A View from the Top

I know that I still owe you more about the move and the house. I also recognize that I haven't posted any sort of recipe in ages. And I will get to all of that, I will.

But first I wanted to share one thing I really and truly adore about our new place....having some outdoor space. The old apartment had a tiny little balcony that was just big enough to house Jason's bike and some plants. The new house, on the other hand, has a whole roof top terrace. Big enough for real outdoor furniture and a brand new grill!

 The view from our terrace

Finally-- a grill!

Tonight was one of the first times that we've been able to really enjoy it given all the rain of late. So we decided to try out our pizza stone on the grill and eat al fresco...with the first Punkin' Ale of the season to boot (thanks Mom)!

I can definitely get used to this :)

Croissants anyone?

Guess what I did this morning?!

I made croissants!

Here they are---straight out of the oven!

Ok, so they weren't exactly homemade... I actually got some help from my new friend Joe. That's right folks-- we are now within a five minute walk of a Trader Joe's! And I couldn't be more excited. In addition to these awesome mini-croissants (more on those in a second), we've also tried several frozen entrees (which made the week we moved in a lot less stressful)-- all of which were very good.

So, about those croissants. So easy. So delicious. Step 1: take out of freezer. Step 2: place on lightly greased baking sheet. Step 3: go to bed. Step 4: wake up the next morning, be amazed at how much the croissants grew overnight and preheat oven. Step 5: bake for 15-20 minutes. Step 6: enjoy.

Big fan of Trader Joe's....big fan.

My Kitchen--Take 1

I took today off so I could get a solid day of unpacking done before it gets relegated to nights and weekends. So of course I focused on the kitchen. Aside from the fact that I am generally excited to have a shiny new kitchen full of shiny new stainless steel appliances, it made sense to start there for practical reasons as well. There were so many there I thought if I could get that out of the way, I could get rid of a bunch of boxes. Plus it was pretty difficult to pour a bowl of cereal with the way things stood let alone anything else.

Here is what I was working with at about 8am (my apologies for the bad cell phone pics):

At about 11:30 I had made a lot of progress but still had a ways to go:

By about 3:30, I was pretty much done:

Not too bad for a day's work. Once it's all together, I'll give you a tour. In the meantime, I'm researching pantry organization and split box springs (more on that later).

Moving on Up

After a LONG weekend of painting and packing, we are finally officially moved into our new house. Well, almost. We still have a couple of things to get back at the apartment that we didn't want the movers to move (e.g., Jason's kayak, a large unpacked mirror, etc.), but for the most part we're in. Now for the unpacking....and all the updates via blog. Although we made it through, the painting and moving were not without some shenanigans along the way. Lots more to come!

Homeowners!

It's official.....

We have a house! All went well yesterday with closing and we've already started bringing things over and taping off rooms that will be painted later this week.  Stay tuned for more pictures and details soon :)

Eat, Think, and Be Married--Now with Recipe Browsing Capabilities!

One good thing that comes from waking up (before) the crack of dawn? I actually get around to organizing recipes within my handy-dandy new recipe categories at the top of my blog. I'm still only through 100 or so posts (133 or so more to go) but this is at least a start in terms of being able to browse my recipes by category. More organization to come!

Eye on the Prize

I know we must be getting close to moving into our new house because it is 6:30am on a Sunday and I am wide wake. In fact, I have been since about 5:30.

Yep....the stress-induced insomnia has officially begun. Sigh.

I first noticed this unfortunate habit in college when every semester around finals time, I'd wake up at ridiculous hours (regardless of what time I had gone to bed or when I actually needed to get up), my mind unable to stop running through all the work I needed to do between then and the end of the semester. And so, whenever it comes time for some sort of big life event or other important activity that requires significant work or organization on my part, it becomes impossible for me to sleep past 5 or 5:30am. So fun.

Another sign we are getting close? There are so many boxes around here that it is hard to walk in certain areas of the apartment. We've now packed the dining room, most of our non-hanging clothes and shoes (everything but what we will need for the next couple of weeks), almost all of our linens, all desk stuff, some electronics, all pictures on the walls and decorative items that sit around the apartment (picture frames, candles, etc.) We've also taken care of most of the rest of the "other" stuff we need to do before closing/moving-- utilities set to turn on at the new place and off at the apartment, movers set, etc.

And yet, despite all this progress, I can't help but feeling like there is still SO. MUCH. TO. DO. Maybe it's because I haven't yet tackled much in the way of the beast that is the kitchen. Or the bathroom (which may seem strange but for some reason the cabinets under the double vanity in our apartment bathroom are overflowing with stuff).

The good news is, the end really is in sight (and I just have to keep reminding myself of that and keep my eye on the prize, so to speak). Tuesday is our final walk-through where the builder shows us where everything is and how to contact them if we have issues (particularly in the first year when EVERYTHING is under warranty) and so we can make sure that they've completed everything and cleaned up after themselves properly. More importantly (for us, anyway) it will be our first look at the finished product! Then, one week later, we officially become homeowners and the fun part begins-- painting (more on that in a later post) and moving.

Maybe then I can get some sleep.