Tile Away...

Since I'm currently unable to share progress photos of our basement reno, I figured I would take this time to reach out to my readers for some help with decisions. Particularly, regarding our basement bathroom overhaul. You may remember from previous photos that our bathroom looked like this...

I feel that ugly and dated are both understatements when it comes to this space!

I've known all along that the tub enclousure shower stall (which we'll be moving to the back wall where the towel bar is in picture #1), would be tiled in plain white subway tile. I've also known for quite sometime that I want our bathroom to be green, but very different from the one the previous owners had. So, while at Lowe's buying our new toilet and dishwasher on the 26th, I picked out the perfect green with the help of the handy dandy light box in the paint section. It helped me to determine which green would give me the exact colour I wanted in our basement bathroom, sans natural light. Then, last night, as B and I discussed the shower stall, he mentioned using river rock as the shower floor and I just about died of excitement - I was SOLD.

So you may be asking - WHAT do you need help with? Well, I'm not too sure what I want to do with the bathroom floor itself. I have three different materials in mind and would love some input from those of you who may be stopping by to read. So without further ado - here are the already chosen materials and paint colour.

I've decided that since I'm using such a bold colour for the walls (Valspar - Lime Candy if you were wondering), I want everything else to be white - toilet (purchased), sink, floor - ALL of it! But when it comes to the bathroom floor, I just can't decide what I want to use. Here are three of the options I've been thinking over recently...
1) Plain old white square tiles (either done in a square pattern or diamond)
2) White hexagon tile
3) Continuing the river rock (which I'm really not that sold on)

So, I defer to you - if this were your bathroom, what would you use on the floor? Some fresh new ideas could be helpful to open my eyes to something I haven't thought of. Share away my friends!

Great Giveaway!

One of my favorite blogs - Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone has a great personal giveaway! Head on over to her blog to enter to win 3 of her prints (any size up to 11x14) or 1 large poster print (up to 20x30)!

I really love her shots of New York City (where B and I met and fell in love), but all of her photos are gorgeous! So go on, check it out - worth it! Best of Luck!

Our Boxing Day Scores

This Boxing Day, B and I decided to brave the Boxing Day sales... at the big box home stores. In other words - no crowds to deal with. Thank god. We got some of the obvious first time home owner things - more lights for our Christmas tree and a few ornaments to help fill our tree next year. But with those purchases aside, we had some big ticket items we were on the hunt for.
As I've been writing about for a while now, we have plans to renovate our basement laundry area. That means that the #1 purchase on our list was a new water and energy efficient washer and dryer pair. After scouring all of the after Christmas sales (via flyers), the best deal we came across was for an LG washer and dryer pair at Home Depot. The LG 3.5 Cu. Ft. Front Load Washer (WM2010CW) and 7.0 Cu. Ft. Dryer (DLE1310W) - $886 for the pair (regular $1296) + an additional 10% off! So we saved over $500 on the pair, plus with over $70 in gift cards - we're only paying roughly $830 of our own money for the pair, after taxes! It was definitely a great way to start our shopping trip and put both of us in an excellent mood for the remainder of our excursion. 

Once we had finalized our purchase at Home Depot, we headed over to Lowes to pick up a toilet that they had on sale for $148, for our basement bathroom (regular $208). The toilet is exactly the same as the one we purchased back in July for the upstairs bathroom. It's a low flow, American Standard toilet - and the best part? The city of Toronto offers $75 back on our water bill for purchasing the toilet - so essentially, we're getting it for $75!

We also took a chance to see what they had in the way of deals on Dishwashers. We weren't sold on buying one, but thought we'd take a look since the one that came with the house is not only not very efficient... but also doesn't do a very good job cleaning dishes. Well, once we saw the Bosch dishwasher they had on sale for $698 (regular $1198) - we WERE sold! We overhead one of the sales associates telling someone there were only two left, so we snapped one up immediately, and we LOVE how it looks in the kitchen (for now anyway - it'll look way better in the future when the kitchen is actually redone!)

We also made a stop at RONA to pick up some plain white subway tiles for the new tub enclosure and a lot of other fun stuff for our whole tiling job. Was nice since we not only got 10% off everything, but we also got 4x the Airmiles on our purchases, which gave us a good number of bonus miles - who knows, maybe we'll cash them in for something nice in the house somewhere down the road!

