Dusting of Snow

Well, it is that time of year -- we have had our first dusting of snow in Western Washington today (overnight).  When we woke up this morning, it was on the ground and it was not currently snowing. It wasn't much snow at all -- really a dusting!  The temperature didn't get much above freezing today but the sun was out; so, some of the snow melted.  It is supposed to be dry for the next few days and colder than usual, so we'll be bundling up.  Except Indy, she loves the colder weather -- it energizes her.  Just what we needed!  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Pacific Northwest!  It has been unseasonably warm today and yesterday (about 60 degrees).  Although it is still cloudy and a bit drizzly, we will definitely take the warmer temperatures especially in the month of November.

It was a pretty quiet Thanksgiving for us this year -- we enjoyed a FANTASTIC meal at home, just the two of us. Since we are starting to re-model our master bathroom, we couldn't really host anyone, nor did we want to go anywhere.  Our bathroom has been in need of re-modeling since we moved into the house, but we'll save that for another blog post.

The plan in the Edmonson Household is always to eat around 2pm, so as usual, Kristina upheld the tradition. She planned for 2pm and everything was ready at 2pm -- ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Jared is always amazed that Kristina pulls that off.

Kristina took a PTO day yesterday and spent the day chopping and making pies.  She made Jared's favorite pumpkin pie with the pecan streusel topping, chocolate cream pie, and a sour cream raisin pie. The sour cream raisin pie is from Kristina's childhood -- her grandmother used to always make it, and she doesn't have the recipe, so she continues to look for one that will be close.  It is a rich pie and while this recipe was close, it wasn't quite there yet -- she will continue to search.

Today was all of the traditional items.  First thing this morning she got her crock-pot dressing in the crock-pot. This is one of her favorite recipes -- it just sits in the crock-pot for as long as you like and stays super moist. Here's the recipe that serves as her base recipe, but you know Kristina, she never follows a recipe after making it the first time.

After that she got the dough for her homemade cloverleaf rolls going.  This has become a bit of a tradition with Kristina.  She and her brother first made these together in 1997 when he and Stephanie came to visit -- and she had continued to make them ever since then (so has he). 

The turkey was all ready to go into the oven soon after that.  It had been "dry" brining in the refrigerator since Sunday, so all she had to do was take it out of the refrigerator an hour before popping it into the oven (so that it could come up to room temperature).  Kristina used a new recipe for her turkey this year, and it was fantastic. She plans on keeping track of this recipe and using it again.

Once all of those things were going, she had a few moments to relax here and there -- although, not for long. In addition to the items already listed she also made mashed potatoes, creamed peas, cranberry sauce, and stupendous gravy. Gravy isn't one of Kristina's strong skills, but she totally rocked it this year. She was channeling her Grandma Hill as she made her cornstarch slurry and began whisking it into the drippings and juice from the turkey.  She didn't have a recipe, she just went with it -- and it was GREAT!

Here's a shot of the fantastic meal before we sat down and ate...

Not a bad spread for two people and a dog!  After dinner though, we promptly cleaned up and headed out for walk.  Indy needed it, and so did we!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Master Bathroom REMOVAL

And so it begins.  Luckily for Jared (or maybe unlucky?), he has the entire week of Thanksgiving off while Kristina has to go into work (her PCBAs came into the plant the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving -- of course!).  That being said, he was able to get started and make a huge dent in the bathroom remodel.  He started with removing the toilet.  We put the the toilet in when we moved in (something about other people's toilets grosses Kristina out).  So we will be re-using the toilets in the new bathroom.  Good toilets are hard to fine and we like the ones we have!

Next Jared removed the vanity and the mirrored cabinet over the vanity.  Indy had to come in and check out the work and make sure Daddy was doing a good job.

After that Jared ripped out the shower and the rest of the tile on the floor along with all of the drywall on the walls inside the closet and the bathroom.  Luckily for us we had no major surprises that derailed us.

The sub-floor and ceiling will be the next things to go.  We have to remove the sub-floor because we are moving some plumbing, HVAC, and electrical.  Kristina also wants to insulate the floor REALLY WELL so that there isn't as much sound travelling through the floor and walls.

Master Bathroom BEFORE

We decided to finally bite the bullet and spend the money to re-do the master bathroom this winter. The bathroom has been in need of serious re-modeling since we moved into the house, but considering it was a complete gut job, it fell down on the priority list until now.  But finally...it is time.  Here are a few BEFORE shots.

The bathroom isn't very large, but it is large enough. However, the use of space is not very efficient. Plus Kristina has never been a fan of walking in and seeing the toilet right THERE!

The vanity was gross.  It has some serious water logging going on from 20+ years of use or should I say abuse.  Plus, many of the drawers don't open and close very well. There was the tiled counter top that just asks for crud to build up in the crevices.  The mirrored cabinet over the sink was no prize either.  Every time I opened my side, it squeaked -- and there was no amount of WD40 that was going to fix it.  Plus the inside was pretty gross too. Kristina immediately put shelf liner on the side right when we moved it because who know what had been there!

Here is one of the most difficult showers in the world to keep clean.  Jared has literally used his drill with an abrasive brush to clean the grout it gets so gross.  And the shower is just small and not very relaxing to take a shower in EVER!

The master closet is probably small by most people's standards, but we are not huge clothes people. So it suits us just fine.  Although it needs some reorganization to maximize space as well.

And this fan IS THE LOUDEST FAN in the history of bathroom FANS.  It gives you a headache just turning it on, so you never want to turn it on -- hence the problem. This thing also has heat integrated in it and is a HUGE power hog.  This will definitely be GOING!

And as you can see, Jared has prepped the hallway and stairwell for lost of deconstruction traffic! What a great husband!

Wish us luck because who knows what we will find!

October Rain

Wow...October was a wet month for us.  Normally, October is dry and cooler and known as "Fogtober".  However this month, we received 7.71" of rain here in Cottage Lake.  Thinking back through the month, it did seem like it was raining most days -- and from our count, it rained 17 days out of the 31 days.  And almost all of the days had at least a quarter inch of rain and we had 3 days that had an inch.  So as we were saying it was a wet month!  The creek behind the house is flowing and yesterday Kristina had to go down the street when she and Indy went for their walk because she couldn't make it over the creek without getting soaked.  :)

Hope everyone had a good Halloween -- can you believe it is November already?