Seals find this man to be very cuddly

http://www.wimp.com/sealcuddle/

Sausage, the riot dog!

Interesting article. Cute, excitable dog! Watch the video!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/06/us-greece-dog-idUSTRE7952LX20111006

Older sister saves younger sister, bus driver saves older sister

How great it is to know that great acts of selfless heroism still exists today:
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/25/anaiah-rucker-9-saves-sister-by-taking-blow-from-oncoming-truc/

Recipe for just two cupcakes

So let's say you've read my mayonnaise and aioli post and tried it out. Now you're probably left with an egg white thinking, ugh, I guess I'll have to make an egg white omelet now. Normally, I'll make a regular omelet and just whisk in the extra egg white, but sometimes, I don't want to eat an omelet. Sometimes, I want cake!

Awesome online recipe to the rescue!
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/03/one-bowl-vanilla-cupcakes-for-two/
This recipe makes enough for just two cupcakes and they are sooooo light, fluffy and vanilla-y. Not only is it yummy and easy to make, it doesn't generate a lot of dishes to clean afterward - always a plus! So anyways, there are a couple of things to note. I use turbinado or raw sugar in place of white sugar. Raw sugar has some molasses in it, which has the effect of creating a more chewy, denser texture than white sugar. I've tried this recipe with both types of sugar and personally, I like the raw sugar version better. Also, the more baking powder you use, the more the cakes will fluff up and rise.

I've made the recipe a few times and each time, hubby and I would scarf them down before they've had time to cool. They're really good and easy, and can be made on a whim with just a little effort. Highly recommend giving this recipe a try!

Aioli

Simply put, aioli is nothing more than garlic mayonnaise. So if desperate, you can try crushing fresh garlic into some store-bought mayonnaise. However, if you want really, really good aioli, or mayonnaise for that matter, you need to make it from scratch.

Making mayonnaise from scratch does a couple of things for you. First, all that whisking will pre-burn away some calories before you ingest it. Second, it just tastes soooo much better than the store-bought stuff! Plus there's the added bonus of making the mayonnaise taste however you want it to by experimenting with different herbs, flavorings and oils.

Most mayonnaise recipes will call for a neutral oil, such as safflower oil. Mayonnaise made with pure olive oil has a very distinctive taste and smell that some people might not like right away. I happen to like olive oil mayonnaise, but most of the time, I prefer to use half olive oil and half neutral oil.

Anyways, a basic mayonnaise recipe starts with on egg yolk. If you have any concerns about eating raw eggs, don't make homemade mayo unless you can get those pasteurized ones in the shells.  Start whisking the yolk and add some dijon mustard (or whatever kind you have, about a half teaspoon), salt, white pepper and a few drops of white vinegar or lemon juice. Keeping whisking and start adding the oil drop by drop. Once the emulsion looks pretty stable, you can increase the flow of oil to a thin, steady stream. Keep whisking until you've whisked in about a cup to 1 and half cup of oil. By the time you're done, your arm is probably ready to fall off. There is an easier way if you have a stick blender, but that takes the work out of making something so fatty and delicious!

Now that you've got the gist of basic mayonnaise down, let's talk aioli. David Lebovitz has an awesome aioli recipe that I've used over and over:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/07/aioli-garlic-mayonnaise-recipe/
I usually make it my little porcelain mortar and pestle and my mother-in-law's awesome home-grown garlic. The store-bought garlic just doesn't have anything on my mother-in-law's garlic! Anyways, you start by crushing a few cloves in your mortar and pestle and grind it into a paste with some coarse sea salt. Then add the yolk and start whisking. Then add about a cup of olive oil while whisking.

If your emulsion breaks, start whisking an egg yolk in a fresh bowl and then slowly add the broken mix, drop by drop, into the new emulsion. Personally, I have not had an emulsion break on me so far (knock on wood) probably because I get so tired from whisking and just can't keep it up. Lol!

Anyways, homemade aioli tastes awesome on zucchini faux crab cakes, whose recipes can be found here:
http://nancyvienneau.com/blog/recipes/those-curious-zucchini-faux-crab-cakes/
http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1611
Aioli also tastes great on plain old toast as well. How about next time you make eggs benedict, instead of hollandaise, spread some aioli? Personally, I prefer making aioli over hollandaise because I find making hollandaise even more labor intensive since I have to whisk over a stove.

Anyways, that's my post for today!

