MelissaH

Just need to say: That is the most beautiful zucchini picture I've ever seen. I wish we could get some like that here! MelissaH

The plumbing went relatively well. Only one slightly burned finger from a drop of hot solder, and no obvious leaks. We wound up reusing the old trap, because we inadvertently got one the wrong size. But we'll need to go back anyway, to get paint (we decided on Betsy's Linen for the window quarter-round, in something really shiny; I hope they sell samples because that's about all we'd need for the job) and I'm sure other things will come up also. An oddity did come up today: how to get the back on the sink cabinet. The drain comes out of the wall, but the water lines rise up from the floor. If we put the back on the cabinet before pushing it into place, the drain could come through but the water lines would be stuck outside the cabinet. And we couldn't really push the cabinet in place and then slide the back on from the outside because there's a wall there! What wound up happening: my husband cut a slot for the drainpipe, and slid the back over the drain but behind the water lines. Then he pushed the sink cabinet up to the wall, and somehow managed to push (pull?) the back to a reasonably tight compression fit. Then, he used the screws that hold the cabinet to the wall to help hold the backing on. But it's mainly just a compression fit. Here's the result, without sink cabinet doors: This afternoon after the plumbing, we leveled the cabinets from the refrigerator around past the sink to the sliding door, using the legs. Those corner cabinets are a real bugger to do, especially the legs at the back where they're nearly impossible to reach from the front. Up now: countertop cutting. Jigsaw and lots of blue tape...but we hedged our bets at Lowe's this morning with a tube of formica filler, which works wonders on small chips. We're currently in discussion about backsplash. I want to wrap it all the way around the baking area, across the butcher block counter. My husband doesn't. I think it will look funny if there's a black line that goes partway over, and then just stops. He thinks that if we replace that section of butcher block with marble earlier than we redo the entire countertop, we'll have problems with the backsplash being there and we'll make a mess trying to remove the tiles. The current compromise is that once the countertops are all in, we'll try it out and see if it really does look odd. Our next-door neighbor was over today. He's a retired art professor, and he was quite impressed by the kitchen. He said his wife's going to be jealous, especially of the range. MelissaH

OK, time to cue up the Sweeney Todd soundtrack? (all together now: "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd....") MelissaH

What about white chocolate balloon-formed cups, to go with the mango sorbet? I'd think that might work better than chocolate-chocolate. MelissaH

He's really pretty easy to keep happy. I just try to stay out of the way, and make sure dinner's good. Today's morning excursion took us to Lowe's, where we got a bunch of plumbing materials to make the connection from the sink (and garbage disposal) to the existing drain and water lines. We also got some other random pieces for electrical stuff, the tiles and grout for the backsplash, and a new ceiling fan (as long as my husband's going to be heading back to the attic to trace that wiring anyway, we figured we might as well replace it with something we like better). If the plumbing goes without any real problems, I may have a sink in by the end of the weekend! MelissaH

