Oh yes, we have plumbing!!!

It's been a GREAT weekend--I ran a half marathon, Tavo has the cement backer down on the kitchen floor, our fridge, stove and fence are soon arriving, and OH YEAH--we have plumbing!! (no hot water yet, but jeeze, who cares??)

Work is coming along quickly on the red house--this was last week; currently they have the roof completed and new shingles. Hurray!



Meanwhile, we plug away at our current residence. Here's Tavo, grouting our new glass tile counter.



...a bandito stakes out the scene....


Not just any old bandito. A DRYWALL BANDITO!




After all this madness, I honestly have really REALLY slacked on my training, but I'd already paid the fee so I decided to go ahead and run the ING Atlanta Half Marathon on Sunday. Here's the pre-race eats. Chianti for me, Rogue ale for Tavo. Rosemary sourdough, jalapeño cilantro hummus, and "cave aged" gruyere. "Cave Aged" is the best adjective, ever.

Race goods--bars, peanuts, popcorn. I decided to run in my long sleeved Detroit shirt--it was 37 chilly degrees the morning of the race.

This girl doesn't care that its 5:45 am, 37 degrees, and she is about to run 13 miles. This is my "finishing strong" pose.


I did it! Though I went so terribly slowly I'm reluctant to post my time, let it be known that I was happy and jolly for the first 10 miles...then finally my lack of preparation hit. Pure stubbornness got me though, and I ran all but about 5 minutes of the race. I definitely ran the entire last mile! ("ran" being a synonym for "shuffled painfully.")

Ever the hard worker, Tavo laid the cement backer throughout the kitchen. We plan on tiling tomorrow.
Now...the moment you have all been waiting for. PLUMBING! Look at our gorgeous sink fixtures!! (please ignore the lovely blue accents on our wall)

Our enticing bathroom fixtures!
The finished bathroom--well, without paint and mirrors and shelving...but you get the idea.
Finally, our brand new hot water heater. Which will work beautifully...as soon as we get some electric wiring over in that direction. Slight oversight, but hey--cold showers are invigorating :)

day four without plumbing...

image created by Johan Steen

a visit, a fence, and a few beers

Mom and Dad came to town on their way back from Florida. We wasted no time putting them to work! Mom finished the trim of the house...
While Dad and Tavo spudded holes for our fence
Looking good! Nice smile, babe ;)
We also enjoyed some refreshing beverages.


I worked on drywall...no photos because it DEFINITELY is not photo worthy yet. Ready or not, here we come--moving day is tomorrow!

Pieces of a puzzle...aka flooring in an old house

First things first, we noticed that we have a little visitor...who seems to like my pillow.
little kitty feet!
There is a group of kittens who hang out across the street--and in our house, apparently. We just might pull an Urban Vegan and see if we can catch and spay/neuter them. Her story of Buttons is inspiring! I don't want a house full of kittens, though. Do any of you have experience with this? Suggestions?

So, onto the house. In order to do the finish plumbing, we needed to work on a few key things such as laying the subfloor and tile. And after working on this for a few days--we can tell you that NOT ONE wall in our house is straight or square. Everything is crooked! Here is the puzzle master, Tavo, contemplating kitchen subfloor.
Good job, babe!
ahh, bathroom is ready for some cement backer!
Spreading mortar on the plywood


Tavo ensuring the cement backer will stick.
checking and taping the seams
mortar and tile--11 pm on a school night, yet I'm ecstatic! We decided to stick to the classic tile look instead of trendy. It was difficult, though--there are some EXCELLENT tiles on the market.
and we're done for the evening. Grouting fun will occur tonight.


AD LIB
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Okay, so we have been tossing around the idea of doing the kitchen in solid black and white linoleum tiles. Kitch or poor taste? Please give opinions, as we will be purchasing tiles and laying them on Saturday. Also, take into account our already black and white bathroom tiles that can either be contained or continued...

This video seems relevant to our black and white tile argument, as beautiful people are dancing on a plain checkered floor.

We have been blasting the Manu Chao recently--so many good songs from this band! Check out 'Clandestino' before they yank it from every youtube site...

the rain broke.

Finally.

Shrimp Etouffee

This recipe is based on Katherine's Crawfish Etoufee recipe from her blog, Smoky Mountain Cafe Basically, I followed her recipe and substituted 2 lbs of shrimp for the crawfish. Additionally, I used a can of unsalted tomatoes instead of tomato sauce. The shrimp was added during last 5 minutes of cooking.

This etouffee has a TON of shrimp--the dish recieved 2 thumbs up from Tavo!
I swear, there is rice under there somewhere...
Happy kids, chock full of etouffee. Yep, I'm drinking pink lemonade out of a wine glass. Why not?



Dirty Dozen Brass Band--kind of a random youtube video. I remember dancing to these guys when I went to Mardi Gras in '98 (jeeze--that was a minute ago!)

more house! (I promise to get back to cooking eventually)

I have always had an irrational fear of basements. I really, really don't like to be underground. Even if there is a window, I still would rather be upstairs if at all possible. When I had a basement bedroom, I slept on the top bunk, right next to the window--as close as I could get to ground level.

This is why Georgia houses and their crawl spaces greatly appeal to me! While it would be unlikely for me to just hang out in a crawl space--it doesn't bother me to go on down and poke around. So here we are--hanging out in the crawl space, insulating our beautiful new pipes!

Tavo is reinforcing parts of the floor in the back room.
He also hung a screen door for the kitchen--a definite necessity!
Door in the evening light.
I have hardly been cooking at all. In fact, we never even ate dinner last night. We did eat breakfast however--thank you hotel for your fantastic breakfast buffet!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Caribbean food and some good news!

Yesterday, we went to Taste Of Tropical Caribbean Restaurant (couldn't find a website) on Lee Street in Atlanta's West End and it was FANTASTIC!! I ordered the Curry Tofu with yellow rice, broccoli, and plantains. Tavo wanted some macaroni and cheese, so we got that too. Wow! Really excellent, portions were huge and the price was right. This is the first time EVER that I have seen Tavo scarfing down tofu, saying, "This is delicious!" Very vegetarian and vegan friendly, and there is also a good selection of seafood, chicken, oxtails, goat, coco bread, stew, jerk etc.

Curry Tofu with broccoli, mac and cheese
Plantains


So--did we eat our delicious food at the hotel? Nooooo--we have been working on our little fixer upper house. And it is coming along! Nothing like a fire to get focused on finishing up the house!

Here's Tavo, watering our plants


The plumbing has been roughed in, so we're going to work on insulating and replacing the floors over the weekend.

This is the other biggie--we put down hardwoods!! If you are in Atlanta and need an contractor for hardwoods, our guy is excellent! He and his partner put this down in one day.


Lo and behold, we have a bedroom.

Such a difference from before!

the rest of our stuff is still waiting to be put away, but we're working on it. We're so excited to have a home!