House

House update

26 March 2013 House
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It’s been five months since the hole in the ground. We had a few exciting weeks after we discovered the basement was a foot too short (a calculation error by the civil engineers, who will have to fix the problem later with a whole lot of dirt). But we’ve been lucky with weather and are [...]

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Hole in the ground

22 October 2012 House
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Planning has been in the works for quite a while, but now that we’ve dug a giant hole in the ground there’s no going back: we are building a house. Again. I’m edge-of-the-high-dive nervous. Building a house in California is breathtakingly more expensive than building in Ohio, and chinese grandmas don’t splurge easily. I hope [...]

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Bathroom planning guide

15 February 2012 Bath
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As life would have it, I’ve done an absurd amount of home building and remodeling in the last dozen years. Chinese grandmas don’t spend lightly, and I thought I’d share some tips on bathroom planning culled from my research. Remodeling or building a home can be exciting, but it is an enormous investment of time, [...]

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Never-MT

25 October 2011 Favorite gadgets
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Of all the useful tricks in my dream kitchen, the Never-MT is the cheapest (and most goofily named). It’s the kind of gadget that seems utterly lame to kids but extremely cool to chore-burdened adults: for $10 you can be saved from endless refilling of your sink soap dispenser. It’s ingenious. It’s not like filling [...]

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My friend Faith

13 October 2011 Columbus, OH
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It’s been a strange, volatile week, starting high, plunging low and ending with the realization that most everything is a high compared to the lows that could be. The week began last Thursday with a rare and exciting treat: lunch with a new friend, the lovely, curious Faith Durand, Managing Editor extraordinaire of my favorite [...]

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My jolly salt pig

6 October 2011 Favorite gadgets
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It probably says something odd about me that I do not own a coffee maker, an electric mixer or a slow cooker, but I do own a salt pig. It’s not an item that would be on anyone’s kitchen essential list – a small dish for salt would suffice – but I came across this [...]

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Strawberry oatmeal shortcakes with maple vanilla cream

29 May 2011 Food
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It’s the ultimate summer treat: juicy strawberries piled on soft, moist oatmeal shortcakes, served with a dollop of maple vanilla cream. Homemade strawberry shortcake is an easy make-ahead dessert that makes you look like a genius in the kitchen: mix briefly in one bowl, drop by spoonfuls on a baking sheet, and in 20 minutes [...]

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Happiness is a butter bell

14 September 2010 Favorite gadgets
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I discovered the butter bell a year ago, and now my family can’t live without it. Gone are the days of battling rock hard butter to spread on toast while four hungry children clamor for their breakfast. Now butter gets spread smooth as frosting, toast gets distributed, and munching mouths are happily silent for a [...]

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Cast iron skillets – nonstick old school

6 September 2010 Favorite gadgets
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Cast iron is the chinese grandma of cookware: the ultimate in practicality, durability and value – and it only gets better with age. It is also nonstick the old school way. If anyone out there is still using Teflon-coated pans, I urge you to wake up and smell the plastic. A high quality cast iron [...]

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My dream kitchen, part 2

17 August 2010 Food
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By popular request from my kitchen-planning friends at the GardenWeb forums, I took a few more pictures and drafted a floor plan of the kitchen. Above, the rest of the great room, as seen from the kitchen. The entire room is approximately 21′x43′. At one end is the kitchen. In the center is a dining [...]

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