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Kitchen Floor – The Decision

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Monica

Ah, the kitchen. Although I love cooking and food and brewing, the kitchen has always been my least favorite room in our house.

With its caramel-pecan cabinets, marble-green laminate counters and linoleum floor, I always cringe when guests would end up hanging out in the kitchen.The kitchen is large and functional, but not the most beautiful room n our home.

This summer we are finally ready to do a small-scale kitchen remodel. Sources (magazines, the Internet) say that kitchen remodels are the most expensive home-improvement and offer the greatest return on resale. So, it’s going to be expensive, but it is worth doing right. Our first goal is to replace the kitchen floor. The linoleum is stained, ripped, scratched and downright ugly. Keeping it clean has also been a pain, since it is textured.

The first thing we had to decide was floor type. We needed something durable, water-resistant, stylish, easy to maintain, and comfortable. We also wanted it to coordinate well with the bamboo flooring, and offer some sound dampening. Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) offered us everything on our list.

Pictured above are five LVT samples we brought home from the local flooring store. All five samples are from Armstrong Flooring’s Alterna line. Hopefully these samples make you a believer: LVT can look just as nice and realistic as ceramic tile. I won’t lie, I really wanted ceramic tile in the kitchen. In the end, LVT is (practically) superior to ceramic. Oh, let me count the ways:

1. Can be installed with or without grout – so it can mimic ceramic tile. Even when grouted, LVT can be walked on within the first 24 hours, unlike ceramic. Also, no cement board needed.

2. Although the LVT is thick (thicker than linoleum or sticky-tiles), it is flexible enough to be laid on uneven floors, and not crack.

3. LVT is warmer underfoot, and softer. These tiles won’t crack when you drop something on them. Also, that something should be unbroken as well.

4. Luxury vinyl tiles are easier to replace, if needed.

The downfall? It doesn’t have the reputation of ceramic. Despite it’s name, it doesn’t sound very luxurious when you say “vinyl tile”. Anyways, on to the fashion show!

In order of appearance: taupe-grey, charcoal, multistone white, gray dust and iron blue. After we decided on LVT, we had to narrow down the wide selection of brands, styles, colors and textures. LVT is pretty limitless – you can choose planks or tiles; wood grains, solid colors or stone. The local floor store recommended the Alterna line, citing several happy customers. After we narrowed our focus to a product, we knew we wanted tiles that coordinated with the bamboo flooring, our cabinets and the existing countertops. We are considering refinishing the cabinets and eventually replacing the counters, but we wanted something that would not only work for the future, but also mesh well with what we already had (who knows how long it will be until we “kill” those green counters?). We thought all the samples we brought home looked great with the bamboo. So, which looks best with the cabinets but also with our future vision?

For the answer to that question and a peek into the installation process, come back late this week for the big reveal!

Why Raised Bed Gardening

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Monica

A few months ago we started our raised bed garden in our side yard. As promised, I’m back (finally) to share some perks of raised beds and tips for planting.

Zucchini, Snow peas, Snap peas, Carrots, Leaf Lettuce, Banana Peppers

Advantages of Raised Beds:

Fill beds with soil of your choice. As mentioned before, our yard is primarily a mix of clay and sand. We knew that raised beds would be our best chance of making a garden work.
Less weeds and easier weeding. Since the beds are lined with burlap/newspaper/landscaping fabric there is less opportunity for weeds to grow up through the beds. Even if weeds do make it to sunlight, they will be less strenuous to remove. The beds are higher, so you won’t have to kneel and bend over as much as with traditional gardening.
Keep the burrowing animals out. In addition to lining the beds to prevent weeds, you can also line the beds with wire mesh to keep out animals.
Soil stays loose, making it easier for roots to spread. In traditional gardening, you plant the crops in rows and you walk between the rows. Walking pacts down the soil. In raised beds you stay off the soil, avoiding compacting.
Able to plant crops closer together. This ties into the previous bullet – since you don’t need room to walk between the crops, you can space the rows closer together.

