house – Page 2

House Update #3! – Tile Overload

05. February 2014 · 52 comments · Categories: house, life · Tags: house, tile, windows

Well, I haven’t done much cooking lately, and the cooking I’ve done didn’t get photographed, so I figured it’s time for a house update.

I showed you recently that our house has a new roof! And now, after being delayed for over 2 weeks, we finally have new windows!!! I’m super excited about this because these windows were about to start delaying our project, but luckily the contractor could mostly work around it until they finally arrived in the nick of time.

Of course I forgot to take a pic with the windows completely in, but here’s a progress pic when they had removed the upstairs windows but hadn’t put new ones it- i.e. there were two gaping holes in the house. They were there installing when I took this pic, though. They didn’t leave the house like that!

House New Windows

If you look very closely, you can see the new triple windows on the ground floor. So pretty!

I also went to the new tile store a couple weekends ago and finalized all my tile selections. I also met with the tile installer so I finally know the amounts of tile I need and can place my order.

I should really create a moodboard, but for now I’ll just tell you the following:

Master Bath:

Our master bath is going to have a stacked slate ledgestone wall behind the vanity as like a feature wall. This is the stone:

Here’s an example of something similar to what I’m planning that I found on Houzz (my favorite website):

Traditional Bathroom by Tucson Kitchen & Bath Designers Arizona Designs Kitchens and Baths

The vanity is going to be a custom rustic wood piece I found on Etsy. I’m very excited for it to arrive. They’re also going to make me matching rustic wood mirrors. I’m still deciding on sconces but our faucets are going to be Oil Rubbed Bronze finish.

Because I really want the accent wall to stand out, the floor is just a basic ivory marble like this:

The shower is just plain ivory with a 5-6″ strip of slate tile accent border that coordinates with the accent wall.

I don’t know what to choose for the counters! I have a feeling it’s going to be ivory of some sort as well, although I’d like to bring in a different color from the slate that would go with the wood vanity.

Hall Bath:

For the hall bath I found this really fun penny tile that I’m also going to have going up the entire wall behind the vanity:

The mirror will be set into the penny tile and framed out with a white border tile.

The faucet finish is chrome, along with the light fixtures. The floor is going to be a plain white marble. And the vanity is going to be a basic natural birch piece.

3rd Floor Bath:

For the 3rd floor bath, I’m reusing the pedestal sink from the old bathroom. The floors are going to be this blue/green porcelain:

You can’t tell much from the pics, but it’s a really interesting tile.

The shower is going to have white subway tile with the prettiest irridescent mosaic border!:

I’m very excited for it.

Laundy/Mudroom:

The laundry room is going to have an antique terra cotta looking tile:

The desk/cabinets in there are going to be sage green :) I really wanted them for my kitchen but my mom convinced me to stick with a basic white in the kitchen.

The only tile I haven’t decided on yet is the kitchen backsplash. I think I’m going to wait on that since, as my mom pointed out, I could totally move into the house without a backsplash. I’d rather wait on things I don’t ahve to do RIGHT NOW, as I already have 10,000 other decisions to make…like my lighting fixtures- the current bane of my existence :(

A new kitty portrait and a new roof!

21. January 2014 · 98 comments · Categories: crafts, house, life · Tags: custom pet portrait

Well, I’ve been doing some cooking but I haven’t had the energy to take out my camera, so no food pics for you this week. But I do want to share that I made a Wild Rice Mushroom Soup that was seriously amazing and then I happened to stumble upon another great recipe- Tortellini with Italian Sausage, Fennel and Mushroom. I highly recommened you guys make both of them…YUM. Unless you don’t like mushrooms, sorry!

I’ll be back soon with a recipe but in the meantime I thought I’d share some things with you :)

First, our new roof is on! We went with the “Slate” grey color. It was the second darkest color other than black. It’s much darker than the previous roof, which I’m happy about. Here’s the “before:”

And the “after:”

They were roofing the day I took the pic, hence the garbage sitting on the roof. It will look a lot darker once we get the house repainted I think. Also, there was frost on the roof which is also making it appear lighter than it actually is. And yes, I did blur out the info on the giant sign in our yard in case you were wondering.

Apparently the framing inside the house is complete now and the subs (the electrician, plumber and Heating/AC guy) are there working this week. It’s moving along!

