  

Happy DIYing, chris.