March | 2013 | Historyeats

Mar 14 2013

New Spindles

One day, while walking through Home Depot (which Steve really should get a job at because seems like we are always there spending lots of money), I noticed railing spindles on sale. I looked at Steve with my I have an idea look and I got the oh no, now what look.

Well that day we came home with new beautiful, matte black spindles for our railing in our front room.

Two owners before us did a beautiful job opening up the wall exposing the staircase which makes the room feel so much larger and spacious, but inserted cheap white spindles. Yes, we could have painted them, but I didn’t feel it would add the same richness to the room, plus I wanted to tie the metal curtain rods in. We are going for a rustic modern feel in the house with a touch of traditional.

White Spindles

The project was actually really easy to do.

First, we took out all the spindles. Then there is a piece of wood that goes down the middle of the base of the opening called a shoe (sorry, no picture) which houses the bottom of the spindles, we removed that, then got sanding. We didn’t want the clear shinny look, we wanted the natural wood appearance.

After sanding, we stained it a pine color, matching the rest of the wood in the house. Then, we needed to make new holes in the base for the spindles to sit in. We made a plumb, which is made simply of string and a nail. You attach it to the top of the banister, line up the top hole and make a dot with the nail where the bottom hole is to go. Drill. You now have two holes for the spindle. Insert new spindles. Wallaaa. Whole new banister which looks beautiful.

New Spindles

This lead us to do the upstairs banister and the downstairs banister, which turned out to be a little bit more than just replacing the spindles. We opened up the wall just like the front room. Pictures will be on another post.

Mar 07 2013

Restaurant Week 2013

Steve and I LOVE trying new restaurants. Lucky, in the Twin Cities, there is restaurant week, which is our favorite week out of the year.

Restaurant week started back in 2007 as an opportunity for food lovers to enjoy the best dining of the Twin Cites at a discount price. Participating restaurants offer two course lunches for $10-$20 and three-course dinners for $15-$30. It’s a wonderful opportunity to try a new restaurant that you have been dying to try, but might be to expensive, hard to get into or it’s just your favorite place to go.

Check it out!

http://mspmag.com/Contests-And-Promotions/Restaurant-Week/Diner-of-the-Day/

This last restaurant week we went to Aj’s Japanese in Hopkins for Sushi Buffet and Cro0ked Pint Ale House.

First, Aj’s Japanese in Hopkins. We went here for lunch, which was crazy, but so worth it.

The sushi is so fresh with lots of different options. I love sitting back watching the art of sushi making. Something that is so fun and not always easy to do. The people are always so willing to answer your questions about the different roles as you go through the buffet. This is one of our staples during restaurant week.

*the restaurant was so busy that it was really hard to take photos so these are from Aj’s Japanese Website**

Sushi

Second, we went to Crooked Ale Pint house for dinner with a group of friends.

None of us had been there before and we all would return. The atmosphere is relaxed with a classic pub feel. They have great beer on tap, which is served in the appropriate glass for the type of beer. The staff is knowledgeable about the types of beers and able to answer questions or give great recommendations.

For dinner I had the Peanut Butter and Bacon Lucy. It was stuffed with peanut butter and topped with bacon. It was soooo good!! I am a peanut butter lover, so anything with peanut butter I am all over.

Steve had the Hangover Lucy. It was stuffed with Ham and American Cheese topped with a fried egg. I had a bite of his and it was amazing too!

We were enjoying our food so much and in deep conversation that by the time we remembered to take a photo we were all done. 😦 I guess you will just need to stop there and see and taste for yourself how good the food is.