What's the opposite of praying for rain?

We're doing the anti-rain dance.

Quick upd..

The brick masons finished the foundation on Wednesday.  It looks really good, they also finished the brick work around the new window that was installed upstairs.

Thursday, Commonwealth's project manager, Steve, worked to prepare the foundation for the building of the frame.   When they dug the hole for our addition, runoff from rainfall has no where to go but towards the house.  So, Steve worked with a subcontractor with a backhoe to dig out and level the work area.  Its a huge mess now.  There's a 6 foot pile of stinky muck next to the back door now.  Steve installed a French drain around base of the new foundation that will eventually send runoff to the side yard.  He also lined the new crawlspace with a plastic liner and about 6 inches of gravel.  

Last night, we had several ferocious storms blow through!  Steve had carefully protected the new crawlspace with a plastic tarp, held up by some 12 ft 2" x 4"s  The rain filled up the tarp with water, and formed a pool that was about a foot deep!!!  I told Steve that I didn't remember the water feature in Susan Pierce's design, that I could try to find some Coy to compliment it! 

He got a real charge out of that.

I am going on a business trip next week to Orlando, I will post pix before I leave. 

I hate leaving M in the middle of the destruction but it can't be helped.

S'all for now,

cc

Mmmmm....Pah-scetti

I fired up the Nesco Pressure Cooker, the gift from our buds, Joe and Markles, and made my signature Spaghetti meat sauce.

The cooker has a BROWN feature that allows you to pre-cook everything before you apply the pressure setting.  Here's my sauce recipe:

on the BROWN setting:

1 lb ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 pkg of fresh button mushrooms, sliced (you can get these pre-sliced and cleaned)

2 tsps of Italian seasoning

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper

When the onions are translucent, ADD:

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

1 -14 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 -6 oz. can of tomato paste

STIR until well blended,

Place the top on the cooker and lock into place.  Adjust to HIGH pressure setting for 7 minutes.  Release the pressure and serve over cooked noodles.  I cooked them outside on the grill burner, which is actually not a bad way to cook them, you don't have to worry about spills.  

Dinner was ready in about 30 minutes, including prep time.  I usually make this recipe in a slow-cooker, and allow it to simmer on LOW all day.  

This was my first time using a pressure cooker, and I was only a little nervous.  My mother had a stove-top model from Mirro that blew it's pressure valve once!  I think it's still lodged in the ceiling of her kitchen.

S'all for now.

CC

Gratuitous Food Porn - Potato Asparagus Hash

I did this entirely on the grill, using the side burner, and setting up my griddle on the grates.

This recipe was adapted from a mushroom/asparagus hash that was in the WaPo several weeks ago, which is pictured above.  We had no mushrooms, but had some asparagus that needed to be used, so I improvised.  For the herbs, I have more fresh thyme than anyone could possibly use, (it's taken over!), I had some fresh greek oregano and some anemic basil that I started from seed in December and is finally looking like it might grow.  

Here's the recipe this served 2, but you could easily double or triple it.

2 slices bacon diced

2 medium potatoes in a 1/4 - 1/2 inch dice

1 red or yellow bell pepper diced coarsely

1 medium yellow onion

5 - 10 spears, of asparagus (depending on thickness) cut into 1/2 inch lengths

salt and pepper to taste

Italian herbs (optional)

4 eggs

Over a medium flame in a large skillet with a cover, render the bacon till crispy, remove and set aside. Add the potatoes, cover and allow to cook for about 3 minutes, remove the cover and add the onions and peppers. Partially cover, and cook for about 5 minutes. While these are cooking, cook the eggs sunny-side-up on the griddle, cook to desired doneness (We like ours nearly cooked through) and remove from the griddle and set aside. The potatoes, etc should be done by this time and slightly browned, add the asparagus and cover again, cook for about 3 - 4 minutes, and everything should be perfect! If you have fresh herbs add them right and the end cook for another minute.

Place a mound of hash mixture in the center of each plate. Arrange 2 eggs on each plate. Serve with a crisp white wine, and a small fruit salad.

Bon Appetit!

l8r,
cc

Week 4, begins...Progress!!

When last we left our intrepid and plucky remodelers, they were knee deep in muck as seen below. This was taken Friday evening. There is a concrete footer that this iron rod is set in that is underneath the 6 or so inches of bilge water.
Here's a better view of the completed footers.
Here's the tent structure that Dave built, as the weekend progressed the footers did dry out. The weather was spectacular on Sunday, May 10th - God's gift to Mid-atlantic Moms!

Here's the wide view, unfortunately, it got really windy on Saturday night and Sunday. The tarp was a casualty of the wind. All of those 12 foot beams that were holding it up toppled at some point, leaving only the roof part that Dave built. It did the trick, tho.

In order to accomodate the new roofline of the addition, we had to have our window upstairs replaced with a smaller one. Here is is below. We really like it! It's a Simonson window, which we'd never heard of (I'd only heard of Pella and Andersen windows).

