Food Interruption

Dinner!  For a while there I thought for sure spring was on its way, but it snowed a tiny bit today (which I personally love!), so I thought I’d make a cozy, comforting – yet healthy – meal for dinner.  Especially since Jay is currently working outside putting the siding on the house (more to come!).

This recipe is from skinnytaste.com, which is one of my favorite cooking web sites and cookbooks.

Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped (I left this out)
• 1/2 half red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup parsley (or cilantro)
• 5 bell peppers (red or green) (I only used two whole peppers for the two of us)
• 14 oz shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• adobo (or salt) to taste (I used chipotle chili powder plus salt, for a little bit of flavor)
• 15.5 oz can white beans
• 1/2 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar

Directions:
In a medium pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add chopped onions, garlic, parsley and red pepper. Saute until soft, about a minute. Add chicken and season with cumin and adobo. Add beans and 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water and simmer for about 5-10 minutes, until it thickens and the liquid reduces. Adjust spices to taste.

Preheat oven to 350°. Cut peppers in half removing seeds and stem. Place peppers in an oven-proof dish. Fill each pepper with 1/3 cup of chicken and bean mixture. Pour about 1/3 cup water or chicken broth on the bottom of the dish. Cover tight with foil. Bake 30 minutes at 350°. Remove foil, top with cheese and bake uncovered another 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Electrical and Plumbing

The electrical and plumbing work is being done.  I only have a few pictures of this, as it doesn’t seem all that exciting.  I know it is and I’m excited it’s being done, but how many pictures of outlets and duct work can you have?  It’s the basic central air/heat system, except we’ll have dual-zone control.

Second Floor Lighting

On to the second floor’s lighting choices.  I really only have exciting pictures of my closet’s chandelier to show you.  All of the bathrooms will have the same Hinkley lighting series as what is in the powder room.  The master bathroom will have a two-light fixture above each of the mirrors and the guest bathroom will have a three-light fixture above the mirror.  Yep, all the same.

My Closet

These were some ideas for my closet.  The light had to be semi-flush to the ceiling, as the ceiling height in there isn’t as tall as our first floor.

Closet option 1 (ruled out since it would hang too far down into the closet)

 

Closet option 2 (a very close runner-up)

 

Closet option 3 (the unlit one, in front)

 

This is what I went with in the end.  It’s the ET2 – Inca in Bronze.  I love everything about it!  The bronze, the shape, the sparkle.

Winner!

 

First Floor Lighting

We had an excursion recently to BBC Lighting.  One of my favorite places!  On the recommendation of a friend, we met with the owner’s husband who helped us pick out some great pieces.  Here is a look at what we chose for the first floor.  Aside from the main fixtures, there will be can lighting throughout both the first and second floors.

Kitchen/Dining Room

There wasn’t an actual chandelier to see in the showroom, so I only have the catalog picture.  I like the finish and that the shade has a small amount of metallic in it.  Adds a little sparkle in the sunlight.  This is the Hinkley Flourish in Silver Leaf with Metallic Linen shade:

Above the dining room table

Kitchen Island and Sink

My kitchen sink is in a corner, which allows for a pendant light.  We chose the same as what will hang over the island, the Quoizel Catherine in Vintage Gold:

I never thought Jay would settle for this much crystal in the house, but he was the one who picked these out! As you can imagine, I’m thrilled. The more crystals/sparkle, the better.

Family Room

We found this fixture long before we went to BBC and decided we had to have it.  So far, we’re planning on putting it in the family room, but that changes by the day.  It might be a little too much for a family room….or it might be just what the room needs.  For now we have it, but may decide to move it to the hallway by the front door.  If we decide we don’t want it there, we can move it upstairs to the hall there, or one of the bedrooms.  We don’t have a live picture of the one, either, so excuse the computer picture.  It’s the Feiss Lucia in Burnished Silver:

Powder Room
Originally for the powder room we had a basic two-light fixture that would hang over the mirror.  But we decided to swap that fixture for the sconces we picked out for the master bathroom.  These are the Hudson Valley Windham.  They’re cute! (again, sorry for the computer pic).

Ack! Horrible computer picture. I won’t subject you to that anymore. I think you get the idea of it’s cuteness.

