Love is in the Air

I wanted to make something for my husband and the wonderful crew I have at the Willetta restoration. One of my husband’s favorite desserts is homemade cherry pie. I did think about making a whole one but we’ve been trying to eat healthy since the first of the year and I knew a huge pie would be a bad, albeit delicious temptation for both of us.

So I decided to keep the theme but on a smaller scale. In a previous post, I shared my favorite pie crust recipe–which is super easy to make (especially in a Cuisinart). After letting the pie crust dough chill, I rolled it out and found the largest heart-shaped cookie cutter I had.

I added canned (partially groaning here) cherry pie filling. Normally I like fresh cherries but they are not in season so sometimes you need to improvise.

I wet the edges of the heart with water and added another heart-shaped dough piece. A small fork served as the perfect tool for sealing the edges.

Next, I brushed the surface with an egg wash (just scrambled an egg) and then pricked the dough for air vents.

Baking was a bit of a challenge because I wasn’t sure how long~~but I set the oven to 375 degrees and started at 10 minutes. I kept adding time in increments of 3 minutes so my total cook time, in a convection oven, was approximately 20 minutes. Depending on the size of your cutter, my pie crust dough recipe made 9 4″x4″ hearts. Lastly, I sprinkled the tops with sugar (used King Arthur’s Sparkling White Sugar).

I’m getting ready to run these down to the job site~~a small sweet surprise for my dedicated crew. Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love. Maya Angelou

Reflections on the Glenn house remodel

My last remodeling project was probably the one that generated the greatest learning and the most heartache with unexpected challenges. Before I buy a home, it has to “feel” right. If you believe that the walls of a home speak to you, then you know what I mean. I can sense if a home has been filled with love and laughter and I also sense when they don’t.

So when I purchased the Glenn house, I could tell it was well-loved, well-kept, but out-dated. The house is situated on a small cul-de-sac with 6 other homes.

It had relatively nice curb appeal, except for the entrance. I felt like yodeling every time I entered the front door. Not sure why it was so Swiss Family Robinson looking, but it made the front doors look diminutive. The pendant light is the wrong scale. And look at those skinny posts supporting the massive vaulted ceiling….quite odd.

We removed the skinny posts and beams, and created an arched overhang and added more substantial columns.

The after….new front doors painted black, new light fixtures, and richer paint colors. I replaced the overgrown ivy with healthier foundation plantings.

The entry had a low hanging soffit, a pony wall with dated wainscoting and my least favorite, tiled flooring throughout the entire house.

We eliminated the soffit because it interrupted the energy when you first walked into the house. We also removed the short wall, the floor tile, and the wainscoting.

Here is the new entrance with a clean, elegant updated look with energy efficient LED can lights everywhere.

From the entry you walk into a wonderful great room. At the end is the entrance to the kitchen. Outside is a small patio area.

We removed all the built-ins and also took down the wall between the great room and kitchen. My first intentions were to just remove wallpaper and repaint. However, the house had a funny smell, which we attributed to its age. However, in removing the kitchen walls we found a huge rodent infestation and the insulation was saturated with urine and feces. We ended up removing all the walls, spraying everything with bleach and baking soda, redoing the electrical and plumbing and adding new, clean, fresh smelling drywall!!!!

Every single house I have remodeled has this creepy loose insulation in the attic that is filled with dust and dirt. It’s a nasty job to remove it all and replace with new insulation, but I do it every time because I can’t stand this stuff.

We painted the beams and removed one set of sliding doors and added Anderson casement windows. The new dark hardwood flooring against the crisp white paint makes for a beautiful contrast. The stunning new kitchen/great room creates a desirable, contemporary open floor plan.

The large chandeliers are from Ballard Designs. The pendant lights over the peninsula are from Restoration Hardware.

I don’t know how professional photographers do it, but they make the living spaces look so huge. This room is actually quite reasonable in size vs. the picture. Kitchen cabinets were custom built. Countertops are white Carrera marble.

The powder room……such a small room, yet functional.

