Back on Again

The rafters for the new roof were finished this morning and then it was a race to get the sheething and tar paper on before the rain came. Things look good. We may even get a fun little attic/storage space framed out above the hallway leading from Asher's room to the bathroom, with an entry in the kitchen. Would be nice. We have some odd shaped closets in this house but not a ton of storage... a fun suprise. It's hard not to want to just eliminate the hallway and make the kitchen bigger! When you see all this space from a different point of view it becomes very easy to see how people keep getting themselves into bigger and bigger projects.

Um, there seems to be a hole in my house

Big changes on the kitchen front today. Asher and I got to watch Timmy, Clint and Ben tearing off the roof this morning. It was a bit of a blow as we put that roof on 4 years ago, if only we had the foresight to do the roof work then (but then my bro bill would have for real kicked our ass). Anyway, it started off innocent enough, just the guys tearing things up.

A and I left for a good walk to take care of the Dawseys chickens and join play group, we returned 3.5 hours later to this:

No Roof!! The boys worked another 8 hours and I have yet to see where they got. we are expecting inclement weather over the next few days, so getting the roof taken care of is a pretty high priority- let's hope the rain stays clear of us for another 12 hours. Supposedly the new roof rafters are up. The best thing about this extra work is that the highest part of our kitchen will be 10 ft. It will really open things up and make the small space seem bigger, I am quite excited to have a vaulted ceiling.

Just back from Milo's waiting tables, hope you are all well in the world.

The Wonky Floor

As usual with this old house, things have settled. When we got ready for baby and were placing furniture in Asher's room, we ran into some problems- mainly unlevel floor preventing us from placing furniture in some place, mixed with two doors entering the room and two closet doors, didn't leave many options for where to put the dresser, I guess I should be thankful that we didn't have a choice, really how would we have made that type of decision.

I ramble pardon, when the floor came up in the kitchen and the preparations were made for the new sub floor, the laser level came out and the results of how exactly uneven things were was a bit dramatic, so the boys (really timmy, but I try to give my husband credit) did some crazy math finding the highest point of the kitchen, subtracting the actual point from level, every foot across the studs/support beams and made a bunch of shims, what they are calling them.

These shims sit ontop of the studs down there on the floor, and some vary in width from 1/2 inch to 2 inches. We were able to see into the basement for a day but that is now covered with plywood.Plywood was then glued and screwed ontop of this as the sub floor and then a second layer of plywood was put on today to ensure stability when our new tile floor is put in. Some membrane goes on there as well. Good progress here by my standards. The levelness of the floor makes the rest of the house look a bit crooked, like the doorway, but that will all work itself out, right?

More Destruction

These are a few pictures that go between the two past kitchen posts, I will change the date after the fact, so all of my dedicated readers don't miss it. Where last we left the ceiling had come down and the debris was falling out the door- really good dramatic photographing hey?

So just imagine you haven't seen bare studs and an open window yet and travel back a couple of days with me.

Here is a good view of the ceiling down.

Timmy engulfed in dust as he busted down some dry wall. Ben said it was like snow in there. I wasn't allowed in with my own camera and fetus belly, so Ben snapped photos with T's camera.

Quite a mess though. Now you can remember the photos from the last post, where the kitchen looks suprisingly clean and the tiles were on the floor.

Walls torn down

The walls came down on Thursday revealing a few different flooring choices that preceeded us. Everything was in a red, black and white color scheme with some gray in there, so I am happy that we are sticking with the houses history as we remodel. We also found a newspaper from 1926, some crazy stories and advertisements. I guess the house is a couple years older than we thought. The kitchen is part addition, leading to a wonky roof that isn't necessarily condusive to putting in skylights, so that is going to be re-done and re-pitched, which will result in more of a vaulted ceiling in the kitchen which will be really nice.

There is a big hole where the window was, all the counters and cabinets are in the garage or dumpster and the old sink is in the backyard- thinking of possibilities for a summer kitchen?

Notice cubby area, in the wall, there was a random piece of wood covering it up and then our stove and pat peoples fridges sat there, we are trying to figure out how to use the 'dead' space knowing that it will not be feasible to annex it back into the kitchen. So a future project may be accessing it through the basement stairwell or Asher's closet.

