I miss my sensor microwave oven from my other house. My “new” house came with a range hood and a built-in microwave cubby hole. I love the cabinets, even without a built-in spice rack, but Homecrest doesn’t make this style/color anymore for me to get new replacement cupboards to remodel.

I initially asked my construction-management-major brother if we could just move up the middle cupboard (I should have taken a “before” photo), but he didn’t like that idea, saying we won’t be able to find any crown molding to match. He convinced me to buy a valance to replace the cupboards, and we’d install the cupboard doors over the current microwave cubby.

So on Christmas Eve Eve, my family congregated to work on such. Doors were removed from cabinet. Cabinet was thrown in trash. Captain Morgan was being consumed in mass quantity. We find out the doors are a tad too big for cubby. Before they cut out notches to make them fit, I say I want to think about it – maybe we can just leave the space open for cookbooks? My mom goes to buy a new bottle of Captain Morgan.

Now it’s time to install the new over-the-range microwave. Directions say it must be installed under a cupboard! So much for the valance idea. Cabinet was retrieved from trash. Doors were re-attached. More Captain Morgan was consumed. And the cupboard was re-installed how I initially wanted it! It was getting late, so they didn’t have time to at least add the crown molding to the top cabinet. And my crazy brother comments, “I don’t know if we can have Christmas without crown molding.”

But we did anyway. I hosted the annual Sutter Christmas. When we originally looked at buying this house, the first thing my daughters said was, “Good, now we don’t have to host the Sutter Christmas” and the first thing my mom said was, “This house is still big enough to host the Sutter Christmas.” Oy. It’s not that we don’t love and want to see the Sutter clan, it’s just stressful organizing and cleaning the house to accommodate 50 people. But I always have fun wrapping up presents (some gag gifts) from my free room for everyone.

Many thanks to my brothers (shown below with my daughter, Mallory) for their help. I’m glad they were the winners (self-appointed) of the Ugly Christmas Sweater contest this year.

So, it only took four months to get my brothers together to get my microwave installed. We will see how long it now takes to find similar crown molding and get it installed. Maybe by next Christmas! And I’m okay with the open cupboard for now – filled it with cookbooks and knick knacks – but am considering putting a TV there in the future.

Here’s hoping you all had a very Merry Christmas from my house to yours…

Kim and the Kids, Christmas 2011

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It seems lately a lot of my Facebook friends have been sharing inspiring image quotes, so here are five of them that I “liked” (total pun intended):

Which quotes do you “like”?

Well, I’m officially moved – have been for two months, but have been completely, utterly overwhelmed with not only moving, but kids and work as well! Turns out my daughter (the one recently diagnosed with epilepsy) had to spend a week in the hospital (mind you, the hospital is three hours away) the week before we were scheduled to swap houses.

I organized a “culdesac garage sale” with half of the houses participating thinking “the more the merrier” so garage-salers only had to make one stop to check out all the rummage sales. I marked 99% of my items 25¢ each, hoping to get rid of a lot of stuff (less to pack to move). I ended up taking two carloads to Goodwill and Salvation Army of the stuff that didn’t sell. I got tax-deductible receipts, so am going to write off the donations on my taxes next year – will probably earn back more there than I made at the garage sale!

So, we are still getting settled. I finally cleaned out one garage stall, so I can at least park in the garage before the snow flies. Maybe the girls will help me organize/clean the rest when they realize they want to park in the garage as well!

The mailman and delivery drivers are still screwing up the mail between us, and sending out real estate postcards to update my address didn’t seem to help. Oh well, so if life. Time to get back to unpacking….

Houses, not husbands. Cuz I don’t have a husband. And if I did, well, I’m not into that.  The official “house swap” will happen next month, and y’all are invited to help us move. I’ll supply the beer cooler between the houses.

So how did this come about?  Well, I’ve been talking about building a new house for awhile now. I even drew up house plans last fall and researched lots to build on.  Of course, the bank wanted me to sell my current house first, so I’ve been hee-hawing around putting it on the market, as the thought of renting anywhere temporarily just doesn’t appeal to me. And I absolutely refuse to live with my dad again.

In this small gossip town, word gets around, so I’ve had many inquiries from people wanting to buy my house without a “For Sale” sign in the yard. I declined a few offers, as I had a price point in mind that I’d like to get for my house.  And then I got an offer of the price I wanted. Now what?!

