Out of control?

There's something I've gradually become rather obsessed with over the last couple of years...

Magazines.

I've always carried a few subscriptions - Cooking Light, Shape, InStyle, and Lucky, but lately, I've been picking up all kinds of new magazines, reconsidering my long-time subscriptions to some, and considering new subscriptions to others.

Todd recognizes the growing, um, interest.  When I casually mentioned last week that I need to start going through some of the old piles I have, he smiled and said, "Yes.  You do."  

It's not like I'm a hoarder and have a million back issues stashed in towers around the house.  But I do have several small piles, neatly kept, that I need to go through.  

I can't help it!  There are so many interesting magazines out there on every subject imaginable.  I like thumbing through a lot of different ones, some for the photos, some for the articles.  Usually, my interests are in fashion, cooking, and health.  Lately, it's grown to include gardening, farming and raising chickens.  Yes, seriously.

The pile by the bed.  This includes a tourism guide to Casper, Wyo., two Cook's Illustrated cooking magazines (a subscription I am seriously considering), Flea Market Style, Rachael Ray (she will be arriving in my mailbox soon), Marie Claire (one I'm going to drop), and a Mother Earth News...

I picked up a ton of bridal magazines right after we got engaged and still have a couple.  This pile also includes some True West copies, a National Geographic, a Wyoming Wildlife issue, Cottages and Cabins, Where Women Cook, and a High Roads and some History Channel issues I picked up two years ago from the Governor's Tourism Conference...

Ah, yes, a 5280.  There are a few of those in here, along with a Washingtonian left by Linds C. after her visit in March, a couple old Cooking Lights and a copy of Mary Janes Farm (one I considered but decided I was annoyed with after a while.  The title also bugs me.  What's up with no apostrophe anywhere in "Janes"?  It just doesn't make sense.)

For the record, not all magazines around here are mine!  Note the Game Warden International issue at front.  There's also a Fine Homebuilding copy in here as well as Consumer Reports,  Handloader, Quartermaster and Bugle - none of which are mine.  There are also a few National Geographics, a Wyoming Library Roundup, more True Wests and MORE 5280s(!), a New Yorker, a couple Backpackers, and an Audubon issue...

Oh my, what do we have here?  History Channel, 5280 (I didn't realize how many of these I still had lying around!), The Atlantic, Country Decorating Flea Market Style, Via, High Roads, Encompass (the last three are from the Governor's Tourism Conference), Good Housekeeping, and Journey Western, Westways, Budget Travel, Coastal Living and a Yellowstone Journal - all from that darn conference...

And don't forget the collection by the toilet: Lucky (one I think I'm going to drop), Fine Homebuilding, Shape, Cooking Light, Hobby Farms (the chicken issue), The Family Handyman, Wood, Bugle, American Cowboy, Woodwork, Wyoming Wildlife, and IHEA (International Hunter Education Association, and Wisconsin Natural Resources).  Obviously many of these are not mine...

What does this boil down to?

A. I need to get rid of all the magazines from the Governor's Tourism Conference.

B. Todd needs to whittle down a few issues himself.

C. I need to FINALLY flip through the remaining 5280s and get them out the door.

D. I need to firm up the magazine subscriptions I want (Cooking Light, InStyle, Rachael Ray, Cook's Illustrated, and Shape) and those I don't (Lucky and Marie Claire).

And maybe I should throw some books in there periodically...just a thought.  

Kitchen renovations continued

When you last saw our kitchen the floors had been redone.  We didn't have the Fabulous 400 stove anymore, and our fridge was in the living room.

All of that is still the case - and so much more!  

Here is Todd working on our breakfast nook.  We decided to take the wood floors out of here because they were damaged in places, and because there was a weird section of board that ran across the floor boards creating a cut out line that couldn't have been fixed.  So, we are instead going to lay brick veneer in this part of the kitchen.  We think it will look really cool...!

This is where I've been cooking.  We've cooked a lot on the grill and also this Coleman camp stove of Todd's! Thank heavens we have it...

We had to take all of our cabinets down so they could be rearranged to accommodate the new sizes of appliances we bought last Saturday.  The Fabulous 400 was a 40 inch stove and we did not want to drop the money on replacing it at that size.  So, we got a smaller stove.  But we also got a larger fridge. Todd will still have to build in a bit more cabinet space, but it will be an easier job than replacing several cabinet faces like we were afraid was going to happen...

Down came the old cracked plaster walls!  They were in poor condition so Todd and his friend Mike worked to take down the plaster and replace it with drywall.  The guys also ran a water line for the fridge (since our old one didn't have an ice maker), and a gas line for the stove (our old one was electric)...

We also decided to take down the soffit above the cabinets to let us move them up a bit, and to also give us more storage space above...

Todd and Mike removing the crappy dishwasher that didn't wash to make way for our new awesome one...

Mike is a master electrician and he's done a lot of work fixing the ridiculous electrical we have...

Todd chipping away at the old chimney to expose the brick.  I worked at it too (a little) - it's a bugger!

Ta da!  The fully exposed chimney!  In this picture it still needs smoothed down and a wet rag taken to it...

Drywall up!  And Mike taping and mudding.  Todd is taking a wire brush to the chimney to get all the last bits of plaster off...

Looking the other direction toward the breakfast nook...

I had washed several dishes which never got moved from the room before the guys started sanding the drywall.  Grrrrr...

Yesterday, a blessed, blessed day - our new appliances arrived!  Lulu is overseeing the job...

Our new fridge is the stainless one on the right and our stove is on the left in front of that black fridge...

Our appliances are inside...but they are all in our living room.

I think tomorrow is our magic day to get them all hooked up!

Small town service

The Rotunda lit up at night.

