Susan of all Trades, Mistress of None

Do I live here?

2009-07-04T15:50:00.002-04:00

Kitchen
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

So the one room in the house that was most important to us in finding a house is the room I finished first. The kitchen. It is looking pretty awesome. We have a new dishwasher, refrigerator and stove/microwave hood thingy. I Murphy'd the cabinets, washed the glass in the display cabinets, and cleaned the granite with some granite cleaner stuff. Cool features I'm excited about - the refrigerator has filtered water (but not in the door - which is better IMO), the dishwasher has a delayed start option, and the stove....well it does it all. It is a convection oven, it has a built in probe thermometer, it has super smooth moving racks, it has a bread proofing function where you can have a climate controlled place for your bread to rise. Seriously. I also like this little area next to the refrigerator that I made for the cutting board and knives.

Dr. Horrible does home improvement

2009-07-04T15:41:00.002-04:00

Dr. Horrible does home improvement
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Where does the time go? I guess its been over a week since I last posted, but I've been very, very busy working on the house. We are moved in completely now, handed over the keys to the apartment on the 30th. We are doing pretty well on the unpacking, but there still is a lot to do. I've got the guest bedroom pretty much unpacked, but the closet has a lot of stuff in it that isn't really meant to go there. It was just a convenient place to put it for the time being. Plus I need to make the panels for the closets in there and craftytown. Unfortunately craftytown has had a bit of a setback. One of the piece of the bookshelf/desk I ordered was damaged so they are sending a replacement, but until it arrives I am at an impasse in there. I added some more pictures to flickr if you are interested in the progress. Most of them are after painting etc, and before stuff.

I took this picture a while ago when Roland was working on prepping the master bedroom for painting.

Eureka!

2009-06-24T21:34:00.002-04:00

We have coldness! Our refrigerator and dishwasher were installed today and they are awesome. My favorite feature of the 'frige is the internal filtered water dispenser and on the dishwasher the delay feature. We are forever getting the dishwasher all ready to run and then forgetting to do it when we go to bed. They look freakin' awesome and make the kitchen look much better. Now we just need a stove and we will be set. Woot! We also have started the process of moving some of our stuff in, which is super exciting. The movers are coming on the 30th to move the big stuff that we can't, so I'm hoping to get some stuff moved by myself so I don't have to have it all packed at once. Somehow it is easier to do a little every day and this time I don't have to move it all down three flights of stairs. That was tiring. Plus this time Roland has a little more free time and can help which makes a world of difference.

I also purchased some more stuff from Ikea. This time it is the Kvartal rails which I'm hoping to put in Craftytown and the guest bedroom as closet doors. They will replace the bifold doors I took off before painting. I'm a little concerned about hanging them but hopefully it will be doable for someone of my skill level. Then I need to pick out fabric to make the panels from. Maybe Julie will come with me to give me her opinion. I'm sure if I asked Roland would come, but he doesn't really care one way or another. All in all things are moving right along.

Garage lizard

2009-06-22T20:12:00.001-04:00

Garage lizard
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

While my mom was here we went out once and this guy was hanging out on our garage. I think he is a Knight Anole and apparently they aren't very nice. They turn black when they are upset and will bite. Their bite often becomes infected due to the bacteria in their mouths. I thought he looked a lot like the lizards from the Sobe Life Water ads.

Painting

2009-06-21T21:19:00.001-04:00

Painting
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

I am so lucky. My mom called me last week and offered to fly down for a few days and help me with the house! Of course I took her up on it. I picked her up on Wednesday and she left this morning. Together we painted the library, rented a van, went to Ikea and bought 5 Billy bookcases and put them together. Here we are almost done painting the library. It was a big job and I'm glad she was there to help me.

We now have new carpet in the bedrooms. While it isn't the color I really wanted it works fine and is so much better than what was there. Our refrigerator and dishwasher are supposed to be delivered tomorrow so that will be awesome. It will be nice to have cold beverage while we are working on the house/moving in. Originally I thought we might be able to keep the old 'frige in the garage or whatever, but it was so bad that we ended up getting rid of it completely.

