Beautiful home fs in CT on wsj
rockybird
7 years ago
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7F on April 10th
Comments (51)hairmetal4ever, I posted this on another post but I'll put it here too. Yesterday my 21-year-old son said, "This is the most bi-polar weather I have seen in my life." and I told him it's the most bi-polar weather I've seen in my life too. (I'm half a century now). I didn't actually measure but it looked like 6" on my car yesterday. A few years ago we did get snow on May 1st, but never got this cold. We broke a lot of records for cold this year. So on the bright side it's a good indication of what trees are bud hardy. Keepers: Pipestone plum, Saturn, NJ 252, and O'Henry peach (all of them still have some good buds or are blooming now). Hoyt Montrose apricot also made it through last night which went down to 22F officially. Then there's this volunteer peach that looks as if it was not affected at all; it's loaded with blooms. I will see if they are worth eating this summer. I'm rethinking my zone denial issues but also trying to come up with a good solution so next spring I don't face this problem....See MoreCalling TurboChef Users
Comments (38)I'm about 4 weeks or so from moving into my brand new house and my TurboChef was installed last week. I've been looking at wall ovens for over a year and was intrigued by the TC, yet hesitated because of the price. It came down to either the TC or the GE Trivection/Advantium. Though we are WAY over budget, I chose the TC and am thrilled with my choice. We are living in a rental just ten blocks away and the day it was installed, I made two of the recipes in the included TC cookbook. A Lemon-Rosemary Whole Roasted Chicken, and a Poblano-Corn Casserole. It took about 8 minutes to preheat the oven for the chicken and rather than placing it in a roasting pan, I put the chicken onto an aluminum stand that is basically a round tube, about three inches in diameter and 5 inches tall. It's welded to a flat, square base and was designed to produce a beer-can chicken without the beer can. I filled the inside of the tube with about three inches of beer, and set it with the mounted chicken into a pyrex casserole dish. I set the lower unit on warm when I began the preheat of the upper oven. On warm, the lower oven maintains 145 degrees. That way, I could keep the chicken warm while cooking the corn-poblano dish. Watching the chicken cook was amazing. It reminded me of my first microwave oven and the fascination of looking in as it cooked a couple of hot dogs in less than a minute. The chicken browned quickly and beautifully. When the oven paused at the 80% point, we chose the "Brown More" option for a crispier skin. After 21 minutes, the oven chimed and I checked the temperature with an instant-read thermometer. I was a bit concerned because the probe indicated 219 degrees but I must have touched a bone, because when we pulled the chicken apart it was PERFECTLY cooked. The skin was crispy and both the breast and thigh was succulent and incredibly flavorful. One of our best chickens ever. The corn-poblano dish also turned out perfectly. We let the chicken rest in the warming oven below while the casserole cooked. I think it took all of eight minutes and finished with the top a beautiful golden brown and the inside was steaming hot, creamy and perfect. The next night I cooked a couple of rib-eyes. Each steak was about an inch thick and just under a pound. I placed a cast iron grilling pan in the oven for the pre-heat and after about 14 minutes, the oven chimed and it had reached 500 degrees. I placed the steaks on the griddle, closed the door and pressed the start button. The only prep for the steaks was freshly ground pepper and kosher salt. I had some butter standing by to place on top at the 80% mark. I opened the door at 80%, put a couple of pats of butter on each rib-eye and continued cooking. When they were done, I wrapped them in heavy duty aluminum foil after pouring the butter and steak juices over them. When I got them to my rental about 10 minutes later, I was amazed at how perfectly done they were. I forgot to mention that I did flip each steak just over halfway through. The exterior of the steaks was a dark, crusty brown and just a millimeter or so into the steak, was a beautiful red that didn't vary in color. In other words, the outside was seared and the interior was rare all the way through. I believe the cooking time after the preheat was about 5 minutes. My only disappointment with the oven (other than cost, of course) is that I was expecting to have the upgraded software. I was told that the oven had a microwave-only feature but when mine arrived, it wasn't there. I called Atlanta and spoke with corporate. It turns out that the software upgrade is about 30 days or so away and I will be e-mailed the update when it's released. It's a simple matter of moving the file to a flash drive and then transferring it to the oven via a USB port on the top of the oven. Pretty cool. By the way, the oven is HEAVY! About 410 pounds so it's probably not an appliance that you want to "slide in" yourself. It took two of my trim guys, and a couple of big electricians to get it into the cabinet. Consider professional installation. My local dealer charges $150. All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the oven, and can't wait to actually move in so that I can begin to create my own recipes. It's one of the coolest kitchen appliances I've owned. My other appliances are: 30" Thermador Freedom Column Refrigerator 18" Thermador Freedom Column Freezer Sub-zero 427R Wine Refrigerator-holds 70 bottles and has two refrigerator drawers. 30" GE Monogram Warming Drawer Meile "La Perla" Dishwasher 48" BlueStar Cooktop-4 Burners/1 Griddle GE Monogram Ice Maker 54" Vent-A-Hood w 1200 CFM Blower Insinkerator Hot/Cold dispenser Nikken PiMag Water undercounter filter I'll post some photos once it's all complete in about a month....See MoreHow did you find your house?