So I was chatting with one of my neighbors in the culdesac how I should probably take the offer, but I didn’t know what I would do or where I would live while I could build.  Talking about one thing led to another, how I wanted to downsize as my kids are almost all grown, and they’ve been wanting a bigger house.  They have four kids (just like me although younger): one boy and three girls, including a set of twins. Their eldest has the exact same birthdate as my youngest. How ironic, I know.

I find out my new house plans are very similar to their current house plans (and I’d never even been in their house).  I currently have six bedrooms plus an office. My new house plans had four bedrooms plus an office. Their house has five bedrooms – one of which can be my office (let the painting parties begin)!  My office won’t be in the center of the house, but I’ve decided that may be a good thing, as it is definitely the messiest room in the house (and maybe I won’t spend so much time working).

I’ll only have three bathrooms to clean instead of four (like I wanted). And maybe with the lower mortgage payment, I’ll even hire a cleaning lady. I’m  excited that I locked in an interest rate almost 2% lower than I’m paying now.  The “new” house only has a two-car garage instead of three, but I’ve been housing my brother’s old Mustang so not using my third garage stall anyway. He finally just  moved it to his new house. I figured as long as I get one of the garage stalls, the kids can park outside.

There are some things I’ll want to change in the new house, as I’m sure they will want to change in mine, but it’ll be far less stressful than building again. Anyway, why I am spending so much time blogging?! I have packing to do!

Many of you long-time readers will know that I’m not only scared of dogs, but I’m also deathly afraid of mice!  So when my daughter Macy spotted a mouse in our basement on Monday morning, I was petrified and posted the following status update on my Facebook page:

There is a mouse in my house, and I’m a bit freaked out.

I gotta love my friends that commented leaving me some bona fide and some outlandish advice on how to catch a mouse, as well as making me laugh along the way. The comments were too funny not to share…

Mookie from 94Rock: Is it in a box? Is it near a fox?

Wade Tonkin: Or on a Train… in the Rain?

Eric Nagel: Go get a cat. A cat with a bat. Yes a cat with a bat will rid it like that!

Wade Tonkin: Isn’t it great having smart assed friends in your time of need?

Kim Rowley (me): It’s in the basement behind the fridge. I wish it was outside jumping off a bridge.

Kim Rowley: Smart assed friends would be even better if they made house calls to kill mice.

Chris: Rat bait will speed up the wait.

Eric Nagel: Sorry, it’s a bit far for a house-call. Get these, they work great.

Kim Rowley: I have sticky traps out, but I’m thinking a trip to Walmart may be in order to stock up on poison and traps.

Wade Tonkin: the only problem with the poison is that they die in inconvenient places and can stink things up a bit – at least with the traps you can get rid of them.

Rexanne: Awwwwww poor little mousie

Richard: As an attorney representing the mouse I would advise not hurting my client but discussing a deal in this day & age.. maybe a financial settlement can be worked out or a plea bargain..no one has asked my client why she and 3 little ones are …under the fridge they have no home& it is cold out..she is doing the best she can to raise them..maybe they could be moved to a lab she could get a job as a lab mouse& the 3 little ones could stay till she finds a new fridge to live under..bringing in a cat will only inflate the situation and make mouse my client nervous & cat litigation papers will be drawn up..Thank you for your cooperation in this matter..yours truly, Mickey Mouse/entertainer/attorney at mouse law.I can be reached at 1-800-save-mouse..Magic Kingdom..

Richard: and for all of those ones that were injured and killed during the “Glue Trap Wars”..we shall not forget.(taps playing in the background)..and for getting stuck on a glue trap and having to pull your insides out to try and get free..to warn other comrades..”The Distinguished Medal Of Cheese”…is given to..private mousetrap.”Private mousetrap now wears skates because she has no feet”so could she skate to the front of the podium please& kindly receive her medal”(applause)..

Shannon: I highly recommend this method. It has worked each and every time that I set it up. Make your own humane mouse trap.

Kim Rowley: Richard, are you implying that there may be more than one?! I’m already freaked out.  And sorry Shannon, but I want the sucker/s dead.