Heirloom tomatoes, Blue beans, Zucchini, Sugar Pumpkins, Jalapenos

Heirloom tomatoes, Blue beans, Zucchini, Beets, Sugar Pumpkins, Jalapenos

Tips for Planting Raised Beds:

Mix the harvest times. Within each bed, plant crops that vary by harvest times. This will prevent competition, and as one crop matures and dies off, the other crops can utilize its nutrients.
Plant onions along the borders of the beds. My aunt tells me that onions along the borders will serve to ward off pests – both bugs and animals.
Certain combinations of vegetables are mutually beneficial for each other. These are just a few combinations: spinach and peppers; lettuce and tomatoes; peas and cucumbers.
Plant sprawling vegetables along the edges of the beds so that they can lay on the ground. So, along the borders of our beds we planted the zucchini, pumpkins and squash. I should also get my act together and plant the cantaloupes.

Squash, Cucumbers, Beets, Carrots, Lettuce, Bell Peppers

I hope you find those two lists helpful. If you have any important tips that I should include, please share! I am certainly no expert on gardening, but I’m working on it.

I am ashamed to report that not everything is growing as we had hoped. Our beets were the first to break ground, but now it seems that they haven’t grown any more (of course, it is difficult to tell with root vegetables). For the carrots and leaf lettuce, we planted two rows each, and split the seeds among different beds. It’s interesting that between the different beds the crops are growing differently. In one bed the carrot tops are several inches tall, but in the other bed the tops are only 1/2 an inch.

What’s even worse are all the sprouts we started indoors. Almost all of them didn’t survive the transplant, a lot of them perished before they could be planted outside. A few of the different pepper plants might make it (fingers crossed). We ended up buying some heirloom tomato plants from the farmer’s market (they seem to be doing well).

Despite some of those issues, we are having some success – namely our snap peas, snow peas and raspberries! The raspberries are really starting to go crazy, and its a competition to harvest the berries before the ants do. Like last year I’m spraying the berries with my Octagon soap repellant. It did its job of keeping the ants off while not killing the berries. I sprayed some on the peas as well. Of course, with all the rain we’ve been getting, they’re going to need daily spraying.

Anyone else having garden troubles? Success? What are you harvesting?

Brew Update: Honey Brown

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Monica

It’s hard to believe that we haven’t brewed since back in November with our Pumpkin Ale. In fact, we’re still enjoying that beer! That batch is definitely one that got better over time.

This weekend we transferred our newest brew, Honey Brown into the secondary fermenter.

Look at the lovely color of that brew in our sample glass.

The pumpkin brew was a mini-mash, but the honey brown is a partial mash. The main difference being that with the mini-mash the grains are soaked in the grain bag, but with the partial mash the grains are boiled directly in the pot. The bad news? You have to separate the grain from the liquid. What we learned? We need a better strainer and possibly another 5 gallon pot. The other difference between this brew and others we have done is the malt. This time it was not just malt, but also honey, hence the name.

To make things more interesting (complicated?) Jeremy added fresh ginger to the brew. We added about 2 oz of fresh grated ginger at the end of the brew with the last of the hops. You can definitely taste the ginger in the sample. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s prominent.

What we’re definitely enjoying is the wort chiller Jeremy got for Christmas. The chiller hooks up to the sink faucet and runs cold water through the coils of the chiller. You place the chiller into the boiling pot (to sanitize) then turn off the heat and let the chiller cool the brew down to room temperature before transferring to the fermenter. It works pretty wonderfully, although it does use a lot of water.

In a week or two we will be bottling this brew, and hopefully it will be ready by July. What have you been up to?

Long, Long Overdue Update

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Monica

I cannot believe that it has been 40 days since my last post. Needless to say, things have been a little hectic…

1. Back to back vacations
As you already know, we went to Asheville for Spring Break (I owe you a second post on that). A week later we went to Seattle, WA for a long weekend. Jeremy was attending a conference for work on Monday – Wednesday. We flew in Friday for some fun beforehand. This was our second time in Seattle. Hopefully I can whip up a post with highlights about both of our visits. Both cities have great food and art, and yet are so different from each other.

2. Insane 4th quarter
As you may know, I teach 8th grade math at a local middle school. This year I had the privilege of hosting an intern for the second semester. She was wonderful and it was a great learning experience. I grew as an educator and learned a lot about being a mentor. Next year I will have a graduate student intern – I am really looking forward to that!

In addition, I volunteered to grade graduate student portfolios for the University of Maryland. These students are working on their Masters in Education in Mathematics. It is the same program I completed at UMD, although this assessment process is new. Although I enjoyed the assessment process (and the monies) it took an average of 5 hours to grade each portfolio. Goodbye weekends!

