Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

Kitchen Shenanigans

 Our kitchen remodel adventures actually started 24 years ago, when I decided that we needed a bigger house and thus kitchen and Jack went along with it.

I designed the kitchen layout myself, which it why Things Went...Slightly Wrong.  But only slightly.  I decided that I wanted a corner sink, and saw a double sink affair shaped like a V, except with a 90-degree angle instead of the 60-ish angle of a V.  The faucet sat in the middle of the V. Two problems arose right away: too small a sink (even though there was 2 of them) and the faucet could be swung around so that it sprayed water all over the counter.  (And floor.)  I had drawn the layout on quadrille paper (who needs an architect?) and meticulously counted the squares.  And was off by one.  (who needs Quality Control?)  This meant for the last 24 years that the refrigerator door hit the counter when it opened.  You couldn't open the fridge very far when loading the dishwasher.   (Now that I think of it, unloading it either.   But I usually unloaded it when no one was home, so at least that really wasn't an issue.)  I learned to live with these.  A third problem reared its ugly head later:  If the vegetable drawer near the hinge needed cleaning, I need to empty the entire fridge.  (OK, not the door or the freezer).  It was amazing how the definition of "clean" ...expanded.

Another thing that will become important (cue the ominous music):  The contractor put the dishwasher in right next to the sink.  This means you had to be less than 6 inches wide to load the dishwasher from the sink, which, as you remember, (seeing it was only the last paragraph) was in a corner.  The contractor had a "D'oh Moment" when I pointed this out.  He had installed a heating vent under the cabinets, and now was looking at going under the crawlspace and moving that around and retiling things.  After some consideration, we told him not to move it.  If it got too cold in the winter, we would have him come out next spring.  It has never gotten cold enough to worry about, but the dishwasher is sitting above open heating ductwork.  (repeat ominous music)

Nine years ago (2016), we replaced all the countertops and I changed the sink to one single sink.  Only now the faucet was further away from us.  Our backs had started to complain whenever we had to use the sink for an extended period of time, like washing dishes by hand.  But at least I have a decent sink, it took some effort to run water on the floor (it did happen) and Jack does the hand dishes.

Fast forward to September of 2022.  I broke the dishwasher.  I pulled the door right off.  (Sometimes I don't know my own strength.  Other times I am painfully aware of my puny, weak little female muscles.) I went into our exchange student's bedroom and told her "Good News!  You didn't break the dishwasher!  I did!"  Then I left for the weekend to a quilt retreat.  Jack got a new dishwasher and had it installed.  Yay Jack!

In January of 2023 we noticed the fake wood floor of the dining room buckling.  (OK, it's engineered wood.  But that still means it's not quite real wood.)  To make this long story only slightly shorter, the dishwasher installer, who is a professional, had mated a metal screw hose with the plastic on the dishwasher, damaged the plastic threading, and the dishwasher leaked from the get-go.  It took four months to find it because it was leaking into the heating duct. (remember the ominous music?)  When that got filled, plus the ducting insulation, it bubbled onto the flooring.  Well, we got someone to fix the dishwasher junction with some kind of plastic tape, then hired someone else to remove the ductwork and cap the opening.  The workers got the ductwork outside without spilling it into our basement (which has already had 2 floods).  The place got dried out and we hoped the floor would return to normal.

In September 2023, we finally agreed that the floor needed replacing, and that went off without a hitch.  (Well, except they told us it would take two days and it only took one.  But some people will complain about anything.)  The person in charge poked the underlayment where the tile floor met the new "wood" floor under the tile floor of the kitchen and told us, "You'll need to replace that in a year or two."

My first thought was "I can get rid of my corner sink!!!"

In January, we contacted several people to get bids and settled on one, CTC Construction.  With their help, I chose floors, cabinets, countertops, a backsplash, and drawer hardware.  They did all the scheduling of workers and helped me keep track of what was going on.  And, because of their expertise, everything ran fairly smoothly.  

As a quilter dealing with colors I'd like to interject a note about current trends in colors.  I had a choice of browns (dark Brown to off white) and blacks (black through grays to white) for almost everything.  I could have had cabinets that were a dark navy or dark green.  But everything else, flooring, cabinets, and backsplashes were either in the brown family or the black family.  Granted, I did not want a yellow kitchen (I had one in 1977) or avocado appliances (had those too, 1986-1992), but really?  Laminate countertops come in any color you ever wanted, plus a lot that you don't (like bright yellow and avocado), but I'm done with laminate.  So I looked for contrast and choices that didn't fight each other.

So, having chosen a granite (special program, half the normal price, 6 choices, fortunately one worked), I was pointed to the wall of backsplash samples.  Blacks, grays, browns, white...and 1 option of color:  dark teal. And it worked! (There was no red, yellow, purple, orange, or green options.)  Several CTC people complimented me on my choices, and one said I should be a design consultant.  When I accused her of telling that to all her clients, she rolled her eyes and said "No."  I have to admit two things:  one, when your color palates are that limited, results will tend toward boring; and two, some people shouldn't be allowed to dress themselves.

In choosing drawer pulls, I ran into the same problem:  choice of gold, silver, or bronze.  All plain  Square plain, round plain, squarish round plain, roundish square plain, oval plain...you get the idea.    I think people are designing to the lowest common denominator.  I swear these were the only ones that had any pattern on them at all.

The workers were pleasant and did good work, which means they showed up on time, did their jobs, and laughed at my jokes.  The tilers were especially memorable, partly because this was the first time they had put the square tiles in the floor on the diagonal, (Really?  no one has even that much imagination except me?) and partly because of the backsplash.  While all the tiles were the same color teal, there were 7 different designs.  (One of which exactly matched a friend's shirt.)  He (the tiler, not my friend) was really worried about no two designs touching each other, and I told him not to worry.  (Telling people not to worry doesn't work.)  So I showed him one of my quilts hanging in the next room, which has 20 different reds, and two of the same fabrics STILL landed next to each other.  I'm not going to make a scene about it!  I know better!  And don't you worry about it either!

I spent about three weeks without a stove and decent coffee.  I'd made a lot of chili, jambalaya, stew, chicken soup, and frozen leftovers in individual portions, (Yay for reusable sour cream containers!) (And flexibility, because I didn't label anything!).  I also got several frozen dinners because they were on sale.  One is still in the freezer because the others were so bad that no one wants it.  After the cabinets were in, I had a stove, and now I didn't have to put up with substandard coffee.  

Then the countertops came in a week early!  But there was a delay about the dishwasher, because this is when we found out about the damaged threads on the connector.  A part was ordered, and installation was scheduled...three weeks out.  But there was a cancellation, and we got it fixed after only 1 week.  In the meantime, we continued to use paper plates and cups.  (Milk in a paper cup works.  Water in a paper cup works.  Apple juice in a paper cup works.  Wine in a paper cup does not work.) (Well, it works for Jack.  But we all know he has plastic tastebuds.)  Bonus: we used up all the cheap plastic ware that we had accumulated ordering all that takeout from restaurants during Covid!

For some reason, Laurie seemed to think I need a really colorful wooden spoon last Christmas.  And I guess I do!  (It's the top one.)  And I got gifts from Korea and The Czech Republic and Italy and my third place finish at the chili cook off at church.

Well, now it's all done.  Now that I have been using it for a bit, I've already decided on things that need changing.

posted by Marion @ 4:40 PM