Homemaking

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A December 25th Worthy of Remembrance

I really feel that Christmas is ‘just another day’ so I debated whether or not to write up about today’s happenings, then decided that they were worthy of note.

First of all the weather was incredibly mild by the standards I’m used to for this season. For me, this Christmas was truly a balmy one spent by the ocean. How idyllic does that sound?!

I worked today from 10 to 6 and it was non-stop crazy busy; so much so that at one point I had to ask the manager, who sat in his office for a few hours, to come and help me! What didn’t help was that first thing someone spilled their French vanilla ‘cappuccino.’ That stuff is basically flavoured water mixed with sugar that dries to a sticky mess. It took me an hour, between customers, to mop up the mess, which made its way deep into the cabinetry. Later, someone dropped a container of milk in the dairy cabinet, so I had to clean that up, too.

My eight hour shift flew by and I practically had to throw my last customer out the door a six. I love shifts like that! The manager had thought we would be super slow, but nope. We were apparently one of the few stores open and the only one in all of Campbell River with good coffee. I think Tim Hortons might have lost some customers to us. 😀 A lot of people came in and said to me “Oh, poor you, being stuck with this shift”, but I cheerily told them that I had volunteered for it and was quite happy to be there, which, really, I was. I just learned that I’ll be doing the New Year’s Day shift, too, which is fine with me.

After work, I headed home to change and then walked UP to my friend’s parents’ place. It was only barely more than one kilometre, but straight up a steep hill. I worked up quite the appetite! Within a few minutes of arrival I was sitting at the computer with a glass of white wine Skyping with my friend back in Wakefield, Quebec! That Star-Trekish technology never ceases to amaze me! We had a good time catching up and I finally saw how much progress she’s made in building the house of her dreams.

A wonderful turkey dinner, and too, too much white wine followed. I find that a lot of people go overboard with the food at Thanksgiving and Christmas and was glad this was not the case tonight. There was a lovely salad to start, a reasonable amount of delicious sides to accompany the turkey, and a very light dessert of cheeses and sweets. I had a lot more wine than I normally have, but I wasn’t driving, so I decided it was okay to indulge. 🙂

I think that my favourite part of the meal was the Brussels sprouts! Now, I like Brussels sprouts well enough, but I had never had them like they were cooked tonight and I am now motivated to make them for myself. They were steamed for about five minutes, cut in half, dried well, and then sautéd in olive oil with previously browned garlic as well as a minced red pepper and slivered almonds, leaving them nice and crunchy. I think it’s the first time in my life that I only had one serving of potatoes and turnips and two of Brussels sprouts!

My gracious hosts gave me some suggestions for day trips to make in the vicinity of Campell River as well as places to visit elsewhere on the Island. Some of the suggestions are for free excursions and I just happened to get gas as a gift this Christmas (a highly original idea from the gas station manager 😀 ), so soon as I get a nice day for hiking I have something fun to do.

Today was a nice, low-stress, more-special-than-normal day. I feel truly blessed.

Happy holidays to all my readers!

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Minus Two!

History seems to be repeated itself, with a mild November bringing a chilly December. We are supposed to go as low as minus five over night this weekend! It’s presently minus two at 9:30, which translates to slightly chilly inside with just the electric heaters on. No sense running the furnace when I’ll be leaving in a few minutes and it’ll be going well above zero by noon.

So far so good, weatherwise. Lows of minus five overnight are fine; I’ll just add a couple of extra blankets and maybe set the furnace on low. Miranda holds up well until minus ten, so I don’t anticipate being uncomfortable.

The nice thing about this weather is that it brings clear skies!

I came up with a brilliant (if I do say so myself) use for my dinette cushions. Would you believe me if I told you the seat back cushions are exactly the right dimension to cover the side windows in the loft while the two seat cushions end to end are exactly the right size to cover the front window? Yes! What a find! They are good insulators and make it super dark and cozy upper there. I just need to reupholster them at some point. Otherwise, the ‘finding new window coverings for the loft’ portion of the makeover is done!

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Counter Installation, Part Two of ???

The first two loads I ran with the dishwasher set up below the counter were fine, but the two subsequent ones leaked slightly in the front of the unit. Danby countertop dishwashers are notorious for leaking from their doors, but I cannot be sure that this is the reason for the leak. I pulled the unit back out (grunt, grunt), set it up on the counter, and ran a load. No leak. Some other theories:

1) all the moving of the dishwasher jarred ‘something’, both negatively and positively;
2) the dishwasher wasn’t level in one of the positions;
3) the hoses are too low to drain properly

The leakage was really minor; I created more of a mess pulling the unit and having the hoses flail around. I know how to open up the dishwasher to fix the common Danby leak, but without being 100% sure that this is the problem, I don’t want to go through all of that. So, think, think, think and I believe I’ve come up with a solution that will also solve my hose storage problem. Thanks, Croft, for the inspiration!

I’ll do some more work on this tomorrow, provided that we get an hour or two without lashing winds and pouring rain that would soak me before I even got to the workshop.

