dining out: dc-3

When my parents came to visit earlier this month, they got in around dinnertime Friday. They'd been in the car for six hours, so we decided to get dinner somewhere quick and casual. I suggested DC-3, the hot dog place on Barracks Row, and they loved it.

The restaurant's name and decor are based on 1940s commercial air travel. Airplanes made traveling across the country easier, and the restaurant links all of those cities via their hot dogs. Like a New York coney dog or a Cincinnati chili dog.

Tony, always the adventurous eater, ordered the bulgogi and kimchi dog. Couldn't stop raving about it, particularly the buttered roll.

And the man ordered fried pickles. He and my dad devoured them.

This place is vegetarian-friendly. I ordered a veggie dog with veggie chili. (And a random pickle just because.) Really happy with it. I've had the falafel dog on a previous trip - also tasty.

We were there right before Lent started, so my dad ordered a Mardi Gras-themed dog.

And my mom went with the Cincinnati coney dog, easy on the onions.

DC-3 is a crowd pleaser, and a good dining option if you're looking for food quickly.

home improvement: drafty outlets

When my parents were in D.C. earlier this month to help put up crown molding, my dad mentioned that he felt a draft from our outlets and that we might want to insulate them. It had not occurred to me that (a) outlets can be drafty or that (b) they can be insulated. But now I know.

So the next time Tony and I were at Home Depot, we picked up a couple of packages of these outlet sealers. We used one piece for each light switch and outlet on the front and back walls of the house. (Rowhouse living perk - no need to insulate on the sides of the house because they're up against the neighbors' houses.)

The process started with removing the outlet covers.

Here's one of our drafty outlets:

The material on the insulation is perforated, so you just have to poke through the shapes to fit the light switch or outlet.

Like so:

Here's Tony placing the foam over the outlet.

And that's about it. Screw the outlet cover back on. The capital investment for this project was about $4 for two packages of insulation, so hopefully we recoup that cash in the form of lower utility bills over time. No more drafty outlets.

decor: orange ikea lamp

A couple of months ago, I pinned a photo of a white metal cabinet from Ikea, which I thought could fit perfectly by the front door and would solve all of my shoe storage/umbrella storage/magazine storage/paper shredder storage problems. I'm 29 years old, so I've reached the point of my life where I'm trying to downsize my Ikea furniture, not add more, but I've been searching for months for a piece of furniture that would fit in that space, to no avail. So on Saturday morning, I finally decided to pull the trigger on the Ikea cabinet, and Tony and I got in the car and made our way to College Park.

Only ... we got there and found out the white cabinet has been discontinued. Extreme disappointment ensued. (They still sell red, though.)

But you can never leave Ikea empty-handed, can you? The geniuses behind the Ikea shopping experience force you to walk through all of their displays, and you can never resist picking up something you love. Like this glass lamp. They got me. I bought it. I'm a sucker. (It was $13 for the lamp + $6 for two bulbs.)

I have it parked on the trunk under the stairs, next to my elephant planter.

The colors in my living room are teal and orange, although I've been thinking I need more pops of orange to make the color scheme more obvious. The shape of the lamp is also very modern, which I like to contrast with all of the antique pieces I have. Plus, this little lamp gives off a nice warm glow in the living room in the evenings.

So, our Ikea trip summarized: one major decor disappointment and one minor decor success. Now I'm stalking Craigslist looking for the Ikea cabinet. Maybe someone in the D.C. metro area is approaching 30, looking to upgrade their furniture, and selling their Ikea stuff online. Fingers crossed, y'all.

<3

In unrelated weekend news, my crocus bulbs started blooming yesterday. Looks like my medicated foot powder technique worked in keeping the squirrels away so far. Spring can't be too far away.

things to do: eden center

Last Sunday, Mike and Jen needed to stock their pantry with some Asian foods, so we all trekked out to do some shopping at Eden Center near Seven Corners, which has dozens of Asian grocery stores, restaurants and shops -- all in a compact shopping plaza. This place is incredible and overwhelming at the same time, especially because we happened to arrive during the Chinese New Year celebration.

We picked up some pantry goods like rice noodles at the main grocery store. Tony bought some boiled peanuts at another store. We watched the New Year's dances in the parking lot - and then tried to avoid the firecrackers and their plumes of smoke.

And then we stopped for lunch. Choosing a restaurant in Eden Center is particularly overwhelming. There are so many - how do you pick? We ended up going with Rice Paper, a Vietnamese restaurant, which was full of customers, so we figured that was a good sign that the food was good. And it definitely was.

I ordered a fried tofu and vegetable dish, which had a wonderful flavor.

Everyone else ordered pho, and they all said it was delicious.

We tried to leave after lunch, but the parking lot was a nightmare with the New Year's festivities. Mike's car was blocked in the spot by THREE other cars. So we crossed a couple of pretty busy streets on foot (Seven Corners is not pedestrian friendly) to kill some time at Home Depot, where we picked up some things for the house, including insulation pads for outlets. (More on that later.) And by the time we were done at Home Depot, the parking lot had cleared out and we were able to make our way back to the city.

