On the other hand the "Oh, That Jerkface Memorial Kitchen" has a nice ring to it.
That sounds like a lot of stuff happening at once. I'm assuming that, as is traditional, the job interview is in Philadelphia.
No, still in my same organization. It is on another elevator bank, though, so I have to cross through the lobby.
Tomorrow's schedule is court appearance in the morning in Brooklyn, second half of the interview at noon, and then discovery conference on another case at 1:30. I'm maybe a tiny bit overscheduled.
No compromising with Buck on kitchen remodel details.
Super good thoughts to you for the interview!
And holy crap, that's a lot of stuff happening at once, and, yeah. Thinking of you.
Jeebus, that's a lot of stress. Good luck.
I wrote that before I saw the last post. God.
Good luck on the job. I'm imagining a Spite Kitchen, where everything is exactly scaled to your height and reach, making all other occupants uncomfortable. (Too bad for the kids, but they'll move out eventually.)
Spite Kitchen
That should have a cut-out wooden duck wearing an apron and an old-time bonnet below the words "If you don't like what I cook, go fuck yourself."
Good luck LB! Do you think the new position would be more satisfying than your current one?
Spite Kitchen
There have actually already been conversations with the contractor where he's started out "Well, we want to account for the fact that Buck's super tall..." and I've had to jump in with "Really, don't. Figure I'm going to be doing most of the cooking and I'm not."
Just don't hang any old-timey "country kitchen" type stuff. That always makes me queasy, even if I can't see it.
Just one goose, with one ribbon around it's neck and a jolly saying in the font with dots on the ends of the letters.
Do they still have that stuff in Texas?
I have been talked out of some ill-advised decorative tiling (mosaic). It's going to be very plain. White cabinets, white tile backsplash with maybe a line of blue tile to break it up, wood floor, stainless appliances, and soapstone counters (black). And it is as small as any kitchen could possibly be and still fit full-size appliances.
Hey that sounds just like our kitchen! Except we did blue glass backsplash instead of white (non-tiled walls are painted yellow), and we're really happy with it.
22: Well, the old-timers do.
23: That sounds nice! Warm and simple. (By "warm" I mean the wood floor, not the black and white, MOBY. Or whoever.)
I hate our kitchen. It screams 1986.
That's what we're ripping out -- my guess is '89, but pretty close. Not because of the datedness, but because the counters wobble and the cabinets are literally supported internally by strategically placed pieces of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train tracks.
I just want a solid color for the counter top. The flecked blue/grey/black/purple/white/other grey is really impossible to work with as a visual backdrop.
It is on another elevator bank, though, so I have to cross through the lobby.
Dealbreaker.
I have no love for design choices from 1985 on. Rip that shit out.
I don't recommend white tile for the kitchen floor. It looks clean for approximately 37 seconds after it's been mopped.
Anyway, the suitable poultry decoration is obviously a goose hanging from a calico noose with "Buck" in folksy script on its chest.
Yoiks!!! That's a ton of stressors. Indulge yourself, you deserve it.
Good luck with the interviewing.
Anyway, the suitable poultry decoration is obviously a goose hanging from a calico noose with "Buck" in folksy script on its chest.
Advantage: geese have long necks; comes pre-stretched
Disadvantage: after a day or two it'll get really gross.
32: People keep telling me you aren't supposed to have wood floors in a kitchen, but our seems to work. Easier to stand on than tile. It does look pretty worn by this point, but it has been there for 25 years or so.
36
If it's a wooden cut-out of a goose that solves the disadvantage.
Ha! We have various legos and wooden blocks deployed here and there about the house for structural purposes!
Hope the judge is a pussycat, interviewers recognize greatness when they meet it, and discovery conference maximally non-annoying!
If it's a wooden cut-out of a goose that solves the disadvantage.
A thousand blessings upon your heart, my sweet.
I am very much in favor of wood floors in kitchens!
Tile hurts my back if I stand on it for long periods.
Also, when I drop stuff on tile, it breaks more than if I drop stuff on wood.
We have an oriental rug on our kitchen tile -- breaks more rules than having a wood floor, but fewer tiles.
Another vote for wood floors.
Soon after we exposed ours (it's the pine subfloor, actually, but decent enough), a great big glass jar (like for cookies or cereal) fell from the counter to the floor. It left a big dent (it landed mouth-first), but would surely have broken in a million pieces on tile.
Way to cover your clumsiness with the passive voice.
