Category: Home

This post is a day late, but I ran out of time yesterday to write. We renovated our backroom/sunroom/mudroom/new pantry back in 2008. I remember because a huge chunk of ice slid off the upper room and came through the mudroom roof. Since we had to renovate anyway, we decided we would make it a 4 season room.

We took out inefficient windows and put in new sliders. Then about 5 years ago, the first set of windows got cloudy. A seal must have broken. Then the same thing happened to the second set, then the third. It sucked that we couldn’t see out the windows well anymore, and it didn’t matter if I cleaned them or not; they always looked like shit.

We decided to see if we could order new windows, not the frames, just the windows. We got the company’s phone number from Home Depot to call ourselves. It was so long ago we weren’t in their system.

Marty called American Glider and got the sweetest mid-western woman on the phone. He explained our situation thinking the windows were out of warranty. She said they weren’t they stand behind their product. We would be receiving 3 new sets of windows for free! We are never lucky like this. Yay!

We got 5 of the 6 windows and installed them right away. Of course, the 6th window is lost; FedEx is trying to track it down. We have to wait on the 3rd window now and keep our fingers crossed the window is found and delivered in one piece.

I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask, something I now believe.

Quick post since I just home from belly dance…Marty took me and picked me up due to the snowstorm. I am so glad I went because all 3 of my new students came even in the snow!

This afternoon while doing my hair, I noticed my reflection reflected itself in the other mirror I was using. I grabbed my Ipad and snapped a photo. I am not a photographer and rarely see cool things to shoot except food; I am glad I captured this moment.

I woke up on Monday, and that terrible vertigo I was experiencing was gone. Thank goodness! Good thing too because we had to make a lot of spätzle this week. This upcoming weekend is President’s Day weekend, with schools on vacation next week.

The ski resort restaurants that feature our spätzle on their menus must be expecting big numbers placing large orders from us. Good for them after losing so much business during the pandemic. 🤗

Many wholesale, retail customers have also placed orders for second homeowners and Airbnb travelers who cook. It makes my heart happy that some people love to cook and entertain at home rather than go to crowded restaurants every night of their vacations. Plus, you don’t have to worry about getting pulled over and getting a DWI.

Last night, my belly dance class was great! All three of my students paid for the month and came every week. The three of them are doing so unbelievably well, and we are having a lot of fun. Yip!

We ended up eating Marty’s birthday dinner later than I expected, well after 9 pm. I was starving and exhausted, waiting for the Cheeseburger Pie to reheat. It was as delicious as ever, so were the tater tots I served with it.

The upside-down pineapple cake was dry. I am critical of my cooking, which helps me become a better cook. The cake was dry because it was a boxed gluten-free cake mix; it tasted ok, but you needed a big drink while you were eating it. Oh well! Next year, I’ll remember to make time to make my own cake.

Today, Marty went on the Saratoga, NY delivery run himself while I stayed home to clean the house. It is amazing how much hair and dirt collects in a short amount of time. The filth that can accumulate in just a week makes me say each time I empty the vacuum bag, “Holy shit, we live in filth!” They wouldn’t believe me if anyone came over since the house looks clean; it must hide in deep, dark places. 😜

Tomorrow is Friday once again; boy, they come quickly! We have a lot of spätzle to make for more orders and the Troy Farmer’s Market on Saturday. We are so blessed that our business is booming and appreciate our customers who support our small business! Thank you! ❤️

We finished with the kitchen project! The main construction and painting took only over a week since we didn’t change the footprint but putting together all the little details took longer than expected. It’s always the way.

At the end of this project, we bought on Facebook Marketplace a brand new exhaust vent hood that cost half price from a previous buyer that changed their mind and went with something different. We used 2 gallons of paint and 3 boxes of tile and grout. We purchased a new area rug, three stools, a couple of shelves, and a cabinet organizer for the design.

We decided to purchase new glassware that matched. We also picked up a box of 12 caterers’ white plates and bowls. We bought new spice jars on the two raw steel shelves from a small business artisan. Then a few miscellaneous odds and ends finished out the look we wanted.

Our kitchen design is industrial meets farmhouse with lots of straight lines and simplicity. My kitchen is even more functional than before since everything is so organized.