Clean at last

2009-06-15T22:02:00.003-04:00

A lot of things have come together in the last week, most of it today. There is now new paint in all the bedrooms and the main rooms. I still have to do the trim in the master bedroom and then paint the library. Having new paint really changes the feel of the house to me. The walls are fixed (no holes) and everything is a color I like. I'm also happy about not having white walls...or maybe just not having to worry about getting fined for doing something to the walls. Either way...woot!

We picked out carpet and it will be installed on Wednesday. I'm a little nervous about it because it is not the color I wanted. The color I wanted wouldn't be available until mid-July and we really want to get it done sooner (we are moving in before the 30th so definitely before then). But I'm hopeful that the second choice will be fine. After that the bedrooms will be totally done. Well, we still need a ceiling fan or light for the master bedroom, forgot about that.

Our washer and dryer were delivered and installed today and they took away the old pee smelling ones. We also ordered a stove and microwave/hood but it wont be delivered until July 2nd. I'm a leery about this, not because it is after we move in (we have a microwave and a toaster over that will be fine for those couple of days), but because if something goes wrong with the order or it doesn't fit or something then it will be more complicated. Ah well, such is life. We are in the process of getting the refrigerator and dishwasher with thanks to Roland's brother. His work has a deal thingy with Whirlpool so we are hoping to save some money there. Hopefully we can work it out soon!

We also had our house powerwashed today. It wouldn't have occurred to me to do it, but the homeowners associated left us a list of things we needed to do to meet code or whatever and powerwashing the roof was on it. So while he was out we had him do the roof, the vinyl fence, the front porch thingy, and the sidewalk. I had no idea our roof was so dirty. It was truely disgusting to watch the sludge rain off the roof. But now the roof, fence, and sidewalk are a whole new color! I'm not sure which thing looks more changed, what a difference! I forgot to take a new picture of the front to show the different. I'll try to remember to take one tomorrow.

Color!

2009-06-09T18:15:00.002-04:00

Guess what I'm going to write about today? That's right! Work on the house. Things are moving along now I think (hope). I picked out colors for paint in the house which is a large deal considering my lack of decision making skills. I sure hope they look nice... Given the vast amount of connected space that will all be painted one color I think I am going to go get one of those tiny jars of paint and give it a try first. Then spring for the giant 5 gallon pail of paint after I see a bit of it on the wall.

Man that makes me nervous. I mean in the bedrooms if I don't like the color its like a gallon of paint or whatever, but the rest of the house is all one color; the living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, and hallway! Plus we are having someone do that painting for us (I'm doing the bedrooms and the Florida room myself) so it isn't going to be as cheap as doing it myself. On the up side I think I'm ready to start painting the guest bedroom and craftytown and the painter will be starting on prepping the walls of the main rooms tomorrow. The pressure washer guy will be around either this week or next (depending on the rain). We need to get a move on getting carpet for the bedrooms but we can't do that until they are painted so that is my priority. So much to do!

Down in the mines

2009-06-07T21:44:00.002-04:00

Feeling a tad overwhelmed at the moment. Its not really how much there is to do so much as how little time I have to do it in. So far I've got three rooms washed and I started on the wall repair this afternoon. I probably should wash the master bedroom before moving on to the wall repair, but I need a change of pace. Dave finished mowing the lawn today which is awesome although there are some spots near a couple of trees that I'm not sure how we are going to mow. Probably need a weed whacker at some point.

