What a Crock: One Year, One Crockpot and One Reno Wreck

Food Mood: Uh, what? Ok… I wasn’t ready for that  Reno Ridiculouso: The Great Divide! The Hubby preps the house for the renovation by essentially dividing it in half Hubby has been gearing up for this renovation for a long time, slowly taking off sections of the back entry, prepping materials and organizing the garage while researching contractors.   He and I have worked on choosing trades since early February and have put a great deal of thought and care into the selection.   Hubby will be the main contractor, coordinating the trades, picking up materials, organizing the order of operations and maintaining the budget.   As he used to run a contracting company this isn’t hard for him.   We’ve planned that he’ll have June, July and part of August off work which is the shut down time for his regular job anyways.    So, the title “What a Crock…” has probably already tipped you off that this isn’t a sunshine and rainbows, fluffy bunnies kinda’ story.   It’s reaaaaallly n

Food Mood: grateful Reno Ridiculouso: bought a kitchen Two big wins this week in what has been a long planning process. Win 1: the Hubby ripped out the old kitchen cabinets (still got a stove)   and tore off the back entry in a great explosion of manly ripping and tearing!   A lovely side effect of this is that he took our old counter top that contained the sink and laid it across two saw horses in the very back of the yard with a camping water container with spout for a faucet.   This makes me obscurely happy.   It is a place for me to be.   It has rapidly becomes a happy place where the Hubby, the Kid and I catch up and do the dishes together as the late spring sun sets across our faces.   Win. Win 2: the kitchen cupboards.   I hate waste and there was absolutely nothing wrong with our old cupboards other than that they looked like 1984 was calling.   The old kitchen.  “Ring, Ring!!” “Hello…” “Hey, it’s 1984 telling you that girls just wanna have fun!” “Uhm

Food Mood: still rockin’ in a full kitchen Reno Ridiculouso: Seeking perfection on a budget with a social conscience.   Easy, right!  When the Hubby and I decided to remove our back entryway and replace it, an architect whom I had been working with came over to have a look and discuss possibilities.   As is always the way, he had big ideas, and to be honest, we liked them!   What if instead of just taking the back entry off we took three steps down from our kitchen and added an at grade dining room with big windows out to our lovely backyard.   It was a great idea, enticing from the beginning, but a larger project than we’d imagined.   I was anxious but the Hubby and the Architect  both felt that it was a relatively easy project and well within our abilities and budget.   Great, let’s do it! Floor Plan Number Three: closeish to where the whole thing ended. And then (‘cause this is how I roll) I started throwing barriers in the way.   Only if we source cabinets and ap

Food Mood: Go Get ‘Em Girl, you can do this Reno Ridiculouso: Not yet ridiculous, although still kinda big really. This is a story about a reno gone wrong and the food that sustained us. I hope that you’ll join us in reliving our year long adventure, in food, family and renovation chaos. Welcome! In the beginning, it was all about termites, or at least the possibility of them. Six years ago we bought our east Toronto home knowing that it had formerly had termites and that this was contained. However, the area still had termites and we had a back entry that had below grade wood, a serious no no in termite land. I remember that I sat at the farm style kitchen table while our very enthusiastic (and ridiculously good looking) realtor and my husband toured the basement. I had heard from the termite guy that it had had termites and been treated and that there was no sign of any current infestations. I was in despair. We had been searching for a new home for six months and time