Weekend Update – June 30 to July 1

I can’t believe it’s already July!  The abundance of flowers in the backyard tells that summer is upon us.

The roses are mostly gone with a few stunners left holding on to the last grips of spring.  The petunias are going crazy as they do.  The gladioli are so much fun.  They popped out this last week and are all abloom.  I want to mark which ones are red, yellow, and pink so that I can group them by color next year for an even more stunning display.

I also had my first harvest this weekend. A handfull of beans. I didn’t even bother cooking them. They were a little bitter and I think I’ll pick them younger from here on out but they were fresh and crisp. Still no tomatoes though there is a little one forming. Seems late but perhaps it just feels that way since it’s been so hot.

Vector is bigger and still helping Daddy whenever it’s time to work on a project. Unless he’s tired… then he just sleeps on a chair and keeps an eye on the situation.

This weekend we tackled a couple unexpected problems. Namely: Pantry moths. On Thursday evening we drove out to the container store to pick up a bunch of glass jars. My mom always had the flower and sugar etc in glass cracker jars. I’m sure hers were genuine vintage but I was in a bind and had to make do with new.

They look quite cute in the ikea cupboard we have in the kitchen and once I have enough space to spread out, I think they will be really nice. In the short term they are making it hard for the pantry moths which was definitely the goal. The 1 gal jars were $6.99 plus I had a 10% off coupon so $6.30 per jar. I bough 4 large and 4 medium sized jars. They aren’t all full yet but I’m sure I’ll come up with stuff to stash in them.

I also stumbled upon these at Dollar Tree of all places.

They are tall enough to store pasta which is great. I had some concerns that they may be the gross plastic that makes your food taste bad and is supposed to give you cancer. I figured I’d just risk it for $1 a piece. Turns out, they are BPA free:

Food Safe, Microwave Safe, Freezer safe, Top-rack dishwasher safe. Awesome though I don’t know of any dishwashers that would fit that container on the top rack. These will be great for dried beans, pasta, etc and they look like the perfect fridge storage for batched cocktails.

You can see the place is still a construction zone. Yes that is ram-board on my kitchen floor and yes, it is the most awesome stuff ever. I’m entirely baffled how it works. It’s waterproof, ding proof, cuts easily with a knife, 100% recyclable. It’s pricey at $31 for a 50′ by 3′ roll but def worth it. Without it, our floors would be a mess I’m sure. Anyways, I wanted to show you the excellent catfood container we picked up while we were at the container store. We think that’s how the moths found there way into the house. I also had this amazing realization that these awesome heart shaped food prep bowls I got as a wedding gift make the worlds cutest cat bowls. I feel bad using such a nice gift to feed the cat but it was so cute I couldn’t resist.

As far as actual house stuff, you saw above Stefan and the cat working on the dishwasher. That is now wired all the way back to the breaker as is the stove and the refrigerator. We have wires coiled in the basement and pulled through the walls for the under-cabinet outlets and lights. Those still need to be pulled back to the box in the basement but that is fairly low priority and doesn’t have to be done before the drywall is fixed. We still have a good bit to do before the electric is done in the kitchen but we are making progress. We are learning as we go and we are definitely getting faster.

Tomorrow is the holiday and we have big plans. We are going to finish up the kitchen electric and plumbing with help of Gold Medal Plumbing and Drain and get a big hole in the kitchen wall ready for the gas and drain for the laundry room upstairs. The kitchen windows come on Friday and If all goes according to plan, we will get those installed next weekend and work on water supply and electric for the closet/laundry room. Then we can have the drywall installed and start getting our kitchen to start looking like a kitchen again!

Have a wonderful Independence Day and don’t forget to remember what this day is all about!

Sarah