So if you're in the mood for some good Vietnamese food and Asian grocery shopping and you find yourselves near Seven Corners and you are in the mood to brave crazy traffic -- check out Eden Center.

home improvement: crown molding

It was a big home improvement weekend in our house, guys. Crown molding went up downstairs!

The project is 90 percent finished -- all we need to do is paint it. But I couldn't wait to write about this project.

I knew that the house would look better with crown molding, but I didn't realize how much better until it was on the walls. The room looks tied together and finished, and I love it so, so much.

My dad has put up crown molding in pretty much every room in his house, so he's an expert, and he said he'd come down to help with the project. The thing about putting up crown molding is that the molding and supplies aren't that expensive -- we paid less than $100 for all of the materials -- but the labor can be the expensive part. So we're lucky to have an expert in the family who was willing to help us out.

When Tony and I were in Ohio for Christmas, I went to the local hardware store with my dad, and I picked out the molding I wanted. Our ceilings are 9 feet downstairs, so I wanted large molding. I went with the 5 1/4-inch size. I decided against solid wood and went with MDF particleboard. MDF is straighter than solid wood and easier to work with. You need solid wood for baseboards and other trim that could get banged up, but nothing is going to damage molding on the ceiling.

Here's a shot from Saturday morning, as the pieces started to go up!

Tony and my dad used a nail gun with an air compressor to attach the molding. A row of nails in the drywall and a row of nails in the ceiling.

(Victor, by the way, was not impressed with the presence of the air compressor. It would rev up randomly and loudly, which means Victor spent much of Saturday under our bed. Here he is on Sunday afternoon, still looking unimpressed with the whole project, haha.)

(And here he is sitting on the spiral staircase, keeping an eye on Tony as he does some finishing touches - wiping down the spackling. The cat loves this staircase, by the way. He gets a birdseye view of the entire house. Also, when he's laying on the steps, he refuses to move out of the way for a person walking up the steps. It's kind of funny.)

Anyway, enough about the cat. Here's a picture of Tony being manly with the compound miter saw.

Here's an in-progress shot. You can see the slight variances in the ceiling height. Ceilings in houses (especially old houses) aren't exactly even. See the shadow between the molding and the ceiling where the molding doesn't quite reach the ceiling?

At this point, my mom and I left to go shopping. Because putting up crown molding is really a two-man job, and there were two extra people in the small space.

So I'm not sure what Tony and my dad did over the next few hours, but this is what our patio table looked like when my mom and I came back Saturday afternoon:

And this is how the inside of the house was looking:

Here's a before photo:

The gap between the ceiling and the molding disappeared. My dad used a tube of caulking to fill in those gaps.

And Tony filled all of the nail holes with lightweight spackling.

Here's a before shot of part of the room:

And some after pictures:

Before:

After:

And as a bonus, there was just enough molding left over to put it up in the half bath downstairs. So now the entire first floor is done. Which leaves us with just two bedrooms, the full bath and the upstairs hallway that are un-crown molded. Maybe down the line.

Oh and here's what one of the walls in the bathroom looks like right now. Someone is planning a makeover! I'm leaning toward the grays ... but that's a project for another day.

decor: a space to live in

Over the holidays, I read this blog post about holiday entertaining and how to make your house appear cleaner than it is. Tip No. 4 is to hide all of your dirty dishes in the oven before your guests arrive.

How dumb. I love reading decor and design blogs, but the oven recommendation epitomizes what's wrong with them. This writer wants her house to look perfect for her guests -- but the thing is, homes are not perfect. Homes that real people live in will never attain perfection. We are not Martha Stewart. We don't live in museums. We live in houses. Houses that sometimes get dusty, that sometimes need laundry put away, that sometimes have dishes in the sink.

Presumably, the blogger dirtied several pots and pans while cooking dinner for her friends. Most likely a handful of utensils, perhaps a plate or two. Maybe a mixing bowl. Some measuring cups and spoons. I understand the feeling of wanting your house to look its best when guests come over, but the people who are coming to your house for dinner surely know that meals do not get made by magic and that dirty dishes are involved. So put those dirty dishes in the sink. Dirty dishes belong in the sink. If you have time, wash the dishes before your friends arrive. And if you run out of time, leave them in the damn sink.

And that brings me to my second rant of the day.

I see this all the time on blogs: a bookshelf in someone's home where all of the book jackets are green or purple or whatever to coordinate with the room's color scheme. Or where all of the books on a shelf are the same size. Or where the books are arranged by color to look like the American flag?

And that's ridiculous. Nobody's real-world house will ever look as interesting as those pictures because organizing books by color or size makes no sense -- how are you going to ever find a book that way? In the real world, books are alphabetized by author. I submit that a truly talented interior designer would be able to organize books alphabetically, based on how they're actually used, and still make a room look interesting. Form should follow function.

End rants.