Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Cooking In 320

Well, more like ~250. I've had some people ask about the kitchen details, so I thought I would post tonight's early dinner.

Last night while watching TV, I roasted a bell pepper, some kind of sweet and very hot pepper, about half an onion, and almost  a pound of tomatillos.

I threw all of that in the blender this afternoon, and made this.


 I also made some rice.

"But wait", you say. "How did you roast things with no oven?"


 Our valiant little toaster oven lives underneath the pots and pans, and has so far broiled chicken, baked desert, heated leftovers, and now, roasted.



The chicken tenders were pan-fried due to a time crunch-- Alan and I are back at school and he needed to leave for class.
























In about two days I will finally be posting pictures of our wonderful bathroom. It took a long time to get it painted because I am lazy, and it looks quite a bit better now.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Three months since the first pier was poured.

Hooray, it's our 3 monthiversary!

To celebrate, I took some pictures. Here's the official, still kind of messy and no-you-can't-see-the-bathroom-until-I-paint-it tour! 


  At the front door, looking right.
  Continuing through the living room. Those folding chairs are our temporary dining chair solution..
 Against the north wall, looking south. The computer setup seen here is also temporary. My chair (still to be purchased) goes in between the t.v. stand and the bathroom wall-- I face Alan.












The bedroom.

















The  view from Alan's side of the bed.



And a reminder... 3 months ago, this is what our house looked like.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Apologies

I'm sorry I haven't updated recently-- we took a mini-vacation last weekend, and now I'm recovering from a pretty awful sunburn (don't put on sunscreen in a t-shirt if you're going to be in a swimsuit). 


Not much has happened, construction-wise. Our roof is now painted with white elastomeric (rubberized) paint, both to waterproof any little things we may have missed, and to better reflect the sun away. Our bathroom..is functional, but not painted. That's my job, but since I can't reach above shoulder level right now, it will have to wait. 


At this point, since we have been living in here for a while, I can say there are a few things I would have done differently. 


  • Use a new container. The dents/dings/wavy walls and uneven floor have lead to noticeable "offness" in the finished house. Not much, and I doubt someone who hasn't seen every inch of this house inside and out for the past 3 months would notice it, but I do. 
  • Mock up the interior dimensions with string and see what you actually have to work with, furniture-wise. It turns out our planned sitting/dining room area just wouldn't fit two people in chairs, with room to walk around. What we have now isn't bad, just not what we thought we would have. so, we have an awkward outlet up on a wall that the t.v. will no longer be covering.
  • Don't do it in the middle of summer. Now that we're in finish and clean-up mode, it's very hard to get up and go outside when your home is all lovely and comfortable!
  • Carpet, maybe. With three cats, a long-haired dog, and the desert dust, mopping and dusting is a daily chore, and when it's not done, the floors look very messy. With carpeting, you could go a bit longer aesthetically, but then you'd be grinding dirt into your floors..
  • More skylights! I love our 'atrium dining room' and wish we had the forethought to put one in the hallway as well.
I will update later tonight when things have been cleaned up (and the laundry is done and put away!) so you can see what we're working with currently. It's not perfect, or done, but very very close. 

Monday, August 1, 2011

Cats do not have to be shown how to have a good time, for they are unfailing ingenious in that respect. - James Mason

Unfortunately for them, their new favorite piece of furniture is quite temporary.


 The cats have officially moved in, and are quite comfortable.







 



The door in the hallway leads to...














This. The bench seat/top lifts off to reveal their catbox and room for a spare container of litter. Please excuse the mess on the porch, we had some rain and had to get things under cover quickly.

 Our kitchen is also done, and this is why we left a 'blank' in the cabinets-- dog and cat food storage and feeding area.




In the bottom right corner you can see our 'dining room'--a gateleg table from IKEA that is very small when folded