Deborah Carney: We have a couple of cats you can borrow…

Richard: according to research they have 9 or more babies at a time..a litter..are very smart.have been around since the dinosaurs..are very survival minded..can chew through concrete..can eat anything..and can grow to be over 20lbs..there are over 4 billion rats and mice on Earth at the moment..they could rise up and take over if they wanted to..but shh. don’t tell them….squeak!…

Lorie: Kim, go to Walmart and get those things you plug in your wall and they transmit a sound to scare off mice and bugs but humans don’t here the sound. I haven’t had a mouse since we put 2 of them in last year. They really do work. I have one plugged in each end of my house. Thanks Lorie! I found a commercial strength Ultrasonic Rodent Repeller to buy!

Sabrina Malone: Lorie’s idea is the most practical and humane. She’s probably right. That being said, if it were me, I’d leave the house, call an exterminator asking for an emergency removal, and if they couldn’t come right away, I’d book a hotel room for the night. I realize this sounds extreme and wimpy, but I’d go to almost any expense to avoid staying in the house with a mouse running free. Let us know how it goes…and I’ll be praying for you! I appreciate the prayers Sabrina!

Kim Rowley: Now I’m really freaking out because the mouse is no longer behind the fridge and not stuck on any traps – he could be anywhere! And it’s white out – winter snow advisory, so I can’t trek to Walmart!

Jen Goode: peanut butter.. catch them with peanut butter

Brian: General rule of thumb. There is usually about 30 mice to every one you see. Exception to the rule could be that this single mouse ran in a door while it was open or was carried in the house in a box or something. First thing I’d do is try to figure out where it came from and look for droppings around the house. I recommend the trap with the entrance on both sides with the clear plastic top so you can see if you caught anything. You put bait in the middle and they go in from either side to get it but cant get out. Then you can just lift up the lid with a long handle and you don’t have to get near it. If it were me I would bite it’s head off and spit the head where the mouse entered the house. Think about it, would you go in a house where someone’s decapitated head was? I did carry in some boxes from the garage to the basement, so I may actually be the one that let the bugger in!

Brian: R u going to use my advice to rid your house of mice? Use the trap I suggested, I’m sure you’re house isn’t too mouse infested. Put it up next to a wall, like behind the fridge or in the hall. When you catch the little critter,kill her and hope she hasn’t had a litter. Biting its head off might make you think eww, but if it was big enough it would do it to you. Note: Brian is the brother of one of my best friends.  She used to tell me not to laugh at him when we were little or he’d never shut up!

Sabrina Malone: ‎@Brian – you are incorrigible! Can’t you see this mouse thing is serious business? Made worse by the fact that she’s snowed in with it! Updated advice in light of the blizzard. I’d go knocking on my neighbor’s doors asking if their husbands felt up to mouse hunting – while I hung out at their place drinking tea and pretending to be social. Then I’d return to my home once he’s caught it…and looked for any others. Keep us posted. (And I’m still praying for you.)

Brian: Ok, the reason it came in is because it’s cold outside. Open the doors and windows to make it just as cold inside as it is outside. Build a fire on your patio and put some cheese by the fire. When it/they go outside slam the door. Then simply throw a bucket of water out of the window to put out the fire. I have an extra bedroom for the night if you don’t have any firewood.

Stephanie Lichtenstein: Ok this happened to me in NY and I cried sobbed actually. Courtney my roommate thought I was going to move back to Miami when it happened.

Karen Hoxmeier: I’ve had to deal with 2 mice in my house this year. Regular snap traps scare me. I’m afraid I will get my finger. And poison isnt good because it will eat it and go die. You’ll have a mouse rotting somewhere and have to find it by smell. Get these and use peanut butter as bait. Just a tiny bit spread onto the trap in the back. They’ve always worked well for me. I tried the glue ones a few years ago. Caught one by one foot and it was disgusting and very sad. Better that they just die quickly.

Stephanie D: I would say to get a cat, but our cat has been bringing us many gifts: mice, dead and alive, sometimes two a day. She also brought in a bunny 1/3 her size, a butterfly and a dove. I think she’s cleaned up the neighborhood. I’m quite tired of disposing of her offerings. The sticky traps are OK, but you have to finish off the mouse. Maybe rent-a-cat?

