Basement finishing has begun! With ripping stuff out...

I realize that most basement finishing projects probably don't begin with ripping out drywall and framework, but then again most basement projects don't deal with the previous owners of our house. So, yes, to begin the process of finishing our basement we have to start by ripping out drywall and some, if not all, of the framework that the previous owners did. This is because they did not pull any permits for the work so none of it is any good as far as the county is concerned. Quite honestly it wasn't good as far as we were concerned either since we couldn't use any of the outlets in one of the rooms without the cords overheating and destroying whatever we plugged in. Just what we want to happen with electricity right? (note: that was dripping in sarcasm).

Before we started the ripping out project Elizabeth talked to the county about what all we needed to do. We started out just by looking on the county website and that was intimidating as hell and started to freak us out. Luckily when she called the county and explained what was going on and our plans they gave her the name of one of the building officials who came out (free of charge!) to look at what we had going on. He said the previous owners were "f-ing idiots" and confirmed that yes, we needed to rip stuff out and proceeded to tell us how much the permit will cost (which is not as bad as we were thinking) and what all we needed to do to start. We might call on him again with some additional questions since he was so incredibly helpful to start.

So some things the idiots who owned the house before did :
- Have a SMALL closet right by the door, serving to close off the doorway which would have made it very hard to move any furniture into the bedroom.
- Left the light switches INSIDE the closet.
- Left the outlet boxes just hanging around in the basement.. not secured to ANYTHING at all. Just floating there in the middle of the wall.
- Did not add any additional insulation or fire blocking material that we can tell. This is a problem.

So things we have left to do:
- finish ripping out the drywall
- find out if we need to rip out the frame work
- get permit
- put in the frame work- all or just where the closet would go
- electric
- first inspection.

The order of the above list is not final and probably not in complete order, but it's a start, a very exciting start.

Product Review: Cheesy Bacon Potato Soup

As the weather grows colder I find that I crave soup more and more, but oftentimes don't want to spend the time to actually make the soup from scratch. Sure, I could buy the canned soup but I don't like a lot of canned soup. However, PA Dutch General Store (or Food & Candy/ Tea & Spice if you're in downtown Fredricksburg, VA) has a variety of delicious soup mixes that give you that not-from-can taste without all the work. Recently we got their Cheesy Bacon Potato Soup mix. The directions to make this is very simple:

Mix 3/4 cup of soup mix with 2.5 cups of milk or water. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes to let the vegetable chunks re-hydrate.

VERY simple! We've tried the soup mix with three different liquids so far: milk, chicken broth, and water. We found that the milk made the soup too thick and didn't hydrate the vegetables well at all. They were still tough and chewy. The milk made the soup more like a sauce you would put on something like broccoli- which I'm sure would be delicious. We've also used chicken broth to make the soup. I found this one to be really good. The thickness of the soup was perfect, it gave the soup extra flavor, and hydrated the vegetables perfectly. HOWEVER, if you want to do it this way I highly recommend trying to find some low-sodium chicken broth otherwise the soup is super salty. Water was also a good option, it didn't give the extra flavor the chicken broth did but it gave the soup the right thickness and the vegetables the right hydration without adding the salt.

I really enjoyed this soup and highly recommend it if you want freshly made soup but don't want to spend hours working on it!

Nico just doesn't understand.....

After around four months of Nico and Gypsy Kitty hostility, last night the hostility came to a head and Gypsy Kitty moved in with Elfie's parents. We had already been planning on moving her up there after having a discussion with said parents on Sunday- we just decided to move her up 12 hours a head of time. For the longest time I thought that the hostility was Nico thinking that Gypsy was food, now I'm not so sure. He's been pacing up and down the stairs all morning (since about 6:30 when we got up) and keeps staring, whining and barking and the two doors the cat was usually behind. It's really quite sad. On top of Nico acting up, Snickers is very confused and walked into the former kitty room and started whining. It's a sad day but Gypsy will be safer and happier up with Elfie's parents, and we knew this was eventually going to have to happen since Gypsy hates kids since some kids used to try to sit on her. On top of that our allergies towards Gypsy have been progressively getting worse and worse. Oh well. Gypsy is up with Elfie's parents, the dogs are with us and hopefully everyone in the house will settle down, and hopefully that means more blog posts will get written!

Nico doesn't understand that Gypsy now lives with Elfie's parents.