i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
I don’t often get to eat Halal cart food, but when I do I usually ask them to just absolutely drench it in white sauce—which is weird because I generally don’t like mayonnaise based sauces. However, they always leave me wanting more. Just a little …
Ah, my latest obsession–Brazilian Cheese Bread. I actually had this for the first time at a Brazilian steak-house in my adulthood, and enjoyed the pillowy, cheesy delights which I unfortunately tried very hard not to fill up on. It’s very much a if-bread-and-mochi-had-a-baby type texture …
Monday – April 26th, 2021: Things didn’t exactly turn out the way I thought, since I wasn’t able to really take a good look at this unit until today. Unfortunately several things made it so that I can’t actually DIY this, mainly, the windows are in very bad shape and the formica countertops are gross. Three years ago I had new windows installed, but had used a handyman service and unfortunately he did a terrible job that was hidden by the blinds on top, and me, having been frazzled and not really looking closely enough, didn’t realize just how bad it was. Today, as we were pulling down the blinds, I got a clear look and was horrified.
I’ve now requested the help of a renovation team instead to just get everything done at once because I’m unable to wait at this point (the longer the unit sits empty, the less income is generated.) Wednesday they’re coming to give me a quote (I’ve used them before and I love their work). Essentially they will be responsible for replacing all the windows and the frames, replacing the molding, removing the cabinets and the wrap around in the kitchen, the paint job, and the kitchen light fixture replacement (see what I envision everything to look like here.)
Friday – May 14th, 2021: Renovations begin today! Ultimately, as these things are wont to do, plans have deviated somewhat. The kitchen backsplash will be tiled (white), the bedroom carpet will be replaced with engineered hardwood flooring—mainly because carpet is so much more difficult to clean and just traps all sorts of dirt and dust. However, underneath the carpet turned out to be the gorgeous original wood flooring, but in a condition so bad I’ll need a professional restoration company to come deal with it but I currently just don’t have the time to do so. I was SO excited to see that, since I love the antique history of it, and when I can, would love to see it fully restored.
Turns out having outlets above the kitchen sink is illegal (the contractor, who is normally chill and very cucumber like, looked alarmed when he saw it which made me realize it was serious shiznits) so he will be relocating those. The countertops is being replaced by butcher’s block.
Since the ceilings are high, I decided to go with crown molding as well which will make it look gorgeous. The windows are thankfully getting fixed, and instead of doing aluminum dropdown for the bathroom, they’ll be just sheetrock and spackling. All in all, I love this particular company, even if the lead time is longer (waiting and patience is not my forte but I endured)—they’re fast, efficient, and do beautiful work.
I also decided to pick up an antique style settee for the couch, which I may reupholster if necessary (but so far it looks great via pics from the seller), a gorgeous mirror with wrought iron trim on clearance at Home Goods, and am trawling Facebook for a nice dinette set. I imagine all the work will likely be finished within the week after which I will seriously begin to furnish.
Monday – May 17th, 2021: The renovators don’t work weekends but I went and checked in with them several times on Friday—had to haul tile and bamboo engineered flooring (I will refinish the old wood floors another time). Due to the rise in oil prices from the whole pipeline issue, carpet plus the underlayment turned out to be $150 more expensive than the engineered bamboo flooring. Just as well since hard flooring is easier to clean and upkeep than carpet.
There turns out to be some wasted deadspace behind the kitchen, which could have been for a linen closet or expand the bathroom or hide a couple bodies. I’ll deal with it when I decide to do a full bathroom renovation.
They did an excellent job with the window repairs and 3/7 windows have been finished and they began spackling the bedroom and painting the doors.
Yesterday, I picked up a gorgeous vintage upholstered settee in near perfect condition super inexpensively ($220) from a woman selling for her mother who liked to collect vintage/antique furniture. It has cute metal claw feet and a wooden frame, deep seating making it very comfortable. I can’t wait to be able to put it in!
Tuesday May 18th, 2021: The crown molding is up and it’s gorgeous. It immediately gives the space a luxurious feel but not overbearing. They also started doing the first coat for the bedroom walls. I’m getting real excited to see how this unfolds. I picked up the star pendant light for the kitchen from my local HomeSense, and the Nest thermostat from National Grid (which provides rebates for their items) came in.
Saturday May 29th, 2021: After two weeks, the renovations are done and it’s amazing. I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out!
I’m going to let the dust settle for another day and then I will clean and wash the floors and counters (spackle dust from sanding is very fine and can stay in the air for a while.) After that, I’ll begin to furnish and decorate which is arguably the best part of this whole ordeal.
One issue I ran into is that the master code for the lockbox for this apartment isn’t working and I don’t know if I’m remembering it wrong or the tenant before this one changed it. Unfortunately I don’t know if there’s any way to remove it without damaging the frame.