Here are today's pictures. It's really looking like a kitchen now! Here's standing in the dining room end of the kitchen, looking toward the baking area. You can see the recessed can lights on, as well as the triplet UFOs over the window. The gaps between the cabinets will all be filled when we bolt everything together. As you can see, the cabinets are all put together, but the pulls aren't on yet. The dishwasher's in place, so we know how things will fit in. And we brought up two big pieces of laminate countertop to see how they'd fit, and determine where to put the two seams we'll need. My husband read through the dishwasher installation instructions last night. They recommend putting some insulation and vapor barrier between the top of the DW and the bottom of the countertop directly over. We have a piece of floor underlayment that should fit both counts nicely. We'll also add some support bracing to the area over the DW, to help support countertop. I still can't believe how much light we have in the kitchen. This picture was taken at about 9 PM! Here's a slightly wider view of the same thing. It's a little hard to tell, but the backsplash is in place between range and hood, and the warming shelf and tool hanger rods are installed on the hood. Before we did that, our friend Jeff came over to help give us a little extra oomph to pull the range out so we could leak-test the gas line (and then to push it back against the wall) and to haul the countertop up. While he was here, he helped scoot the fridge over closer to the door so we gained a little more breathing room in our tight corner. When we moved the fridge closer to the door, we realized that not only is the ceiling not level, the doorway isn't square either. Oh well, I guess we all sag a little bit after 40+ years. (And I can say this even though I myself am not yet there. ) We don't know what we'll hang from the hood yet. One idea that crossed my mind: you know how, in appliance stores, they tie plastic fringe to their fans so you can see the fringe blow when the fans are on? We could do something similar, and watch the fringe get sucked into the hood. Or maybe not. In this picture, you can also see a piece of butcher block over by the range. There will eventually be butcher block in this location, so we can take stuff off the stove and not have to worry much about it. If you think you see an uncovered junction box in this photo, you're right. That's for the phone line, which we never bothered to get turned on since we just use our cell phones for everything. We didn't want to completely hide it, but we need to get a white box cover for it, next time we go out. Here's the tight back corner, looking around to the window and sink. The sink cabinet doesn't have a front or back yet. The front's not on because it will be much easier to deal with plumbing without the front in place. The back's not on yet for much the same reason. We know what we'll need to do with the plumbing: basically close off or remove one arm of a Y. We think it will be easier to close off the one arm, simply because the tail of the Y extends very close to the wall, where a mistake could have grave consequences and require tearing out a large portion of wall. So we're planning to take the easier way out, and just cap off the arm we don't need. (That will also allow us to leave open the option for going back to a double-bowl sink in the future, should we decide we don't like having one large single bowl.) But as long as the Y is in place, for us to put the back on the cabinet and then slide it up against the wall, we'd need to cut a large hole in the backing. Better to wait until the plumbing's modified, at which point we'll only need to make a small hole to allow the pipes into the cabinet. (We'll be putting a garbage disposal in.) My husband did notch out the bottom to let the water lines up. We'll have some water line work to do, as well as the drain line work. For one thing, the incoming hot water pipe's quite a bit taller than the cold water pipe. We plan to shorten it (and then just use a longer flex-line to make the connection to the faucet). For another thing, we'll need to add a T to the hot water line, for the dishwasher. That's another reason to shorten the hot water line: so we have more room for the T. What this all means is that the next thing we need to do is get the plumbing worked out, so we can at least put the back of the sink cabinet on, and cut the drain hole, and then tie it all together. Once everything's tied together and to the wall, we'll also need to cut a hole through the sidewall of the sink cabinet, for the DW drain hose. That shouldn't be a problem. Something that's not entirely clear from any of tonight's pictures is what we think we'll do with the countertop seams. The laminate countertop came in 8-foot lengths. We're only a few inches too long to be able to use only two lengths to do the entire run on the window side of the kitchen, unfortunately. This means we'll need to do two seams, not one. Our plan is to put the seams on either side of the sink, over the gaps that will be covered with filler strips eventually, symmetric with respect to the sink. That way we'll have plenty of room to glue or bolt or whatever the sections of countertop together, and it shouldn't look too weird. Here's the range, standing slightly back into the closed end of the kitchen. These cabinet areas will all get butcher block countertop. We measured today to be sure that the counter height would be at or below the level of the range. Speaking of the range, once we'd leak-checked the gas line and then pushed everything back into place, we turned it on! It took a little while for the air to get pushed out of the lines, but once that happened, all six burners lit and burned beautifully. The simmer setting looks tremendously low, especially after recent fights with the outdoor propane stove setup. Jeff was particularly impressed with the Monogram burner grates---all six reverse to a curved surface designed to cradle a wok. He wondered if they were available to retrofit to other stoves. We don't think they are, unfortunately. I can see that we'll need to figure out how to best remove fingerprints from stainless. Down at the far end next to the range, there's another cabinet that doesn't have a front. This is on purpose, because the microwave will live inside. My husband still has a little work to do on the cabinet, to figure out how to best support the microwave, and make the leftover space useful (and possibly even covered). The microwave will be down close to the dining room, and close to where the cats are fed. Here's what's between the sink and the dining area. The horizontal cabinets have a glass shelf inside, and we chose the glass doors. We think our glasses will be stored in these, and we'll find something pretty to go up top in the open area. These cabinets only came in white frames, but we'll put a birch end panel outside all the way up. We're currently debating whether these horizontal doors need one or two handles. My husband's initial thought was one, but to me they're long enough that two hands feels more natural. Maybe that's just because I'm short. We also need to figure out whether 30-inch drawers get two handles, or just one. I vote for two, again. We calculated this all out at one point, so I should go look at the numbers. And finally, here are the three UFOs, turned on and reflected in the window. We plan to trim out the window with molding, and also probably to repaint the tan with either Betsy's Linen white (to match the ceiling) or Cream Cake yellow (to match the wall) in something glossy. We're actually getting to the point where apart from the plumbing and the vent duct, the work yet to be completed is largely cosmetic! I didn't expect to be this far for at least a few weeks yet, maybe even a month. We'll need to do all the toekicks and endpanels. We still need to futz with base cabinet legs (to make the top surfaces level for the countertop) and drawers (so things slide smoothly). We have zillions of knobs to attach to doors and drawers. We plan to make the top of the sink cabinet a tip-out, rather than just a dummy panel, so we need to get the hardware for that and install it. We also have molding to work with, and that's going to take a bit of time given our unlevel ceiling. The countertops and sink need to go in, as does the 2-by-6 tile backsplash we've chosen, but that's a bit off yet. And thresholds for both the dining room and side door. Lots of stuff to do, but most of it's little. The kitchen's starting to feel semi-functional. Now that the backsplash is in place, I could actually use the range if I wanted. (I'm hoping the weather stays good at least till the roofer duct guy comes to make the hood vent outside.) Having the countertop pieces laid on top goes a long way towards a feeling of functionality, I think. We determined today that the drawer dividers my husband got in Burlington, ON, as he drove back from Michigan last month are definitely the wrong size. Since they came from a Canadian IKEA store, they need to be exchanged at a Canadian store. This isn't a problem for us, as many Canadian stores are closer than New Haven, the nearest location in this country. We could certainly go back to Burlington, but the border crossings in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area are generally nightmarish (last time: 2+ hours waiting, although the sign said only half an hour; in 2 hours, it's almost as efficient to go through Toronto around the north side of Lake Ontario and come in from the north!) trying to get back into this country. We're going to be better off visiting Ottawa. So we're planning a trip next week, to do the exchange and figure out what else we need (possibly a new silverware holder; definitely a paper towel holder). Guess we should probably count door pulls carefully, to see if we need to get more. Tonight I cooked downstairs, but we prepped dessert up in the kitchen! For dinner, I started by cutting the backbone out of the chicken with my shears, and then flipped the bird over and pushed down on the breastbone to flatten it. I tucked the wings in behind, and cut a little slit in the skin next to the thigh, to tuck in the end of the drumstick. I put bird, along with cutting board and toxic shears, into the little barsink and rinsed everything with cold water. (I really miss having a sink I can turn on easily with just a wrist, or an elbow, if need be!) Then I went to a different sink to wash my hands, and started working on a marinade. I scooped out a bowlful of yogurt, added a couple of palmfuls of Penzey's sweet curry powder and a few pinches of kosher salt, and gave the whole thing a stir until the color was even. (I didn't measure anything. Bad chemist, me!) Then I scooped the whole thing into a gallon-size ziplock bag, and sat the bag in our 9-by-13 glass dish for secondary containment. I brought the glass dish up by the sink to transfer the rinsed and drip-dried bird in, and then moved dish (with bird) back to the cart. I rubbed the marinade under the skin of the bird as best I could, and then washed my hands (again) so I could seal the bag and carry it up to the fridge.When I came back down, I dug out the bleach and sanitized the chicken-contaminated cutting board and shears, as well as the sink. (We can't leave containers of liquid open, unsupervised. Lyon's a "water cat" and he will play in, drink, or both with any body of liquid available to him.) I also cleaned the top of the cart, although I didn't think I'd splattered any chicken juice. The bird rested in the fridge for about three hours, and then I lit the grill. While the grill pre-heated, I prepped the thermometer and probe, inserting it into the thigh. I put the chicken on the grill skin side up, turned the middle burner off and the other two down to medium, and set the thermometer alarm for 165 °F. It took probably 50 minutes or so to get there, at which point I turned the chicken skin down, re-lit the middle burner, and let it go over the direct heat for 10 minutes or so, to get the skin really crisp. While it crisped, I chopped up some red bell pepper and a few cherry tomatoes, along with a smidge of sweet onion and some cilantro, to go over the last little bit of mâche leaves, with olive oil and sherry vinegar. My husband finished showering just as the bird was coming off the grill to rest. He prefers white meat, while I really love dark, so we each got one of our preferred quarters. He asked what I'd used in the marinade, which usually means it's a keeper. After that, he munched on a few corn chips, while I ate the cherries from the market yesterday. Then, dessert, upstairs! We brought bowls and an ice cream spade up, and scooped the ice cream in the kitchen, on our new counter! (Then we brought it back down to catch up on recorded Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares.) It's so close to being done...yet so far. MelissaH