White cabinets, white tile backsplash with maybe a line of blue tile to break it up, wood floor, stainless appliances, and soapstone counters (black).
Huh, we're thinking of doing some remodeling this year and this is very similar to what my wife and sister were picking out. Some kind of black or dark stone counter with white cabinets but I think she's leaning toward red brick backsplash and bamboo for the floors.
We have a wood floor in the kitchen and it's totally great though sometimes I wish for linoleum. Soapstone counters are rad.
My biggest fuck up in home renovation was the kitchen, I let myself get talked into a "vintage" sink and butcher block counters. It looks OK but fuck that stupid shallow sink and fuck those shitty probably germ-saturated wood countertops. Kitchen technology is the one zone where houses unambiguously improved in the past 30 years.
Also, good luck. We're all counting on you.
I let myself get talked into a "vintage" sink
Gah. If we do it I'm springing for a big old deep farm style sink with no divider whatsoever.
And I'm also eyeing those wood plank looking tiles for the floor. Wood feels better but part of me always loves the "this will last a zillion years" aspect of a material.
It sounds like a busy and unnerving couple of days; best of luck with all the parts of it!
That's weird, our kitchen project was delayed for years while we waited for the right* vintage sink to show up in the local architectural salvage place, and the sink is great. Not shallow at all. I didn't grow up in a double basin family, but have come to like it a lot.
Also, butcher block doesn't harbor germs any more than any other surface.
*double basin/double drainboard, as determined by the steel base cabinet we kept (but had refinished)
Way to cover your clumsiness with the passive voice.
It was second order clumsiness: the jar was upside down to dry, but wasn't as stable as I'd thought: IIRC, it fell due to footstep vibrations.
52: I did grow up in a double-basin household and don't know how anyone lives without one.
55: Maybe if you had a dedicated kitchen maid, such that there was never, for even a moment, dirty dishes in the sink.
To be clear, I could also live with gswift's single, giant basin as well; I very rarely fill a basin with water, soapy or otherwise. But I still wouldn't prefer it. Washing things from the garden (e.g., greens or carrots) is easier in a basin of water with a drain at the bottom, and I wouldn't want to have to fill a giant sink to do it.
I grew up with a double-basin sink! Definite advantage when doing dishes; definite disadvantage when the dishes are broader than either basin. I still prefer them to the single-basin sinks I've had in the entire rest of my life, though, except on those occasions when I've also had a dishwasher.
If you're high enough, waiting for a giant sink to fill will seem like no time at all.
Our kitchen so needs to be remodeled. No dishwasher. Ugly linoleum flooring in that gray speckled white that never looks clean. Double-basin porcelain sink, all scratched up. Ugly white worn wooden cabinets. Old light blue countertops (formica? something cheap), but we replaced the oven, which left a fourteen inch gap, so shiv built matching ugly cabinets to fill the space (because he kicks ass) but with a butcher block proof-of-concept countertop.
(I really like the butcher block.)
I'll tell you what, the next house I live in will have a damn exhaust fan for the stove. I care about that much more than sinks. (I'm totally spoiled by the giant porcelain farm-style one I have now, though.)
We have an improperly installed exhaust fan for the stove. It works, but it was sort of alarming when I moved the stove and discovered that it wasn't actually hooked up right. I tried, but couldn't get it to hook up right either. The vent from the stove just goes into this empty chamber that the vent to the exterior is also hooked to.
Also, lots and lots of mouse poop under there. The people before us were so fucking stupid about how they stored bird feed.
Kitchen technology is the one zone where houses unambiguously improved in the past 30 years.
Double glazing? Insulation?
I think both of those have existed for much longer than 30 years. I don't know if they've gotten better or not as I've not had much to do with houses that new.
Getting a dysfunctional kitchen remodeled really is a key to lasting happiness. It's been like five years since I remodeled my kitchen, and it still makes me happy to walk in there, every damn day.
60: Both were standard issue by 1982. The latter hasn't appreciably improved*, the former somewhat more (at the high end, at least).
*for regular residential purposes
Existed sure, but per this not very widespread in the UK. ca 15% penetration in 1980 for double glazing vs 80% in 2005. Cavity wall insulation rates roughly quadrupled over the same period.
Putting in new windows is sort of a pain. Putting in new insulation even more so.
I've been thinking I want a triple basin. Maybe even like a big-ass sink they use in commercial kitchens.
If you stack them vertically you can fit several basins in the space of one
50: Wood feels better but part of me always loves the "this will last a zillion years" aspect of a material.
Have you considered a floor made of Bismuth-209?
Definitely stay away from hydrogen-7.
60: Who the fuck puts an enamel basin in the kitchen? People will wash sharp steel objects here every day for 50 years. I know! Enamel!
Wood floors in the kitchen are the best. They're all over D.C. but everyone looks at me like I'm a crazy person when I mention them here.
LB, you'll rock the hell out of that interview.
Sorry to hear about The Other Thing. I was thinking about you the other day in a more positive context -- I was on the Flickr group (first time in a while) and saw that gorgeous picture of your kids.
We gutted and rebuilt the kitchen when we moved in here last year. Man, I love my kitchen. We got a sink with one big basin, because it's so much easier to clean woks and big pans, and we never fill it for anything (or at least I don't).
They are fetching children, aren't they. Giant, looming fetching children.
The interview went well, I think, but I still have the second interview tomorrow.
I hope you remembered to wait to compare your current supervisor to Himmler until the second interview.
I learned that from Rudolf Hess's "What Color Your Parachute Should be to Avoid the British Spotters."
Not to kick you while you're down, but I'm not so sure about soapstone. My in laws got that and are paranoid about scratching it because it's so soft. " Don't put that pot down there! Not there either!" But maybe you can blame all the scratches on the ex.
I haven't been to the photo pool in a while, it seems to have become very enlightened European.
Good grief, LB. That's a lot of stuff. Good thing you're super fantastic! But sorry about the load of crap.
We're also starting a kitchen remodel this Monday. A gut reno of existing kitchen, with an addition of a family room, half-bath, and mudroom.
I plan to go north this summer, and to stay north until the project is complete. But with a brief foray to Ireland; and, finally, to Northern Ireland for the very first time in my life. The Black North! finally! I cannot wait. Needless to say, I have no opinions, about anything, at any time.
(I have a distant cousin in Dublin, originally from the North, who has promised/threatened to take me to South Armagh, the homeland of my McTragedy ancestors. Probably I'll be all, 'Please show me to the nearest B&B or small hotel. I couldn't possibly impose.' And they'll be all, 'But you must stay with us, we wouldn't hear of anything else.' So probably I'll be sleeping in the bedroom of the dead son, with a crucifix over the doorway [and yes, indeed, this has already happened to me: I know what's coming]).
I'm pro-KitchenAid, btw, when it comes to kitchen appliances,
Someone want to send me a link to the Flickr pool? Hit me up on the other place. Thx.
I don't have strong preferences about divided sinks. I' suppose I'd rather use a bowl type thing inside an undivided sink.
But, I really don't want to live without a dishwasher.
Man, I really want an apartment with a washer and dryer in the unit. There is a nice, but very strange woman, in our building who washes her kitchen sponges in the washing machine (not the dishwasher, the washing machine) with her clothes.
We always have to make sure that the washing machine is clean before we do a load of laundry.
Oh god do I miss having a double sink. It's the only thing wrong with my new house.
We got marble counter tops. Very beautiful pattern, lots of paranoia.
I'd like countertops made from the Morton Gneiss, but that would probably be cost prohibitive.
86. We have a dirty stuff sink at one end of the kitchen and a prep sink at the other. I recommend this arrangement.
Very beautiful pattern, lots of paranoia.
I love marble, but no way would we look after it properly. I also love soapstone, but again, too high-maintenance (you have to oil it every month or so for the first year).
Matching the rest of our late mid-century modern kitchen, the floor is bamboo painted white. This looked great for the previous owners, who hardly ever used it and were not as clumsy as us.
probably good to put the sharp knives away for a while, anyway.
except for the interview - no better ticket to promotion than pulling a knife.
At the Portland hostel I stayed in there was a triple sink with detailed instructions for how to optimally wash: sink 1, wash with soap; sink 2, rinse hot; sink 3, dip in the disinfectant pan.
no better ticket to promotion than pulling a knife
said the Highlander to the other Highlander
94: Also how McDonald's cleans the non-disposable stuff.
We should all read, or re-read, the novels of Sir Walter Scott, who basically invented the faux-medieval concept of derring-do. Well, okay, he was drawing upon an earlier tradition, which he famously popularized at a rate of so many pence per minute (in writing this tradition into 19th-century literary history). But derring-do: how awesome is that?