I like the way the room is laid out. The long side of a sectional faces the fireplace and the short side faces the TV wall. This makes the fireplace and flanking windows the focal point of the room and the TV doesn’t dominate. It’s easy enough to see the TV but when you’re not watching it just looks like a picture over a sideboard on the far wall. I’ll have to get a photo of it.
Kim moved in yesterday. It all went fairly well.
I installed her new TV on the wall. It’s a “Canvas” TV - first I’ve seen. It sits flat against the wall and has a wood frame around it so it looks like a picture.
Better is the selection of artwork you can display in it, either a single picture or several in rotation. It came preloaded with several hundred pictures to choose from or you can upload your own. In art mode the screen goes in to more of a matte finish look - it’s not the Louvre but it’s not bad.
Clever!
I don’t care for the floors in the second unit
I spent 5 years working for a company that owned mobile home parks. 3500 spaces spread out over 11 parks. We took very good care of the parks but a lot if owners don’t. The larger problem was the space rent increased every year, sometimes substantially. A lot of residents owed more on their homes than they were worth and they were stuck.
And then there is the hurricanes in Florida issue. 
Going strictly from the photos, I’d choose #1.
Glad you’re moving away from buying a mobile home. I think owning a condo is a much better choice.
I have never seen any of those flavors here.
Pity.
If you can’t bear ‘em…
Last project at Kim’s house - for now. She moves in Saturday.
The sink is a composite material. I’ve never had one but reviews are good. It feels sturdy enough and it’s much quieter than the stainless sink it replaced.
Hired a plumber to install it. Years ago I would have installed it myself but nowadays I’d rather hire it out. It’s a miserable job that requires a lot more shoulder mobility than I have these days.
Glad I didn’t try. The installation was very complicated due to how the new sink is laid out vs. what was in the wall. Lots of modifications required that would have taken me days to do. Kim found the plumber on a new site called Thumbtack and he was quite competent.
Wow!
Very timely. Pull up a chair, this will be long.
Sharon made this and she got called away before she finished it. She told me to finish it without sending me the recipe. Big chunks of ham, bits of potato (must have taken hours to chop them like that) and the most remarkable broth! Thought it must be a Jacques Pepin recipe, thoroughly enjoyed cutting up the pieces of ham in the bowl. Sprinkled chopped green onions on top. Fantastic!
Then she sent the recipe! It’s a standard midwestern crock pot recipe and I generally despise crock pot recipes. Frozen hash browns? Canned soup? Yikes!
But - wow! Here’s the recipe
A classic midwestern crock pot dump recipe. I would have passed it by but it works! Except…
I didn’t add the cream cheese even though Sharon set aside Boursin cheese for the purpose. Cream cheese is fine but Boursin is next level and Sharon is fancy like that. She got mad when I told her I loved it without the cheese.
So I had a second bowl. Added the Boursin. Yikes! It’s the richest, most decadent cream of potato soup I’ve ever eaten. Indulgent. Possibly sinful. Absolutely delicious!
But for me, it’s better without the cheese. I might tart it up next time with some thyme because I put thyme in everything. But no cheese. Not even Boursin.
It’s not Mediterranean. It’s not even healthy but yikes! It’s fantastic and takes no time (thyme) at all!
I’m more of a breadcrumb guy than a crouton guy but home made croutons are delicious!
What don’t you like about the finishes?
They look very Florida to me.
First I’ve heard of espalette pepper. Do you buy them dry or fresh? Where do you get them?
Not exactly soup but we had so many leftovers in the fridge that some of them were going to go sideways if not used up soon.
Leftover fried rice and undercooked broccoli we got at a very bland Chinese restaurant They must have a new chef because their stuff is normally pretty good. Wings leftover from Super Bowl. Whole onion that I used to gauge progress when sharpening my kitchen knives. I already ate the test tomato. 
A bag of mixed veg of indeterminate age I found in the back of the freezer. Garlic I chopped and froze a while back because it was going sideways as well.
Rice bowl, then. Added fish sauce, soy sauce and MSG. Deglazed pan with chicken stock.
It came out much better than it had any reason to.
Note to self: Work on plating skills. 
All the cool kids on Reddit are naming their starters so I named mine. Right now Bad Barmy is serving as a control to see if the 80° water bath makes any difference.
That’s Yeastie Boys in the water bath. 
Realtors sell houses listed by other agents all the time.
It’s pretty much how the system works.
Definitely lives up to the hype. I’ll rank it up there with The Food Lab and Cookwise.
Split pea soup for a cold winter day. Cozy cook recipes never disappoint!
It all looks great and the light fixture with the flowered shade is fantastic!
Sounds great!
The trick is to get all of the components properly cooked at the same time. Julia Child famously accomplished this by cooking everything separately and stirring it together.
Doing it in one pot is significantly more challenging.
Laundry equipment came with the house. Kenmore direct drive units some 30 years old and they still work!