Snowangel, Thanks for posting a link to your unbaked pie recipe! I like that you can do it with a graham cracker crust, which I think I can manage on the grill since my kitchen's still under renovation. Now, my question: I'm sure at least the 2 cups of cooked berries would be fine with the ones from my freezer that I'd like to use up before this year's crop comes in and we go pick more. But have you ever tried it with all frozen berries, even for the uncooked ones? Would you lose the contrast you spoke of so lovingly? MelissaH

More pictures to come tonight. The cabinets are all put together and placed. (The base cabinets won't be tied together or to the wall for a little while yet, at least until we figure out how we want to deal with the plumbing.) The ceiling is most definitely not level. We started placing the upper cabinets at the corner between the baking area and the wall with the window, and worked our way across the baking area first, then down to the window. All the bottoms are within a smidge of each other, according to the laser level. (We hung it on the wall, and let the fluid inside settle, so we know it's not whacked.) There's plenty of room to slide in a piece of molding above the cabinets on the window wall. But next to the fridge, there's enough less space that the molding will need to be shaved down, probably on the table saw. And over by the hood, there's barely any room at all, even though the bottoms of the cabinets are all still at the same height. We're thinking we won't put any molding at all at the tops of these, because they're pretty independent (just one cabinet on either side of the hood). We decided to put the two horizontal cabinets stacked one on top of the other, with an empty space at the top. We'll put the end panel all the way up to the ceiling, though: there's going to be countertop extending past the edge of the upper cabinets. If we left the opening available, I'm positive we'd find a cat up there, probably sooner rather than later. Or worse, we'd hear a cat try to make the leap, but not quite get there. We'll use the space to display whatever pretty stuff we can find that we don't think we'll want to use often, because it's up pretty high. Time for me to go downstairs and do some cat dishes, to clear out the sink. Then I'm going to butterfly the chicken that's waiting for me in the fridge, and see if I can avoid sliming anything with toxic chicken goop. MelissaH

Just a quick note about cutting mangos: the skin contains a compound related to the stuff that makes you itch in poison ivy. If you have sensitive skin, touching the outside of a mango may give you a rash. If this is the case, either wear gloves, or find someone less sensitive to do the dirty work. (My grandfather adored mango, but my grandmother always had to be the one who cut it up.) Oh, and the fruit that's always left behind on the pit? In our family, that's precious stuff. It belongs to the one who wielded the knife, to be gnawed while leaning over the sink! MelissaH

Our budget is still holding up fine, as far as I know. The vent duct materials and installation were a bit more than I'd imagined, but we've been under what we'd predicted on a bunch of other things (including the electrician). We haven't added up all the hardware store and Lowe's receipts, but right now we don't see any problems in coming in close to what we'd wanted. We haven't gotten any really nasty surprises so far, knock on wood. And the time savings over what we'd predicted is also a big boost. We haven't been eating out at restaurants much, so our food costs haven't been out of the ordinary for the past few weeks. It helps immensely, having a handy husband and willing friends. MelissaH

Tonight was a glorious night at the market. We came away with four quarts of peas (which my husband shelled into a bowl already), a quart of locally grown strawberries, and a quart of Queen Anne cherries imported from downstate. (Our local cherries won't be in for another month, at least. But when they do come in, we'll have sour ones. I hope I have a kitchen worthy of pie-baking by then!) We made a quick stop at our local bookstore before going to Anne's for dinner. We had mac and cheese (Blue Box for my husband, Annie's brand orange box for me, some of each for Anne), salad, and leftover roast chicken. I have a chicken of my own to cook tomorrow. We've had a tough time finding small birds of late; I got lucky and stumbled upon one that was only 3.59 pounds. Most of the ones we see around here are in the 4.5 pound range, which is really too big for the two of us, and too big to grill nicely. My plan is to come up with some kind of yogurt-based marinade (maybe the one from the latest issue of Fine Cooking?) and grill the bird tomorrow for dinner, either whole or butterflied. I'm a bit nervous about contaminating the entire family room cutting out the backbone, so we'll see how that goes (and keep the bleach bottle handy). It's really nice to be able to come home at night and turn on a light in the kitchen! Tomorrow we'll probably get help with the rest of the upper cabinets, because the ones left to hang are on the large side, too big for one person to easily deal with. The horizontal cabinets could be a trip to get up properly. Then, it looks like it's supposed to cool off for the weekend, so maybe Saturday morning will be a good day to go back to the attic, if we haven't fixed the electrical problems by then. (Must remember to get more batteries for the walkie-talkies beforehand.) Who uses an iPod in some kind of dock as a kitchen music source? We would like something that plays from the iPod, has a radio (at least FM, but AM also is a nice bonus), and charges the iPod directly. I love the way the Bose dock looks and sounds, but it lacks any radio. I've been looking around at the other options, and so far the iHome version has caught my eye the most. But in doing some poking around, they're coming out with a new version that includes a subwoofer at the beginning of next month. It looks a little big and clunky for the kitchen, though. I'm wondering if the under-counter mounted model might be our best bet, because it's got everything we want (including weather band radio, which we really enjoy having in our car). And the fold-up design would keep the iPod itself safely out of the line of fire. Any thoughts on the subject? MelissaH