Am back!

It's been a while since my last post and that's because I had been busy moving and settling into our new house! Also my workload has increased and between working and settling into a new home, the last thing I wanted to do was post a blog entry. We still have things to do around the house and not everything is put away yet or organized how I like it, but settling in, I think, is more like a constant work in progress. I imagine that there will be lots of little adjustments made as time goes by.

Anyways, things have finally calmed down and we have some semblance of a routine going now as well. We're still adjusting and a bigger place means more to clean, but so far, I think we're managing okay. The cat was surprisingly quick to adjust to her new environment and was out and about within the first day of the move. She's still exploring a bit, but is mostly settled in now.

So far, we love living here. Despite having experienced a mild earthquake and a hurricane that threatened to flood our basement during the first week we were in the house, things have been good. Within blocks of us, is our bank, a decent supermarket and a small green market that opens on Saturday mornings. There are also a variety of restaurants, sizeable drugstores, little mom and pop shops and a beautiful park by the water. I couldn't ask for a more convenient location in a residential neighborhood. As for the house itself, I am totally enjoying the larger kitchen and the laundry room. No more extreme shortage of cabinets and countertop space! No more dreading how laundry will eat up half a day! We also have a front porch we can hang out in and a small back yard we can barbecue in. We don't actually have a grill yet, but I'm sure we'll get one for next year.

So far, we've been really happy in our house. It is certainly a lot more work, but part of loving your home is loving your house and maintaining your home is a way to show love. My mom always said a cluttered home reflected a cluttered mind. Personally, I do feel better when things are neat and tidy and clean. I still need to settle on a cleaning routine that is manageable. Right now, I still feel less than settled in our new home, but I think I'll eventually get there. It just takes a little effort every day.

Garden thieves

Apparently, garden thievery is enough a problem for the NYTimes to write an article on it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/nyregion/community-gardens-find-theft-is-a-fact-of-life.html?pagewanted=1

Patent madness

When I was young, I assumed you only patented things you actually invented. The truth is the practice of patenting things that might be invented by someone else some day somewhere, is what's really happening. There is no way, as long as this madness continues, that this is not going to destroy start-up companies, stifle innovation and suffocate healthy competition.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-patents-attack

Daily kitchen cleaner

I love my daily kitchen cleaner. It works much better than the water and washcloth combo I grew up using and it leaves no soapy residue. What is it? It's equal parts vodka and vinegar in a spray bottle! I used it on all my kitchen surfaces and keeps everything nice and clean. Hubby hates it though. I think one time he said the smell makes him gag. I think he just hates the smell of vinegar because he complained about the smell when I used to use it in the shower. Unfortunately for him, vinegar is one of my favorite cleaners!

Still, I suppose I can understand that he doesn't like the smell. I dunno. I am loathe to change the formula since it works so well, but I suppose I can try making the spray mostly vodka with some lemon juice. Hubby will just have to deal with the smell until the spray runs out. Then, if I remember and have some lemon juice on hand, I'll think about trying a different formula.

By the way, don't use this spray on grout because vinegar and lemon is acidic and might eat away the grout.

Hunting for a Home, part 5

So where were we...?

Oh yes, so we got our loan approved and after that, we were just waiting to close. It turns out that the sellers were willing to close at the end of July rather than in early August like we were told originally, which is good news for us because of our arrangement with the bank to lock our rate. Hubby went back to the bank to renegotiate our rate since it went down and all was well. We agreed to let the sellers stay in the house after the closing until early August. So then came the long wait where nothing interesting happened.

Before we knew it, it was one week before the closing and we were waiting for our lawyer to tell us how much money we will need to bring for the closing. Unfortunately, he was waiting for the bank lawyer to tell him. The walk through was scheduled for the morning of the closing at 9am and the closing was to take place in another borough soon after. On the morning of the closing, we still had not received the number from our lawyer, who still had not been able to get the number from the bank lawyer. We were still waiting after the walk through and I must say was getting irritated, anxious and nervous. While we slowly made our way home after the walk through, our lawyer called with the number. We rushed to the bank to get the cashier's check and then rushed to our lawyer's office for the closing. Finding parking made us late, but we got there in the end. Whew!

