Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Ice cream made from coconut milk is on sale at Whole Foods for $3.99, $3 off the regular price. Sounds like a good deal so we decided to give it a try. It's pretty good, better than ones made with soy, still very light and not so rich like milk ice cream. See how creamy and fluffy the coconut flavor one is?

We got mint with chocolate flakes too and that was very good with the texture variation from the chocolate crisps. We went back this week and got some more cookie dough and chocolate flavored ones before the sale ends. We highly recommend it to vegans.

If I or anyone I know had ever bought a whole pineapple before I don't remember. Voila our very first!

Spoken from the Heart

My copy of "Spoken from the Heart" by Laura Bush - sorry the cover is already smudged. I got it at Walmart with, if I didn't remember wrong, 30% off. I'm on page 252 now and I'm enjoying it very much. I especially like the beginning where the former First Lady describes her childhood hometown Midland in Texas. It sounds like a charming small town straight out of a movie. Not the physical environs particularly, but the people of her time.


Favorite new word I learned from this book :

gubernatorial
- adjective
of or pertaining to a state governor or the office of state governor

Priming and Paint

Priming was done and painting has started. There will be wainscotting put in in some of the basement walls and I asked if we could save money by just priming and painting the parts that will not be covered by the wainscotting but apparently you have to prime all drywall with sealant primer and never leave it unsealed. I'd been to a number of Benjamin Moore shops to look at colors and educate myself about the different types of paints and finishes and they've all pointed me to their Natura line for zero-VOC. However, when I requested my painter for the Natura zero-VOC line he disapproved. At first all I heard was how hard it's going to be for the paint to cover the walls and other complaints, but then he showed me a can from the Eco-Spec line also by Benjamin Moore that is also zero-VOC that costs almost half the price of the Natura line I realize he's not trying to talk me out of using zero-VOC paint he's really trying to save me money. Well, he benefits too because he explains this way there's room for mark-up from his contractor's rates but in the end we both win because I'm still paying almost 50% less. I wondered why they never mentioned Eco-Spec at the paint stores but then I notice the words "Premium Commerical Coatings" at the top of the can. I suppose it's more for commercial wholesale jobs and not for individual retail. We still needed to use a Natura primer because Eco-Spec doesn't have primers. So ask your painter to get you Eco-Spec and leave the Natura for paint.

I chose Simply White for most of the rooms - all the bathrooms, kitchen, halls, master and upper corner bedrooms, office, back basement bedroom. Doddy's room is Silver Marlin. I'm one of those people who's a bit commitment phobic or just nervous about color. In Vancouver color can look so different on a rainy day compared to a sunny day. I saw Doddy's room after the first coat both when it was sunny and rainy and I'm very happy with it. Especially on that rainy day, it felt warm and cozy. For the mudroom I chose Misted Green and Gray Cashmere from the same chip for the wainscotting. Carolina Gull, from the same chip as well, will be on the exterior WHEN we paint the outside. Classic Gray is in the basement media room. It looks more like a very light beige to me.

My poor painter will have to do a third coat because Simply White is a very pure white. It's not as stark as some other whites which have more of a blue tint in it, it still has a tiny tint of pink in it but it's indeed a very very pure white. My painter initially was trying to talk me into using Cloud White or Moonlight White but I find Cloud White too creamy and Moon White a little gray. I took the colors down to the basement on a gloomy gray weathered day to compare and consider his suggestions but Simply White was simply the best. Plus, I'd seen it at Door Sixteen so I was quite sure I wanted Simply White and so far I'm mostly definitely pleased with the results. I would describe it as the rooms look like they've been photoshopped. Very fresh and pure but not stark cold. Everything is in satin finish for the imminent attack of the kids so a lot of the imperfections will show because of the shine. I think the basement ceiling is in egg-shell. My house is a hard job because of all the cheap layers of oil then latex paint on the walls. When paint is peeling you don't scrape it off because it's too much labor, in my situation anyway. Better to seal it and cover with new paint. My painter says he's trying his best. So far I haven't spot any imperfects that bother me, but it doesn't bother me either that he's doing his best.

There's a virtual fan-deck online at Benjamin Moore

Doddy's outfit

There was sunshine in Vancouver although today is a bit grey. Doddy's wearing her sandals. I'm amazed each year when the weather turns beautiful. It's like a whole new world.

And her very cute and patriotic shirt from Superstore.


Boy Superstore has lots of cute stuff now, no longer just a big stretch of flourescent lighted aisles, home of the bright yellow NO NAME brand. They have a wide range of organic and natural selections. I found blood orange soda and carbonated bottled mineral water from Italy and I'm highly suspect that they're from the same place where Whole Foods source their Italian blood orange soda and mineral water too. Superstore's are $2 half the price of Whole Foods at $3.99 and they sure taste the same to me.