Stairwell

And finally on the first floor – second floor, is the stairwell.  We needed something big enough to take up the space and shed enough light, and make a statement; but not something big enough that it looked ridiculous.  I loved the first piece we picked out, but when we measured the house against the chandelier, we found the chandelier was just too big and….. loud for the area.  Think Unisphere from the New York World’s Fair.

Here is what we originally thought would work.  Note all the sparkle!  This is the Troy Byron:

 

 

Catalogue picture

We toned it down to a 4 light chandelier that has a glass frame, surrounded by another open frame.  Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this one, as we can’t remember the brand or find a link to it!  This is as close as I can get:  stairwell chandelier, sort of. When the real thing arrives at the house, I’ll post a ‘live’ photo.

Roofing and some manual labor

Jay added a layer of plywood and the felt paper to the trusses, which means the roofers can come and add the shingles.  I stopped by in the afternoon to check on the progress….and offer Jay my help.  Help = opening a beer and ordering a pizza, not sweeping up sawdust. 😦  It took a lot longer than I thought it would, probably because I would stop and look at what I still had left (but I didn’t complain!).

By the second time I stopped to offer my help, I could do the downstairs and upstairs faster than I could on my first round of only the first floor.

The roofers lucked out. It was a rare day at the end of winter that got up into the 60s.

 

Assessing the area I needed to sweep.

 

Just starting. Ugh. I was not cut out for this. But it gave me an excuse to wear my cute rubber rain boots!

 

“And once you’re done with the first floor, you can move to the second.”

 

However, in Jay’s defense, there is no way I wanted to be doing what he was doing.  He had to remove all the hay from the basement that was keeping the foundation warm – it was now getting too warm and he wanted to prevent mold and moisture from building up.  But since we don’t have basement steps yet, he used the ladder to go down, filled up a garbage can with the hay, and then used a pretty crafty pulley system to haul up the garbage can and take it to the dumpster.

I also can’t complain since I only swept up twice and he has to do it every. single. day.

More windows

In case you didn’t get enough of the prior posting, here are more windows.  They are all as cute as my closet ones!

The three windows that will go above the guest bed (also my niece’s bed – HRM).

West windows in the guest room (HRM’s).

East side in HRM’s room.

Windows on West side in other guest room.

Window in our bathroom, along West wall.

My closet!

Master bedroom. The two windows are in the front, facing the woods (North). There are two windows on the West side (only one in the pic) that will be along either side of our bed.

Stairwell.

Front den (sorry it’s a little dark. It was late afternoon).

 

Dining room. Windows along the West side (three windows) and the South.

 

French doors from family room to back deck.

 

Mud room windows! Same as my closet. Adorbs.

 

Windows

The windows were delivered!

Exciting to see the label ‘Jay and Kate’s House.’

 

This set of three windows goes in my niece’s ‘room’, above the bed. They’re adorable. Her room lets in so much light – it faces South and has windows on all three sides.

This long window is in the stairwell. The little one on the bottom right is the front hallway closet. And behind the ladder is the kitchen.

Inside view of my closet’s windows. Yay!

Outside view of my closet’s windows. Those windows are so cute! I’m pretty sure Jay said the same thing when he picked them out.

Wondering about the layout?

Now that the house is moving along, I thought I’d show you what the plans look like.  Nothing like doing things out-of-order!  The pictures are small, but it will hopefully give you a general idea of the layout and help things come together in your mind.

Jay gets all the credit for the design and layout of the house.  This is what he does for a living and something he is passionate about.  I know what I like when I see it, but I’m not talented enough to start from scratch.  And given the work I’ve seen of his in the past, I was happy to let him run with it.  I gave input as needed, based on what I liked and didn’t like; and so far I’m very pleased with the outcome!  I had a few things I absolutely wanted/needed and a few things that I could go either way on.

First floor, on Crawford Ave facing the front of the house. Den in front of house. Powder room on West side of house, pantry tucked in the middle between the front hall and powder room. Kitchen on East side of house, dining room on West side, family room along back of house.

Second floor; save viewpoint as first picture. Master bedroom in front of house, bathroom along West side. Second bedroom on West side. Third bedroom in back of house, guest bath on East side.

 

Charming facade

One of my favorite features of the house is the pointy and sloping roof in the front.  It gives it a cottage-y feel and to me seems welcoming.  I’ve always wanted a house that has a slope like this.

Yes, initially it did look like a skateboard ramp.

 

Behind/Under the Scenes view.

 

Roof update

Adding a layer of plywood before the felt paper and shingles go on: