...there's a good chance we're grumpy. Not what one might expect, I know. The winds picked up last night something fierce! And "fierce" might be an understatement. We are eager for our home to be habitable, as the single-wide trailer is not too immune to wind. Being set an angle - NW to SE, it catches the wind in a terrible way, and all night the rocking, the flexing of a metal roof and siding and skirting, the shuddering. Even the blinds were clacking against the walls and window with the gusts. Needless to say, not our best night of sleep.
This morning I could not be soothed, just had to get up early, and get my show on the road. My trip to the bathroom felt like walking on a boat - the swaying bit. And when I looked across the room into a hanging mirror, it was tilting back and forth. What will always strike me as funny in these times is how the water in the toilet sloshes back and forth from the air blowing down the air vent. How crazy! I got to work just before 7:30 am - passed the bus on its way to the first bus stop! And it's a good thing, too. I was much better prepared for the two hour power outage with a pot of hot tea made and the office warmed up (before the cool down without heat).
What a day, what a day! If only the forecasts for snow this weekend are true...we could use the moisture big time! And a happy shout out to Mom and Pop for loaning me a key to the house after I locked myself out Tuesday afternoon.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Working Hard
Tom, Pop, and I have made great strides this month in the house - especially since we took most of Tom's birthday weekend off of homework and spent time on trailer/shop work. We did have a three day of work last weekend, though we started strong and ended pretty tired.
The toilets are installed, no thanks to me. One isn't connected to the water line yet, but both tubs have been connected to the water line and drain. Thomas also installed the cabinet, sink, and faucet in our bathroom. It needs to be connected to the drain still. But the bathroom plumbing is largely done. I may have slowed us down a little when I knocked the bolt for the toilet into the drain. Though it could easily be replaced, Thomas pointed out that it isn't the kind of thing you want hanging out in your line once operational. Oh yeah! To my credit I did suggest a magnet right away, which was the method it was retrieved, just not right away.
Thomas installed the backer board around our tub, and we got the shower and tub plumbing hooked up through it. I filled in a few gaps with the drywall we had in the house. There is just a wee-wee bit left to do on the main floor, but we'll need to truck the drywall in from the horse barn. Thomas worked on taping the seams in our bedroom, so I can get to work texturing it. In the meantime I oiled the bathroom, hall, and bedroom ceilings with lemon oil. It smelled so good. I still had to sand the hall ceiling before I could oil it, and it reminded me of the fun I have to look forward to sanding the main living area - yikes! At least it can be done with the rolling scaffolding, which is much faster than moving and climbing up and down the ladder often.
Moving right along - on schedule, who knows?
The toilets are installed, no thanks to me. One isn't connected to the water line yet, but both tubs have been connected to the water line and drain. Thomas also installed the cabinet, sink, and faucet in our bathroom. It needs to be connected to the drain still. But the bathroom plumbing is largely done. I may have slowed us down a little when I knocked the bolt for the toilet into the drain. Though it could easily be replaced, Thomas pointed out that it isn't the kind of thing you want hanging out in your line once operational. Oh yeah! To my credit I did suggest a magnet right away, which was the method it was retrieved, just not right away.
Thomas installed the backer board around our tub, and we got the shower and tub plumbing hooked up through it. I filled in a few gaps with the drywall we had in the house. There is just a wee-wee bit left to do on the main floor, but we'll need to truck the drywall in from the horse barn. Thomas worked on taping the seams in our bedroom, so I can get to work texturing it. In the meantime I oiled the bathroom, hall, and bedroom ceilings with lemon oil. It smelled so good. I still had to sand the hall ceiling before I could oil it, and it reminded me of the fun I have to look forward to sanding the main living area - yikes! At least it can be done with the rolling scaffolding, which is much faster than moving and climbing up and down the ladder often.
Moving right along - on schedule, who knows?
Tom's Birthday
January is flying by! And speaking of flying, this morning I had the pleasure of seeing not just one bald eagle in the tree by the lake, nor just two bald eagles, but two baldies and a golden eagle. How awesome!
