Doug's Project 365

Lis bought fresh fava beans at Russo’s.  We were supposed to have them later in the week, but I was so excited at the prospect that we had to have them tonight.  Plus they go really well with beef.

Did you know that fava beans are the only old-world (European-native) bean?  The rest came from Asia (soy), Africa (black-eyed peas) or the Americas (most of the others).

A number of the systems in our new house are in good condition and functional, but dated.  The kitchen is, of course, the prime example, but today’s entry concerns the alarm system.  As near as I can tell, it was put in 24 years ago (prior to the previous owners), and was state of the art for the time. Here I’m showing the back of one of the door/window units.

But now, only the original, expensive service company is willing to monitor it, so we are replacing it.  We’ll gain a few features — pet-friendly motion sensors, water detector in the basement, etc — as well as more modern monitoring features.

You know how, in a certain genre of crime movies, the evil-but-likeable villain kills somebody in a motel room, and stuffs the body into a plastic trash bag in the shower?

Our master bath’s shower has had this trash bag in it for the past few days (full of dated wallpaper, not body parts, I promise) and I can’t help but think of that kind of movie every time I see it.

The new house has a pretty huge amount of closet space, though some of it is not that useful.  Lis has been asking me to put up shelving in this closet since we bought it, last weekend.  Tonight I got it done.

When I walked into work this morning, I was drawn to the view from our big conference room, as I often am.  But today the view was totally different:

This is Boston Harbor.  In the fog.  Can’t you tell?

I saw an ambulance on the side of 93 coming home today.  Not unusual, you say?  Take a look at where it’s from:

What is it doing so far from Oak Bluffs?

I took today off from work to do more unpacking and setting up.  We had a plumber in to hook up the gas dryer and replace the huge, useless vanity in the downstairs half bath with a pedestal:

We still need to strip that fairly hideous wallpaper and repaint, and replace the oh-so-eighties towel bar and TP holder, but it’s incredible how much more spacious it is in there now — and more importantly, we now have a good spot for the litterbox.

I went back to work today.  But Lis made good progress on unpacking.  Look, it’s our kitchen table!

Stefan helped me install some bottom-cabinet slide-out drawers today.

For some reason, despite being larger, this kitchen seems to have less useable cabinet space than the old one.  I hope it’s just a matter of learning how to use it.

Greg, Michael, and I rebuilt the basement stairs today.  The old stairs were too steep for safety, had no handrail or risers, and felt rickety underfoot.

I am including two pictures today, one before (from March):

…and one after (which is today’s 365 photo):

I still have to put on the rail and the risers, but even now the new stairs are a vast improvement.  Thanks guys!