All I've Got Is "Before" Pictures

This is the kitchen in the "Before" stages. These were taken a couple of weeks ago, and I wish I could say there have been significant visual changes, but there aren't. However, there have been significant changes taking place. Alan and our amazing neighbor have been rewiring all the electric in the house. As an electrician, we had Amazing Neighbor come over to give us some advice on how to properly install some more lighting in the kitchen where there was one (ONE!) single light bulb for the whole room. His professional advice was we either rewire all the electric in the entire house, or get the hell out of dodge. Apparently, our house was wired by morons. Morons who shouldn't have ever tried their hands out at a field of work where electricity, thousands and thousands of volts of electricity, are involved. Apparently, it is also a miracle the house hasn't burned down, multiple times. Some times we can see Amazing Neighbor's crawl when he sees how some of the work has been done.

However, these are some before pictures on the kitchen, where walls and ceilings are currently going up.

Here's the entrance into the kitchen. Vapor barrier has been put down and subfloor will be installed.

Subfloor going down.

While tearing old walls down, we found a place where a door previously was. We think maybe the door was covered over, Coraline style, so we don't enter into other very dangerous dimensions.

This is the wall where overhead storage will be, with the refrigerator, microwave, and stove underneath.

All 64 Colors, With the Sharpener on the Back

It is funny to think that for the last 7 or 8 years, I have said that my favorite color was black. It looks good in all seasons, hides stains better, and matches everything (even brown in my opinion). My first apartment was mainly black and white. The house will be anything but. Last night I was looking over my photo files on my computer and checking things out that I have in my "Paint, Make, Do, Sew" file. It was all bright, vibrant, beautiful, look at me! colors.

I've never liked screens too much, but this one won my heart.

I would love to learn how to embroider, just to make pillows like the one on the left.

Love this headboard.

There's no way Alan would ever let me do this to the wood floors at the house, but a girl can dream.
I've been searching for fabric like this, but I'm not looking in the right places apparently.
I am a huge fan of painted chairs.
This is shockingly similar to the screen, but its ruffled! Love, love ruffles!
I love zinnia graphics, and this pillow is amazing.
This little girl's room is fantastic.
Hooray!

Vegan Spinach Alfredo Pizza

My God do I love Spinach! And Alfredo sauce! Annnnnnnnnd pizza. There's no one in the world who doesn't like pizza.

Awhile back, I decided to combine some of my favorite foods into vegan deliciousness. This is what I came up with. After several different dinner parties, and the reactions from those who attended, included my very finicky grandma Momo, I know that it is, indeed, delicious. I hope that you decide that tofu is the way to make alfredo from now on. And honestly, it is much cheaper and much easier than actual alfredo.

These are the necessary ingredients. Except olive oil. I forgot to put that in the picture.

Preparing a pre-made pizza crust with olive oil and rosemary and garlic.

This is the spinach alfredo sauce in the blender.
This also makes an awesome dip.
The pizza when it is done. Oh man, so good.

Crust:
Ready made crust, I use a normal pizza crust (none of that paper-thin crap)
2 Tbl Olive Oil
1 Tbl Rosemary
1 Tbl Garlic Salt (or garlic powder if you're watching your sodium intake)
Sauce: (this is going to make 2 batches of sauce. make two pizzas and double the rest of the ingredients if you like, or just save the other half of the sauce for dipping later)
1 block firm Silken Tofu (yes, you have to buy the Silken version)
2-3 cloves garlic
1 handful fresh basil
1 tsp crushed red pepper seed
1 cup spinach
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast (look into this Super Food folks!)
Salt and pepper to taste
Topping:
4 Cups spinach
3 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Italian seasoning to taste

1) Pour 2 Tbl Olive oil on pizza crust. Spread around. Top with rosemary and garlic. Cook in oven at 425 degrees for 12 minutes.
2) While crust is baking, puree ingredients for sauce together until completely blended.
3) When crust is finished, top with spinach. Yes, it is going to seem like a lot of spinach. It will cook down, I promise. Top with sliced tomatoes. Top all that with Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper if you like.
4) Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
5) OMG enjoy!

Raising the Roof

Today we start the tedious process of raising the roof, er, ceiling in the kitchen. We tried to do so yesterday with just us two, and that was hilarious. We quickly learned that two people alone can't put up a ceiling because of the weight of the drywall. We are going to recruit a friend or two to help us get it installed. Hopefully it will be a quick project.

While Alan was working in the kitchen last night, I was working on stripping the paint off the old cabinetry that we will be reusing in there. I had sanded them down, thinking I could just paint over the old paint, but they weren't as smooth as I had hoped due to there being about ten coats of paint on them. Seriously, there were about ten different colors. Crazy. I am using a Citrus-based paint stripper because it is low VOC, biodegradable, and because I don't want my skin to peel off if the stripper were to get on me. The stuff is great. It smells amazingly good, not a chemical type smell at all. It seems to be doing the job, too.

Regretsy Finds of the Week!

Have you been to Regretsy.com??? I absolutely love whoever runs this site. She scours Etsy
to find the worst of the worst of all the handmade goods. And boy does she find some terrible crap! These are things that I only dream up in my worst nightmares.

