Asthma and pancakes

The kitchen has (mostly) been moved downstairs. It's actually a fairly functional, cozy set-up. It also happens to be one sacred area of the house that is not covered in a thick layer of dust. This place is feeling like Pompeii after Vesuvius from all the mortar dust.

Kevin's taken on the project of repointing the brick and has been grinding away in the dust-storm of our sealed-off kitchen. He's gotten wise and is now using a respirator, which makes him look like a Storm Trooper but sound like Darth Vader.

We bought muriatic acid and safety equipment at Ace today. On a less windy day, he'll open the house up for ventilation and be acid-washing the brick. The nice man at Ace was pretty into the safety aspect, and didn't hesitate to tell us that muriatic acid was "a lot like Napalm," citing his personal experience with both as a Vietnam vet and handy-person.

The new window and door have been ordered. I really need to order the cork flooring, but my credit card is feeling a bit exhausted right now. I have to work up the  chutzpah to put another big purchase on my plastic.

After a big day of construction, I tested out my newest cookbook (1,000 Vegan Recipes, given to me by Kevin's mom for xmas.) I made a savory chickpea flour pancake with rosemary and kalamata olives. It was pretty good with some olive oil drizzled on top. Next time I'll be adding double the kalamatas though. Regardless, pancake made of pea flour kinda blows my mind.

In the meantime, the Chambers is still waiting patiently to continue the restoration. I believe all I need to do is locate a compression valve, replace the rockwool in the door, and put Humpty Dumpty back together again.