BUSY! We bought a house! As exciting as that may sound, it’s been completely exhausting. We went out on the first Saturday of May to look at about 6 houses. We just wanted to get a feel for what was out there and never thought we’d find anything to make an offer on, but we were wrong. The last house we looked at, we immediately fell in love with. We thought about it for the rest of the weekend and decided to make an offer Sunday night. After going back and forth with the sellers, our offer was accepted on the Monday and then started our process of pure hell.

Starting with the inspection. We knew we were buying an older home that had dated wallpaper, popcorn ceilings and hideous paint colors… but we never imagined the items that came up on the inspection report. The electric wasn’t up to code, the HVAC unit was 20+ years old and leaking air, there were gas leaks and the chimney was pulling away from the house. We immediately went into panic mode! We went to the sellers with a list of items that needed to be repaired. This ended up being practically everything that was on the inspection report!  Might as well as for it all and go from there, right?

We loved the house, but we were also ready to walk if the major repairs weren’t going to be done. It’s a buyers market right now and if they didn’t want to do the repairs, we knew we could find a house that didn’t have massive cosmetic work that needed to be done as well as somewhere where the fireplace wasn’t going to end up falling into the house at some point!

The sellers were difficult to work with.  Example:  There were electric receptacles that were loose and we asked them to have them tightened by the electrician since he was already going to be there to do other work, their response was (and I quote), “Buyer is welcome to tighten these receptacles as desired after closing.  Seller will leave a screwdriver in garage for this purpose.”  Seriously?  Are we 12?  Pete’s response (equally as immature), “Buyer reserves the right to withdraw offer if work not completed by a qualified electrician and purchase house which does not require integrated screwdriver in order to ensure correct electrical operation and safety of family and pets.”  (lawl/smiley face, I love my husband!)

They originally told us the GFCI outlets weren’t in the house when they bought it and they weren’t going to have them installed now. Well guess what, the house was built in 1986 and GFCI’s were required on homes in North Carolina as of 1975 (gotta love Google!).  So Mr. and Mrs. Seller, that would mean that the electric in your house is not up to code and if you don’t fix it for us now, you will have to disclose it to other potential buyers. They decided to get it fixed.  Your chimney not being structurally sound isn’t going to help you sell the house any faster either.  They fixed that too.

Cost them over $3000 for repairs, so good thing we had an inspector that was so thorough because we need that cash to remove the disgusting popcorn ceiling and 1980’s flower wallpaper that someone once thought was a wonderful idea.  Not to mention the painted over pale green grass texture wallpaper in the living room.  The 1970’s hospital look was apparently very popular those days.  We had the ceiling tested for asbestos as well, which they didn’t like.  They thought we were being too picky.  If there are other items in your house that are not up to code, there is nothing that says the contractor who originally built the house didn’t spray your ceiling with 10 year old material.  Luckily for them there was no asbestos in the ceiling, unfortunate for us because we now will have to remove it ourselves since it falls under the “cosmetic” category now instead of the “could kill us” category.

So now that everything is over with the arguing back and forth about who’s going to fix what and whether or not a screwdriver is required to sell the house, it’s nearly ours.  We close on Thursday and I can not be happier to be done with these people!

Needless to say, we will be spending every waking moment for the next few months taking down that disgusting ceiling, removing wallpaper, painting, sanding, sweating, swearing, yelling at eachother, bleeding, getting drunk, eating too much, going to the hardware store every 5 seconds, crying at bank statements and then more swearing.  Following it all up with a great big sigh of relief, a feeling of accomplishment and adding massive value into a house that we brought up into the current decade all on our own.  All in all, we’re looking forward to all of it!

As for the bento blog, can’t say when I’ll be starting it all again.  I’m hoping it won’t take too long to get back into some sort of a routine.

As for all the repair work and house stuff, I’m going be updating our personal website with info on the renovations.

May the force be with us…

Oh my.. this was so good!  Thanks for bentolunches (Flickr) for the cute picks and the yummy candies.

Finally went grocery shopping the other day. Trader Joe’s now has gelatin free gel cups! WIN!

(I didn’t iron the fabric…. Fail.)

Box 1: Cheese tortellini salad Box 2: Strawberries and carrots, Cottage cheese. Side items: No gelatin gel cup and strawberry choc candy

Discovered a new favorite today.  Kimchi and noodles.  I bought the cabbage kimchi in a jar and thought I’d use it for something.  I had left over egg noodles from dinner last night so decided to do cabbage and noodles (one of my fav things from childhood anyway).  Just sprayed the pan with olive oil, added the cold noodles and the cabbage and stir fried until brown.  EASY!  We likey.

Top box: cherry tomato, mini quiche with low fat cheddar and spring onions, kimchi and noodles. Bottom box: apple, carrots, grapes, cucumber, celery, greek yogurt with mango, kiwi flowers and a strawberry

Somewhat Mini Quiches

1/2 Package of puff pastry

1-2 eggs

small amount of milk

1/4 cup low fat cheddar

1/4 cup spring onions

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat over to 450F.  Spray a 6 large muffin tin with oil.  Cut puff pastry into squares and place in pan.  Place a ball of foil in center so the pastry doesn’t puff from the bottom.  Place in oven for about 5-10 mins until just starting to puff.

Mix eggs, cheese, milk and onions.  Reduce heat to  400F.  Add egg mixture to each pastry and bake for 10-15 minutes until the egg is set.