We haven't done the experiment, but it's a perfect example of a DVR show. You can hit fast-forward three times as soon as they go into the "coming up next" bit, and not have to worry about missing something important if your trigger finger is a little slow on the play button. Compared to other shows, it's particularly blatant. MelissaH

The hood's been moved up, the power's been connected, and the motor is installed. The warmer light turns on, as do the two other lights, and the hood sucks! (Just back into the room for now: there's no duct yet.) We have a little less than 36 inches between range and hood, which is just enough that I can reach the control knobs. The hood does make a bit of a racket when it's turned on high, enough that Leo the noise-hating cat didn't want to come inside the kitchen. He's really been very good about everything, even finally getting to the point where the sight of an orange extension cord (meaning that someone's going to pull down the stairs and head up to the attic) no longer sends him cowering under the bed or into the closet. In an ideal world, we need to scootch the range to the left by about half an inch, so it lines up perfectly with the hood. We should be able to accomplish this when we move it out to leak-test the gas line. We hope we don't need to redo the entire anti-tip device. The UFOs now light up, also. (Did I say that the electrical system in this house was arcane?) The wire path to this light goes up, down, and around before settling. My husband found the wires that were disconnected, and reconnected them. At the time he disconnected them, he thought they went elsewhere. He also found some old wires with frayed-looking insulation, and replaced them. There's still a couple of circuits turned off, and for now we don't have power to the upstairs hallway or the ceiling fan in the dining room. We don't know if they're on circuits turned off, or if there's yet another trip to the attic in store. I hope it cools off, if there's another attic journey to come. My husband's building the sink cabinet. I heard a shout from the kitchen not long ago: "Hey, it's just like all the other cabinets, only wider!" Once that cabinet's been built up, we'll be able to put a couple of boards across the top and get the sink off Lyon's bed. (You can actually see a corner of it in the picture above.) It's getting warm again this afternoon: our "Lyon thermometer" says half-stretched-out. (It also tells us when the floor is cold: Lyon hops on three feet. We believe this goes back to our time in Ohio when the boys were permitted to go "out" to the screened-in porch. They loved to go out, no matter the weather, but in the mornings they'd both play in the tub after whoever was up first showered. One day, we noticed that Lyon kept one front foot off the ground, just until he crossed the threshold back inside. If he went back out, he hopped again as soon as he was on porch rather than floor. We checked his paws, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. And it's not always the same front paw that gets held up. All we can figure is that one day he got a paw wet and it froze to the porch when he went out. And ever since then, we know that it's cold if Lyon hops. Even here, where we don't have a porch, sometimes the family room floor (which is laid directly on a slab) is cold enough that Lyon hops if he's not on rug.) MelissaH

A whisk with a little elbow grease. I add the liquid slowly, making sure I get rid of all the lumps - then let rest. ← This morning a customer told me that she uses an immersion (stick) blender for her batter. I had one of those 'why didn't I think of that?' moments! ← Hey, I actually know exactly where my immersion blender is...and I can get at it too! MelissaH

