Stirred not Shaken

2009-06-17T21:32:00.002-04:00

1975 Grampian 26

I give to you "Rumbullion" any early name for the spirit rum, meaning "a great tumult." It is also a variety of peach and a variety of gooseberry for what it's worth. Rumbullion is a 1975 Grampian 26 built by Grampian Marine LTD. of Oakville, Ontario Canada.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-07T10:22:00.001-05:00

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

2008-11-02T07:19:00.001-05:00

A fun diversion on a frosty morning.

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

2008-10-25T09:45:00.005-04:00

After receiving both of the valences referred to earlier, they are out of the running for kitchen window coverings. The red, was indeed to red and the brown, we just didn't care for, it actually almost looked black. The sheers above, minus the scarf valence of course, are now the new contender. Contrary to what is indicated by this picture, there is really no blue in them at all. They are more taupe, ivory and a little coral accent which goes nicely with the wall color. They are a little more sheer than I would truly like, but the colors and pattern work in our kitchen. Now to take back the valences and find the right rod to hang these by.

2008-10-17T12:06:00.002-04:00

The kitchen isn't entirely done - what ever is completely finished? I've been searching for the right window coverings. I like these valences, though not sure which color. I may order them both and see how they look in the space. We have one large window that faces the street and really needs more than a valence. I'm still trying to figure out what will look best there.

2008-10-05T13:37:00.002-04:00

Here's the final view of the kitchen. Paint color will vary on different screens, but I like to call this shade "paprika" and it was chosen by Chris. I was leery about the color at first, but it has really grown on me. It is such a joy to cook and just be in this room. I have been told that my cooking has gotten even better too!

2008-08-08T11:09:00.002-04:00

Fresh picked from our own "Back 40" nearly a quart of juicy blackberries. Of course there would have been more had I not had to "quality test" so many of them. I don't know if it's due to all the rain we've had this year, but these berries are so much better than they were last year. There is probably another quart out there still that are not quite ripe yet. Maybe next week...

2008-07-09T21:17:00.003-04:00

...and then there was floor. Although we got a minor whee from the blue linoleum that was revealed when our contractor pulled back the other strata of floor in the kitchen, we nevertheless wanted something a bit more... us... to go with our nifty new cabinetry.

One challenge we had to face in selecting flooring is the somewhat, uh, OK extremely uneven pitch of the floor in this part of the house. It's an addition from sometime in the twentieth century, and believe me when I say the job went to the low bidder. While there really isn't a single right angle in the whole place, the kitchen floor appears to defy the laws of geometry, if not physics.

Which severely limits the choices for flooring. The waves of level in our kitchen rule out slate, tile, wood, pretty much anything that must remain flat. That leaves us with some variant of plastic.

After much searching and grimacing, we found our solution, a commercial flooring from Europe called Karndean. It actually approaches the appearance of something that once grew on a tree. The pix here don't do it justice, but it is really very cool stuff.

2008-07-09T07:13:00.003-04:00

2008-07-01T19:20:00.001-04:00

Oh no, an entire week has gone by without a post! This is due, in part, to the fact that we've been trying to re-inhabit the kitchen. It is still some distance to full completion, but it's coming along little by little. Flooring is being installed as I type, then a return visit of the contractors will be scheduled to install baseboard, finish crown molding and other final details. Then comes the painting. We've chosen a warm yellow tone for the walls and will do the trim in white.

2008-06-30T12:15:00.005-04:00

As you take in these now same-ish looking pix of the kitchen in motion you might notice a hole next to the imaginary sink, where soon will be in place our much dreamt of glories of glories, a built-in automatic dishwasher.

We never had dishwashers growing up, MB and I. Ours was the way of hot water and suds, dishpan hands and all that. Since adulthood we've been spoiled though, at least until we moved here to Palazzo Dilapidato. No dishwasher was ever installed here, such gross decadance not at all in keeping with taste of the former proprietors, but when we moved in I found a used portable dishwasher to do the job. That's one of those deals where you roll it across the floor, squeeze the valve up onto your faucet, turn the hot water on full blast and then get big squirts up your nostrils when you didn't do it right.

It's been a fairly wonderful device actually, doing a great job and being pretty easy to use. But the noise the thing makes is unbelieveable, really rather like the Who at Leeds in 1969. Having to wait it out so one can turn off the water at the end of the cycle is not much fun either.

Anyway, here comes a shiny new one, to be built-in and everything. This really is no kidding the main reason we are finally doing our kitchen, so we can walk away from the dishwasher... And therein hangs one more small tale. Small digression: are you as tired as I am of being polled for customer satisfaction at every turn? It seems that no matter where you go or what you want to do someone is always asking how great it was or wasn't to use/eat/visit/live through their whatever. Response rates to these endless polls has gotten so low that companies have resorted to bribes, like sweepstakes and drawings if only you will give them a grade, any grade.

Well I'm here to tell you, gentle reader, that it might be worth your while to keep on giving them what they want.

About a year ago I was asked and at a moment of weakness agreed to give Best Buy some feedback on delivery of a fridge. Of course I forgot all about it until about four months later when a plain envelope arrived from Best Buy with no accompanying note, merely a gift card for $500. This is what's paying for our faboo new built-in shiny etc dishwasher.

Best Buy being Best Buy and Ithaca being Ithaca, of course the local store didn't have much on hand to offer. They had about a half dozen models of dishwashers, either really low end (buy em for your rental) stuff or super expensive whizz bang models. Nothing to speak of in the middle. So we found what we wanted from their website, and a mere six weeks later, if the gods of freight and commerce smile upon us, we should have safely nestled in the bosom of our home one more little labor saving slave to our consumer desire...

