Nearing the End... and a new beginning

 

This kitchen renovation that has been ongoing for way too many years is finally beginning to come to a close. Our custom drawers and doors were installed in May. There are still a few finishing trim pieces left to do, but for the most part, it's over.

The exciting news is, crazy as it sounds, we're planning a new kitchen... in a new house. It's all still up in the air right now, for we may not even be allowed to build here, but this is something we've been dreaming about for a long, long time. Meanwhile, I'll be enjoying my finally finished kitchen.

A Couch in the Kitchen

Well, why not?

The Kitchen Sink

36" Whitehaus Quatro Alcove Fireclay Farm Sink

Pronomen (Numerar) solid beech countertops with Waterlox original tung oil sealer

Thermador fully integrated 9-program stainless steel Professional Series dishwasher





Pronomen (Numerar) butcherblock

Still a work in progress - just waiting on our custom doors and drawer fronts!

Home on the Rangetop

Thermador 36" Professional Series Gas Rangetop
After my budget eliminated my dream ranges (the Lacanche, and running a close second, the Aga), last summer we finally decided on the Thermador Professional Series gas cooktop with 6 burners (PCG366E) . We knew we wanted a pro rangetop, and we had narrowed the field to include the Thermador, Viking, Wolf and BlueStar. I don't really remember all the features we compared while making our decision, but here are a few.

Sealed vs Unsealed

Viking and Wolf both give you a choice between sealed and unsealed burners, which is nice. The Thermador only offers sealed and the BlueStar only unsealed. What's the difference? Well, true cooks prefer unsealed burners because they give off the most heat. Clean freaks may prefer sealed burners because all the crud is easily accessible and doesn't fall down through the works and into a drip pan never to be seen again (until you decide to clean it 3 years later, like me, and find it is just too gross and needs to be thrown away). I chose sealed, because honestly, do I really need 22,000 btu's? No, I need an easy-to-clean kitchen. Some people are "out-of-sight-out-of-mind" about dirt, but not me. Yes, I do think about all that unseen crud (thanks, Mama Cain), and it bugs me, especially if it's going to take a whole day to clean.

LP Conversion


This was a must. Our house has propane, not natural gas. Maybe all the other brands had a conversion kit (I don't really remember), but the Thermador has one built in (factory ready). No need for a conversion, no extra parts, no contractor necessary. This one also simply plugs in to an outlet - no hardwiring.

Ultra Low Simmer


This is a very nice feature to have if you often do things like melt chocolate (no need for that double boiler anymore), or simmer delicate sauces or soups, or just have a tendency to forget to stir while you're busy doing something else. (How many times have I scraped a burnt crust off the bottom of the stockpot when making spaghetti sauce or vegetable soup? Argh.) The Thermador has one extrahigh (15,000 btu) burner for when you need a lot of heat fast, and two extralow simmer burners, which also heat up to regular temperatures. One of the other brands had a simmer burner, but that's all it did. Simmer. A waste of a burner if you're not always simmering something.

Appearance and Reliability


The Viking, while attractive, has gotten many, many poor reviews from various sources for reliability and service. I really liked the porcelain surface, which comes in different colors and looked easy to clean, but when spending in excess of 2 grand for a cooktop, I didn't want to deal with any performance problems and customer service issues. No time for that. Viking was out.
The Wolf was also attractive, but I didn't really like the shape of the clunky grates. The Thermador wasn't perfect either, since the entire top surface was stainless steel. It seemed like it might be a nightmare to keep clean and free of scorch marks. But DH really liked the blue knobs and the rounded front. I liked the continous grates. The knobs on the Viking and Wolf were more difficult to turn and felt, well... cheap. The BlueStar? A little too industrial for me - just not attractive at all. Besides, at 22,000 btu's and with SuperNova burners, we just might burn down the house.