Macy (my daughter): Well I believe all credit goes me, I’m the one that saw it & is brave enough to go down there & check on it!! P.S. I was down there for not even ten minutes and my mom is yelling down the stairs “Macy you Okay?” like it ate me or something lol

Stephanie Lichtenstein: Well did you find it and most importantly did you kill it @Macy?

Macy: Well when I looked behind the fridge it wasn’t where I saw it this morning, so no I didn’t kill it, but I put sticky traps with cheese on the ends on both ends of the fridge!

James Martell: I think you should name him (or her).

Stephanie Lichtenstein: Kill it!

Wade Tonkin: My rule is always to let critters exist – if they stay outside. Once they come in – they played a bad hand and they’re toast.

Tuesday morning, and the mouse opera continues…

Kim Rowley: Mickey is still at large this morning, and I’m home alone petrified. At least yesterday I was babysitting my baby niece who I could have sacrificed to the mouse lords. Let’s hope my sister doesn’t read this!

Stephanie Lichtenstein: I will not be at ease until this is taken care of!

Kim Rowley: Okay, I just bought 12 (yes, twelve), one of every kind of mouse houses available at Walmart. Mickey is going down.

Macy: Well it is now killed, I was walking down stairs to put out the traps & saw it stuck by its tail to the sticky traps & could probably get free, so I took a knife & stabbed it to death

Stephanie Lichtenstein: Good now I can sleep at night! Hopefully we can, too!

I slept a bit better last night although when my radio alarm went off this morning, I jumped as I thought it sounded like a scratching mouse. We still set out all the traps just in case Mickey has friends, or Heaven-forbid Minnie had babies.

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I was cleaning out folders on my PC today when I came across this list of 25 things I wrote about myself two years ago.  Not sure why I wrote it, but I found everything to be true yet today.

1. I ran away from home when I was 14. I became an emancipated minor so I could start college when I was 17.

2. I have a fear of dogs. I seriously have a panic attack if a dog so much as tries to touch and/or lick me.  My daughters inherited my dogaphobia (Cynophobia is the correct term) as well.

3. I love shoes and am the self-appointed President of Shoeaholics Anonymous -   I can do that when I own the website.

4. I admit I’m a terrible driver.  And I don’t drive at night (I have night blindness). Saves on gas money (just have to shell out more beer money).

5. I don’t like/drink beer. My favorite mixed drink is Rootbeer Schnapps with Diet Coke (tastes like Rootbeer soda pop). Unfortunately when I travel, most non-hicktowns don’t carry such, so then I just request “something fruity”. My favorite blended drink is a Strawberry Daiquiri with whipped cream on top.

6. Pizza is my favorite food. Old Chicago is my favorite pizza place. Tombstone stuffed crust is my favorite frozen variety.

7. I hate pork. I do not eat ham, pork chops, bacon, etc.

8. I could fill up all 25 spots with foods I do not like (ie ketchup, yellow cheese), but let’s just sum it by saying I’m a picky eater.

9. I took guitar lessons when I was little and still have my acoustic guitar.  The only song I remember how to play is “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love…”

10. I played the flute in our high school band, but I couldn’t march and play at the same time.  I think that’s why the band director let me be the drum majorette. And I looked cute in a short skirt (I was obviously skinnier then).

11. I have never had a broken bone. The only minor accidents as a child I had were stitches on my scalp and stitches in my chin – both happened while playing with my uncle (who is actually younger than me, as my mom and grandma were pregnant at the same time).

12. I got pregnant (and thus married) when I was 17. Divorced when I was 31. Still single. After hearing a lot of married friends bitch about their husbands, I think I may be better off!

13. My twins were over 13 weeks premature weighing 2 lbs. each with several complications. I thank the Lord they are relatively healthy now and “normal” per se  – you can read their NICU story over at PreemieTwins.com.

14. I am lucky that I have naturally straight teeth, as my parents would not have been able to afford braces for me.  My children were not so lucky – three down in braces, one to go (my youngest just got her braces on).

15. I proved to skeptics that a single mom can build a dream home without the help of a man.  And now that I’ve done it and realized all the things I’d do differently, I want to build another new house (stay tuned as I’m working on it).

16. Why would I ever want to get remarried? To get married in a church, to change my last name, and to use the registry gun at Target to shoot all the trivial stuff I’d like but would never buy for myself.  Group health insurance would be a plus, too.