Here's the wide view. The new window is in a small bedroom, we use as a home gym. The window to the left is my bathroom.

Monday, Steve came and the masonry guys were here at about 7am. There was an intermittant (and unforcasted, grrrr) rain, but they were able to get started and lay the new foundations. Most of this will be essentially invisible. The portion below will be under our new deck.

Below is the view from the rear. This will be about where the new fireplace will be.

Here's the side view on the side of the house.Here's a better view of the back.

Mom, here's the side yard. This is the Wygelia and the white azelea bush that's on the side of the house. Ironically, this has been one of the most beautiful Washington Springs in a few years, a perfect combo of a wet late winter, cool but not freezing temps and good luck.

Here's the front yard where they came in with the back hoe, it really tore the yard up.

Here's some interiors. This is the new hallway. Steve and Dave framed in our new powder room on Thursday and Friday, complete with new pocket door, that's the metal frame on the right.

Here's where the door to the powder room will be.

This is looking into the new kitchen. The back wall will probably be gone next week.

We're looking from the kitchen into the new dining room!

This was taken from the front door, looking into the new hallway.

So that's where we are. I think we're going to see real progress this week. Alan said that once the foundation is in place that the new structure will go up quickly. I cannot wait!

Dad Update!! My Dad got his staples out of his knee at 4pm this afternoon. He came home from the rehab facility on Saturday, and he's already making it up the 25 steps to his bedroom and the shower! I am amazed at his progress and terribly proud of him!

S'all for now!

L8r,

cc

...and then the rains came

So, on my way back from Dad's rehab facility...  

I came back from Alabama on Wednesday, and there was a new structure over the worksite.  Mike said that they started building it on Monday.  It had been raining since Sunday, HARD.  Dave built this impressive tent thingy over the whole shebang.  The yard is so swampy that we weren't able to get out in the yard and get a shot of it, but I will this weekend.

Below is how the new dining room/old living room is shapingup.  We signed a change order to install insulation behind the outside walls, where there was none before.
Below, that's looking into the old kitchen, and you can see where they have started to frame the new hallway.
Below are the new windows that have come in!!!  Woo Hoo!  They're HUGE!  They will crank out like awnings, and will be on either side of our new gas fireplace.
This is Steve, the project manager.   I'd not gotten a pic of him before.  He's standing under the new support beam that was just installed.  It's about 3 inches narrower than the previous one, the new dropped ceiling in the kitchen will cover it.
Ok, so here's part of the site roof that Dave built to cover the site, it's pretty impressive...however comma....
Water from the rains flowed through a low point and into the trench where the footers were poured last Friday.  You can see the rods sticking up from the concrete.
Steve set up a sump pump to get the standing water off, but it rained all day and  water kept coming in, via runoff.
I was joking with Steve and I said it looked like they were building us a lap pool!  He seemed very discouraged yesterday, because he said that when he'd left the site on Wednesday it's covered, drained and dry.  He was hoping the foundation could be laid on Thursday, but this is what it looked like when he arrived.

The forcast is for sunny weather today, but scattered showers tonight and into tomorrow.  We're supposed to get a break on Saturday afternoon and be dry for the next few days.  Hopefully, they will be able to get something done nextweek.

In the meantime, they will frame in the new bathroom, and remove the old skanky flooring in the kitchen.  They also framed in the entrance or stub-walls for the new dining room.  

They are a few days behind at this point, but Alan and Chris feels like they can get ahead if they can at least get the foundation laid and start on the new structure.  

More L8r,

cc

In Alabama 'til Wednesday

Happy Sunday all!

I am in Tuscaloosa, AL visiting while my dad is in a Rehab facility recuperating from his knee replacement surgery.

He's doing well, and the place is actually new and much nice than I was expecting. Other than some understandable pain and discomfort he's doing really well. He's going to be here until at least Friday, but I must return on Wednesday.

M's been tasked with taking photos, so my next update will be on Thursday.

S'all for now!

L8r

cc

Fixing a Hole

Not a whole lot has happened this week to update you on picture-wise.  They finished the trench f0r the footings, and poor Dave spent most of yesterday getting it ready for the foundation.  The Pipe that was found is going to be dealt with by Washington Gas, they believe it's not in use anymore, but the Commonwealth team has isolated it in a 'tray' of sorts, so that WG can cap it off or re-route it.

Last night I got home around 5:30pm and the concrete guys were still finishing up, I was a tad annoyed with Commonwealth, because they assured us that one of them would always be there when the subs were working, but noone was there with them, but they were outside, and they were in the process of covering the trench trench to lay the foundation today.  Fingers x-ed that it doesn't rain before they can do it.

Wednesday M went on an overnight to Philly for work.  I am leaving to go to Alabama on Saturday morning to visit my Dad, who just had knee replacement surgery.  He had the surgery done in Altanta, he's being released today, and Mom is driving him to Tuscaloosa to a rehab facility, I am staying until Wednesday.  

Have a great weekend everyone!

CC