There are a lot of benefits to living in a small town, one of which is: you know people.

Some would argue this is a drawback of a small town, but for us, who are planning a wedding from a distance, having my parents know people is working in our favor!  

When my mom went to City Hall to get the contract for the Rotunda she learned the reception would have to be shut down by 9 p.m., and the place cleaned up with the key returned by the next morning.

Recognizing this would put an early damper on the fun, my mom told me, "I'll talk to the mayor."

When they finally connected, the mayor told my mom not to worry about a thing; we could have the Rotunda until 10:30 p.m.  And cleaning up?  Don't worry about it until the next day...

Nice!

We'll be inviting the mayor and his wife to swing by the party he so nicely let us keep going!

You sure wouldn't get that kind of help in the big city!  

Best BBQ rub - ever

Who loves grilling?

If your answer is "I do, I do!" you will need to make this rub the next time you are thinking about chicken on the grill.

I found this recipe a few years ago and it is PERFECT.  Delicious.  Perfect.

Quick Barbecue Chicken                              
(Cooking Light, Sept. 2008)

I quadruple the recipe and keep the extra in a jar for later!

1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
Olive oil
Chicken (I like boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but you could use anything.)

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly with a whisk in a medium bowl.

Cover the chicken with a light layer of olive oil.

Sprinkle the seasoning liberally over the chicken on all sides.

Grill OR cook in a smidgeon of olive oil in a skillet until chicken is done, turning chicken to cook on both sides.

Yum, yum, yum!

Hit the floor

Bit by bit our house renovations are coming along and let me tell you - it's lookin' good.

We had our wood dining and kitchen floors redone last week and they are beautiful!!

The first step was to remove this closet from the corner of the dining room...

It kind of sucks to not have ANY coat closet upstairs now, but it had to go.  It was ugly, not done well, and it really closed the dining room off.  See what I mean?  Look at how open it is now...

Next, down came the atrocious "window treatments".  I do not like that term.  Just say curtains for Pete's sake...

Then the flooring guys arrived...

One of our dining room walls bows out a bit away from the floor which is understandable for a house built in 1920!  However, this created a bigger gap between that wall and the floor boards in that place than in the rest of the room.  Since we can't just glue little ends of wood to each of the boards to make them long enough to reach the wall, and we can't take the wall down itself and rebuild it, we came up with another idea:  Put a border around the room to fill the space...

The only hang up with this idea was the dining room doorway.  Our living room is on the other side of that torn up entryway (that will eventually be tiled with granite) and basically mirrors the dining room.  To separate the living room from the entryway we had the guys add a turn board in Brazilian cherry.  It was only one board thick, which means the dining room entrance needed to be the same.  However, we were running two boards around the rest of the dining room.  Dilemma!  

We eventually decided to "stair step" the cherry boards to sort of angle them down to one turn board.  The result was perfect!  It looks kind of artistic, like a real craftsman did the work.  Here is the before in the middle of the sanding job...

Here's the whole dining room sanded down...

This is what we had them do in the corners.  I LOVE this herringbone work...!

This is the same corner all stained and finished.  Doesn't that cherry look gorgeous next to the oak...??

Here is another corner that I think came out pretty...

Remember the dining room entryway in its unfinished state?  Here it is finished!  We are SO pleased with how it turned out...!

The finished dining room...

Ok.  On to the kitchen!  A reminder of what it used to look like...

Cabinets, appliances (like the Fabulous 400), subfloor and CARPET removed!  Todd was ecstatic to discover we have birdseye maple floors in the kitchen.  Apparently, you never see this as flooring because birdseye maple is expensive.  And we just had it lying there all blanketed and cozy under some nasty grey carpet...!

Todd removing the plaster off the old chimney.  We're going to leave the brick exposed...

And the big unveil!  It really was an unveiling to us too.  Todd and I left for Missouri right before the guys stained the kitchen.  We had picked up some sample stain packets to figure out what we liked, but it turns out we didn't like any by themselves.  We decided we liked the lighter color we had chosen, but wanted a hint of red in it to warm it up a little.  Those were the last things we said to the flooring guy before we left.  He said he'd mix the stains and...we'd see it when we got home!

WE. LOVE. IT.

The entrance to the kitchen from the dining room.  We matched the wood pattern here to the other dining room entryway...

The full kitchen.  The floor in the breakfast nook in the back will be removed and most likely will have brick layed...

Check out the grain on this floor!  Todd about peed himself over the board that is four from the right...

How silky does this look?  It's like standing in little pools of melted gold...

So, we may have floors, but we don't have a kitchen yet.  We've been grilling out each night until we can get a stove - which will be very soon!

Stay tuned for what will eventually replace the Fab 400!

Chew toys

This...

This...

And a gold pair of heels that fortunately weren't expensive, but were still one of my most favorite pairs of heels that I have worn forever...

All have fallen victim to our teething puppy.

Let this be over soon.

Kicked to the curb

Last night something very, very exciting happened...

The Fabulous 400  left our kitchen for good!

Todd started renovations on our kitchen to prepare for the flooring guys tomorrow.  The nasty carpet - yes carpet - sub floor, and nails all have to be out before the refinishers arrive.  This meant the Fabulous 400 had to move.

I was so sad.

You should be able to actually hear the sarcasm in that sentence.

Going... (By the way, check out the corner of the dining room.  Todd took out a weird closet that was there.)

Going...

Gone...!!!!!!

That empty hole is a deep, deep source of happiness.

Todd pulling up the carpet...

The stairs to the basement covered completely, including the baseboards, in the same carpet as the kitchen.  Until you get to the landing.  The next flight is covered in orange carpet...

The point we're at now!  

Tomorrow we'll start the next step...sanding.