In other news…

So in addition to making Nate’s mom granola for Christmas, I also painted a new cat portrait for my blogger friend, Emma! She had inquired about commissioning a portrait for a while but finally decided to tell her boyfriend about it so he could take matters into his own hands and turn it into a pseudo surprise xmas present.

Emma has been wanting me to paint her kitty, Beata. I have to say that Beata is one of the most beautiful and photogenic cats I’ve ever seen! It also helped that Emma’s boyfriend sent me a great pic to work from. He told me that it was very important that I capture Beata’s “milk stain” lip and white paws, as they are her trademarks. Also, she has the most beautiful blue eyes!

I know I say this every time, but I think this is seriously my favorite portrait I’ve done so far! The picture I had to work from was such good quality that I even decided to attempt the background, instead of doing my usual solid color. I also chose to wrap the painting around the sides.

I got this kind of varnish to put on top and protect the painting and I stupidly got the “satin” instead of “matte” finish, making it shiny and hard to photograph. Actually the best pic I got was with my iphone before I put that varnish on:

I’m happy to say that Emma loved her Christmas present! Emma, you’ll have to let me know if Beata approves too ;)

House Update #2!

12. December 2013 · 81 comments · Categories: house

Time for House Update #2! If you missed the other house posts, you can check out the first floor and second floor tours, and Update #1.

So the asbestos has been removed from the basement and the framing for the whole house is almost done. The roof on the back of the house was supposed to have been removed by now to make room for the large 3 window dormer for our finished 3rd floor.

I stopped by the house on Wednesday to take a look around, and i’m so excited to show you some progress pics!

Entryway:

Living Room:

Notice that the door that was leading to the dining room is now closed off.

View from fireplace towards front door:

You see those pieces of wood on the floor? That’s framing out where the front hall closet will be, and Nate’s built-in desk/bookcase backing it, in the living room. The frame behind the front door is for the powder room.

Looking towards living room windows from what will now be the hallway:

view from living room windows towards the new hallway to the kitchen/dining rooms:

Kitchen:

um yeah, there’s no exterior wall on the left there…just a tarp…

Den:

Ok, let’s go upstairs. Sorry I should have taken more pics up there.

Master Bedroom:

view from new Master bedroom “through” the new walk-in closet to the master bathroom:

While I was in town on Wednesday I also stopped by the tile store because I had an appointment with the woman who’s been helping me, to try to finalize the rest of the tiles. I got there and was told she hadn’t come in that day. When I expressed exasperation, explaining that I had come all the way from NY because I had made an appointment with her, they told me that she had actually quit that morning without notice. Can you believe that?

I felt really bad for the store. You see, it’s a carpet and tile store and she was the ONLY person in the tile dept. All she left were some cryptic notes that the other person in the store didn’t understand and the person working there said they couldn’t help me. I basically scrambled around the store on my own for an hour trying to figure out which tiles were by which manufacturer. I think I managed to figure most of it out but who knows if this store can even order the tiles for me now. UGH. Needless to say I was stressed.

I tried emailing the woman who had helped me, even though she quit, to ask her if she could tell me the manufacturers and she emailed back saying it sounded like I was “fishing” around for the best price and she wouldn’t help me. ?!?!?! I wrote back saying that I actually was planning to use that store but that the guy there couldn’t help me because her notes didn’t have any info and that I was happy for her to just give the store the needed information, and that she didn’t have to give it to me directly. Seriously though, what nerve!

Since I basically figured it all out on my own, I may just take the info to a different store now, although I do feel bad for the store I was using :(

Anyway, this is starting to remind me of my wedding, where every person I worked with had something bad happen to them. I’m not sure if I told you guys this during the wedding planning, but first the calligrapher I was working with got cancer and had to quit…and then the woman who was making my jewelry’s husband got in a plane crash (he was ok, don’t worry). I feel like I should warn people before they sign on to work with me on anything!

I also stopped by the kitchen store to approve a sample they got of the stain color I’m going to use for the island. I think I like it although I wish the finish was a bit more matte. The woman said she’d speak to the cabinet company and see if they could do that, so hopefully they’ll be able to.

