THIS IS WAR!!!

This is WAR! The food being sold by the grocery stores keeps getting higher and higher priced and the ingredients keep getting smaller and smaller. :( Even the cake mixes have gone from 14. 5 oz. down to 11 oz. Now instead of adding 1 1/4 cups of water, you now add only 1 cup. AND GUESS WHAT! It STILL says it will make one size 9"x13" cake or 24 cupcakes! Containers of coffee also keep shrinking. (Except for the price). It seems that the size shrinks and then a short while later they just raise the price for the new smaller size. I have been looking at the boxes of Hamburger Helper and thinking I can make that at home possibly cheaper, and I know it would be healthier. So tonight I made Homemade Hamburger Helper Chili Mac. Not bad! :)
 

The variety, Chili Mac was my first one of the Hamburger Helpers. Here is the recipe:

Brown 1 lb. of ground beef (hamburger), and drain.
Add the following;  1 cup of hot water, 2 cups of milk, and 1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni. Stir.
In a small bowl stir together: 1 TB cornstarch, 1 TB. Chili powder, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. paprika, after stirring it together add it to the meat mixture. Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover the panand turn the heat to simmer. Stir occasionally and cook for 10 mins. When the pasta is tender add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and replace the lid for 2 - 3 more minutes to allow the cheese to melt.  Remove from the heat and let it stand uncovered for about five minutes as it will thicken as it stands.  Enjoy!
     You can package the amount of elbow maccaroni in a zip-lock bag and also the seasonings in a separate sandwich bag to allow ease of cooking.  If desired you can also place the amount of powdered milk needed into a sandwich bag and increace the hot water needed to replace the milk when making the recipe, if desired. :)

New / Old Cabinet is Done!

Our New / Old cabinet is finally done!  ...well ... for now! I have coated the top doors with stain and the outside of the doors with one coat of polyurethane. I will touch up the stain and finish the polyurethane as soon as warmer weather comes and I can move the pieces of the cabinet outside in the air! (Not real fond of feeling sick!)
Here is our finished project!

And from another view

So now we can relax !

 

 

Snag in Polyurethaning The Cabinet

 

I worked staining the cabinet with 'Special Walnut' Tripp Carver Wipe on stain in the middle of the living room while it snowed outside. Roger worked on moving the light switch to an area I will be able to reach.

The light over the washer and dryer unit will need to by-pass the light switch behind the new cabinet to the area near the other light switch. Good thing we made the wall removable there! :0)

And Roger did a very nice job.

See? It is a very sturdy cabinet! That's why we like old furniture and home-made ones. You can stand, or sit, on them!

Nice job Roger! :0)

 

After staining all of the pieces, I coated them with High-Build Polyurethane, finishing up about midnight.

 

My plan to sand lightly and re-coat in the morning changed somewhere about 3 AM when I awoke with a very bad headache, a very bad sore throat and a slight pain on the right side of the middle of my chest. I woke up Roger who told me that he also had a bad headache. FUMES. I quickly opened our bedroom and kitchen windows, turned on all of the ceiling fans and awoke both kids to see if they were having any headaches. They weren't so I informed them that in the event that they started having any ill effects that they were to wake me up.  I went back to bed breathing in the cold fresh 33 degree air from the open window next to me. It felt good and after about 30 mins. of watching tv my headache went away. I asked Rog if his had gone away, but he still had his headache. It was nice and warm under the quilts and we slept with the windows open the rest of the night. This morning the headaches were gone, as was the pain and the sore throat. We had errands to run this morning so we left the windows open and when we got back we noticed that the smell had gone away some.

 

So now our cabinets are mostly all coated once in polyuretnae, (but only one side of the shelves and none of the appliance garage). :0(

So, after some debate and no forecast of suddenly quite warm unseasonable weather outside, I decided to have Roger and the kids assemble the cabinet top as is. We will attempt to use it until it is warm enough OUTSIDE to top coat, (and finish), the polyurethane-ing.

 

 

More Work Done on the Top of the Cabinet

Today is Valentine's Day 2013. Roger, Jenny and Justin are working on the top of the cabinet.
I took Justin to college today as I had grocery shopping to do. Jenny and Rog stayed home to work on the cabinet topper.

After class we came back home where Justin joined Jen and Rog working on the topper.

The top is being constructed on the kitchen floor. HEAVY! ..as it is not made with fake boards!

The shelf placement was measured by using different items which might be stored on the shelves.