17. I used to be a die-hard Pepsi fan.  When I decided I was going to switch to diet pop, I lost 11 pounds in 5 days.  I now drink Diet Dew (and I gained those 11 lbs back, ugh).

18. Some days I think plastic surgery would increase my self-esteem and have considered getting a “Mommy Makeover”.  Other days I just want people to notice my brains over my beauty.

19. On my bucket list, I want to visit every state, every continent and every country in Europe.

20. I also want to do missionary work while in Africa.

21. I have a fear of fires.  I rarely light candles and double-check to make sure things are unplugged.

22. I absolutely loathe liars. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” ~ Mark Twain

23. I have never taken any foreign languages.  Me gustaría saber cómo hablar español. (gotta love Google translate)

24. I ran sprints in high school.  I was the only senior girl to go out for track. But I never qualified for state.  Top two spots in districts advance on.  I got third in three events.

25. I love marketing, as seen by the shameless self-plugs within my notes above. I truly believe one finds success by doing something one loves and has a passion for. I just wish I was a tad smarter to be able to develop all of the brainstorms that fly through my head.

Continued from Kitchen Makeover Application: Part Two

The last part of our Kitchen Makeover Application was a video submission. Unfortunately video producing and editing is neither of our strong points. Maybe if I had someone other than my twelve year old daughter do the video-taping and if Carolyn had not been so busy planning her wonderful wedding, we could have created a better video…

And then here’s was the rejection letter I received from Angie Jedlicka of RIVR Media after submission…

Thank you so much for your submission to our new kitchen makeover television series.  We received hundreds of great entries and it was a very difficult task to sort through them all in search of our participants.   Unfortunately, you were not chosen for the program but we will keep your video and application on file for future shows.

We want to thank you for all the hard work you put into your submission and your interest in our show. We had some amazing videos come along and we can’t thank you enough for your participation and creativity.

I was so sad that we didn’t get chosen as I thought it would be super fun to work with Nicole Facciuto and hang with Carolyn in Chicago for a week! The new kitchen for Carolyn and being on an HGTV show would have just been a bonus.

P.S. Carolyn still promises she’ll cook pizza on the grill for me!

Continued from Kitchen Makeover Application: Part One

Imagine Carolyn’s and my utter excitement when I received the following email from RIVR Media…

Your submission has made it to the next step in our show’s casting process. In order to be considered, we need additional information about you and the person who you think deserves a kitchen makeover.

Again, we are a new television show looking for energetic and passionate people who are not shy about being on television. We believe both you and your nominee are excellent candidates for this show.

As part of the Kitchen Makeover Questionnaire, we each had to tell a bit about ourselves and our families, etc. Here is an excerpt from what we submitted:

Kim:
Born and bred in Nebraska. In high school, my dream was to live in a big city and produce television commercials (my original major in college was Art). That dream took a detour when I got pregnant, got married and had four children before I turned 25!  But I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything. I still think of myself as a big city girl stuck in a small town (population 1700).  I can see myself living in Chicago or New York City (these are my favorite cities for walking and public transportation as I don’t like to drive) when all the kids are grown and gone.

Being a young mother, I had to be frugal by cutting coupon and sending in rebates.  My hobby of saving money was paying for my husband’s (now-ex) hobby of flying airplanes.  Once I discovered the invention of the world wide web, I started a website to help other’s save money and in turn, that website now supports my family (and I let my ex-husband keep the airplane in our divorce).  I originally met Carolyn years ago at an internet marketing conference, and we’ve been friends ever since.

I am now dating a wonderful man that has even more kids than I do (we could have our own football team).  Plus he is the cook in the relationship.  If kitchen makeover applications were being accepted for the middle of nowhere in Nebraska, I may have nominated him instead.

Carolyn:
I’m originally from San Diego, but moved out to Chicago in 1995 to go to school (Northwestern University, also in Evanston, where I live now).  Everyone always asks, “You left San Diego for this?”  But seeing the seasons change is a lot of fun for me!  This last autumn was our first in Evanston, and it was absolutely incredible to see the leaves change color around our own home.  On Halloween, we raked the leaves into a huge pile on our front lawn, and were rewarded later in the evening when a trick-or-treater (it was the tiniest Harry Potter you’ve ever seen) took a giant flying leap right into the middle of the pile.  The exhilaration in his face was phenomenal!  That right there shows the warmth and friendliness of the Midwest spirit.