Finally, I stopped by the lumber place to pick out my doors and stair rails/ballusters. I haven’t finalized my choices, but I’m heading in the right direction. Basically I’m going to try to copy what is existing, to preserve the integrity of the house, and to match stuff so we can reuse it if possible.

It was a whirlwind kind of day! So anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll try to remember to take the exact same views for next time.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!!! Have a great weekend :)

Peppermint White Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake Bars

03. December 2013 · 144 comments · Categories: Baking, Dessert, food, house, life, recipes · Tags: cheesecake, christmas, holiday, peppermint, Thanksgiving, white chocolate

I hope that everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My family had Thanksgiving in Manhattan this year, for the first time ever.

This is the last year that Nate and I will be living in NYC, and the first that we were actually here on Thanksgiving, so my parents, brother, Nate and I decided to go to my office to check out the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Macy's Day Parade 2013 ~ ElephantEats.com

Snoopy!

It was a pretty awesome view since my building is right on the parade route. The only problem was that the balloons were kept low to the ground this year because they were worried about the wind, and the floor we were on was pretty high above them. It was still closer than I’ve ever been to the parade though!

We took a nice family photo on Thanksgiving but I think my mom is using it for her holiday card, so you’ll have to settle for this pic of just me and Nate. I think I dressed for the wrong holiday :)

Yes, I’m really that pale…

Actually, I think my outfit is kind of appropriate for this post, since it matches this dessert I’m sharing with you. I don’t know why but I just got this idea of peppermint white chocolate cheesecake bars in my head and couldn’t get it out. I had visions of these swirly pink and white bars perfect for a holiday dessert.

These definitely need to be refrigerated overnight if you like them to firm up a bit, but they’re more on the softer side of cheesecake bars- this is according to Nate who likes cold, dry, hard food. If you leave the candy cane bits out of the batter and just sprinkle them on top, they should firm up a little more, but I thought they were perfect!

Oh, and for another house update, since you guys seem to love that so much :) :

The contractor had told me at the beginning of last week that he was pretty much done with demolition and would start framing by Friday. On Wednesday he texted me, saying his guys had removed the ceiling in the basement and found some asbestos underneath that had been overlooked when they did the asbestos removal back in August…UGH!

He told me that he called up the company that I had used for the removal before and they said it was ok for him to work, but he thought it would be best to wait til Monday when the asbestos guy would meet him at the house to check it out. Because of Thanksgiving, that only meant one day of work (Friday) would be wasted.

So Monday, my contractor had a smaller than normal crew there working and the asbestos guy came to assess the situation and gave me a quote for removing it ( $$ :( ), but the good news is that he can do it this Thursday and that the contractor can continue to work in the meantime.

But the exciting part is that I took my family over to the house on Friday since my brother had never seen it, and when I opened the door, I was SO surprised. There are NO WALLS in my house at all! Like completely gone…all that’s there are the studs. I had NO idea they were going to remove every single wall!! It was so crazy to see the house that way and I’m sorry I don’t have a pic, but it was getting dark out. I should be able to take one before they put up the drywall I think.

Anyway, I’m so psyched :) It totally made this project feel like it’s really happening!

Oh yeah, and on Friday morning my mom came with me and Nate to the bath store and we managed to pick out pretty much all of our faucets, sinks, toilets and a bath vanity. Still a few more things to decide but good progress. Thank you, Mom!!!

Peppermint White Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake Bars

2013-12-01 14:43:51

Creamy cheesecake squares with a festive minty swirl!

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Ingredients

2 cups finely crushed chocolate wafer cookies (about 35 cookies)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
4 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened (I used two light and two regular)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
6 oz. white chocolate chips
red food coloring (I used 7 drops of red liquid food coloring)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
3/4 cup crushed peppermint candy canes (about 6 oz), divided

