Attic & basement

The attic and basement are real assets for our house... and I think we actually have photos that make them look that way!

Interior photos

Those of you that know our house, hopefully these photos look just normal to you. (Clean and ready-to-move-out normal.) It's amazing what you have to do to make interior photos look like the place looks in real life.



Toys? What toys?


Why yes, the kitchen is always this orderly. We just took the bananas off the countertop is all.


Oddly enough this room required many decisions. Blinds open or closed? Lights on or off? Flash or no flash? Just to make it look like it usually does.

Okay, this looks like a room in which a preschooler would do nothing but lie on his bed and stare at the ceiling, but buyers like a clean slate.


It's a full bath, but it's not possible to photograph the tub. It looks great, I assure you.

Professional cleaning

What a treat.  The stove, while still its old stove self, has never looked so white and clean; I don't know how they got the burned-on stuff off, but they did.  The shower is sparkling, the kitchen sink is shiny, the furniture is fluffed from the vacuuming, and all the construction dust is gone from the windowsills.  The place looks great!

This weekend, we will take fancy faux-wide-angle photos of the interior, and keep at it in the attic and the basement.  Those two zones are actually looking very spacious, which I think is the main goal, but there's always more to tidy up (and pack).  Then on Tuesday morning, we clear out.  And again on Wednesday... and so on for the week.  fingers crossed!

Grits

What do to with most of a 1.5-lb package of grits?  They're delicious cooked up with parmesan, but four servings of that only uses about 3/4 c of grits, and it's not like I'm going to eat that every night.  

Fortunately I found the baking soda.  So I started tonight with lime polenta cake, adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.  Grits are basically polenta, no?*  The cake was very yummy, kind of like a rough-textured cornbread, but soaked with lime syrup (which I made up).  It only used half a cup of grits, but it quelled somewhat my desperate yearning to bake.  I brought it to Mike and Kathryn's house and we gobbled it up.

I am further tempted by Martha Stewart's polenta cookies and perhaps a vanilla polenta pudding.  The thing is, none of these recipes use a large amount of polenta (or grits), and they use a lot of other ingredients... not to mention the fact that I would be faced with a lot of dessert.

More research, more good options.  Polenta is the pasta-equivalent for Northern Italy and can be used as a base for pretty much anything.  So perhaps my opening line of "not gonna eat that every night" was premature... lots of people do!  I'm liking the idea of topping polenta with white beans and black kale, very Tuscan.  But maybe too white, with the white grits... some prettier bean, maybe.  Sausage and cabbage is another very northern-italian combination.  And apparently the slow cooker (which I have not yet packed!!) makes perfect, creamy polenta with no stirring.  I am seeing tomorrow's dinner in my mind...

* If this horrifies your gourmet sensibilities, sorry.

Silken tofu

Seized with the urge to create something in the kitchen, I almost baked a lime-pistachio pound cake, but couldn't find baking powder anywhere.  Perhaps it's a good thing.  Since there's not much you can bake without baking powder, and I've already been to the store once today, I tried to move on.

One of the ingredients I've been wondering how to use up is silken tofu.  I have three boxes of the stuff.  A favorite food blog of mine suggested making a berry mousse out of it:  one block silken tofu, 1-1/2 c berries (I had frozen strawberries), 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Blend and blend in a powerful blender or food processor, until silky smooth.  We did; and wow.  Delicious.  And startlingly healthy.  I could even have used less sugar.  Right now it's kind of a runny texture but in the fridge it will supposedly set in a couple of hours.  Jordan did not wait.

Next:  I'm cooking fish tonight and I've stopped even fantasizing about slathering mayonnaise onto things, I'm so WW-trained, but aren't you supposed to be able to make mayonnaise out of silken tofu?  You can.  I did.  Amazing.  It is so luscious and lovely, I want to eat it with a spoon.  And I can, with no guilt!  One block tofu, a sprinkle of vinegar (I used rice vinegar), a sprinkle each of salt and sugar.  Blend until creamy.  Try varying the kind of vinegar, or use lemon.  Try different sweeteners.  I also added a teeny clove of garlic.  Other spices would be great, I'm sure, I just wanted to keep it basic this time.

I still have another box.  suggestions?

Landscaping

The transformative-landscaping people have worked their magic and the Haddon exterior really is wonderfully improved.  Everything in the front is neat and spiffy and nicely arranged, with new flowers and mulch making the place look fresh and well cared for.  They did a lot of great stuff with the details, neatly lining the edges of beds with bricks, using extra stones to terrace steep spots, creating nice lines with the lawn edge, and working in the better plants of ours with new stuff of theirs.  We're impressed.  

Here's how things looked at the start, while Sergio's crew was clearing out the big stuff.

Here's the landscaping folks in progress:

And here's the result.  Much improved.

Dale says this has made our move seem more imminent than anything else so far.

The last prep week

This is the last week before the houses go on the market... I think we're going to make it!  Jordan's school is closed, which will make my work a little less efficient, but I still think we can do it.  Sergio is taking care of the "punch list" for Glenway, and I'll do what's needed indoors here (attic, basement, and blinds in the bedrooms).  Professional cleanings are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.  As for the outdoors, the back fence is complete and looks good.  The transformative landscaping guy was here today casing the joint, and gave an estimate of $895 for Haddon, $695 for Glenway.  I enthusiastically accepted (through Jim, who is making the arrangements).  

If all goes well, I actually get to spend next week at work.  What is it I do there again?