EPISODE #114 -
SATURDAY JUNE 9, 2012
The wind and
rain were really whipping around this past week. It seemed more
like a fall day than a late spring day. Still, I can feel the
warmth of the wind and the sun breaks are definitely welcome.
Soon I’m sure we will get the sun back on a more permanent
basis. Before it gets back I will have to get out and
re-finish that back deck!
We kick off
the show this week at
Standard TV and Appliance (503-619-0500) in Beaverton. We
are thinking about doing a kitchen makeover and we are here
shopping for appliances. They have a great selection of
appliances and great customer service.
Also, if you
remember a couple of weeks ago we did a story on changing the
look of your room by using paint and a stencil. Well,
Cutting Edge Stencils has given us a stencil to give away to
a luck viewer. All you have to do to enter is to go to our home
page at
www.FusionNW.com and click on our link to Facebook and
‘like’ us. You will automatically be entered to win.
Staging a Home
If you are
looking to sell your home it can be a challenge in this market.
The housing market has been in a downturn for quite a while and
it is slowly crawling back up. In these conditions you can
really make your home stand out by doing a little staging of
your home in preparation for sale. We met with
Linda Gemal
(503-803-8000) a local home designer and realtor to get some
tips on how to do that. We started at the front of a local
home. This area should be your first focus. To get ready for a
sale everyone starts working hard on the inside, but the outside
of your home is what makes the first impression. If your home
looks bad from the outside most people won’t even stop to check
out the inside. Clean up the flower beds and plant some small
colorful bedding plants to spruce things up. Also clean up the
front the house and the roof. Give the front of the house a
good spray from a pressure washer. ‘Clean’ is the key word.
Both inside and outside should look clean and non-cluttered.
That takes us inside the house. Linda showed us how to
depersonalize your home to get it ready for sale. You need to
walk around your home and look for all the little knick-knack
items and put them away. In the bathroom, stash all your
personal toiletry items and clean off the counter. Look at your
home as a buyer would. What would make you want to buy the
house? If you have too much stuff, put it in boxes and move it
to the garage. Better yet, if you can’t remember the last time
you used an item, sell it or donate it. The key is to let the
buyer think about their items in the space and not see your
stuff cluttering it up. Bring in some flowers to dress things
up and KEEP IT CLEAN. If you are looking to get your home ready
for sale and could use a little help, you can give Linda a call,
and since she is a realtor, she can help you sell it too.
Swedish Cream
We love
Milo’s
City Café (503-288-MILO)! Owner, Chef Loren is such a great
guy and the food is incredible! Today he is showing us how to
make a Swedish Cream. This recipe can be a dessert for after
dinner or as a morning brunch treat. This is also one of those
recipes that you can do ahead of time so there is less work when
you are making dinner. You start by scalding some heavy cream
with a little gelatin (about a teaspoon of gelatin in a cup and
a half of cream). Let it scald for about 2-3 minutes to let the
gelatin dissolve, then remove it from the heat and put it in a
mixing bowl while it is still warm. Next mix the other
ingredients in the bowl with the cream/gelatin mixture. A good
sour cream, a thick Greek yogurt (plain, unsweetened), some
sugar, orange juice for flavor and some vanilla extract. Mix
it together with a whisk to make a ‘fancy puddin’ as Loren likes
to call it. When it is mixed you can pour it in a couple of
glasses and place it in the refrigerator to let it get firm.
After a couple of hours it is ready for the topping. Chef
Loren topped his with fresh berries and it was ready to serve.
It was to die for!!!! If you would like to give it a try here
is the recipe. If you are not that great in the kitchen you can
stop by and try it at Milo’s. They always have a menu full of
great things!
