posted by Cass on Jul 1
Thanks to Nita Vrabel for the helpful guest post
When I had moved into our house, I saw that the kitchen was seriously out of date. The cabinets had the dark 1970′s wood. The walls had gold, green and avocado yellow wall paper. Flooring was cracking and coming up as well. Upon looking at the counter tops, I saw that there were knife marks all across. As I started calling contractors for quotes, I discovered this was going to be very expensive if we hired someone. Some of the contractors had slipped a few secrets out to me. I was told that there was paint specifically for cabinets. My first project became the cabinets. I went to the local hardware store and purchased the materials. The cabinet paint, brushes and the plastic flooring came out to about $50. The cabinet project took a total of 6 hours between painting drying and the second coat.
Next we decided to do the walls. When I consulted a contractor company about removing the wallpaper and painting the walls, they quoted me $350. Buying paint and new brushes, I spent $45 and 8 hours painting the kitchen walls. The walls were the simplest. The only heavy duty part about painting the walls was moving the appliances to paint behind them.
The counter tops were the next to tackle. All we had to do was take the measurements for each separate partition of the counter tops. We picked out the design and had the pieces cut at the hardware store. We also bought a book on do-it-yourself remodeling HERE. The book showed us which different types of counter tops had to be uninstalled and installed in a certain way.
Deciding to do the floors last was the best decision. We didn’t want to ruin the new floor with paint, nicks and scuff marks. Knowing that the ground moves a lot in this area, we had to consult quite a few contractors. Some contractors said they could do the kitchen floor for about $2500. They had also let it slip that they would need to use a special tile grout that would expand and contract and let the floor move with the ground and concrete that moves so much. We made yet another trip to the local hardware store, bought the tile, special grout and the trough. The floor took a few days, but our kitchen is now updated and welcoming.
posted by Cass on Jun 28
You know, if the kitchen is the heart of the home, the table must be a ventricle. It’s amazing what can happen to a family as they share talk and dinner, yk? Now with summer here, a lot of people are moving meals outside. I’ve always liked the look of glass top dining tables for outside use, though with small kids, I am afraid of them for inside. The one I showed you to the left is called the Coaster. I really think it would look great with some wrought iron chairs in a similar pattern, don’t you? Maybe with some cushions with a bit of red in them.
Now, with the size of my family, this Triple Acanthus is more suited to my needs. It seats 6 easily and I am thinking 8 would not be too crowded, since we can do 8 pretty easily at the one I have now. Unfortunately for me, my dining room is nowhere near large or formal enough to support those hand cast table supports. But they sure are purdy!
These days, I’m more shopping for chairs. I got four of those and two benches last fall, and the children have already managed to damage two of the chairs! How aggravating is that?
posted by Cass on Jul 29
In fact, I have been lusting after them for months. The only reason I don’t have them yet is because I haven’t dragged my lazy bum out to Target to get them, and I refuse to pay the $10 shipping on them. But red happens to be one of my absolute favorite colors, and I want them. Really I do. Don’t you think they would look so pretty with food in them on this blog? Yes. Yes they would. But not at that price for shipping. Although the blue set is also nice. I wonder how much the shipping would be for both sets?
posted by Cass on Jul 17
I try to be a reasonably frugal cook, but one thing I have learned is to not skimp on is kitchen tools. Good tools are a gift you give yourself that keeps on giving. And it’s not always the spendy tools that are good ones. This spoon, for instance was about $4. As you can see, it broke right off! And before that, it leaked water out of that band into my pots and pans. Blech!
These two are better spoons. Surprisingly enough, I only paid about a buck a piece for them, one at Wal-Mart, one at Dollar Tree. The dark blue one is the DT one, and it’s made of melamine. Truly an awesome spoon, BUT. That little black dot is rubber and it was attached to a larger rubber piece on the back of the handle. The glue was apparently not dishwasher safe, because that back piece came off. This doesn’t effect the way the spoon performs, though, and they also have holed spoons and spatulas and pancake turners at Dollar Tree. The next time I go there, I will be getting a few more, I think.
Next up is what may possibly be my favorite spoon ever, and these hands have held a lot of spoons. I got it in a pack for different tools for $4 or $5. We love them all, and they are the first ones we reach for. Come to think of it, I would almost rather have more of these than more of the melamine ones.
WOW: you don’t want to get caught by surprise with a wooden spoon.
posted by Cass on Jul 8
This is my kitchen. Well in a manner of speaking, this is my kitchen. At least, this is what my kitchen looked like the last time it was thoroughly and completely cleaned, which was back in, like, April. It’s pretty much been in constant use since then, and I just can’t seem to get both the counters cleared at the same time. We cook a lot of good food up in here, ya’ll. It’s a hard life.