The old kitchen was fun, funky, and functional, but we were ready for a change. We are happy with the results, and I say out loud while cooking how much I love my new kitchen! Yes, I am still obsessed with keeping it clean.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. ☺️

***I just researched “industrial farmhouse kitchens” and found we nailed it more than I thought. Yay!

In my Facebook memories today, there were photos of our kitchen from 7 years ago. I loved it, but now when I look at it, I can see clutter. Clutter that got dusty and greasy if I didn’t stay on top of it. The other thing I noticed was how dark everything looked, dark like the rest of the house. 

Back in March 2020, during the lockdown, Marty and I decided we wanted to lighten up the house. We wanted things to be light and airy. The once loved dark red dining room, midnight black bedroom, and suede brown living room needed to be updated. 

One by one, we began tackling each room, starting with the living room painting it the color sailcloth white. What a difference it made! It did feel light and airy. Now we were on a roll.

Noah moved out that month, so we painted his room and turned it into an office for the business. We painted the room the same color as the living room since we had leftover paint. Marty found an old filing cabinet second-hand that we needed desperately. The office was done in two days flat.

Next, we painted the dining room a light gray. Marty wheeled-and-dealed on Facebook Marketplace, selling our dining room furniture and buying second-hand ones changing the room completely.

Our bedroom needed lightening up; the walls were midnight black and purple silver metallic. Marty wanted it not only light in color but in furniture too. The large furniture pieces we had were over 30 years old and took up the whole room.

We painted the bedroom Edelweiss white, how appropriate for a German-based business; we had to use it. We changed out the old ceiling fan for a second-hand crystal chandelier, something I always wanted. We also picked up two new small bedside lamps for our new nightstands. New meaning new! 🤗

Marty quickly sold our bedroom furniture on Facebook Marketplace, then found two small second-hand dressers. I found a Parisian framed print that I loved on a free pile we saw in New Platz, NY! Big score!

It feels like we are in a small bedroom in Paris or bed and breakfast when we lay in bed. I love it, it’s perfect, and didn’t cost very much. 

Here’s where the knee bone is connected to the shin bone analogy. The staircase and upstairs hallways now looked dirty and disgusting. It’s always the way, isn’t it?

We decided to hire someone local to paint it for us. It’s always tricky trying to paint that tall space above the stairs. Two guys came in and finished the job in three hours. Thank you very much, guys! It was the best idea ever, even for DIY people.

We bought the paint to repaint the kitchen cabinets last winter as another covid project, but neither of us felt like tackling that project. Painting cabinets and removing all the hardware sucks, plus we were in a funk that covid was still so severe. (Little did we know it would still be going on a year later.) So, we put the paint away to age like a good wine.

Then, this winter, we got out that one-year-old paint and were finally inspired to start the kitchen project. The last thing I am waiting for is chalkboard labels for the new spice bottles I ordered. The jars came with black paper labels, but they were shit. OMG, I was pissed when I saw them. I hate that they cheaped out on the labels when the bottles were so nice.

The ridiculous part is I put the labels on all the jars and wrote the spice names on them. That’s when I had a shit fit about how cheap they looked and ordered the right ones on Amazon. I also ordered a white sharpie; the white marker that came with the labels was total crap too! They are coming today; then, I can redo them. Guess what? Then we will be finished!

I don’t know if we changed because we are older and want simpler things, or was it the updated design we kept seeing on decorating and home shows over the last few years? Less clutter, straight clean lines: light, bright and airy. I think they call it industrial farmhouse.

Over the next few days, I will be putting together the “Finished at last” kitchen project blog post with lots of photos taken along the way. I can’t wait to show you how it all turned out. 

I started the prescription for my vertigo last night. I have to take it 3 times a day for 7 days. It makes me tired, and I can’t drive on it. I can’t drive anyway since I can’t look both ways without getting dizzy.

I was still very dizzy today when we made deliveries in NY. Marty is a trooper and is helping me with things that require looking up or down. It felt good to get out of the house. Supposedly, it takes a couple of days of taking the Meclizine for it to start helping.

Thank you to the readers who suggested the Epley Maneuver. I read all about it; I will try it tomorrow after production. I’ll have to watch a YouTube video; I learn from watching and not reading about how to do something. Thanks again, guys! ❤️

I probably jinxed myself when I wrote, “Fingers crossed the power stays on for good, and poor Otto can finally relax, meaning we can too.” Yeah, if only.

Yesterday, I spent a big chunk of time washing all the bedding for our bed. That’s king sheets, a duvet cover, a malaise quilted blanket, a top blanket, and Otto’s furry blanket.

When Otto is afraid, he pants and drools everywhere, buckets, it seems. After the two previous nights of him freaking out over the power failure, stuff need to be washed.

Whenever I make the bed with clean sheets and blankets, I can’t wait to crawl in and go to sleep. I am strange that I have to make my bed every day, even if it means right before bedtime. I can’t sleep in a wrinkled, rumpled bed. The wrinkles are so annoying to me that I can’t get comfortable. Now when it comes to a nap? I could sleep on a damn cactus.

At 10:45 pm, the power went out for the third night in a row! Then it came back on. Then it went out again. I am sure the other 81% of the residents in our town who lost power all said the words, “Oh, shit!” simultaneously.

Otto started his usual freaking out. I gave him Thunder-wonders right away. We waited to see what would happen. I went up to bed with Otto at midnite since he seemed to have quieted down. I lay there listening and waiting. I tried to meditate, but I couldn’t focus. I sang songs to the musical Hamilton in my head. Finally, between 1-2 am, the power came back on.

Otto didn’t freak out when the power came back on, thankfully. Marty came up to bed, and we could finally go to sleep. The bed was comfortable and smelled so clean! Just like bleach, I told you I am a little strange. To me, the smell of bleach equals clean. It’s ridiculous we have white bedding with a dog who sleeps with us, but that’s what the top blanket and Otto’s blanket are for.

I am not going to mention anything about the power today…at all! Enjoy your Sunday!

Ugh! It’s been a rough 48 hours! We live on the Southern Vermont and New York State border. Marty and I kept checking the forecast for the big snowstorm that was forecasted. 

At first, they predicted 5-8 or maybe 12 inches on Thursday night, then another 4 inches on Friday. We were prepared for snow. We were so prepared that we doubled up on production earlier in the week and made deliveries first to the Rutland, VT area, then to Saratoga, NY, after production the next day.  

Then wholesale orders started pouring in, which is what a business always wants, but we are a two-person team and felt like we were drowning in spätzle. Thank goodness we still had Friday to fill these orders.

I was following along on my friend Jon’s blog, Bedlam Farm Journal, his post on the storm’s track with a radar that seemed very accurate. Jon and his wife Maria, my friend and belly dance student, live right over the border in Cambridge, NY, only a few miles from us.

From what I could see on Jon’s radar, we were in for a big ice storm and not snow. Oh, shit! This is never good. 😖

Thursday, it rained all day with temps hovering around 44 degrees. As the day went on, the temperature began to fall. By 8 pm, the rain turned to ice. Everything was glazed over within half an hour. Dammit! The guys were on a rescue squad call, so I was nervous with them out there driving and walking.

Otto woke me up at 1 am on Friday. He is petrified when the power goes out and comes back on; along with fireworks and thunder. I feel terrible for him when he is so scared. Usually, I give him Thunder-wonders and wrap him up tight in a blanket.

Sam heard me up and filled us in on the scary situation. Power was out in the entire area. There was half an inch of ice on everything; trees were snapping and falling. No wonder Otto was so afraid. The sound was horrible and scary.

Somehow, after a couple of hours, we all fell back to sleep until morning. In the morning you could not walk or get into your car they were so encased in thick ice. Sam had a class at the hospital that he had to get to. He chipped his way into his truck and let it warm up. He came back inside while the truck warmed up, then walking back to the truck, fell on his butt, scraping up his arm and leaving his pants soaked. He left with wet pants because he had to. 

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Of course, we couldn’t work in the production kitchen as scheduled. The simple act of walking was impossible; the only thing that saved us was ice grippers for our boots. We walked around looking at the trees down and accessed the damage. 

