Fireplace Facelift

One afternoon back in April I started peeling paint off of our mantel without really giving thought to how much work it would be to refinish the thing. At that time the only thing on my mind what that it was a travesty for someone to paint over lovely woodwork.

Ry didn't really want to tackle this job, full-well knowing the work involved, but I didn't give him a choice. Thankfully, he is sweet of heart and possesses home improvement skills. I am a lucky woman who is overjoyed for this change that improves the quality of our living space. We are finally on our way to a cozy living room after a year of sitting in the kitchen!


Peeling process. I helped with this stage, though I'll admit I helped with nothing afterward.


Sanding the oak after scraping and stripping original varnish.


Resting with mask on forehead, admiring hard work.


Applying new stain.


After the last coat of varnish.


Next step, purple living room! Hence the furniture pushed to the middle of the room. I dislike these colors that belong to the former owner with my whole soul. Glad we will have something new in the near future.

A Long Awaited Bloom

A few pics to show updates from our home life so far this week:


One of our orchids finally shot out a new bloom after two years! Today it started slowly opening.



Ry made a delicious Cook's Illustrated spring Pasta Primavera recipe featuring leeks, asparagus, peas and mint. Nummy.


This weekend I started dusting the living room, including the mantel and started this paint stripping project on a whim. Can't wait to see what it looks like once it's been sanded and refinished!

Weekend Yardwork

After a weekend spent cleaning gutters, raking, trimming hedges, cutting back heaping mounds of dead landscaping and storing away all of the patio gear (not that we have much of it)...I see why people always smile and say slyly, "so, how do you like home ownership?" Well, my answer to that question is even with the mucky, dirty and hard work, I still love it. It's nice to be tasked with taking care of something that's yours and working hard to that end.

I felt happy for the sunny and mild weekend, which made the outdoor work more enjoyable. We tied the beast up in the yard where he rolled around in lots of dirt and each of us set out to our own individual tasks. As we completed this work I couldn't help feeling satisfied that we have a modest home and small yard. I can't imagine what it would be like to complete these cleaning and maintenance tasks for something even twice the size of our small lot. Modesty is a virtue - it's gratifying to know that not only do we not need more, but that it would probably be really annoying to keep up with maintenance for something larger.

I was also thankful for the opportunity to try my hand at home maintenance tasks that have always interested me, but I wouldn't have been allowed to do in my family home because I was known (and still am sometimes) by the nick name "Brutus". Clearly my parents don't think I have a delicate touch. Point in case, I was not allowed to use the lawn mower or the exercise bike for the last several years I lived at home.

So, why would anyone be excited to clean gutters you might ask? For the sheer novelty of it, I suppose. But I also liked the additional perspective being up on a ladder, seeing our neighborhood and St. Luke's hospital for a different angle. I was closer to the birds and I could peer down on things. It was also interesting to see the top of our house. No big explanation there, I just liked being up high. It's also clear to me that our previous homeowner may never have attempted to clean the cutters during her tenure. They were filled inches of black muck that I had scrape out with a putty knife and lots of leaves on top of that.

Not a flattering pic in the least, but you get the general idea.

Gutter muck. It got inches thicker than what is picture here.

Bucket of gutter muck.

Additional tasks accomplished this weekend:

Ry - Put on storm windows, cut down several years worth of unattended undergrowth from our landscaped yard and bagged up lots of yard waste.

Brutus - Cleaned cutters, trimmed out-of-control boxwood bushes into sweet little topiary-like globes with a hand trimmer, raked the yard and stowed away fire pit and chairs.

Beautiful hawthorne tree berries.

I love this man. My little elf, messing around during a break from hard labor.

On a totally separate note, what's a Knudson weekend without cooking?

Ry made his typical weekend loaf of bread, a whole grain sourdough miche. We improvised a dish with Israeli couscous, a grain we've never cooked with before. And I made my weekly pot of Sunday soup. I realized that this weekend makes something like four or more weekends I've cooked a big pot of soup for the week. It's nice to see little traditions emerging that define what our family life will be like. We'll be out of town this coming weekend, but I like my Sunday soup tradition, so I'll try to stick with it.

Here are the vegan, gluten-free soups I've made over the past month, three of which were totally improvised and turned out deliciously:

Weekend #1 - Pureed Lentil

Weekend #2 - Tomato, Potato & Kale

Weekend #3 - Black Bean & Kasha

Weekend #4 - Butternut Squash & Potato Curry Mash

Yay for hard labor in the yard and new family traditions!

Sunday loaf.

Israeli couscous with steamed brussel sprouts and pine toasted pine nuts.

Squash innards.

Butternut Squash & Potato Curry Mash

Beast in the sun. I'm a little embarrassed how quickly I'm becoming a unabashed cat lover.

Painter's Tape

Well, we spent several hours at the house this evening preparing to paint the kitchen. Ry filled in all of the nail holes and we taped up the entire room with blue painter's tape (reminds me of hanging all those posters at NAU). It was tedious work because there are many nooks and crannies, as well as painted trim, cabinets, doors and window frames currently painted a few different colors. Now we are all set and ready to prime.

We spent quite a while checking out paint chips in Home Depot this past Saturday and took a whole pile home. After trying each genre of color we thought might work (variations of sky blue and lime green) we ended up selecting a greyish white called "Steam White". I ripped off the top of the multi-colored paint chip as we got ready to travel to my mom's for a mother's day dinner and Ryan joked that I should take the chip along to show her. I was intending to do just that, but he didn't know. It was silly because the little card just looked like nothing, not even worth bringing over, but I did anyway. Funny how a variation of white can have a tone and complement the other colors perfectly, but still just look like white when you hold it all by itself.

Visiting Hours

Over the past week we have spent every free minute we've had at our new house furiously cleaning. This weekend we logged some serious hours deep cleaning. The highlights today include washing the living room windows, window frames, kitchen cupboards and our pantry.

We had a train of visitors today, which was awesome and definitely made the work more enjoyable! First my Aunt Steph and Uncle Mark stopped by with a beautiful little flowering plant for our garden. We gave them a tour and as they were leaving my Mom came by to drop of a comfy anti-gravity chair and table which she does not need anymore. Then Ry's brother Jon and our friend Megan showed up to visit. They brought a beautiful little jar of flowers, which looked lovely on the triangular alcove above the sink. We gave them a tour and ended up drinking a few Pacifico Claras on the front lawn. After Jon and Megan left we got back to work for a couple of hours. Just as we were shutting up all the windows and getting ready to call it a night, my Dad came by on his bike scoping out an easy route to our house. All told, we had six visitors today!

It was wonderful to see so many loved ones. We marveled at the ways we think our life will change once we move out of downtown and off the Marquette campus. There are so many things that are barriers to having guests, a tough parking situation and round the clock receptionists monitoring everyone that enters, to name two biggies. Also, our new surroundings are so peaceful. Through the windows I could smell our flowering bushes, hear lots of signing birds and watch neighborhood kids riding around on their bikes. I'm sad to leave my ladies, but this is going to be a wonderful, positive new change.

P.S. I'm also extra sore after squating to scrub the baseboards and repeatedly climbing up and down the step ladder. Hopefully home ownership will prove to be positive for my physical health as well...more cooking, more time on my feet doing yardwork.