Hooked on Houses

I'm hooked on houses. Hope one day I can put this obsession of mine to good use. Hubby forwarded this blog (click logo above) and I can't stop reading it. Love the TV/MOVIE HOUSES feature and the BAD MLS PHOTOS gives a good laugh.

The way we decorate and set up our homes really reflect how we feel and, on the flip side, effects how we see the world. How different would I feel to wake up to and live in another room another place I'd seen on TV or in a magazine. It might have felt too rigid in the past when your neighbors give you a hard time for not keeping up with the care of your front lawn, but Vancouver's hodge-podge of housing styles makes me sad. It is rare to find charming streets in middle class city neighborhoods with houses coherent in style, complementing each other. In new developments across the bridge in Surrey and further out yes (they seem too new and unoriginal to me), but not so much in the metro areas. New Westminster miraculously preserves many heritage houses, I just wish more of it still exist.

Basement Bathroom update

I've realize that at least a few people read my blog and is awaiting for more updates! I have to apologize for not doing so for a long time but I have to blame it on my kids, they do take a lot of my energy.

Here are more updates specifically on the basement bathroom. I didn't realize there's a lot of change since my last post already. It just seems like it's been the way it is now for quite some time. I'm definitely getting a little impatient and can't wait until we can move in. This is going to be a long post which is GOOD because that shows PROGRESS! My numbering continues from last post on the basement bathroom :

3. In the last post I had separate head on shots of the framing of the two walls that meet to encase the basement bathroom. Here is an outside shot from the corner angle of the two walls.

This picture is taken from the same spot but looking down onto the floor drain right beside the wall. It's hard to see the hole because it's filled with some stuffing to keep debris out and surrounded by newly poured concrete. This existing drain serves the mudroom and the hot water tank in case it blows. The building inspector usually requires one closer to the water tank (which in our case is far in the corner near the centre of the basement - it's still in the same room but we've enclosed it into a sort of closet with the furnace) but my contractor convinced the inspector that we don't need a separate one since the floor slopes down to this spot anyway. A new water tank we're putting in will have an eight year warranty. The smaller white drain pipe coming out of the wall is from the central water filter, routed from under the house's main entrance foyer (where the main water supply line is and the actual filter will be set up) up into the basement ceiling into the laundry area down this wall and then sticking out at the bottom of this wall to discharge water into the floor drain. I didn't like that but my contractor convinced me that it'll work out. Fortunately we had an even better solution you will read about below. We are getting our whole house central water filter from Amrak. A glimpse of the neo-angle shower pan in place.


The view from the doorway. The concrete has been poured and the floor is closed up again.


The neo-angle shower pan is in place and the view of the main drain pipe, placed inside the wall, that will carry the sewer from upstairs into the city pipes.


The view from inside corner to outside seeing through to the laundry area. The black pipes are drains, the smaller white ones supply the water. There is actually another big drain pipe with knobs and such that is also moved to hide into the wall on the very right side of this picture.


4. The drywall is put up on the inside of the bathroom. See you can no longer see right through the wall now from the laundry.


This is left of the doorway to the bathroom. The same drain pipe that was moved to be hidden inside the wall. With the drywall up you can see that it is definitely inside the wall now.

Looking in from the doorway. The old window was still there.


Drywall all up. You can now see the rough-ins for the sink and shower. This bathroom is small so the wall that separates it from the hall is moved a few inches to make more room for the shower. A rectangular shower is out of the question due to the lack of space. The neo-angle shower shape didn't appeal to me at first and I had considered the rounded corner ones but my contractor says that they're harder to install and the doors don't give a good seal when closed. At the Andrew Sheret showroom all the showers look amazing no matter which shape, so neo-angle it is. Shower pans are much cheaper than tiled ones. It would have been nice to have tiles for the shower floor but then again I would have to be more diligent on scrubbing it regularly to keep stains from sticking to the grout.


View of the doorway from inside the bathroom.


5. Drywall was put on the other side of the walls. The building inspector pointed out that a backflow preventer for the whole house central water is needed to protect the city pipes. She'd suggested that we need a separate drain under the foyer where the filter will be because that was where the backflow preventer presumably will be. That would have been expensive and a lot of work for the plumber to dig a trench in the ground all the way to that spot. The water guy from Amrak came and took a look then suggested we simply install the backflow preventer to where the drain pipe which is hidden in the wall and have the water pipe come to the it then back to the filter then to the rest of the house. More pipes but much less work. Here is a picture of the backflow prevent. As I'd mentioned above how the filter drain is stick out to the discharge water into the floor drain, now it's routed to drain in this same spot. The drywall has covered it but this opening connects to the drain next to it down below (the one I keep mentioning how it's moved to hide inside the wall).


New window - makes quite a difference doesn't it?

More mudding of drywall and sanding.


View of wall where drain pipe is hidden from inside the bathroom. I'm so happy that I don't have to look at that pipe that was almost of the middle of this bathroom again!


And I guess we're up to date now. Phew that was a whole lot of typing.