The One With Our Dining Room

I’d like to think that we’ve put a lot of time and effort into transforming our dining room from what it was when we first moved in, but really, nothing that significant has been done. Aside from purchasing the necessary furniture- uh, table and chairs, anyone? – there hasn’t been much else that we absolutely needed to do.

Sure, we’d like to add details such as a chair rail or crown molding, but my concern with those two features is that they won’t “match” the design of the house. For example, the edges of the dining room are rounded and go straight into the next room- ie: living room or kitchen. So, how would you ‘end’ a chair rail?

Crown molding would be easier since there’s a beam separating the dining room ceiling from all the other ceilings, but you would still be able to see the molding from the living room and kitchen- so does that mean we have to put crown molding everywhere? And our living room has partially vaulted ceilings- so how the heck do you install crown molding on that? Do you see where I make Brad crazy with all these questions/concerns when he points out that a chair rail in the dining room might look nice?

Although, he’s just as guilty as I am when it comes to making each other crazy with deciding house additions/modifications. For example, the color of the walls in our house is nice, but not our first choice. However, if we paint one room, we’d have to paint them all since its kind of an open concept layout. And with Brad checking the internet everyday for our next home, I’m hesitant to spend the time or money on a house that we may be moving out of in a year or two. We’ve agreed to spend money on things that upgrade the house itself- new landscaping, working garage doors, etc – but there’s really no reason to spend money personalizing the house to our taste since it’s not our forever home.

So, back to simple modifications and the mini-transformation of our dining room.

Here’s the area when we first moved in. No dining table yet, but plenty of moving boxes and wedding gifts. (This was a month before our wedding- so the room stayed like this for about 3 months)

Then Brad found an awesome, never-been-used, still-in-the-box dining table and chair set on Craigslist.

The room was like this for about year until we finally put the black chalkboard up and then found the most perfect jute rug. (I actually wanted this rug for the living room, but had to admit I was wrong when it looked horrible, so luckily it fits great in the dining room)

Then a few weeks back, we had Brad’s poker party on the horizon, so we decided to get new curtains, which also meant new curtain rods. And about an hour before people arrived, we finished hanging the second curtain rod (the first is in the wine bar room) and did some spot painting where the old curtain rods used to be. (Nothing like leaving painting to the last minute) No worries though - all was finished (and dry) in time and now I feel like we’re even closer to a finished room. (Still need something for the blank wall on the right and maybe a buffet table somewhere in there- but for now, it'll do)

The One Where We Should Have Been Videotaping

I just emailed this story to my mom and thought I might as well add it to the blog.

One night last week we discovered a spider on our ceiling and unfortunately, it was in a location that was extremely difficult to reach. To give you an idea- when you first walk in the front door the ceiling right above is vaulted to accommodate the 2nd story of the house. We have a loft and a staircase near the front door, but that little sucker was right when you walked into the house. And since the tallest ladder we own is a 3 foot step stool, there was no way we were going to be able to reach the spider by hand. (I'm sure Megan is having nightmare thoughts right now)

Not wanting to squish the little guy and leave a mark on the ceiling, I suggested throwing wet paper wads at it, but Brad was worried about leaving water spots. So, he suggests throwing a shoe or sandal at it, but I point out that I wouldn't be able to reach/clean if any shoe prints got on the ceiling (unless I use my wet paper wads method), so we nix that idea.

Then it hit me - we could throw a whole roll of paper towels at it! It's got the weight we need, but won't leave any marks! So, Brad does a couple wild over-hand throws first while I hold the dog back from attacking the falling roll of paper towels. After a few tries, I asked for a turn. Thinking I'll have better aim if I throw granny style, Brad warns me that it's a pretty far throw since we're doing this from the first floor directly underneath the spider. (Megan shivers and gags)

My first throw didn't even come close to the ceiling, let alone the spider (I could blame this on the height of the house, but really I think its from lack of exercise). Luckily, I managed enough strength to actually hit the ceiling the next couple of tosses, but it still took about 20 throws between Brad and I to finally knock the guy down.

We disposed of it, high fived each other and then I started cracking up and pointed out, "We totally should have been videotaping that because it would've been hilarious to put on our blog!"

Oh the excitement you'll find at the Carter House....

The One With The Smorgasbord Yard

In April of this year we shared photos of our back yard redesign and the craziness that is our front yard. Then a few weeks ago my parents came down to visit and provide some much needed help with the cleaning and organizing of our front yard.

The whole weekend was spent pruning, digging, planting and dropping some major moolah at Armstrong Nursery and Home Depot. Yet after taking some recent photos and comparing them with the ones I took in April, it really doesn't look like we did that much.

So in an effort to prove that we actually did some work, I'll describe what was done in the 'After' photos in case you miss the subtle differences. Here goes nothing...

Although Brad pointed out that the 'Before' picture looks more green and colorful, it also looks a little more wild- which was what we were trying to tame. In the 'After' photo you can actually see the stone pathway that wraps it way through the front yard. I actually like this stone detail because it breaks up the large space, Brad, on the other hand, doesn't get why there's a pathway that no one will ever use. You can also see our 2 new gardenia trees in the background that nicely break up the beige stucco of the house.

In this 'After' photo you can see we removed the dead bush that was on the right side of the 'Before' photo and added some new chocolate ajuga plants to line the very front of the yard.

