Hardly Teriyaki

Another day, another meal out. Sometimes I wonder why we are redoing our kitchen when we clearly do not miss it. Although Jason tells me he is sure that I will become a good wife and start cooking once I have a nice kitchen. I think we both know the truth there.

That’s last night’s dinner. Chicken Katsu and a side of egg rolls. But really, they should be called spring rolls because there was no egg in them (seriously! real egg rolls have a layer of egg in them. I’ve had them and they are the best). Katsu is the only thing I eat at teriyaki joints and it’s not even really a Japanese food. I mean, maybe the sauce, but I doubt it. In any case, I have been brave recently and started eating the rice as well.

In remodel news – a lot happened, but nothing worth showing pictures of. We now have TWO dumpsters at our house and we are the envy of our neighbors.

Dinners eaten at home since remodel began: 0

Dinners eaten out since remodel began: 4

Mi Favorito (and day 1 in pictures)

Let’s start with the good part of the day. Wednesday is my favorite day of the week because I get to get my most favorite meal ever: a carne asada torta from Los Chilangos. Normally this taco truck is in Bellevue, about a 20 minute drive from our house, but on Wednesdays, they go to the Sammamish Farmer’s Market, only 3 minutes from our house.

I order in Spanish porque se habla espanol.

Jason gets something different every week – this time it was the hurachas. He also said he doesn’t want to be on the blog anymore, so this is probably the last picture you’ll see of him.

Now for the bad part of the day: demolition began. I knew it was going to be a mess and our house would be torn apart. What I didn’t know was how much anxiety it would give me. It was a bit disturbing for me to go to work at 7:30 a.m. and then an hour later, start getting pictures emailed to me from Jason showing our rooms getting torn apart. The progress was unreal. At this rate, the should be done next week. Or around August 15^th (which is the actual expected finish date).

I'm not complaining. I know it sounds like I am, and I normally do complain a lot. I just wasn't expecting to feel so unsettled about all of this.

At times like this, I like to quote Jenny from Forest Gump:
"Dear god, make me a bird, so I can fly far, far from here."

Lastly, a NEW feature to the blog! A running total of our horrible eating habits:

Dinners eaten at home since remodel began: 0

Dinners eaten out since remodel began: 3

Beats Pizza?

This is what I had for dinner last night (although to call it “dinner” is a bit misleading. This was really more of a snack):

Cheese and bread - my two most favorite foods!

It’s called ‘Beatsa Pizza’ (as in, I believe, it beats pizza) and is from Cave Man Kitchen in lovely Kent, Washington. I don’t normally troll around Kent on Tuesday nights, but we had to drop Moorea off at my parents’ house so that she’d be out of the way when demolition starts, and we both really like Cave Man Kitchen, so we stopped on the way home. Incidentally, Cave Man Kitchen has been around since 1971 and burned to the ground at one point. It truly is a hole-in-the-wall joint and is normally very, very good.

Silly me – I got something different…never, ever be adventurous, people. Stick with what you know!

While the Beatsa Pizza was good, it was so, so small. Like four bites and gone. Still hungry, I had some baked beans. "Some" being the key here, as on my third bite, I discovered a long, black hair. The dry heaves ensued and my pizza snack almost made a reappearance.

Needless to say, I lost my appetite, which was helpful in that it was 9 p.m. and it’s bad for your diet to eat food after 6 p.m. Just ask Oprah.

A Well Balanced Diet

Not off to such a great start. And this probably won’t be the last time you see this picture.

Jason worked so hard all day to get all of the things finished that we failed miserably at over the weekend. So he got to pick dinner. And he picked McDonalds.

It was gross and good. I don’t even know how that’s possible, but it is.

I would like you all to note that I drank milk and water with my dinner and not pop. I care about my health.

The Last Supper

This was going to be a big weekend for us. With demo starting on Wednesday, our assignment was to empty the kitchen, living room and dining room.

In total, we accomplished:

·         Moved the dining room hutch and all of my precious, precious china. I love this china (it’s Kate Spade – jealous?) and have only allowed certain people the privilege of eating off of it. The thought of moving it and having something happen to it made my stomach get queasy, but I’m happy to report that nothing got broken, chipped or scratched, and my marriage is still a happy one.

·         Moved the dining room table. But not the chairs. That was pushing it a bit far.

