Fat Guy

I think so far the idea of building metro shelves into an old armoire is the most likely to succeed for me, if I do undertake such a project (which I may not need to).

At least according to the packaging, the rating with the casters, which I don't use, is 300.

The shelves Costco carries are rated to 800 pounds per shelf. For $99 you get six 48x18" shelves, six back rails, and posts. They also come with optional casters, which I don't use. You can only get them in the warehouses not on Costco.com so I can't give you a link but they are awesome. I just assembled three sets of them for use in closets. I think they're fully as serious as commercial-grade Metro and they're certainly cheaper. They're significantly beefier than the Intermetro shelving unit we got at Container Store for our son's room a few years back. A set weighs 111 pounds -- very hard to transport in the box.

The amount of stuff a Metro-type unit can hold is just astounding. I can't imagine an armoire coming anywhere close. Although, I am intrigued by the idea of finding an armoire/wardrobe slightly larger than a shelving unit and retrofitting the interior to accommodate it.

Maybe I'm wrong but I feel I can taste the packaging of a lot of foods. It doesn't really make sense with, for example, canned foods because cans tend to be lined with plastic. But I still think I can taste the can.

But you can't get a six-foot-tall, six-shelf unit that holds 800 pounds per shelf for $99 at Costco.

Is it really true that you can sand them?

I'm talking about the possibility of extending kitchen storage into the living room, and Metro-type shelving will be absolutely vetoed in its natural form. I don't think an armoire will take the weight of things like a KitchenAid and cast-iron skillets unless it's exceptional. So I'm looking, indeed, at the possibility of "tarting up" some Metro-type shelving. If it can't be done tastefully, forget it. I'm mostly just curious because I just assembled three units for use as closet interiors and thought how great they are.

I love Metro shelving for its practicality but I don't think it looks good enough to have in an open home kitchen, unless you want a very industrial look. So I'm wondering, has anybody come up with a way to dress up a Metro-type (Metro, Intermetro, the Costco equivalent, etc.) shelving unit to make it look more like furniture?

Coincidentally, in unpacking a box from storage over the weekend, I found two bottles of Goo Gone. I didn't even know we had any. How is it applied? Does it really not do any damage to the underlying material?

By oil you mean something like vegetable oil?

I'm wrestling with some very stubborn price/product/sku stickers on a few items ranging from ceramic bowls to plastic organizer baskets. What is the definitive trick for getting rid of them?

How do I measure softness? They seem very hard to me but what do I know?

I confess I really like the taste of artificial almond flavoring in things. Anybody else with examples?

I have slowly been exploring the stores within walking distance. I'm actually pretty pleased with what I've found. I wouldn't want to be totally dependent on the local shops, but I'm not. For filling in the gaps in our larger shopping trips to other neighborhoods and outside the city, the local places are unexpectedly decent. Fine Fare is the closest in terms of footsteps. While it is not the world's greatest store, it is new and clean and the sales are compelling. It is hardly the awful inner-city supermarket one would fear. The next closest is a place called Central Markets, which is not related to the Central Market company in Texas. I was very surprised at the offerings. Clearly targeting an audience of people with taste. Prices are not great, but again if you shop the sales you can do well. Finally, the six block walk gets me to a place called Best Yet. This store would be impressive in any neighborhood, I think. I need to do more exploration but my initial gander left me with a great impression. I have to figure out what there is around here in terms of greenmarkets and such. That season will soon be upon us.

That was a consideration, but I'm hoping that with the help of a waste disposer unit in the sink we won't be accumulating tons of smelly trash. We shall see.

I just put in this Rev-a-Shelf unit that I got from Lowe's. It has two bins, one behind the other, for trash and recycling. They are 35 quarts each and take standard tall kitchen trash bags.

I'm new to the world of soapstone (steatite) countertops and could use some advice on cleaning and caring for them. Does mineral oil really help? Is Windex good? Please tell all.

The thing about a Bosch -- I have one too -- is that it just doesn't dry well in general. It's a beautiful piece of equipment, very quiet, and it does very well on cleaning. But for drying, not so great -- you have to do a lot of manual toweling as you unload. My old KitchenAid did a great job drying overall but still never got top-rack plastic stuff dry and if you put it on the bottom rack you ruined it.

I finally had a chance to unpack and use the new Blendtec today. It's a beautiful piece of eqipment. I'm pleasantly surprised that the larger pitcher, with Tom Dickson's signature on it, doesn't take up any more vertical space than the smaller one. The unit's case, the pitchers and everything visible seem factory new. I suppose the motor could have been extracted from a demo model or return but I'm going to go with the fantasy that at some point they just started shipping new units. Also, I think the buttons on this one are nicer than on my old one -- more tactile. In the time I was away from a Blendtec I lost my ability to estimate quantities so tonight's mango sorbet required some adjusting. But I'll get my mojo back.

I have to guess that re-veneering would be more expensive than getting a table at Housing Works that doesn't need re-veneering. Maybe there's a service provider in New York City that does it cheap but that's the sort of thing that tends to be expensive here and the table is too big to drive to North Carolina in our minivan.

It's all gas. I haven't used the oven yet. I'm hoping the broiler is a good thing. So far, having only used the rangetop, I think five of my six burners have unimpressive power. The double-ring burner, however, is pretty sweet. I don't think its BTU/hr numbers are all that fearsome but it really cranks when it's time to boil water (which, along with cooking eggs, is all I've really done so far). I will say it's about the most attractive range I've seen, unless you want to get into something like Bonnet in a totally different price category. Then there's the issue of it not being installed correctly. But I hope I can get that remedied one of these days. More on that at some point.

Cambro does pretty well -- it almost behaves like glass. I have never had a Gladware container get fully dry in the dishwasher.

How come plastic stuff never gets dry in the dishwasher?

Fluorescent. In the whole apartment we don't have any normal light bulbs. I think at this stage of the game the CFLs and fluorescent tubes are putting out some really nice light and the energy savings are massive. Stove off: Stove on (that's the one burner that has any sort of serious power, it's a double ring burner with separate controls for each ring):