French Prairie Gardens Shortcake
One of the
best things about spring is the fresh fruits and vegetable that
you can get at your local store or market. But not only that,
you can actually go out to the farm and pick the fruit
yourself. One of the best places to enjoy the freshest of
fruits is at
French Prairie Gardens (503-633-8445) near St. Paul. We
love stopping there to shoot during the spring and enjoying the
tasty strawberry shortcake. This year Karren has been generous
enough to share her shortcake recipe with us. The recipe is
pretty easy, but the key is the fresh strawberries that you will
need to top it all off. You have your chance to pick those
delicious berries and enjoy a cold brew these next 2 weekends at
the Berries, Brews and BBQ event at the farm. BBQ competitors
from around the state will be trying to make the tastiest dishes
on the 9th and 10th. On the weekend of
the 16th and 17th they will have the
Battle of the Food Carts! The farm will also have a bunch or
Oregon breweries and Wineries there as well on both weekends.
You can enjoy all the normal farm festival fun including farm
animals, hay rides and slides. Stop by and check it out. While
you are there you can sign up for their Grilling in the Garden
event on the 21st which features a farm inspired
menu. Check out their website for more details.
Saws and Blades
Getting the
job done right requires the right tools and that includes saws.
If you have ever been to
Parr Lumber
(866-214-7277) you may have been overwhelmed by the number and
different types of saws. To help clear up the confusion we
talked to Amber to find out the differences between different
saws and the blades that they use. She started with the big
one, a sliding compound miter saw. This one has become a
replacement for the huge table saw that a lot of people used to
have in their homes. Since a lot of people don’t need to cut
huge sheets of material (they can do that for you at the lumber
yard) they are now opting for this small more versatile saw. It
is really safe, really accurate and, if mounted properly, really
stable. Since it is a sliding saw it can handle larger pieces
of material and it can also do cuts on an angle, which is great
for sawing molding and trim. Then we moved to a saw that a lot
of people have; the jig saw. This saw is great for small pieces
of material and for fine, detailed, circular cuts. This saw is a
favorite of hobbyists. Next was the ‘recip’ saw; or
reciprocating saw. This saw is the jig saw on steroids! It has
a push-pull blade like the jig saw but it can cut through much
larger pieces of material. A lot of people use this as a
demolition tool. The final saw we looked at was the circular
saw, or Skil Saw (named for the company that first marketed
it). This is ‘the’ standard for saws. The portable circular
saw is the working mans saw and can be found in just about every
toolbox. It can do and cut just about anything since the blades
are easy to change. Speaking of blades, there are lots of
options here too. The general rule of thumb is that the finer
the teeth on the blade the finer the cut. Bring in the old
blade or have a measurement of the blade so you get the right
size. Knowing the type of material you are going to cut makes a
difference too. If you are cutting ‘hardi-plank’ siding,
fiber-cement boards or sheetrock that may mean using a different
blade, but the experts at Parr can help you choose the right
one. You should also look at replacing your blade if the teeth
are missing or worn down. If you have any questions at all
stop by and talk to a friendly Parr salesperson.
Creating a Lamp
The right
lamp can create a mood, dress up a dull spot or make a statement
to your décor, but sometimes it can be difficult to find the
right lamp for your room. To learn how to get around that
problem we stopped by
Naomi’s Lampshades and Lamps (503-636-1884) in Lake Grove to
talk to Bea Searles. She is the expert when it comes to
lamps! She can take almost anything and make it into a lamp,
whether it is an antique, a piece of pottery or even a piece of
artwork. She can even make a lamp out of grandpa’s ashes!
The key is
knowing how to make the lamp with various pieces. For example,
if you had a piece of artwork (or grandpa’s ashes) they would
build a stand to place the piece on, and then using the right
materials, build a French mount to run behind the piece without
disturbing it. If you had a special piece of pottery they can
even drill a hole in the bottom and make a lamp out of it. The
one thing that they hesitate to make a lamp out of are pieces of
hand-blown glass. These pieces have an inherent tension to the
glass and when they are drilled that releases the tension and
they can crack easily. They can still find ways to make a lamp
out of those; they just can’t drill the glass. The final touch
is the shade. Sometimes the shade is what will really make the
piece stand out and they can pick out one from the thousands
they have in stock! If you are looking to make your own custom
lamp, stop by and see Bea and her crew. |
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