I am falling in love with the old hardwood floors that I’ve found under my linoleum and carpet. I knew there was some hardwood as it was under the carpet in the sewing room but it was in such bad shape that it wasn’t salvageable and it didn’t even cross my mind that there’d be hardwood elsewhere. As I sit here in my completely disassembled living room and look at the hardwood floor we’ve found in here, I’m sad. I am so wanting to believe that it could be salvaged relatively easily but it can’t. And I don’t have the money to do it. And I’ve already purchased the laminate and its installation has been started.

The rest of the carpet was pulled up last night and the roll moved to the other side of the room . Doing that turned up more wall footprints, making the previous living room even smaller than I had thought.

The remains of two doorways are evident in this photo, one straight ahead and one to the left of that. I’m not sure if this was a hallway or an actual room. Straight ahead in this photo, through the wall behind the chair, is the bathroom, however that is not its original location. 

It’s been running through my mind that if I took the laminate out of the sewing room to salvage as much of that hardwood as I could, I’d possibly have enough to fix the living room and very short hallway to the bathroom. The kitchen would have to be tiled or have some other floor treatment put down as there would not be enough wood to salvage that floor. It’s all dreams though; this old house isn’t worth the money it would take to do that. The value of the house would not increase enough, if at all, to make it a reasonable thing to do. Unfortunately. Nor do I want to live in a dust-laden house while all the sanding and refinishing is going on.

The selling price of this house jumped insanely in seven years and I paid double for it in 2007 what the sellers did in 2000 plus an additional $3000 (if I remember correctly) because of competition. I don’t plan to stay here for very many more years either. I’ve already re-done most of the basement, freshened up the outside, will probably be re-shingling before I move, expect to completely renovate (apart from the tub, toilet, and cabinet) the fully-tiled bathroom this fall, and will have put down new flooring throughout the entire house apart from the bathroom, laundry room, and back entrance, which are all tiled in ceramic. With the way the market is, I’m reaching the limit of how much money I can put into the house and still break even, if not turn a very slight profit. My intention in doing the repairs and renovations that I have done has never been about trying to get more for the house when I sell it (though wouldn’t that be nice?) but simply for aesthetics and my own enjoyment and personal taste.

Work continues on the flooring. I don’t have a bad deal, do I? I’m at work while they work and I come home to a worker-less house.

Ripping up the linoleum and subfloor below that in the kitchen revealed the other wall location that marks where the dining room ended and the kitchen began years ago. I still can’t get over how small the rooms would have been. This is not a big house to begin with, only 742 square feet if I remember correctly from when I purchased it. The living room would have been from beyond the forefront of this picture to the first patch in the floor partway up the roll of carpet on the righthand side. For reference, that green couch to the left is seven feet long and the non-visible end of it is currently sitting one foot away from the front window, which is immediately beside the front door.

The footprint for the dining room wall is just beyond the roll of carpet and under the outlet on the righthand wall. The kitchen would have gone from that spot to the doorway to the back entrance. The back entrance did not exist until many years after the walls were removed and the rooms expanded.  Apparently the righthand wall is not original to the house either and the dining room extended into it a little. It will be interesting to see what other footprints are turned up once the carpet is completely removed.

Brogan’s trying out the new floor with his cars.

We’re not entirely sure what the large piece of plywood in the middle of the kitchen floor covers. Is it the trap door to the basement, which used to be unfinished and unliveable before the addition at the back was put on and stairs were added? The basement was finished at that time. I had thought that the trap door was located in the current location of the main floor bedroom closet (judging by a large square of plywood).

They’ll be working on the floor again tonight and then tomorrow afternoon. The carpet will be taken by my boyfriend to replace his living room carpet provided it’s large enough for his space. I’m excited to see the floor done and to set up a dining area. More pictures to follow as the work progresses.

My laminate flooring is being installed. A co-worker of my mother’s is doing the job and my number finally came up in his To Do list. (He’s a busy guy!)

New floor on the left (looking pink here) and hardwood under the ripped-out carpet on the right.
Screws aplenty to try and alleviate the annoying creak.