When we last left the tale of the kitchen, it was Monday morning. That afternoon, the HVAC person was coming to replace a valve on our heating system (that makes 2 out of 3 total that have been replaced since we moved in) and to tell us about our options for venting the hood out the roof. The valve was an easy fix, but as far as the vent, we learned that they were backed up with ductwork. Furthermore, we had to go through the roof! So the repair guy gave us the name of someone else who would better be able to service us, someone who does both HVAC and roofs. (I love small-town life.) We didn't do much with the kitchen on Monday afternoon, and certainly not Monday evening because there was a hockey game to watch. (Hey, the Stanley Cup's probably going to come to Oswego, courtesy of Erik Cole!) Tuesday morning, the HVAC roofer came out, to look at what we had and to give us an estimate on the job. We decided to go with everything stainless rather than galvanized, because neither of us relished the thought of having to go up on the roof and paint stuff every year or two. We decided the price was fair, and said yes; the sheet metal should have arrived by now, so we'll have a working hood before long. (But more on that later.) The floor was in by Monday, and some of the upper cabinets were in. One corner cabinet was modified, but still sat in the middle of the dining room because it weighs about 120 pounds empty, too much for one person to move easily. So we called Bruce on Tuesday afternoon to help put that cabinet and its mate into the end of the kitchen. Once those were in place, the refrigerator could get moved out of the dining room and back into the kitchen! The floor was covered with cardboard (mainly from IKEA cabinet pieces) to protect the surface. The refrigerator refused to roll on the soft cardboard. We borrowed a hand truck from the neighbors. That still didn't work. Fortunately, Bruce's parents own an appliance dolly, so we ran down to Fulton (ten miles south of here) to get it. It's amazing what having the right tool for the job does, to make things easy. (While Bruce and I were running out to get the dolly, Casey started cutting the holes for the recessed can lights, which arrived on Tuesday morning.) One thing we realized right off the bat was that we still need to reverse the door of the fridge. It won't really matter until we have countertop in place, though, which is why we didn't bother right away. Another thing we realized is that the refrigerator is really big, and space down in that corner is really really tight. We'll still have plenty of room for the door to swing open without bashing into anything, even once the countertop goes on, and the cabinet doors don't bang the fridge either. But it's a really tight corner. We can shimmy the fridge down a couple of inches, which will help free up some space. And when this refrigerator reaches the end of its lifetime, we'll be replacing it with a smaller, counter-depth model. We hope by then, there are more options available that aren't side-by-side. The refrigerator corner, before the center cabinet is in. As long as we had the appliance dolly, we decided to also relocate the range into its new home. My husband had previously marked out on the wall where it would need to sit, as dictated by the hood placement from the rafters. And that was when we discovered that the people who delivered the appliances were even worse than we thought. My husband started looking at the installation instructions while we were running to Fulton and back, before he started cutting circles in the ceiling. There was a big goldenrod piece of paper included that said, "IMPORTANT THERE ARE THREE (3) INSTALLATION AIDS INCLUDED IN THE PACKING MATERIAL. PLEASE SEE THE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR A MORE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THEIR USE." and then went on to describe the three (3) installation aids and how they are supposed to be used. We couldn't find a single one, and surmised that the delivery gorillas, in their zeal to get the pieces moved in so they could finish their day, must have tossed them with the rest of the packing materials and boxes. The delivery company will be hearing from us. To find out more, my husband phoned the Monogram people, but the person on the other end of the line was clueless and couldn't (a) find an installation instruction manual or (b) even figure out how to pull one up on the Internet. By then we were back and ready to move the refrigerator and then the range. By reading the instructions, my husband was able to figure out what the missing pieces were, and either make replacements or kluge something else together to function in the same way. One missing piece was a large board that was supposed to protect the floor underneath, during the moving process. Oh well, we had plenty of cardboard and other stuff. The other things were two long skinny boards to act as "runners" underneath the feet of the stove, to help distribute weight. (Feet? Hey, we learned that the delivery people were supposed to pull out the feet of the range also!) So we got the range moved in, with its feet pulled out and on the runners. Just as the range was just about it, I said, "Isn't there supposed to be an anti-tip device?" I could tell that the two guys were about ready to kill me for asking, but they agreed that it would really suck to have a 350-pound range tip over. So that went in also. Just before we pushed it back against the wall, we plugged it in and turned on the gas valve up here. (The valves downstairs are still closed. Today or tomorrow we'll pull the range back out a little bit, turn the gas on everywhere, and leak-test it with some soapy water before pushing it back in. Then I'll have a functioning range, which I'll be able to use once we put the stainless backsplash in place!) However, we had a new problem. The specs for the range say that the top of the range must be at or above the level of the countertops. No problem there. The specs for the hood say that the bottom of the hood must be 32 to 38 inches above the top of the range. Both my husband and I are of average height, at most, so he'd measured and put the hood exactly 32 inches above the range. But he did the measuring before we knew that the range had feet. So with the range on its feet (and leveled), we hung the hood on its board to check for distance. And we came up with only 31.5 inches. Because the hood must be installed before the HVAC roofing guy gets here, we'll be raising the hood a few inches today. I can still reach the controls easily if we raise the hood to as much as 36 inches over the hood, so that won't cause a problem. The range and too-low hood, to be rectified later today. Like the fingerprints? (There are two bars that will attach somewhere to the hood, that we can hang things from. I guess we'll figure out what to hang from them when we put them up. The whole kitchen, last night, with some lights in and wires ready for more. Yesterday morning, my husband woke up with a sore and swollen knee. We think it may be bursitis, because he spent a good chunk of the day kneeling on the floor. So instead of kneeling on the floor some more to build cabinets yesterday, he spent the day doing electrical stuff. All the ceiling cans are installed now (we have a little cleanup and a touch of drywall patching and a few areas of paint touch-up work to do at some point) and the triple UFO fixture is over the sink area. The recessed cans all work, and the dimmers function brilliantly (get it? ) but the UFOs won't light up. That fixture was put right where the old over-the-sink light was, and we'd made use of the old circuit. But somewhere in the course of rewiring everything, that old circuit lost power so the UFOs won't light up. My husband will be going back to the attic to make sense of what's going on there. Yesterday I went out and ran errands. Among other things, I went back to Lowe's to look at under-cabinet lighting again. And this time, I spent a lot of time looking at fluorescent lights and discovered that they do have under-cabinet lights that get hard-wired. I brought home two: one 18-inch and one 24-inch, with bulbs for both. The lighting guy at Lowe's said that they could be daisy-chained together to work from the same switch, so that's good. I chose those two lights because they use different diameter bulbs, and both bulbs are available in "Sunshine" color rather than the yucky bluish color of standard bulbs. I brought both home because I figured we'd use both somewhere (and if they don't we can return them) but also because I wanted to be sure that both would be low profile enough to get hidden by the light valance. We'll need to figure out what we're doing between the two upper cabinets before we can place the undercabinet lights and complete the electrical work. There's a wire going up the wall for an iPod-docking radio, but we don't want to cut a hole for an outlet until we know where the outlet will go. (We want both decent speakers and a radio tuner. We're thinking of the iHome version.) Depending on the radio we choose, we may also want a clock there. We should also wind up with some display space, for some of our prettier items. The kitchen, with lights on last night! This morning, my husband built the last of the base cabinets, to complete the refrigerator end of the kitchen. That's the first cabinet he's done with drawers rather than doors. It's sitting on the floor, but nothing's connected together yet because we'll need to add filler strips. That may happen later today. We also learned that the halogen bulbs that came with the ceiling cans get really hot, so we'll probably replace at least some of them with incandescent bulbs. Presumably, we'll also have the UFOs lighting up by the end of the day. And it's Thursday, so it's farmer's market night! Dinner yesterday wound up being quite good. A while ago, we'd butchered up a whole beef tenderloin, and a few days ago I'd pulled two filets mignons out of the deep freeze to start thawing. Yesterday they were finally ready to cook, so I lit the grill. While the grill heated, I sliced some portobello mushrooms. I sauteed them and a little bit of leftover onion on the gas stove in a little butter, deglazed the frying pan with sherry vinegar, and set it aside. Then I cooked some orzo to be sort of like a risotto: twice the volume of broth as orzo, bring the liquid to a boil, dump in the orzo and give it a stir, take it down to a simmer (gas stoves are wonderful, even if it's a little tricky to get a simmer without having the wind blow your burner out) and let it go till the pasta's cooked, about 12 minutes. I stirred the mushrooms into the pasta, and set it aside until the rest of dinner was ready. We started with a mâche salad, with a little generic blue cheese crumbled on top and a spritzing of sherry vinegar. Then the medium-rare steaks and mushroom-orzo risotto. For dessert: frozen blueberries we picked ourselves, dipped in a touch of sugar. My husband's home now, putting on cruddy-looking clothes. This can only mean he's getting ready to go back into the attic. So I should get off the computer, in case he turns the power off here. MelissaH

