More Moved In

Kitchen, Wednesday, July 24. I probably jumped the gun in posting some of the earlier pictures. We had not completely moved in. We were so excited about how it all turned out that we could not wait to show off. Now we've had an opportunity to 'soften' the appearance by adding more of our personal stuff. In earlier photos the display cabinet was empty, and I've filled it with what it was designed to hold, the Waterford crystal.


 

So above is a good image of a more lived-in kitchen. The carpet is in place, the picture is hung, the crystal is on display, and noon-time sunlight diffuses through the skylights.

I've also come to appreciate how much little things change the feeling of a room.  Robbie was wondering what to do in the triangular area behind the faucet in a corner sink. She originally thought a colored, decorative plate might work. Once we put it in place, however, we agreed it missed the mark. Then Robbie tried a big bouquet of sunflowers. This seems to be a great choice.


This picture also shows the view from my desk to the outdoors. I spent enough time in my career in cubicles and, before that, on submarines. I insisted that, wherever I work in the new kitchen, I would not stare at a wall. Here, as you can see, I will not stare at a wall. I will stare at the old grill that needs to be replaced, and the deck that needs to be resurfaced, and the lawn furniture from the last millennium. I also get to watch chipmunks, cardinals, butterflies, bluejays, robins, and the occasional fox. I'm thinking a bird feeder is a good idea for this view.

Our old kitchen had a corner china cabinet that held most of our crystal. We have collected a nice set of Waterford over the years, mostly through the generosity of Robbie's parents. We displayed the Waterford in the china cabinet, but it got quickly crowded by souvenir wine glasses, champagne glasses that memorialize various events, Renaissance Faire crockery, and the occasional beer stein. In the new kitchen, we're determined to set the Waterford apart. There's enough storage behind the cabinets for all that other stuff.



And, as for the space in the cabinets, I thought it might be useful to show off the chef's pantry. This was an important 'holdover' from the old kitchen. In fact, one of the reasons we resisted renovating the kitchen (well, one of us resisted it) was the convenience and storage capacity of our chef's pantry. In this one cabinet we could keep all of our food that was not refrigerated. So, to avoid 'stepping down' in quality in the new kitchen, we had to insist on a chef's pantry.




In the 40 years since the kitchen was redone, the design of a chef's pantry probably has been changed many times. In fact, I would not be surprised if it disappeared from the list of available cabinet styles. We were glad to find that cabinet makers do continue to offer chef's pantries. As you can tell, the storage available is enormous.

Again, there is a lot more available (with sardonic commentary of course) on the photobucket site.

Morning Light Photos

I took some photos this morning in the morning light. There's still some unfinished stuff in the photos, but the appearance is really coming along. Here's a photo of the entryway with the Tuscan painting in the background. The sunlight is glinting along the cabinet in the back.






Next, I'll post a photo of the view from my workspace looking toward the center of the room.

















Finally, I'll post a picture from the dining room table looking toward the island.





There are a lot more pictures in the photobucket album. 

I'll try to include a link to the album:

This should bring you to the album.

There are over 40 pictures with my sardonic commentary. It can easily be missed.

KWC

Our Finished Kitchen

We just moved in to our new, remodeled kitchen. Robbie plans to take real "serious" pictures this weekend, but I thought I would jump the gun, add a little value to this blog, and show everybody a preview.

The first picture is from the area of the dining room table. You see the island and my workstation. The brown chair is placed at Robbie's desk. Robbie wanted a stool and a counter, so we set that up. Notice the pendant lights and the skylight. This is a bright room, and it can get warm on these 98-degree summer days.

The second shot is from the entryway. You can see the island stove and the new floor. Notice the third skylight near the center of the picture. The afternoon sun shines through that for about an hour, making the dark corner quite bright. 

The third shot is from the area of the prep sink, with my back to the sliding glass door. Near the center of the picture is a tile mural of a street scene that adds a little color. In this picture you can see the (somewhat) odd reflection from the refrigerator. The ice and water dispenser has a small curve at the top, giving off a fountain-like appearance.
 

