Odds and Ends, Recipes...Hey, Variety Pack Day!

Yay everyone, it's Variety Pack Day!

Great photo by Mike of our block, huh?  The composition, the colors...yeah, nice work babe!

Even though Mike has a-ok'ed the paint in the foyer/stair area, I'm kinda at a standstill until I can find a carpet runner for the stair.  And damn if we don't need a boatload, crap.  My calculations came out to nine yards!  Holy poop that's a lot.  We've got eleven stairs then a roomy landing with a ninety degree turn then the last two steps.

Ripping out the icky nasty cheap a** carpet down to the bare wood, or just painting it might freak Finny-boy out as slippery and scary so that's clearly something we'd like to avoid.

I did pick up some non-slip paint additive powdery stuff at Menards but when I read the back recently it said the stuff is known in California to be cancer causing.  Back to the store that will go.  Yikes, huh?!

So, yeah, trying to figure out an affordable stair runner option.  Project in limbo.  Really aching to get that done.  Boo.  Sigh.

Heh, I did, which reminds me thank you self, tape up some happy bright color paint chips in the stair for Mike to take a look at.

Bright.  And happy.  Cheerful colors, indeed, yeah?  (Oy I hate that dog vomit yellow color.  Sooo much.)  I pointed them out to him the other night and what did he say?  Heh, "I'm leaning towards those two near the middle."  The darkest, most saturated ones of the bunch.

Huh?!  What the...who the hell are you, he who doth not like dark colors?!  I was astonished when he wanted dark for his office; he's been anti-dark, well, always.  "What?!" I said, "you're leaning towards the darkest colors up there?  I thought you wanted bright, happy."  "Those are bright and happy," he said, skipping away.  Sooooo confused!  That guy, man, always keeping me on my toes.

The reminder is I need to dig out my bag o' chips again and tape up some new options for him.  Heh, that guy!

In the mean time....that fancy pop up drain I purchased for our master bathroom vanity?  Yeah.  It is a drain of pretty good quality, it's well constructed, heavy, feels sturdy, the pop up operation is strong.  But now it leaks when the drain is closed.  The water, whoosh, just runs bloop bloop bloop right out.  Not even two and half months later.  BummmMer.

Oldy photo for ya.

Bigger bummer?  We're out of Amazon's return/refund phase.  The only option they had for me was to contact the manufacturer.  Which I did.  I sent an email, got no response.  I called, spoke to someone who took information and said someone would call me back.  A week went by with no word so I called again.

The guy I talked to next seemed rather distracted.  Not listening.  His product knowledge left a lot to be desired.  He asked that I send my receipt and photos which I obliged.  He wrote back offering to replace the drain with something completely different, the drain that is shown with this faucet which is not the faucet we own, saying the drain I purchased may not entirely be compatible with our super gorgeous Kohler Vox* sink.  Ummm, ok?  Huh?

I wrote him back and said, um, yeah, no, please explain the compatibility thing and no we can't do that drain because our faucet doesn't allow for a lever type.  Which is why I bought the drain that I had.  Can't you send a replacement of the one I have or similar?  No word yet.  Frustrating.  And confusing.  They will hear from me again.  Squeak squeak goes the wheel.

The dresser.  Aww yeah.  The dresser.  I am so, so, so thrilled with the way it turned out.  Mike loves it too which makes me smiley.

Looks great, yeah?  All juiced up with the Howard Feed-n-Wax,* black paint retouched.  Way better than it did to begin with for sure.  It makes my tummy flutter with happiness.

Lookin' good there, hot stuff!

I added a shelf to one of the workbench tables.  I used up the last of my 2x and just need ughhh, only 17.5" more!  Heh!  Always the way, right?!

Yeah, that shelf is heh, yeah I know, way shoved up under there but that's ok.  It holds whoo-ha like my soldering iron, rotary tool, hot glue gun, box o' bits, sandpaper, ya know, smaller items.  But it sure alleviated the cacophony on the lower shelf all right.

Got some more reworking of the basement done as well and it's suddenly vastly better with another few moves of things, a shelving unit removed.  Mike, not-noticer of seemingly smaller changes, was duly impressed saying the basement looks quite improved.

Yes, I know, I already hid that pile in the middle and it's back out.  I'm going to try some Space Bags on that pile, first time ever for Space Bags.  I always made fun of those ads too.  May eat those words.

Yay, we like that.

Gotta. get. rid. of. that. awful. paint. and. chair. rail. though.  Ugh!!

I managed to drag in one of those record cabinets today (repeat link, sorry).

Chalk paint?, I think my mom said.

And heh, finally opened it up to take a look!  They've only been in our garage since, I dunno, last summer?  Pathetic, I know.  Sheesh.  Anyway.

Needs some help.  The interior appears to be mostly laminate with maybe Masonite?  The exteriors of the doors from what I can tell are veneer and by a worn corner, the top is too.  No markings on the piece other than No. 46 on the back and a few other illegible numbers.

Worn corner on the top.

So, we will see how this puppy cleans up.  Yay, more stripping!  Love it.

The handles are cool, yeah?

So now it's recipe time!

We went out to my parent's house for dinner last night which is always nice.  I brought dessert as is typical.  I made this Apple Cake.  I hemmed and hawed on this one.  That's a ridiculous amount of oil which seemed totally gross but I thought well, maybe with the flour/sugar/egg/apple quantity, it'll be ok.  The batter came out like a paste, so odd.  After I unmolded the baked ring and touched it, I panicked.  Super greasy.  Quickly I thought what if I sub a cup of butter but I didn't have enough walnuts nor apples to start over.  Rats.

But I, in crazy jiffy-ness, because I'm a dessert nutcase, whipped up a stand-by Chocolate Bread Pudding recipe rapidly as I was running out of time before having to leave.  A few alterations of course -- leftover challah, part heavy cream, less cinnamon, only one egg, and a dash of bittersweet chocolate.  (I'm wondering how it would turn out if I made the bread cubes into large fluffy bread crumbs instead, hm....)  Anyway, no one ate them but please, they've gotta be nummy.  I mean, chocolate.  I will have one tonight!

I brought the cake with anyway.  My folks said they liked it.  Unless they were being polite.  Mike, eh, not so much.  When we got home, I got the scrunched up face with head shake from him when queried.  "Don't make that again."  I, I had doused my piece in whipped cream so I can't say for sure.  I wouldn't suggest the Apple Cake recipe though -- take the share as a friendly advisory warning.

So that's the word, my friends.  Hope you had a great weekend!  Mike has the next two days off, woo hoo!  Very excited.  See you later this week!  xo

*The Kohler Vox sink and Howard Feed-n-Wax are Amazon affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!