LOL pinch, I am truly jealous! Don't forget to get some benedryl handy for when you have to work with those berries :)

I should be OK with the strawberries. The green beans might be a bigger problem. They make me ITCH! I had enough berries for each parrot to get one this morning. Strawberry covered beaks! So funny!

And I was thinking that all that waiting on a new kitchen and having to eat out/bring in/makeshift and not eat healthy cook had made a BIGGER you! Sweet dough sounds delightful pinch me!

My old kitchen was out of commission 4 weeks. I didn't even get to eat all the stuff I had frozen ahead! And my carpenter kept my electric stove in the old kitchen on roller things. Every night he'd roll it over to the outlet and plug it in. I was spoiled! Didn't eat out once! But now that I have all my stuff out of boxes for the first time in 20 years AND the time to do something with it, as in not working 70 hours a week, I'm reliving the past. I have so many recipes with only the ingredients listed and no directions. But guess what! If you type the name of it into google, cooks.com has the whole thing ready to print. Just googled Alaska Carrot Cake and wa-la Mr. Google had it for me. It's exactly the same ingredients WITH the directions. I used to cook. I didn't used to need directions. Someday soon I will be able to get those recipe cards out and use them without a tutor. I assume the dirtiest cards were the most used?

I thought the same as remodelfla. Only 4 weeks is incredible. And sweet dough = yum!

Yeah. When he told me 4 weeks I just smiled and said, "Really?" I had read stories on here. I knew how long it would take. And then as week 4 arrived I thought, "yup. He's going to make it." Age and experience, doncha know?

I had a TO DO List for today. Got very little of it done but I did manage to make friends with my recipe box.
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I wanted it warm in here to raise the dough but now I want it cool so I can frost the Danish Puff.

Pinch me, I love this post. I too thought you meant a bigger you due to eating out/take out during your reno. Your baked goods are causing me to drool all over my keyboard!!

Oh, I knew. I have been cooking and cooking in my new kitchen, and it's not even finished. I don't think I'm actually getting bigger, but I'm getting no smaller... Maybe heathier. Isn't it wonderful to have a nice place to cook? Pinch, your loaves look wonderful.

This is the best space I've ever had. I really, really, REALLY want to keep cooking today but that To Do List won't do itself and I'll have to go back to work Tuesday. I did get the most important done alreaady. Barns are cleaned. Baby chicks are moved to the chicken house. I have hay coming today and that space is ready. I guess painting the basement shower is on deck for today. The old bathroom will be ripped apart in July and the basement shower has to have some attention before that. Staying off the computer would be a good thing!

Ah Pitch me I too am new in my kitchen and enjoying it very much. Tomorrow I will bake for the first time and this weekend I cooked full meals for the first time in 2 months. How was your yeast dough? looks yummy! Enjoy!

"I had the radio turned up to the oldies station today and I was 26 again! "

ain't that fun??? sometimes I put a cd in of the oldies and does it ever re-energize me! yep - I think I'm a teenager again (not that my body feels like it tho).

your breads look yummy!

I've read on here before from gw'ers who are suddenly spending more time in the kitchen and cooking now that the new kitchen is done... makes a big difference I think especially when the LO is so much more workable.

Pinch, I am so glad to hear that you're enjoying your new kitchen. You work very hard and you deserve a space you love. I am fervently hoping here that my back-friendly renovation makes it easier and more enjoyable to cook again. Part of my plan includes a new freezer downstairs to hold the fruits of my labours. Demo is in 3 weeks (finally). Did I tell you that I decided to tile the wall in the bird corner so I can get rid of the vinyl shower curtain behind the cage area? ;-)

The coffee cake was perfect! And the Danish Puff wasn't bad either! I could tell by the feel of the dough that it was good.

warmfridge. Tile. I should have thought of that. I am leaning toward vinyl wallpaper. But I won't do anything until fall. Summer is too short to spend in the house.

I got a new computer. Windows 7. Old dog. New trick. Not having fun. My old one is right here beside me and when I get totally fed up I'll go back to it. Right now it's syncing itself to this one or I'd be on it now! Oh, I do hate change sometimes. Pretty sure I will ask my computer guy to put XP on here and ditch the Win. 7. If I don't I will have my teeth ground down to stubs in a day.

Pinch,
What are you doing with your bathroom?

Walk in Shower! And as long as everything is torn up, new sink and faucet. We're on Plan D right now. I have my favorite carpenter back. I don't know what he's doing with the shower. I want water to come out of the shower head. Other than that....don't care. He's going to build something for the sink to set on.