Comments (21)I saw a home that had what I wanted in my price range over 12 years ago so I called the realtor that had the ad in the paper. She told me it was sold but she could help me find what I wanted that was not sold. She faxed me a list of the 10 houses we were going to look at Monday Morning. I asked my friend John if we could drive by them to see if I would be interested so I do not waster my time or her time on the locations I would not like or something about the home I hated. I was a first time home buyer and hated them all. I called the realtor the next day and told her to not come by and waste my time since I hate them all. I had looked three years earlier and found nothing so I decided to move and rent a new modern 1.5 year old two floor apartment that had what I wanted (central air, dishwasher, washer and dryer as well as a great location and nice neighors despite being expensive) rather than buy what I disliked as I saved for what I wanted. The realtor then faxed me over a layout asking me if that was what I had in mind and I told her it was perfect and why did she not show me it before. She told me it was a modern 7 year old stylish luxury townhouse in a very nice neighborhood near the post office, the bank, two shopping strip malls, highways but country like location. It had a fenced in backyard facing the woods and everything else I wanted excepted for a finished basement (the townhouses 3/4 mile away had this but for $50,000 more that I could not afford). I went to see the townhouse with the balcony and fell in love before walking in the door. Inside was even nicer. I talked to neihbors and found out they were sound proof and everyone seemed to love the small townhouse complex community. I then had my realtor show me a few other townhouses and another home and then I came back the next day and knew I wanted it despite at first not wanting to buy anything but an unattached home. But I then had a call from another realtor who had a Bi-Level for the same price with an extra garage and an extra bedroom and a big backyard fenced in that was 7 years old but in a different location that I did not like as much. I preferred the style and location of the townhouse despite the price being about the same and I put my bid on the home I have been living in for 12 years and still love. Hence, my search started with the newspaper but I ended up buying something my realtor showed me....See MoreRe-doing floors--want to use bamboo??
Comments (18)miruca, Not really sure if my brother's floors were prefinished or site finished. I'm going to guess the former, but I'll have to ask him. Incidently, the following piece appeared in this morning's Wall Street Journal: OH, SHOOT: THE TROUBLE WITH BAMBOO by Sara Schaefer Munoz Bamboo, its champions say, makes a great floor. It's handsome and harder than oak -- plus it's a renewable resource. That all sounded good to the thousands of homeowners who've put down bamboo floors in the past few years. But today some of them are feeling bamboozled. It dents if you drop a glass on it, they complain, and it scratches with ordinary foot traffic. Suzanne Janes says that only months after a $5,000 bamboo floor was installed in her Severna Park, Md., home, it "looked as though a football team in cleats had been hanging out in my living room." And if bamboo flooring gets too wet or too dry, it can warp more than wood, causing gaps or bumps. Ten years ago there were only a handful of suppliers in the U.S., says Susanne Lucas, coordinator of the World Bamboo Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to the sustainable use of bamboo. Today both Lowe's and Home Depot stock it in some stores and include it in their special-order inventories. More than 20 Web sites sell bamboo flooring in the U.S. Prices usually range from $3 to $8 a foot, before installation. But finding out just what these retailers are selling can be difficult. Here's what you should know before you buy. -- What part of the plant does the bamboo come from? Bamboo flooring, made by binding strands of the Asian grass together with adhesives and compression, can be harder than oak, experts say -- but only if it doesn't come from the base or the top of the stalk, -- How old was the plant? Although bamboo can reach its full height in three to six months, it can take about six years to harden, or lignify. A floor made from bamboo that has not lignified will dent more easily. The Web site for retailer Smith & Fong links to test data, including how many pounds per square inch its products withstand. -- Is the color natural? The smoking process that darkens bamboo makes it about 20% softer than natural bamboo, according to Ed Korczak, president of the National Wood Flooring Association, an industry group. But shoppers might not know that. At vendor Builddirect.com, for example, vice president of sales Robert Banks says that customer-service representatives are required to inform customers that the carbonized bamboo is softer and inappropriate for homes with many children or large pets. However, that information is not easy to locate on the company's Web site. -- Who made the flooring? Nearly all bamboo is imported from China. Ask if the retailer has flooring manufactured to its specifications or has established relationships with reliable manufacturers. -- What is the moisture content of the bamboo? It should be within 2% to 4% of the existing subfloor's. Perry Wright, a moderator on DoItYourself.com who installs bamboo floors, says he lets new bamboo acclimatize on site for a week, just to be safe....See Morerockybird
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