Today I decided to make some smores. I didn’t want to make a campfire, and I wanted the smores to be different. To make the smores without a campfire, I used marshmallow fluff. But to really add to the flavors of the traditional smore, I replaced the milk chocolate bar with Nutella. So if you’re playing along at home, here’s what you need.

Ingredients:
1 box of graham crackers
1 jar of marshmallow fluff
1 jar of Nutella
Glass of cold milk

If you have never had Nutella, you’re missing out. It’s a very creamy, chocolately, and hazelnut-y. There are 50 hazelnuts in every 13 ounce jar. Nutella is great on toast or crackers, and a Nutella and banana sandwich can’t be beaten.

Marshmallow fluff is also a great ingredient. It’s  a creamy marshmallow spread that’s a great replacement for jelly in a PB&J sandwich. (There’s a recipe on the back of this jar for marshmallow fluff brownies that I think I’m going to try.)

I don’t think this needs a description.  I watched an episode of Good Eats the other night about crackers. Alton Brown said that the creator of graham crackers (a Mr. Graham) created them as a food to keep people from lust. The original recipe called for wheat and water.

Tips:

• Nutella has a very strong flavor. I put more fluff on the crackers than Nutella so I could taste it.
• Use a separate knife for the two spreads. They’re both messy, and nobody wants fluff in their Nutella jar.
• Make multiple smores. You can thank me later.
• Don’t be afraid to dip your smores in the milk.

Michelle and I began changing things in the house before we even moved in. We gave the bedroom we’d be staying in a fresh coat of paint, and re-purposed another bedroom as our office/guest room. We also started renovating the bathroom.

The Bathroom

There had been 4×4 white tiles on all of the walls, and 12 inch laminate tiles on the floor. The sink was old and run down, and the vanity barely supported itself. There had been a pedestal sink in the basement which was not being used. We tore out the old sink and replaced it with the pedestal. Then all of the tiles came down, along with the rotten and moldy walls we found behind the tiles. The cast iron tub, the sub-floor, and the ceiling were the only things to stay.

New tile went up in the shower area and on the floor. The studs were covered with wainscoting on the bottom half, plain plywood on the top, and separated with a chair rail. The top half of the wall was painted a dark green, and the bottom bright white. A white cabinet was hung above the toilet, and a white storage shelf was added to the room as well. The bathroom is only 5 feet by 5 feet. The bathtub takes up about two fifths of the room, so it was very cramped and tedious working in such a small space. After we finished all of the work, I was ready to give up on home renovations. So the next thing we did was design and build a pantry. (Since I started writing this, Michelle has decided to change some more things about the bathroom. I’ll post pictures once it’s completed again.)

The Kitchen

There was no storage in the kitchen for our food, so Michelle and I (with a lot of help from Dad) designed a pantry, and then built it. The pantry takes up one entire wall that was not being used in the “eat in” portion of the eat-in-kitchen. The pantry provides plenty of room for our dry food, overflow from the kitchen cabinets, as well as a broom closet. Once the work was done on the pantry, I decided to give up on home renovations. That’s when we started tearing apart our kitchen.

The counter tops consisted of 4×4 inch tiles. They looked okay, but were impossible to keep clean (and sanitary). The matching backsplash was never completed. The cabinets were original to the house, and were in good condition other than being greasy and an ugly color. Michelle took it upon herself to rip out the backsplash one day, and the next project was officially under way. We took off all of the cabinet doors, degreased them, sanded them, sanded them again, and then added two layers of primer and a couple layers of Sherwin Williams Duration Home paint. I highly suggest this line of paint. It’s environmentally friendly, and it’s incredibly easy to clean. Dirt and grease just wipe off with a damp cloth.

We threw away the old hardware from the cabinets because it looked like it came from a barn door, and replaced it with new hardware that matched the look we were going for. Michelle made a trip to Ikea with her family and purchased three pieces of oak butcher block counters. Dad and Mark came by one day, and as a team, we removed the old counters and installed the new ones.

New 1×2 inch slate tiles went up as a backsplash with an off white grout. It reminds me of brick, which I’ve always thought looked great in kitchens. My partner in (fighting) crime donated about 20 18 inch slate tiles. Home Depot only sold 12 inch slate tiles, so Michelle and I worked out a design that would incorporate the 18 and 12 inch tiles.

Dad and I began to pull up the laminate tiles that were on the kitchen floor, but found it easier to take out the plywood that the tiles were glued to. The original laminate floor was under the plywood. It was still sufficiently adhered to the floor, so we laid the slate floors directly on it. The spaces between the tiles was filled with a grey grout.

