Category: Home Projects

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Projects

After a long time under the low clouds of inversion, we had two days with a LOT of rain.

During a sun break … the grass looked better and greener than it did all summer! In fact, that photo looks more like a summer day than most summer days did. There really should be snow on the ground.

Oh, we had some wind. The chairs typically tumble around, but I guess the first whoosh convinced them to just lie back and let the wind pass. Which it did. The trees around my house, thankfully stayed put. One large tree on the state land did not. I heard the crack and boom shortly after the whooshing started as Bear and I ran for the house.

Other spots around the valley had worse, but all in all, this part of Montana fared better than Washington and Oregon and we ended the week with a Winter Advisory in place which so far has turned out to be mostly more rain.

The weather is what it is. I had a good work week ending with being caught up from the previous light week. Saturday, there was a bit of sun and I enjoyed that outside with Bear and Auggie and had another round of “pick up sticks”. I made peppermint ice cream and mixed dough for sugar cookies. Bear and I made a quick run to Bigfork for just a few supplies needed. We got out of town before Santa’s arrival but did note see that the elf manning the Salvation Army station was equipped with a smartphone. I asked if he was texting Santa. He said no but he did at least laugh.

Today’s projects were a new curtain rod and cutting out and baking the sugar cookies. I attempted to multi-task…

I don’t know what it is about curtain rods.

I always have a bit of trouble.

I can hear step-Dad Bill and neighbor Mike wondering why I need a vice-grips to install a curtain rod???

The answer is because I had a bit of trouble with the first screw and when I wanted to remove it and start fresh, I needed the vice-grips because I had destroyed the Phillips head of the screw.

Meanwhile, to take a break from saying bad words, I cut out cookies. No trouble there!

Ultimately, the curtain rod was successfully installed and it was not raining so I went outside to enjoy Beardog Point with Bear and Auggie.

They were waiting for me.

Perfect end to Sunday afternoon.

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Weekend Projects

Saturday started with sunshine…

… and a loaf of bread. This bread … it is a continuation of my pursuit of the perfect pumpernickel/dark rye. This one is very, very close. The flavor is perfect, the crust is crisp, the interior crumb just needs a bit more rise before baking. Still, it made a great Reuben, wonderful toast with butter and jam. Sliced very thin and toasted worked for lox, cream cheese and capers. (The beginning: Dark Rye)

After a trip to town, I spent the rest of the day snuggled up in bed with Bear and Auggie watching PBS Mystery … allergy stuff from the very dry woods got to me again and I gave up on the outside chores.

But, Sunday dawned cloudy, cool and with a wee bit of rain, so feeling much better I started on an Apple Crumb Pie.

A new pie crust recipe as well as a new filling recipe: Mel’s Apple Crumb Pie There is a link to the crust in the post and on the crust post a video tutorial. The video is so much fun as Mel’s 3 year old daughter assists – AND I learned a couple of pie crust tricks as well.

After getting the pie in the oven for a 60-90 minute bake, I decided to tackle the kitchen cupboard hardware. Both the knobs and pulls (see Hardware: Part 1 and Hardware: Part 1.5 ) arrived last Monday. I tried not to think about them and gradually decided on…

Knobs. And I was happy.

No second guessing, no more dithering – I liked the way they looked.

Done.

Knobs on doors, pulls on drawers.

And Pie!

It is a great pie: deep dish apple with a streusel topping.

The weekend projects went well.

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Kitchen cabinet hardware, part 1

Over the course of September, I participated in The Kitchn Cure on The Kitchn website. It is an annual thing on The Kitchn and this year’s billing was:

“a 20-day journey of cleaning, organizing, and sitting with your kitchen, creating a more restful and mindful place to cook and eat.”

This year’s cure was led by Dana Velden**, a Zen priest, hence the “restful and mindful” verbage. Zen draws me and after reading the first day’s instruction to “sit and list”, I was in.

The “sit and list” was to be a quiet time in the kitchen and then a list of likes and dislikes … without overthinking. I love my kitchen and over the nine years I’ve been in this house, I have added the island, moved the comfy chair into that dark corner, edited counter top stuff and generally weeded out extraneous tools and dishes, appliances, spices and pantry goods. It is a pretty lean, mean kitchen geared to how and what I like to cook. My likes column was long and my dislikes was very short: cabinet hardware and light fixtures. And the funny thing was – sitting there doing that, after going back and forth about hardware off and on over the past several years, I suddenly had a picture in my mind’s eye of exactly what I wanted. I went to Home Depot online, found what I was thinking of and ordered it!

Nothing fancy – fairly plain, but in keeping with a “country kitchen”, i.e. not modern: black pulls and knobs. Done.

When they arrived, I liked them – a lot. Then, I’m not sure what happened except that I happened to hold one of the pulls vertical on a door and ultimately decided that instead of knobs on the doors I wanted the pulls.

Last weekend, I went off to Home Depot to return the knobs and get more pulls. I arranged all online so I could walk in to returns, then step over to will call and Bob’s your uncle, I’d be out of there. It didn’t work that way. Half an hour, 3 people and 2 phone calls to get the return processed … and THIS was with me bringing all paperwork as instructed. Then, the wrong pulls were in my will call order. When I went to get the pulls myself, the box was overflowing with pulls of all different finishes… Anyway, I came home deciding to install the drawer pulls and order the remaining to be shipped to my front door versus coming completely unglued in Home Depot.

