Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Date Night--September 17, 2014

I bet you thought I'd forgotten how to post a Date Night post.  Well, I didn't.  And I think I did a pretty good, (not great, mind you, but pretty good) job of documenting it.

Appetizers and Cocktails

Quesadikllas.  And Josh made Martinis  From his new Bar Cabinet.  They were good. I didn't take a picture.  Probably because it wasn't "new" in the kitchen.  He's been doing that all along.  Granted, he's more than thrilled to not be doing it in the bathroom. :-)


Dinner]

Chicken Cordon Bleu.  This was a little splurge-y at 8 points.  But it was  good.


I also made a Knorr rice/pasta side.  Not worth the points, but the man seemed to like.  And also green beans.  I cooked the beans to Josh's liking (I prefer them a shade under done...I mean a little crunchy, not mushy at all.)

Plate photographed in the kitchen. On the granite.  Isn't it pretty?

Dessert was a canolli for Josh and a Fiber One Oatmeal cookie for me.  I may have some apple sauce, too.

That concludes this Date Night post.

Next week, Josh is working.  Date Night will be all me.  And maybe a touch fancier as we will be celebrating new employment.

kristen out

happy cooking

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Kitchen Remodel--Days 47-49

I know, I've been lax about posting.  I have a really good reason though...I've been COOKING!!!  In my new kitchen.  Rather than dream about what I'll have or complain about the slowness of this project, I was actually using my kitchen.

Cool, right?

Anyway, here are the pictures...
First meal I ate on real dishes in 2.5 months.  I have a dishwasher!!!!!

Making breakfast for my man and myself on my new cook top!!!!!

You can see my new faucet and evidence that it works well in the pile of clean pots and pans drying.  For the things that don't get washed by hand, my new dishwasher handles that!

You can see my ovens lurking in the background and my new cook top in the middle.

These last two pics I took mostly to show off my new handles.  Aren't they pretty. Here's a more detailed picture.  I think they look like they belong in my kitchen.


Now having these cabinets that reach the ceiling is great.  I have lots of room to store seldom used items. Like my good china.

Now moving the china out of the liquor/china cabinet has freed up enough space to make that piece of furniture a dedicated liquor cabinet.  A BAR cabinet if you will.

The morning light casts a halo on the cabinet.  We really don't revere our spirits quite that much. :-)
So this brings you up to speed on the kitchen to date.  Still to come...shelves and wine rack installed.  That should happen this week as the giver of those items is coming to dinner on Saturday.  Hopefully next week, the correct hood will arrive and be installed.  After that comes finish trim work, the back splash and the inspection.

I'll keep you posted!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Kitchen Remodel--Day 45

Counters!!!

Moving my utensils to their forever home/

Coffee Maker in its new home.

New stainless steel sink. Notice how pink it looks in the corner?  That's the stone, not just a reflection of the walls.
Because I was able to move my coffee maker to the kitchen,  I was able to reclaim my Hall Bath.


Day 46 should be connecting all of the appliances and plumbing.  I hope a little more happens....

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Kitchen Remodel--Day 44

Big things happened today!

 Oven and Dishwasher found their forever homes!  Wine rack got hung but needs the shelves to be totally functional.  Sink cabinet got repaired and floor was added.

Let's go to the pics....

Dishwasher.  She'll e be prettier without the plastic and bolted into to the counter.

Oven.  I ordered this oven from a computer screen...there wasn't one on the floor, so we were a little surprised to see that it isn't flush with the cabinets. In this picture that doesn't seem like such a problem to me.

Isn't she pretty?  She'll be prettier still filled with bottles of wine.  Thanks Aunt Kate!

This is the floor to my sink cabinet. They left a bucket of parts for other parts of the kitchen in it, but now I can move my cleaning supplies out of the bath tub!

This last picture is very exciting to me.  It's my cook top.  The oven and the dishwasher are not completely hooked up.  That will happen on Thursday.  But when my counters are installed on Wednesday, I should be able to use this appliance immediately.  I won't because I won't have a faucet in my new sink until Thursday...

Pretty new cook top. I wonder where your grates are?
So this brings you up to speed on my kitchen project.  Tonight will be the last (I hope) Date Night that has to happen completely on the grill.  Don't get me wrong...I love my grill.  It's just that it's rainy today...

