Good things lately

I learned a few things this fall which have made life pretty darn awesome. They are small little tricks and free items that make life more convenient and enjoyable.

The first is free audiobooks from the Bozeman Public Library, who partners with libraries across the state to share audiobooks for download to library patrons. You go to their webpage, log in with your library card number, download the software, and can browse through over 5,000 audiobooks to download to a computer, ipod, or other handheld device. It looks like this:

I know I'm totally dorking out here. But FREE. EASY. Something to listen to on road trips and driving to the office and on long bike rides, walks and runs. Yes, I just said I will run listening to an audiobook! While it lacks a pump you up beat, it sure as hell keeps you from shuffling through your iPod to find just the right song.


Seriously. Use this free technology from the Bozeman Public Library. It rocks my face off.

The second thing that made life easier just yesterday was ordering photo prints online from Bozeman's F-11 camera shop. Some lucky family members are getting wedding photos as Christmas gifts. I've been procrastinating getting them printed until it was pretty much too late. I googled F-11 to see what the cost per print would be, and saw the "Print online" button. SCORE! I was able to upload photos, decide what size and quantity of prints, and order them in about 10 minutes. No walking to the store. No trying to find a parking space. The photos were done 3 hours later too! Super, duper, extra awesome.

The third awesome thing I found this fall was these containers, Rubbermaid take alongs:

Yes, I'm serious. These things are awesome. 

You may or may not know that I have a slight obsession with having single-serving soups in the freezer in the winter. I almost always eat lunch at work, and it makes life a LOT easier if I can just reach in the freezer and grab a frozen soup. About a month ago I realized that we didn't have 15978348375348918 enough containers, so I grabbed more at the grocery store while stocking up on supplies for crock-pot soup. 

The next day, while ladling out soup into freezable containers, I realized these containers have a measurement line on the side of them. GENIUS! Especially for those of us making the portion control effort. 

So there you have it. Three things I found this fall that make life awesome. 

More foundations and kitchen inspiration

Construction Update:

Stopping by our lot on the way home is becoming a ritual for both DJ and I. We also loop past it anytime we are going for a walk or a run. Yes, that’s right, I’ve become a jogger. I won’t call myself a runner because I’m pretty certain that the snail’s pace I move at doesn’t qualify, BUT, still, I swing by the house as a mouth breathe my way around the neighborhood.

On Wednesday they finished digging the hole for the foundation and put down the liner and gravel! And I’m told that they poured footings for the foundation walls today! Sadly, I’ll have to run… ha… over there tomorrow morning to get a picture in the AM. It is currently 9:51pm and I’m still at the office.

DJ asked me if I wanted to camp in our lot on Wednesday night. If the gear hadn't been over at the apartment, I might have!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Now let’s talk kitchens. DJ and I are both foodies. We love simple fare like meat and potatoes and asparagus and corn on the cob, but we want it to be GOOD simple food. We both love to bake, and I’m not ashamed to say that DJ is a better cookie baker than I am. And believe me; I have some experience eating chocolate chip cookie dough… I mean, baking chocolate chip cookies.

While his condo had a great layout, the kitchen was problematic. The work triangles overlapped to the point that we really couldn’t cook without tripping over each other. So When I had the chance to redesign the layout of the kitchen, I jumped at it!

PS: Work triangle knowledge comes from my Grandma Jan, whose kitchen is so well laid out for a one woman cook for a family of nine that I actually thought about replicating it at our house. Then I remembered that we don’t want to have seven children. But! Work triangles! Grandma Jan!

The only tripping over someone will likely come when DJ is going out the doors to the BBQ...

Once I got the layout done and got DJ’s approval, it was time to look for kitchen inspiration. Usually, this search leads me to delicious bruschetta recipes or yummy sangria concoctions, but in this Google image search, it was all the look of kitchens.

I should add that we’ve already decided on a couple of finish materials for the house (in our heads, we still have yet to actually chose the materials. But they’re there, in the warm fuzzy spot of our imaginations). The floors in the kitchen, dining and living room will be some version of a darker circle sawn. The trim will be white, and the windows will be white. We’re trying to find a color somewhere between grey and a sand color for the walls. I’m ready for a dark grey, but too much color is hard for DJ’s palette to handle.

I love how light and airy this kitchen looks! Hmm... a prep sink in the island...

With that in mind, I Googled the you know what out of kitchens. I clicked and “save as-ed” everything that I like (I also failed to save sources, so I’m being a bad blogger and throwing photos that aren’t mine up without naming the source or asking for permission. Sorry. Hopefully the owners see it as free advertising?). And when I looked back through them I realized that I liked white kitchens!

In my mind’s eye I could see the grey walls, white trim, white kitchen with big north facing window and a lighter speckled granite countertop. When I ran the countertop by DJ, he wasn’t so sure. He liked darker countertops. Thinking he was smoking crack, I tried to keep an open mind. Then I realized, in all my inspiration photos, the white kitchens have dark countertops too! Well damn, I knew there’s a reason I like this guy.

I love the look of the base of these cabinets. They have legs rather than a toe kick area! But that's expensive...

Love love love love the door hardware in this kitchen. And the concrete countertops and accents of blue!


More blue!

So the plan for the kitchen is: dark circle sawn floors, white cabinets and trim, stainless steel appliances and drawer pulls, dark granite countertops on the wall and high bar at the island, subway tile backsplash with some sort of glass tile color accent band in it and a butcher-block working table on the island. Thankfully, it’s not a big space.. so hopefully we can afford it????