The last thing that made this quarter crazy was curriculum writing. Maybe you’ve heard of Common Core State Standards. Maryland, like more than half of the US, has adopted the standards, and is striving for full implementation next year. What this means for the counties and teachers is brand new curriculum. New format, new topics, new order – you get the idea. I am on a team of 4 people writing the Geometry curriculum for our county. It is a tedious process, but we are really happy with the product so far.

I know that was a big blob about teaching, but that’s the primary reason why I haven’t found the time (or energy) to blog. I have considered starting a math blog, I read several that have been very inspiring.

3. Our Yard
Things are growing! The raspberry canes are bright green and full. Berries have started to form, but there won’t be a harvest until later in June. The vegetables in the raised beds have sprouted and some are growing fast!

I owe you a full breakdown on what we planted where, and what I’ve already killed. What you see flourishing in the photos are the blue beans, sugar snap peas, snow peas and some tomato plants.

4. It’s Summertime!
Just 4.5 more days of school at I will be officially on summer break. We have several projects that we plan to tackle this summer! We’ve also updated a few things that I need to share. My other big summer goal is to fill up my Etsy store. I have some ideas floating around but need time to execute!

So, after this last week of school I plan to be back on schedule with two posts a week! I really appreciate people hanging in there while I took a breather.

Asheville Adventure: Part One

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Monica

For Spring Break, Jeremy and I ventured down to Asheville, North Carolina. First we stopped outside Charlotte to visit some family. Then we headed into the Smoky Mountains for a night of camping before exploring the city.

We spent the night at the Cataloochee campground, part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What is really great about camping in the national park is that you don’t have all the “attractions” of a typical campgound and RV park. There weren’t electrical and sewer hook-ups for the RVs and campers. There was no “snack shop” or pool or mini-golf – just the wilderness. Thankfully though, there were flush toilets and a pump for fresh drinking water.

The Cataloochee campground is in a valley. To get there, you have to pass over a mountain. The mountain road winds up one side of the mountain and then back down the other side into the valley. Above is the best photo I could safely get while Jeremy was driving the winding roads. At the base of both side of the mountain, the road was paved, but as you approached the top it was a gravel and packed dirt road. Thankfully our little car handled it well, and Jeremy is a great driver.

We selected and reserved our campsite through recreation.gov. It was the same process as booking a hotel online – we could see the available dates and spaces. We booked the spot online, and it gave us a confirmation number. When we arrived at the campground, there is sort of a self check-in. There was an information board with a map of the campsites, and check-in cards to be placed on the numbered post of your campsite. There was no park ranger to check us in, we just put of name and confirmation number on the card and posted it. Later in the evening, two rangers came by and checked everyone’s cards.

This is the view of our campsite from the tent. The space is plenty large, and complete with a picnic table and fit pit. To the right of our car you can see the big, brown, bear-proof trashcans. Thankfully, there were no bear sightings, although we did see some elk.

Okay, so as you can see from our campsite photos, there was a level gravel bed for the tent, and then a large gravel area with the picnic table, fire pit and parking. Beyond our car you can see other campers. The campground had an outer loop and a group of campsites on the middle. We were on the outer loop.

That’s what it looked like behind our campsite. You can see the little creek that eventually winds around the campground and empties into a much larger creek. The larger creek could be heard from our campsite, and at night it sounded like the ocean. It was beautiful.

Eventually we got our fire going (thanks to some assistance from the campers next door) and roasted some vegan hot dogs. We snacked on some Girl Scout cookies and ended up turning in early, mostly in an effort to keep warm.

The tent is supposed to be a 3 person tent, but I don’t see how another person would fit. Our sleeping bags are Coleman brand, and they kept us plenty warm through the night. I have a camping mat, and was reasonably padded and comfortable. Jeremy slept on top of the gravel. He is going to get a mat before our next camping trip.

When we awoke the next morning, we ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and clementines, packed up our campsite and headed down the road to the hiking trails. It was 35 degrees.

We parked our car at the head of the trail, and started heading up into the mountains. We passed the horse camp and a mile later reached this sign. I think we accomplished Little Cataloochee, but after this sign there weren’t any more.

Most of the trail looked like this. No signs, but a well-worn path through the woods. It twisted and turned, up and down the mountains.