Burner Shape


Only the Thermador and BlueStar have burners in a shape of a star. Wolf and Viking are round. Why does this matter? Theoretically, a star-shaped burner heats the center of the pan as well as the periphery, giving a more even heat distribution beneath the pan . Round burners heat only the periphery. What this means in terms of cooking is less burning, quicker boil times, and more even heating. You can also use a much smaller pan and still get heat to it. Round burners limit the size of the pan - after all, if your pan is smaller than your burner ring, you're not heating the bottom - only the handle and your fingers. I can cook in a 2 inch pot if I want. Since only the Thermador and BlueStar had star-shaped burners, and we had eliminated the BlueStar over and over on all counts, that left the Thermador as the winner.

So far, we've had no complaints. We love our rangetop!

Staining Day

Not sure if we actually achieved the pumpkin pine look, but I am happy with the cherry stain we chose. Here's the floor after the first coat of oil. The stain job could probably be better. I think they should've used a wood conditioner first, but I'm living with it, for now at least.

Sanding Day

Floor guys are here today to sand all the floors in the whole downstairs. It almost feels like we're moving! A totally empty house can be so refreshing. We'll be leaving all the oak natural again, but in the kitchen we want to stain the new pine. We're aiming for the richness of antique pumpkin pine floors found in old farmhouses throughout the Northeast.

Here's the floor before sanding, with the room finally empty of all previous kitchen stuff - now relegated to the Dumpster.



And the floor after sanding:



The sample stain board:





We shall see what tomorrow brings!

Blinded by the ... Lighthouse

I noticed on Friday that the painting crew did not put a primer coat on the new walls before they started slapping on the yellow. Unfortunately, by the time I noticed, they were already on the last wall. This concerns me for a couple of reasons. One, according to the written estimate, I am paying for "primer coat plus two top coats on new walls," and I didn't get a primer coat. Two, I agonized over that color. When creating test boards, I went by what the estimate said... primer coat. To me, that has always meant flat white. So, I took scraps of wallboard and primed them with white paint, and then tested my colors.

According to Martha and all the other color gurus out there, what's underneath really does matter. The color you see on top changes, albeit subtly, depending on the color of the underlayment. Artists know this. I know this because I've tested lots of paint on lots of different walls, old and new, over the years. I challenge you to try it yourself. Paint a single light color over two completely different base colors, say one green and one cream. Stand back and appreciate the chameleon effect of those "true colors shining through." With a good quality wall paint, and at least two coats, this color concept may not be as important as shifts in lighting, but it does matter. Also... did I mention I'm paying for that primer coat? This painting stuff ain't cheap.

So what do I have now? Grey drywall + BM Lighthouse = that greenish-yellow tinge I was so trying to avoid. Argh. I've put a call in to the CertaPro manager. In the meantime, I'm not going to fret too much. If you learn nothing else during a remodel, you learn what constitutes major problems, setbacks and aggravation and what is usually easily rectified. This one is a mere speck in the grand scheme of things. Onward...

Not a Bowl of Cherries

Wild swamp blackberries

Reading this blog, one might think that this New Jersey kitchen remodel has all been a piece of cake. And comparatively speaking, it has been. Compared to the forced remodel-from-hell in Minnesota, this one has been a dream. So far. Knock on wood. Shhh.

So far the disappointments have been few. The first one came with the arrival of the farm sink. Remember the sink from eBay I raved about? Well, yes, it was a steal on sale for $555. I had a funny feeling, though, not long after I bought it. First of all, I had problems paying for the darn thing. With half a grand at stake, I wasn’t settling for Paypal protection… I wanted bona fide Mastercard protection in the unlikely event I might be scammed somehow on this transaction. But, Paypal wouldn’t allow me to use my Mastercard unless I first had a zero balance in my Paypal account. So I had to empty my Paypal account of cash. And change all my current preferences. Which sent up all kinds of alarms at Paypal, and they kept sending me messages telling me something suspicious was happening with my account. Yes, I know. I’m the one doing the suspicious stuff. But thanks for your concern. So it took me about 24 hours to pay. I think that’s the longest I’ve ever waited before sending payment on an eBay purchase. I typically pay within minutes.