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A Long Short Day

My conundrum this morning was to wear a bandage over my wrist or not. I decided not because the cuts go most of the way around the wrist and would have required a full wrap, making me look as if I’d tried to kill myself over the weekend. Our uniform shirts have long sleeves, so I made a mental note to not push my sleeves up this week. Well, that plan failed. I just hate having long sleeves and before I knew it my sleeves were up and my wrist exposed. This prompted a hilarious quote from a customer and the reason for this paragraph. He said: “Next time, don’t struggle.” I asked him what he meant and he gave me this cheeky grin as he replied “I’ve gotten cuts like that from handcuffs.” So, great. Bare wrist and I look like I was in the slammer this weekend and wrapped wrist I look like I went to the shrink ward. Renos always come with a price! 😀

My 6AM to 10AM shift today flew by. One second it was 5:50 and I was pouring myself a first cup of coffee and the next my replacement had come in. This has thus far proven to be the busiest shift. It’s also my least favourite because I have a hard time being functional at that hour, no matter how much sleep I’ve had.

It was very weird to end my day at 10AM! I came home (with mustard and clam chowder!) and went to work on the *expletive deleted* wardrobe. The new counter and over fridge cabinet mean that I lost room for the baskets that held linens. I moved the baskets to the wardrobe, filling one with rolled up jeans and the other with rolled up sweaters (which worked out so brilliantly I think this is going to be a permanent solution!). I then needed to find room for the linens and got about halfway through that project. What a puzzle it is to get a home organized. At least, for the first time, I know what the final picture looks like (even if it’s a tad fuzzy) so now I only have to figure out what pieces I have, possibly in the wrong place, and what I need.

Last, but not least, this weekend’s wicked storm finally broke in the wee hours of the morning and I was able to watch a magnificent sunrise. A dark cloud rolled in shortly thereafter and we were back to rain, but, hey, five minutes of sunshine is more than I had some days last spring! 🙂

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Counter Installation, Part One of ???

There is nothing like having had a vision for more than six months and seeing it come to life. The new counter is far, far from done, but the steps I took today have brought Miranda much closer to realising her full potential as a solo full-timer’s home.

Today, I completed most of the ‘rough in’ for the new counter. It will need a lot of finish work, but I am not sure yet what material I will be using, so I am holding off for a bit. Croft left me something that could be perfect, but I have another option to explore first. Another thing that I need to do is install a door in the front that I will close when I drive so my dishwasher won’t go flying. As it is, I’ve installed it over skidproof material, which will go a long way to ensuring it stays put. Finally, I need to put a shelf over the drawer to hold a garbage can. Recognize that drawer? It’s going to be much more useful now!

So far, the project has cost me nothing other than the bottle of wood glue I’ll need to replace. I got the counter supports from Croft’s wondrous scrap bin and all the angle brackets and screws came from the dismantled dinette back. Under the dishwasher, I put the other dinette bench’s thin plywood covering and then a few spacers to raise the dishwasher up a few more inches. I’m running a test load right now and if I find drainage wasn’t adequate I can move the dishwasher up another two to three inches.

The only thing that hasn’t gone according to plan is that the hoses are much too long and inflexible to be poked through an opening and coiled away. Moreover, they tend to hold a lot of water, so leakage could be an issue. I therefore need to rethink how I’m going to store them neatly when the dishwasher isn’t in use.

Injury count for today was just one. No matter how many safety precautions you can take, power tools can be unpredictable. I managed to get hit in the right wrist by a piece of plywood flying at high velocity and the result was some pretty impressive cuts and bruises. Now that I have been properly injured while working on a reno project in Miranda she is officially home. 😀

Even though the project isn’t done yet, I can already see that it does not look too out of place. Using existing materials and components has kept certain proportions and enabled me to greatly improve the kitchen’s efficiency without compromising Miranda’s balanced layout.

Another thing I need to do is get some stools so that I can sit at the counter and work on the laptop or eat! It’s not obvious from the pictures, but I did build this like a proper sit-at counter, with the counter being wider than the base so there is space for my legs.

Wait till you see what I have in mind for the other dinette bench. But that won’t come for some time yet as I want to get this project buttoned up first.

Before making a hole in the paneling to feed the hoses and cord through, I wanted to make sure that there was nothing hidden within the two layers. So, I removed one side of the paneling and got an added benefit. The dishwasher has a bit of a bump in the back, which fits nicely between the supports, meaning I that I won't have a huge gap between the back of the cabinet and the dishwasher.

Before making a hole in the paneling to feed the hoses and cord through, I wanted to make sure that there was nothing hidden within the two layers. So, I removed one side of the paneling and got an added benefit. The dishwasher has a bit of a bump in the back, which fits nicely between the supports, meaning I that I won’t have a huge gap between the back of the cabinet and the dishwasher.

making sure the door opens free and clear

making sure the door opens free and clear

I've done a lot of recycling and rearranging of Miranda's components. The former dinette drawer is going to get a lot more use here.

I’ve done a lot of recycling and rearranging of Miranda’s components. The former dinette drawer is going to get a lot more use here.

I've only had that extra 2' of counterspace for an hour now and I already have no idea how I lived without it. I have a place to put a mixing bowl or to cut vegetables or to rest a hot platter!

I’ve only had that extra 2′ of counterspace for an hour now and I already have no idea how I lived without it. I have a place to put a mixing bowl or to cut vegetables or to rest a hot platter!

Next project is to put a shelf above the drawer for a garbage can. This is how I'm going to 'deal' with the cupholder holes in the counter; I can just drop garbage down them into the can. Shame about the holes, but I think that I've come up with the best possible solution to deal with them.

Next project is to put a shelf above the drawer for a garbage can. This is how I’m going to ‘deal’ with the cupholder holes in the counter; I can just drop garbage down them into the can. Shame about the holes, but I think that I’ve come up with the best possible solution to deal with them.