21 things to do with leftover roasts

1.  hash
2. potpies
3.  shepherd's pie
4.  hand pies
5.  enchiladas
6.  tostadas
7.  tacos
8.  quesadillas
9.  grillades
10.  nachos
11.  sandwiches
12.  melts
13.  french dips
14.  dippers for cheese fondue
15.  salads
16.  pastas
17.  soups
18.  stews
19.  stir fries
20.  biryani
21.  curry

We have a bathroom at Renan!

For those of you who have ever seen pictures or videos or have had a real life tour of the family farmhouse we have in Virginia, you may be as surprised and impressed as I am with this picture of our new bathroom! Ben's Uncle Wayne has been working on it and I think it's pretty spectacular looking. Have I mentioned it involves running water and sewer?!?

p.s. Design notes: Everything is off the shelf Lowe's options -- the tiles were the cheapest they had, but I think they have a lot of style for the price. The sink is a bit too small for the scale, but we were really worried about how much space we had. (And with a sink this small, I think we'll be able to get a set of shelves between it and the toilet, which we'll need if we're sharing one bathroom with the houseguests we envision -- yes that would be you -- once we get the house livable.)

Asbestos and Appliance Contractors in Austin

Since I've had pleasant dealings with both of these contractors in the last 2 weeks, I am going to recommend them (and write their names here so I can find them again when I need them).

Asbestos removal: Johnny at Action Environmental. 512-745-3688. They helped over the phone before I even hired them by telling me where to get my flooring testing in town, and had extremely competitive prices according to the Home Depot guy I was discussing my flooring woes with. Even better, the came out on a Saturday at 2 to give me an estimate (the day after I called), returned 2 hours later to start work, and were done by 11 PM that night. My only recommendation would be to measure your floors yourself and check their square footage numbers -- I think I paid for more square footage than I actually had, but still got a good deal.

Tracey at Champion Appliance (recommended by Suzy Bates, so this is a double endorsement): 512-336-5800. Suzy had them come out to look at a dryer, and the surprising recommendation was to let it make noise until it broke, then buy a new one (charge? $0.) I had him come figure out an ice maker leak that Ben and I couldn't figure out. Turned out to be trivial, was fixed in 10 minutes, and he broke up the ice that had pooled on the bottom of the freezer so I didn't have to defrost it. Charge -- $65 + tax, which included a year warranty.

Both are small family owned operations. Johnny and his father in law did all the work themselves on the asbestos (although they normally run crews), and Tracey and his wife are their entire operation.

Tiny Texas Houses

Neat, Tiny Texas Houses. I'm wondering if I could put one of these in my backyard for an office/guest bedroom instead of building on. Or if I could attach it to my house with a walkway or something?

See also.