Now: Pictures of putting the kitchen back together. Before we did too much of anything, my husband put together one of the upper cabinets, and hung a section of rail for it, so we could see how they'd go up and check the height. It's easier to adjust things when you aren't worried about freshly painted walls. This was also so we could see what the bottom of the wall cabinets looked like, for undercabinet lighting. This was after the electrical outlets and switches were in, and all the drywall had been patched. Down came the rail and cabinet, and up went a coat of primer and two coats of paint! We didn't paint everywhere, because we didn't want to bother painting areas that would be hidden by cabinets. It made the painting job much easier, because it meant that sloppiness wouldn't be a problem. With the paint done, it was time to start putting the floor in. Once my husband figured out that the pieces needed to be banged together to fit snugly, it was a one-person job in our kitchen. (If we'd been laying the floor the long way, it would have definitely been a two-person job, as the pieces need to get fitted together into a long strip, and then the long strip gets pushed into the growing expanse of floor.) Bruce is quite interested in redoing his kitchen floor, so we made a point of saving our hard maple tap block for him. Our completed floor, with the red "zipper" across the center. This was relatively easy for us to do, because our kitchen is nearly exactly 8 feet across, and the floor pieces come in 3-foot and 1-foot lengths, so we were able to use the pieces as-is, for the most part. With the floor in, we promptly covered it with protective stuff so the area could be used for cabinet construction. The cabinets are going together much more easily than we'd anticipated: in our original timetable, my husband had penciled in 10 days for cabinet installation. We're well ahead of schedule! For those of you who haven't seen it, here's a close-up view of some of the cabinet hardware. First, the box goes together. Then, the back gets tacked on. And when you turn it over, here's what the inside looks like. The metal pieces are where the cabinet hangs from the rail. As long as the rail's level, the cabinets will be level also. Here's the rail attached to the wall. There are a couple of hangers that slide into the rail for each cabinet. If you get them positioned in about the right place before you try to lift the cabinet up, it's much easier to get the cabinet to click into place. Once the cabinet is hung on the hangers, nuts get spun on to hold the cabinets in place. We learned that you do them loosely at first, because you need to give the cabinets some slack so that you can match edges and wind up with flat and level fronts. You clamp or otherwise hold adjacent cabinets together, and then drill a hole through both so you can bolt them together. My husband did the first set here, and then discovered that the place he'd chosen for the bolts was exactly the place where the door hinges would need to set, so he got to do that part twice. When you get a few boxes hung, here's what it looks like. This has a piece of molding stuck in, so we could see what it looked like and check the height. We haven't put the doors on yet. The day we were dealing with this section of upper cabinets was the hottest and most humid day of the year, so far. Lyon sprawled out on his bed, because we'd covered up the nice cool new kitchen floor and he doesn't care for the hard family room floor that stays so cold that humidity from the air condenses into puddles on it. Remember the modified corner cabinet? Here's what it looks like, with the shelf in... ...and with the turntable in place. So, that's where the story currently stands. MelissaH

And now, an interlude from the story for some pictures! I'll post these, starting from the beginning, with demolition pictures in this post. I'll follow with the pictures of us putting the new kitchen back together, after we'd taken the old one apart. The kitchen beforehand: You've seen some of this in my early postings. This was taken on 1 June, as we started to pack the kitchen up. It was quite chaotic, and has remained so since then. Note the floor pattern! With everything out, including the refrigerator. Our friend Bruce helped relocate the fridge; you'll see more of him later. My husband removing the cabinets. As you can see, the original kitchen must have been painted after the cabinets went in. To get out the wall cabinets, the soffit had to go. This turned out to be easy, requiring only a blunt object and some brute force. Underneath the soffit, we found drywall and nothing else. Even though you can still see a light in the ceiling, we'd turned off the circuit breakers to the kitchen, so the light in these and following pictures is coming from a halogen worklight. Casey and Bruce examining the wall behind the oven cabinet. Bruce came over at our request because the oven was heavy! Floor under floor under floor. Directly beneath the floor we'd been looking at for three years was the red stuff, which we unearthed when we removed the semicircular shelf. But we got a surprise when we pulled that up: a third (first?) layer of floor. It's kind of the same idea as the red, but in smaller tiles and pastel colors. We didn't cry to see it go. With the demo pretty much done, my husband took a break to work out the details of the mod for the corner cabinets. This is one of the ball bearing turntables on the new shelf. It can support 750 pounds. And this is the plywood Pac-Man that will get attached to the turntable hardware. These pictures were taken before I finished the new shelf and the Pac-Men with a coat of clear satin polyurethane. This is the mess of the living room, once the appliances arrived. Until yesterday, it wasn't so easy to walk through the living room. The emptied kitchen! You can see that my husband's been hard at work with his electrician hat on, and you can also see the baby-poo yellow paint in the entryway of the kitchen. Next up: putting the kitchen together. MelissaH