Well ...even some things which may not go on the shelves, nor in the appliance garage!

 

 

After measuring for the shelves the shelves started being cut and the top of the topper was constructed.

 

The start of the top of the cupboard

Roger started the top of the cupboard this afternoon.

We thought about what we are going to possibly store in our cupboard and measured around the items.

Designing the cupboard and conferring with Roger on my designs.

Good guy that Roger! (Putting up with me!)

 

 

UPDATE on New / Old Cabinet

When I last wrote I had just finished designing a cover-up cabinet for our washer and dryer units. I had also just finished talking my dear husband, Roger, into building it with the help of our youngest two children, Jenny and Justin.  Today the bottom half is finished and I have completed the staining with the "Special Walnut" stain and the 2 coats of Polyurethane. Roger and the kids re-assembled the take-apart-able cabinet this morning. This is how it looks!

This is the way it looks when closed. When we are using the front loading doors on the washer and dryer it opens to access them. Like this:

 

The upper controls are accessed through the top of the cabinet by folding back the top, which can be pushed up to open by pushing the hinged top up through the open front doors. Like this:

 

The board that doesn't flip up keeps the framing in position for the doors. (Remember there isn't a back on this cabinet so we can have a dryer vent and air circulation and electric and water hookups).

 

 

The cabinet is an Anniversary present from Roger, (and the kids), to me! :) The next step will be to build the top to the cabinet, which will be built in a step-back style to allow access to the light switch and the electrical outlets.

 

New / Old Cabinet

I love the 1700 - 1800's and we live in a log cabin. When we moved from our 1st house, (which was my father's boyhood home and my Grandparent's first and only home), we took my favorite wall cupboard with us. The cupboard is a step-back and made of bead board. It had been built in place and had used the kitchen wall as the back of the cupboard and the floor of the kitchen as the floor of the cupboard. When we moved, my husband, Roger, added plywood for the back and built a floor under the cabinet. I had 'antiqued' the cupboard with a Avocado green, in the 70's. I removed the paint and brought it back close to the original color in the 80's. At that time my husband also rebuilt a bookcase that had been in my home when I was little. (Several of the boards where broken through being dismantled to remove it from the house when my brother was updating).
In our cabin, the stepback is sitting next to our front loading washer and dryer units in the eat-in part of our open floor plan kitchen.  Let me say that my husband strongly dislikes carpentry. Let me also say that I had asked him, (and he complied), to build me a 3500 sq. ft. log home, the kitchen cabinets, spice cabinet and kitchen island which I had designed! I have to pick and choose what I would like for him to build and a batch of my Grandpa Jenkin's Chocolate Chip cookies thrown in doesn't hurt! This time I asked him to build a primitive style cupboard which will house both my washer and dryer and would have a top part to store laundry supplies and perhaps additional kitchen supplies. (Just a small project! )
I started by researching some of the different primitive style cupboards online. I also drew a few sketches of the style and design that I had in mind. I would like it to look primitive and not be too expensive to build and I also wanted it to be functional. I wanted to be able to access the controls on the top of the washer.  Both the washer and dryer are both front loaders.  I also wanted the cabinet to be able to be removed in case of needing machine repairs. The back needed to be open for the hook ups of the washer and the dryer vent. The light switch and outlets, located on the wall behind the unit, also needed to be useable. 

 

The original cupboard was built using beadboard. I wanted to use beadboard to replicate the older cupboard, but the lumber was more costly and I decided that not all cupboards were made with beadboard during those times. So, we will be using the pine paneling which we were already installing as walls in our cabin. Tongue and groove pine. Grooved on one side, flat on the other side.
We could always flip it to the flat side if we decide not to us the 'right' side.

 

 

To be able to see what size space the new cupboard would take, I used a couple boards and several boxes to build a 'fake' cabinet.  I would have liked a smaller base to the cabinet, but I realized that it would house the washer and dryer and provide a top that would be useful for folding laundry.

 

 

No one has ever used the word 'Conventional' and my name in the same sentence! Hey! I'm the one who has a full size porch swing hanging in my kitchen! :0)
So, we visited Home Depot for 20 10ft? boards and a can of Min-wax stain. Today, Roger started building the cabinet with the help of Jenny. (Justin had a college class to attend so he will probably be helping later.

 

After class Justin helped out and Jenny went to help babysit at our daughter, Joy's house.

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for additional updates!