 One of the most enjoyable aspects of this kitchen is the wide variation in lighting. By changing dimmer settings, we can make the shape of the kitchen seem to change. I left the lights on for these photos, but this morning Robbie sat in the morning twilight with all the lights off enjoying the natural light.

Better View of the Mural

We thought we might add a few pictures.  And, here's a link to the photobucket account.

Kitchen from the Dining Area

Kitchen - Halfway Done

June 8, 2013. We've been back from our cruise for nearly a week and the kitchen remodel is reaching the half-way point. The demolition is complete and the new stuff has mostly arrived. The new floor was installed this week, as well as most of the new drywall.




The photobucket album has all the pictures. Above you can see the new floor from the entryway.

This is a dirty, noisy job. There are times when I envy Robbie because she gets to vacate the place for most of the day. I have to walk around the house with a mask to keep from choking on the dust.

Fairfax County caused some significant delays, some of them for good reasons, some not so good. The insulation on the rafters was inadequate (but it was much better than before), so they insisted on doubling it. That's the good part, although it created extra cost and a delay of several days.

Then, on a second inspection, they insisted that the dryer vent be insulated, "to prevent condensation". Okay, this is  not hard. Dryer vents are never colder than their surroundings -- they are either at ambient or above. By the first law of thermodynamics, heat flows from the warmer to the colder region, so the vent will heat the air around it. When air is heated, it has more moisture-carrying capacity not less. Thus, water never condenses on the outside of your coffee cup, while it will condense on the outside of a glass of iced liquid. I guess this little bit of high school physics is too technical for the "expert" inspectors. I now have an insulated dryer vent. I guess if my dryer and my air conditioner ever get cross-connected, I won't have a buildup of condensation. Alas, I missed my opportunity to take a picture of this folly: it's enclosed beneath the new hardwood floor above.

The new cabinets have arrived, and we're happy with the color of the finish (cherry). We think it will look quite nice with the hardwood floor.

Support for the New Kitchen

May 18, 2013. We're in the middle of a kitchen remodel. The most important part of the job -- what makes it a complex procedure -- is the replacement of a load-bearing wall with two twenty-foot-long support beams. these are made of engineered wood called "Micro-laminate" or micro-lams.

Here is a picture I posted on PhotoBucket:


The micro-lams are 2" by 20", and there are two of them. The original wall sat about where the center house jack is on this photo. You can see the double joists where the top of the wall used to be. Once the wall was removed, the house was jacked up about 3". Before, the house was supported by two 2X6 wood beams. These might have been adequate (barely) if they ran from foundation to foundation (across the photo above). In fact, they were installed as two different pieces that joined up at the old wall.

So, in fixing all this, the old beams were jacked up until they were even with the bottom of the micro-lams (which do span from foundation to foundation). Then the inadequate 2" by 6" beams were bolted onto the micro-lams.

After the weekend, the support jacks and the boards they connect to will be removed and we will have one room where there was two. Hopefully.

This shows the other side of that photo:
 

Actually, the micro-lams, at 2 X 20 are quite a bit of overkill. The guys working this project believe the engineer who made this recommendation was being exceptionally conservative. They have done similar jobs with support beams that are half that size. But, it's better to be safe than sorry. Now I know where to stand in an earthquake!


And, I'll post one more view of the kitchen as it stands this weekend. There's more in photobucket.

Hills Above Florence

Today, I rented a nice hybrid bike at Florence-by-Bike and took off for the road network north of the city. My first destination was a Roman and Etruscan settlement at Fiesole. Florence is on the Arno River at about 200 feet elevation. Fiesole is on a hill overlooking the city (see picture) at about 1200 feet. So, any way you take you will be doing some climbing.

The rental bike had gears that were low enough (and I had been bicycling enough) that I did not have to walk. But the ride up was certainly a slow slog and I did not ‘maintain a spinning cadence’ for much of the ride. I missed my clip-in pedals as they allow me to use more muscle groups.

At Fiesole, I paid the admission charge to view the museum of the ruins. I had done this ride in February and read later about this attraction. I vowed to return this time and tour the site. There is a small museum building with Roman and Etruscan artifacts, a well-preserved amphitheater, the excavated remains of a Roman bath, and a combined Etruscan and Roman temple.

The amphitheater was the main attraction, as you could still sit on the seats (hard rock though they may be!) and imagine an ancient Roman watching a Greek play or some other revelry. They had some statues and some unexplained boardwalk structure on the stage, which gave the scene a unique modern look.

After a leisurely lunch of chips, iced tea, and the ubiquitous ham-and-cheese sandwich, I continued North toward the Mugello district. The road to Olmo was a gentle climb to about the 1800 foot level. After Olma, on the way to a Bivigliano, I caught even more views of an even more distant Florence. The rolling orchards and fields were lovely in the sunlight, and the ridge lines faded off in the distant late spring haze with the last just a shade darker than the sky at the horizon. The entrance road to the Monte Senario monastery was the high point at 2300 feet.

The temperature was in the high 70s, and I never really felt hot. There was a gentle breeze so light that I don’t even remember the direction it was coming from. (And that, for a cyclist is light!) I passed lots of Italian cyclists, who greeted with a pleasant ‘Buon Giorno!’. (I had to admire the fun-loving Florentine cyclists who captured this beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon. I hope they left a pile of paperwork undone!) I also passed the Ristarante Panacea. With its spectacular view of the Tuscan countryside I’m convinced it just might cure anything that ails you.

At the end of the day, I took a shorter, alternate ride down to Florence. I couldn’t really open up on the downhill because the road twisted around and narrowed enough to make oncoming traffic a threat. Much of the ride was along a river, the Torrente Mugnone, that feeds into the Arno West of Florence.

I rewarded myself this evening with a bistecca Fiorentina (or a T-bone steak as we call it). Served with a couple of glasses of Chianti Classico, and some roasted potatoes the meal filled that empty spot caused by 3200’ of climbing. I suspect I passed the my dinner (or its relatives) on the mountains this afternoon. I chose a restaurant that was on a Piazza where I could people-watch from my table. For dessert, I rode my bike down to my secret favorite gelato shop (in a city filled with gelato shops) for some coffee and dark chocolate gelato. Thus, I had a great bicycling day to start my non-bicycling vacation!

Pre-Tour Trip to Florence

My flight to Rome went without too much trouble. A passenger did not make the flight, but his luggage did. So, they had to pull it off and it took some time to find it. As a result, we left a half hour late and arrived about 15 minutes late. I got about four and a half hours sleep, so I was tired but operational when I got to Florence.

I made the 9:27 ‘express’ to Rome and the 11:15 flight to Florence. I arrived here around 12:50.

I felt like I spent my first day in Florence productively. After checking into the hotel, I investigated bike rentals, and then walked down to the Duomo. I got immediately on line (around 2:15) and bounded up to the Cupola by 3:00. I took so many pictures at the top that I drained the camera batteries dry. If I had enough battery power, I would have climbed the bell tower as well. As it was, I walked all around the city. It’s safe to say I’m more fit than the last time we visited Florence!

I had dinner at a sidewalk restaurant at the un-Italian hour of 4:30. I had the restaurant to myself, which was good because the Italians believe every city square is an ashtray. At a ristaurante called “Za Za’s”, I had a delicious salmon on crusty bread appetizer and a shrimp curry risotto. I even skipped the gelato later in the day.

At the end of the day (7PM), I rented a bike for three days. The bike shop was very helpful in giving me maps to the countryside to the North and South of town. Tomorrow morning, after breakfast, I plan to ride up to Fiesole again, and then North to Olba. It should be about 26 to 30 miles when I’m done.