I found some shoddy workmanship on the walls as I was washing and repairing. Places where they spackled but didn't sand at all and one place where I think they painted over some left over stickum (from some tape maybe?). It makes my job harder that's for sure. I started that in the afternoon so that by tomorrow the first layer will be dry and I can start sanding (no shortcuts here). But I think I'm going to have to go back to the Home Depot and get some courser sand paper. I wasn't expecting to have to go through a layer of paint to get to some of this stuff. Ah well. I think I'm going to start with the three bedrooms and hold off on the Florida room until last because the bedrooms need new carpet. So if I get done painting in those three rooms we can get someone in to do the carpet sooner. Plus the faster we get carpet the faster I get to create craftytown!!!!

Circus Ole!

2009-06-06T09:03:00.003-04:00

I think I've decided to repaint pretty much the whole house. I was going to leave what will be the library alone, but as I was washing the walls yesterday I sort of decided that maybe we should do it now while there is nothing in the room. The walls aren't bad, but they aren't great either. I also bought a lawn mower yesterday, after visiting three Home Depots to find it! It is the same model my sister has and she likes hers, so I took her recommendation. It is a Homelite cordless electric model which I have no experience with, but I'm hoping that it will be easier for me to mow the lawn if I can actually get the thing started in the first place. Plus it is supposed to be quieter and better for the environment. So we plugged it in yesterday afternoon and if the rain quits for long enough for the lawn to dry out I will be giving that a go today.

I also got to go to a Cirque Du Soleil show last night! It was a traveling show called Saltimbanco, and it was pretty amazing. Lane bid on tickets at her work to see it in the DHL Global Mail seats which are in the special section where you get food and beverages as well (impwessive). They also gave us a parking pass which was really nice as parking was $20!. Plus the parking was pretty much right up front. The food was really quite good with a lot of choices. I especially enjoyed the pot stickers. It was nice to go out with the girls and have a great time. Plus the comments being made about the performances as they were going on were hilarious. I really enjoyed myself.

Day one at the work camp

2009-06-05T07:44:00.002-04:00

I started work in the house yesterday with a couple of small projects. Getting everything done seems a little daunting right now, but I think that is mostly because I need to get it in list form. What exactly needs to be done (and what can wait) and then I can check it off as I finish.
I think today I'm going to see about some cleaning. Most of the doors in the house are really quite dirty and the walls will need to be cleaned before we paint or put stuff in the room. I also discovered that we are going to need to replace the guest bathroom door. The people before hung a towel hook on the door but with no door stop when someone opened the door too hard the towel hook hit the wall. Rather than hurting the wall, the hook sunk into the door. Oops!

Yesterday I configured a new garage remote (we weren't left any) and took down the wall paper border in the two smaller bedrooms. Now once I clean the walls I can get started with some minor repairs and then painting. I'm anxious to get going on the painting even though it could wait because it will be so much easier to get it done before we replace the carpet and have all of our stuff in it. The Florida room is a color we like and not too damaged so I think we are going to leave that for now. I'm thinking that cleaning that room will be my project for today because then I have one room that I can put stuff in. As a bonus it has a large closet in it that I think will be home to Christmas decorations and my scuba gear and a bunch of other random stuff. Its going to be hard not to start with Craftytown though. I'm excited to have a space to make my own.

Another project for today is going to be seeing about a lawn mower. I tried to go get one yesterday, but the store didn't have what I wanted. So its off to another one today to see if they have one. Before we left for Europe the lawn looked pretty bad but not super long (it had been really dry for a long time). But while we were gone it rained pretty consistently so now it looks pretty shaggy.

Ketchup

2009-06-03T19:47:00.003-04:00

I went back and checked, my last post was at the end of March. I don't really have much of an excuse, I honestly just didn't feel much like writing. I'm not sure I do now, but I feel like I should before I lose it all. Much has happened since then. We lost the opportunity to buy the house we thought we were buying. The appraisal came back much much lower than the price we agreed to and the home owners wouldn't come down to the appraised value. Very distressing.

