House updates

the new kitchen floor

We've had several projects done in the house over the last few months. After 20 years here, we had built up quite a long list of home improvement projects. Unfortunately, neither of us has the skills to complete any of the projects, leaving us at the brutal vagaries of working with contractors. We have a guy we love, and he's done most of our work here over the last five years.

matching bookshelves

The quality is untouchable. Our animals love him, and our kids call him "Uncle Mark", but like many contractors, he has some issues with deadlines and showing up reliably.  He's been on a tear for the last few months, so we've finally made some headway on our projects.  He's wrapping up the little details on the current group of projects (new windows throughout the house, new bookshelves in the front entryway, refurbish first-floor bathroom, new floors in kitchen, back entryway, bathroom, and basement family room and office area), though we've been sitting at around a 95% completion for almost three weeks now. I find the whole process

photo albums and fiction

incredibly stressful--rushing home and arranging to be here anytime he's able to work on something (only to be stood up routinely), picking out materials (so many decisions and research), making mistakes because I don't really know what I'm doing, living with constant messes, equipment, unusable areas in the house, etc.  I will be SO HAPPY when things are 100% done. That said, I have a whole new round of big projects to start as soon as he wraps up the little details and can commit to giving me some time again.

The number of animals we have definitely takes a toll on the house--floors, furniture--everything has to be able to take heavy, regular cleaning and gets pretty beat up.  We have lots of little repairs and maintenance work done regularly here, but we haven't done anything big since the second-floor bathroom remodel we did a few years ago. I love when the work is done, but the chaos of the work in process leaves me pretty crabby.

Our original windows were a mess. They were quite drafty and tough to open and close. We love the ease of the new windows, and I'm looking forward to the energy savings.

We are most happy with the new family room. We did not have enough seating to accommodate

non-fiction

having friends over (ours or our childrens'), and the seating we had was not very comfortable. The floor was a mess.  After the big flood a few years ago, the flooring was damaged, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to replace it, so I duct taped (duct tape fixes everything in my world) down the damaged seams and edges and tried not to look at it. It has been hideously ugly and unsuitable for our needs for years, but all the decisions, chaos, and stress kept me from doing anything. Finally, Luce complained about having friends over with a duct-taped floor. I felt so bad for putting it off this long. It's easy for Mark and I to not really notice or care, but kids don't like their friends to see things like that.  That comment was enough to get me moving!

One office area; there is another office area/sewing desk, but it's among
 the 5% in progress and not shown here yet.

We had floor to ceiling cabinets built in the office area, so all of the computer, office, and craft supplies can be stored dust-free and without the animals getting into things.  We needed new additional seating but also guest beds for when we or the kids have company, and it had to be inexpensive, easy to maintain, and able to take regular abuse. Instead of couches, I ordered two twin beds (steel frame and memory foam mattresses), which we arranged in an L-shape. They work perfectly as comfy, room sectional-type couch with lots of room for all of the humans and animals to spread out. The mattresses are phenomenally comfortable (they've already seen lots of sleepovers, including Mark and I spending a date night on them to assess the comfort level); so much so, that we will soon replace our mattress with a king-size version of these (really affordable, light, easy to set up, absolutely perfect).  The new mattress will cost 1/5 what our current mattress cost, and it's at least as comfortable as our mattress when we bought it (it hasn't been comfortable for years), and we will be able to carry it upstairs all by ourselves.

This is the same floor as the kitchen, but this photo makes it look darker.

w i d e s p r e a d

I learned that there are not just one-hole or three-hole sinks.  There are also widespread three-hole sinks.  There are fewer faucet options for the widespread sinks, and they all cost more than the standard. I learned this after purchasing a widespread three-hole sink, and a regular faucet. I had to switch to a different model, because the one I loved and picked out didn't come in a the widespread version. It also left us without a functional bathroom for an extra five days.  I will never make that mistake again.  I'm really happy with how the bathroom turned out in the end.

Lila's favorite spot in the world

Hail seitan

I have a different schedule this semester, which allows me to be home on Thursdays. Since I had finished my grading for the week earlier than expected, I had the afternoon to myself and decided to get a jump on some of my weekend kitchen chores. I needed to make dog food and seitan--neither of which I really enjoy making, so I planned to get a big batch of each made yesterday.


We've been having a lot of work done on the house for the last couple of months (everything takes FOREVER, because contractors--UGH!), so generally when I'm home during the day, he's either here working, or I'm expecting him (I'm often stood up). I knew I was going to be alone in the house (love that!), so I took some caffeine (a rare treat for me these days), played my Pandora Prince station way too loud, and spent the afternoon cooking, dancing, and singing badly.

I use the seitan recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. Isa has another seitan recipe posted on PPK here, but this is not the same as the one in the book that I use. I've found that for me the trick to making seitan is making sure I always keep prepared veggie broth in the fridge. The broth needs to be cold, or the gluten gets far too sticky, and it's quite frustrating to get started and then realize that you have to halt everything, because you don't have cold veggie broth. After I get the seitan prepared and simmering, I make up the veggie broth for the next batch, and seal and refrigerate. Then I always have it on hand and ready to go. I make a big batch of it--one bag of Bob's VWG makes 2.5 batches of the recipe, which is almost six pounds (14 cups). I package it up in 1, 2, and 3-cup containers and freeze it. There's a pretty strong expectation that once I make a new batch of seitan, shepherd's pie (my husband's favorite dish) with spicy cashew gravy will follow within the week. I've been craving jerk, so that will be coming soon, too.  

Kneaded, forming equal size pieces to simmer

Seitan (front) and dog food done cooking. Seitan has to stay in pot until it cools.

Seitan chopped, measured, and ready to freeze.

Dog food ready to freeze/refrigerate.

The very helpful cleanup crew

Veggie broth; ready to refrigerate for the next batch of seitan.

As I was snapping pictures, I took a quick shot of my very favorite kitchen tool--this little Ninja chopper. I picked it up a very long time ago at Target, and they still sell them for under $20. I use this every single day. It's powerful, easy to clean up, and has saved me so much time. Almost every dish I make starts out with finely chopped onions, garlic, and/or ginger. Though I have a big food processor (the Ninja blender/processor system, which is also fantastic), it's a real pain to get that out to mince a few cloves of garlic or an onion. This little thing sits on my counter, and I can do a 30-second rinse, and re-use for the next item. It's powerful enough that I often use it to make oat and almond flours as well as to completely pulverize the very crunchy cat kibble (for our toothless cat Daffy). It is seriously the best $20 I've spent.

I should add that I'm not compensated in any way by Ninja. I don't blog reliably enough to roll that way, nor could I live with myself if I sold out like that. I just really love the product and think for anyone who cooks, it's invaluable. When my last blender died (A KitchenAid, who I contacted to get it repaired but got no response from the company at all. They don't support their products, I don't buy them any more). I did a ton of research and went with the Ninja system for the following reasons: their chopper is awesome; we have a Shark Ninja vacuum that has put our old Dyson to shame (will never buy another--the parts are poor quality that need constant replacement), and they offered a lifetime warranty on their products if purchased through the website. I've been so happy with all of their products and customer support, that I purchase the Ninja duo system for my daughter for Xmas. They now only offer a five-year warranty rather than lifetime, but that's still quite impressive.

Poppy in Proximity

Franklin

We lost our beloved cockatiel Franklin several weeks ago.  He was an old guy when we adopted him several years back, and this wasn't a surprise, but nonetheless a heartbreaking loss. While we've all grown attached to him, Poppy was his best friend and has suffered the greatest loss.  Poppy's parents, aunts, uncles, and Franklin were all quite old, and Franklin was the last of Poppy's flock.  We've had Max and Elvis (I have to point out that they came with these names--not my choice) for a couple of  years, and they came older and very pair bonded. They kept to themselves and didn't really mix into the existing flock. They never fought--just lived separate lives and spoke different dialects. I knew Poppy was going to take that last loss hard.  I've worried quite a bit over the last few months as I've seen the inevitable signs that Franklin was getting older and weaker. We went to the vet a couple of times, as he was losing weight, and each time, there was nothing wrong other than he was too thin and an old guy. Cockatiels can take loss so hard, that I really worry whenever one of them goes that the others will become depressed and/or ill.

Poppy and Franklin

 I was very concerned that without Franklin, Poppy would fall into loneliness and despair. He never seemed to like Max and Elvis, based on the disdain he showed them, so I didn't really see him integrating with them.

Elvis and Max

I have curiously observed Poppy's overtures at friendship over the last couple of weeks.  The first couple of weeks after his loss, he was quite depressed and stared at the wall a lot. He completely ignored Max & Elvis. I started spending a lot of time with him--singing and playing (which is mostly letting him pull on my nose ring or assault my face in various other ways) to cheer him up.  He started by watching them intently, sticking about three feet away from them (they previously usually stayed on different sides of the room).  He has progressively edged closer and now hangs within about a foot, sometimes less, of them.  Max & Elvis are rather strange, and they hang out in spots

Elvis, Max, Poppy (far right)

in the room that the other cockatiels never went.  Despite living in that room his whole life, Poppy has never played in the rabbit/guinea pig hay or the rabbits' box village, but suddenly he's just casually "hanging out" there by Max & Elvis.  They aren't yet including him, but they don't chase him away either, so the relationship is progressing slowly but positively. I've noticed a few times in the last week, that Poppy has made some slightly bolder advances--joining in when Max & Elvis "sing" with me (which is a different dialect from Poppy's repertoire) and even eating greens from the same plate as them.

I find this most interesting, because Poppy is a very confident, arrogant bird. He was raised with a loving flock that all took good care of him. He's always been cage free and feels like he owns the room.  The other cockatiels always catered to him ("the baby") and let him be the boss; he was a spoiled brat.  I didn't think he would humble himself to try to ingratiate himself into the other flock, but he most certainly is doing so. He's going about it in a very deliberate, conservative manner, and it's quite impressive. His need for connection is apparently more important than his need to be the boss, and he's playing a very different role than he has in the five+ years he's been alive.

I am planning to adopt some cockatiels, as soon as the right ones come into rescue.  It's rare that I only have three cockatiels.  They seem to prefer being in groups of 6-8.  I didn't want to take any chances on stressing Franklin, so I couldn't adopt anyone while Franklin was getting weaker.

For now, I've been spending extra time singing with Poppy. He really enjoys singing loud duets and taking turns repeating each other's tunes.  He is a little rude and domineering about it, frequently cutting me off in the middle of my turn, but in fairness, I'm a pretty awful singer. We both prefer his voice.