So, that is how we made out during the Boxing Day sales - and we are extremely happy. But with all of that out of the way, it's time to get down to business on the basement reno! As my previous post showed, the demo is well underway - for the first half of the basement anyway (laundry room and bathroom). I'm looking forward to sharing some updates - as Day 2 of the demo has been quite successful so far! Keep those eyes peeled!

Remember Our Basement?

... and how it looked like this?

WELL, after heading down there tonight with B and my Dad to "come up with a plan", for the new layout of our laundry/utility room and bathroom, it looks a little more like this...

We had a little bit of fun this evening. Lots of cleaning up to do tomorrow... more renovation and reworking some of the wiring, plumbing and a few more things, but we're well on our way! 
Thankfully B is off all week and I'll be around a lot - so hopefully we can get a good head start on our new basement laundry and bathroom. Just thought I'd give you a little update on what we're busy with now. I'll be back soon with an update on our big Boxing Day purchases that I am SO excited about! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! 

The "Entry" Entry

This post is pretty long overdue. Something I definitely could've shared much earlier in my blogging. The temporary solution to our dark mudroom/front entrance. From the time that we moved in, in July, I knew it wasn't what I wanted, but with that horrible bathroom of ours and a few other small projects, it was the bottom of our list.

So this is what we were faced with upon arrival at our new home. Wood paneling and big huge (drafty) windows all around. (Mind you, we weren't so aware of the draftiness at this point as it was still hot out). To make it even better worse, there was this ugly, dated track lighting on the ceiling.

It's definitely not the clearest photo, but you get the point - it was UGLY! By the time late August rolled around we had, had enough. One Sunday morning we got up and decided it was time to set to work on covering up that awful paneling. Our first attempt wasn't so successful. After roughing up the paneling with some sandpaper, we used a basic latex primer that we had bought for other basic priming projects when we moved in. After the first coat dried we noticed that the top coat was bleeding through from the wood. B insisted that we try one more coat, but after that proved to be no help, we opted for some KILZ Oil based primer to see if it would help. Boy was it stinky, but one coat was enough to cover up any trace of that yellowy/brown paneling. Of course, wanting to make sure it was absolutely gone, we added a second coat for good measure.
 After a couple of coats of Valspar's Barrister White, the room was already feeling airy and bright. Our finishing touch, was a new light fixture that we had scored at Lowes, before we even closed on the house, for $15! (The fixture was originally worth $75, but was on clearance because it had no packaging! We scooped it up right away, planning on using it for this exact purpose.) VOILA! A bright and airy, temporary solution to our dingy front entrance.

Amazing what a simple coat of paint and a new light fixture can do, huh? 
Earlier in the summer (aka a few weeks after moving in) we had painted the outside of this add-on entrance, as well as the front door, which went from dark natural wood to the wonderful blue you see here. It seriously makes a huge difference and I love it. We're hoping that in the spring we can begin the daunting task of rebuilding the whole thing. As it stands now, it's no warmer than outside due to the drafty windows and lack of insulation! But again - those plans and that reno, are a whole other entry! (No pun intended...) 

Basement - 1, Us - 0

As I have mentioned previously, we plan on tackling our basement guest room this holiday season in order to transform it  into our new laundry/utility room.

Yup, this little space (which has been painted since we moved in) will soon be a bright, airy, shiny laundry room. The thing I'm looking forward to the most? Those beasts in the last photo being replaced! Okay, okay - so they work just fine, but they're louder than Lady Gaga's outfits, and nowhere near as efficient as we would like! So, B and I have been in discussion regarding replacing them. He suggests that we replace only the washer, and instead of getting a new dryer, get a new dishwasher. I say, if we're going to replace one, we might as well replace both. He wanted a reason, so my final reason was I would rather have a new laundry PAIR rather than a new dishwasher.

Our plan is to go shopping during the Boxing Day Week sales and pick up a great deal. Dishwashers are much less expensive, so grabbing a new one down the line will be much easier for a decent sale price. After a small heated conversation last night, I THINK we came to the conclusion that we'll continue with the plan of looking for a new washer and dryer set for a good price. Good price being the key words in that equation.

However, even if we agree to buy a new pair and then score a great deal in the sales, we have an even bigger issue waiting for us on home turf. The challenge of getting them into our basement! Our house being built in the 1920s - doorways and staircases are pretty narrow.

