domicile

We have the power!

  Hydro makes it live 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Our wee house is study in the fine balance between retro and modern. Our various imac/ibook, mp3 players, juicer, and Xbox are nestled into their cozy niches in a very basic 40s infrastructure. No dishwasher (we've been told it may not be a good idea to test the plumbing capacity  unless we're willing to entertain the idea of redoing the whole works), no shower (largely out of choice) and until recently only 60Amp electrical service. Now to some of you who have never spent much time thinking about the level of electrical service you live with -- this included me until a few months ago -- 60Amps may seem like a fine number. And in fact, after an initial scare by our house inspector who led me to believe that with that level of service we may have trouble plugging in a toaster let alone our army of modern appliances, I was quite convinced that the situation was quite untenable. And perhaps it was, perhaps we were only one hair dryer away from reaching our full load and blowing the whole deal. But really, we've been doing pretty well at our basic level of electrical service and I probably would not have prioritized changing it. Unfortunately, we didn't have a choice.

You see, when you phone to try to get insurance for your new house -- something you have to have in order to finalize the mortgage that you most certainly need -- they'll be just peachy fine as you list all the various features of your new little domicile (and in many cases list the absence of features: hot tub? no. pool? ah no. air conditioning? in vancouver? no.) until they ask you about the electrical service. Then as you casually try to breeze over everything quickly responding with an "Oh ya, 60Amp service. Yep." They will pause on the  other end of the line. Some will even just hang up. And you will find yourself in one of those special mobius loops of modernity in which the past is not so present compatible. For while the old gal who lived here managed to live out to her 99th year on the this level of service, insurance companies will have none of it. They will suggest that you have the service upgraded immediately. Like now. Before they'll give you insurance. Meaning you would need to apply for permits and upgrade the service before you owned the house. When you explain to them how ridiculous that is, they will respond in a robotic tape loop agreeing with you but reminding you that they can't give you coverage until you upgrade and so on, and so on.

And that is when you start to get crabby.

Now were we less fortunate folks, we could have been stuck in an even more unfortunate position, as we would have had to try to wrangle ourselves an electrician in a major housing boom. A feat which is not only difficult to coordinate but extremely pricey. I however, happen to be related to one. Praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Relationship Advice

  new freezer 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

That photo over there is of our new freezer, happily cleaned and living in our basement next to the dry storage pantry. This photo here is of our current freezer. I'll save you the link and summarize our current "in the fridge" freezer situation as a game of Jenga in which the pieces are shifting bags of blueberries (approx 15 lbs worth), cubes of pesto, ends of bread, containers of stock, icecube trays and the odd container of gelato. And let me tell you, in that game no one wins.

Not entirely true. I may be the champion of that game. But I have an unfair advantage. You see I typically populate the freezer with all those items, and I've been playing this game for years as I've tried to resolve my reality of apartments with wee freezers and my genetic pull towards cooking and storing food bits throughout the year for use at a later date. Martin. Not such a champ. And recently, after many failed attempts at an easy extraction of icecubes from the freezer puzzle tense moments ensued. Words were had. Things were temporarily fairly ugly.

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out to just what degree I would have to rewrite the laws of phsyics to get another 15 (maybe 25?) lbs of blueberries in that freezer before the season ended. And maybe a few extra homemade pies too.

And so, to save our relationship from ridiculously unnecessary squabbles, a search on Craigslist was in order. And a freezer was found in no time. It was nearby. It was small, but big enough to nearly triple our current frozen goods storage capacity. And it was affordable. Now it is ours. And as I cleaned it and aired it out last night I wondered if it would be totally absurd to name it.

One albatross down 57 remain

  his/hers sewing stations 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Last night I came home with a mission: attempt to tackle one of the three remaining rooms of boxes. You see the joy of extra rooms in a house is that they can harbour boxes, well probably forever, without really getting in the way. Unlike apartment living, where box collections serve as a daily obstacle course the spare rooms in our house have been box havens since we moved in. Particularly bad are the two basement rooms: the rec room (aka the Xbox room, I generally don't go in there) and the "spare bedroom" which I would never force anyone to sleep in (creepy basement room, wood panelling) that we had planned as a sewing/crafts room.

The only drawback of course to using rooms as jumbles of box storage is that you can't use them for other things. In this case: crafts and sewing. And we've reached a point in both house tasks and having settled in where we've both been a bit itchy for our sewing machines. And so, last night. Last night I came home from work put the Essential Clash Collection (Disk 2: primarily London Calling and Sandanista) on really loud -- so that I could hear it in the basement -- and got to work on the sewing room.

Like most tasks one procrastinates for weeks (months) the final project didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Though I confess to having taken a few boxes that I didn't know what to do with and simply shifting them to the rec room (bad!) but really all told I was up and making dinner as the last song on the disk played. And really, the room could use some more work like a shelving unit that would allow us to see our fabric, rather than having it all stored in rubbermaid bins, and perhaps a table for more crafty things, as this one is largely taken up with our two machines (mine a Jenome, Martin's a Elna). But things are at least at a point that we can get onto sewing projects that have been building up like curtains and sock monkeys and important things like that.