Once at the office, we had to start signing stacks of paperwork. Our lawyer explained the important points of each stack of paperwork before having us initial and/or sign every page. Everyone there was very friendly and there was nothing contentious or non-standard. It was a pretty simple, straightforward closing and yet, it took 4 hours! That made it so that we were just in time to hit rush hour traffic on the way home and a 35 minute trip took 2 hours!

By the time we got home, we were exhausted. We still went out one more time to pick up boxes for packing and then went out to dinner. The next morning, we were still exhausted, but at least, we are now homeowners!

Interior design

I do not know anything about how to design anything. I can't even say I have much of a personal style. In the end, I just want my home to be functional, efficient, clean and uncluttered. Never in my life have I had so much free reign to decorate a space this big, meaning a house.

So of course the first thing I do is to research for ideas from design blogs and online magazines. I had already been a regular of apartmenttherapy.com and its sister sites, but I was hungry for more ideas. I needed to see more photos of furniture layouts, color combinations, space-saving solutions and so forth! In the past few days, I've become addicted to perusing the photos of houzz.com on my iPad. I even downloaded the app so I can look through the thousands upon thousands of unattainable design photos to see if I can possibly use one scrap of what I like in my own life. I went through a list of shelter magazine sites and blogs, including:
http://decor8blog.com
http://www.designsponge.com/
http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/
http://ifthelampshadefits.blogspot.com/
http://brightbazaar.blogspot.com

I saw many, many unaffordable/unpractical options that I love. I was also completely overwhelmed by all the options and decisions in front of me. Like a kid with too many crayons, I can't pick one! Overall, I get the distinct impression that these magazines favor the houses of millionaires. What I need is practical advice and guidance. What I need is visual inspiration that can be applied to my own personal situation. However, I did find out a little about what I liked and didn't like:
- I am not into the rustic look, particularly if the room begs for an animal head on a wall.
- I don't like modern design. Yes, it's clean and very neat-looking, but it looks hard and unyielding.
- I want my decor to maximize sunlight. The house does get sunlight, but more so on the upper floor where there is a sky light and fewer buildings and trees blocking the windows. I don't mind there being less light in the dining room or kitchen, but I want the living room to be bright.
- I don't like clutter and prefer rooms where things are packed away with only a few display items placed neatly around the room.
- I like things to look either roomy and airy or cozy and intimate.

Some things that I have decided upon:
- Our living room is not very big, which means that we have to keep it on the more intimate and cozy side. In order to maximize what sunlight we do get, I plan to paint the walls either white or white with a blue tint.
- I want to keep our spaces clutter-free. This means throwing things away and also putting things away. So that means providing storage. I love furniture that has hidden storage or does double duty. I really wanted to get a bed with under-bed drawers but it's considered bad feng shui. I think a storage ottoman is okay though.
-We're getting a very modular sectional couch: 2 corners, an armless chair and 2 storage ottomans. I prefer a white or near-white couch, but hubby says it will stain easily so we're getting one that is a bit darker.
- We will hold off on getting a dining set, coffee table and a new bed until we see how everything we currently have fits and whether we will have the funds for it.
- As much as I would like us to get matching desks that are light and bright in color, hubby's preferences for something more solid and heavy-looking won out. So he will get his big, solid desk and I will get something that is more "leggy" and compact.

It's been difficult to plan for a space we're not actually living in yet or have easy access to. It's also difficult trying to find furniture that fits our needs and preferences. We figured a month is enough time to find stuff and fill a space, until we found out the couch we want would take 10 to 12 weeks to deliver. I don't think we want to live without a couch until mid-October since we're moving into the house in late August. Given that, we had to compromise and get an in-stock couch in a color that would be my second choice. Not terrible, really. That's just how some things go.

Removing rust and polishing metal

Need to remove some rust? Rub it with a cut potato!
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/hot-tip/tip-remove-rust-with-a-potato-108090
I honestly don't know how someone decided to try using a potato to remove rust, but apparently it works!


Need to polish some metal? Make some home-made metal polish!
http://lifehacker.com/5821394/make-your-own-metal-polish-with-salt-vinegar-and-flour

Hunting for a home, part 5

Okay, so when I last left off, our loan application was approved to be underwritten. However, the current owners were having trouble buying the house they wanted to move into. In fact, I think their deal on that fell through. So they asked to push back the closing date, which we were okay with since we're currently renting.