After payment, I usually get a response from the seller regarding shipping details. Instead I got an email from eBay warning me that the seller had “requested personal information” about me. Weird, but okay. They just wanted to verify my already Paypal-verified address, I suppose. Making sure the person who paid them $555 was the same person who actually purchased the sink. Dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s. Good.

But still I had this little nagging worry in the back of my head. Enough to make me pester the seller with emails about shipping ("has it shipped yet?" "when was it shipped?" “can you give me a date? ETA?”) and tracking ("do you have a tracking number for me?" "that tracking number doesn't seem to be working" "WHAT carrier was that again? I've never heard of it"). And when I finally figured out the obscure tracking, it told me the sink had been delivered. Yesterday. It didn’t list an address. Just my town. I’ve tracked tons of packages. I know how it works, and this didn’t sound right. Shipping companies don't list my town as the holding facility for packages en route. The big town up north of me that starts with a P is the town always listed.

Now, I knew that I did not have said sink in my possession. It wasn’t even hiding under the deck like the pine flooring that came from Maryland (another story). I had seen a UPS truck parked at the house across the street yesterday. My neighbors are still in France. Perhaps their immigrant servants took delivery, unawares. Was my sink on their front porch? So, I emailed the seller again, asking what the tracking meant. He said, no, it’s just been delivered to the town and is waiting to be delivered to the house. Well, that’s odd. My town center consists of about 4 tiny historic houses, an old-fashioned fire station, 2 big churches and 2 big ponds. There is certainly not any UPS delivery warehouse hiding out among them. But, I sat on my hands and waited another day.

The sink arrived next morning while I was out buying sample paint. Naturally, I couldn't wait to open it. Only I did wait because the oversize package was so darn heavy I couldn't even shift it from where it stood on end, teetering at the edge of the porch steps, where it had apparently been unceremoniously dumped by the mysterious UPS-not-really-UPS delivery man. With a package measuring about 4' long x 3' wide x 2' deep, I had to wonder... Was this a kitchen sink or a bathtub?

When DH got home we began the daunting task of unpacking a box sealed within a bag glued inside another box filled with that hard, yellow foam-type insulation that comes out of an aerosol can. It was a bit like an archeological dig, opening that package. And when we finally lifted the prize from its foam grave, before we even opened the inner box, we heard an ominous "clink." Not good.
Despite all the ingenious packing, the whole front corner of the sink was cracked off all the way through the bottom to the drainhole.

The good news is the seller was extremely accommodating, and offered to send a new sink at once. I counter-offered to drive in to Brooklyn and pick it up myself. They assured me that wasn’t necessary. I had to agree. What are the odds a second sink would also arrive damaged? Indeed, the replacement arrived lightning fast and seems to be in perfect condition. So far. Shhh.

I don't have everything yet, but I do have the kitchen sink. Two of them, in fact.

Now, about that paint job.... argh.

Floored!

Not the greatest shot since we haven't emptied the room of junk, but we officially have a FLOOR! It is a good shot of my ceilings, though.

And a closer view:

Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

Yesterday, we left the house in the morning intent upon buying a $25 part for the lawnmower, so we could finally mow the lawn-as-hayfield.

Now that we have hired helpers to work on the house, we're kind of confused about how to spend our time. What? We don't have to spackle? No painting? No woodwork? Nothing to install? What's a DIY family to do?

Well, shop apparently. By the end of the day, after buying the $25 lawnmower part, we had added another $3000 to the credit card.

Among our purchases were the Frigidaire Twins. After lifting them into the house (what would we do without the tractor?),
and plugging them in, DH said it's beginning to look like we're opening a restaurant. As of today, we own six refrigerators/freezers. Craigslist, here we come.

Frigidaire Twins, still sporting their white protective coverings

and Trimmed

Spackled!

When It Rains, It Pours

Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

I can barely contain my excitement. Two different contractors showed up at my house today to give me estimates! The phone-tagging trim carpenter and a drywall/taping/spackling contractor. Waaa Hooo!! And the best part? They can both start this week...the spackler dude could start tomorrow. If I agree to his price. I am supposed to get the final estimates later tonight. So I sit here, hoping, hoping, hoping that they will be within reason so that I can say "Yes! Bring it on!"