That’s part of the reason why this is Part 1.

Installation!

I should have taken a before photo with absolutely no hardware, but I was so excited to get started this evening (Friday) that I had the first pull on before I took a photo. I was also going to set up the camera and get some action shots but I have no idea where the tripod is ???

Home Depot’s online store has handy videos for installing stuff that needs to be installed. I’d watched the video for the hardware and it showed a template and how easy the installation was with a template. I bought a template for $8.67. The template kit came with a template for drawers and a template for doors AND they also provided the correct drill bit in the package making the entire process very easy.

For drawers, the only measuring is to mark the center of the drawer. Then line up the center mark on the template…

…mark the holes for drilling and away you go!

The provided screws go from inside to outside and they ALL lined up perfectly with the hardware.

All of my kitchen drawers have pulls.

I’m usually pretty decisive, but I’ve dithered over this darn hardware for years and now changed my mind about 100 times over whether to put knobs or pulls on the doors. I looked at a LOT of online photos. It is done both ways. I don’t have a strong preference and I think either will look fine. And I have not yet decided what to order for the doors.

Thus ends, Kitchen Hardware, Part 1.

**Dana Velden is author of Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook . I read the book mornings as I was participating in The Kitchn Cure. It is a wonderful book and not just about the kitchen – much life wisdom for the thoughtful reader.

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I love the island, mon!

I have Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds as my phone ring tone. It is probably the only reggae song I know.

I think it is reggae.

I love it. It makes me happy to hear it even though I don’t particularly like talking on the phone.

My “boss” teases me about it when he hears the ringtone in the background. He is actually from Jamaica and he’s black. And I am from Ohio and am the palest white. It’s funny.

Anyway.

The island, man (said mon in island speak).

I love it.

This morning I worked on it.

I made Blood Orange Almond Cinnamon Rolls…from no knead Brioche. I also made a Brioche loaf.

The rolls. The Blood Orange juice turned the frosting pink instead of orange.

I was inspired to make these rolls by Homesick Texan’s Orange Pecan Cinnamon Rolls recipe. But I had only a Blood Orange and of the nuts I have, almonds sounded best.

Lisa of Homesick Texan was inspired to make her Orange Pecan Cinnamon Rolls based on those orange pecan rolls in a can. She loved them as a child. I loved them as a child. They would probably make me gag now.

But inspiration is a good thing and although I trust Lisa’s recipes absolutely, I do love my no knead brioche dough and also wanted to make a brioche loaf hence my adapted version of orange pecan cinnamon rolls.

The island as a work spot: it worked wonderfully.

It gives me a better kitchen triangle.

So far, I have not felt like it was “in the way”. Yes, I am adjusting how I move in the kitchen but I’m not bumping into it or thinking it is too big or in the wrong place…

I love the island, mon!

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Island Paradise

Island Paradise??? (Friday morning…snowing)

Well at least there is sun, now. (Friday, late afternoon)

And FedEx brought 3 boxes, total weight a bit over 200 pounds.

I bought a Kitchen Island.

On Amazon.

Amazon Prime!

It came FedEx 2day … free. I have absolutely no problem with Amazon increasing the Prime membership to $99.00!!

The unpacking.

Each box had a list with the contents of the box.

Every single piece had a little sticker with an alpha character that corresponded to the content list.

Hoo…I say HOO-RAH!

There was no mystery about which piece was which.

The directions were explicit.

The top was all in one piece!

The good news is that I didn’t have to assemble drawers or drawer rails, etc.

The bad news is the top weighed a bit over 60 pounds.

Bear stayed out of the fray in the sunroom.

Auggie, naturally, was my supervisor-helper!

Working alone (no other human) required a bit of creative thinking in how to balance things so that all of the pegs and holes lined up as I went along. So, it took longer than if there were 2, but still manageable.

It helped greatly that everything fit perfectly!

I put Auggie in the sunroom with Bear so I didn’t have to worry about something heavy falling on him. He took it well and I heard no complaints.

This is about the 1 hour, 15 minute point. I decided to clean up some of the wrapping and regroup before the last push.

I was worrying a bit about getting that heavy top on and needed a little time to think.

Ironically, the part that I least suspected would have alignment problems…did. The holes for the hinge screws for the eating leaf were completely out of alignment for 1 hinge.

Power tool to the rescue. I drilled new holes and all was well.

Getting the top on top of the base actually was no problem. I set it against the length of the base, tipped it up and moved it into position.

Done.

My first glass of wine and a bowl of salad, feta and kalmata olives.

I’ve looked at islands since buying this house but everything I liked was VERY expensive.

I’ve tended to often eat my meals at my desk instead of the table…partly as I am looking at food blogs or the news and partly because the table is not that comfortable…low and a bit dark.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought…boy, I’d really like to sit higher and be looking out the window…

On a whim, I searched Kitchen Islands on Amazon….

I absolutely LOVE the island.

There is plenty of room around it.

I have some new storage area and new work space near the stove.

I have a bright spot to have my meals.

I might need another chair…

Island Paradise.