Home Depot Disenchantment

You know when you get the to the point of exhaustion with something? You feel worn out, tired, fed up...and then you start to see things differently?

Well it happened to me. In the electrical aisle of at Home Depot. I was not alone...These little outlets started to look like faces, and while Trevor was humming and haa-ing over breakers and whatnot.

But on another subject, not related to electrical products, I HATE STUDS. It is official. I don't want to buy any more, move any more, touch any more or cut any more. And I especially don't want to measure any more. I met and exceeded my limit of tolerance with these things last night. No. More. Studs.

We had to buy 24 (well, Trevor picked up 28) more and do a double trip from Home Depot last night because the car couldn't take all the electrical stuff and the studs at once (well, I disagreed with that, pack more in! one trip! one trip!). Then we worked until close to 10:30pm cutting and nailing the extra studs in. Good news is that we're finally very, VERY close to finishing framing. And we also were approved for our permit this week, so the inspections can start next week on the framing.

I can't wait until we get to the point where the flooring can go down and the paint can be put up. Soon! Soooooooon!

Vanilla Cupcakes!

I haven't had a lot of time to do the domestic goddess thing lately with the basement and endless reno's, but I put that all aside Friday night and baked up some treats. Ohhh KitchenAid mixer, how I've missed you!

Here's the recipe:
Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake
If you would like to make a layer cake instead of cupcakes, divide the batter between 2 (9-inch) round cake pans and bake the layers for 30 to 40 minutes.
Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing:
Vanilla Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream:
The vanilla buttercream we use at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners' sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 (9-inch) layer cake

So this is how the other half lives...

We went on a little spur of the moment trip to the Seattle Street of Dreams on Sunday. Nice break from the cave (basement). We got a few ideas on finishing and colours, but were mostly there to ignore the 'do not touch' and 'do not open' signs.
We got to ride on a school bus to the house site. That was fun. Please note the 'Body Fluids Clean-up Kit'.Nice planter! I'm getting ideas for next year already.Trevor on the security camera. When you live the 'life' you must monitor all who pass. lol*sigh* One day these will be my washer and dryer. One day...There was a big environmental theme, and they had these bee boxes set up to encourage the bees in your garden to move in. Those are probably the ritzy bee condos that most bees can't afford. Nice swoopy part of a back yard. Totally ugly. Uh-huh, would NEVER want something like that. And then we went for sushi. The end.

We watched PBS last night...

It was a slow TV night and the two of us were pooped, so at 9pm Trevor started watching some lame Jet Li movie (kung fu, bad guys, good guy wins, repeat) and I said, 'what else is on???'. Lo and behold, a show about people who own ferrets was on PBS. Interesting...we've come to the conclusion that most owners of ferrets are certifiable, but I did learn that these furry tube socks are really, really cute. And smart too! They run and play with balls and swiggle around making little grunting noises. Kind of like a limp and super stretched out cat crossed with a sea otter.

And I thought 'how cute!' up until they showed these crazy people taking their ferrets to a show, and one lady was bit in the FACE (well, nose) and had blood all over her. Her opinion of the situation was 'whoops! shouldn't have held the ferret up to my face! oh, do I need stitches?'. Yikes. Well, some of these critters do bite (mostly out of fear, which makes sense), but why then would you put them in a situation where they get scared? All for a little ribbon? *rolling eyes*

So I'll stick with my kitties for now. Less stitches, no shows, oh, and no tie dye t-shirts (which seemed to be the owner outfit of choice).

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On another note, the week has been fairly uneventful, but had these highlights:

- Trevor catching a vase that was knocked over by Lulu with his FOOT. I'm signing him up for the Cirque du Soleil, STAT. Early retirement!

- We had Darcy, our drywall guy come over last night to take a look at the basement and measure it up for a quote. I think his exact words were: 'I've never seen anything like this' when talking about how we could manage to get sheets of drywall into the basement. The stairwell is too tight and the only other option (we thought) was to cut a hole in the floor in between the joists. But Darcy suggested using a window to the basement to get it in. So we'll have to pop the entire window out to get the drywall in, but at least it doesn't have to come through the house to get there.

- I've enacted a day to have all of the reno's done. Well, at least the ones that are on the go at the moment. November 30, 2007 (have to put the year in there or we might end up pushing it to 2008). I want a living room for living in again, a hallway for walking in back, a spare bedroom that someone could sleep in and a basement that doesn't need anything done to it. Any bets on if we'll make it? All signs point to... ?

Crappity crap crap with a side of crap!

My new office in the basement doesn't fit my existing furniture here. *big sigh* I spent an hour yesterday playing furniture Tetris and whining.

Maybe I should just rent one of these and solve all of my problems:

Good intentions

So the weekend didn't go exactly to plan. I think we kind of forgot that framing has a few stages...and one of them happens to be a little more, what's the word...exact? When the top and bottom plates are being put up you can't really rush it (unless you want wonky walls). So that took a little longer than expected. But, the front half of the basement is done and the hallway and bathroom are starting to come to life now. This is the view from the office-to-be. Why look, there's a storage room!

I've also started to map out how the office will function, and playing around with furniture placement and layouts. Not the easiest thing because I'm trying to take all of the existing furniture that was purchased for an entirely different space and try to modify it for the basement. I'm going to put that all into Illustrator today and play around with it a bit.

What else...we had a lovely dinner and play around at Cynthia and Mike's place on Saturday evening...BBQ chicken, fresh from the garden lettuce and carrots (mmmmm!), tasty! It was a nice break from the basement dungeon we're used to.

I spent a little bit of time in the garden watering and doing maintenance. I'd really like to get out there with the pruners sometime during the week. Some plants are just going a bit to crazy, time to tame! I even managed to put up some neat mini-lights with little lantern things around them under the patio umbrella. Too bad I didn't find an extension cord to light them up with (so they're just for show).

And I took a moment to bug Lulu with the camera. Cute, non? :)

Goals for the weekend.

We're still working away in the basement, but we could be coming up to a big milestone by the end of the weekend -- completing the framing!!! Trevor's told me that this is his goal, and I think it's quite doable. This would put us ahead of schedule on our timeline by a smidge. Then we can call up our drywall guy next week and have him come by to measure up and give us a price. And then it's onwards from there!

Hopefully by Monday I'll have some photos of the framing to put up and ohhh and ahhh at!