I walked over to our neighbor’s house, who lives out of state, and took photos. A heavy tree limb ripped down the electric line from the street to their house. Definitely not good news to report to them on a Friday morning. 

By the time Sam got home from his class at the hospital, it was HORRIBLE! Bad, bad, bad out.! The roads were a blanket of ice, it was like a war zone with trees down, and things smashed everywhere.

Marty and Sam worked most of the day to get into our vehicles and work on the driveway. I stayed inside, trying to keep warm since we had no power. 

Marty hooked up a small generator to our brand new heated water lines that blew two weeks ago due to zero-degree weather. We couldn’t afford to have that happen again. Literally and figuratively.

For the rest of the day, we felt like sitting ducks. Sam went to the rescue squad and heard the severity of the power outage. It wasn’t good. Our town’s sub-station was down along with many wires from all of the trees that fell or lost their branches. Fuck was all I could think when he told us that. He said we might be days without power.

It began to snow which made matters worse. The already heavy ice-covered branches didn’t need heavy snow on top of it. The town set up a warming area located at the local high school. However, it was hard to get the word out to people because there was no cell service or internet.

Before Sam left for his overnight shift, he helped Marty hook up our larger generator. All we wanted to turn on was our refrigerator and mini-split heater. We unplugged almost everything else not to make the generator work so hard. Again, we had no idea how long we would be without power.

Initially, Marty and Sam hooked up our gas fireplace insert to a small backup battery but had to shut it down quickly when the carbon monoxide detector alarm started going crazy with the word “gas” flashing on the screen. Just before that happened, I began to feel weird and light-headed. No wonder why. 

I went out on the front porch with the dogs until the propane dissipated. That’s when the guys got the mini-split hooked up instead. At least we finally had a little heat which we were very grateful for.

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I could cook through all of this; I just needed to light the gas stove with a match: not that I would make anything real to eat anyway under the circumstances. I wanted biscuits and gravy, but I wasn’t going to attempt that in the dark.

Finally, the hard-working Green Mountain Power employees restored our power after 18 hours. I ran around the house like a fool, showering and blow drying my hair just in case the power went out again. Trees were still falling, and it was still snowing.

81% of our town was out of power for 18-24 hours. It was a miracle the Green Mountain Power crews got it fixed so quickly. Teams came down from the northern part of the state to help, working outside for 12 hours straight in single-digit temperatures. 

If it weren’t for all the road crews, who kept on top of the roads the best they could, the power company trucks wouldn’t have been able to maneuver around as easily. A big thanks to everyone who helped with the situation. 

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After my shower, I made us biscuits and gravy since it’s all I thought about all day. I used a new gluten-free biscuit recipe that worked brilliantly! I finally had flakey biscuits that rose. Yay! The meal hit the spot on such a cold, miserable night.

We lost power again during the night. I knew immediately because poor Otto started freaking out again. The power came back on again around 4 am. We fell back to sleep eventually after he calmed down.

We were now so far behind in production besides missing our farmer’s market; we still had those big wholesale orders to fill. We thought about going into production this morning, but something told us to hold off. 

We briefly lost power a couple more times in the morning and early afternoon. If the power went out during production, that would be disastrous, possibly ruining our equipment and wasting expensive ingredients. Thank goodness we listened to our gut instincts.

Sam and Marty figured out why the gas fireplace insert failed because the screen on the chimney top must have been covered in ice like the screens in the windows. Thank goodness for that carbon monoxide safety monitor. I kept thinking that the place could have blown up, or we could have been taking a dirt nap. 😵 We will be waiting until the ice melts before relighting the gas fireplace.

So, it’s been a stressful couple of days. Fingers crossed, the power stays on for good and poor Otto can finally relax meaning we can too! Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Cheers!

Our freshly painted and updated kitchen isn’t quite complete as we are still waiting for a couple items to arrive. It’s taking forever but we special ordered those items knowing it would take longer.

I am out of my mind obsessed with keeping the white cabinets and shelves as clean as the day they were painted. This leads to constantly wiping down our honed black granite countertops that are already 16 years old. Best purchase eve by the way.

The countertops are in the same condition as the day they were installed. They look great when they are clean compared to the cleanliness of everything else.