The biggest change to the yard is this small strip of dirt on the left-hand side leading up to the front door. It used to have some spiky flax plants that kept growing into our walkway, so we replaced those with primroses, lily flax, azaleas and a gardenia bush. The 'After' photo also gives you a better shot of the gardenia tree we used to replace the pink bougainvillea plant that I swear was only pink for this one photo.

Unfortunately, I don't have a 'Before' shot to compare to this photo below. The reason why? That half dead looking bush was basically the size of us and threatening to take over our entire front porch. And since this particular bush is a major magnet for bees, we knew it needed to be scaled back in size. We also added some more primroses, lily flax and ajuga down in front.

That's all for our front yard. Not the most exciting adventure here at The Daily Carter, but we're a lot happier to drive up to a house/yard that we can tell is a little more clean and organized.

The One With A Kitchen Success

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a “Betty Crock” in the kitchen. But believe it or not, I finally had a success (actually two!) when I tried some new dinner recipes.

The first one was this zucchini and sundried tomato risotto recipe. I’ve mentioned before that I’m terrible at making rice- I actually use ‘Success Rice in a Bag’ for all our white rice dishes. So, I was definitely concerned that the risotto would not end up with the right consistency. Luckily, it did and Brad even ate the leftovers! Add a new recipe to my tiny cookbook- check!

Then last week I found this ricotta cheese gnocchi recipe. It’s not where you use pre-packaged gnocchi (which Brad isn’t really a fan of), but for this recipe, you actually make the dumplings yourself.

I should point out that I’m a HUGE lover of gnocchi. I could seriously eat these potato dumplings in various sauces all the time. I remember eating these almost every night the first week I discovered this dish back in my Florence study abroad days. Brad, on the other hand, doesn’t prefer the large and heavy dumplings, but occasionally he’s open to the idea of eating mini or baked gnocchi- especially if it's from a restaurant.

But for this recipe, the dumplings would be made out of ricotta cheese, rather than potato, so I thought Brad might be a little more open to this dish. (Plus I could make them any size I/he wanted).

First hurdle was actually making the dumplings. Here’s a photo of them before being tossed into boiling water.


Second hurdle was the gnocchi rising to the top of the boiling water - indicating that they’re cooked - which they did! Last hurdle was to not ruin the homemade tomato, basin and garlic sauce. And I’m happy to report that all turned out well and it’s another recipe I can add to the books!

The One With My Morning Drive

I guess heat waves and blackouts are followed by incredible clouds? I couldn't help myself from snapping photos of the sky during my drive this morning. Seriously awesome.

{That pole on the far left of this photo- that's "Brad's Pole". He designed the foundation and the pole itself and if you're ever in the car with him when you drive past it- he'll point out, "That's my pole".}

{Seriously- this looks like a painting that people would pay good money for!}

The One With In-N-Out by Candlelight

This might sound like a cheap, romantic dinner except that Brad had to ask what we were suppose to do during dinner without the TV on (like we’ve never enjoyed a single meal in our 9 years without the TV to entertain us). Did I mention that the candlelight wasn’t optional- it was necessary due to our blackout the other night?

After complaining about the end of a not-so-much summer, we were blasted with a heat wave on Monday that broke all utility usage records for San Diego. Therefore, at 5pm, our power went out.

At first I thought, ‘this will be okay’. No TV or internet means we’ll be able to get other things done, like Brad can study and I can clean and organize the house. Then I realized it would be getting dark soon and doing those things by candlelight won’t really work. So I figured I should get dinner going (on the gas stove top of course), but then remembered that it’s bad to open and close the fridge a lot during a power outage. Plus it’s about 80 degrees in the house- do I really need to make it hotter by cooking? Clearly, this is a sign to give me/Brad a break from my attempts at cooking.

So, just like in the old days - Brad went in search/hunt of food, while I created fire.

The One With Another Kobey Find

Along with our coffee table and guest room dresser, we also found these random barstools at Kobey Swap Meet way back in October of last year.

For the most part, they've been taking up space in our garage and occasionally get used as a last resort when we need a little more seating around our counter-height table. Last week, however, Brad was in charge of hosting poker night for his co-workers, so we figured it was about time to sand down and paint those barstools to avoid any random splinters in the rear-end.

With this project, there were definitely some lessons learned- the first one being to buy a face mask when taking on any sanding projects. After sanding (with a power sander) for about 2 hours, Brad insisted that I wear something to cover my mouth and the best solution he came up with was a dish towel wrapped around my face and secured with a hair clip. Also, it should be mentioned that I'm wearing dark sunglasses while I sand (since we don't own any clear goggles/glasses) and that I must look like some crazy bandit sanding away in our garage with the doors wide open for all the neighbors to see.

Second lesson learned- always buy the small, tester samples of paint and/or stain before splurging on the full gallon of paint. Our first idea was to stain the barstools with a cream/white colored stain, which was immediately vetoed as soon as we applied a thin layer of stain to one of the barstools. Unfortunately, we had purchased an entire gallon of this colored stain and really have no other use for it. Maybe Home Depot with take it back- anyone know?

Next idea- gray paint. This time we bought a small sample size of Martha Stewart's 'Zinc' gray and loved it. Back to Home Depot for a full gallon of Zinc (which would actually be a great second pet's name to go along with our Copper) and after two full coats on four barstools the gallon of paint is still about three-fourth's full. I guess our next painting project will have to include some gray?

Oh well- we learned our lesson and now we have 4 'new' gray barstools.