Kitchen part II

well I'm getting there. The old has been stripped of it's former glory and unceremoniously deposited at the curb.To be honest it didn't really take a whole lot of glory with it. The only salvageable material was some ugly paneling that will live out it's life as drawer bottoms. Even though it was ugly it was made of quality plywood that didn't deserve what was done to it and so it will be re-purposed and re-used. Since the "island" only served as a drop spot for mail. shopping bags or what have you we decided a smaller version would serve the same purpose as well as forcing us to clear it more often. The smaller size offers a little less room but accessibility is no longer an issue. Since I built it I was able to control the size and placement of the doors. The studio sized refrigerator has found a new home in the utility room and the extra wall space was used for added counter top/cabinet room. Again since new cabinets were cost prohibitive I built my own from quality stock and thus while they don't have the same designer good looks as the ones that come in a box (wink, wink) you could park a bus on them and they are going nowhere and there will be no repairs needed for their lifetime which now extends past the lifetime of the house I put them in. On a sad note I discovered as I often do an original floor treatment that was ruined by subsequent installations of inferior products. It turns out that the original flooring was actually terrazzo incorporated during the construction of the home as part of the slab. Terrazzo is a decorative concrete additive that was hugely popular for it's low cost and low maintenance and had the added benefits of durability, attractiveness and being period perfect.

slippedcog: Anybody seen a skillet?

slippedcog: Anybody seen a skillet?: In the ongoing saga I like to call "How can anyone live like this" we are re-vamping the kitchen into a place for food preparation instead ...

Awesome!

The president came to town and it rained buckets so now he is all wet just like his tax and spend economic policies. I can't believe people stood in line for hours to see this guy. I do believe in respecting the office of the president of the United States of America but I can't get behind him so I'll just leave it there.

Anybody seen a skillet?

In the ongoing saga I like to call "How can anyone live like this" we are re-vamping the kitchen into a place for food preparation instead of the Golden Corral for cockroaches. You can't keep it clean if you can't tell it's dirty. It also helps if form follows function. As I've said before since this is a rental it suffers greatly from a lack of basic maintenance and the maintenance that was performed was done as quickly and cheaply as possible. For example the solution to a broken drawer was to remove the drawer and screw the face of it to the cabinet thus giving the appearance of a drawer without actually having one. Problem solved right? Well this may seem perfectly acceptable if you don't have to live here but we do and we need that drawer. However after further consideration there is no way I am building a new drawer to put in that piece of crap cabinet that was a piece of crap 20 years ago. Sooooo it looks like I need a new cabinet. Also the refrigerator in a 2200 sq ft house should not be one suited for a studio apartment. fortunately we have a great refrigerator however the space in the kitchen where it goes is sized for one suited for a studio apartment. It gets tiresome having to walk to the living room for eggs because they won't fit in the kitchen. We also have an "island" this is composed of some old base cabinets cobbed together and covered with plywood and tile. The main problem is accessibility. You have to strap on a miners helmet, pack a lunch, and hire a guide if you want to find anything in the back corners. That coupled with no power outlet makes it pretty much just a box that won't move. As a bonus the lighting is less than adequate and the tile used for countertops and backsplash is horrific. We also have one of those "lazy Susan" corner cabinets that is the laziest Susan I've ever seen. You almost have to kick it around. Well time to get busy.

Where are the #$@% candles?

My friends if there is one thing we can learn about storms it is to be prepared. The storm doesn't need an official name and weeks of media frenzy to do substantial damage up to and including loss of life. One thing that comes to mind is expensive but worth considering and that is underground electrical service. During a major weather event that causes widespread power outages individual homes are last in line for restoration services. Power companies prioritize based on the number of customers served by the project. Therefore your neighborhood power could be on long before your house is if the storm also took out the overhead line serving your home. Individual customers are usually last in line unless there is a safety threat posed by your circumstances in which case the threat was probably dealt with before they took care of the mainlines anyhow. It won't hurt to get an estimate for underground service just don't choke on your coffee when you see it. If you plan to own the home for any length of time it's worth considering.