Michelle and I had seen an episode of Design on a Dime (HGTV) where they purchased a dishwasher for $15. Since then, she had been determined to pay not a dollar more on a dishwasher. One day, we were driving through town and saw a yard sale in front of a business. She said, “Turn around, there was a dishwasher.” We went back and left with a somewhat used dishwasher for $35. It was a little more than twice what was paid for on Design on a Dime, but it was still much cheaper than a new one.

Dad and I cut out a couple of cabinets, and I hooked it up to water supply a plumber had installed. The dishwasher did not have the drainage hose with it, so we had to purchase one. Unfortunately, Home Depot did not carry the specific connection, so I improvised. (And it worked.)

After all of that, I decided that we would take a break with the home renovations. Shortly thereafter, we started on the basement.

The Basement

The basement consisted of cement floors, and cinder block walls. No insulation, and no interior walls other than those that surrounded the staircase in the middle of the house. Dad and I studded half of the basement. We replaced the window that was in that half of the basement. The one that was there was broken. Michelle’s grandmother said that it had been that way as long as she could remember. We also installed two doors leading from the soon-to-be finished half to the non-finished half. Michelle and I insulated once the studding was finished, and put furring strips on the ceiling so we could later cover it with plywood. Dad and I did some electrical work to fix the lights, and made them function with a light switch. We then covered the walls and ceiling with plywood, and used 1×4s as molding around the room, doors, and window. We plan to stain the cement floor, though we haven’t decided on a color.

The new room in the basement includes a laundry area, and a place for all of my police crap.

The Pictures

There will be more to come, now that I’ve found the battery charger for my camera.

A close up of the backsplash above the stove.	A close up of the backsplash over the stove.	Backsplash and stove. The backsplash glows nicely due to the lights under the microwave.
We took the backsplash up to the top of the cabinets on the walls that did not have any.
A close up of the backsplash next to the new wall color.
New counter top, backsplash, and wall color.	The cross that was given to us at our wedding by Fr. Tim. It has interlocking rings on it. It’s proudly displayed above the sink and window.	This is one of my favorite shots of the kitchen. You can see the butcher block counter tops, the backsplash, the refinished cabinets, and the new hardware.
Above the window, I used some scrap pieces of the counter top (from the sink/stove cut outs) to make a valance.
	I love the colors and the irregularities in the backsplash. Some of the pieces were thicker than the others, and some much thinner. It gives it a nice depth.
		A wider angle of the kitchen showing almost all of the improvements.

Tate City is a small town in north east Georgia with a population of about 30. The unincorporated city is in the far eastern corner of Towns County. The only way to get to Tate City is to travel through Rabun County. (You can get to it while staying in Towns County, but it requires a large truck with four wheel drive.) Unfortunately, Tate City falls within my jurisdiction. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s not easy or quick to get to. It’s about a 30 mile trip, 6 of which are on a single lane dirt road. It takes up to an hour to get there, so if the call is a real emergency, the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office responds as well to assist us. (Fun Fact: The children of Tate City attend Rabun County schools. The Towns County Board of Education pays their tuition.)

In the picture below, you’ll notice that half of the trip to Tate City involves driving through another county.

We don’t have to respond to Tate City often. Since I’ve been with this department, I’ve only been there twice. Both times were regarding guns. We recently responded to Tate City when a man purposefully shot his brother in the arm.

The worse part about responding to Tate City, is that there is no cell phone or radio service there. On a good day, dispatch might be able to hear static when you try to speak on the radio. If you need help, too bad. Also, depending on how many are working at the time, when an officer responds to Tate City, it might leave the rest of the county to be covered by one officer.

I’m not complaining about Tate City. I’m just constantly amazed at how remote some places still are, and I wanted to share it. I grew up in Hiawassee and I never even knew where Tate City was. If you had told me about Tate City when I was working for Cobb County Police, I probably would have laughed and been in awe. Now, when I’m told I have to go to Tate City, I just cry a little inside.

Here’s a great article from the BBC about a 13-year-old giving up his iPod for a week to use the original Sony Walkman. I’m not sure that I would want to go back to using cassette tapes. I use my iPhone to listen to music on a daily basis, whether around the house or at work. I carry all 1,059 songs that I have collected through the years with me at all times.

From the article:

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

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A lot has been happening lately. Michelle and I have been remodeling rooms in our house since we moved back to Hiawassee. We’ve almost completed the kitchen, and we’re very proud of it. When we finally complete it, I’ll write about it in detail and post pictures of it on my journal.

Also, I was involved in a serious accident while at work yesterday. I hydroplaned and struck a stopped vehicle at 60 miles per hour. I’m incredibly sore, but no one was seriously injured. I’ll also write more about this incident and post pictures of the vehicle once I get approval from my department.