I love making seafood dishes at home, but sometimes it becomes cost prohibitive when you need multiple kinds for stews like this cioppino. Enter Harvest of the Sea’s frozen seafood medley pack. One bag contains a generous combo of Asian shrimp, Indian-wild-caught calamari, Argentine scallops, and Canadian Prince Edward Island blue mussels. They’re available at Costco in the Bay Area, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Texas; soon they’ll be in the New York area too. With Harvest of the Sea’s seafood medley, all you really need is your imagination to bring in your favorite restaurant seafood dish home.
Ingredients: olive oil 1 onion, sliced 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 1/4 cup tomato paste 1 28-oz can of diced tomatoes 1 1/2 cups of dry white wine 6 cups of fish stock; but chicken broth will do 2 bay leaves 1 bag of Harvest of the Sea seafood medley, thawed half a bunch parsley, roughly chopped salt, pepper
1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue sautéing for 3 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato paste and stir until it changes color. 2. Add the tomatoes with the juice to the pot, along with the wine. Let the wine reduce by half, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and bay leaves; season and bring to a simmer. 3. Stir in the seafood and simmer gently for another 8 minutes. Stir in parsley and turn off the heat.
It’s been a month and half since we closed on our new-old house and it finally feels like something is happening! We officially committed to Houseplay Renovations, the same firm that helped us decide that we should make an offer after going over all the possibilities that the bones and current structure of the house provided. We met with our project manager and designer in person and gave them an on-site walk through of our wish list. We then sat down with our designer to define our style. I tried to prepare for the meeting by writing down all the words that appealed to me: clean, functional, light floors, Portuguese tiles, antique-looking, vintage, farmhouse, but not cottage, black windows, white cabinets, pop of color, some texture, surprising element, unexpected, highlight, island, easy to clean, usable, workable, spacious, open, airy, cozy, Atelier-style windows,natural light, sunlight, plants, green, comfortable, lived-in, some open shelving, glass uppers, lots of storage and on and on!
But how do you define your style when you like almost everything that you see on design magazines and Instagram? How do you narrow down your likes and have a cohesive style throughout the house? How do you communicate this to the team implementing the design of your forever home?
Sitting on the floor and going through my super organized Pinterest board
I reorganized my Pinterest board last year when we started looking for a house. We went room by room and talked about the most recent design details I’ve liked and showed examples to our designer. (For easier writing, I use “I” here because I’m louder than Alec; but trust me, he has veto power.) Every time we looked at something, I always ended up adding how I operate in that room, so we immediately knew everything had to be functional. Streamlined hardware on kitchen cabinets are nice to look at, but how do you open them when your hands are full or dirty?
I also used to go antiquing and my apartment in Harlem started off with the “shabby chic” look: the more wear and tear and distressed, the better. I’ve strayed from that style in the last 10 years but I found myself still attracted to that piece de resistance; that one item that pops out as unexpected in the space. If I’m going to have a functional kitchen, I don’t want it to be too uniform; I still want that antique work table as a food prep station.
When it came to colors, I gravitated towards a lot of white for airiness and lightness, but with a combination of black to highlight a section; I also liked some natural colors to balance them out. I am not afraid of pattern or texture because I want that surprising element. After almost two hours of discussion, we settled with “functional Scandinavian farmhouse”.
This style will often feature unfinished wood throughout the home, large windows, lots of whites along with the occasional black contrast, and a minimalist approach to home decor. There are also lots of plants and textiles in Scandinavian farmhouse style, as pops of green and bursts of cozy fabrics keep a space from feeling too sterile.
That quote seemed to summarize it all, even though I didn’t even put weight on my plant collection! Overall, it was a good exercise to have an outsider look at what we want and define them in terms that can be understood by the trade so that everything can be professionally put together. We can’t wait for the next step: layout options for each of the rooms in our new-old house!
Right now, the kitchen and dining room are separated by a wall. We’d like to remove it to open up the space. As soon as it’s more open, there are a few things we want to do depending on budget constraints and time estimates.
The current dining room on the left; the current kitchen on the right
Extend the powder room inward to become a full bathroom
Blue tape to show the bathroom extension
We are starting with this item as a priority because we want to include my mother in our plans from the very beginning. Life changed for me and the family when Momz got sick in 2015. She lost all sensation in her legs and her hands because of a still unnamed nervous system diagnosis. She was in a wheelchair and was helpless for a while and she had to work really hard to relearn the most basic movements.
Their house in Manila had to be retrofitted to accommodate her needs. We added grab bars by the bed and in the bathroom, and built ramps to entryways. My parents even donated to the local church so that a ramp could be built for her and others.
She’s doing much better now but she still needs a cane to walk. But now that she’s on her own—my father was taken away from us in 2017—we want her to be as comfortable as possible when she spends her time with us. We want her to be able to move around the house safely, without stress or worry. And when Alec’s parents get older someday, we’ll be ready for them too.
Making the powder room a full bath requires taking up enough space for a walk-in/wheel-in shower from what is currently the kitchen. And since we don’t want the new opening facing out, we plan on making it perpendicular to the wall as a pocket door.
Move kitchen appliances to the other side
Blue tape to place the kitchen appliances in the current dining room
We won’t know how much work it will require to move electric and plumbing from one side of the house to the next, but considering the first point above, it’s the only way to fit all the kitchen appliances in a functional manner.
Using the measurements of my dream appliances, I used blue tape to account for everything to be able to imagine how the old dining area will become the new kitchen.
