Recipe Of The Day: Cheddar Vegetable Chowder

Today's recipe is an old favourite of mine. I absolutely love good soups and stews. A fresh salad is nice but I'm way more into the comfort food. I got this recipe from House and Home and it even comes with a step-by-step instructional video. Pretty easy to make. The hardest part is chopping up all the fresh ingredients, although you can use frozen vegetables instead if you prefer. I prefer them fresh. You can find the recipe here.

My mini-modifications: I don't use the bell peppers because I can't stand the texture of them cooked but they make the soup taste so much better when you do. A tip: buy your white cheddar from Costco to save some money cause this recipe calls for quite a bit.

If you have any delicious and simple soup recipes you would love to share send them my way!

Remodeling Our Fireplace

 One of the most sure ways to give away your home's age is its fireplace. Some can be worked with with just a simple quick update, like a coat of paint (my friend Arinn is just going to paint her tile surround since her mantle is gorgeous). Others are teardowns. Ours were in between. So I tore them down.

The family room. Here I had initially considered keeping everything as is but sanding off the flower carvings (or whatever
you call that stuff), and then painting it black to match the tile surround. But I wasn't keen on the round cutout above it.

The front room. This one, I liked the structure itself, no flowery carvings (or whatever they're called) to sand off but I hated the grey tile surround and again the cutout in the wall above the mantle. Again, I considered painting the whole thing out either white or black.

So those serve as nice before photos. Because I didn't have the insight at the time to take proper before photos I photographed the realtor listing on my computer screen with my cell phone. Good enough.

I was stumped with what to do but our contractor, Billy Boyes, with Boyes Brothers Contracting, was starting work really soon so I had like a DAY to decide. Then I found THIS

The 2012 Princess Margaret Showhome, designed by, Linda Reeves.

I love the painted brick, minimalist fireplace, the built in shelves beside it, how it's flanked by large art and has a flat screen mounted low above the fireplace. And I've had my eye on that ikea Stockholm table for a while now. But I think they don't sell it anymore? Anyways, I decided, from this photo I had to have white brick going up the fireplace in the front room. It's a tall, vaulted, two story ceiling. It would look BEAUTIFUL.
Turns out, this is a very expensive idea. Even with the interlocking facade brick. So I needed more ideas. Here's what I found

Drywalled! Looks great, very close to my original idea, a little less interesting, but equally modern and minimalist.
Here's some more

This is from House and Home. I like the wood panelling.

This room is just a whole lot of interesting. Love it.

So I was reassured by these photos that  A. a mantle is NOT necessary and B. a simple drywall around a minimal surround will look beautiful.

Billy - I love this man - got to work tearing it all down, drywalling in the alcoves (or whatever they're called), and doing what he does to make my house look amazing.

Front room

Family room

And Billy's final work by my design
update: new photos!

Note the new hearth that wasn't there before. The black tile surround is from the original
fireplace. Saved us money but also worked perfectly with the look I wanted.

And the family room. To the right of the fireplace I have all my art by 20x200. And if you're curious about where I got any of my accents, I'm just realizing this is almost all Urban Barn.

Beautiful, right? I love when a vision comes together.