Alternative Acres

Yesterday I started to tile the fireplace with some leftover slate from the kitchen.  I got the surrounding part finished but had to stop there as I’m coming down a head cold and just plain ran out of energy.  The slate is very thick and heavy compared to ceramic or porcelain tile, so we had some trouble getting it to stay in place with the mastic.  It kept wanting to slide down the wall, so I tried a trick I learned from watching This Old House.  I just drove a couple 10 penny nails under the tiles to keep them in place.  When everything is dry, I’ll just pry out the nails.  Another trick I’m trying is to leave the spaces between the tiles a little wider than usual to give the illusion of these being actual stones set into place as opposed to just tiles.  I can’t give This Old House credit for that idea – this one’s all my own.

With the help from Erin’s dad we FINALLY got the vanity in the upstairs bathroom. It sure is nice to not have to brush our teeth in the kitchen sink amidst the dirty pots and pans.

It feels like it’s been a long time since either of us had a paintbrush in our hands, but we mustered up the willpower to prime the fireplace surround this weekend. I also finished the trim around the kitchen island so we can paint that soon. Erin looked through our blog and found that it was a month to the day since we last painted. The break from painting was badly needed.

When we moved into this house with its copious amounts of countertops we decided that we weren’t going to take up a bunch of it with our microwave. We don’t use the microwave very often, except for the occasional bag of popcorn or defrost of meat. We wanted something that would fit in our pantry, and our current microwave was too large so we gave it away and bought this small one. Since we don’t use it that often, we put it on a power strip so we can turn it completely off when not in use (when plugged in, most microwaves use some amount of power to display the time).

Our miserly ways combined with our energy star appliances have already started paying off – our first month’s electric bill (where we actually lived in the house) was only $38! I think our lowest electric bill in our last house was at least twice that. I was gloating about this to Erin, and she had to remind me that our winter propane bills would be much higher than we’ve ever seen, but at least for now I’m happy with our savings.

The shades that Jane ordered for us finally came in this week! They are EcoSmart insulating shades and I’m really glad that am posting about them because if I hadn’t looked at their website, I would not have known they were eligible for federal tax credit! They were a bit on the expensive side (although they were really not that bad for custom blinds) so we only got enough for the living room for now. Eventually we’ll do the other rooms as budget allows, but the advantage of living here in the country is that we don’t have any neighbors around to peek into our windows.

We were a little stumped when we first looked at window treatments as to what to do. We have such beautiful casings around the windows, so we didn’t want to cover those up with draperies. Jane advised us that something simple and in the window would be the way to go. They should provide insulation and privacy when rolled down, but not impede the views of the countryside. I really think that these blinds do the trick perfectly. They are unobtrusive when up, and look really nice when down. And the best part about these is that there are no cords – you simply grab the bottom and place the shade wherever you want and they stay right there.

We put this light fixture up in the dining room above our new table. Erin’s mom commented that we have “such a great sense of style”, to which Erin replied, “I’m not sure why, because we only buy things on clearance”. We are consciously going for a collected, gathered look. We feel it’s more comfortable than a house where everything matches. If we wanted that, we’d live in a McMansion in a subdivision with white walls and beige carpet. We didn’t care for the chairs that went with this table, so we didn’t buy them. Someday we’ll find chairs that we like and then the set will be complete.

Erin and I are both so happy to have a working kitchen again.  The kitchen in our new house is so much bigger than our old one and we can both work without constantly running into each other.

Earlier this week, Erin stopped by the Ypsi Farmer’s Market (which runs Tuesday afternoons/evenings and is conveniently located directly across the street from where she works).  She picked up some zucchinis, a nice baguette, and some pimento cheese from Zingerman’s Creamery.  We made a wonderful roasted zucchini soup for dinner and had some bread, cheese, and salad as a side.  It was a great dish for a cool summer evening.

Last night we made up some Indian food. We are lucky enough to live in a very culturally diverse area being so close to many colleges and universities, and there is a plethora of asian, indian, arabic and other specialty food stores around. We stopped in an Indian store a few weeks back and bought 2 bags of groceries for only about $20. We estimate this meal, consisting of palak paneer, dosas, pampadams and chutney cost only about $5 with lots of leftovers. It tasted as good as anything we’ve ever gotten in a restaurant! It was very easy to make (all the packages had english instructions), and fun to cook. You can learn a lot about a culture through their food, and you don’t always have to take an international flight to do it!

Hasn’t been an update in a while – apologies for that.  We managed to get moved in thanks to my parents, Jamie, and George.  We could not have done it without them.  I do get to return the favor when I help George move into his new house next weekend

Just because we got the majority of stuff moved over doesn’t mean the work is over. Due to busy work schedules for both of us, we had to return immediately back to work the Monday after moving. On top of that, I spent every night after work loading up the truck with stuff from the garage (we ran out of room in the moving truck) and fixing up/cleaning up the old house in order to prepare for the renters. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it was about 90 degrees every day that week on top of things? We were able to finalize everything with the renters and handed over the keys last week. The renters are very excited about the house and I’m confident that the house is in good hands.

We have been enjoying trying out all our new appliances.

…although it did require reading the instructions to figure how these newfangled devices worked. We watched in awe as the washing machine washed our clothes; and had to check it often to make sure it was still running because it was so quiet!

We both have a three day weekend starting today so we’re finally going to be able to some serious unpacking. And then maybe we’ll have a big bonfire with all our boxes to celebrate Independence Day.

We’ve moved into our house!!!

So sorry for the huge lack of posts lately!  We’ve been so busy getting ready to move, then moving, and today – recovering.

We are so happy.

This is home.

We PROMISE to update tomorrow with a ton of pictures.  For now – we’re off to bed after another full day of work.  Today however, it feels very different.