Never fear though, after bidding on a couple of houses in between we finally bought a house! It is very close to where we are now which is a blessing because we are pretty close to work for Roland. I had given up on finding anything here in Plantation, so it was a happy surprise to find one. It has three bedrooms and two (very small) baths. It has a sweet kitchen...or will when we put in appliances. It was a foreclosure so it does have some issues, but not too many. It has a bit of earth which I'm very excited about. It even has a two stall garage! If you would like to see a few pictures of the house you can go to flickr.

After we closed on the house we had time to change the locks and then it was off to Europe for almost three weeks! How lucky are we? I guess we know how to find a house though...go on a trip to Europe with my folks. Anne and Karl bought a house and went a trip to Europe with them in the same month a couple of years ago. Now that we are back, we have until the end of the month to get the house in order and move in. Its feeling like a tall order right now, but I'm sure once we actually get started and have some to-do lists and get in gear it will all fall into focus.

There will hopefully be more posts about progress on the house and the trip here shortly. I'm going to try to remember to get a lot of before and after shots of the house as we go and we took a few pictures (blatant lie, we took a bajillion pictures) on the trip.

Hi, my name is Susan...

2009-03-20T22:12:00.002-04:00

And I'm an Etsy-holic. I've been in a very jewelry mood lately and I found some on Etsy that I really like. Why, oh why can't I find this stuff before people ask for birthday ideas?

Red is the New Black - I think this one is very pretty, but probably wouldn't buy it given the high shipping from New Zealand.

Cherries in the Snow - Love the splash of red!

Kate - Not usually a pink gal, but I really like this one.

Insatiable - I like the contrast between the red and the silver, plus its long enough to double for a layered look.

Rawr

2009-03-09T19:38:00.002-04:00

Kitty in the jungle
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Thanks once again to my awesome Sistrah I've sold another hoodie. Apparently one of her friends has a son who is really a cat. Really, he said so himself. So she wanted one of my Mini Manx hoodies for him. Well, the original has pink in the ears so I thought maybe he would prefer something else. The final decision was gray which I think turned out nicely. I also couldn't resist adding a detachable tail. I mean, despite the name of the hoodie, what self respecting cat runs around without a tail?

I also took the product shots outside this time and really like the results.

Tournament

2009-01-13T14:14:00.002-05:00

This past weekend we went over to Sarasota for a flyball tournament. It was a lot of fun and Bleys did particularly well. He usually starts off in the 7-8 second range and then gets slower and slower over the weekend, often getting up as far as 11-13 seconds. This makes it difficult, if not impossilbe for his team to earn points. This weekend, however, he stayed under 9 seconds the whole weekend! It was awesome. As an added bonus Sally, from Waverunners took this video from the bleachers at the arena.

My new job

2009-01-13T10:54:00.000-05:00

I wish!

House

2009-01-12T21:59:00.002-05:00

House
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

The biggest news is that we are buying a house! Every time I think about it I get butterflies in my stomach. It just seems crazy to me how much houses down here cost! This is the front of the house, and there are some more pictures over at flickr. Some are from the real estate listing and some are mine. I think Roland is the most excited about the kitchen which is quite awesome. More pictures when we actually own it!

Thanksgiving

2009-01-12T21:44:00.002-05:00

The turkey
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Since we weren't traveling back to Michigan for Thanksgiving we decided to invite some people over. It turned out that quite a few other people weren't going to their respective homes either! So many that we couldn't invite everyone that we wanted to. We ended up with a total of eight, which maxed out how much silverware I own! And how much room there was in our apartment. I ended up going out and buying a new tablecloth too since when I made the one I didn't take into account putting the leaves in the table. Here is a wonderful glimpse of our turkey while it was resting. Roland cooked up a storm and even bought and arranged the hydrangeas on the table! Doesn't it just look perfect?

Then we all gathered around the table and dug in! We even ran out of room on the table and had to stash food on the kitchen counter.

Me and Marley and Me

2009-01-12T11:33:00.002-05:00

Me and Marley and Me
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

In other exciting news, I was in a movie! For about 1/4 of a second. If you watch closely during the scene where Marley gets kicked out of obedience class you'll find Bleys and I in the background right after Marley tackles the obedience instructor.

Just be sure not to blink...it goes by pretty fast :)

Update

2009-01-12T11:29:00.002-05:00

Clearly I haven't been blogging much lately. Not quite sure why that is. I still love reading the blogtet's posts, but I personally haven't been much inspired to write any of my own. Much has transpired since I was last updating regularly and I will hopefully be catching up and keeping up a bit more.

Maverick
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Just after we returned from visiting Disney with Anne and Karl last November we attended one of the annual doggy splash days the water parks around here offer the weekend after they have closed for the season. It was especially fun this year because a bunch of the flyball team also came and it was fun to have someone to chat with. I took a few pictures but I think this one is my favorite. It is of Julie and her dog Maverick. Doesn't he just look so happy? We was actually found wandering the streets of Miami a few years ago and Julie adopted him.

Best.Dinner.Ever

2009-01-12T11:20:00.001-05:00

Warning: This post is liable to be very long and have way too many pictures in it. I will try to contain myself, but I'm not sure how much I can leave out ;) More pictures can be found over at flickr though!

Warning, warning: This post was started quite a while ago and only finished this morning. It refers back to when we went to Disney in November of last year.

Roland has been wanting to go do this thing at Disney for at least 5 years. There is this restaurant called Victoria and Alberts at the Grand Floridian. Not only is it the only 5 star restaurant in Florida or something they have an option called the Chef's Table. When you are lucky enough to book this you don't sit in the dining room. You sit in a special alcove adjacent to the kitchen. You get to watch the kitchen staff do their thang and you get a special dinner (ours was 10 courses I think) designed and presented by the chef of the restaurant.

We tried for a week to book this and were lucky on the last try to get in! Most people who get this plan their vacation around when they finally get through so we were super fortunate to actually get it when we already had vacation planned! Roland suggested that on that day we not plan anything for the day and make it all about the dinner. He was awesome and set me up with a spa day including getting my hair done for the event (awwww). He and Jason went and rode the speed boats instead (hence the sunburn).

Roland and Jason looked quite dapper in their suits and I wore my little black dress from Anne's wedding (thanks sistrah!). I did go out and buy a shawl though...never know when the air conditioning in Florida will be cranked.

After begin escorted through the kitchen to our seats we settled in at our table. This was our view from the table.

Then we were introduced to Chef Scott Hummel! He is the head chef there and we were lucky (again!) to have him there. He is often off doing meetings and other events away from the restaurant so many people get Chef Aimee instead. I'm sure she's awesome, but it was pretty cool to have the head chef come by our table! He asked us if there were any restrictions on what we liked, which we said no to. There are some thing I don't care for (olives), but if he wanted to make a tapenade I was sure going to try it. He didn't, but there was some salmon in there that I normally don't choose, but was fantastic.

Our first dish was an amuse bouche with four items (from top right, counterclockwise):

Deviled Quail Egg with Iranian Osetra Caviar
Trout Custard Baked in the Shell
Duck Sausage with Pistachios and Duck with Braised Fennel and Blood Oranges
Spring Roll with Ginger Mignonette

It was all very good, but I think my favorite was probably the spring roll. The trout custard was also very good and I think that was Roland's favorite.

Next we had a fun plate with crab cannelloni, baby greens, radishes, and caviar. Upon seeing the tiny cucumber with flower I couldn't resist.

This was followed by a trio of Gulf Shrimp, Florida Grouper, and Alaskan King Salmon. Now I am the first to tell you I don't care for salmon, but this preparation was fantastic. Jason also isn't the biggest fan of salmon and we both agreed that it was delicious. My favorite of this course was the shrimp with squash ragout though.

We moved to some Vermont quail with figs and apples next. Needless to say every course was outstanding. I really enjoy the more flavorful meats, such as lamb, Cornish hen, etc. So the quail was right up my alley.

