Continuing in the kitchen

Home Depot had a sale on glass tiles for the kitchen this weekend. That motivated me to spackle the entire back wall (the yellow glue from the ugly fake wood floor tiles has been showing for months) in preparation of some tiling.



Of course, I don't know how to tile, but at least the walls will be ready soon. I just have to sand and spackle them one more time... And we still have to order and install the counter tops...



But at least this motivated us to get some painting done on the lower cabinets. One step closer to having a completed kitchen...

Kitchen upgrades

The kitchen became yellow during my vacation (it's the same yellow as in the dining room, but my cell phone camera didn't adjust well to the color). A few days ago, Albie put up the hardware we finally decided on for the cabinets.

Below are some photos from when we first moved in, and after I painted it blue (but before we had started the cabinets) so you can see a before/after effect.

We still have to pick a backslpash, decide on a countertop and do the bottom cabinets (inside and out).

Baking in American/updated

Yes, I am now on vacation, so I have time to complain a bit again.

I attempted to make chocolate chip muffins. I've never made muffins before - not the American kind that is supposed to fluff up and be big and tasty. Albie got me a muffin pan for my birthday, so I figured what the heck, I'm home by myself and the house is clean, let's give those muffins a shot!

First of all, it annoys me that all American recipes are written in "2 1/4 cups" and such, not because I'd rather like it in deciliters (I really would), but because all measuring cups I own say 1 cup, 1/2 cup, or 1/3 and 2/3. There are no quarters, yet all recipes call for quarters. I guess you just have to guess by splitting the halfs in half! However, it's not very exact.

I finally got past the stupid numbers and had mixed all my ingredients when I realized everything was as thick as cookie dough. Is this normal? I checked the recipe. It said "divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups." Hm. That didn't tell me much. Divide it how?

Now it would have been helpful if the recipe said "divide with a spoon" or "pour batter into cups" so I would know if it was supposed to be closer to dough or closer to pancake batter. I had to resort to another muffin recipe to see if, perhaps, the first one had a mistake in it.

Nope, about the same amount of liquids vs. dry stuff in that one too. When I couldn't even stir the batter because it was so thick, I figured something must be wrong. I poured in a bunch more heavy cream, then I melted some more butter. I mixed until the consistency became what I deemed appropriate. I still had to spoon the "batter" into the cups though, and I still have no idea if this is normal...

Muffins - or whatever they turn out to be - are in the oven now. Update will follow on the results. That is, if the kitchen is still there when I get back downstairs.

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UPDATE: I am eating one of the muffins right now. It tastes alright, althought it is slightly greasy and buttery. Perhaps next time I'll try to actually follow the recipe and won't assume anything is wrong with it. It just seemed way to odd to call something that thick and heavy "batter."

Slow but steady progress

Half of our kitchen is blue, half is yellow. Half of the cabinets are brown, half are white.

The handles are missing on the cabinet doors because Albie and I have yet to agree on which ones we are getting. Paper printouts show the tiles I want, but I have yet to visit a tile store to find out what's available.

Countertops? Eventually they will be granite. We just have to save some money...

Kitchen updates

We've painted the insides of about half of our cabinets,

and I moved my tea and tea cups to a new spot.

They finally get their own cabinet! YAY!

The doors are back up on some cabinets,
while we are holding off on others. They
are all done (for the upper part of the kitchen),
but since we are repainting the walls, it's easier
to leave some off until the walls are done.

And this is what I look like when wearing
all my safety gear! I just hate breathing in
saw dust, and I cannot stand when it
gets stuck to my glasses.

Did I mention I like white?

Cabinets have paint!

After my friend Andrea went to bed last night, I had time to put a coat of paint on the kitchen cabinet. The goal is to have the upper cabinets finished by July 5, when we are having Albie's family over for a cookout.

The kitchen problem

We've been having problems with our fan above the stove since we moved in. It didn't really seem to work.

Even when I had it on a high speed, it didn't suck up any of the steam from boiling potatoes or the smell from frying bacon.

Albie and I decided it was just too old and it should be a priority to get a new one - preferably a stainless steel on to match our new stove.

Last week, I got home from work one night to find that Albie had already been to Home Depot to pick up the hood we had chosen at a previous visit. He took the old one down, and both fans were on the floor in the dining room.

When I walked into the kitchen to look at the empty spot, I immediately realized what the problem was - we have no vent.

So this entire time, the old fan has just been (slowly) sucking up air and blowing it right back into the kitchen. There is nowhere else for the air to go. No wonder it never really worked!

More kitchen stuff

I actually took the day off from painting today and had dinner with a friend who - ironically - is in the middle of painting her new condo. These are from a few days ago.

Painting cabinets

Before.... During....

Despite the fact that my shoulder still hurts from a night of painting on Monday, I couldn't help but start the kitchen cabinets when I got home from work today. One cabinet hangs by itself to the right of the sink, and this seemed like a good place to start.

I forced my still-sore arm muscles into action by screwing off the cabinet door hinges. But since we just bought a cordless drill, it was probably harder for me to write that sentence than to take the door off. I'm looking forward to future projects where the drill will come in handy!

I've hated the way our kitchen looks since we moved in. The kitchen is small and dark. Painting the cabinets white (and replacing the hardware) will hopefully make the room feel bigger, brighter and happier.

Painting the kitchen

As most of our other rooms, the kitchen had a stenciled border around the top of the wall. It screamed 80s, and I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

I covered the border with two coats of primer Sunday night, then Albie and I went to Home Depot for more supplies on Monday. When we got home, I ripped the paint can open and started painting. I couldn't really stop until I was finished, so it was 1 a.m. before I had the paint roller cleaned and finally put the brush down.

We still have to paint the cabinets and get some new hardware. But at least we're on our way!

Home improvement slideshow - the kitchen