Where I'm At. Ring Out The Old, Ring In....Whatever.

   For the last 2 months we've been involved in the process of cleaning out my parents house, renovating it and putting it on the market, and thus I have found myself living in my own episode of The Property Brothers. Don't get me wrong, the house is in great shape and has always been well maintained with a new roof, water heater etc. The decor however is another story. That has not changed since 1981. So we have been busy dealing with Kelly green carpeting all over everything, wood-like linoleum, fake butcher block and wall paper! Lots of wall paper! Let's also not forget the "gold" fixtures. Now this is not my childhood home I'm talking about. That was an attached row-house in San Francisco (a whole other story). This is the house my parents lived in in Sonoma for the last 30+ years, the house where Fran indulged her taste for Vegas fixtures and a bad Frog jones. Also Greenstamps stuff. Does anyone remember Green Stamps?

Stores gave them to one when one shopped, and then they're be pasted in a book and shoved in the kitchen drawer next to the Stove Manual with a big thick rubber band around it. When one had enough of these books, one could go to a Green Stamps Outlet and get say... a china Mallard...

 ...or table lamps.

Not kidding. My parents had some fairly space-age ones with feathered lampshades  that I'm sure are gracing some hipster's house right now. I'm just old enough that they might be considered my own bad taste. Better they went to a loving home.
  
   So that was what was. Meanwhile we have been dealing with bringing the place into the 21st century kicking and screaming. We've added dual pane windows, and environmentally correct, energy saving appliances and low flow toilets. TMI? We cut the door from the inside of the house to the garage/laundry room that Fran never would. We put in hardwood floors, slate tiles and a gas stove. Fran, who hated anything to do with cooking would have loved it. Not.
 
   In the middle of this process we are also changing houses, or attempting to. We've made an offer on a new house here in Sonoma and  hopefully we'll get it (fingers crossed) and so everything is up in the air, change partners, rinse and repeat. If we get the house we want, we will be looking at more renovations but at least we now have some recent practice. We haven't renovated anything since our place in LA and that was 20 yrs ago. Either way it is Earth in Upheaval around here, nothing new after these last three years. I am trying to just take it as it comes and relax in the middle of house chaos and moving boxes.
  
   I'm laying all this out there to explain why I've not been cooking as much. You see I've been spending most of my days at Home Depot, Teevax, and Friedmans Home Improvement. But my parent's house is now finished and I'll be getting back behind the stove tomorrow, just in time for some Muffin Madness and Holi recipes. Meanwhile if anyone wants to know about flooring or dishwasher aerators see me in Aisle 6.