My fiancé Jeff (now husband) and I met over 10 years ago, while we both worked for the same company.  We were always really great work buddies, but lost touch for about five years when I went back to school to get my MBA.  Two years ago, he sends me a text message out of the blue, and we meet up for a couple drinks.  We’ve been together ever since.  And this August, we’ll be married!  (Want to come?  The ceremony is in Kauai, followed by a reception in Chicago, followed by a campout for anyone who wants to join at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan!  I can’t promise you a nice kitchen while we’re camping, but I can promise you some good grub!)

Special talents…I love to write, so I freelance for the local newspaper and for a business magazine just to keep my pen nimble; I love to decorate cakes and I can make a pretty decent rose out of gum paste; I can trade knock knock jokes with the best of them; and I can get a meat and potatoes man to eat tofu.

Continue on to Kitchen Makeover Application: Finale

When my friend Nicole Facciuto (HGTV Designer) posted on Facebook that A&E TV was looking for nominations for a Kitchen Makeover show in the Chicago area, the first person that came to mind to nominate was my frustrated foodie friend, Carolyn Tang.

Carolyn & Kim posing as Ford spokeswomen BlogWorld - Las Vegas 2009

Here is an excerpt from our initial application submission:

Tell us why you are nominating this person. We want to hear about his/her love of cooking – favorite type of food to cook, favorite restaurants, favorite chefs – and what she/he doesn’t like about their current kitchen. The more personality/detail the better!

I am nominating Carolyn because she absolutely loves to cook and makes the most out of her cardboard kitchen. Her and her fiancé (note: now husband) just bought a beautiful Dutch Colonial home built in the 1920s. Great neighborhood, great school system, right across the street from the 11th hole of a golf course, wonderful little garden… The house is in great shape, but the kitchen could use some work. Old butcher block counter tops, not the kind with character, but the kind used when trying to skimp. White veneer cabinets, plywood molding around the doors and windows (hand-painted with little green leaves no less), and the piece de la resistance, a stained glass cabinet featuring large palm trees over the fridge. Oh but wait, that’s not stained glass, that’s stained plastic.

You know how they say “Everyone gathers in the kitchen”? Not this kitchen. It’s a sad kitchen for such a passionate foodie. She’s a farmer’s market kind of gal marrying a meat and potatoes guy, so household meals tend to stretch from a really delicate corn and fingerling potato chowder (her) to slow cooked ribs dry rubbed with a house concoction (him). She incorporates her Chinese background into her food, working wonders with tofu, and he brings his Finnish upbringing in the mix with homemade pastys. Her favorite chefs include Carrie Nahabedian of Naha in Chicago (you can see an interview Carolyn did with Carrie on her blog: Urban Vivant); Alice Waters; and Art Smith. His favorite chef, if you ask him, is probably her…but if you ask him privately, it would probably be whoever the line cook is at the closest Chipotle.

I think what both of them don’t like about their kitchen, is that it is very dated and closed off from the rest of the house. It’s not laid out right for both of them to be in the kitchen at once, which is really sad for a soon-to-be-married couple. There’s lots of room to bust down a wall, but they could really use some ingenuity and muscle to figure out how that would work. I would like to think that one day, they will have a kitchen that reflects their shared warmth and spirit. Please help me help them!

Continue on to Kitchen Makeover Application: Part Two

A house isn’t a home without family photographs, and I was excited to learn about Fracture – a new one-piece picture and frame made from printed glass that mounts directly to your wall quickly and easily.

Fracture lets you print your digital pictures right onto glass!  There’s no paper, film or anything involved.  Simply ink and glass. They have effectively combined printing, framing, and mounting into one simple process.  You upload your photo to FractureMe.com, they print it on shatter-proof glass (all sharp edges removed), and send to you with everything you need to mount and display.

I wrote this blog post in response to a TwitterMoms RAMBO alert, making me eligible to get a Fracture picture frame for review. If I am among the first 100 participants, I will be writing a follow-up post about Fracture with my feedback after testing it out! You can learn more about Fracture at http://www.fractureme.com.