Lots of Randoms

This post is going to be about a lot of random things because I'm behind a bit. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Napa for the first time. Neither Mitch or I are really big fans of wine to begin with but after an afternoon of tasting, I came to the conclusion that I just really don't like wine. There were a couple that I would drink if they were already out and available to me at a party or something, but I decided that I would never actively go out and buy these wines. Anywho, the scenary was BEAUTIFUL. The winery we chose to do our only tasting at was a castle! I think it was called Castelo de Amoroso or something like that. They had a drawbridge:

Beautiful view looking out over the valley

                                                                      The chapel

                                                                  Big dining room

                                                                        Sheep!!!

In other news, we are in the process of rebuilding our and our neighbors side gate. These are the steel frames and post that will be the basic support of the whole thing. When finished it will be covered with wood, but we haven't had a change to get to that yet, so there are big sheets of plywood covering it at the moment.

Now that I have a functional oven, I've been baking......

We bought a dining set. When the leaf is in, it seats 8 people. The leaf is not in here. This is how it will look unless we are entertaining. I was going to post a before (with our card table and folding chairs) and after picture, but I came home from work one day last week and my wonderful husband had come home early and had already taken the folding table and chairs down and assembled the new table!

By the way, when we were in Napa, we stayed at the local Holiday Inn Express & Suites. I like staying at those hotels because I find them super clean and nice. Well this particular one had the most AMAZING creation EVER.....an automatic pancake maker machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Press a button and 45 seconds later, 2 fresh hot pancakes come off the conveyor belt. Oh man, I want one......

A Mickey Mouse Fix

 No, this is not a post about a recent visit to Disneyland (although I wish it was). To be honest, I've never quite understood the term anyways. In case you weren't aware, in constuction terms, doing something Mickey Mouse is doing something haphazard and shoddy, which doesn't make sense. The Disney Mickey Mouse is none of these, so again, I don't know why the term means what it does. Anyways, I digress. So presently, we have a separate rangetop stove and oven:

On said rangetop, the lighter doesn't light. therefore, I have to use an actual lighter to light it. Also, in said oven, something is wrong with it and when I try to bake, the outside of things burn before the inside bakes. Since baking is one of my fav things to do, this is quite the bummer. I have avoided baking at all costs since we've lived in this house because of this confounded oven. Also, please note orange extension cord extending vertically to plug my microwave in.

Although we would LOVE to redo the kitchen completely before Christmas, in my heart of hearts I don't think that's going to happen because of the cost involved. Therefore, I BEGGED Mitch to at least put our new oven rangetop in (we already purchased a new one along with a new fridge and microwave hood because of a great deal we got). Mitch hates to do anything less than perfect when it comes to construction so this pretty much killed him to agree to this, but I told him he would benefit because I would be able to bake again. Therefore, he did this: 

 And this is what it currently looks like. Mitch will be putting shelves where the hole from the oven is. I will have to store pots and pans there because of the cabinet space lost, but I don't even care. I'm so excited to have our new oven rangetop in the kitchen instead of in the garage. Also, when we pulled the oven out, we found out that there was an electric outlet in the wall! Therefore, goodbye orange extension cord!

Also, as a side note, if you are wondering what 40 years of dust accumulated looks like, here is your answer: