What You Do NOT Want To See First Thing In The Morning

What I saw when I came down the stairs to the kitchen. Notice anything wrong?

Mmmm.

I have to bend over to get to the bottom of the sink. I didn't have to do that yesterday.

I don't think it's supposed to be like this.

Thanks goodness the sink held the water and the granite didn't crack. Needless to say, I was on the phone to our contractor first thing.

Sigh. Dealing with this is not what I planned to do today.

P.S. Did you know soaking pots, pans, racks, etc. in water with Cascade will loosen the most stubborn of baked on gunk? It will. It works well on oven racks, which is what I was soaking when this happened.

Update:
My sink is now back in it's proper place, with a healthy re-application of bonding agent and some snazzy new braces. The contractor claims it won't even move in a tornado. Let's hope he didn't curse us this tornado season with that statement!

Vintage Thingie Thursday

My mother gifted me with this glass jar recently. It belonged to my paternal grandmother, who died in 1976. Granny kept flour in it.

I plan to use it to store tea bags.

What items do you use from your grandmother's kitchen?

I'm joining Coloradolady today for Vintage Thingie Thursday. If you click over there, you will see lots of neat items.

Shelves For Everyday Dishes

I'm adding more shelves in several of my kitchen cabinets. My "temporary" (7 years) plastic racks finally got on my last nerve.

Before:

After:

About 6 years ago, the Fiesta dishes were given to me. The original owner had tired of them and was going to take them to Goodwill. She told me I could take what I wanted first, so I selected everything in these colors. There were many dishes I did not take because I didn't like the colors and they all ended up at Goodwill.

I took the Fiesta because what I was using were cheap Peir 1 dishes I'd had since before The Husband and I married. They went to Goodwill and the Fiesta collection took up residence.

I am now VERY tired of the Fiesta.

The colors were never what I would have purchased. I'm more of a primary color girl as opposed to a pastel color girl. If these were bright purple, red and orange colors, I would not be tired of them.

What kind of dishes do you use every day. What color are they? Are you tired of them?

If you are tired of your dishes and they are bright, bold colors perhaps we should trade?!

News Flash: I Cleaned Our Pantry!

Recently, every time I've opened the doors to our kitchen pantry, I've heard a little voice that said "This needs to be cleaned out and re-organized."

I finally said to the voice, "All right, all right. I'll do it!"

I took a few pictures that I will share with you. The quality is not very good. I absolutely must begin researching a new camera! (Any suggestions from those of you who have a camera you love and that takes photos worthy of publishing on a little blog?)

Before - #1

Before - #2

Before - #3

I took every item out of the pantry and used 409 on every shelf. Some shelves were really icky. How does that happen? And why don't we clean them as soon as they start to get icky? Can we say procrastination?

I threw away any item that was past the "best by" date. I didn't think I would find very many items that needed to be tossed, but I was surprised and a bit appalled.

When we had our kitchen spiffed up, I had the contractor cut some additional shelves for a few of my cabinets, one of which was the pantry. I installed an additional shelf in the center section and begin placing the surviving items on the cleaned shelves.

After - #1

After - #2

After - #3

I'm very happy the pantry reorganization has been completed. Now, I need to do the same for the cabinets with my dishes!

Are you happy with the state of your pantry? Or, do you also hear a little voice every time you open the door?

Spiffing Up Our Kitchen - Final

As promised, here are photos of our kitchen project.

The old sink and counter.

We very much disliked the sink.

The new sink, faucet and counter.

We are both in love with the new sink and faucet.

Old tile backsplash. 

Note the brown color in the trim, which does not go with the blue accent in the Corian.

The new tile backsplash.

Lovely.

Random shot of the Corian.

Same random shot with the new granite.

I really love the coloration of the granite. 

The Husband said he could have lived the rest of his life with the Corian. 

I said "Yeah, right!"

We are very happy with the kitchen. It was another great project by Dean West Construction. Dean and his employees "spiffed up" our bathroom last year, so we didn't hesitate to contact him for the kitchen. We both heartily recommend his firm for any remodeling project.

Now, we'll start saving our pennies for the next house project. What will it be? Only The Husband knows, because it's his turn to pick from our wish list!

What's on your house wish list?

Spiffing Up Our Kitchen - Part 3

Good progress is being made on our kitchen project, as documented in my last post on this topic.

Thursday, the installation of the tile blacksplash began. It is looking great! 

One of the best things we did was request additional shelves be cut for our cabinets. The cabinets use adjustable brackets as pictured below:

This bracket installation allows maximum flexibility in shelf configuration. I've added the new shelves into the configuration and started reloading them.

New shelf configuration + additional shelves = more space = items in different locations

I've already warned The Husband he's going to have to look for things.

He was a bit grumpy about that.

He'll get over it.

P.S. I promise before/after pictures when the project is complete.

Spiffing Up Our Kitchen - Part 2

Great progress has been made on "Project Spiff Up The Kitchen."

Things that have been installed:

• granite countertops
• under mount sink
• faucet
• garbage disposal
• under cabinet lights with separate switch

Unfortunately, the plumber said some bad words: "You have a leak in your wall." Not what you want to hear when you own a 95 year old house. Sigh... More conversations on that topic to occur.

To the topic of backsplash tiles. If you knew me personally, you would think that I would spend hours and hours on research. You would also think I would have to see every possible combination of tiles against the new granite and the existing floor tiles. You would lastly think I would bring home multiple tile samples for a review that would last days/weeks/months.

You wouldn't know me very well, if that is what you thought.

A tile store is nothing but overwhelming. When I get overwhelmed, I go with the simple, understated selection. Fortunately, I'm the person that knows what I want the minute I see it. I "feel" what is right.

We did bring home two tile options to see in our "native" lighting environment. I'm sure we will be able to make a decision tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted on our progress. And, there will be before/after pictures when the project is complete!

Have you ever "spiffed up" your kitchen? What did you do? Were you happy with the end result?

Spiffing Up Our Kitchen

Over the past couple of years, we have saved money that has been designated to "spiff up" our kitchen.

Over the past couple of days, we have met with the owner of the construction company who "spiffed up" our bathroom last year and his stone person.

The construction guys will make our new refrigerator fit.

The stone guy is going to transform our countertops from Corian to granite.

Before and after pictures will be posted at the appropriate time.

I'm excited!

Do You Have A Helper In the Kitchen?

A Kitchen Elf has appeared in my home. I hope the Queen Troll doesn't get mad.

I really hope KE knows how to cook and clean up.

The Husband and I would appreciate a third person in the rotation.

How To Clean A Pan/Dish

One of our favorite Tulsa restaurants is The Brasserie.

Recently conversation with another customer, Tim, was all about how to clean pans or dishes with baked on food.

See the scalloped potato dish below, as an example of a dish to be cleaned.

Note: That's Monica in the background. Go in and see her some time!

The solution is so simple:

• Put water in the dish.
• Add a bit of Cascade.
• Soak overnight.
• Rinse in the morning. The baked on food slides right off.

You will be AMAZED at how clean your pots/dishes will be after this simple treatment.

Thanks to an old friend, Nancy from Connecticut, for sharing this tip with me a number of years ago.

What Neighborhood Do You Live In?

We live in a FANTASTIC 'hood.

We just returned from a neighbor's house.   They offered up their very COOL kitchen (pots/pans/utensils) to a neighbor to use to prepare food for her sisters baby shower. The neighbors who own the house were not there until much later in the evening, due to a previous engagement.  Would you open your home to your (crazy) neighbors when you were not there?  

The Husband and I are thankful that we live in a neighborhood where our neighbors trust, if not love us, every day.