Tuesday June 8th, 2021
The past week and a half has been a whirlwind of trying to get everything set up and furnished. I spent quite a bit of time at local thrift shops and Home Goods to get the vibe perfect (and for low cost fake plant decor). I also got in two cleaned skulls from my friends over at Merchant Macabre which I used to create these gothic chic wall art/glass bell oddities. One is a cat skull (which Martha named “Smoky” which is both amusing and terrifying, and the other is a fox skull now called “Foxie” because of course Sophie needed to name one too.
I’ll be hiding Studio Ghibli Easter Eggs with a scavenger hunt list for guests to amuse themselves with eventually.
Another thing I will be doing is stocking the place with eco-friendly alternatives to some common household items–for example there won’t be liquid dish detergent, rather I will have a dish soap block plus copper wool sponges. I placed a bulk order of mini shampoo bars with J.R. Liggetts (according to the account manager, they’ll last indefinitely in the freezer so my chest freezer will come in handy) and will have sisal soap bags. My goal is just to introduce these alternatives so people can try them out and hey, if it makes them think a little bit more towards zero waste, all the better!
For the next year, it will only be open to friends and family for short term use (less than 14 days) and biweekly guests if they choose to stay. This way I can get the change of use sorted out with the town. I’m so excited to have begun this journey!
This week has been… less than pleasant so I decided to make something I’ve been craving ever since I saw it on the Netflix show Street Food Asia—a Vietnamese Pate Bahn Mi. Created during the French colonization of Vietnam, both baguette and pate were introduced …
The garden portion of my plan will actually be done in October, when I can get clearance fruit tree as from my local plant nurseries. First thing is that the ground needs to be turned over and then the holes have to be dug. I …
I’ve been pretty much confined to a bed for almost 10 days now with COVID. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, we know how we got it (husband came into contact with someone and brought it home.) Yeah, it was literally right after we got the first round of the Pfizer vaccine so the whole situation is super dumb. I got hit harder than my other half did, coughing up my lungs, dizziness, fever, nausea, intense smell and taste and then losing that, and basically being weak-sauce. I don’t think I had super healthy lungs to begin with (having been hospitalized 4 times as a child for pneumonia), but doing nothing and not knowing exactly when my situation might improve has been basically torture. I’m not someone who can stay still, doing nothing, even recuperating so this has taken a bit of a toll on my mood.
But this did give me some time to work on what I can control, namely, the bed and breakfast. I spent most of my time calculating costs and figuring out what the bare minimum break even price point is, which is admittedly a lot more math than I have ever really enjoyed doing, but that’s an important part of any business plan. I also have to periodically check the local prices, to understand how it changes seasonally, as well as to get a feel of the market competition.
More than that, this period of recovering gave me a lot of time to think about the value added services that I could provide, which I jot down in a document that has been opened and closed more times that I could count. What exactly would be my “draw”, what activities would be available through the seasons, what would those activities need from me, etc.
I am still in the process of figuring out how I want to theme each unit into one cohesive idea which will then be what I use to guide the interior design. Should I do it based on Hogwart Houses, Howl’s Moving Castle (4 Locations—Market Chipping, the Castle, Kingsbury, Porthaven), Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter, Ocean/Forest/Mountain/Sky, Color coded (Red/Yellow/Blue/Green), major countries (US, South America, Europe, East Asia), Ghibli (Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Ponyo), Architectural era (Victorian, Gothic, Modern), or fantasy genre (Steampunk, Fairy Tale, Tolkien, Horror), etc. I still have no idea and my thoughts keep going round and round with this. Some of these may have issues with copyright so I’d have to examine it more closely. Anyway, it’s a bit difficult to really decide until I sit down and look at what’s feasible and the amount of work that will be put into it.
As far as activities go, seasonally, I have this:
I’ll be filling this post out with more details as my understanding of what will be involved improves but here is a little bit of the kinds of things I have been preparing and considering.
It’s only recently that I’ve really begun working on this project seriously and decided to blog my journey of turning a very special building into a bed and breakfast, which has been my long time dream. What triggered this is a few things—several of my …
As my garden wakes up this spring, I thought about how it will be the last season I’ll be able to enjoy it (hello ramps, good morning asparagus!) Having fed my family for years from painstakingly building it from a sandy, sterile lawn using purely …
I LOVE tabbouleh (and so does my husband) which is one of the few dishes that truly showcases the flavor profile of parsley, but when the craving hits, I often don’t have cracked bulgar wheat on hand. I originally intended to make this dish the traditional way (with bulgar and mint) when my Misfits Markets box came with a big bunch of parsley, some cucumber and tomatoes, but time got away from me and by the time I could get to it, I didn’t have time to go pick up bulgar or mint.
Being too lazy to go to the supermarket, I decided to make do with what I had on hand, and this rice tabbouleh recipe really hit the spot. My trusty salt preserved lemon puree helped make this a breeze to put together. I served it with crumbled goat cheese which is what I had on hand, but I imagine feta or tzatziki would be glorious as well.
Warning: This post contains information on raising quail for meat. If that bothers you, please skip it. First, if you’re interested in raising easy to keep Japanese Coturnix quail for meat or eggs, please check out my guide. The quail that did not go into …