Stone Installation Begins

Our tile and stone installer had an open day so he came and installed the stone on the wall of the island. So except for the base board the island is complete. The stone product is real stone made by RoxProducts. The stone is pre-cut and comes in ready-to-mount 6x12 pieces. The same stone will surround our fire place. That is scheduled to be completed in the next few weeks.

Tile and Electrical

During the last week in January we had the tile installed including the kitchen back splash as some tile inside the island. Today, the electrician came in and did his final touches by installing plates, switches and electrical outlets over the tile. He also installed the undercounter lighting which is very cool. We have dimmable switches on a few of the ceiling lights and now with the undercounter lighting we have so many lighting options and it's plenty bright when you need it, too.

So the only things left are two replacement cabinet handles and one custom pull out drawer being built for us. The kitchen should be DONE within the next week or two!

On the fireplace, we got a call that the stone is in. So I will try to pick that up next week and arrange to have the tile guy back out to install the stone facade.

We are enjoying the new kitchen and we're begging to settle into it.

Fireplace

After months of waiting the fireplace face finally arrived and everything was installed. With the fireplace in, we were able to bring out the guy who will be installing the stone around it as well as the back splash tile. Work will begin on both later this week.

The only catch was that he didn't want to come out until the fireplace was installed so that he had a clear picture of what he was dealing with. Then he came out and said that the fireplace would have to come out. Mostly, he wants to remove it so that he can build a fixed, solid base on which he can face.

This week he will concentrate on the kitchen backsplash. The stone for the fireplace in on order and will take 2-4 weeks to come in.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

The second of three storms blew through yesterday bringing heavy rain, high winds, and a little thunder and lightning. It was a good day to stay in and cook a soup. I made a butternut squash soup using home grown squash.

It is such a pleasure to cook with gas again. The old kitchen had the hideous electric coils. The new Wolf cook top also has a down draft ventilation system. It was put to the test yesterday as I used curry in the soup. As much as I like curry, I find that the odor lingers in the kitchen for a few days. So I cooked the soup on a back burner close to the ventilation and there were no lingering curry odors today.

The down draft has a "Star Trek" like feature where the vent raises and lowers with the press of a button.

While the soup was simmering we loaded up the side cabinet with glasses and dishes. Some of which haven't been out of a box since we moved in in January 2004.

We also got some good news on the fireplace. The face has finally arrived. We set up a tentative installation date for this Friday. Once installed, we can call in the tile guy who will install the stone around the fireplace and the tile back splash in the kitchen.

A Place for my Cookbooks

One of the features I wanted in the new kitchen was a book shelf to keep my cookbooks. So it was built into the island. I now have more than enough room to keep the books in one place and there's room for more. I've got some already on the shelf but there are more still tucked away in boxes.

Christmas time brought some additional books that will be added to the collection. Santa brought me The Gardener's A to Z Guide to Growing Organic Food. While not technically a cook book, it will be a big help in the garden. The book goes alphabetically through most of the fruits and vegetables one might grow and provides information on growing, watering, pests, diseases, and harvesting tips (all organically).

At a recent Costco visit I picked up Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food. For each section she has a lengthy discussion on the particular item. Each recipe is followed by 4-5 variations that one could try. There is a great introduction with tips on ingredients and hardware that every kitchen should have.

Santa also brought The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. It is packed with over 600 recipes arranged traditionally. It looks like it will provide some interesting new ideas.

After Christmas, we spent a day in Half Moon Bay and I brought home some books from the used book stores there. I bought The Silver Palate Cookbook because someone once made a recipe from it and when I asked where the recipe came from I was told it was this cook book. When I said I didn't have it I got, "You don't have this cook book!?!?" So now I do. This one has an interesting butternut squash soup recipe I will try next week. I have a box of about 14 squash that I grew in the fall.

Finally, I also picked up Michael Pollan's Second Nature. I have read most of his other books and thoroughly enjoyed them. So I'm looking forward to reading this earlier work of his.

Christmas with the Kitchen

We had the painter here working on the 22nd and 23rd of December doing final touch ups. We also had him paint the pantry so that we could start unloading boxes. At the same time we had the cabinet guy in installing his final touches. We brought up furniture into the living room. Our new dining room table arrived. We got our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Stocking were hung. Although it was not complete, we were able to use our kitchen for the holidays.

Our new DWR table has two leaves and we expanded it in order to seat ten for a December 26th luncheon. We're quite happy with the table.

We started to arrange furniture in the living room but we will have to play around with the arrangement some and find something that works for us.

The fireplace is still sitting there waiting for the face to come in. They hoped it would arrive by Christmas but didn't honestly think it would given the cold weather in the midwest.

This week we'll just enjoy the holidays and not worry about the kitchen until January.

Side Cabinet Completed

Yesterday, the cabinet people were here trying to finish up all things related to cabinets. They didn't finish as of 8 PM but a lot got completed. The side cabinet that is on the east side of the house was installed. The Richlite counter top got installed on it and the glass cabinets placed on the counter top. Most of the drawer pulls were installed but we may have some issues to resolve with that.

All of the contents of the old fridge have been moved into the new fridge. Today we will move the old fridge into the garage and we have to decide if we'll continue to use it or give it to PG&E who will pick it up and give us money for it.

Tomorrow morning our new dining room table will arrive which will sit in between this cabinet and the island. We've been watching for chairs on eBay but we haven't bid on any yet.