So when we agreed to that, we went to the bank to try to lock in our interest rate in case it rises while we're waiting to close. We had to pay extra for it, but in the long run, it could save us money. So while we're waiting for things to get settled, we learn that the current owners are willing to close a little earlier if we let them stay in the house, rent-free until the original delayed closing date. Again, we accommodated, but now we had to go back to the bank and re-negotiate the rate because the rate went down and our target closing date changed. Hubby was the one that handled all of this. Personally, I have no head for these things.

So anyways, the rate was successfully renegotiated and the bank had to re-review our loan application and accounts and stuff before they can give us the clear to close. Once the bank gives us the clear to close, we can schedule the closing date as a done deal. The whole thing has been a pain the rear so far.

With the tentative closing date coming up and the potential moving date creeping in, we have decided we should start furniture shopping so we can ditch most of the stuff we currently have and move into a house with new stuff. I'm not particularly worried about getting a new desk or a new bed, but I am worried about getting a new couch. Couches can take as long as 6 weeks to deliver and possibly longer for something custom made.Generally, it's a good idea to shop around anyways so we have an idea of what we like and don't like.

Unfortunately, hubby and I don't always see eye to eye on stuff. His aesthetic, in my opinion, leans towards the look of the old-fashioned man's smoking room or den. You know, dark furniture, mahogany desks, navy blue couches and dark drapes. My aesthetic is more towards bright, airy and cool. My hope is to be able to coordinate stuff so all the pieces work together and look good together. Right now, all our furniture is completely mismatched with many needing repair. The placement of the furniture was set before I moved there and there had been no plans to really re-arrange the place and actually think about the look and feel and coordinating stuff.

I'm hoping to have a nicely decorated house. The reality is that decorating and re-decorating requires a serious amount of money. That is, money that we're not going to have once we pay everything off on Closing Day. Well, one step at a time, I guess.

Cake for two

Lately, I've been having serious cravings for dessert. Cookies and candies just didn't cut it. I wanted a cake or pie or something that counts as an actual after-dinner dessert! I thought about baking my favorite vegan chocolate cake, but I didn't want to have to eat a whole cake, or even half a cake!

Fortuitously, as I was struggling with this dilemma, I came across a recipe that bakes just enough cake for 2 people. It's a simple, easy recipe that makes a really light and fluffy cake. It was so good, I made it twice this weekend!

For the recipe, check it out here:
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/03/one-bowl-vanilla-cupcakes-for-two/

My only issue is the use of an egg white rather than the whole egg. I hate having leftover ingredients because then I have to think of something else to make with them before it goes bad. This past weekend, I just mixed the yolk in making some omelets or scrambled eggs.

Anyways, I'm sorry I don't have any photos of my cakes. They were eaten before I remembered I had a camera. The first try, I used buttermilk instead of milk and turbinado sugar. For the second try, I ran out of milk and used half and half and white sugar. I like the first try better. I felt like the flavor and texture was better in the first try. Both tries were yummy and hubby and I ate our cakes while they were still warm. I did not use  cupcake liners or cupcake tins. I lightly oiled and floured 2 small ramekins and baked them in the toaster oven.

I highly recommend this recipe!

Homemade scrubs

Scrubs are actually pretty easy to make. At its simplest, it's just oil with some kind of sanding element like sugar, salt or coffee grinds. From here you can add glycerin, liquid soap, essential oils, powdered oatmeal, cocoa powder and all sorts of stuff. In the end, you want the scrub to slough off some dead skin and leave you feeling soft and clean.

Personally, I find that the plain oil and sugar/salt recipe leaves my hands feeling too oily. I've experimented with adding liquid soap a few times but always hated the resulting smell of mixing soap with oil. Instead, I've been adding baking soda, which has some cleaning properties like soap in it, but doesn't create a weird smell.

I also love using glycerin in my skin recipes. You can get vegetable glycerin at health food/pharmacy stores and online. Glycerin leaves your skin feeling hydrated which helps to keep your skin feeling soft for a while afterward. I use it in all my lotion recipes and it's also a great addition to scrubs.

As for the sanding element, my current favorite is white sugar. Turbinado sugar granules are too big and too rough. Sea salt is also too rough and harsh for me. I have white sugar in the pantry for certain baking recipes that absolutely must use white sugar in order to get the right texture. So hence, I make white sugar scrubs. Probably, I can make the same scrubs using fine salt, but I don't know if we have those. I stopped using the salt with the umbrella girl on it ever since I discovered how much better my food tastes using sea salt.

Anyways, so here is my favorite recipe to date:
1 part vegetable glycerin
1 part sweet almond oil (grapeseed oil will do as well. I like sweet almond oil because it is light and absorbs quickly into the skin)
Sugar (as much as it takes to get the consistency you like)
Generous sprinkling of baking soda

The above recipe happens to be one that I like. The thing about skin care stuff is that everyone has different needs. You should experiment and create a recipe combination that works for you.

Plant theft

A couple of times, on the way to the train station from home, hubby and I noticed parents walking with their kids to school. Seems okay so far, right? What is shocking is that the kids, passing by someone's front garden filled with flowers, was picking the flowers - right in front of the parent! The first time, the parent sees us coming and tells the kid to hurry up and finish picking. The second time, the parent simply didn't even care. I find it shocking that parents condone this. Although this kind of theft is relatively harmless because it is not like money was lost and that the owner needed plants in their front yard, it is still theft. The fact that these parents aren't even teaching their kids right from wrong is even more shocking because you then have to wonder what other instances of right and wrong are they not teaching?

Anyways, here's the article that spurred this post. The comments section is also worth reading.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/boston/stop-thief-dealing-with-stolen-garden-plants-the-gardenist-150171

Cooling necklace

Summer is upon us! In celebration of that, I found a really wonderful craft project that I'd like to try out:

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2011/06/make-a-cooling-summer-necklace/

Weekend cooking

Last weekend, I spent almost all my time cooking. Actually, the cooking part was easy. Most of my effort was spent on prepping and chopping the vegetables and then washing the dishes repeatedly so I can re-use them. What's so sad about it is that in the end, my arms and hands were so sore, they could barely move and I have little results to show for it.

So what did I make? I made veggie stock, lentil soup, chickpea cutlets and seitan roast. The chickpeas needed to soak for at least 8 hours, but the mashing of them by hand was hard. Also, I am not good with knives and chopping. So dicing all the veggies into tiny cubes was probably not the best on me either. The seitan roast was a crockpot roast, so very little effort there. Honestly, I don't know why I was so incapacitated after a weekend of this. Looking back, I feel like I did very little. There was so much more I wanted to do but didn't get around to it. So anyways, the veggie stock is now frozen, as is most of the chickpea cutlets. The seitan roast and the veggies from the veggie stock will be eaten this week

In retrospect, I could have done things differently and will do so when we move into the house. First of all, I will cut down on veggie chopping by hand and let some machines do some work, like the food processor. For veggie stocks, it shouldn't matter if the food processor processes the veggies too fine since I'll be straining the stuff anyways. I'll also use the food processor for processing the chickpeas to bits. Mashing by hand is hard work! As for the dishes, that's what the dishwasher is for!

This past weekend, I did another big round of cooking. I made my favorite egg and potato salad, cucumber salad, cabbage soup, pita chips, onion dip, deviled eggs and a casserole. My hubby and I polished off the pita chips, onion dip and deviled eggs before the weekend was over. I froze some of the cabbage soup and half the casserole.Even so, I think we have enough food to last us a few days.

These past couple of weekends have left me eating very well and feeling very satisfied. If you'd like to try to make some of the foods I made, here is the list of sources:

- chickpea cutlets - Post Punk Kitchen
http://www.theppk.com/2010/11/doublebatch-chickpea-cutlets/

- lentil soup - Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
http://markbittman.com/7-ways-to-make-lentil-soup

- seitan roast - Vegan Planet
http://veganplanet.blogspot.com/2008/03/slow-cooker-seitan-pot-roast.html

-cabbage soup - Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
Couldn't find it posted online, but it's in the cookbook and the iPad app

- pita chips
Just split the pitas, brush with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toast in the oven at 400 degrees for 5 minutes.

- onion dip - Alton Brown
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/onion-dip-from-scratch-recipe/index.html

- deviled eggs
Cut hard-boiled eggs in half and scoop out yolks. Mash yolks with prepared horseradish, mayo, salt and pepper. Then pipe or spoon yolk mixture back into egg whites.

- egg and potato salad
Steam cook 2 potatoes, 2 carrots, 2 eggs and dice them along with a fresh, small cucumber, de-seeded. Mix with mayo, white pepper and salt to taste

- cucumber salad
Slice cucumber very thin and toss with salt and vinegar. Let it sit for a couple of hours, then drain. Mix in sour cream. Add mayo and pepper to taste.

