Hoelzli's House of Horror

It's Official

I am the mother of not one, but two teenagers now.  This is Rob holding his birthday "card" from our friends.  As there were three hockey games yesterday, we canceled Rob's birthday.

Well, that's not entirely true.  He got his present and now he's a Guitar Hero.  We just haven't had any kind of birthday dinner or cake for him and he might have to wait until March to celebrate his birthday.

Rob's hockey team is in the quarter-finals of the OMHA playdowns.  They won their first game and yesterday's game was canceled because of weather.  Hopefully, the team will make it today. 

Brian's team is also in the OMHA quarter-finals.  He's 1-0-1 right now.  It's a very exciting series.

And, the girls team I coach are in the middle of their Provincial play-downs and the league play-offs, so there is hockey every night and no time for birthday cake.

Still, I hear March is a lovely time for a birthday.

Kim

How Can There be so Little and so Much at the Same Time?

It's a busy time around here now that hockey play-offs have started.  That means we're really busy and the house is stagnating.

It's already February and the upstairs still isn't insulated, so of course there are no walls or ceiling framed and if there's no framing, there's no drywall.  Nothing is getting done.

However, it looks like there is a free weekend in March.  You wait until March and see how much work gets done.

Kim

Insulated and Opinionated

Paul insulated yesterday.  It was boring for the rest of us and a little annoying because the saw kept being used and I was trying to watch the episode of ER that I taped while I folded two loads of laundry. 

Our debate of the weekend was to hire someone to tape and mud the upstairs, or do it ourselves.  Until December, my vote was do it ourselves.  Honestly, once the mud person is gone, I'm going over it to make it perfect anyway and I didn't see the good sense of spending money on a professional coming in to do work I was going to re-do.

Now, I'm working full time and I'm pushing for the professional to come in so I'll only have to come in after and do a little clean-up of the work. 

Except I think I already convinced Paul we should do it ourselves. 

Sometimes it sucks to be able to convince people.

Kim

A Busy Week

There has not been much building going on.  Paul has been playing Mr. Mom while I have been working out of the house.  Brian is delighted by this situation as he's getting mashed potatoes made with cream and gravy at most meals.

I, on the other hand, will weigh 300lbs next months.

And the other exciting news from this week is that Rob is getting braces.  He is excited at the possibility of straight teeth.

Kim

An Island

The picture is a little dark but it's the beginning of the island.  Originally we weren't going to start it, but when something is burning on the stove, it's kind of handy to have a drawer full of utensils right there so you can stir.

That drawer of utensils had lost its home and had become rather nomadic in its behaviour.  It was on the floor, on the counter, downstairs, upstairs...and although nothing burned, it might have.

Speaking of which, ever see hockey skates after 5 minutes at 400 degrees F?  It wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Rob got invited to skate on the pond in the subdivision but his skates had been in the garage and were cold.  So far as I can tell, Paul turned the oven on to 100 F, turned it off and put in the skates.  Then I ran in the door, got told the game I was supposed to coach that night got cancelled and in the middle of trying to get groceries in, put them away, cancel everyone for the game, I turned the oven on to 400 F to cook frozen pizza.

Those skates were in the snow bank outside pretty darn quick.

The kicker was Paul standing in the doorway saying, "it smells like someone's burning something."

Kim

A Tip

If you get the Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker and you put one clove of garlic in and after shaking it look inside and think, "gee, that doesn't look like a lot of garlic", resist the temptation to put more in.  It is totally enough garlic.  Trust me on this one.

Kim

A Little Closer to the Dream

It probably doesn't look like much, but this is the start of my dream kitchen.  Incidently, the dishwasher?  It really is whisper quiet.  And in three loads only one item wasn't fully washed and I didn't rinse it as an experiment to see how well it would wash.

Right now, the stove is sitting by its lonesome in the middle of the floor.  Eventually it will be the centre piece in an island.  There will be two pendant lights (already purchased) hanging over the work space on each side of the stove and then a vent (to be purchased) to put over the stove.  I spent my Christmas money on a hanging light that matches the pendant lights that will go over the table. 

This is the first time we have had our choice of all six chairs to sit at for dinner because the table was always pushed up against the wall and we only had four to choose from.  The result of choice was a fight to convince Rob that the adults are to sit at the head of the table and then he couldn't figure out which chair at the side he should sit at.

Tonight, to celebrate our kitchen, I am cooking a mussel appetizer and then rack of lamb for the main course.  Garlic mashed potatoes and a sexy salad should round it out. 

As the big boy got up yesterday morning and discovered he had outgrown his uniform pants over the two week Christmas holidays, I need to make a trip to the uniform store for pants.  As it is near the only store that sells the Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker, which kind of looks like an adult toy, I am going to get one so my salad can be naked and sexy.  Only it will be dressed.  Just not with clothes.  I'm going to stop now before the scary search strings all find me.

Kim

The Inaugural Dish Washing

Yes, the dishwasher is running--and it doesn't leak.

This is what the kitchen looks like at present.  It's still not completely together, but it's getting there.  The sink is back on the main floor, the coffee maker is upstairs and the fridge is near the sink, which is handy.  The stove is still in the mud room and the microwave and dishes are still in the basement.  That stuff should move today. 

If you look close, there are still dirty dishes on the counter, despite having a working dishwasher.  That's because the dishwasher is full of clean dishes and it seems silly to carry them downstairs, put them in the cabinet, then take them out of the cabinet, carry the cabinet upstairs and then bring the dishes back upstairs to put back in the cabinet.  I'll just put them away when the cabinet moves.

This is the dining room at present.  Last night Paul told my friend that everything was coming out of the dining room with the exception of the compressor.  She suggested he take the table out of the living room and put it in the dining room and put the compressor in the living room.  He's decided she's right and he's going to do that.  This is the same friend who pointed out the folly of having an L-shaped counter when an island was so much better for traffic flow.  She's a genius.  And Paul listens to her so it all works for me.

Kim

New Year, New Kitchen

Happy New Year everyone!

My cold is better and the kitchen is two weeks behind schedule.  Sometimes, there is a schedule...like when Paul has three weeks off of work and we hope he'll get a certain amount done.

This is what he has been working on.  At the top there are two completed soffets.  We needed those to hold the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom.  They aren't hard to make, but they are very time intensive.  The long one required almost a day because that's a lot of little pieces of wood to cut and then screw together, and then hang.

Now, he's screwing in drywall.  Also, he has the connection put on the plumbing in the kitchen to hook the dishwasher up.  But it isn't hooked up yet.  I hope it gets hooked up soon because we have dishwashing detergent already and I was hoping to use it already.

Once the fridge was on place I realized that the island is going to have to move farther into the dining room.  That's okay because the dining room is big.  And it's okay because my mother told us a story about someone she knows who thinks the steam from her dishwasher is warping her cupboards on her island because they are too close together.  This will put a little more space between the dishwasher and the island.

We were hoping to have bedrooms by the spring but at this rate I'll be happy if the upstairs is insulated by spring...if for no other reason than we'll be able to get into the garage again once the insulation is out of it.

Kim

What Santa Brought Me

A head cold.  There were other things...nice things...but right now the head cold is taking up all of my time.

Kim