Since I stayed late in town tonight to attend an evening service, I thought I best take advantage of a few free moments to update this thing, especially since my most recent pictures are already so old, though not as old as Tom! He celebrated a birthday - that was fun and exciting. He rolled his eyes when he found I took his pillow - the new one he picked out for his birthday after Christmas and couldn't wait to use - off the bed and wrapped it in a box to take to the party. But at least he stayed out of the house long enough for me to set up a little treasure hunt of treats for him, which I may have had more fun setting up than he had figuring out the clues. The grand gala was a low-key evening together with the family for cake and ice cream at his parents' house.
The past three years I have made German Chocolate Cake - his request. I usually make the coconut-y frosting homemade without the pecans, though it wasn't till this year that Thomas pointed out that mine does not look the right color. Lo and behold, the recipe I use fails to mention toasting the coconut first, which I noticed is step one of every other recipe. My first step in the whole to-do was to google "Star Wars Birthday Cake". I wanted to do something fun, something more exciting than the layer cake I've done the same way the past few years, but there was absolutely nothing I could pull off from the images I saw, save for writing "May the Force Be with You" in colored frosting on top. Then I just looked at images of "German Chocolate Cake", which yielded some interesting pictures of cake. Scrolling down and down, I saw my challenge - a cake roll.
A cake roll is baked on a big cookie sheet and rolled up with the frosting inside. There are many techniques, but none explicitly told me what I needed to know - that the cake has to be made with certain proportions (largely in the egg department) to stay together when it rolls. One recipe used a cake mix, but changed the balance of ingredients added to it instead of following the instructions on the box. Hindsight is 20-20. I used the cake box and its instruction up until the part where you pour it into cake pans. Upon removing it from the oven, I rolled it up in a towel -as instructed - to let it cool. When you unroll it to frost it, it will roll right back up. Problem for me is that it never unrolled. But the cats liked it.
The next day I stocked up on eggs, cake mix, evaporated milk, and anything else I might need in case it took multiple more attempts to pull it off. Unlike someone who commented on a recipe that failed her, I wasn't going to mash up the bake pieces and frosting and serve a lump of "German Chocolate Cow Pie". For attempt two I made the cake from scratch. The first trick is to whip the eggs up real well. Using my little hand mixer, everything was frothing up beautifully. UNTIL. The mixer went berserk, making a loud whining/scratching noise, which caught Tom's attention in the other room. I immediately turned it off, tried turning it on again, but found it wouldn't go away. Tom thought it might be a gear or something and suggested sieving the eggs to make sure no little plastic part fell in. Yeah right - he gave the eggs to the cats, and attempt three began with my good KitchenAide.
As they say, the third try is the charm. I got the cake whipped up fine, baked it with the coconut frosting on the bottom of the pan, rolled it up when it came out of the oven, and didn't risk unrolling it again.
TA DA:
I received the rectangular plate as a gift at Christmas, and in the moment when I thought how perfect it would be, I failed to see that it was really a shade small, but I didn't mind swiping the chocolate frosting that dribbled off the edge and onto the counter.
When flipping the cake out of the pan onto a towel for easy rolling, I opted to use cocoa powder instead of powder sugar. Then I softened some chocolate frosting to drizzle over the edge, added toasted pecans for those who would enjoy them (easy to pick off for those who couldn't) and a TV of candles.
I am eager to try a couple of other cakes in the cake roll family, particularly a flour-less chocolate cake. But after making the cake came the waiting to see if it was any good. The night of the party came, and the cake went. Maybe I should give myself a little more lead time for next year's dessert.
Since I stayed late in town tonight to attend an evening service, I thought I best take advantage of a few free moments to update this thing, especially since my most recent pictures are already so old, though not as old as Tom! He celebrated a birthday - that was fun and exciting. He rolled his eyes when he found I took his pillow - the new one he picked out for his birthday after Christmas and couldn't wait to use - off the bed and wrapped it in a box to take to the party. But at least he stayed out of the house long enough for me to set up a little treasure hunt of treats for him, which I may have had more fun setting up than he had figuring out the clues. The grand gala was a low-key evening together with the family for cake and ice cream at his parents' house.
