Sanding floors

Well, I was trying to post a picture Matt sent me of the bedroom floor, but apparently this Blogger app on my phone only wants me to post a picture of Rainy from 2 years ago.  So, here's a cute picture of her, and you'll have to trust me that the floor looks good!

Changing the Blog Format

Please don't get too annoyed. I am playing with the formatting on here so that I can hopefully make the pictures bigger and have a more interesting layout. In the meantime things may look a bit... wonky.

Now I need to fix the header. Ah, it needed to be updated anyway.

KFC -- Korean Fried Chicken

Today was our Valentine's Day. With it falling on a Monday, and knowing we would be busy on Sunday, we decided to do something special today instead. "Something special" meaning spending the day together, not feeling like we had to do anything in particular.

It actually started yesterday, with a text from Matt saying "Tomorrow night I think I'd like to find something new and interesting to cook, and then we can play a game or watch a movie. Whatever you like, my love!" I know that doesn't sound so exciting to most, but give me a complicated new recipe and the time to make it and I am thrilled. So I happily visited my favorite websites, looking for something interesting to make.

I came home to fresh flowers and a card. Matt doesn't like to buy cut flowers because they die so quickly, so he always buys me plants.

This morning, we went to breakfast at Chiggy's on Kelly St. on the recommendation of Hip and Carly. It was a great breakfast. Good food, fairly inexpensive, and we talked about the progress on the bathroom and our plans for the day. Then we drove down to Salem to my sister's salon to get Matt's hair cut and mine colored. I always think he looks so handsome with a fresh haircut.


After that, Matt was happy to be able to buy a vacuum to replace the one which was killed by plaster dust and insulation. Mainly because he could turn to me at the register and say "Happy Valentine's Day, Babe." The cashier at Sears thought it was hilarious also.

Since we were in Salem, we went to the newly renovated Market Basket. This one opened about a month ago, and it's the largest one I've seen, with a surprisingly vast array of ethnic foods and special ingrediants. We bought plantains, and chicken wings, and the makings of ceaser salads and headed home.

So, fried plantains,


Parmesan crisps with ceaser salad topping,


And twice-fried chicken with Korean gochujang (red chili paste), honey, ginger and garlic. They're like the Korean version of buffalo wings only sweeter and more complex than the American hot sauce. But seriously, the double-frying is key. I think these would have been great with any kind of sauce.


And to end the evening, I finally got Matt to watch all of Star Wars IV: A New Hope in one sitting. Or rather, one snuggling on the couch. He did sort of fall asleep 3/4 of the way through. Sigh.

The Bathroom/Bedroom Progress

We've been framed. I know, groan, right? But it was pretty darn exciting to come home on Friday and see the outline of walls and the shower stall. I couldn't take pictures until Sunday afternoon, though, because there are no lights in the room and I've been working past dark every day.

Also, why did I never before notice how gorgeous the natural light is in the bedroom?


Unfortunately it was already starting to get dark when I started taking the pictures, so I had to switch to flash mode to get the full room.

That's where my whirlpool tub is going to go, right under the window. Sigh. I cannot wait to pay a visit to Lush to spend unreasonable amounts of money on bathbombs and bubble bars.

And look! Level ceiling rafters. Hurray!

The reason I had only a little daylight left to take pictures was because I had to clear out my craft nook so that the workers can cut out the new bedroom door. It will be cut right where the closer bookshelf is. I was frantically packing up tools and papers and glue sticks and running the boxes downstairs while Matt spent two hours outside chopping up the inch and a half of ice on the driveway.

Where is my craft nook going to wind up? No idea. We still have to figure that out.

Testing the new Blogging App on my Phone

... and posting a picture of my side yard.  Yep.  That's a lot of snow.

Demolition

I am very grateful for our friends. I am so glad they like destroying things and don't mind getting dirty. Because the bedroom/bathroom renovation has begun, and it is messy, messy, work.

Goodbye, horrible grey fake wood panelling with "french crown molding."

Goodbye orange painted floor.

Goodbye weirdly shaped bedroom which we only use half of.

Goodbye sagging ceiling with the bare bulb light fixture and more "french crown molding" around the access to the attic.

Oh, Hello portrait of JFK hiding behind the paneling.

Hello, subfloor and bags upon bags of blown-in insulation.

Hello 5 bats (five! FIVE!) hibernating in the eaves. And goodbye. Please don't come back.

Thankyou Mike for bringing over rolled insulation to try to preserve some of the heat now the walls are down. And thank you Nate, Hip, Anthony, and Rick for destroying half of my second floor. If we had had the contractor do it, it would have cost us another $4000. I'm so glad you guys like demo.

Also, since I dropped my camera and broke my basic lens, we need to save every penny for a replacement. All these pictures were taken either with my cell phone or with the 55-200 zoom lens. Not ideal.

Rosemary

This rosemary plant sat on our front steps all summer long. And through the fall. In fact, it was pretty much December when I brought it inside and took several clippings to make the rosemary salt for our Christmas baskets this year. Every other plant had succombed to frostbite, and I had even stopped watering them at the end of October. Despite all this it survives.

Not just survives, but thrives, sending out all of these tiny delicate branches. Apparently it's warm enough inside that it thinks it's spring, and it's enthusiastically sending out new growth. I think I'll have to repot it soon, but for now I am just leaving it as it is, all swirly and ferny, looking like it has a serious case of bedhead. I want to give it a trim but not until the new branches have a little more firmness to them. In the meantime I took a plant stand from my parents's house and set it by the kitchen window for plenty of southern light.

Also. I accidentally bought mini biscuits the last time I bought frozen biscuits at the store. These babies are tiny, a little bigger than bite size, and so cute. This morning, since neither Matt and I were working, I made breakfast sliders with sausage and eggs.

Aren't they adorable???