New Cooktop

When we bought this house it had a Jenn-Air cooktop.  One of the burners would only light with a lighter.  I guess I could have bought a new igniter, but it had so many other problems that I didn't want to fix that and then replace it. 

 

It had a downdraft in the middle of the cooktop to grill when you switched out the burners.  This meant all the drawers below had giant holes cut in them and were mostly unusable.  Who would grill in the house?  Only crazy people.  The cleanup alone would be enough to put me off.  That is why outdoor grills were invented!

The worst problem was that the low heat was medium heat on any other cooktop.  This meant soup or rice could scorch on the bottom.  It you turned the burners below low, then the flame would flicker and may go out.  That would be dangerous.  So don't do that.

After eight years of fixing other, more urgent needs, we finally replaced the cooktop.  Naturally the one I wanted was VERY pricey and had a different cutout from the Jenn-Air.  Our granite counters were not installed in one piece with a cutout for the cooktop.  They had put in one piece on one side and another on the other.  The parts under the cooktop were installed as separate pieces.  I imagine this was a cheaper option.

The piece in the front of the cooktop was installed poorly.  It was tipped forward and down so that there was an obvious ridge at each end.

I have wanted to tile behind the cooktop.  And I didn't want to add tile above the granite backsplash, so we decided to remove the granite backsplash and use it to cut the new pieces for the cooktop. 

 

The guy from Rock Fab in Roanoke came out and warned us that it was unlikely to come off in one piece.  If installed correctly the backsplash would have to be pounded out and the plaster would be damaged and the granite would be in pieces.  So the good news is the original installers did a poor job there, also. 

 

It came off in two pieces and we had plenty to fix the front and back pieces to install the cooktop.  It looks great and I highly recommend them.

I am still researching tile backsplashes, but in the meantime I have a fabulous cooktop.

 

It has two burners that are super low.  They cycle on and off automatically, so that you can keep chocolate melted or fondue at the perfect temperature with no scorching or stirring necessary.  It has one burner with high intensity to boil a giant pan of water for pasta.  The burners are star shaped instead of a circle.  This means the heat is more evenly distributed over the bottom of the pan.

I wish I was getting paid to tell you all these fabulous things.  But I'm not. 

 

Now I have to repair the plaster.  There are two holes where the pry bar popped through the plaster when removing the backsplash.

First I cut a small piece of a wooden shim and tied a string around it.  I maneuvered it behind the hole in the plaster and held it in place with the string.  I filled the hole with spackling compound and let it dry. 

 

When you are repairing a big hole the compound will shrink as it dries.  I cut the string and smeared some more compound over the hole.  I placed some mesh over the compound and pressed it in with a taping knife.  I added more compound to cover the mesh.

 

I think the other hole is too big to use the mesh.  I am worried that when the grout is pushed in to the tile, it will be too much for the repair and sink in.  This would be bad.

 

I bought a hole patch with metal and mesh and fitted it over the hole.  I pressed some compound in to the mesh around the edges.

 

When everything dries I will sand it smooth and then it can be tiled over.

We went to Home Depot to order new drawer boxes from Thomasville.  (I am going to get DRAWERS!)  I found something to rub into the stainless cooktop to protect it from spills and stains.  It is supposed to act like wax on a car.  I put two coats on.  It doesn't say how often I will need to use it.  Guess I will find out.

 

But now I am back in the cooking business.  I made SOUP! 

The only problem is now I need to replace the double ovens.  They don't cook evenly and a convection oven will fix that!  They don't match my new stainless cooktop, but a new one will fix that!  The new one I want has a smaller cutout, but I can build a shelf and buy some trim from Thomasville to fix that!  And all for only THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!  How do I fix that??

Memorial Day

When did Memorial Day turn into an excuse for a sale?  I don't know, but we have been saving up a large number of purchases to coincide with Memorial Day.  Because Lee is a veteran, he gets an additional discount at Lowe's on Memorial Day and we decided to take advantage of it.  Lee finished installing the last of the kitchen appliances and we were ready for the next big purchase.  With the dubious help of RJ.

   


I am the world's worst decider.  Should I, shouldn't I?  I have a hard time with menus, you can imagine the difficulty with large, read expensive and permanent, purchases.  So we have been spending an inordinate amount of time in various big box DIY stores.  Lowe's and Home Depot.  Home Depot and Lowe's.  We generally end up at Lowe's, mostly because of their proximity, 20 minutes versus 40 minutes.  If you have to go back for a part or a return, that extra time can really add up.

   

Are you aware the Home Depot has 200 types of toilets for sale.  TWO HUNDRED.

   

I am convinced Lowe's has an equal number.  You can get a short one.  That won't work for me because my aunt informed me that she had to be boosted off the last short toilet she used.  So a tall one.  Then they have round bowls and oval ones.  White and biscuit.  (Seriously, though, you gotta have white, if only to convey the absolutely cleanliness of said vessel.)  They have toilets with extra power.  The idea of a powerless, unflushed bowl doesn't work for me, so put me down for powerful.  Lots of choices.

I like this bath vanity, but will it go in that room?  I LOVE it.  How much????  Never mind.   Like that.

The point of the many trips was to get a definitive list of all the large remaining purchases for our remodel.  I have lists, Lee has lists.  There are lists of the lists.  Then we could just walk in, order and leave.  Easy peasy. 

Oh, how naïve and trusting you are.

So we spent the Sunday going from place to place, double checking, deciding and finally we are done.  Two bath vanities ordered.  And the tops.  Don't forget the mirrors.  Two toilets, tall and powerful.  Sorry, short people.  I will get you a step.  We bought the various faucets and a light fixture and the big purchase, the granite counter for the kitchen. 

