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Category Archives: House & Home
Katie’s room cleanout saga
So I forgot to mention…Katie’s room got fully cleaned out about a week ago.
We had given her chance after chance (after chance) to get it picked up even a little. No it didn’t have to be perfect…but I couldn’t even make it to her bed without stepping on who knows what so I was just D.O.N.E. done. We finally gave her the final ultimatum on a Friday night. We reminded her multiple times throughout the weekend. Reminded her she was going to lose everything if she didn’t make a dent.
She kept putting it off and putting it off. So Sunday afternoon I gave her one last chance. And when she decided that continuing to lay on the basement couch and do nothing was her best choice…it was time. I grabbed the roll of garbage bags and off I went.
There wasn’t much sorting—everything from the tops of her dressers got swept into a bag. Clothes from the floor? In a bag. Toys? Bag. She made it upstairs about three minutes behind me and I already had about two bags full.
She proceeded to sit on her bed and bawl. Not even making any move to, you know, pick anything up or put anything away.
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!” You know why. We’ve asked you to pick up your room for a month now. I reminded you all weekend and you didn’t do anything. We warned you what would happen—and you saw us do this to Owen’s room so you knew we were serious. This is happening because you made bad decisions.
Tom had been napping but all the drama woke him up, so then he started helping. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get it cleaned out. We did sort some stuff like Legos and took out a full bag of garbage. We found a pile of dishes. Innumerable candy wrappers. Clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes. And under everything? Horrible stains on the carpet that she had NO CLUE what it was from.
So this is about what it looked like when we were done. Bed, dressers, desk, chair, mirror, bookshelf with books, and some toys.
I wanted to take out more but I was mentally and physically exhausted. She was not happy that she lost her nightlight and Alexa. I told her if she had been that worried about it, she should have picked it up.
And then, for as upset as she was, after we were done, she was downstairs laughing and having fun with Owen. Like nothing ever happened.
Fast forward to the next day and I don’t remember exactly what triggered it, but I’m sure it was a combination of her sassy I-can’t-believe-she’s-not-a-teenager mouth and more bad behavior… after I spent the entire day trying to get those unknown stains up and failing…but I went up again and removed even more stuff. She lost the makeup mirror, most of her books, more toys, and anything that was on the floor (you thought she’d have learned that lesson, but no).
In the end, I had taken out about the equivalent of 10 garbage bags. Here it all is stacked in the guest room.
And you know what? She really doesn’t give two craps about any of it. She hasn’t asked for any of it back…except for her Alexa.
She knows why she lost it. She knows she has to earn it back.
I have made her do all the laundry we pulled out—but it all goes back in the guest room (she was allowed to pick two pieces per load to keep).
We’ve told her she can earn some other things back but she hasn’t even cared enough to attempt that. This includes Christmas presents she just got!
Of course her job is to keep her room picked up now—which shouldn’t be hard because it’s literally empty, right? Ha. She still manages to have her floor almost covered every day.
So we have no idea what’s going to happen. Do we just really get rid of everything? Make her sort through it? Make her earn stuff back?
Sigh.
So THERE’S the other half of our basement…
We opened up the panel on the basement wall and HOLY CRAP! There’s the rest of our basement! Why oh why wouldn’t the builder have just made this all actual usable space instead of a crawl space?! It would literally double the size of the basement! I mean, we knew it was a small basement for the footprint of the house but seeing it really just blows your mind. If only it was cheap to excavate. HAHAHAHAHA!!
Tom will eventually put some flooring down so we can put some shelves in there. I’m not quite sure what we’ll be storing in there (since it has to fit through the opening plus we have to climb in) but I’m sure we’ll find something.
I’ll make an exception.
My new glasses aren’t technically wine glasses but I’ll make an exception.
And here’s an artistic shot of Tom’s chai martini.
It took just 13 months!
Look what I turned over tonight on a run to Sam’s Club?! That’s what a pandemic will do.
Did someone say more rum punch?
We went over to Anna and David’s for Christmas Day dinner. And another batch of Dave’s amazing Trinidadian rum punch.
Daaaaamn. I guess I do like rum. Merry Christmas!
Frontera in my own kitchen!
We did a Frontera pickup today from Dwell Social. It’s a bit more prep than just dining at a restaurant, but we didn’t have to drive to Chicago, so it’s a win. This photo is missing most of the main courses but trust me, it was all there.
Short Rib Enchiladas
Six homemade heirloom corn tortillas, each wrapped around braised Creekstone Farms beef short rib, roasted local gold potatoes, tomato-guajillo chile sauce, Samuel’s artisan Jack cheese. Served with black beans and chocolate-pecan pie bars for dessert.
Tacos al Carbon
Wood-grilled Creekstone skirt steak and Gunthorp Farms chicken breast along with everything you need to make fabulous tacos: guacamole, roasted poblano rajas, black beans, classic Gulf-style rice, grilled knob onions, shishito peppers, two salsas and handmade tortillas with heirloom corn from Oaxaca, Mexico. Finish off with Mexican vanilla flan for a sweet ending.