Simple Fall Decorating

Corn hanging o the door, supplies- fishing line, magnetic hooks (steel door), and corn.
My favorite that I had to wait, too long to create, embroidery floss- 2 strands about 5 feet, lots of leaves collected on a walk= a beautiful fall colored leaf garland.
Oh and of course pumpkins, just go buy some.

And continueing with my garland obsession, these gourds were 2 for 25 cents, so cheap, so I bought lots and strung them up to make a sort of wall on the porch. I love it and will do it every year. I am wondering it there is a way to preserve the gourds so I can just pack them away and pull them out every fall, and then add to it and have tons of chains. HOORAY!!

Before and a bit after

The Kitchen remodel is on day three, and things progressed fast from recognizable to complete mess. It is a bit sad to say goodby to the old, as it is a room that we modified a lot and a room that attached me to this house in the first place, I hope that we are still able to recapture what I loved in the kitchen with the new everything... Day one was getting everything out, water and gas lines capped off, stove, fridge, breakfast nook and shelves down and then the roof came in. It has been supported by a jar of quinoa for the last three months, probably actually holding up the whole ceiling for the last two weeks after some very heavy rain. Turns out that there was an actual hole in the roof, just tar paper and shingles attempting to keep water out of the kitchen, which doesn't necessarily do the trick. within 5 minutes of removing the jar the ceiling fell in, much as we expected, but still just greatful that it wasn't before we were ready for it to.

Henry's Quilt

It has been over 5 weeks since I finished this quilt. Thankfully Henry was late, to give me some more time, but then he was so late that I actually thought it was my fault for not getting this quilt done.

I started it after his due date, and got it done fairly quickly, Ben took Asher fishing one evening and I was able to get all the machine quilting done- amazing what happens when you actually use tools for what they are purposed for- 10 years to get that stinking walking foot on my machine and these are the results? Why did I wait sooooo long?

Farewell Gifts

This past week lent itself well to crafting a bit and I had a great excuse: my niece is moving to Amsterdam and she needed something to entertain her on the plane.I made a crayon roll, maybe not very age appropriate, but perhaps it will help with cleaning up afterward, but fun and easy to make.

I tried making some sewing cards- I had intended on coloring things myself but clipart and the printer won out. Thanks to the laminator, things should last awhile.

A book was fun to make, I looked through all the past pictures of the two growing up together and again the laminator came in handy. Hole punched with an easy binding. I think that we will try out making Asher some books this way.

And I tried out an I spy quilt, for her to find matches on the plane. Hopefully it keeps he occupied for some of the 8 hour flight. Plus it was awesome to use my walking foot again to quilt-- love that thing.

All About Food: Sweet Corn

There is something amazing about fresh sweet corn and here in illinois people don't seem to mess around. People go crazy throwing elbows to get to "their"ears, even though the whole cart is full and there seems to be plenty to go around. Until the Lubchansky's show up with two large bins to pack up. They pick their first ear, open it up, break it in half and give it to that son of theirs who is signing more and stating corn and begins to devour it, corn milk running down his chin.

We picked up about 80 ears of corn one weekend to put up, this is an easy one that anyone could do, you need a knife and ziplocks, some bowls and a cutting board come in handy and this is definitely a chore we prefer to do outside, so that spare table comes into good use.

Step One: Shuck the corn, don't worry about all the tassel strings, you can't get them all off, so don't try. Discard bad tips and bugs.

Step Two: Cut off kernals- this does need to be done with fresh corn, your grocery store stuff has converted its sugar to starches and therefore requires blanching, if you can open up the corn and take a bite, and it is yummy, things are still in good shape- you can also have your children do this for youStep Three: Fill your bowls with corn. It is best to use bowls that will easily allow the corn to slide off into a bag and to fill the bowl with only as many kernals that will fit in the bag.

Step Four: Fill and seal the bags, we like to make sure things lay flat, they store easier in the freezer. So don't over fill the bag, I also suck out as much air as possible to give it a vacuum seal appearence. Drop in the freezer, pull out as needed.

And it is so so good in the winter, sweet, great for some corn chowder, fantastic for enchilada casseroled or a black bean salad, just helps you relive the summer and just a bit goes a long way. We have 10 bags in the freezer for us and the business.

