littlepaperheart's Profile

It's funny, I just cooked chinese broccoli for the first time last night. I steamed it briefly and served it with tofu, quinoa and a simple sauce of ponzu sweetened with a little honey. The ponzu turned out to be a really good foil for the slight bitterness of the greens. Overall a very yummy meal.

Where did you find those fantastic table legs? I have been looking for something similar.

Already did. Bought at Roku instead. Best $100 I ever spent. I'm hoping it will someday stream hulu.

I know this is supposed to be a list of questions to be addressed, but having lived in a very tiny house for the last two years, I have a few recommendations:

1) Kitty litter pan goes in the bathtub. Makes cleaning up escaped litter easier. Remove from bathtub and place on closed toilet seat to bathe. Sounds a little gross I guess, but if you have cats, it probably won't seem that weird.

2) I have found that installing wall hooks makes a huge difference in rooms with limited floor real estate. I have several on the wall right inside my front door for my bag, jacket etc and several more in my bedroom for my towel, pjs etc. Otherwise all of these items would end up on the floor.

Although I don't keep my dirty laundry in my bathtub. I DO keep a litter box in there for my cats. I have to take it out every morning and wash any escaped litter down the drain before I shower. On the laundry front, I have a small folding hamper from container store in the corner of my bedroom with three hooks mounted above it on the wall. I use the hooks for my towel, pjs and not-quite-dirty clothes because otherwise they end up on the floor. So far my system is working out pretty well.

I want! I have had the design for something similar in my head for the last year or so. This is perfect. Now I just have to figure out how to get one.

I have a set of cuisinart stainless chef's classic that I really like a lot. I bought a ten piece set from BBB using a 20% coupon, but I believe the same set is available from Amazon and I'm sure it is competitively priced. I believe I spent between 200 and 300. However, I have to say that there are a few pans that I find more useful than others:

- 6qt stock pot (8qts was too big and didn't fit in the fridge well)
- 2qt and 3qt sauce pans
- 4qt saute pan
- 12 inch nonstick skillet

It also largely depends on the kind of foods you like to cook. I am cooking for one person and am a vegetarian so I am mostly cooking tofu, veggies and beans. I mostly steam, stirfry and boil. I personally don't like nonstick very much because of the possible poisonous outguessing, so I only use the nonstick skillet for dry-frying tofu.

I strongly believe that the only way people will really change their behavior is if it is convenient and economical. For example, where I live in the Bay Area, we are provided with a HUGE recycling bin and a tiny trash bin. You can get a bigger trash bin, but it is pretty expensive. In addition, our recycling program accepts all plastics (1-7). It has become more convenient (and less expensive) to recycle than to throw stuff in the trash. Frankly, most people have more pressing and immediate worries and can't be expected to go out of their way to change their behavior without community support.

When I was looking to buy a home, I looked exclusively at older homes that needed a little TLC. I realized right away that the stress of taking on a home that was barely livable and needed significant work wasn't worth it. My house definitely needed some work, but was totally livable when I moved in. One of the biggest issues was the kitchen, which was at least 50 years old and gross. I initially thought that I would remodel it myself. But then reality set in: I'm a single woman with a demanding full time job. So I hired a contractor. Part of me felt weird about it, but the other part loved that fact that he was the one who had to deal with the uneven floors, weird plumbing and layers of paint in my 100 year old home. Also, I didn't have to worry about making costly mistakes or compromising my home's resale value by muddling my way through the work on my own. It hurt my pride a little to hire someone else to do the work, but then I got over it. I think that if I had a partner in crime, I might have been more willing to go the DIY route. My advice would be to take on a simple task like painting the walls and see how you feel after spending hours trying to cover hideous bright red paint with layer after layer of white. (BTW- I learned the hard way...prime over the red paint first.)

Since I own my home, some of my secondary deal breakers are things that I can change, but there are still some things that I just have to deal with. These include:

1) Having a zero property line. This means that one side of my house is also my property line and my neighbor's driveway runs next to my bedroom.

2) Having my laundry outside. I absolutely hate this, but unfortunately my house is too small for the washer and dryer to fit inside. I guess it's better than the laundromat.

3) Having next to no storage space inside my house. Fortunately, I do have a small shed out back.