Foraging

My local salvage warehouse has wonderful things so long as you look at the dates closely on food stuffs.  I enjoy going in to nab deals on stand alone spices (.99 per) and other condiments.  Recent finds have been Sherry  wine vinegar (the real stuff), African rhino peri-peri sauce, Spanish olive oil, kosher dill sweet/sour pickles Indian sea salt and other treasures. 

My last trip snagged some Asian Mel's sauce condiments.  The operative word is snag, for if you don't act quickly, the stuff just disappears.  The Rhino Sauce is a whopping .99 v. $5-6 on line.  Similar values abound, with the Asian Mel's sauces just .99 (v. 8.99) and California Sun Dry (Garlic with sun-dried tomatoes) for .99 v. 3.99.  The Mel's Asian sauce just recently "expired" within the last 30 days.  I'm comfortable with recent expirations, but not with very long expirations.  The Peri-Peri is still within its shelf life are the other items mentioned.  I picked up the last 3 bottles of the Rhino, as I absolutely love this stuff. 



I've been stocking up on painting supplies too.  I've been going through lots of those. Going to the salvage store is a bit like going Easter egg hunting...you never quite know what you will find that will delight and surprise you.

Daisey on Remadyl is in full activity mode.  I'm hoping that she only has a bone infection.  Here's my tip on giving a dog medicine that s/he is likely to spit out:  use peanut butter or cream cheese.  You can wrap the meds in the sticky stuff, and the dog loves the taste and cannot easily spit it out.  I use cream cheese as that is more eagerly enjoyed.

Our nickname for Daisey is "Goober".  She is a 'wide-open' dog...and today with the cooler weather + Remadyl she was in warp speed. She is in top physical condition.  She's just an unbelievable dog.

I worked at the house for 6 hours today.  I elected to put a second coat of primer on the cabinet doors.  I wished that I had done that with the faces.  I used a roller that shed a bit.  (Tried out a new roller..bad move).  I can sand the few things out.  Best to stick with the Wooster mohair. blend mini-koter.   These rollers really leave on a beautiful finish and DO NOT leave roller debris behind. 

If you are saving money by doing things yourself--your time and energy is complemented by using high quality tools and materials.  Otherwise, you are cheapening your work and your time. 

I've been working pretty hard on this project, and my time is saving quite a bit of money.  I finally just made an executive decision on the project that we would get replacement windows. Our budget on this rehab is a parsimonious $15,000.  But because we are doing work ourselves, buying used appliances, closeout "stuff" (floors, faucets), and enjoy have well-connected tradespeople who are cost effective, we are stretching this $15k far beyond the face value.  Nevertheless, I had a 'moment'---epiphany would be too sublime a name for it.  Truly, a hissy-fit would be the more profane name for that moment.  I did not want to do all of this work and have the windows look like crap.  Decision made--windows will be replaced.

It is in the budget. But we were trying to even beat the budget.  At some point, saving money becomes foolhardy.  The floors, the trim and the walls are all beautifully restored, but the windows will remain an eyesore.  Not only that, but they are dangerous.  Unfastening the top from the bottom on some of the windows brings the top window crashing down.  That is just a safety hazard.  Period.  Mind you, they will be budget windows, but even budget windows are galaxies better than what is there. Making this decision has eased my mind quite a bit.  It is like removing a thorn from my foot.