·         Packed one kitchen cabinet and one drawer. It was the cabinet that held the spices and some random bowls. It took me three minutes to pack, and I was exhausted.

That smell that’s coming through your computer right now? That’s the stench of failure. Because we still have to move:

·         Two couches

·         Coffee table

·         Kitchen table and chairs

·         Liquor extravaganza hutch (if you’ve been to my house, you know what I’m talking about)

·         All of the contents of the cabinets in the kitchen, except the one I managed to pack.

In other exciting news, we made the Last Supper in our kitchen.

Doesn't it look appetizing?!

That lovely, intricate dish is Spicy Chicken Rigatoni. A Reeder household favorite. While the rigatoni is boiling away in the background, the dish is pretty much complete. It’s just chicken, peas, marinara, alfredo, garlic and red pepper flakes. It basically rounds out my culinary skills, because I don’t enjoy having multiple pans going at one time. But in a move slightly uncharacteristic for me, there is bread baking in the oven as well. Three things happening at once! I am a culinary genius!

Starting tonight, we begin the transition to not having any way to cook except our grill, toaster oven and crock pot. Not even a microwave (currently, ours is the over the stove variety, and I think it’s going to break when they take it down). Which basically means we’ll eat cereal and toast every night.

Found!

Talk a little shit on the internet, and look what happens:

Well, well, well...look who showed up!

Our contractor, who shall remain nameless, spent two hours at our house today doing a final walk-through prior to starting demolition. Which I believe is slated for Monday.

Which means I am going to be spending all weekend packing up the kitchen.

Just what I like to do on my weekends.

Construction starts this week...oh, wait.

In what is sure to be my most overused and yet highly inaccurate phrase on this blog: GOOD NEWS!

We finally made a decision on our cabinets and placed our order (wait, that actually is good news!) however, our contractor has now gone missing.



Have you seen our contractor?



We last talked to him three weeks ago as he was finishing up our friend’s trillion-dollar remodel (they added an upstairs addition to their house – talk about a remodel!) and he assured us we were still on his schedule.

Projected start date: June 21^st.

Well, our contractor is nowhere to be found. We've left voicemails, sent text messages, even emailed him (which isn't his preferred media) and have heard nothing back. And June 21st is oh, this Thursday, so things are looking like they are right on track. Or not. I'm sure Home Depot has a "remodeling your entire kitchen for dummies" book that we can use...

What I Ate for Dinner: June 12th

I promise that the "What I Ate for Dinner" posts will have clever titles, and not just the dates in the future. Wait, I shouldn't promise, because then when I get lazy, I'll have to call myself a hypocrite again.

In any case, we spent our entire dinner last night talking about cabinets, cabinets, cabinets. So, technically, I felt like I should post a picture of what I ate for dinner:

Look at the steam!

I had steak fajitas and Jason ordered an al pastor (pork) burrito, but somehow ended up with tacos. He opted not to complain and just ate the tacos. I didn't love my fajitas, and incidentally, feel awful today. Which may or may not be related to my dinner, as I am, as a general rule of thumb, sickly.

Cabinet, cabinet, cabinet update: we are down to two color choices. And the Reeder's are a hung jury. I want one color, Jason wants the other. I think it's going to come down to a vicious game of rock-paper-scissor (or, junk-and-a-poe to others) to decide.

Blame True Blood

Not a ton to update you on because I got sucked in (get it?!) to True Blood this weekend. Technically, it’s Jason’s fault since he got us The HBO (yes, I say “The” before HBO) and all 52 episodes were available for me to watch. I had read all of the books, so it was very easy for me to get caught up in the live action version.

Needless to say, between watching True Blood, attending graduation and house warming parties, doing massive amounts of yard work…well, little headway was made on the remodel. We still need to:

·         Finalize the cabinet order

·         Order carpet

·         Find hardware for the cabinets

·         Choose lighting for the kitchen (to hang over the island)

·         Probably a million other things

There is some action (drama) on the cabinet front, but we’ll just save that update until we reach a resolution (assuming that we do).

Hypocrite?

I know, I know. I said I was going to blog every day, and I am. When the remodel starts. Which isn’t for another two (or three) weeks yet…so, patience my friends. It’s a virtue. One I do not possess.

