2010 April «

April 18, 2010

Sun Room Progress

Last week I got the itch to start working on our sun room floor project. In a Tuesday night frenzy I decided to rip up the carpet and old linoleum tiles…and in my frenzy… I forgot to snap a true before picture! To get to our current state it involved many hours with a wall scraper, scraping away a miserable layer of foam and adhesive.

This is what we’re currently left with:

As you can see, it look’s pretty bad but let me tell you, this is a huge improvement over where we started. That old saying is definitely true…. things have to get worse before they get better! Today we picked up some adhesive solvent to get rid of the remaining layer of gunk, as well as our floor paint. I decided to go with outdoor porch paint in a shade of light gray. I’m thinking the outdoor grade paint will provide us with a nice durable finish. I cant wait to finish prepping the floors and get them painted!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

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April 14, 2010

Bulldog PSA!

So this might sound a little strange to most people…but…Bowser looves watermelon, almost as much as Mike and I love to watch him eat them! It’s pretty much guaranteed laughter for us since he’s such a clown.

I haven’t found anything to suggest that this is bad for dogs, and we make sure to buy the “personal” watermelons that seem to be seedless. I think bowser will be getting watermelon’s all summer long!

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April 8, 2010

Should I go Red or Brown?

No, I’m not talking about my hair color! I’m actually talking about mulch…..planning on doing a little landscaping and gardening clean up this weekend now that its not supposed to rain anymore (woohoo!) and I’m trying to figure out If I want to make the switch from red cedar mulch to a more calming and organic brown.

This is what our front landscaping looked like last summer when we bought our house:

I really want to work on creating a more cohesive look this spring…it’s looking a bit random if you ask me.

While I think the red is nice, I’m kinda thinking this is a little bit too much of a good thing, especially next to our very red house. Since most of our plants are relatively young and aren’t fully grown, we have a ton of empty space and exposed mulch. (some of which I’m hoping to fill in with a few more plants.) I’m thinking a more neutral and natural brown would look so much better!

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April 1, 2010

Cold Weather Comfort Food

I love making traditional comfort foods – especially on cold and rainy days and this week it was meatloaf. Sometimes I think meatloaf gets a bad rap. It’s name doesn’t exactly scream fine dining….and it’s the kind of food that I think can go south pretty easily. (think bland loaf of baked meat) Well I have to say, my meat loaf recipe is quick, easy, and anything but bland!

A pound of lean ground beef combined with a finely diced onion, a few table spoons chopped parsley, salt & pepper, seasoned bread crumbs, a spoon of roasted garlic puree, one egg, and a few shakes of my favorite dried herbs along with a savory blend of worcester sauce, ketchup, and brown grain mustard – bake for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees. This meat loaf is wonderfully delicious! I especially love it served along side garlicky mashed potatoes and honey glazed pan roasted whole carrots.

I’m glad we snuck in a few cold weather favorites this week since this coming weekend is supposed to be beautiful!