BBQ Veggie/Vegan Burritos

  on the bbq 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

We broke down and replaced our vandalised bbq this week, and decided last night to break it in with a simple bbq veggie burrito dinner in the backyard. The key to this dinner is that fabulous little metal basket you can see the veggies in on the right there. I was turned onto this bbq accessory last summer by Lauren and Noah (who I believe were similarly inspired by Patty and Justin). It's basically a metal basket with holes that allows you to cook veggies without taking the familiar skewer or veggie "steaks" routes, which adds exciting diversity to the world of veggie bbqing -- ok so exciting may be an overstatement, but it certainly broadens the veggie horizons.

This is a quick and yummy dinner to make, that allows you to get out of the hot stuffy kitchen (assuming you have one like we do) and takes advantage of all the yummy summer veggies that abound at this time of year. It's easy to make either veggie or vegan, and I suppose you could also add meat to it but I truly have no idea how you would do that so would have to leave you on your own there. Keep reading for the recipe.

Bugs are in; Cats are out

  masters of their domain 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Generally a fabulous cat beyond compare Pluto has one extremely annoying habit: as a cat he is hopelessly nocturnal. And, as a very vocal cat (those who know him will snicker behind their hands at the euphemistic use of "very") he can sometimes be a bit of a bother in his general awakeness at 4am. And so, now that we have a basement (!) I have taken to putting down there if he starts on one of his long storytelling rants in the wee hours. A few hour later when I wake up, I'll hear him run up the basement stairs and start meowing to join me in the morning coffee (for me) and cat food (for him) ritual we both know and love.

And so, like any routine, no matter how small, I was immediately on guard this morning when I didn't hear his up the stairs gallop as I crossed into the kitchen, and even more perplexed to open the door to only the stairs. I went down the stairs to see the little locky bits of the cat door in two pieces -- one on the basement floor and one visible on the grass through the door -- and could hear himself calling to me from the backyard with a "Hey come out here! It's a great morning. Oh, and bring my food!"

Chores

  shelves to hold a small part of our every growing jam collection 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

I'm a list person. I love making lists, but more than anything I adore crossing things off lists. This past long weekend was a veritable list-love-in at our little domicile as both Martin and I had two whole days free to tackle house chores and few commitments to get in the way (Martin's daughter was off camping with her mom, and while she's been very patient with house chores each weekend, she rightfully will only really tolerate so much). And so with two full days off ahead of us, we made a list. Or rather, Martin indulged me in my list and added a few items for himself.

The list was comprised primarily of trivial little niggly things. Things like: make the drawer in the kitchen close properly, install catdoor (teach cat to use it was not on the list and perhaps should have been), clean out cupboards in basement for storage, make ramp/stairs for basement door, unstick windows that have been painted shut (why do people paint windows shut? why?) and well you get the picture. A tonne of little things that house ownership requires and which could likely occupy our weekends from now until the end of our days.

My big task was to convert the ironingboard cupboard in the kitchen to an extra storage cupboard. I will admit, that when Martin first suggested converting the ironingboard to a cupboard I was resistent on two fronts: 1. Ergonomically the cupboard isn't really in a "handy" place for storage of canned goods or spices (all that would really fit in a shallow cupboard like that) to be easily in reach as you're cooking. 2. I have an irrational love of those secret ironingboard cupboards. A love which I can argue with myself is in fact totally irrational as not only do we already have two stand alone ironing boards, but I've had them before are really rarely used them (and I have two other perfectly good ironing boards). And so, after a month of living in a kitchen in which the cupboard space is sparse (did people not have kitchen things in 1945?) I was won over to the side of the cupboard conversion.

The Secrets of Adulthood Revealed

I have recently decided (as of this past weekend that is) that basements are the secret key to feeling like an adult. Yes, you heard me right: basements. Our basement, dark in corners, full of cobwebs and with its two semi finished rooms is my new favorite feature in the house. You see, the basement holds infinite storage possibilities freeing up room to rid the rest of the house (in theory) of excess clutter and resulting in something that is slowly shaping into an "adult" house.

Christmas ornaments? Basement. Extra mason jars? There is now a whole darn cupboard devoted specifically to the storage of extra mason jars! Want to sand a piece of wood and make it into a chalkboard? Sure! Just do it in the basement. An extra second hand gas stove in case our antique beauty kicks it in one day? No problem! Stick it in the basement. We've got bike storage. A drying rack hung from the ceiling. Of course our fabulous washer and dryer (which for the record, I still find myself searching for quarters before I head downstairs with the laundry). And soon, we'll have set up the spare bedroom as our sewing/craft room. And maybe one day we'll even unpack all the boxes cluttering up Martin's X-box room/rec room. But there's no big hurry, because it is all down in the basement!

Already I'm beginning to fear the allure of the basement. Worry about just how much forgotten stuff I can squirel away down there, but I'm not letting that dampen my joy too much. Afterall I spent enough years living in a basement that I figure I should get to have my joy in the possibilities of this one for a little bit longer.