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Kitchen Remodel--Day 42

That's right...day 42 means six weeks in and far from done!  Okay, not really "far" but I don't have a working kitchen nor do I have cleanable, fully livable home/ I predict (or at least I hope) that by week's end it will be mostly done.

Day 42 was about the rough plumbing and electrical.  "Rough?", you say incredulously.  "Hasn't your kitchen already been painted?  Don't you have cabinets?" Yes and yes.  But it was the rough stuff that was done.

I now have a plumbing connections for the dishwasher and ice maker.  Do I have those things yet?  No. That will happen Wednesday with my counter installation. (Counters!!!!)

More exciting though is the roughed in electrical for my ovens.  They will be installed Tuesday.  I'm also hopeful that my wine rack and open shelves will also by hung.  And maybe my can lights.  After all, the electrician will be here.

So here's the pics:

Place for the new conduit in the garage.  

Conduit in the upstairs funny triangle closed.
Now, I added a comment to my last post about my hood.  It was wrong.  Wrong style, wrong color, wrong size.  That has added another 2 weeks (at least) to a project that could be done this week.  This next picture really feels like a step back.

Place where the hood was but is no more.
That brings you up to speed on the kitchen.

I am hopeful that I will be able to post great Date Night pictures on Wednesday...should have a workable stove, oven an dishwasher.  You have no idea how much I'd like to eat with really silverware on real plates and drink out of a real glass!

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Kitchen Remodel--Day 39

It always feels like one step forward, one step back.  Maybe I'm not fluid in constructionese, but I thought all of my uppers were going to be installed.  And that my cook top drawer was going to be dummy-fied.  That's not what happened.

Don't get me wrong.  I am THRILLED that anything has been happening. Let me show you the progress...


Now because these uppers (not the ones towards the dining room) were installed, we were able to do this...



The cabinet beside this one I intend to house more of my "ingredients"...EVOO, balsamic, savory herbs and spices.  I'd like to do a similar thing in the cabinet on the other side of the stove that will hold baking necessities...flour, sugar, sweet herbs and spices.  Because...


the end lower cabinet holds my backing "team"...mixers, pans, rolling pin.

Here is the other lower that I loaded...


This sweet cupboard with roll out drawers holds my food processor, immersion blender, juicer, and brand new toaster.


Isn't she pretty?  Wide slots to hold bagels, dual controls and all sorts of special settings...like for frozens.  It has a retractable cord and easy to remove and clean crumb liner thingys.  I may be in love.  Small electrics are so fun.

Now if you were paying attention, you would have seen in an earlier photo that we hung our new painting from my folks.  If you missed it, you can see it again here...


We think it fills the space as we wanted it to.The reflections on the glass make it hard to read, but we like it.  A LOT.  Those shades are not the "forever" shades.  We want to get Roman Shades in neutral khaki or linen.

Right now, our big concerns remain the wiring of the oven and also the water line to connect to the fridge for ice.

I'll keep you posted on those issues. At eh moment, I'm waiting for my Lowes boys to come and check things out.  They may be able to address some of those concerns.

And procrastinating cleaning.  We are having a small dinner party tomorrow and you don't know how I loath the idea of serving on paper plates with plastic utensils.  This is NOT a cookout or picnic.  Okay, I do have to prepare all the food on my grill, but it's not a hot dogs and burgers kind of a menu.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Kitchen Remodel--Day 38

This is the real "day" count. Honestly! I counted!!!   Project began with demo on 7/29.

This project is taking for-ev-er!!!

However the end is in sight. At least I think it is.

I have been able to begin loading my cabinets/drawers.


I think this means that I'll soon be able to eat off these instead of paper. What to you think?


Ahhhh cereal...with milk!  Maybe next week?


Food storage!  Can't wait to fill these bad boys up again!


Casseroles...baked chicken...roasted veggies.  YUM!


And this is the painting (it is a painting...you need to see it in person to understand) that Mom and I picked out in SC a few weeks ago.  It looks lovely in my kitchen.

So this was yesterday's achievement.  The construction boys did a lot in the attic, but they are not done up there yet.  

Oven cabinet was installed today, but not the oven.  I'm hopeful that they've figured out how to run the wiring.  

And they still need to install the can lights.

Right now they're figuring out how to mount the exhaust fan into the decorative cabinet hood-thingy.

I'm hoping that today's second post (Day 39) will show completely installed cabinets.  Hardware may be asking too much, but a girl can hope, can't she?