I have this faucet in ORB AND brushed nickel. Plans changed a few times before I got this far.

And this wallpaper.

Sad story about the paper. I had bought one roll on clearance a few years ago because I liked it thinking if nothing else I'd use it as shelf paper. I kept looking on line for it and I finally did find it. Saved the site for a couple of years. Then when bathroom plans changed over and over I decided my bling would be wallpaper. Ordered it, got it, and two days later found it on eBay for less than half what I paid. The site where I bought it has restocking, and about every other restriction you can name. So...I will probably keep it and use it and every time I walk in that room will know I paid twice as much for that paper as I needed to.
http://truedataprocess.com/cgi-bin/dcs.cgi?CC=WDP&PGM=DWHPIOE&QCODE=QC1&BookI=DC2747972-42855
The matching border at eBay is $15 a spool. I need 3. Might not use border. Once I get something started in there I'll know what else I'm doing. Up in the air about a medicine cabinet or mirror. Thinking mirror since I will have enough storage without a medicine cabinet. I'm keeping my eyes open for an old mirror at the antique store or the second hand store. It has to be Just Right though so I'll have to keep looking until I find it.

Sconces.

Ceiling

I think the shower is going to be off white with black trim. I also saw a thin brown/coppery colored little tiny tile that I want to look at again. Possibly incorporate it somewhere. Just remembered my carpenter said something about backsplash behind the sink. He's a tile layer/carpet layer so I just let him do whatever he wants with things I don't have a clue about. I've seen several tiles I really, really like but I could buy a small car with the money I'd spend on it! I decided against tile floor because it's too cold. The under tile warming things are expensive; I've got a fair amount of floor. And if/when it quits, I'll have a cold floor. So I think it will be either solid off white or wood look vinyl. My kitchen vinyl has held up through everything I've done to it and it still looks good. I don't want to have maintenence. I want to play all the time.

You are doing great at keeping the BR in the same style as your kitchen. Love, love, love that faucet. I put tile with the electric warming mat underneath when I remodeled my BR 2 years ago. It was the only way I could keep the room warm enough to prevent frozen pipes and it's worked out really well so far.

What do you think it costs you per day to run that heat mat? My carpenter said it cost him a buck a day for his. I can't do another $30 a month! One month maybe but not 8! After the bathroom remodel all my pipes will be in inside walls. No freezing! My vinyl floor is pretty warm, all things considered. It's on the north side of the house and there's basement under it. Plan D is to swap the north and south walls. Storage cabinets and closet will be on the north. makes much more sense to me. It can be used as insulation. The south wall has a heat duct on it that goes upstairs. It will provide some heat to the walk in.

What will we do after the major remodel projects are done? I have to paint this room but everything else has been done once in the past 6 years. I love the paper in the L.R. and won't change it ever. I like everything I've done and I'm not anxious to change it. I'm 63 now. Repaint every 8 years...or so. Once more should do it. I'll probably paint the kitchen more often and it's an easy change. This room is lined with bookshelves. Full of books. Groan. And doing all this spiffing at once - it will all need done again at the same time.

I'm not sure how to determine the cost. There wasn't any appreciable change in my electric bill though. I guess it depends on how you use it. Mine is on a timer so I have it set at 75 for when I get up in the morning and 70 for the rest of the day. (The specs recommend 80-85.) And I turn it off in the summer.

The repairs for my downstairs (frozen pipe and water damage) are supposed to be done by next week. Kitchen demo in 3 weeks. After the kitchen is done, I have no more projects either.

So your end is in sight. Can you do any of the work? Paint? Post some pictures or at least send me some as you're going along.
What will we do with all our new free time? Clean these houses? I do want to keep baking and sewing. And so many other things I haven't been doing for so very, very long.

Not doing any of the work because of my back injury.

And you asked for pictures??? This is my downstairs after the Great Flood. There used to be flooring, and doors on the closets, and a place to hang coats, and a functioning W & D, and nice furnishings. It has been almost 5 months of living with this mess. I sure hope it's all fixed by next week. Kitchen demo now delayed to 7/7...don't care as long as downstairs is cleaned up.

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But you didn't end up with any mold? that would be a good thing. It looks like you are done other than putting things away. and the floor.

Are you going to the laundromat or what? Could the washer/dryer be hooked up temporarily? The laundromat is such a pain. and how do you carry anything?

No mold. The W&D were hooked up temporarily but now unhooked again. I HATE the laundrymat.