   

A huge bill, but we saved over $500.  And it is too late for me to change my mind.

So now we are at the true Memorial Day.  Lee didn't get the BBQ gene and doesn't much care for it.  And we have no family close by this weekend, so we are going to the Buchanan Community House  http://www.townofbuchanan.com/attractions/wilson-warehousecommunity-center/  to eat a chicken dinner and support a worthy cause.   They are holding a fund raiser for the Fairview Cemetery Association following a service at the cemetery honoring veterans past and present.  There are a few different meals to raise funds held at the Community House in Buchanan.  We try to go to all of them.  It is one of the many fun parts about living in a small town.  Come on down and join us!

And a big thank you for your service to all the veterans. 

New Cabinets

We were rudely awakened at 6:00 this morning.  Ordinarily that wouldn't be a problem as I have been having trouble staying asleep for a whole night.  But this was one of those rare mornings where I was soundly asleep.  So I was not happy.

We were called to let us know that the kitchen cabinets we had ordered from Home Depot were being delivered in an hour.  I guess I would rather be awakened by a phone call rather than a pounding on the door while still in my jammies and with bed head.  Someone has to be the first delivery!

   

It was a huge truck and no way could they get around to the back of the house.  We had him drop them in the garage and we ferried them to the back in the bed of the mule, one or two at a time.  Then we put them on a hand truck and are storing them in a room away from where we will be tiling....someday...if we ever get the bids back.

   

I was thinking of Maple cabinets, but Lee really liked the Hickory ones, so that's what we went with.  They are kind of pretty with the variegated colors and I guess it means they will go with any wood furniture we end up buying!

After some early morning weight lifting, I went to the barn and did the morning routine with Claire.  All these trips back and forth reminded me that I had yet to clear out the parts of the garden that I hadn't cleared for the winter.  There are always a few plants that are still green and pretty when I chop back most of the plants for winter.  Not any more.

There is a kind of ground cover that looks like the perennial called Lamb's Ears, so I guess that is what they are.  The leaves are a fuzzy, light green and they grow very well here.  Every winter the leaves turn an unappetizing gray.  Then, just before it warms up and right around the time the daffodils pop up, they green up under all the gray.  If you don't rake out all the dead stuff at the right time, you risk raking out the good stuff along with it.

   

They look even worse right after I do the job.  But they will look great in a few weeks.  See the GREEN!

   

This is a job I have had on my list for a few weeks.  It has either been too cold or we have had other plans that day.  So I made a few piles and I will have to take them to the compost or the burn pile later.  Maybe tomorrow.  I feel like I have done a full day's work already.  And it isn't even 11!

Tile Time

   

The painting is done.  And so it MOST of the electrical.  We picked up a few tile pieces we liked and brought them home.  We are currently waiting for a tile installer to come and give us a bid.  Ouch.

   

I found a tile I like for the entry and the kitchen.  I will go with a lighter and smaller tile for the powder room. 

   

The shower/bathroom is still a decision to be made, but the price for installing should be the same. 

It would be good to have a deadline.  Force us to make a decision.

Tomorrow we go to Home Depot to pick out a powder room sink/cabinet and a light fixture.  I think I will wait on the mirror.  Maybe I can find a great one at an estate sale.  My sister-in-law is taking me shopping and I hope to find some things there.  Do you call it shopping when you prowl around estate sales and warehouses?

And when I pick out a couple of toilets, is that shopping, which is fun?  Or is it work, which isn't as fun?

What Colors Should I Choose?

The plaster is currently drying in our basement remodel.  Now I need to pick the wall colors.  Actually, I have picked the colors, sort of.

I want blue for the bedroom.  I want yellow or a peachy color for the bathrooms.  And I want gray with glossy white trim for everything else.

 That's the plan.  Then I went to Home Depot.  If there were two shades in each color choice, then I could make my decision.  I am having a hard time deciding between all shades ever invented

These are the colors I am trying to decide between.

Here is the blue.

 

Here are the bathroom choices.  Wow.  They came out pinker on the computer.



I guess there really are fifty shades of gray.

    

And here they are all together.


So, I am open to suggestions.  Just remember that this is a basement we are taking about.  So I am leaning more towards light, bright colors to offset the fact of limited natural light.

In a perfect world I would hire a decorator and let them make the decisions.  In a not perfect, but better situation, I would have my sister-in-law come make these decisions as she is a great amateur decorator. But she lives three hours away and is not willing to relocate for the duration.  Kinda selfish, don't you think?

 

 

 

 

Patching Holes

We still can't decide what to do with the truck bed.  By we, I mean Lee.  It is his project and I go along with whatever he wants.  We went to Home Depot and bought some stuff to fill the worst of the cracks in the wood.  If I wanted to fill ALL the cracks, I would need to buy a gallon of the wood filler. 

 

This time I decided to put my phone in a Ziploc bag.  The last time I worked out there it got covered in dust.  That can't be good for it.  I don't like going places without it.  Not because I am so important that I can't be out of contact, but just in case of emergency.

 

I decided to fill the biggest holes and the places where I thought something might catch if you were to slide an object into the truck.  When it dries I will sand it and then we will have a better idea of how it will look.  Lee is still thinking of maybe staining it and a polyurethane coating.  It would be the cheapest option.


 
While I did that Lee was grinding the rust and paint off the metals rails that fit around the bed. Oooh, sparks!   He will spray them with a rust inhibitor and then paint.   More decisions...yellow, green, black?

 

I am not looking forward to the basement project for this reason.  The myriad of decisions.  Wall color, cabinets, faucets are just a start.  Do I want white or ivory outlets and switches?  What kind of doors?  Oh, maybe not those.  Too pricey.  Like I said, not looking forward to it.