Asian Food Night

So, I threw all of the following (including my computer) into a pot and out came dinner! OK, maybe not. But it was still really easy.

I used Pioneer Woman's recipe for Sesame Noodles. And they are pretty amazing! And easy to make. I used angel hair pasta as I couldn't find Japanese style noodles.

For those of you who don't like tofu or are afraid of tofu, the next recipe probably isn't for you. However I love it and it's so easy to make. I used this Lemon Pepper Tofu recipe and I really enjoyed it. The tofu really soaks up the flavors of whatever you put on it and I love that.

To round out the meal, I heated up some veggies and tossed them in a little soy sauce and pepper.

And that's it! This meal takes about about 45 minutes to make and is really easy. =]

Chocolate-y Goodness. Sort of.

Well after painting non-stop for about 4 days, the house was looking quite gorgeous if I do say so myself. And then Monday and Tuesday of last week, the hard-working men from the floor company came to install these beautiful chocolate brown hardwood floors. I absolutely love how they turned out and could not be more pleased. After putting the room back together, I snapped these pictures to capture the progress so far. There's still more to be done, but I feel like I've reached a major milestone here!

The company that I chose to do the floors was a local business called Kemp's that my uncle who flips houses recommended. He's used them before and rates them highly. I went there first, but also decided to check out other places including Home Depot and Lowe's. The two big guns couldn't come close to Kemp's.

The prices included installation which was wonderful and they did such a marvelous job. They took up the old carpet in one big piece which is now being donating to the local Habitat for Humanity. That was something very important to me and I'm glad they did that.

I chose to have the hardwood go all throughout the first floor and it looks amazing. I wanted to have cohesion between all the rooms since the floorplan is so open.

As far as caring for the floors goes, the first thing I did was stick felt pads to the bottom of every piece of furniture in order to prevent scratching.

Also, Kemp's recommended using Bona hardwood floor cleaner and a microfiber cloth, which could be found at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I told her that I hadn't heard of that before and that I was planning on getting something eco-friendly and she informed me that it was "green"! I did some more research and then we made the trip to BBB and found a Bona starter kit that came with a spray bottle, mop with microfiber cloth, cleaning pad and all in a reusable bag for $20. I had a gift card so I just used that for the kit.

After the flooring had been installed, there was dust EVERYWHERE so I vacuumed really well and then broke out the Bona kit to get started. The mop came together with ease and then I stuck the microfiber cloth on the bottom and went to town cleaning the floors.

It doesn't take much of the spray to get the job done so I'm glad to see that it will last a while and also, Bona has coupons on their website for when I do have to get some more cleaner. =] Yay coupons!

All in all I'm super excited about the new floors and if you're interested, here's a close-up of the floor next to the window:

I was attempting to capture the "essence" of the floors in this photo. I'm not sure that I did that, but I tried. ;-)

I'm off to bask in the chocolate-y goodness!

Preview

Well, the craziness is over at the house. For now anyway. The painting marathon was successful and if you're interested, here is some documentation of the process. This is from before starting:

We moved everything to the center so we could get around the room easily.

After we finished moving all the furniture, we laid down a drop cloth and got to work. This was the first time I had painted in several years and it was fun getting back into the swing of it. I learned a lot of new lessons and I'm excited to paint more. =]

My messy, messy job of cutting in! Woohoo!

After all was said and done. I am very pleased with how it turned out!

More coming soon!

Captain's Log Stardate 40278.4

This past weekend was incredibly eventful. I painted. And painted. And painted some more. And then painted. Then slept. Then painted some more. For real.

Then after painting yesterday, we moved all of my furniture and such in preparation for the folks who came today to install the hardwood floors. They will be coming back tomorrow to finish up, but they made great progress. I'm so excited about seeing everything come together. So far it looks amazing! =] Making this house a home has been incredibly special and fun. I can't wait to do more!

In other news, I made this!

It's a makeshift version of bruschetta. I simply preheated the oven to 375 and chopped up some tomato. Then I put the diced tomato on a pan and drizzled the pieces with olive oil. Next I ground some black pepper over the top and sprinkled a little salt and basil on. While the tomatoes are roasting in the oven, I toast some bread (this was a nice little baguette from Publix) and shred some mozzarella. After the tomatoes roast for about 10 minutes, I pull them out and put them on top of the bread and of course, add the mozzarella.

I could pretty much just eat this for a meal, but don't worry, I feed my guests more than just bread. ;-)

Living Downtown

As I'm sure everyone knows, I don't live downtown. However, a couple of weekends ago I joined my family to visit my grandpa and his wife. After eating dinner, my sister (who is living with my grandpa until she finishes school at a nearby college) wanted to take us for a drive around her campus and afterward we drove around downtown where my pops lives. One of my favorite things about downtown is seeing all the gorgeous houses and yards. Take a look.

This house made me think of The Secret Garden with all the trees shrouding the house in mystery.... My sisters didn't see it though. How weird of them.

And I apologize for all the through-the-car-window shots. I have a lot to learn about taking pictures.

The prosecution would like to enter this photograph ^ as evidence.

We saw so many cute cottages. I was in love. Look at that sweet little walkway! Aw!

I will be moving into this beauty as soon as possible. I wish I could go inside!

I know, I know. Loving the stop sign in the corner aren't you? Anyway, this house was so much more beautiful than a picture could ever convey. But I still tried.

Craftsman-style houses galore! They make my heart skip a beat.

These people had so much land. I could imagine playing ultimate frisbee there every weekend. =]

Gorgeous huh? This is the SIDE of the house!!!

Ahhh, so beautiful. Let's all go hang out on that porch and have a glass of lemonade. =]

Anyone else love touring downtown for lovely homes?

Could I BE Anymore Excited Right Now?

Seriously.

The sofa has landed!!!!! Today after work my amazing uncle picked up this sofa in his truck and I followed him to the house staying close behind in case it fell off. It didn't. *whew!* And now I'm sitting here on the beautiful new couch typing this. AHHHH!

I love it. And I know you're thinking, "What's with the paint on the wall?" Well, I finally picked a color, but I haven't painted yet. I'm so excited to get started on that project though!

The couch is so comfortable and looks amazing in the room.

Yes, the plaid couch in the back is going to be out of here soon. I'm donating it. Although my uncle made a good point that we could seat more people if we left it. He said we'd just have to make sure all the tall people got in the back. Or we could put it up on risers, cause that would look sooo snazzy.

I also love this amazing couch because now I can do this

or this

or even this!

The possibilities are (almost) endless!

Now check it, I could have bought the PB basic at Pottery Barn (dare to dream) for $1399 on sale.

or I could have gotten the Bayside sofa from Crate and Barrel for $1699.

Or I could have ordered the Pine Point sofa for $1499 from LLBean.

But what did I do? Ordered the Linden Street sofa from JCPenney for $899.

It's not Pottery Barn, but I'm pretty pleased!