Yup, this scary looking staircase is actually 1/2 inch too narrow for a new washer and dryer pair to fit down... even with the railing off. Which leaves me wondering how they got the current washer and dryer into the basement, as well as a full size bathtub. Hmmmm? Believe me, I have TONS of ideas which involve a great deal of reno and an overhaul of our living room, which at the moment we can't really afford.

So for the moment, the basement is winning in our laundry room makeover (which we haven't truly begun yet), but I'm determined to keep fighting, and eventually get a beautiful new laundry pair down that staircase! I'll keep you posted on the battle.

A Bit of Christmas Deliciousness

Rather than posting a traditional Christmas treat recipe, I thought I would share a little piece of deliciousness that my Mom whipped up last Christmas Eve for dinner. It was a big hit with everyone, including B's parents and sister, who headed North to spend the holidays with us.

Yeah, so I didn't take this picture... the recipe is actually for smaller individually wrapped wellingtons! Why not try it out this holiday season. I promise, you won't be disappointed (unless you don't like fish... try something else!)


6 salmon fillets (skinned and de-boned)
2 pkg. puff pastry
½ lb. Button Mushrooms
6 oz Foie Gras or Chicken Liver, diced
2.5 c. Whipping Cream
½ lb. Baby Shrimp
3 Shallots, medium
2 egg yolk and 4 tbsp of milk whisked together for egg wash
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
2 tsp unsalted butter


Fish Mousse:
2 oz salmon
3 oz. whipping cream
1 egg white


Sauce:
¼ lb. unsalted butter
1c. pinot noir wine
1 medium shallot
½ tsp. liquid honey
1 sprig fresh thyme

Mushroom Duxelle: Trim and wash the mushrooms and cut them into quarters. Reserve on a plate. Chop the shallot and place half in a saucepan. Add ½ tsp of butter and sauté over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the mushroom and foie gras (or chicken liver) and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the cream and reduce until dry. Add salt and pepper. Let cool for a few minutes and place in a food processor to be chopped. Add the chopped parsley and mix. Place on a plate and keep refrigerated until needed.

Fish Mousse: In a clean food processor place the 2 oz salmon, add the salt and chop the salmon into a very thin mousse. Add the egg white and mix. Slowly add the 3 oz of cream and mix for one minute. Be careful not to over mix, the mousse will split. Remove mousse from the food processor and place in refrigerator until needed.

Salmon Wellington: Flour a dry counter or marble, and roll the puff pastry into a rectangle, 8” by 10”-about 1/8” thick. You will need enough dough to fold over the length of the salmon and make a sealed (rectangle will become 4 x 10). Evenly space the salmon fillets along bottom edge of the puff pastry. Leave a margin of pastry at edge to seal. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 2 tbsp of mousse evenly over each fillet. Brush the edges of the pastry with egg wash, taking care not to touch the salmon. Spread the creamy chopped mushroom mix evenly over the salmon fillet to coat it and keep it moist. Top the mushroom with shrimp meat. Fold puff pastry forward to completely cover salmon. Cut pastry between fillets. Press the edges together with a fork to seal and make a decorative pattern; trim edges neatly. Prick the pastry top decoratively to allow air to escape while baking. Place the Wellingtons on parchment paper on a baking tray. Brush the top with egg wash. Bake in the middle level of a pre-heated 400F oven for 15 minutes then turn the heat to 375F for an additional 15 minutes. The Wellington should be a nice golden brown color. Remove from the oven.

Serve the Wellington with seasonal vegetables and pinot noir butter sauce.

Pinot Noir Butter Sauce (to be prepared while Wellington is baking): In a sauce pan over medium heat, place the remaining chopped shallot. Pour in the red wine and honey. Reduce until almost dry and add the remaining cream. Reduce 1/2 cup cream to half and turn heat to low. Slowly whisk in the butter. Whisk constantly until butter is fully combined in reduction. Pour the sauce through a strainer into a clean saucepan. Discard the remaining solids. Adjust the seasoning and set aside.

Hint: If you like, you can prepare this recipe the day before and bake the next day

A little bit of a different taste for the holidays - but absolutely delicious! If you try it out - let me know what you think!
Happy Cooking!