The past three years I have made German Chocolate Cake - his request. I usually make the coconut-y frosting homemade without the pecans, though it wasn't till this year that Thomas pointed out that mine does not look the right color. Lo and behold, the recipe I use fails to mention toasting the coconut first, which I noticed is step one of every other recipe. My first step in the whole to-do was to google "Star Wars Birthday Cake". I wanted to do something fun, something more exciting than the layer cake I've done the same way the past few years, but there was absolutely nothing I could pull off from the images I saw, save for writing "May the Force Be with You" in colored frosting on top. Then I just looked at images of "German Chocolate Cake", which yielded some interesting pictures of cake. Scrolling down and down, I saw my challenge - a cake roll.
A cake roll is baked on a big cookie sheet and rolled up with the frosting inside. There are many techniques, but none explicitly told me what I needed to know - that the cake has to be made with certain proportions (largely in the egg department) to stay together when it rolls. One recipe used a cake mix, but changed the balance of ingredients added to it instead of following the instructions on the box. Hindsight is 20-20. I used the cake box and its instruction up until the part where you pour it into cake pans. Upon removing it from the oven, I rolled it up in a towel -as instructed - to let it cool. When you unroll it to frost it, it will roll right back up. Problem for me is that it never unrolled. But the cats liked it.
The next day I stocked up on eggs, cake mix, evaporated milk, and anything else I might need in case it took multiple more attempts to pull it off. Unlike someone who commented on a recipe that failed her, I wasn't going to mash up the bake pieces and frosting and serve a lump of "German Chocolate Cow Pie". For attempt two I made the cake from scratch. The first trick is to whip the eggs up real well. Using my little hand mixer, everything was frothing up beautifully. UNTIL. The mixer went berserk, making a loud whining/scratching noise, which caught Tom's attention in the other room. I immediately turned it off, tried turning it on again, but found it wouldn't go away. Tom thought it might be a gear or something and suggested sieving the eggs to make sure no little plastic part fell in. Yeah right - he gave the eggs to the cats, and attempt three began with my good KitchenAide.
As they say, the third try is the charm. I got the cake whipped up fine, baked it with the coconut frosting on the bottom of the pan, rolled it up when it came out of the oven, and didn't risk unrolling it again.
TA DA:
I received the rectangular plate as a gift at Christmas, and in the moment when I thought how perfect it would be, I failed to see that it was really a shade small, but I didn't mind swiping the chocolate frosting that dribbled off the edge and onto the counter.
When flipping the cake out of the pan onto a towel for easy rolling, I opted to use cocoa powder instead of powder sugar. Then I softened some chocolate frosting to drizzle over the edge, added toasted pecans for those who would enjoy them (easy to pick off for those who couldn't) and a TV of candles.
I am eager to try a couple of other cakes in the cake roll family, particularly a flour-less chocolate cake. But after making the cake came the waiting to see if it was any good. The night of the party came, and the cake went. Maybe I should give myself a little more lead time for next year's dessert.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
On the Tenth and Eleventh Day of Christmas...
My true love gave me about ten hours of hard work and probably eleven plumbing joints connected. We spent some time sleeping in - only fair, but we also busted our buns getting TWO tubs installed. Of course, none of it would have been possible without Pop's help, too, and the skateboard.
Thomas picked up a new drain kit for the clawfoot tub on Friday, as the existing one wouldn't go back together completely. We mixed and matched a bit to keep some of the brass fittings. Keeping any of the brass meant a lot of work polishing, which kept me busy while the guys sorted things out. Once it was all together - after a couple trips to the nearest hardware store (aka Pop's house) and one to the next nearest hardware store - we wheeled it into place with Thomas's old skateboard. An amusing endeavor, especially as it was a narrow fit! The kicker was walking up the steps from the basement to see Thomas sitting in the tub. His comment: "Hey, give me some privacy; shut the door, will you?"