2008-06-29T21:54:00.002-04:00

Things are moving right along with Super Kitchen Reno 2008. It's exciting to come home each day and see what has changed since we left in the morning. Of course that makes me all the more anxious to have it finished, but it's all part of the process.

2008-06-26T21:41:00.001-04:00

Just a short post tonight to show some progress. The guys are doing a great job, as you can see things are moving right along. All of the lower cabinets have been installed. Wiring has been put in for lighting above the sink and for a switch to the existing ceiling fan/light. We weren't overly surprised to learn that there's nearly a three inch differential from the highest point of the kitchen floor to the lowest. Long time readers may recall that we had foundation work done about a year ago, under this area of the house. However, had that work included any further raising or attempted leveling, it would have potentially put the windows in this area out of alignment or just flat out broken them. We're very happy with the progress so far.

2008-06-26T09:11:00.003-04:00

Chris here, just chiming in as this newest in our ever lengthening list of house projects moves along. Many folks would have started with the kitchen instead of waiting so long to fix up what is of course the center of the household, but one thing after another made us delay getting moving with "the big one".

For one thing, a while back MB found online a reality TV show in search of awful kitchens, whose colorful owners would in theory illuminate for the cameras the tackiness or downright horror of their space in entertaining/humiliating fashion. We were so ready for that possibility, of course we applied for an open spot, with snapshots and snappy bios etc. The reward for enduring minor instant fame was to be a remodeled cucina, sounds wonderful as long as you can put up with the kooky aesthetic of the doubtless photogenic designer... Anyway, never heard from them, but the lingering potential of a call from TV heaven made an excellent excuse for not doing anything.

Other excuses piled on as well, but the happy coincidence of what looked like a GREAT contractor coupled with a teensy increase in available funds made us jump right long about now.

We are not doing anything major in structural terms... although we probably should. We are replacing cabinets, counter and floor and that's about it.

So there you are, as you and we shall see...

2008-06-25T22:09:00.002-04:00

More kitchen demolition pictures. I wonder what's with that doorbell button above the radiator?

2008-06-25T21:19:00.002-04:00

Ah, I love the smell of drywall dust in the morning. This is the "it's got to get worse before it gets better" stage of renovation. As you can see from the pictures, demolition has begun. We are now effectively without a kitchen. Luckily the refrigerator is still accessible and running. The cabinets and flooring have been removed revealing many different styles of wallpaper and interesting, almost appealing blue linoleum flooring on top of medium width pine floor planks. The contractors are fabulous - nice guys and they sweep up after themselves so nicely!

2008-06-24T21:37:00.002-04:00

The time has come to remodel the kitchen. As you can see, it has a certain vintage theme to it that is really not to our taste. We've replaced the circa 1950's refrigerator and the stove whose door didn't close all the way.

New cabinets, countertop, and dishwasher are on the way. We will bid farewell to the brick patterned vinyl flooring, the floral wallpaper, the PA speaker in the corner and possibly our sanity...

2008-02-11T21:18:00.000-05:00

In addition to pantry fun we've had some professionals come in and prepare the cracked beams in the attic (shown here, you can see the crack around 2:00). The cracks has allowed some moisture to come in and cause some cracking in the plaster of the second floor hallway ceiling. Not sure what we're going to do about that at this time. But the cracked beams have been daughtered and the roof exterior will be repaired as the weather permits.

2008-02-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

My Dad strikes again. (Thanks Dad!) He is the creator of these fabulous, custom made shelves for our new pantry. They look really great and have a really nice routed edges and really sturdy supports. My folks brought them by about a week and a half ago and we were able to get the top trimmed (on just one side because the floor and/or ceiling is a little uneven, to noone's surprise) applied coats of primer, paint and attach them to the walls. Then came the fun part of filling up the shelves (and consequently emptying out our overstuffed kitchen cupboards). Who knew we had six jars of spaghetti sauce hidden away? We've even got some expansion space left on the shelves.

Here's another shot of the shelves in context to the rest of the pantry.

We still have a few minor things to do in the pantry, but it's really close to being finished and fully utilized. I'll have to take some more finalized pictures this weekend when I can get some good daylight shots.

2008-02-11T20:54:00.000-05:00

In between working on different aspects of the pantry, we had to have a little fun last month when we had absolutely perfect packing snow on a sunny day. The result of our efforts is seen here as the fabulous snow family. Shortly after their creation we had a big thaw (not that you would know it by much of today's single digit temps) and the snow family slowly disintegrated. They were a lot of fun while they lasted.

2008-02-11T20:37:00.000-05:00

Work has continued on the pantry, but unfortunately gone undocumented, so in an effort to get caught up. Here's a picture of the installed upper cabinets.

2007-12-23T11:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my Dad (thanks Dad!) the bottom cabinets are installed. We've cut the countertop and put it in place. We will attach it once it's had a few days to acclimate to inside conditions after being out in the garage for a week. Then it's on to bringing the chest freezer back in the from the shed, installing the upper cabinets and putting the (freshly patched and painted) door back on. We're really pleased with the progress so far, especially since we just celebrated our one year anniversary in the house. We've come along way baby!

2007-12-22T14:15:00.000-05:00

What a long way the pantry has come! See the nice, shiny new windows? Also take note of the new vinyl flooring

2007-12-15T20:26:00.000-05:00

Fresh paint!

2007-12-14T14:18:00.001-05:00

Keep in mind that Christmas trees always look better in person. We're pretty happy with this one, it's so pretty!