life in the basement

we are living in the basement, and it feels really strange because, you know what? there's a whole house up there we're not using! it feels really funny to go up there and wander around the emptiness, and then come back down to the basement which is crammed full of stuff.

the basement
we moved the stove down and got rid of the mini stove that was down here. i went through all the kitchen boxes and attempted to assemble reasonable facsimile of our kitchen: dishes, glasses, serving stuff, tools, etc. the one thing that i can't find that is completely maddening is our salad spinner. it's making me really mad. it apparently made it's way into either an unmarked box, or a box that is not a kitchen box, and its a pretty big thing and there aren't that many big boxes. i should be able to locate it, and it's just making me SO mad. this may seem like a silly thing to be obsessing on, but we like our salad greens, spinach, chard, and the like around here, and a salad spinner makes quick easy work of the prep. i miss my salad spinner.

the house
i/we have sanded/patched/re sanded/patched/sanded again the walls and woodwork in the bedrooms. last night after i had pulled up all the plastic and shopvac-ed up all the dust and debris and started to tape up the windows i realized that we hadn't taken the window hardware off, so i/we need to go in there and sand/patch/sand that and then we will be ready to put fresh plastic down and start the first coat of primer. very exciting! my goal is to have both rooms painted by next weekend.

also, we have made our final decision about the flooring vendor and the electrician. we still need to decide on the plumber. everything hinges on getting the new water heater installed so we can take the chimney down and make the kitchen bigger. it's crazy making trying to keep track of ALL the details. it's overwhelming.

cooking, eating, grocery shopping
we are starting to get the hang of cooking here (in our compromised circumstances), in fact we have been eating quite well. we bought a grill, and that has been a lifesaver. the local farmers markets are bountiful right now. on sunday i went to our west seattle market for the first time. i got some beautiful tomatoes, spinach, sorrel, baby turnips, hazelnuts, and cherries. then yesterday we both went to check out the one in columbia city, where we got some pickled asparagus, squash, fresh salmon, french radishes, spinach, strawberries, raspberries and some locally made quark. i thought it would be a hop and a skip from here to columbia city, but it's pretty far and probably not worth the travel time, on friday's there is one near my mom, so i might try to make it to that one once in awhile. so the food/cooking thing is sorting itself out. we were really missing that.

the weather
the weather has been spectacular. days upon days in a row of sunny clear warm weather. the locals would probably complain that it is too hot, but it hasn't even hit 80 degrees yet. it has been amazing, and i am so glad that we chose this time of year for our move.

plants and things
i bought and planted some herbs in containers for our deck. right now we have mint, hot and spicy oregano, lemon thyme, thyme and tarragon. i want to add some sage, italian parsley, parsley and cilantro. it's really hard not to lose my mind when i go to the plant store. everything lawn and garden is a next summer project, but we do have to do some maintenance.

in other news
last but not least: josh and i are uncle and auntie to one brand new eliana sophie davis who was born this afternoon, weighing in at 6 pounds and 11 ounces , and measuring 19 inches. mother and daughter are reported to be resting comfortably.

i really wanted to take some photos for this post, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.