That gorgeous hardwood floor (or potentially so) was also throughout 95% of the sewing room when we ripped up that carpet almost two years ago to install laminate. The thing is that the entire upper floor of this house has been re-arranged (many years back) with walls being knocked out and put up and, as seen in the bottom right corner of the photo, there are several areas where patching has been done. The sewing room had a 3-foot by 3-foot square of plywood laid down to fill a hole in the floor half in the closet as well as patches where walls were moved. I’m guessing the 3x3 spot was the hatch down to the basement as there never used to be stairs; the stairs to the basement now are in the addition at the back of the house. I can’t picture it but apparently the upper floor used to have the kitchen, living room, a dining room, three bedrooms and a bathroom. It currently has the kitchen, living room, bathroom (moved from its original location), and a decent-sized bedroom (my sewing room). The patch in the lower right corner was one side of the doorway into the dining room (the other is covered by the laminate flooring); that wooden wall in the upper right corner is the part wall in my kitchen and it backs my stove and one of the counters as you can see in this post. I’m going to cover the wood as it will be the only thing that colour on the living room side. I will remove that piece of trim just up from the floor and fill the join and then I’m considering priming it and painting in the same colour as the walls to enclose the room.

I’ll continue to show progress pictures as things move along. The area where the loveseat is will be where the dining table goes. The couch on the left will be sold as it’s not going to fit with the rearrangement of furniture.

Today was my first of three shifts before I’m on annual leave for nearly two weeks! Wooo!! In my excitement yesterday (and energized by B’s completely awesome behaviour the past two days (and, it turns out, today as well) I decided to do a bit of baking.

oatmeal banana chocolate chip muffins

peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

The muffins were made from a recipe that I found here and they are absolutely fabulous. I used soft wheat flour instead of all purpose and added in a couple small handfuls of chopped pecans since school is out for the summer and I don’t have to worry about a nut restriction for lunches. It’s a good thing I froze six of the muffins for later enjoyment or the entire batch would be gone by now.

The cookies were from an old faithful recipe that I used to use all the time growing up but I tweaked it this time around. The recipe can be found here among other places; my copy came from a Good Housekeeping magazine or something similar in a Criso ad. (I don’t recall my recipe calling for butter-flavoured Crisco, just the regular stuff.) The substitutions I made were to use 1/4 cup of butter along with 1/8 cup each of mayonnaise and applesauce for the shortening, 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup of white flour, and a mix of almond and peanut butters. No matter how much I stir my natural peanut butter each time I use it, the last inch in the bottom of the jar is always quite dry. I had a part jar of almond butter that was a little oily so I mixed the two together and now have a small jar of peanut-almond butter. I’m not sure if it was the result of the natural nut butters instead of sugar-laden "regular" peanut butter but the dough was very soft. I ended up adding in appoximately 1/4 to 1/3 cup of quick oats. I usually roll the dough into balls by hand but used a small cookie scoop this time around. These cookies turned out slightly different than non-tweaked ones but they are no less delicious. Soft, chewy, nut buttery, and with just the right amount of chocolate chips for me. If you make these cookies, be aware that they will not look done at the 7 or 8 minute mark when the timer goes off but take them out anyway. They firm up and get a little browner before your eyes as they rest on the cookie sheet.

And a very happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canucks!

I had a bit of a difficult time planning this week’s menu and I’m not sure why. I really should have this post ready each week by Sunday evening, just waiting for Monday. Here we are though, another plan completed. As always, check out orgjunkie.com for many more links.

This week is a bit of a pantry/freezer challenge.

Monday: grilled hot dogs
Tuesday: spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce from the freezer
Wednesday: tortilla pizzas with the above sauce
Thursday: (night shift) butternut squash ravioli from the freezer and the above sauce
Friday: (night shift) Moroccan-Spiced Tomato Chicken with Almonds, brown rice, edamame
Saturday: Apple Mustard Rosemary Chicken with asparagus and Italian potatoes*
Sunday: grilled pork chops with dill potatoes**

*I cut up several potatoes into approximately one-inch cubes, place them in a lidded casserole dish on an appropriate size, and coat them in whatever oil-based salad dressing I have on hand. I then microwave them until they are roughly 3/4 cooked before putting them in the oven. If I don’t have anything else in the oven, I cook them completely in the microwave instead.

**Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and then slice to desired thickness. Microwave in a lidded casserole dish just until done. Place in a tinfoil pie plate or pan and drop in butter. I don’t know how much I use; I put in several 1/4-teaspoon-sized dollops around the pan. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, dried dill weed, and poppy seeds. Cover with foil and BBQ alongside the meat, checking every so often and moving to the top rack when necessary.

Another Sunday, another Quotable Sunday hosted by Toni. Head on over and read up on some great fun, though-provoking, and inspirational quotes. On this, the first day of several with a forecast of rain (and as I head to the couch for a nap before night shift), I offer up a few rain-related quotes for your reading pleasure.

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.
     — Frank Howard Clark

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.
     — Saint Basil

Nature, like man, sometimes weeps for gladness.
     — Anonymous

The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.
     — Hugh Latimer

Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.
     — John Updike

I am, and have always been, a mosquito magnet. And a blackfly magnet. And a magnet for any other biting bug or fly. Throughout bug season, I am never without several bites somewhere on my body. Something like this or this is not an uncommon site on my arms or legs but it’s usually a little more tame than that and is "merely" a huge white welt (often bigger than in that photo I found via google) within five minutes of the bite and then "fades" down to a raised red spot the size of a pencil eraser with a bit of a crusted spot in the centre. Mmmmm! Yummy! I’m a pretty girl in the summer.

I got such a bite the other morning. I could just tell that I had been bitten as the area (my forehead) was itchy. As the minutes went by, I could feel the welt starting to raise. By the time I came inside, the welt had gone down quite a bit but the itching was awful.

Look at the sun damage!!

 As I was looking at it in the mirror, I thought I remembered reading somewhere that vinegar takes away the itch. I grabbed the bottle of apple cider vinegar from the shower (I go through periods of using baking soda to wash my hair followed by a vinegar rinse), put it on a cosmetic pad, and wiped it on. Instant relief! I was amazed, partly because I wasn’t sure if I was making up the vinegar tip and partly because it was such an instant absence of itch. It hasn’t itched since. I tried it last night on a bite I found on my leg and it didn’t have quite the same effect but that bite was at least a day or more old; maybe that had something to do with it?

Try it. If it works, great, and if it doesn’t, what have you lost besides a minute of your time and a few drops of vinegar. We Are THAT Family has plenty of links to other Works For Me tips.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for B and as with many things in my life, I have procrastinated on an end-of-year teacher gift. I had many ideas but nothing that I ever started on. I could’ve run out and bought something but I couldn’t think of anything to get; I wanted something meaningful that wouldn’t get lost in the slew of other gifts. I opted for a simple card with a heartfelt handwritten note thanking B’s teacher for the past year. B wrote his teacher’s name at the top (I love watching him write!) and his name at the bottom, drawing a box in the middle of the card with a heart inside the box. He wanted to write a message too and instructed me to write "I love that you were being my special teacher," and "We made you some jam." My note went on the left-hand leaf of the card and I guess it passed the test because after he asked me to read what I had written, he said, "That was nice."

The other day I picked a bunch of rhubarb from the garden and today I turned that into Blueberry-Rhubarb jam along with making some Carrot Cake jam. I’ve tasted both and nothing beats homemade jam! A jar of the carrot jam will be accompanying the card to school tomorrow with B. Lastly, a pot of applesauce has rounded out the day for me. I’ve just finished putting that into jars. The day yielded seven jars of each type of jam and six pint jars of applesauce. I love how it all looks on my cold storage (more like just cool storage) shelves!

This Menu Plan Monday is going to be short and quick on my way down for a nap. I’m working another night shift tonight and then four more starting on Thursday. As always, you know you can head over to orgjunkie.com for many more menu ideas.

• Monday: Lentil Chili (night shift - frozen leftovers)
• Tuesday: BBQ pork chops
• Wednesday: pasta casserole
• Thursday: pork chop, brown rice, edamame (night shift - frozen leftovers)
• Friday: Butternut Squash and Tomato soup (night shift - homemade, frozen leftovers)
• Saturday: pasta casserole (night shift - leftovers)
• Sunday: turkey meatballs in sweet and sour sauce (night shift - frozen leftovers)