LindsSays: Homeowner

Showing posts with label Homeowner. Show all posts

Happy Monday! I can barely sit still because I am SO excited for my friend's big fat Greek wedding this weekend (it's literally a Greek wedding) and I'm going to be reunited with some of my favorite people ever at 5 pm Friday. Until then I'll be practicing Greek dances via Youtube haha.

Our oven is officially fixed so rest easy, this is the last crockpot recipe for awhile. Again, laughably easy. This was my lunch for the week.

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken breasts ($4.00)
1 can diced tomatoes with chiles (I use Rotel) ($.99)
3 Tablespoons taco seasoning (clean eating taco seasoning = 2 Tbs ground cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp chili powder, 1/4 tsp black pepper)

Combine the ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 7 hours. I switched up how I ate it each day- some days at it on a salad, some days in Ezekiel tortillas, some days with black beans, added some salsa, added Greek yogurt. It was so good!

Anyone else have an amazing weekend? I have back to back weddings for the next 3 weekends (Richmond, Boston, and Lancaster here I come!) so I HAD to be productive- at least for part of the weekend

Friday night I stayed in to watch Orange Is The New Black which I have been anxiously awaiting for the last...oh you know year or so. I'm a grandma so despite my excitement and how much I was loving it, I passed out somewhere around episode 4 (DON'T SPOIL ANYTHING FOR ME OR I WILL KNIFE YOU). Andi was unimpressed however.

My storage unit, which was packed to the brim with furniture from my old house that I have not even thought about for the last year, was dropped off on Friday so we spent the weekend throwing a pseudo yard-sale. We didn't have a backup plan so I was super stressed that we'd be stuck with all this stuff and nowhere to put it so I threw a few tantrums (sorry, Harrison).

We got rid of all the big stuff, so a few boxes will be headed to Goodwill this week. Temper tantrums were 100% unnecessary.

I also found tons of pictures from back when I used to print out pictures, like this little throwback of Harrison and me 3 years ago when we FIRST started dating:

Saturday was my friend Kyle's birthday so we cooked out and I ate about a million pounds of food.

Played an insanely intense round of Taboo (girls vs. boys- always gets out of hand). For the record, "starts with letter V" is NEVER OK RIGHT??? NEVER! Sorry for being a rule follower.:

My friend Anna who makes everything look super easy (oh don't minder her just completing a post-bach med school program and cooking her husband's birthday dinner for 50 people 2 days before HUGE tests. I mean really) made this delicious apple/kale/quinoa salad that I MUST eat again soon. She said she just looks at SweetGreen's salads and then makes them herself. Genius. She also made this ice cream pies:

Listen to how she made these pies. Scooped ice cream into a pie crust. Let the ice cream soften and melt a little. Put it back in the freezer. So like I said, she makes everything so freaking easy.

Sunday was insanely productive. I cleaned (PS if you have wood floors you HAVE to use Muprhy's Oil. Decent price, I just spray it on our wood floors and dry mop right over it- our floors are IMMACULATE). Andi and I went for a run in the park and took a break for a selfie photoshoot:

Annnd of course threw in a few episodes with Piper and the crew in the clink.

Tell me: can you EVER say "starts with a [insert letter here]"?? And what is your favorite salad?

Linking up today with LeeAnn, Kimberlee, Biana, Much Ado About Monday, Motivation Monday

Clean Eating 3 Ingredient Crockpot Mexican Chicken + Weekend Recap + Ice Cream Pie

Monday, June 9, 2014

Happy Friday y'all! We made it to a THREE DAY WEEKEND!! The house is almost where we want it- there are a few things to move/unpack/paint but other than that we're good, and despite not having everything 100% done I'm fine!

OH and miraculously we are surviving without an oven. We've had kale/mango/seed salad, crockpot green chicken, and crockpot ribs (recipes coming soon). To try next: crockpot meatballs, taco night via crockpot (thanks again, Meg!) and some veggie wraps (thanks Ursula for that idea!).

So here are my before and after pix of the finished downstairs areas (more pix coming next week- and soon tutorials on the stuff ~~my mom and dad~~ we DIYed- I put a * next to things "we" DIYed. Shameless plug: My dad is a Virginia contractor. If you're in the DMV or Richmond area, he does a good job and finishes things- unlike certain contractors we had on this house- and gives honest prices).

Ok also, I know I'm a terrible photographer. I have no idea how to do this. Harrison majored in photography and is a realtor so I'll have him take some legit pictures to put up next week- I'm just too excited not to share!