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom of a 9x13 pan.
For crust, mix crushed cookies, 2 Tbsp sugar and the melted butter. Press mixture evenly into bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 min then set aside to cool while making batter.
For filling, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, sour cream and vanilla with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs until blended. Pour 2/3 of batter over the prepared crust, spreading to edges and set the remaining 1/3 of the batter aside.
Put white chocolate chips in a microwaveable container and microwave 1 min at 50% power. Stir well. Continute microwaving in 30 sec increments, stirring well in between until melted. There can still be a couple solid pieces- do not over cook!
Stir white chocolate into the 1/3 of the batter that you set aside. Stir in about 6 drops red food coloring (or enough to give a pink hue), along with peppermint extract and 1/2 cup of the crushed candy canes.
Put the pink batter on top of the white batter in the pan in 5-6 large blobs, making sure to leave white in between. Drag a knife back and forth through the batter to create swirls.
Bake for 35-40 min or until set (a knife pierced 1" from edge comes out almost clean).
Cool in pan for an hour or so, and then cover and chill for 4-24 hours. Cut into bars and sprinkle with remaining peppermint candies as desired.

Notes

For slightly firmer bars, leave the chopped peppermint out of the batter, and only use as a garnish.
Best served after being refrigerated overnight.

By https://elephanteats.com/

House Update #1!

15. November 2013 · 106 comments · Categories: house, life · Tags: house

For those of you who like to know about how the house is going, here we go!

For those that don’t care, feel free to skip this post as there’s no recipe. But next week I’ll have a Thanksgivukkah recipe coming your way! :)

So today (Friday), I’m going out to NJ because I’ve officially chosen a contractor (!) and he’s going to do a walk-thru of the house with me so I can point out everything I want to save. I want to preserve as much of the original house as I can, both because it will hopefully save money and because the house is 85 years old and I want to be sensitive to its history.

We’ve already begun work on the detached garage. We removed the very cracked and old concrete floor and poured a new reinforced slab. We also had to reframe the door opening because it had two old doors on hinges, with each opening from the middle. Here’s the “before” garage pic- sorry for the cut-off pic, but the contractor took it:

Anyway, as much as I would love to keep these awesome doors, we really don’t want to have to get out of the car and open them every time we want to pull inside- there is currently no electricity out to the garage. Can you believe the little 96 yr old lady who sold us this house used to get out and open those doors??

Since we’re installing an electric door, we decided it made more sense to have one big door instead of two small ones. If we had kept the two small ones, they’d be really really narrow. But because there were two doors there was a column between them holding up the front of the garage. In order to get rid of that structural column, we had to put a big header over the door.

That has now been completed and we’re just waiting for the door to be delivered so we can install it! I’ll add a pic when it comes in. I tried to pick a door that looked very similar to the original doors. Here’s a pic of the style I chose. They look like they open on hinges like the original doors, but they really go up like a typical electric door:

Ours will be all one piece tho, not two separate doors. I may paint the trim like the existing doors, though not green…i’m thinking black perhaps, or gray. I dunno. The “hardware” isn’t included (like the handles, and fake hinges if we want them), but the door company charges an arm and a leg for them. You can get cheap ones at Home Depot which is what I think I’ll do and just install them myself.

As for the house, the architect finished up the floorplans and here they are!!! I’m so so excited. Sorry they’re kinda blurry. I couldn’t figure out how to get them the right size.

I’ve included the current floorplan so you could see the difference. I already gave you a tour of the inside of the house’s first and second floors, but go check that out if you haven’t seen it. Pardon all the call-outs and measurements that gunk up the new floorplan drawing. Hopefully you can read around them.

First Floor Plan “Before”

First Floor Plan “After”

Did you SEE MY NEW KITCHEN?! How glorious is it? :) Oh my gosh, guys, I’m going to cook you so much yummy food in that kitchen!

Here’s the second floor:

Second Floor Plan “Before”

Second Floor Plan “After”

That whole front part of the house is the Master Bedroom suite!

And here’s the third floor where there is currently only an unfinished attic:

Last weekend my mom came into town and we went tile shopping. What I learned is that all pretty tiles are really expensive :(

I ended up making most of my decisions for the bathrooms though, so that’s good. If you know me at all, you know that I’m extremely indecisive, so this was a big step. Thank goodness I had my Interior Designer mama there helping me out or it would have been futile.

I think maybe in these coming months I’ll post moodboards every so often for the various rooms, showing the color/decor that I’m thinking. Would you guys like to see that?

Sorry for the photo-less and recipe-less post. I hope to have more updates soon. The house is supposed to be done in 4 months! I can’t believe it :)

House Update #3! – Tile Overload

A new kitty portrait and a new roof!