Pop headed off and left us to clean up. So we could close in the last of the wall in the adjacent bedroom, we also hung the mirror.
Saturday we were good and tired, but Sunday afternoon we rallied. Thomas had also picked up some lumber to frame in around the tub for our bathroom. It took a lot of banging around, but it's in, too! Pop and Tom worked out the drain and connected it up to the house drain while I hung a little more dry wall.
My true love needs a couple more elbows and some pipe, and then we will get the tubs fully plumbed, and I could take a bath without the buckets! I think I will wait!
Thomas picked up a new drain kit for the clawfoot tub on Friday, as the existing one wouldn't go back together completely. We mixed and matched a bit to keep some of the brass fittings. Keeping any of the brass meant a lot of work polishing, which kept me busy while the guys sorted things out. Once it was all together - after a couple trips to the nearest hardware store (aka Pop's house) and one to the next nearest hardware store - we wheeled it into place with Thomas's old skateboard. An amusing endeavor, especially as it was a narrow fit! The kicker was walking up the steps from the basement to see Thomas sitting in the tub. His comment: "Hey, give me some privacy; shut the door, will you?"
Looks pretty good in there - still some more work to do, but what a load off not to have to move that again!
Pop headed off and left us to clean up. So we could close in the last of the wall in the adjacent bedroom, we also hung the mirror.
Thomas created the frame for a plain-jane mirror out of some beautiful oriental wood.
Saturday we were good and tired, but Sunday afternoon we rallied. Thomas had also picked up some lumber to frame in around the tub for our bathroom. It took a lot of banging around, but it's in, too! Pop and Tom worked out the drain and connected it up to the house drain while I hung a little more dry wall.
Once again, Pop and I came from upstairs to see Thomas laying in the tub. This time his comment: "I could sleep in this thing." Yes, it is six feet long, so he could.
His follow-up comment later on: "If you carried in buckets of water, you take a bath."
My true love needs a couple more elbows and some pipe, and then we will get the tubs fully plumbed, and I could take a bath without the buckets! I think I will wait!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
And a Happy New Year!
No pictures from our second Christmas, but it was just as fun and festive as the first. All the family gathered at Marie & Dave's on New Year's Eve with five hours of energy. We enjoyed snacks and chatting, but the kids really wanted to know when we got to open presents. The kids were still waiting for gifts from Daniel and Julie, as well as us, but first waited patiently for the four of us to open ours. Sofia made a fine Santa's Helper passing out the gifts, though Thomas was hard to identify without any facial hair. Much love and many gifts were shared. What a generous family!
We passed the time away sharing stories of our visits home and laughing away the minutes. Poor Sofia didn't find it funny that she had to put away her princess dress and shoes and go to bed before midnight and was grateful to rejoin the party. We all made it to midnight and quickly headed for home.
Thomas and I had cleaned up our "new room" with an air mattress and sleeping bag to wake up in the new house. It made for a cold and dark trip to the bathroom for me in the middle of night, but it was fun. I brought breakfast over in the morning, and then we set to work. Maybe in a few months we'll be waking up there "for real".
2014 has much in store for us, I just know it. Many blessings have we received, and many more, I suspect.
We passed the time away sharing stories of our visits home and laughing away the minutes. Poor Sofia didn't find it funny that she had to put away her princess dress and shoes and go to bed before midnight and was grateful to rejoin the party. We all made it to midnight and quickly headed for home.
Thomas and I had cleaned up our "new room" with an air mattress and sleeping bag to wake up in the new house. It made for a cold and dark trip to the bathroom for me in the middle of night, but it was fun. I brought breakfast over in the morning, and then we set to work. Maybe in a few months we'll be waking up there "for real".
2014 has much in store for us, I just know it. Many blessings have we received, and many more, I suspect.
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