Open the back wall and create a picture window I’m most excited about cutting the entire wall facing the backyard to make a picture window and maximize the light. I would like to paint that wall black to make it pop out further. Depending on what kitchen island or work table situation we end up with, I will match its bottom with the same black color.
I’ll have separate entries about the designs of each space as soon as we get our contractors and builders to tell us the feasibility of everything. Stay tuned!
Even before we got the keys to our new-old house, we put the mudroom at the bottom of our wish list when we were meeting with contractor candidates. The house faces the street and anyone can look in through the wall of windows, so my initial thought was for it to remain as a place where you remove and leave your shoes before you step inside and never a spot where we can hang out. We’re not quite sure if it was an outdoor porch in its original form and then covered years later, but it sure needs a refresh.
The mudroom in the morning
When we finally got the keys, we spent one day in the house and saw how sunlight moved towards the mudroom in the afternoon. We’re now calling it the sunroom.
The mudroom by 3pm and is now called the sunroom
I immediately sketched out a different idea: benches around the space that double up as shoe storage, but also rods above the windowsills so I can hang some plants that would take advantage of the afternoon light.
Photo lifted from Pinterest without credit; sorryPhoto by: Mike Hetu for apartmenttherapy.com
Depending on our budget, I would like to rip up the laminate floor and replace them with Portuguese-inspired tiles to delineate the room from the entryway. The wall could use a repaint and we will find out soon if the windows the seller installed are sufficient enough to keep the cold out.
And this is just a small part of our new-old house. We’re just getting started!
You should get your shit together before you make the biggest investment of your life; and while you’re in the process of making the biggest investment of your life, keep your shit together and tight. Buying a house–no, buying a house with a partner–is not for the faint of heart.
I have owned my apartment for over 10 years now but the knots in my stomach are much tighter this time because we are buying our home together. My anxiety has doubled and it has manifested while I sleep.
In the first dream, I was treading in a cave and I could feel the water gently sloshing up to my face. Alec was in the water with me trying to help me move towards the cave’s opening. I actually don’t remember the second dream, but I abruptly woke and sat up gasping for air because I smelled smoke; but I guess the smell was not real enough to make me check the candles in the living room–I went back to sleep as fast as I woke up.
The real work starts after you’ve created your wishlist and narrowed down your dream home choices. It may be months from the first time you inquire about a house to the day you lock a rate; deals may fall through in between, so it’s important that you stay diligent until you get the keys. Here’s what I learned throughout our home-buying process:
Do your homework – Find reviews of the people you will hire to help you get through the finish line. They’re your real estate agent, your lender, and your lawyer. They all won’t be positive reviews, so let your gut make the final decision. When you first talked to them over the phone, were they pleasant? Did they take the time to answer all of your questions? Did they reply to your emails in a timely manner? When I sent a courtesy email and told a potential lender that we have decided to go with another, they emailed back and bad-mouthed the agent we chose. His true colors showed up and made us more confident about our selection.
Read everything! – You must read every line of a contract before you sign your name. Check misspellings; make sure they have the right social security number; double-check prices and ask about any information that seems unclear. My loyalty to my bank over the years earned me the free help to check a competing bank’s numbers. My bank knew they couldn’t beat the interest rate our lender was offering, so they advised me to go ahead without them. Who knew my bank’s mortgage agent would help me decipher another bank’s contract?
Organize all your paperwork – While you’re still shopping for the perfect home, your lender will continuously ask you to prove that you can afford your future home until you seal the deal. Group all your paperwork by category: bank statements, paystubs, investments, tax forms. Establish a naming convention so you can easily find them and order them by date. Mine was something like FirstNameLastName_BankName_MonthDayYear so that the same types of documents were grouped together but were still identified by our names. And then back everything up in the cloud!
Stay consistent – Until you move in to your new home, do not make any life changes. Do not switch jobs; do not make any big purchases; do not open or close lines of credits; do not get married; do not move money you cannot provide a paper trail to; do not accept money you cannot provide a paper trail to. Even if the Republic Bank of Your Parents gives you money, you will have to prove that it’s a gift. Consistency is the key when all of the institutions’ eyes are on you.
Manage the people – Do not assume that just because you have paid people to help you buy a house that they will do their job and tell you what the next step is. Alec and I had to be on top of everyone throughout the process. I was the person emailing everyone, “What else do you need from us to keep moving forward?” I was reminding our lawyer to contact the seller’s lawyer about contract updates and timely signatures. Our inspector had to be reminded twice before he sent us the oil tank and termite inspection reports he completed a week prior. Throughout our home buying process, we were also passed around from assistants to junior associates because imagine this: we weren’t their only customers! We established good rapport with them because we knew they did the paperwork before their bosses followed up with us.
Manage your time – Whenever we needed to make appointments with contractors and architects, we gave them several time slots in our schedule so they can pick whichever time also worked for them. Our favorite contacts were the ones who sent us links to their calendars and immediately followed up with meeting invites once we all found an agreeable date and time. When contracts needed to be signed, Alec and I set aside time after dinner to read them separately but finalize together. If you are buying a house with someone, this is not the time to be passive.
Divide and conquer – Alec and I shared a specific calendar with house-related dates so we were both aware of deadlines that we needed to meet. We took ownership of different things: I was the one researching contractors and he was the one sleuthing for building plans around the neighborhood we were interested in. While I have been designing my dream kitchen, he has been researching home security options. If I did the research for all the home insurance options, he reviewed them and picked which was best for us. If I wanted to scream-email because I was managing the people, he made sure my draft was polite before I hit send.
We’re almost at the finish line in our home-buying process and I’m aware that more adulting is needed as soon as we close, but that’s for another post.
