Almost

gothic amethyst
Originally uploaded by average lavender

The floors have been sanded and the first coat of finish is on! Man, those floors are great. See the color they are in that picture up there? They don't look anything like that anymore - they glow! It turns out they're made from heart pine so the grain in them is really amazing. The next coat of finish will go on sometime this weekend, I think. Consequently, we've decided to rent the house we're in now for another week. It was either that or stay at a hotel or hostel...with the cats.

We've begun moving things into the weird industrially, garage-y building behind the house. The cats are getting wise to our plans and are unsure about it all. They've decided to cope by going in and out of the house as many times as they possibly can in a day. We're exhausted.

Progress?

Progress
Originally uploaded by average lavender

This weekend is all about insulating. Next week is all about floors and drywall. And moving everything we own. And camping out in our "new home." Hopefully there'll be a floor in the bathroom and a toilet. And no gaping holes in the house. And heat. Follow the picture to Fickr and I've sort of explained what's going on. Too much painting, more sleeping.

Up: date & a tree

The schools in the area are closed today, for a brief moment I thought maybe it had something to do with the inaguration, but as it turns out they're closed for snow, the whopping inch that fell last night.  

We've got two weeks until we need to be all moved out of this house and, boy, is it going to be close.  It means we've got two weeks to finish the other house, today is inspection day for wiring, plumbing and framing, the paint arrived last night, there's no floor in the bathroon/laundry room, the kitchen should be arriving from IKEA today and the drywall that's up is still drying.  We're hoping the floors will be refinished as they're cleaned up and not all in one fell swoop.  George has gently argued for the floors to be refinished with some nice, friendly stuff from Vermont Natural Coatings, and as of this morning he's succeeded!  It doesn't smell as awful, it can be recoated in two hours, it's made from whey!, and it's made it Vermont.  

We've recently rediscovered our one friendly, neighborly neighbor who is (surprise!) also from Vermont! and who's looking for a new job!  She lives with a great golden retriever, Indigo.  We've been taking Indigo out for walks since we got home; it urges us (read: me) get out of the house, it lets our neighbor get out to continue the great job hunt, and Indigo gets to run around twice as much.   

Yesterday afternoon Boy got himself up the biggest tree in our backyard and it took at least an hour of coaxing to get him down.  In the end, I think it was jealousy that Girl was getting all the cat treats that got him down.  (Something to remember for the future.)  Since it's only about 20 degrees this morning he's content to stay inside and no up a tree.  Girl is content to take a bath directly in front of the space heater. 

Fauxskine

Fauxskine
Originally uploaded by average lavender

I don't usually use any of the blank books I make, it's akin to not really eating after making a gigantic meal. There's something in the effort that says, "this is for other people." I haven't been able to find a new sketchbook since coming to Asheville so I decided to try and make something for myself. After a lot of debate, laziness, and "meh"ing I whipped up: the Fauxskine. What makes it not a Moleskine is it's lack of page marker, lack of pocket in the back, cloth cover instead of leathery cover, and it's got grommets.

Dutch Baby

Dutch Baby
Originally uploaded by average lavender

It wasn't until we reached Boston that we started hearing about this breakfast thing called a "Dutch Baby." Cynthia described it as a giant popover, and as you may know, I adore popovers. Once we got to Vermont George's mom started talking about a Dutch Baby. I had honestly never heard of this baked good until Cynthia first mentioned it, so naturally after hearing about how delicious it is from her and Susan, we had to make one.

Preheat oven to 425.

Whisk up:
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. a.p. flour*
1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs, room temperature

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a cast iron skillet. Swoosh the butter around in the pan so all the sides are coated. Pour in the batter and let cook for a minute on the stove top without stirring. Stick the skillet in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Serve immediately! Sprinkle a little lemon juice and powdered sugar on top and serve fruit preserves on the side!

Seriously, delish.

I've put some pictures from our trip up on Flickr, we realized when we got back to Asheville is that we didn't really take any pictures at all. So when I say, "some" I mean "most of."

* a.p. = all purpose (it's something I say to myself and use when I write recipes and will probably do it again, so now you know what I'm talkin' about.)

Whew

I'm sorry we didn't go post crazy while we were in the north.  It had been my intention to document the trip with great detail and oodles of pictures - this plan, pretty much, immediately failed.  There are some pictures and even a couple of videos.  As for narrative, the plot of our trip was eventful in all the wrong ways.  I know what you're thinking: "But, Jenne, those are the best stories - hilarious, heart-warming, something-you'll-look-back-on-and-think-is-just-too-funny!"  Yeah, but, no.  Let's work chronologically.   

After we left Boston we had an uneventful trip through New Hampshire and a familiar trip up I-89 to our home-sweet-surrogate-home of Montpelier.  If you're driving that route yourself, I recommend stopping at the Sharon rest area - not only is it home to the Vietnam Memorial, but it's a green rest area.  It uses a "living machine" to recycle waste water, among other things.  (One of the other reasons it's awesome, especially in winter, is it's big, bitchin' greenhouse for the living machine.)

New Year's ended up being less a new beginning and more a rerun of classic instances: bad weather, good friends, video games,  car breaking down.  

We did some sledding, we drove the various routes we always drive, we visited our favorite shops and resaurants, and we saw people we missed.  

Now that we're home we're overwhelmed, which is really what I wanted to convey to you.  We're offically moving into the other house at the end of the month and while we were gone the need for bigger repairs was discovered.  The Asheville job market has not improved since we left (as I dearly hoped it would have.)  I may or may not be returning to VT at the end of the week to help out while my grandfather is unexpectedly in the hosptial.

The overwhelmed isn't all stemming from stress, we've also managed to come up with a ton of new and exciting ideas.  They're so exciting and new that we don't even know where to begin, we just know they're going to be awesome.  

Pictures from the trip will show up soon, we'll lead you on about the exciting ideas for a while, and we'll strive to post more regularly. (Promises, promises.)  

News flash:

It's snowing!