Meanwhile, here is a shot of the new kitchen. Compare it to the same view just three weeks ago.

Vive la Difference!

This is the hallway last summer. (Wow, it seems like eons ago!)

And this is the hallway today.

This is the Yellow Alien that helped us drywall the ceilings.



When cutting out the holes in the drywall for the cans and vents, DH slipped on his goggles and mask and claimed, "Now it's MY turn to do surgery."
So, I couldn't resist....

His surgery:



And my surgery:

Looking Up

I originally intended the post with this title to be about our new ceilings. But I must digress a moment.

Just yesterday I said things might be looking up. Well, I’m beginning to wonder. With the trusty cordless phone ever-present in my pocket as I trudged around outside today, digging through garbage bags, tossing around junk and generally traumatizing the resident mice, snakes, spiders, bats and phoebes of the corn crib, I began to feel the silent creepings of the typical New Jersey run-around.

This trim carpenter and I have been playing phone tag for four days now. How ridiculous is that? And tonight, I’m getting the ominous vibe of “he knows it’s me calling and he’s just not picking up.” Hopefully, I’m just paranoid. But past experience tells me I’m not. Maybe I offended him somehow. (I’ve never called more than once in a day – and always as a return call.) Likely, he took a surreptitious drive by my address and saw the forlorn, abandoned character of the place. That, or he just thinks I’m nuts. Maybe it’s my answering phone message mentioning birds and bunnies. Maybe it’s my Southern accent…he thinks I’m nuts, poor and dumb. Or maybe he can somehow hear a quiet desperation in the messages I leave. I try not to sound desperate, really I do. But perhaps I’m too transparent, and it comes through anyway. Desperately Seeking Spackler.

This brought to mind something about last summer that I had forgotten. We hired two contractors last year to excavate and build the concrete block foundation for the future garage. We signed the written contracts, mailed them back… waited and waited and called and called and…….. guess what? We still haven’t heard a peep from those jerks. Not a word. And these were people we knew personally. People who had done work for us before. It’s not like we don’t pay. We always pay. On time. We tip even. With a 10 year-long ongoing renovation, we’re good repeat customers. So what the hell is it? God, I wish I knew. Somewhere, sometime, somehow, we pissed off the NJ Construction Gods. Our name is mud. Time to move. (Well, that’s good for a laugh.) Or hey, who knows, maybe I am just nuts.

I promise I’ll post pictures of our new ceilings tomorrow. For now, where’s the chocolate?

Do You eBay? I Do!

Blanco Pot Filler in Stainless Steel

What's the most fun part of a kitchen remodel? The shopping, of course! I'm fairly frugal and always looking for a deal, which is why eBay is one of my favorite haunts. Would I buy a house or a car on eBay? Probably not. Okay, no. But everything else is up for grabs -- as long as the shipping is not too exorbitant, and as long as the price is better than what I could get it for locally. And some things just aren't available anywhere else. I've bought many things on eBay over the years, from mealworms to clothing to tractors. Kitchen accoutrements are one of the best bargains going.

Last summer I purchased a garbage disposal for the MN kitchen (still yet to be installed!). Now begins my spending spree for the NJ kitchen.

What makes eBay fun?

Sniping! I prefer to snipe by hand, rather than use a sniping service. That takes all the fun out of it. Yesterday, I sniped this brand new Rangemaster hood insert (regularly $500+) with only 2 seconds to go. Look at the times of the last few bids.... look at the seconds! Exhilarating, I tell ya!



Last week, I purchased a new, never-used stainless steel Blanco pot filler faucet. Savings? Only about $50. This one was purchased outright, through the Buy It Now feature. But I was so excited, I had DH install it (temporarily of course) as soon as it arrived. I also wanted to make sure it really worked.

What's next on my eBay shopping list? The Whitehaus fireclay farm sink (a steal at $550), the Frigidaire Twins, maybe the Kohler Vinnata. But right now, the weather's cool out so it's time to go clean out the corncrib and garage. Cheers!