In the meantime, I thought I’d give you a heads up about something you’ve surely already noticed: I am quite the photographer. It takes real talent to understand how light affects a shot, where to position your subject, etc, etc. Just look at this shot:

The most notable points:

·         The subject looks incredibly happy to be having her picture taken.

·         There’s no glare anywhere.

·         You can totally tell the colors of the carpet, given that the subject is only covering some of them.

·         It’s slightly in focus.

·         But hey – there’s a shot of the kitchen where you can see most of it!

I may or may not offer photography workshops once this kitchen remodel is complete. We’ll just have to see.

And so it begins...

After months of hemming and hawing over cabinets, we were finally ready to sign on the dotted line and order them.

So, I email the cabinet guy with the last of my nickel and diming (I’m haggling on every inch of this project – you better believe it!) and he tells me “oops, the color of cabinet you want is no longer available.”

That is EXCELLENT news. In fact, it’s the best news I’ve gotten all day. Except, of course, I am lying. I practically threw-up my $7.45 lunch but didn’t because hey, I’m on a budget now due to this kitchen remodel. And there’s no room for losing my expensive lunch in it.

You might suggest that I just go with the other cabinet company. But, because nothing is ever easy, the other cabinet company is 20% more. And, I don’t even know if they have a cabinet color I will like.



Here’s an example of the hemming and hawing…
that’s our tile and backsplash, next to three possible cabinet door colors.



Everyone voted for color #1. Everyone. But too bad. Because you can't get it.

I know this is going to be the first of many hiccups that will happen during our remodel. I know that I will either gain 50 pounds or lose 20 (I’m putting my money on gaining) due to stress eating, or stress not-eating. I know I will cry, in public, about the remodel at least three times. I probably should move into a hotel and just come back when the entire thing is done. But that's not in the budget.

This is color #2. It's probably what we're going to go with.

If you don't like it, well, keep your trap shut, because you'll have to eat those words when you come to my house for dinner.





The Art of Buying a Car, err, Appliances

Shopping for appliances is, to me, like shopping for a car. Don’t believe me? Check out the similarities:

·         The sales people jump on you the second you walk into the showroom.

·         They call it a showroom (just like at a dealership). They seem proud to call it a showroom, when really, it’s a STORE.

·         They put down other appliance stores (i.e. other car brands) if they get the sense that you’ve been shopping around.

·         They say things like “what’s it going to take for me to earn your business today?”

·         They throw extended warranties at you.

So, after we went to three separate “showrooms” and reviewed an online appliance site, we ultimately chose a dealership, oops, appliance store, and went in for the kill. Because if you’re going to operate like a car dealership, then by god, we’re going to start haggling.

Surveillance footage of Jason and sales guy haggling.
Jason is showing the guy better pricing that we found online. Sales guy = not happy.

I sat in the corner, because as we all know, a woman’s place is in the kitchen, and despite the fact that the entire store is a kitchen, the corner seemed the best spot for me. I am a “mean haggler” using intimidation as my tactic, whereas Jason is a “nice haggler” using sound reason and logic as his tactics. So Jason haggled, I ate free candy, and in the end, we met in the middle and everyone was happy. Except the sales guy. He didn’t seem too happy. Maybe because he works at an appliance store?



Here are our exciting new appliances (well, two of them).



Moorea: 12, Carpet: 0 (aka How I Spent My Thursday Night)

While not 100% on blog topic, my Thursday night does somewhat relate to the kitchen remodel. And even if it didn't, so what? It's my blog. And no one tells me what to do!

Anywho, Thursday night: Jason was on a trip for his job, which you should ask him about. I was missing him but was also extremely tired from being up all night from a burned esophagus (self-diagnosed thank you very much) from eating way too spicy Mexican food. Needless to say, I was looking forward to going to bed early.

But Moorea had other plans. Perhaps you could say it was my fault, but you'd be wrong because I very rarely accept blame.

Upon taking Moorea out for her last "business trip" of the night, we came in and Moorea ran off to the bedroom. As I'm walking down the hall, I'm smelling something unpleasant and noticing brown spots on the carpet.

It would appear that Moo stepped in her own poop (so smart) and then someone was lax on cleaning her feet off before she came in, thus SHIT EVERYWHERE!

So my Thursday night was spent cleaning the carpet.

Which brings me back to the remodel tie-in: we are replacing all of the carpet in the house as part of the remodel, but we should probably just lay down plastic. Or black carpet.