Looking out from the kitchen (wall) before:

Looking out from the kitchen BAR after:

What we did:

Tore up the carpet, finished the wood floors
Painted*
Got new windows installed
Installed a new door*
New vents

To Do:

Figure out a good way to store all our liquor (ideas anyone?) that takes up no room
Learn how to take pictures of rooms
Return the sad rug rolled up in the corner

I don't have a WAY before picture from this angle- aka before the carpet was torn up. Isn't it crazy how much bigger the house looks with that wall torn down?

To Do:

Find a rug (Target one came in and looked like 70's colors on a nintendo screen)
Throw away plastic cups and water bottles on the table haha
Hang stuff on the walls
Get a small side table- I don't think there's really room for a coffee table?
PS how sweet is this couch? The top of the ottoman is actually a LID so we can store blankets and pillows in it. It also folds out into a bed. Who's coming to visit!?

RIP giant orange wall. And plastic black countertops.

Kitchen Corner After:

What we did

Knocked down the wall (literally my mom did this by herself with a hammer while everyone was at Home Depot. Wonder freaking woman) and replaced it with a few cabinets to make a bar*
Moved some cabinets around, bought a few extra cabinets, and painted the cabinets*
New appliances (we got a serious hook up at Home Depot- seriously recommend)
New sink in a new spot
New counters (again- serious hook up. Let me know if you're in the DMV and need a granite guy- I've got one)
Ripped up (what turned out to be 5 layers of) linoleum and replaced with tiles*
Added subway tile backsplash (thanks to the genius idea from Julie who is not only now my decorator but also doing my wedding invites)*
Bought a step stool from Ikea so I can reach everything. Best $7 spent in this home reno so far.

Question: any space-saving liquor storage advice? Also: See that giant red grocery bag? That is full of about 50 spices/seasonings. Anyone have storage solutions for this? In the old place we kept them in a cabinet where I could never find what I was looking for.

Main Bathroom Before:

After:

QUESTION: I LOVE the ombre zebra shower print. Harrison doesn't. Can it stay or does it have to go? Is it tacky? Let me know thoughts in the comments!

still need to cover up that light switch... we ran out oopsies!

What We Did:

Tore out that blue-gray tile and replaced with subway tile in the shower, dry wall everywhere else
Replaced the floor with this strange faux-wood-floor-tile
Put that nasty white shelf in the laundry room*
Moved the sink to the basement bathroom (that will be finished someday in the far off future)
Moved towel racks to back of the door (thanks Pinterest!)*
Tore out the moldy medicine cabinet (almost threw up typing this) and replaced with a mirror from Ikea
Got rid of those random pants hanging from the door (like what?)
Put the toilet seat down (new toilet has a "soft shutting" seat so gone are the days of a certain someone slamming down toilet seats and waking everyone else up when they get up to pee at 3 am)
Put in a new toilet- look if you ever own a house you have to get a Toto. Every house my parents flip gets a Toto, every bar I worked in switched to Totos- never been a clog, leak anything. And think about what drunk girls are trying to flush down toilets in college bars. They aren't that much more expensive and they live forever. Really, the day our Totos came was Christmas morning for this girl. Also- I've got a Toto guy. E-mail me or comment or tweet or something me if you want a hookup on the Totos.

And here is one last question for everyone out there: what the heck should I do about this closet? The space isn't big enough for a door that opens out, and we despise accordian folding doors of any kind.

Friday Five: Home Reno Before & After Pix

Friday, May 23, 2014

Ok first off I want to send a huge thanks and send lots of v-hugs (virtual hugs, not vajayjay hugs which is what I just thought as I was reading over this, how old am I??) to everyone- friends and bloggy bffs- who has been so encouraging and given me advice over the last 2 weeks. I hate moving. I can't think of anything I want to do less- I get crabby, I can't find anything, unpacking takes a decade, and Harrison and I snap at each other because we can't really snap at the move itself. But every time I logged onto social media, the blog, and my email it was like a virtual cheerleading squad, so thank yall- your comments and e-mails mean a lot! Aaannd I'm officially one of those people who has online friends haha.

This weekend my parents were here to help out around the house and we worked every waking second (minus about 30 minutes for me to throw a 5-year-oldish temper tantrum, eat food, realize I was hangry, apologize to everyone, parents to say "it's ok you've been a hangry person since you were born"- thank you, Mom and Dad for helping out even though I'm such a hangry a-hole). We didn't want to take time/spend money to go pick up food (not to mention I may actually go into cardiac arrest if I spend one more penny) so I threw some of the food I found in the fridge into the crockpot and came up with this delicious dinner of Balsamic Vinaigrette Chicken (I def had to google how to spell vinaigrette). OH also our brand new oven broke and it will take 7-10 days to get the new parts in so please please please share any clean(ish) recipes that don't involve an oven or stove- we also don't have a grill (sadface). At this point it doesn't even have to be totally clean, I just can't do Lean Cuisine or anymore take out.