This is a very generic recipe.  Feel free to make changes, would love to hear of some variations!

I need to try to stop buying so much stuff at once. I have ideas in my head of things to make for dinners that I don’t end up making and get stuck with strange ingredients in the fridge. Today’s bentos are a testament to that. A mish mash of ingredients and items from the freezer. This is ok for bentos, because in my opinion different tastes and textures are key. But they also end up making my bentos look sloppy. I’m never going to be one to make awesome charaben (character bento) like some of the amazing talents of the ladies I’ve become friends with on Flickr. Their bentos are win! At the same time I want to try to have a bit more of a theme and consistency with mine. I’ll get there, but for now it’ll probably be a bit more of “I but in my bento whatever is in the fridge” kinda thing!

My bento:

Box 1: Spicy tofu and veggies, radish, tomato, grapes, strawberry, cheese wedge, caramel rice cakes Box 2: Onigiri, veggie dumplings, sweet potato patty

The Hub’s bento:

Box 1: Chicken dumplings, cherry tomato, radish, onigiri Box 2: Spicy tofu and veggies, grapes, strawberry, cheese wedge

This recipe is adapted from a friend kinda (but not really) telling me how to make them, a few online recipes and my own brain (yes I have one of those! xD)

Basil rolls served with sweet and sour sauce & miso soup

Basil Rolls (raw spring rolls) – Vegan!
(makes 4)

4 rice wrapper sheets
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup chopped spring onion
1 package spiced dry tofu – diced into small bits
1 clove minced garlic
1 tbsp sesame oil
lettuce
pickled ginger
8 fresh basil leaves

Heat oil in wok. Add garlic and diced tofu. Stir fry until starts to brown. Remove from heat and let cool.
In a bowl filled with warm water, soak rice wrappers individually until starts to soften (about 20-30 seconds). Be careful not to tear them! Lay the rice paper down on a plate. Place 2 basil leaves about 2 inches from the bottom edge. Top with spouts, tofu mixture, onion, few strands of the ginger and lettuce. Fold the wrapper over once. Fold the two sides in. Continue rolling tightly and carefully until closed. You should end up with the basil leaves showing on the top of the roll.

Serve with sweet and sour sauce or hoisin sauce. YUM!

Yesterday’s bento, a bit of randomness but I think it came out pretty cute still.  Tried a couple new things and tried to use up some stuff in my fridge too.  I keep buying stuff to make bento lunches then get too lazy to do them!  I need to get myself back into the grove!  This was my first time for quail eggs.  Tasted like, um… eggs!  xD  Kinda freaked me out first bite, although I’m lacto-ovo-veg some eggs and milk still gross me out after my 6 months of being vegan.  All in all, tasty lunch!

*One small complaint – The strawberry tofu pudding was bought like this.  “Nayosa” brand has a new line out of dessert tofu and I picked up both the chocolate and the strawberry.  The chocolate was great.  Tasted exactly like chocolate pudding would.  But the strawberry was very strange.  The texture was weird, the taste was very sweet and it has a very unappealing after taste.  I’ll stick with my homemade recipe of just whipping fresh strawberries into soft tofu, it works out much cheaper and a whole heck of a lot better tasting!

I also played around a bit more on this pic with the light studio and Photoshop.  Think it came out decent, added in the watermark too.  I still need to sort out some new backgrounds.  I have fabric bought, just need to get it all put together.

Box 1: Okinawan purple potatoes with cinnamon, mini babybel light (cheese), quail eggs, Vegetarian turkey slices with green olives, radish on top of left over brown rice with green radish seasoning. Box 2: strawberries, apple, kiwi, strawberry tofu pudding

We rent. So we can’t dig a garden. It sucks! But I came up with a plan a couple of weeks ago to still have my garden and keep the grass in tact. I decided I’d keep everything in pots. Not only will it keep the landlord happy but I can also take the plants with me once we move.

My mom helped me when she was here and we planted 3 different types of tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers, lettuce and strawberries.

Here is what they looked like when we first re-potted.

1st day of re-potting the seedlings

I took new pictures today (2 weeks later) and the difference is amazing. I’ve never had much of a green thumb when we lived in Florida, I think because it was just so damn hot! But I’m having much better luck up here.  I even have a strawberry that is ready to be picked!

Day 23 - Strawberry ready for pickin'

Day 23 - Tomato plant

Bento boxes and supplies have taken over my life in the last couple of months. Any shop I go to these days I’m looking for accessories. I’ve orders stuff on sites and have a few things coming in from Ebay. I’m officially, without a doubt, 100% addicted. Needless to say, my house has been over run by all of this stuff! Last night I went on a mission to find something small to store all of the gear in. I came up with this little cupboard from Target. This is from their Itso line. I’m pretty happy with it. It’s not going to last forever, but it was a good price and will work for what I need it for right now. Once I out grow it – I can always use it in the office or one of the bedrooms. It was super easy to put together too, I did it all by myself (which if you knew me – you’d know that never works out well!).

Closed, it looks very sleek. You’d never guess it was full of crazy bento gear!

When you open it, I have the boxes on the top shelf. On the bottom, I got two green storage containers for the smaller cups and cutters, etc. Then on top of those I bought a fabric cube that stores bags, chopsticks, etc. Everything is easily accessible. Now I don’t need to look in 2 different cupboards and 4 different drawers to find everything!