I'm afraid the stand out in the next course wasn't actually the prepared dish (pork tenderloin and belly with baby beets). Down at the bottom of the plate are a couple of drops of 100 year old Balsamic vinegar. Earlier in the evening one of the chefs in the kitchen came over and unlocked a cabinet near our table. He took a bottle out and we all had a quiet discussion about what needed to be kept under lock and key. It was the vinegar, and that was probably a wise move. After tasting this stuff I might have been tempted to break in! It was incredible.

This was followed by Minnesota Elk over stewed French lentils. This was hearty and again, since I like those kinds of meats, one of my favorites. Who am I kidding they were all my favorites.

The next course caused me to have this reaction. It was three kinds of beef. Kobe beef strip loin, Wagyu beef tenderloin, and a sort of a barbecue beef. It was the Kobe beef that made me have to hold my head in hand for a spell. It is so full of flavor!

Ah, the cheese course. What more can I say. It was four types of delicious cheese, from a triple cream that you had to eat first before it melted to a fabulously pungent blue.

This was followed by pre-dessert. Pre-dessert? Yep, pre-dessert. A light palate cleansing strawberry sorbet, mango-yogurt panna cotta, and a miniature banana gateau. My favorite was the sorbet, although I think Roland liked the panna cotta best as he loves mangos.

Dessert came next and was a trio of chocolates. The chef picked three of the best chocolates in the world to showcase. He presented a Tanzanian chocolate pyramid, a Hawaiian Kona chocolate souffle, and a Peruvian chocolate ice cream with puff pastry. He seems slightly surprised that I finished the whole plate...I think he underestimated my love of chocolate :) The favorite? The souffle!

And to cap off a meal I can't find enough superlatives to describe, came post-dessert. A Kirsch cherry for each.

I loved it...with a cherry on top.

The perfect level of creepy

2008-12-16T13:01:00.003-05:00

This past year Anne has been smothering her lawn in order to start fresh this coming year. I just found one thing she really really needs to put as a center piece. Its a little expensive since its a tree but seriously, I would get one in a second if I had a yard to put it in...and lived in a zone it could survive in.

Presents

2008-12-08T18:34:00.004-05:00

I haven't been in much of a Christmas mood. I put up the tree in hopes that it would help...not so much. I think that living in a place that the weather at Christmas feels more like late September-October has something to do with it. Also, that because I don't live near family anymore, I don't have a years worth of gift ideas stocked up also doesn't help. So I turned to Etsy to hopefully give me inspiration. In that pursuit I also found some other stuff I really liked...for me :)

This little guy is so cute and he's a jewelry box!

I really like this necklace...something about the acorns.

It would be cool if they had one of these with a girl sewing...but this one is great because the trees are very home-ish.

Pesky Gnomes

2008-11-16T10:42:00.002-05:00

Anne mentioned she was looking for potential yard art. I recommend some metal yard art from a guy named Fred Conlon. I particularly the Gnomebearers and the Flamingoaway.

Postcard

2008-11-15T21:24:00.001-05:00

Postcard
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

I was using a new camera this past trip and this picture turned out absolutely awesome!

Susan Diving

2008-11-12T22:40:00.006-05:00

Susan
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Sadly Anne and Karl had to leave the next day. They left pretty early so we bid them farewell the night before. Jason and I had plans to dive the next day at the Living Seas, while Roland had reservations for one at the Coral Reef (the restaurant that looks into the aquarium). He was debating between getting an appetizer or a dessert. He went with dessert. He tried to take some pictures through the acrylic, but they didn't turn out too well. I was trying to stay back because earlier pictures were too dark, but I think I should have come closer since there was no ledge above to block the lights. Ah well. Guess we'll have to go back and try again :)

On thing I'm very excited about is that the new camera I bought has a underwater housing available for it. I couldn't use it for this dive because they don't allow it, but for other dives I'm totally stoked. I think I'm going to ask for it for Christmas!