Bathroom renovations and cooking classes

Word of advice: don't change your appliances... I just wanted a new washer-dryer and now I might be on my way to some bathroom renovations. The contractor who dropped by yesterday morning had a look at the floor in the bathroom and at some of the cracks that are starting to appear around the area where the appliances are. It's indeed a problem with the floor, easy to fix at this point, but he would need to tear out most of the existing floor, level and straighten the subfloor, and all my problems would be solved. Which got me thinking, if he's going to pull apart my bathroom, maybe I should take advantage of that and have some tiles installed, instead of replacing the existing linoleum. And the sink cabinet, which will have to be removed, doesn't look very modern, it could be replaced by something nicer. And the list goes on... Well, before I engage myself in a total bathroom makeover, I have to wait and see if the Strata is going to pay for the work on the floor. Being on Council, I know that we have other projects around the property that are more urgent, and since this renovation has not been budgeted for, I'm not confident as to how soon this can be repaired. I have to leave it to the rest of Council, I'm positively in conflict of interest on this question ;) Let's wait and see, but not too long, 'cause the more I wait, the more damage to my suite will be done. The contractor said it's OK to use the machine, just don't overload it. All right then.

On a brighter note, this morning, I had my first cooking class (first out of six) at the Cookshop, a cookware store close to my place. Chef Éric Arrouze is our instructor. The first course was focused on knives and vegetables. We learned how to use a chef's knife properly and how to julienne, chiffonade, and paysanne veggies while preparing pistou soup provencal, tomato and julienne vegetable salad with classic vinaigrette, and salad of citrus segments with basil chiffonade. I definitely had my 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables today! I also realized the difference that a good knife can make, I'll be shopping for one (and a good paring knife) this week.