Would you really want to put this by your face every time someone called?

Asking Price: $175

This was billed under "Club Wear."
What kind of club do you go to where women or men are wearing styles like these?!?

Asking Price: $26

Taxidermy kind of freaks me out to begin with. But bad, faux taxidermy may be worse.

Asking Price: $24.99

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner for the worst of the worst!
These. Are. Terrifying.
Asking Price: $19

Simply terrifying.

Etsy Finds of the Week!

Here are some cute things that I have found on Etsy.com this week that I think I may try to recreate for my home.

I love the mix of the teal with the red knobs.

I'm going to be a bit too honest here, but I like having reading material in the bathroom. I think this would serve as perfect shelving for the bathroom, without having to worry about wood shelves warping from the steam from the shower.

I am always a sucker for acid greens.

12 DIY Remodel Necessities

So there are a few things that I have realized over the last month and a half about DIY remodels. This all started out with daydreams and a list. The list was simple things like “Take down old cabinets,” which we realized was muuuuch harder than originally expected and took much longer as well. Here is a list of things that I think are absolute necessities.

1. Dust masks – when ripping out the kitchen ceiling, walls, and insulation, these are the only thing that made it possible for me to stay in there for more than 5 minutes. I have developed some serious allergies over the last year, and they do not like the dust that is being created by the remodel.

2. Shop vac – dear lord do I love my shop vac! These are typically billed as the vacuum to buy if you have a man in your life who doesn’t like to vacuum. Give them one of these, and they will go to town! Having a wet/dry shop vac has made all the difference in the clean up. My brother gave me a shop vac for the remodel, and it has been so incredibly handy to have.

3. Crevice tool accessory for the shop vac – when you can’t get a two inch vacuum hose opening into small corners, this is what you need. So handy

4. All of the accessory pack for the shop vac – the accessory pack cost $50, which at the time I thought was a bit overpriced. However, we have used every tool in it, and the crevice tool and the extention hoses are worth their weight in gold.

5. Patience – that is all I have to say about that.

6. A sense of humor – every time we plan out something, or schedule a certain amount of time for a project, something comes up. The projects end up taking three times the amount of time we originally thought, or we’re missing a crucial tool or something else ridiculous. I have learned to just take it in stride and know that eventually, we will be done. And then on to the next project!

7. Good measuring skills – the quickest way to having to buy excess supplies and flushing your budget down the drain is by not measuring properly.

8. A screw gun – this little tool was one I had actually never heard of before the Remodel O’ Fun. Just like a nail gun, but with screws, it makes putting up sheet rock much easier and a heck of a lot faster.

9. A budget – this is one thing that Alan and I haven’t exactly made for the remodel, but we are being smart about every purchase we make. Most of what we have found has been on clearance or sale, given to us, purchased from craigslist.com, or just repurposed.

10. A handy neighbor – although Mr. Carter deserves his own post (which I will definitely do later on), I will at least mention him now. Mr. Carter, being a handy old guy has saved us a bundle by fixing a drain that we thought we were going to have to call in a plumber for, and has offered his electrical expertise when we run all new wiring through the kitchen. So, get yourself a retired electrician who wears awesome suspenders. You won’t regret it!

11. Imagination – so far our favorite things that will be going into the kitchen are those that we storm up in our brains and think would just be awesome. We will be having some awesome repurposed pieces in the kitchen that I can barely wait to see go in!

12. Beer – Boulevard Wheat Beer is by far, the best thing that has happened to the remodel, haha.

I Need Some Ruffles In My Life

As the remodel progresses, my wardrobe has dwindled down to just a couple of items: basketball shorts, t-shirts from high school homecomings, and my old tennis shoes from 7th grade (no really...I've had those shoes that long!). I am feeling a little less beautiful each day, let me tell ya. But how smart would it be to tear down sheet rock in a sundress? I can dream in the mean time, though. About ruffles. Lots and lots and lots of ruffles! Etsy never disappoints me when I need some pretty, lizarietz is a wonderful designer who brings the ruffles to me, even if I cannot afford them at the moment. Look at these wonderful dresses and slamming hat.

Absolutely Exhausted

Alan and I have been working our tails off, let me tell you. Our kitchen is now just a room with a faucet on the wall, or where a wall formerly was. There are no walls, no ceiling, no floor, no sink, cabinets, no shelving, no appliances, no beautiful Fiestaware. So where to go from here? Well, that is one long list. A long list that hasn't exacted been written yet. Yikes! However, today I decided on the tiles for the floor, paint colors for the walls and cabinetry, and we have decided on an awesome, surprise upcycled counter top. So at least we have a little planned. We still need to get a couple things set in stone, such as the tile for the backsplash, placement of a microwave (which is much more involved than one would think), hardware for the cabinets, and where to hang the pendant lights. Whew!

Once we get the kitchen cleared out I will take some before pictures and post them, and then post pics as the kitchen progresses. I also need to find the cord that connects my camera and computer. Then I can really post the pics.