We removed the tile, replaced the fixtures and added this fabulous European wallpaper from Pixers to make the room feel bigger. I love adding a querky touch to each house I remodel. Light fixture and mirror from Restoration Hardware.

Next to the kitchen, was a den that we walled in and converted to a laundry/mud room.

The cabinets are from IKEA. Personally, I love their drawer mechanisms and assembly was rather easy.

The master bedroom, like the great room, had lots and lots of built-ins and wallpaper. We removed them and added a real, larger closet by taking some footage from the enormous master bathroom.

The master bathroom was well-equipped but required significant updating. It had what I call a “George Jetson” ceiling just like the kitchen. I am so happy those are no longer in style.

This is the first time I have used tile that looks like wood and I like the effect against the white walls and custom made vanity. Countertops are Carrera marble. Bathtub was ordered from Build.com.

The second bedroom just needed cosmetic work, but the bathroom required a complete overhaul. The hexagon window really date this room which we removed and replaced with an operating one.

Most of the square footage of the house is on one level. There is a loft bedroom/office, which is rather large. We closed in the area with the shelving below and added a new, full bathroom.

Love the curtains. There is no window behind them!!! However, we did add beautiful casement windows to capture the sky and rooftop views.

My sweet husband made the barn doors to cover the short closet/storage area, which is quite deep under the eaves.

Here’s the new bathroom that we added to the upstairs loft bedroom. At completion, this was a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath home, all newly redone and sold to happy homeowners.

Many thanks to my dear friend, and realtor, Shelley Caniglia, for finding these treasured homes for me to remodel and restore. There are many more pictures to share and if you would like to see the Glenn project in its completion, click here.

The professional photographs of the finished home were done by Trevor Smith with Tour Factory. The “during” photos were done by me long before I even considered doing a blog so I will need some latitude on the quality :). Hope you enjoyed the tour of the Glenn house. Now back to work on the Willetta restoration!

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Restoration update!

So much has happened at the Willetta house restoration. To read the first post on this historical renovation click here. Perhaps the most noticeable change is to the front of the house. When I purchased it in August, the entire house was covered in aluminum siding. Here is the front of the house with the aluminum siding still on…well, some it anyway. Notice the big piece hanging down from the underside of the front terrace!!

We tested a small part of the back of the house and took off a few strips of the aluminum. Underneath was the original 3″ clapboard siding. I held my breath as we tore off the aluminum siding. I had no idea if the clapboard was still under the entire house, nor did I know the condition of the clapboard, which I assume has been covered for decades. Albeit dirty, the clapboard siding is in relatively good shape.

Yes, every window had security bars. We removed them and recycled all the aluminum siding and the metal bars.

We also removed all the original shutters on the front of the house. I have never seen this particular cut-out design on any shutter to date – not sure of its origin.

The pigeons over the last 20 years, have enjoyed roosting on the shutters. It will take a big effort to change that behavior! If anyone has any suggestions on how we can rid ourselves of these birds, please let me know. The shutters were painted black on one side and dark green on the other. An interesting way to change the look of your home!

The shutters on the first level cover the French doors that lead out to the terrace. Since the front of the house is south facing, the shutters are a brilliant way to keep the sun off the windows in the afternoon. The louvered door below was removed from inside and is resting on the exterior….and eventually ended up going home with one of the workers.

Most of the shutters were in relatively good condition and only a few needed to be completely replaced.

When we removed the aluminum siding from the underside of the porch ceiling, we found a great deal of water damage.

We needed to remove the blue ceiling and found even more damage to the structure underneath….cha-ching. After all that was removed and replaced, what a big improvement!

Here’s what it looks like today. I used a Sherwin Williams paint called Atmospheric for the blue and stayed with white for the house. Shutters have been painted black and re-hung. All 6 columns have been repaired.

Notice the beautiful craftsmanship in the detail at the roof line that is hard to find today. There are two different sizes of crown molding-some of it missing, some of it rotted. Fixing it was challenging. This nearly 100 year old structure is no longer square plus we needed to rent a lift in order to have the carpenter work at this height.