Listen, I cook hard in my kitchen; I mean the way I used to in professional kitchens. Flimsy, home kitchen cookware and utensils don’t hold up to #10 cans and constant use. They all end up bending or breaking. For instance, this morning I was making a pot of sauce for Tuesday and my Oneida can opener shit the bed mid-way opening a #10 can of San Marzano tomatoes.

I was being so careful when I was frying up the Italian sausage and while making my meatballs to not make a mess. The more I try to be neat, the messier things get. Then I had to contend with this mid-open can issue. Shit!

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All I could imagine was while I was prying open the can with a cleaver and church key, cursing my head off, was the can would open and splatter the whole clean kitchen.

As I was struggling for over ten minutes with the cleaver and can I kept thinking maybe a newly painted and updated kitchen wasn’t such a good idea for me. It couldn’t handle it when I got into beast mode cooking.

Finally, I got one side opened a little bit; just enough to pour the whole tomatoes slowing into the blender a little at a time. Hallelujah! The rest of the sauce making went off without a hitch.

Yes, of course I deserve a nice and clean kitchen but I can’t let it make me turn into a crazy person. I have to cook the way I cook and clean up afterwards. Hell, the old kitchen held up pretty well for 16 years of hard cooking and making thousands of meals. I literally mean thousands. I figured it out one night while laying in bed trying to fall asleep with insomnia.

Now, the sauce is on a low simmer for the day and the house smells so good! The kitchen is clean and I don’t have to worry about messing it up again later since we were invited to Martin’s house for dinner tonight.

The three of us love having Sunday dinner together and playing an extremely competitive game of 5 Crowns; which turns out to be the most fun card game ever!

After I publish this, I will be sitting on the couch, still in my pjs reading my book, “I, Eliza Hamilton” which I am enjoying very much. I still have a few hours before I have to get ready to go to Martin’s.

We are back in the production kitchen early in the morning to fill a bunch of wholesale orders that came in over the weekend. Thank goodness the orders keep coming in; we are very blessed. ☺️

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and weekend guys. We are one day closer to spring! I even bought myself a bouquet of flowers at Aldi the other day to remind me that spring isn’t that far away!

Before I begin, this blog post was supposed to be published yesterday; however, our Comcast was out from about 4 pm until 1 am.

Besides not being able to work on my blog we had a different issue. We have a smart home that needs the internet for things to go on and off. I didn’t realize how much we rely on the internet, but the smart home is fantastic when it works.

We’ve been working hard all week on our kitchen project. Each step of the project relies on the one before it.

I have a lot of kitchen gear and a well-stocked pantry bursting at the seams, making it frustrating every time I needed or wanted something.

A couple of days ago, I showed you the successful equipment pantry we built in the back room of the home in an unused loft area. I added the raclette machine we used on Christmas Eve and more serving platters and dishes to the pantry this morning. Funny note, every time I try to write the word raclette, it changes to racketeering. 😂

One of our goals of the kitchen project is to free up more counter space and give the kitchen an updated look. Yes, we had a lovely kitchen with red as a strong accent color, but 15 years later, we want a change.

Last week, we did some demo in the area near my stove. Back in November, when I thought my six-burner stove shit the bed, we realized that the vent hood located over the high BTU stove wasn’t strong or high enough.

Since Marty could fix the stove, saving us thousands of dollars, we decided to remove the upper cabinets and replace the vent hood with an appropriate one. One that doesn’t overheat and goes into panic mode. I have this stove to cook on; I don’t want to worry about not using all of the burners at once; that’s what it’s for.

A couple of months ago, Marty found the exact European vent hood from Italy that we were looking at on Facebook Marketplace. All of our spätzle business’ commercial kitchen equipment, furniture, and other miscellaneous things have come from Facebook Marketplace. I’ve mentioned before Marty is a master wheeler and dealer at buying and selling.

The vent hood was still brand new in the unopened box for half the price; the person we bought it from shipped it to us for a reasonable fee. They purchased the fan; then, they decided to go with a copper fan instead. Obviously, money wasn’t an issue if they could afford a copper vent hood and let our new vent hood go for a bargain. A huge score for us!

Since we removed the upper cabinets to make room for the new vent hood, we got to pick out new European tiles for the wall behind the stove. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until we got to the store.

We went to a tile store in Albany, NY, with a certain look in mind, but then we saw all the options, different patterns, and materials the tiles were made from. We also had to consider the size of the tiles for a small area. Holy shit! I was overwhelmed, and my head was spinning. I had too hot of a sweater on and was sweating my ass off while in sensory overload.

I finally sucked it up, and we asked one of the designers, who are free of charge, to help us. She listened to us, showed us dozens of options, then found the perfect tiles. We ordered them and picked them up three weeks later. When the designer found the tiles, I asked her if anyone told her they loved her that day. She said no, so I told her I loved her for finding the perfect tiles. She laughed and was glad she made us happy.

The tiles we chose come in six similar patterns that can be put together in endless options. When I can’t sleep, I rearrange these tiles in my head for hours, it seems. It’s stressful because I don’t want to regret the pattern we choose. I will be looking at this wall whenever I cook and want to get it right.

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We’ve been painting all week; first the walls, then all of the wainscoting, shelving, and cabinetry. It was time-consuming because we did it correctly by taking off the cabinet pulls, doors, and hinges. The cabinets look fantastic and brand new. It was a pain in the ass but worth the effort.

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Today, I stayed home from the farmer’s market to reorganize our food pantry. After moving all of the equipment to the back room, I could put the microwave in the pantry in the kitchen freeing up precious counter space. Everything is so organized, I wonder how long it will stay that way.

Hopefully, tomorrow we can start the vent hood and figure out the tiling part of the project; it’s the last part and the trickiest. We’ve renovated our entire home ourselves, but it’s always a little intimidating until we get going. You never know what kind of problems you can run into when renovating an 1832 home.

So that’s the update. My dining room is almost free of the chaotic clutter, and the backroom is back to normal for the most part. We are getting there, and I can start cooking for real again. Thank goodness for leftovers I froze and were either baked in the toaster oven or microwaved all week.

Today , after production we completed step one of the great kitchen project!

Step one isn’t in the kitchen, but in our mudroom and an unused loft area the boys used to play in when they were little.

In order to have the look of our new kitchen, Marty and I knew we had to declutter for this to happen.

I have a lot of kitchen stuff; that I use. Some of the things that I don’t use every day such as small appliances, serving platter and bowls and random pots and other items needed to find a new place to be stored. The basement is out because I want it handy enough to just grab and use. Once things go down into the dungeon, they never come out.

We decided the unused loft space would be perfect to create a new pantry. I’ve seen in lots of magazines kitchen that have a separate room for their pantry, much like a butlers pantry, but a room that is an extension off of the kitchen.

It was both some of Marty’s ideas and mine that came together how we wanted to create our pantry & mudroom.

The plan right now is to create the pantry to get the kitchen items out of the main kitchen. In the near future, the pantry will be painted the same new color of the kitchen and purchase similar lighting.

Marty set up the heavy duty wire kitchen shelving while I started thinking about what was going where. I had the whole pantry in my mind before we even started.

The pantry came out better than we imagined. It looks as if it’s always been there. It makes more sense of the space than just a cozy, cute vignette I created last year.

I am stoked that I have this space for all of my kitchen specialty items. We are getting close to completing another hurdle in the main kitchen.

We are hoping to have the kitchen completed by the end of next week. This is only day 5 of the project and we’ve been working while renovating.

Tomorrow is Friday, the kitchen project will have to go on hold until Sunday. We need to focus on making product for the spätzle business, do some banking and get ready for our farmers market on Saturday. We haven’t had a market since 12/18 and are looking forward to going back.

I am so happy I could share with you one little piece of our project. This is the one thing that is complete…step one. ✔️

I told you guys we were doing a kitchen project that as of today, has turned into a bigger renovation than I expected. I don’t know why I didn’t expect it because it’s always the way around here.

Since we started the kitchen project we had stuff from the kitchen in part of the dining room and a corner of the mudroom. Now, it’s grown, taking over the living room, the whole dining & mudroom.

Projects always take longer and are more work…in other words we will be living in a total mess for a while. The payoff will be worth it though.