Guacamole and Chips
Mashed Michoacán avocados, local Mighty Vine tomato, serrano chile, cilantro, lime. House-made tortillas chips served with red three chile salsa & green roasted tomatillo salsa.
Queso Fundido
Samuel’s artisanal Jack cheese, garlicky roasted peppers, and homemade chorizo served with heirloom corn tortillas.
BAR SÓTANO CRISPY TLAYUDA (TOSTADA) STARTERS
Six crispy Oaxacan tlayudas (rustic tostadas) with 2 toppings:
- Avocado Mash (luxurious Michoacan avocado, roasted poblano, pomegranate, fresco cheese).
- Local Corn Esquites (serrano chile, epazote, chintextle crema, queso fresco).
The tree that friends built.
I wasn’t sure what color scheme I wanted to do with my tree. My friend Britt has a gorgeous red/gold/silver tree that I thought about trying to duplicate…
…but when I went to Hobby Lobby with Anna (to get some clearance Christmas decorations and (hopefully) ornaments) they had nothing with color that I liked. I did get a few generic items like silver deer heads and neutral burlap balls—as a start.
And then.
Anna said she had a whole bucket of unbreakable purple ornaments I could have. I had thought about purple but didn’t really want a PURRRPLE tree. But as soon as she showed them to me I knew they were perfect. They are in the dusty lilac plum family.
So now I need to find some bigger ornaments in those colors. And get some ribbon (right now we’re just testing it out with a few lengths Anna had on hand). And maybe add some snowflakes or icicles…
So this is what happens when I try to go to bed early like a normal person.
10:30 Lights out, phone off.
10:40 Maggie leaves room obnoxiously loud.
10:45 Maggie continues to be loud in the hallway so I get up to check on her in case she’s stuck in her sweater. Can’t see her.
10:50 Back in bed, I notice Tom’s CPAP is making horrible sounds and debate waking him up.
10:55 Maggie is scratching obnoxiously somewhere and…banging against a door?! I get up and find her and take her sweater off just in case.
11:00 Back in bed once again, I hear strange thumps downstairs.
11:05 I hear more strange noises. I try to ignore them.
11:10 I hear more strange noises so get up. Maggie wants to go outside.
11:15 Bella starts meowing for food because I’m standing in the kitchen.
11:20 I feed Bella and Maggie.
11:25 I finally get back into bed
11:30 I’m wide awake but tired because I took melatonin an hour ago…
So we did a thing today. Can you see them?
Tom really wanted to go solar once we got our forever home so did ALLLL the research this summer and today was finally install day! Now we just have to wait for the inspection and the switch to be flipped! Eventually we will get another row (at least) but since this is a new house to us and we don’t have enough usage history, they would only let us get this many.
We will own the panels outright so we will take out a loan for them, but with all the rebates and incentives, our total bill (for a few years) will be the same as if we didn’t have solar. So after a few years we’ll see the benefits!
After the wine, this seemed appropriate for dinner.
It’s time y’all. A FULL glass.
Look what I found in some empty drawers.
Not only is Katie’s room a disgusting mess, she has started filling other drawers in the house. OH HELL NO.
(These are in the hallways upstairs. I’m not quite sure what’s going in them yet—I’m thinking craft supplies—but I sure as hell know it’s not more of her crap!)
I’ll take chocolate over Legos!
The kids get a Lego advent calendar. We get good chocolate. (And cheese!)
These are not even close to Durkee fried onions.
A totally inferior substitute to be sure. I will never cheap out again.
First broken ornament.
Tom accidentally knocked it off the tree when he was trying to fix something for me so I can’t even be upset!
This just means we have to go back to Mackinac Island. Hopefully this coming summer?!
I love Christmas but it’s overwhelming this year.
I love decorating for Christmas but the first year in a new place is always hardest because you don’t already know where everything goes and it takes longer to figure everything out.
Which wall do these kid Christmas paintings go on? Or do they lean on a shelf? Or do we not put them up this year?
What wreath fits on the door? Oh, this hanger won’t work but we can’t find the magnet. And that wreath is too thick for the storm door so where could it go instead?
And oh wait. We don’t really have a mantle like we’ve always had so my favorite mantle clips (that I bought new last year) TOTALLY won’t work.
And we don’t have spindles on our stairwell so no garland like I love. So how and where do we divvy up the four strands? Well we can put these here but we need to add another so now we have one left. If we put it there we need another (which means a trip to Costco and $30). Keep thinking.
And on and on. So after I unpacked some things…I had a glass of wine.
Before and after, two trees.
We have plenty of room for TWO trees this year…so you can bet your butt I’m doing it!! A friend knew we didn’t have an artificial tree anymore so found one for me and then I snagged one from Amazon Vine!
I had my doubts but love how this tree turned out! My friend Britt helped me design it using a bunch of random fake berries, branches, pinecones, etc. that I had originally intended for topiary-type decorations—along with a specific selection of color-matching ornaments from our collection.
Buuuuuuut it’s just a bit small for the room (YOU THINK?!) so we are hoping to find at least a 9′ tree, if not maybe a 12′ tree on clearance after Christmas. I finally have the space for a huge tree (my bucket list!) so I’m gonna do it.