So as of today, here is the front of the house (with a new roof). We are waiting to paint the front doors/entrance when all the construction traffic dies down. As you can see by the piles of insulation, the rough-in of the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC are complete. Drywall starts at the end of the week. More to come!!!!

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Raising Chickens

Raising chickens does not take a great deal of maintenance. Providing a shelter, food and room to range is about all that they need. One of our original reasons we have chickens is to manage the bug population here on our property. Since Bella Terra was in a deteriorated and overgrown state for many decades, the bugs moved in and stayed. Chickens and guinea hens do a natural job of pest control. To see read more about our home restoration process, click here.

Hen House Design

Initially our chickens and guinea hens would freely ambled around the yard. And then we got a dog…who liked licking the chickens in places I don’t want to mention. And he would chase the chickens, surely thinking they were his new toys. Coupled with birds of prey and coyotes, it was evident that we needed to secure our birds. So I designed our hen house, which sits between the garden and barn.

The interior of the hen house is a mirror image of itself. This symmetrical layout is to have the ability to utilize both sides independently-for an injured chicken, or baby chicks. There is definitely a pecking order, so it’s difficult to safely put chickens of different sizes and ages together.

Each side of the hen house has access to the nesting boxes where we gather eggs daily. The blue rolling tubs contain the chicken scratch and feed.

Fun themed handles add a bit of whimsy to the building.

At dusk, the chickens march their way inside the hen house, where they roost for the night. If we sense any predators finding their way into the screened-in area, we can secure the door for additional protection. Currently the 9′ x 12′ hen house can easily accommodate 25 – 30 chickens.

Outside Run

There is an outside run in the back so the chickens can free range safely. Here is where the food and water is located. The ground is dirt which allows the chickens to bury themselves during the heat of the day. Also these dust baths are a natural way the chickens get rid of any body bugs.

Today, we have 14 chickens (and one duck) and a variety of breeds-brown, white and blue/green egg layers.

Treats

Since our sweet chickens provide us with the best tasting, fresh eggs, we, in turn give them treats and high quality food.

Being located right next to my vegetable garden, often the chickens get Swiss chard and other greens. During the hot summer months, frozen corn, peas, squash and chilled watermelon are favorite snacks.

We also feed them black soldier fly larvae by Grubblies. These treats provide protein and calcium and the chickens LOVE them! And they are made in the USA and can be found here.

Bedding

I am experimenting with a mixture of dried flowers and herbs to add to the nesting boxes. Inspired by Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily, this mixture is instrumental in keeping the hen house bug free. And who wouldn’t love laying eggs on rose petals?

To line the bedding boxes and flooring, we alternate between straw, hay and alfalfa. The straw is changed out weekly or as needed.

And by the way, we only have our chickens for the eggs, not meat.

Egg Laying

During the year, the chickens lay the most eggs in the Spring and Fall. The hot summers slow down the process. In the winter, a hen needs 14 hours of daylight in order to lay an egg daily. We do have a light to illuminate the hen house during the winter months.

Do all chickens lay eggs? The answer is no. Only hens (females) lay eggs and they do not need a rooster (male) to do so. When a rooster is introduced into the flock, then you can get baby chicks from a fertilized egg laid by the hen. Certain types of chickens lay more or less eggs than others.

If you are considering raising your own chickens, check with your local government to make sure you are allowed to do so. Here in Phoenix, you can have hens, but no roosters are allowed within the City limits.

Baby chicks can be sourced locally or online. Our latest batch of chicks are from McMurray Hatchery. Through this website you can choose different attributes like the type of chicken, egg color, and age. Seems a bit strange to get a box of live baby chickens in the mail, but that is how it is done.

I cannot say enough about fresh eggs. They taste better. Unlike the eggs you buy commercially, we retain the protective coating on the outside of the eggs and wash them prior to use. Ours are always fresh and delicious.

To read more about chickens, here is a post of frequently asked questions.

Happy Wednesday, my sweet friends! Tomorrow my son arrives home and I cannot wait. There is something about having the family together that just feels right.

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