Saturday Round Up.

Okay so technically it is Sunday morning but I am still not in bed so I am going with Saturday night. We have had a couple of dinners and some work done around here this weekend so let me catch you up.Friday night I got my pizza on. You can see here in the first photo that the kids were not happy about something. I think there was dissension over which movie should be watched or something along those lines. However, the post pizza politics were much more amicable and the evening went off pretty well. This Mrs and I dined or our classic salami (salsa salami this week) and vegetable pizza. Big chunks of zucchini were the star attraction.

Then this evening we had a plentitude of dishes cooked up for our gustatory pleasure. The first dish below was a noodle soup created by the daughter. We renewed the cook books from last week and she finally got to make something. She was a little disappointed at the lack of heartiness but she didn't fry the onions or mushrooms at the start and we didn't have any soup powder on hand. It was still nice. Very Japanesey in the subtleness of its flavours.

The Mrs. went to town with some panfried salmon in miso. This was a flavour revolution. From the soup to this was like dial up to high speed. Instead of a regular salad we had the family favourite veggies and dip. I am really starting to dig watching the kids with their own bowls of dip just powering down the veggies. The son had big love for the salmon too. The wife also cooked up the last squash from our fall harvest and put on some rice to close the deal. It was outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it. This is the youngest during preparation. He had had a big day crawling around and investigating things in the house. We are already getting ready for the sadness that the end of his crawling baby phase will bring.
However, life must go on. And on it went this weekend. I managed to get two coats of primer down in the entraceway and bathroom. White is bright. Both areas are so so much lighter than they were previously. And being done with the hideous salmon colour in the bathroom is truly a blessing. I only have to paint the bathroom door tomorrow and then phase two of home improvements will be done. For comparison I have brought back the before pictures. The after pictures are only after one coat of primer so things are looking even better now that we have two on. The question is whether to get a tint in the finishing coat or to just get some white and let the next owners decide on their colours. That is a tough call.

Say Good bye.

To all the wall paper on the main floor of our house. With the help of a handy dandy rental steamer it is all officially gone. And getting ready for sale season has begun.

Well this is what the before pictures look like. Yes the wall paper is all stripped out. Now it is time to fill holes and cracks, sand and smooth and get ready for the primer. Up first is the bathroom. We are definitely getting rid of the peach. I am thinking something lighter. Like a really light yellow/white. With white trim around the mirror and window.
The kitchen entry will be tied in with the rest of the house in a light brown or tan. The advice I have received it to stay away from anything with a red tint in it as that always ends up with a pinkish hue. Nice in a cheek, not so good in a living/dining.What you do not see in this next picture is the paper wall boarder that ran around the room transitioning the light green into the dark green. This room will most likely also get the tan/brown treatment. The look we are going for is uniform, clean, and light enough to paint over easily. Have had two realtors through and they were both very friendly. They had very different perspectives through which they saw the house. Differing takes on what should and shouldn't be done to the place. It has been really informative to have the two of them come through. Really hope the third guy gets back to me so that I can put these first two visits into perspective.

For dinner I whipped up a whole mess of pork stir fry. First mistake was listening to the Mrs and chopping up all the pork. Could have really used about half that much and would have been just as good, if not better. Second mistake was using the big fry pan and not the wok. Not as easy to mix and stir. Couldn't do as much with the veggies. Mistakes aside it was a nice dinner. I put a little sweet chili sauce on top of mine but everyone else enjoyed it as was. I had seasoned with salt, garlic powder, basil, vinegar and soy sauce. I also hit it with a little okonomiyaki sauce right before taking it out of the pan.
There was a little debate about the seaweed flakes on the salad this evening. The wife was trying to spice things up but the rest of us just wanted tomatoes and cucumbers with balsamic vinegar. Back to the grind stone tomorrow. Only seven teaching days left in this semester. Yee haw.