Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts

Saturday, November 21, 2009

It only took six months


A couple of nights ago, I was on Facebook chatting with one of my friends in Vancouver. He wanted to know how things were going with the house, and I told him that it was keeping me pretty busy. I told him I was learning lots, like framing walls, hanging drywall, crack-filling and taping. His response to all this was that I needed to post more photos of the house and the work that was getting done.

Well, this post is especially for him. I'm starting small, with a little tiling job I did in front of our dishwasher. It's not quite finished yet, but you get the idea.

When we first moved in some 6 months ago, we had to do a little surgery to the kitchen floor. The hardwood in there had been laid over the old floor, and there wasn't enough clearance between the new floor and the kitchen counter to slide the dishwasher in. We eventually ended up having to cut a few floorboards out, and for the past 6 months there has been a hole in front of our dishwasher; a patch of old vinyl flooring; a window into the past.

It was always our intention to get that cutout patched up. and we decided that some slate would look best. We picked up some tumbled mixed slate mosaic, and they've been languishing in the garage for months now.

On Thursday morning, after dropping Nate off at his play group, I got back and started work. Cutting the trim pieces from the floorboards we had removed. Then I cut a piece of plywood to fill in the space so that the tiles would come level with the rest of the floor. First time laying tile, and as you can probably see, it's not exactly level or straight. I had also underestimated just how hard it would be working under the dishwasher door. I could barely get the notched trowel or grout float under it. I laid the tile on Thursday morning, and let it set for 48 hours. Did the grout about an hour ago, and will seal it in the next few days. In all I'd say about 2-3 hours work.

Patty should be home in the next hour, hope she likes it.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Appliances, and how we like them

Those of you who know us, know just how much we like our kitchen appliances and gadgets. I'm not particularly sure where this fascination came from, but it started when I was a kid. Where other kids were interested in toys and candy, I got my biggest kicks when my parents went shopping for things for the kitchen. For me, it was the equivalent of going to the toy store. It still is. That Patty shares this fascination, is just a serendipitous

Yesterday we started shopping for appliances. We need pretty much everything. Refrigerator, range, dishwasher, washer, dryer...we have none of those things. We started at Sears, and chose a refrigerator, range, dishwasher, washer and dryer for something around $6,500. All nice, better than average, if not exactly top-of-the-line stuff. Truth be told, it seemed like a reasonably price for all that stuff. We didn't buy anything of course, but we had our benchmark now.

Today we took a look at the Sears discount outlet, and bought a Samsung SS electric range, a Kitchenaid 25 cu. ft. SS side-by-side refrigerator, and this Electrolux dishwasher. The range is pretty standard, but the refrigerator and dishwasher are top-of-the-line. All for $3,800. Which leaves us with some $2,700 for a laundry pair. Of course we aren't going to spend all of that on a laundry pair, as tempting as it may be. As Patty pointed out, any money we save means we get to buy more furniture for the house.

Next up, the laundry pair and a new king sized bed. Stay tuned.