Servings: 4

Prep Time: less than 5 mins

Cook Time: 4 hours in the crockpot

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken breast, thawed ($6.00)
1 Cup Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (I used Paul Newman's, I know it's not exactly clean but it's close enough right now. This weekend I'm going to make my own clean dressing via Pinterest)
1/2 onion, sliced ($.50)
2 tomatoes, diced ($1.00)

Throw it in the crockpot for 4 hours then enjoy! I had a bag of frozen veggies that I just microwaved (didn't even have to take them out of the bag!!) for 3 minutes to eat with the chicken. Yall this was so freaking good.

So when I was getting ready to move I told my dad I was frustrated with having incomplete projects to which he said "welcome to home-ownership". I was like NO EVERYTHING WILL BE COMPLETED BY MONDAY. But there are little things that need to happen and boxes unchecked and you know what? I'm still alive. But here's progress on the paint.

My dad thinks he's so funny because he hung those paper towels from the hand towel ring. I had to leave it so he can share his jokes with the world.

Look at that oven. Sitting there being broken.

Not pictured: the bedroom we painted. Every time I think to take a picture Harrison is sleeping in it, and I don't need to offend the internet with pictures of 250-lb man sleeping in his undies. Not that kinda blog here.

Left on my list:

Find a rug for the living room area
Find a side table for the living room area (Goodwill here I come! Taking notes from Meg)
Hang stuff on the walls (I am the WORST at this- anyone know of a guide for how-to make it look like not just a bunch of crap randomly thrown on the walls?)
Mount the TV on the wall (oh hey surprise brick wall behind the actual walls that is making this harder than necessary)
Blinds
Curtains

Happy Tuesday and have a great week! Don't forget to leave me links to any of your healthy recipes that don't need to be cooked in an oven/on a stovetop!

OH PS: Zulily has an Under Armour sale today! go get your's! I love me some Under Armour!

Linking up today at Delicious Dish Tuesday, Turn It Up Tuesdays, Tuesday Recipe Swap

4 Ingredient Crockpot Balsamic Vinaigrette Chicken + House Updates

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Back in the day, Fridays meant drinking, sleeping for 2 days, hanging out with friends, and drinking more. However on THIS grown up Friday I am looking forward to a Friday night trip to Ikea and a weekend of painting the new house. That's right, my 28th birthday came and turned me into a grandma.

I'm also really excited for my parents to come this weekend. They're going to help paint and fix things up and my mom is going to mom-ify things. Yes, I'm 28 and I still need my mom to come "mom-ify" my house to make it feel like home. But moms just have this knowledge of home things that I haven't yet developed I guess?

Here are some pix:

AAAGHHH. Notice the only furniture- dog bed and TV. And of course, champagne. Last night I threw out the pink paper and scrubbbbed the floors. Andi has a new fear of Swiffers and hid the entire time. Those pits are ferocious man! Also we're painting this whole area a light gray. I ordered this rug for the living room, and most furniture is dark brown and neutral beige-ish. What color curtains would you get?? I am horrible at curtains. I think about it for hours and end up buying 10 to try and hate all of them!

I finished unpacking the kitchen yesterday. This is going to be that gray color too!

When moving I found Harrison's collection of steak knives. I have no idea why we need all these. Maybe we'll have a steak party? But really a whole drawer...

Andi "helping" me take the last load to the new place. The move was just too much for her.

Celebratory champs in the new house (check out that granite! If you're in the DMV looking for new granite let me know, we got an AWESOME deal):

Here is Andi loving her new yard. Almost brought tears to my eyes! It must feel so good to go from being cooped up in an apartment all the time to having a yard to run in!

Anyone have advice/resources on linen closet storage and under-the-sink storage?

Happy Friday! Move In Update!

Friday, May 16, 2014

Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekend? I celebrated the 7th anniversary of my 21st birthday- do I seem older??

Today's recipe is one I made as my lunch for the week last week. The plantains and sweet potatoes added a nice sweet complement to the cumin, turkey, garlic and beans. It was delicious!

Servings: 5
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

1/2 lb lean ground turkey, browned ($2.00)
1 ripe (brown) plantain ($.50)
1 avocado, chopped ($1.00)
1 can black beans ($1.00)
1 green bell pepper, diced ($.89)
1/2 large onion, diced ($.50)
1 large tomato, diced ($.80)
1/2 sweet potato, diced ($.40)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder (less if you don't love garlic as much as I do)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all the ingredients except the avocado, mix well, and cook over medium-high heat in a non-stick pan for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, add the avocado, and voila! You've got lunch for the week! Serve with salsa and Greek Yogurt.