- casserole
Saute tomatoes, celery, carrots, mock duck, scallions, garlic and whatever leftover veggies you have until tender and starting to brown. There should be about 2 cups of this. Beat 5 eggs and add lots of grated parmesan cheese. Then mix in the veggies and 2 cups of cooked rice. Put into baking dish and bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour.

You'll notice a lot of mayo and sour cream being used this past weekend. This is because I really wanted to make onion dip and the egg and potato salad and I ended up with some leftover sour cream and cucumber. So I made a couple of other things to use up these ingredients. Although there is no excuse for the deviled eggs other than the fact that I just wanted to make them for me and my hubby to snack on. Despite all the cooking work, these past couple of weekends have been very enjoyable and I have eaten very well. I do love it when my cooking adventures turn out well!

Hunting for a home, part 4

After the inspection was done and we've decided to move ahead with the purchase, we had to finalize the details of the contract and hand in the earnest money. Once that's done, we had to apply for a loan.

The contract negotiations were, for the most part, handled by our lawyer, who I am very thankful to be working with. As luck would have it, our real estate lawyer is very good. He is not only attentive, but readily available when we or our bank have questions. He proactively negotiated to remove parts of the contract that would have been detrimental to us, which makes me feel like he making his best effort to represent our interests.

Eventually, the contract was finalized and our closing date was set on a date later than we would have liked. It was because of this late closing date that we decided to pay extra to lock in our mortgage rate in case it rises. In any case, we had to bring a mountain of paperwork to the bank mortgage guy to apply for the loan. It went smoothly, but it took a long time.

A while later, we get an email from some other bank dude that does the nitty gritty for bank loans and he informed us that our loan was approved to be underwritten. Yay! Now all we have to do is liquidate some funds so that we can prove we can cover the down payment. So far, so good (knock on wood!)

Hunting for a home, part 3

This part is about the home inspection. Once this part is done, we can either re-negotiate the bid price or go ahead and move forward with the contract. The entire inspection was done in 2 hours and it was quite expensive. However, considering the amount of money the house itself costs, the amount spent on the inspection is negligible.

Anyways, we arrive at the house at the appointed time and the inspector is already there waiting. He meets us out front and we chat while waiting for the real estate agent. The sellers are out, but their nanny is home with the kids and they planned to head out into the city once the inspection starts. So basically, we're all waiting for the real estate agent to let us in and put everything in order. The inspector eventually got impatient and then irritated as we waited and waited, so he started the inspection of the exterior of the house and whatever we could see from the outside perimeter. It's an old house and it's clear that maintenance work has been kept up with over the years.

As we were chatting about the back of the house (we still couldn't enter the premises, so we were chatting about what we could see over the back gate) the real estate agent arrived. She was about 30 minutes late, never introduced herself, made any apologies nor any excuses as to why she was late. When she finally did let us into the house and the nanny left with the kids, she spent most of our time there screaming on the phone using the most mean and rude language. She was so loud and nasty on the phone, that we were hearing her in the basement and the inspector made a comment that she has "some mouth" on her. As we continued the inspection of the basement, it was clear that she was screaming on the phone making actual business calls. I don't understand how anyone can do business with her.

Anyway, the inspection itself was pleasant. The inspector was thorough and explained what things may need work soon and often would include approximate cost of the work. We walked away with the overall impression that the house is in decent shape and has been lovingly maintained by the family living there. There are, however, some important concerns.

For me, the first major concern is the likely presence of lead-based paint. Most of the interior of the house has been painted over several times so whatever lead-based paint there was has been covered up. However, there is evidence of some peeling paint and hollow areas where the old paint has separated from the walls, increasing the risk of lead dust coming out and contaminating the rest of the house. The previous owners never got the house inspected for lead, so they can't tell us much about the risk other than that all the old paint has been painted over at least a couple of time. We will have to get the house inspected for lead and start taking action to get rid of it. Lead abatement via contractor is very expensive and I think for us, would cost at least $30,000. The other option is to do it ourselves. It sounds risky, but I think it can be done since there are tips on what precautions to take on nyc.gov.

In any case, for some reason, hubby is not as concerned with lead abatement as I am. The idea of lead dust getting into me or my future baby really makes me nervous and uncomfortable and just really, really unhappy. Hubby has promised to help remove the lead once we've gotten the house. I just hope it gets done sooner than later.