The trail followed along side the creek, so sometimes the trail looked like this. Jeremy was wearing waterproof boots and was able to traverse these sections easily. I was just wearing my sneakers, so I tried to creatively cross the water without getting too wet. Most of the time there were large rocks or logs that I could step on to safely cross.

We had fun hiking in the mountains, we probably traversed 8 miles in total. After we finished our walk through the woods we headed back over the mountains and into downtown Asheville. Overall, it was a good night of camping. It was our first time pitching a tent alone. We made some mistakes (no flashlight, campfire troubles, etc) but definitely want to give it another try. Once it gets warmer we want to camp a few nights at a national park closer to home.

Anyone else have good camping advice and experience? Details of our downtown Asheville experience coming soon!

Our Raised Bed Garden

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Monica

As I mention in our last post, Jeremy and I are going to try our hands at gardening again. A few Springs ago, we tried planting a garden in our back yard. We planted some string peas (seeds) and some onion bulbs and tomatoes (seedlings). We tilled up the ground in our yard, tended to the weeds and watered the garden (when we remembered). In the end we harvested a handful of peas and a few small tomatoes. I was very discouraged and did not want to try again.

I have been inspired by my Aunt Michelle to try a raised bed garden. She has the most beautiful vegetable garden I have ever seen, and it’s very prolific (I wish I had a photo). Jeremy and I consulted her, and online articles, in planning our raised bed garden. We knew we wanted to not only relocate our garden, but use raised beds so that we can control the soil. The soil in our yard is rather sandy, with some clay and larger rocks.

Naturally, the beds have to be made of a material that can withstand the outdoors. We wanted to go with cedar, because it is naturally rot/mold resistant. Others may choose cement pavers, or plastic. I would not recommend pressure treated wood. Although it has been treated to survive the outdoors, it may leach chemicals into the soil and subsequently into your food.

We decided to get three of Greene’s two-tiered raised garden beds. We purchased our’s at a nearby Home Depot for a total of $254.31 (with tax). We ended up purchasing kits instead of building beds ourselves because there are no lumber yards within 30 minutes of our home that sell cedar boards and posts non-commercially. Plus, unless we could cut the boards at the store/yard, they’re not going to fit in our car. The kits were really easy to put together – the boards just slide into the corner posts. Jeremy had all three beds put together in under an hour. If you are interested in building your own raised beds, I found this article quite informative.

As you can see in the photo, the raised beds are in the side-yard, to the right of our drive-way. We chose this location for our garden because it gets the most sunlight. Our house faces east, so our back yard is shaded by the shadow of our house for most of the day. Plus, the garden is a lot harder to ignore in this new location. Thankfully we don’t have an HOA, so no one can complain about this (potential) eyesore.

After you have the beds leveled and settled, you need to prevent grass and weeds from growing. There wasn’t much grass growing in this region, so I didn’t bother tearing it all up. I laid overlapping pieces of burlap in the bottom of each bed. We chose burlap because it is natural and will eventually biodegrade, unlike the typical black landscaping cloths. Others recommended newspaper, which will also break down, but we were concerned about the inks and possible chemicals in the paper. Home Depot sold the burlap for $12 per 3ft by 24 ft roll (we got two). If you are concerned about burrowing animals, then you should lay some sort of wire mesh/screen in the bottom of the beds.

After lining the beds, it’s time to fill them with dirt! The soil is the most important part of the growing. We visited a local garden center and they recommend Leafgro. Leafgro is pretty much just composted yard clippings. The guy at the garden center said that Leafgro is rich in nutrients and would be good for our vegetable garden.

The problem? By my calculations, we needed 72 square feet of soil for our raised beds. The garden center sells Leafgro in 1 sq ft bags, or you can get it delivered in bulk. It would take me several trips to the store to haul all 72 bags of soil home in my car. And at $5 a bag, plus tax, it would be $381.60. The problem with bulk is that the minimum delivery was 4 cubic yards, and we only needed 2.7 cu yds. The cost was a winner though, even though it was way more dirt and we had to pay for delivery, the total was only $161.76. So a few days later our driveway was full of dirt (as pictured above).

Here are the raised beds full of soil! I lasagna-layered the Leafgro, dried leaves and our compost into the beds. We don’t have a wheelbarrow, so we used shovels and a 5-gallon bucket to haul the dirt. Luckily the garden is close to the driveway.