I switched it up and ate it plain on Monday, on salad Tuesday, as a lettuce wrap Wednesday, on an Ezekiel tortilla Thursday, and plain again on Friday. It was so good!

Sooo as for the weekend, my birthday was pretty low key this year, which was what I wanted- I'm so focused on the house right now and wanted to be able to get up Sunday and paint/work (which didn't happen anyway because the baseboards weren't installed yet). Friday night a few friends from the neighborhood came over and we had beer and hookah on the balcony (yay nice weather!)

A few friends of mine from high school who live in DC came along for my favorite bottomless mimosa/bottomless buffet brunch at Front Page (on the porch!!) on Saturday, then we went to Local 16's rooftop (my other favorite). We bopped down the street to Chi-Cha Lounge for awhile, then capped off the night with some jumbo slice (thank you, DC).

Sunday we got up early and went to the house to check out progress. There wasn't much we could do but I need some advice! HELP!

This is our new walk-in closet (!!!!). The floor is slanted on my side- any ideas how to use this space so it's not just wasted? I'm thinking I might put some shelves over the slant? Not sure though? Thoughts? Ideas?

This is Andi attempting to look 100% uninterested in Max, her new neighbor- look how hard she's trying! I love this pic. BUT- Andi is a climber. Even while I was out there with her she tried to climb the fence! Anyone have ideas for how to keep her in? We are putting up a new fence soon, but it's just not in the budget right now.

Our new kitchen faucet came in. This house stuff has taught me A LOT about compromise, and about how different Harrison and my ideas are about decor... This ~~hose~~ faucet was a compromise. It reminds me of the giant things we used to clean dishes at the restaurants I worked in... This faucet is even removable and stretches...what do you think? Is this cool? Am I just scarred from years cleaning dishes at restaurants?

And now for some before/after pix, because these make me feel 100x better about the progress, and the fact that we are at T-Minus 10 days out from the day we have to move out of our current place (EEK):

The downstairs bathroom- can we just talk about WHY anyone ever wanted PINK toilets?!?!

New floor, new toilet, cleaned walls make a humongous difference. We have a pedestal sink going in soon- pix coming! If there needed to be any more evidence of how much of a NON DIY person I am, please observe the fact that I couldn't even figure out how to move this door out of the way for the picture..sorryyy!

Master bathroom during- again, who wanted a blue tub?!

Master bathroom: almost there! I love the subway tiles, and on last Tuesday's post I asked for suggestions on backsplash and paint colors- there were SO many good ideas (THANK YALL!) and Julie at The Natural Junkie suggested subway tile for the backsplash and I was like WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?!, so we just ordered some more of this in a smaller size! Still working on the paint color.

And that's it! Leave any advice in the comments- I appreciate it! And I hope everyone has an awesome Cinco de Mayo! This is actually a day that I drink margaritas at home because I refuse to fight the crowds of drunks in sombreros and pay for overpriced margs. I prefer be a drunk in a sombrero in the safety of my own home, with cheap tequila and no lines. #sorry

Linking up today with Weekend Recap, Much Ado About Monday, Monday Morning Gossip

Clean Eating Mexican One Pan Meal + weekend recap

Monday, May 5, 2014

Happy Monday! We survived another weekend of home reno and we are finally getting into the part I like- where we are starting to SEE the changes! It's really exciting, I'm just so ready to MOVE IN!

Since things were chaos I didn't have much of a meal plan or a grocery list and just bought $40 worth of goodies at Trader Joe's (oopsies!). With the random assortment of TJ's sale items I came up with this Mexican Pizza:

Servings: 3

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

2 Tortillas (I use Ezekiel)
1/2 lb lean ground turkey, cooked ($1.50)
2 tomatoes, diced ($2.00)
1/2 large white onion, diced ($.50)
1/2 package of diced butternut squash (this is about 1 lb) ($2.00)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup salsa ($1.50)
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded ($1.50)
1 avocado, diced ($1.00)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Saute the onion, butternut squash and garlic together. Place the 2 tortillas in a baking dish. Evenly distribute the turkey onto the tortillas. Top with the sauteed veggies. Layer the tomatoes on top of the veggies. Top the veggies with the mozzarella cheese. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes, slice up and enjoy! I took the leftovers to work the next day.