Tree number two was planned to be the more kid-friendly tree with all of our fun ornaments and crazy lights. It’s definitely not the best fake tree but once you get it zhuzhed with lights and ornaments it’s fine.
The lights are actually insane LED lights with like 12 colors that chase and flash and race and it can be quite anxiety-inducing. The kids love it (and it is cool) but when I get to pick it’s a calm purple.
Just a little home project.
Tom said he wanted to cut some branches or trees down so imagine my surprise when I look out and see the entire back yard covered!
Needless to say we have firewood again! (Both of these bins were empty.)
Burning some of it, even though it wasn’t warm enough to sit out and enjoy it.
Late night food delivery!
Friendship means Thanksgiving dinner plate leftovers delivery at 10:30pm because we had deep dish pizza today. (And we had had a game night with a bunch of us!)
Nothing says Thanksgiving like deep dish pizza!
We were going to have dinner with Anna and David but Covid kinda put a stop to that…and since the kids don’t really like any typical Thanksgiving fare, we opted against all the work and Tom made pizza (and I made mozzarella bread balls)! It was yummy!
Aaaaaand what would Thanksgiving be without…a chocolate martini…?!
The deck is fixed!
Tom worked on it a bunch of hours yesterday and put the finishing touches on this morning. It’s not perfect but it’s way more then I expected!
I knew my Monday was going too well.
A friend repotted some aloe babies for me. I totally spaced on the drive home and forgot I set it on the center console. I didn’t stop fast, but it was obviously unstable. My poor recently detailed car…
It took about 20 minutes to clean the car and then I did repot it and it’s doing fine.
It’s a wee bit windy today.
So this just happened. The chair was already tipped over in preparation for an expected storm last week and we just hadn’t put it back yet (so that was good) but we certainly didn’t expect this.
We know we need to replace the deck eventually but it’s not in the budget right now…so it will be a quick janky fix to last through the winter.
A fix for acorn squash!
I’m not a huge acorn squash fan so I figure butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and walnuts oughta fix it.
It’s a holiday miracle!
Just kidding—but to be able to park in the garage by the time it starts snowing was one of my few requests when we bought this house. And Tom came through today.
Over the last 20 years the only times my car (either car, frankly) was garaged was when a hurricane was coming through and we moved enough crap to get one car protected…or for a 2-minute photo opportunity when the garage was briefly empty.
I wish I would have been recording the kids when they saw it because it was hilarious—both of their eyes got really wide in disbelief. Because they’ve literally never experienced it.
We updated the half bath!
So we did a few minor updates to the half bath—mostly courtesy of Amazon Vine—new mirror, lights, and shelves plus we bought a toilet paper holder and towel rack (pipes to match the shelves). I absolutely love it.
It’s slowly coming together.
Everything is still a work in progress and it’s generally a cluttered mess but once in awhile were pick everything up. Today was that day.
This is just a temporary kitchen table until we move things around (or find the perfect table for the space). We did try an Ikea table and chairs but didn’t like it so returned it. That table that Tom built fits perfectly there but we also kind of wanted to use it in the office…but the office isn’t anywhere near being finished so for now the table stays.
This area is also temporary because we really want the secretary to go here…after we get it redone (I want to paint it). But I’m also thinking of a really neat birch bench I’ve seen that Tom can duplicate. But for the time being, we’ve repurposed random stuff.
This will be our H wall but for now… it’s an H buffet.
We reconfigured the couch back to its normal position (2×2 instead of 1×3) to test it out and make room for the Christmas tree which is going to go in that far corner. And we got that rug awhile back to warm up the space a bit.
Some artwork and stuff is going up on the walls (and you can see my lighted birch tree!). We also have some big ideas…I can’t wait to do it and show you! My friend and neighbor has a great eye for design and is planning on helping me pull the house together.
But we needed a shelf to put some stuff on because we really don’t have that much usable wall space. I found this at HomeGoods and it was perfect. I’m not sure where it will go when the tree is there but…we’ll figure it out.
This little stuff will drive me mad.
Anyone want to guess how long this crap was on the stairs? Even after we told Katie to take care of it. DAYS. It’s exhausting to try and deal with this crap every. single. day. Over and over.
A new garage fridge!
Looong story short the house fridge died so we initiated a warranty claim. They couldn’t fix it so they cut us a check for $2k. We had already moved our old fridge from the garage to the house so we did have a working fridge… but we needed to decide if we were just going to buy a garage fridge or if we should get a brand new fridge for the house and put ours back in the garage.
It would obviously be cheaper to just buy a garage fridge, but even the cheapest new one was $500 and it was small. We looked at the local sales forums and there wasn’t much. We only considered buying a brand new house fridge because ours is getting a little old (8) and it would be our luck that it would die shortly after spending money on something else.
But in the end we lucked into a special order (and dented) return at Lowe’s. It’s a restaurant-type cooler—no freezer, which is fine since we have the full upright. Plus Tom’s military discount. Plus a rebate. So now we have leftover for our dishwasher if they come back in stock and go on sale!