Even then, we still had a hug pile of dirt in our yard. We decided we would use the dirt to re-pot the cactus and spikey plant (I think it might be a yucca).

We got two super cool repurposed wine barrels for $30 at Home Depot. I really love how they look on our porch.

Both the cactus and the spikey plant have been transplanted from my Step Dad’s home in southern NC. Nevertheless, these plants don’t mind the cold, snowy weather in MD.

In the background of the spikey plant’s close-up, you can see the other use we made of the leafgro: mulch. We used the leafgro like mulch around all the raspberries, trees and bushes that we “landscaped” last year.

It took two weeks, but we were finally able to use almost all of the dirt in our yard. We used it to fill in holes, dips and soft spots. We have some dirt saved up in case we need to level out the yard some more, or for potting plants.

Later we’ll share how we are arranging our crops in the raised beds. One of the benefits of raised beds is that you can grow plants closer together than in a traditional garden.

Who else has readied their garden? Anyone with raised-bed experience?

Garden Plans and Little Seedlings

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Monica

A few springs ago (I think 2010) we tried to make a vegetable garden in our backyard. The area did not get enough light, or enough watering/weeding attention from us. We harvested a few peas and tomatoes, but overall it was a wash. This year we are going to try our hand at vegetable gardening again. We plan on building/buying raised cedar beds and planting our garden in our side yard, where there is much more daylight (more about how awesome raised beds are later). We are also going to do our seeds differently…

For Christmas 2012 Jeremy got us the heirloom seed “time capsule” from UrbanFarm, a kickstarter project. Jeremy chose the UrbanFarm survival capsule, with 25 heirloom seed varieties: Homesteader Tomato, California Wonder Bell Pepper, Bloomsdale Spinach, Brunswick Cabbage, Bush Blue Bean, Calabrese Brocolli, Zucchini, Dark Red Beet, Eggplant, Golden Batam Corn, Green Arrow Pea, Honeydew Melon, Cantaloupe, Jalapeno, Leaf Blend Lettuce, Asparagus, National Pickle Cucumber, Roma Tomato, Small Sugar Pumpkin, Straightneck Summer Squash, Snap Peas, Banana Pepper, Tendersweet Carrot, Utah Celery, and Yellow Sweet Onion. What is so great about these heirloom seeds is that we will be able to harvest seeds from our crops. This means that for all following years we won’t need to buy seeds for all those vegetables. The UrbanFarm capsule came complete with planting and harvesting instructions.

Many of the vegetables needed to be started indoors before being planted outside. We chose to use plastic trays so that they could be used multiple times, unlike the biodegradable ones that you can plant in the ground with the seedling. We liked this particular tray because it fits a lot of seedlings (72), and the packaging convinced us that its elongated cells are better for root development.

I used the Jiffy brand organic seed starting soil. I used an unsharpened pencil to poke a hole in each cell, and then I sprinkled 3 to 4 seeds in each hole. After planting all the seeds, I watered the trays. These three trays hold the tomatoes, the peppers, cabbage, lettuce spinach, eggplant, broccoli, celery and onion.

The trays come with clear plastic lids that make them like a mini greenhouse. I wrote the names of each vegetable and number of rows planted on the lids. The lids are supposed to stay on until all the cells have sprouts. During this time the seedlings should be kept warm but not in direct sunlight.

After a week we had broccoli sprouts, followed by the cabbage, spinach, tomatoes and onions. Once all the seeds have sprouted, then you should remove the lid and place seedlings in a location with lots of light. Since there were a few cells in each tray that had not yet sprouted, we propped the lids open. This allowed for more air for the growing seedlings, but still offered protection.

Then we went on vacation for a week…

The good news is that the seedlings didn’t die. Bad news is that the celery, eggplant and various peppers have not yet sprouted, but keeping the lids on is no longer an option.

The sprouts are all long and spindly. This is because the have stretched themselves to reach the light. We decided to move the trays out of the kitchen (warm and indirect light) to the opening between the living room and dining room. This spot gets light all day through the large window in the living room and the sliding glass doors of the dining room.

As it gets closer to transplant time (when the threat of frost has passed) the seedlings will spend their days outside to “harden off”. You gradually bring the seedlings outside, to help them acclimate, before planting them. We’re hoping that with the new, sunnier location the sprouts will grow stronger and less spindly. Then they will be ready to live outside.

Are you planting any veggies? Tips or tricks you want to share?