We spent Easter weekend working on the house- have I mentioned how grateful I am to have parents who drive 2 hours just to help out with this home reno stuff? It's getting to the fun part where we can actually SEE the progress:

My mom and I painted the cabinets, and the granite guy came and gave us counters! And thank you, Mom for coming to Home Depot to help me cope with my semi-mental breakdown over gloss vs. semi-gloss vs. eggshell paint and choosing between approximately 682 shades of almost-black paint...

Here's what that same wall looked like before:

And we added a wall to the bedroom to give ourselves a WALK IN CLOSET WITH TWO ENTRANCES (the opening and the door go into the same closet). Next stop: Ikea!

My mom and I went to Community Forklift, which, if you are in DC you have to go. It's basically a thrift store for home goods. I found this and can't wait to buy it to put in the dining room:

Since my parents are in town we still had a semi-easter celebration. I tried to make resurrection rolls (family tradition) and failed. See the marshmallow inside the crescent roll is supposed to be "Jesus", and when you pull them into the oven aka the "tomb", the marshmallow/Jesus is gone! However I just ended up with Jesus as a sticky mess all over the cookie sheet:

And since I have no life outside of this house stuff right now (socially this consists of my parents, Harrison, and about 4 contractors who don't speak English), I live through everyone else and can we just talk about this fabulousness that was happening down the street? Michelle! I don't care what your political views are, you gotta admit the Obamas know how to dress!

And Andi's Thundershirt came just in time for the thunderstorm and wind storm we are supposed to have this week- look at that model workin it! She let me put it on which is a good first step...we'll see how this goes...

Anyone have recommendations for dog anxiety? And recommendations for walk-in closet organization?

Happy Monday! Linking up today with Monday Morning Gossip, Much Ado About Monday, Healthy Tips. Weekend Recap

Clean Eating Mexican Pizza + Weekend Recap

Monday, April 21, 2014

Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekends? We survived a weekend of kitchen renovations..and ate a delishhhh spaghetti pie made with spaghetti squash zomg.

Servings: 5

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 80 mins

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash ($3.00)
1 egg
2 teaspoons oil (coconut or olive)
1 lb lean ground turkey ($3.00)
1/2 cup natural chicken broth
1 cup clean (sugar-free, natural- I used a garlic basil sauce from Trader Joe's) tomato sauce ($1.50)
1 green bell pepper, diced ($.80)
1/2 large onion, diced ($.50)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup mozzarella cheese ($1.50)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon Basil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop your spaghetti squash in half long-wise and scoop out the ribs and seeds in the middles. Put the two halves on a baking sheet, cut side up (so they are sitting on the round sides) and brush the oil onto the inside of the cut halves. Heat in the oven for an hour.

While the squash is cooking, start cooking the ground turkey in a large frying pan on the stove over medium high heat with the chicken broth and seasonings (Italian seasoning, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder). Once the turkey is browned and most of the broth is absorbed, add the onion, green pepper, and garlic and lower the heat to medium. Heat for about 5 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce to the mixture and heat for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly (I may or may not be a super obsessive stirrer and the excessive stirring may or may not be totally unnecessary). Remove the mixture from heat.

Remove the spaghetti squash from the oven and allow to cool about 5 minutes. Once cooled a little, use a fork to poke at the edges and scoop the innards (the spaghetti-ish stuff) out of the spaghetti squash. Get as much of the "spaghetti" scooped out as possible, there should only be a really thin skin left.

Combine an egg with the "spaghetti noodles" until the egg is completely mixed in. Pat the "spaghetti" down around a 9x9 round pan (you can use a square pan too), making sure to press it up around the edges too (see pic below). Evenly spread the meat mixture on top of the spaghetti squash. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top and heat for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Slice up and enjoy!

Sooo this weekend was jam-packed. My parents came in town and totally demolished the kitchen and hung the cabinets- now that I can see what it's going to be I'm ZOOO EXCITED

Before (remember how there was a wall there? If you follow me on Instagram you know that my mom knocked the wall down with a hammer BY HERSELF):

After:

I got in on some of the action (construction goggle swag):

I took a little break from ~~getting in the way of~~ helping with renovations to go see one of my good friends from home's documentary premier at the Cherry Blossom Festival- yall my friends are going places! It was so amazing and inspiring- after college Wesley taught in Japan for 2 years, and had gone back to see his students graduate the day the tsunami hit. He was missing for a week, and thankfully survived, but unfortunately not all of his friends did. He made this documentary telling the story of volunteers who rallied around the town of Tohoku (Tohoku Tomo means Friend of Tohoku). It was such a powerful reminder that no matter what your skill set, you can always serve others. It was also interesting to see how the recovery process is going years later. Check out the documentary website and go like their Facebook Page! Here's my friend and his crew doing the Q & A session: