Kitchen project update…

Before I begin, this blog post was supposed to be published yesterday; however, our Comcast was out from about 4 pm until 1 am.

Besides not being able to work on my blog we had a different issue. We have a smart home that needs the internet for things to go on and off. I didn’t realize how much we rely on the internet, but the smart home is fantastic when it works.

We’ve been working hard all week on our kitchen project. Each step of the project relies on the one before it.

I have a lot of kitchen gear and a well-stocked pantry bursting at the seams, making it frustrating every time I needed or wanted something.

A couple of days ago, I showed you the successful equipment pantry we built in the back room of the home in an unused loft area. I added the raclette machine we used on Christmas Eve and more serving platters and dishes to the pantry this morning. Funny note, every time I try to write the word raclette, it changes to racketeering. 😂

One of our goals of the kitchen project is to free up more counter space and give the kitchen an updated look. Yes, we had a lovely kitchen with red as a strong accent color, but 15 years later, we want a change.

Last week, we did some demo in the area near my stove. Back in November, when I thought my six-burner stove shit the bed, we realized that the vent hood located over the high BTU stove wasn’t strong or high enough.

Since Marty could fix the stove, saving us thousands of dollars, we decided to remove the upper cabinets and replace the vent hood with an appropriate one. One that doesn’t overheat and goes into panic mode. I have this stove to cook on; I don’t want to worry about not using all of the burners at once; that’s what it’s for.

A couple of months ago, Marty found the exact European vent hood from Italy that we were looking at on Facebook Marketplace. All of our spätzle business’ commercial kitchen equipment, furniture, and other miscellaneous things have come from Facebook Marketplace. I’ve mentioned before Marty is a master wheeler and dealer at buying and selling.

The vent hood was still brand new in the unopened box for half the price; the person we bought it from shipped it to us for a reasonable fee. They purchased the fan; then, they decided to go with a copper fan instead. Obviously, money wasn’t an issue if they could afford a copper vent hood and let our new vent hood go for a bargain. A huge score for us!

Since we removed the upper cabinets to make room for the new vent hood, we got to pick out new European tiles for the wall behind the stove. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until we got to the store.

We went to a tile store in Albany, NY, with a certain look in mind, but then we saw all the options, different patterns, and materials the tiles were made from. We also had to consider the size of the tiles for a small area. Holy shit! I was overwhelmed, and my head was spinning. I had too hot of a sweater on and was sweating my ass off while in sensory overload.

I finally sucked it up, and we asked one of the designers, who are free of charge, to help us. She listened to us, showed us dozens of options, then found the perfect tiles. We ordered them and picked them up three weeks later. When the designer found the tiles, I asked her if anyone told her they loved her that day. She said no, so I told her I loved her for finding the perfect tiles. She laughed and was glad she made us happy.

The tiles we chose come in six similar patterns that can be put together in endless options. When I can’t sleep, I rearrange these tiles in my head for hours, it seems. It’s stressful because I don’t want to regret the pattern we choose. I will be looking at this wall whenever I cook and want to get it right.

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We’ve been painting all week; first the walls, then all of the wainscoting, shelving, and cabinetry. It was time-consuming because we did it correctly by taking off the cabinet pulls, doors, and hinges. The cabinets look fantastic and brand new. It was a pain in the ass but worth the effort.

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Today, I stayed home from the farmer’s market to reorganize our food pantry. After moving all of the equipment to the back room, I could put the microwave in the pantry in the kitchen freeing up precious counter space. Everything is so organized, I wonder how long it will stay that way.

Hopefully, tomorrow we can start the vent hood and figure out the tiling part of the project; it’s the last part and the trickiest. We’ve renovated our entire home ourselves, but it’s always a little intimidating until we get going. You never know what kind of problems you can run into when renovating an 1832 home.

So that’s the update. My dining room is almost free of the chaotic clutter, and the backroom is back to normal for the most part. We are getting there, and I can start cooking for real again. Thank goodness for leftovers I froze and were either baked in the toaster oven or microwaved all week.