All about Food: Tomatoes

We are deep in the processing month that september lends itself too, and the photos have turned out well so I thought I would share:

Tomatoes

We are lucky to have growers like Jon and blue moon farm to have hundreds of pounds of tomato seconds being dropped off on our doorstep and they have been kicking our ass a bit to get canned, but we are caught up and I think done-

Step one: secure a buttload of tomatoes (We abandoned our tomato crop at the community gardens this summer, I couldn't handle park district stuff and Ben couldn't get out there enough, so good things for back ups)Step two: core and half the tomatoes, then worship your vitamix blender for its ability to liquify skins and seeds. No need to peel tomatoes in this house.

Step three: Simmer on the stove for hours. Be thankful that its not that hot to simmer the tomatoes on the stove for the next 6 hours to reduce them and get out all the added air from the blender.

Step four: Put tomato goodness in jars, pressure can and put up for winter. I think that we have at least 60+ jars currently: most to be used for food nanny meals, but still as much as we need.

With our heirloom slicers, that we do have in the side yard garden, we have enjoyed many fresh, but slicing them relatively thin and oven drying them on racks... holy yummy, they don't last long and have been a great addition on pizza's this summer and with cheese platters.

I will say that the only reason I tolerate the heat of summer is for the harvest, so putting it up for winter is really the greatest reward.

An attempt at Summarizing

Where the hell have you been? It's september already?

Let's attempt to wrap up what was my summer (and oh how happy I am that I feel fall on the way.)

First and foremost: I have been gestating, baby number two will be joining us in February. This was the last suprise I was expecting as I wrapped up my emploment at the UPD. Ben and I were not exactly planning this, were in shock for awhile not believing that there was indeed another life growing inside of me. We heard the heart beat for the second time this week, and all sounds good, time to start preparing for this addition. And boy does it take it out of you. Luckily I was able to spend plenty of time napping with Asher in my state of unemployment...

Which I took a short break from to work at the common ground food coop, which became way to overwhelming as a part time job that required 46 hours the week prior to opening, had me standing way to long at counters and sinks right at baby belly height. Ben and I quickly realized the good that has come from me quitting, that there was necessity in the decision and so I quit CGFC as well, only after all the stress seemed to culminate in me cutting my pinky with a very sharp knife while cutting peaches, requiring another trip to the emergency room (abandoning the coop on their opening day mind you when they really needed people cooking) and resulting in 7 stitches in my pinky- I'm told is a lot as it is a small finger- this is my first experience with stitches. I'll spare you the actually stiches, man are they ugly, so here is my bandaging.

Ben and I had a lovely camping trip with his parents and brother Zak and Cody. It was wonderful to get away and play in water with Asher who was so happy to have some many of his favorite people around.

Asher and I have hung out with play group, I am still trying to fit in a little bit... I am a bit wierd making new friends these days and am not really good at small talk- we are getting there, but I definitely feel awkward.

Ben and I had an amazing anniversary, 3 years celebrated at L'Etoile.

Holy cow it was amazing. I don't know that the meal can ever be recreated. Ben suprised me with a 7 course tasting already picked out, so I didn't have to think about ordering. I was sad to miss all the yummy wine B got with his tasting, but I put drops on my tongue to enjoy a bit of it. Yup, just incredible, a great anniversary. Asher stayed with my parents and went to sleep with only a little fuss...

yes we are still nursing and trying to ween, but that boy hasn't gotten the memo, so this was a big step. Also FYI nursing while pregnant is a bit draining.

I did get just a little time to craft this summer, I would have liked more, but most free time went to napping. Invitations for V & D's shower, we are still anxiously awaiting Henry's arrival... any day now, for v's sake.

And was able to finish Shane's quilt... he departs for amsterdam with my brother, sister in law and niece first week of October, so we were in a bit of a time crunch, bumper still to come.

The quilt contains my first bit of machine quilting with my walking foot, an amazing accessory. I suspect this will be a year of quilting without hand stitching, Shane still got some hand stitched stars on his.

Our Food Nanny endeaor is just going great. People sometimes approach Ben in hushed voices to ask if he is the "food nanny" he is like a superhero in the town which is amazing... we have 31 members and our goal over the next year is to have 50, so things are great!!

I am at a loss of what else to include, this morning I have woken up to yet another cool, gray, rainy day, which I could not be any happier about. Yesterday was the first day in too long that i have had no headache, nasuea or desire to nap and it was awesome!! I am ready to be fully footed in my second trimester and get that nesting energy... there is lots to do, starting with laundry and sweeping. Hope you are all well.