The floor is in! However, the instructions that came with the flooring were not tremendously useful. The first couple of rows were a bugger, until we figured out the trick that wasn't in the instructions. I should explain: to put the floor in, you start by clicking a row together. Once the row is a single unit, you click it onto the previous row. The problem: getting the pieces to click together and not show a seam isn't so easy. My husband wound up putting the individual pieces over a piece of wood. to have the space underneath to bend them so they'd click in. He called me to help connect the second row. It wouldn't go, no matter how much we pushed. We pushed in, we pushed down, and nothing we did seemed to get rid of the line. Finally, my husband got frustrated enough to grab a wooden shim, stick it into the groove of the flooring, and start pounding the pieces in with his hammer on the shim. It worked like a charm. So then he headed down to the table saw to cut a tenon in a piece of hard maple, to make a better tap block. He also brought the mallet upstairs. Once we figured that part out, it went pretty quickly, even where we had to notch out for pipes. My job for the rest of the flooring became bringing pieces in as needed. We'll be doing cabinets tomorrow. MelissaH

If you've eaten beef fat, you've ingested stearic acid. MelissaH

The kitchen is painted. (Kouign Aman, my husband did put a bit of blue tape over each of his ceiling Xes, as you'd suggested.) Nothing happened until late yesterday. For most of the day, we had another food-related activity: my husband helped to judge the homebrew competition for the New York State Fair. So shortly before 7:30, we headed out to pick up our buddy Jeff, who often stewards for competitions. Then, we headed to Syracuse and the fairgrounds. We got there just before 8:30, as we'd planned. There were a whole bunch of guys (and I do mean guys, as beer judges seem to be almost exclusively male) milling around because the building housing the demonstration kitchen was locked. Eventually an official came to open the door, and based on the amount of beer still left to judge (we didn't go down for the Friday night session) we guesstimated that they'd be done in the early afternoon. I headed out to run a bunch of errands. The food-related errands on the east side of town were a stop at Petsmart to get the cats something to eat and a visit to our favorite Asian grocery. I considered going to the DeWitt killer Wegman's store, but it was already starting to get really hot (near 90 °F) and I didn't want to risk getting the sorts of things that I usually get at Wegman's (produce, fish), even with a cooler and the capability to buy ice. So instead I went back to the east side of town, hit Home Depot for a piece of pipe insulation for the kitchen, got a slice of mediocre pizza at the Fairmount Wegman's for lunch, and then did some shopping there. I didn't see anything fabulous or tempting at the fish counter, but I did get some corn and nice salad greens, a container of yogurt with the only ingredient "cultured milk", and a big bag of ice. By the time I got out, the thermometer in my car said 97 °F. (This is a Subaru Outback, and the sensor for the thermometer is not inside the car. We've found it to be pretty accurate for the outdoor temperature.) There's not a whole lot to do, if you're looking to kill time in the Fairmount/Camillus area of Syracuse. I couldn't find a bookstore in any of the strip malls, and didn't have a clue where the libraries in the area were (or if they'd be open on a Saturday afternoon). So for lack of anywhere better to go, I went to the brand new Super Walmart. It was a zoo! I took a careful but quick look through the grocery section, and decided that the selection was actually not even as good as what we get in our supermarkets here in Oswego. The Super Walmart is just across the parking lot from a P&C supermarket, and it will be interesting to see what happens with those two in the future, and if both survive. Finally at about 2 PM, I was sick of killing time, and went back to the fairgrounds. I had an air-conditioned building to sit inside, at least, for the last hour while my husband and Jeff finished up with the judging. After the goodbyes, we all headed back home. Jeff's currently living in a place that's still being built and doesn't have a functioning kitchen either, so we're actually better off than he is in that respect. The other members of his household were out of town for the weekend, so we invited him over for dinner later. (I didn't have a clue what we'd do, but knew that we had plenty of food in the pantry.) By 5:00, the painting process was underway. Step 1: Wall off the kitchen to keep the cats out. The side entrance got a barrier of cardboard, blue-taped from the hallway side, as high as my shoulders. I'm sure the cats could jump over if they really wanted to, but unless they can see that there's a nice high surface, they won't usually bother. Across the dining room opening, the adjustable poles and sheets did the trick. Next: a coat of primer. My husband won't use anything but Kilz, after bad experiences with other primers. One coat of Kilz takes care of anything that might show through on the wall. Just as he was finishing, Lyon decided to push his way through the sheets and investigate whatever was happening in the kitchen. He was chased out before his giant bushy tail gave or received any damage, and a couple of strategically placed clothespins further secured the kitchen. While Casey was painting, I did the dishes. Then I surveyed the available food and freezer inventory, and decided to quick-thaw a bag of boneless chicken breasts to grill. We had two red and one green bell pepper, and some small (not quite as small as cherry) tomatoes, as well as flour tortillas, sour cream, and cheese. And the corn from Wegman's. I lit the grill, and started by roasting the peppers. Once the peppers were done enough to toss into a bowl (which I covered), I put the corn on, just as it came from the store. While the corn got started, I seasoned the chicken breasts with some salt and a bit of Penzey's jerk seasoning, and threaded the tomatoes onto a couple of metal skewers for easier handling. The chicken and tomatoes went on the grill also. While everything else grilled, I peeled and seeded the peppers and cut them into strips. The corn was done before the chicken, so I was even able to get that shucked before we were ready to eat. I unskewered the tomatoes, but made the mistake of trying to toast the tortillas slightly on the grill while I cut the chicken into strips. I burned the first batch pretty badly, and had to do that again. Dinner wasn't fancy last night, but it hit the spot for all of us. This morning, the last coat of paint went on the walls and ceiling. Once that was dry to the touch, the barricades came down. We'll still need to paint the dining room slider wall yellow, and the dining room ceiling with Betsy's Linen white. We also have to get the side doorway with paint, because when we removed the dark wood casing we discovered baby-poo yellow paint underneath. (My husband finally also agreed with me that there had been bright orange paint in the kitchen at one point. I'd seen a little bit peeking between the old backsplash and the brick, but he'd been sure that it was just drywall backing. I said no way!) Those will be trickier than inside, but we'll probably just pick a time when the cats are napping...or we'll seal them downstairs until we're done. I just heard the shopvac going again. I predict that we'll be starting to lay flooring very soon. Now that we have a piece of pipe insulation, my husband will be able to box in the pipe that remains where the baseboard used to be. Most of the pipe will be hidden behind cabinets, but there's a smidge that will still show between cabinets and sliding door. We plan to use a bit of extra baseboard to box it in, so it matches the cabinets. The directions of the Marmoleum sealer say to put two coats on to start. It needs to dry for 30 to 40 minutes between coats. That means we could be starting to place cabinets Monday afternoon! eta: Yup, I was right. The floor underlayment is down. That means we'll be walking on Marmoleum by this evening! MelissaH

