Monthly Archives: November 2020

Master Closet Remodel

Posted by aaronbertrand on

I recently blogged about what we’ve been doing with more time at home due to the pandemic. One of the things on my list was remodeling our master closet. When we walked through before closing three years ago, we were blown away with the size – it is slightly bigger in square footage than either of the girls’ bedrooms. But it is not laid out really well, and it came furnished with standard rod & shelf storage:

How it started…

We started looking at options, and most of the custom closet places were $15-20K and up. They were fancy, of course, and had lots of options. But still, hello, DIY.

Wayfair offers a system called Grid by Dotted Line, which I think is a white label for Stow’s Easy Track. It’s a little more industrial-looking, is only 14″ deep (so we can’t really add doors or mirrors, since clothing sticks out), and it shows all the peg and screw holes. But it’s a closet.

Anyway, I planned out what we wanted on this crude whiteboard sketch:

Ordered all the parts (at a substantial employee discount!), and went to work. Progress after the weekend:

…how it’s going

Some minor adjustments from my initial drawing (most notably the nook corner was just too tight to use two walls). Still a couple of things to finish the nook, coming in the next shipment – a few shelves and two undermount hampers.

There’s still a lot of unused space in the middle, which would have been narrower if we went with full-depth, closed closets. We’re talking about an island of some kind in the middle – not a full-height dresser, but some kind of ottoman/storage combination. But we’re ready to start migrating piles of clothes in our bedroom back into the closet.

Next, we’re thinking about changing our vented fireplace to a ventless model, to help better support a bigger project coming soon.

Aaron’s Eggs

Posted by aaronbertrand on

We make eggs a lot, and we like a little spice, so here’s my recipe. Leave out the hot things if you don’t like spice. I like a large non-stick pan, and a silicon spatula to keep the pan spotless as you move the eggs around.

  • 4 links of fresh, ground sausage
    • The more exotic the better – Chorizo, hot Italian, or combo
    • A little more is ok too, but you’ll need a big pan
  • 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 large pepper, red, yellow, or orange, chopped
  • 1 or 2 jalapeños, chopped
  • 2 tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wings sauce
  • 1 tbsp green Tabasco milder jalapeño
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • Shredded cheese

Beat eggs, add milk; set aside.

Squeeze the sausage out of the casing into the pan. Start the browning process, but don’t cook completely, then drain; return to pan (with a little olive oil depending on how well you drain).

Mix in onions, peppers, and sauce; stir occasionally until veggies are close to desired consistency and sausage is fully cooked.

Push sausage and veggies to one side of the pan, and shift the pan so the mixture is largely off the burner. Go down to medium heat, and add the eggs to the spot you cleared.

Stir the eggs frequently until they’re just about done, then mix everything together to finish cooking.

When it all looks done, turn down to simmer, add cheese, and cover until melted.