A whisk I do have. I may give it a shot at batter this weekend...if I don't get dragged into doing other things instead. MelissaH

I've noticed that most of the batter recipes people are using seem to be made in a blender. My blender is currently buried somewhere while we redo our kitchen, and it probably won't be unearthed for a few weeks yet. Any suggestions for mixing crêpe batter without a blender? Or should I either beg a blender from a friend with a kitchen, or just wait until I have my own kitchen again? MelissaH

Not much happened yesterday. My husband had meetings on campus, and by the time he got home, all that there was time for was more Fun With Mud. I'm expecting to hear the sander start up any time now. (The sander itself isn't so loud, but we have the shopvac attachment to try and keep the dust to a minimum, and the shopvac is an ear-killer. It always sends our cat Leo, who really hates noise of any kind, hiding under the bed, or into the closet.) I'm guessing that before the end of today, we'll have at least a coat of primer everywhere. The other issue is the baseboard, which we've agreed needs to go sooner rather than later. We haven't heard anything from the plumber. But we did find heat-proof cloth at the local hardware store, and over the spring semester my husband learned how to sweat pipes. (That happened when he converted a cooler into a mash tun, for a batch of beer that hasn't yet been bottled, to my knowledge. And until the cabinets are up on the kitchen walls and out of the garage, it won't get bottled.) So my husband closed the relevant valves of the heating system, and he's decided to take care of it himself. I hear him whacking on the housing for the heater, which (to me) looks like it's been painted in place many times. I plan to clear out of the house in less than an hour, ostensibly to swim but also because I don't want to know what all will go on. Yesterday took a little different turn, dinner-wise. At about 12:30, I got a call from my husband: he and a colleague were walking out to Rudy's for lunch, and wondered if I wanted to join them. I was just about ready to head onto campus to swim anyway, but went to lunch instead. Because we had a good-sized lunch (with ice cream at Bev's afterward) we didn't need much dinner. So we just grilled the chicken leg quarters because we wanted to be sure they got cooked, and then refrigerated them. Today we'll turn them (and the sausage) into jambalaya, or whatever you want to call it. I tried swimming in the evening yesterday, since I didn't go over lunch. Lunchtime is specifically a lap swim, which means that you can get a fair number of people in the pool because we're all just going back and forth. But the evening period is open swim, and they don't rope off a lane for lap swimming. The pool felt more crowded than it does over lunch, largely because there are multiple activities in the pool and the etiquette isn't as well defined. I gave up after only 400 yards. My husband picked me up and then we headed downtown for the farmer's market. What a difference a couple of weeks makes! Last time we were there, about the only thing we saw was asparagus. Yesterday we only saw one vendor with asparagus; I guess the season's about over here and it's time to let the patches rest until next spring. But there were radishes (big red ones, larger than an egg!), copious bunches of rhubarb (which I'm not overly fond of, especially when I don't have an oven to bake in), strawberries galore, spinach and other greens, and even a couple of places that must have greenhouses with tomato plants. One vendor had multicolored chard. The honey people were back, and there's a couple of places with maple syrup. The usual apple places have apples, but I'm sure they've been stored and I'd rather wait for this year's crop. (Rumor has it that one place has Transparent pie apples, which supposedly are harvested in July. Maybe I'll have an oven by then!) We bought a quart of peas, sugar snap peas in their pods. My husband insists on shucking them and eating only the peas themselves. I eat the whole thing. MelissaH

As of now, here's where we stand: The electrical work is nearly complete. The only parts not yet done are the recessed cans and the under-cabinet lighting, because the cans won't arrive until the middle of next week and we haven't yet picked out the under-cabinet lighting (and probably won't until we get the cabinets installed and measure exactly how much room we have). The electrician recommended we cut the holes for the cans small, because the clips to hold the housing don't take much room. We're waiting till the cans get here before we do anything. We also know we have one more outlet to install, for the iPod stereo system which will go on the shelves over the baking area; the wire's in place but we don't want to cut the outlet until we decide on a height...and we can't do that until the shelves are better planned, which probably also means waiting for the cabinets to get installed. I'm particularly fond of the dimmer switches we picked for the recessed cans: you tap them once to turn them on to the dimmer level, you tap them again to turn them off in a 3-second fade. Or you can tap twice to turn to full-on, or off in a 10-second fade. We have a slew of outlets, and we have faceplates for everything (but won't put them in until the painting's done). The old garbage disposal was hard-wired, but the new one will plug into an outlet. We got lucky and in the old kitchen, we had a switch on that same circuit. Thus, we were able to use some existing wire. We have a new subpanel in the utility room. It's all connected to the old panel and to the circuits in the kitchen. We have connections (both gas and electric) for the range in place. We're waiting on the plumber still. If we don't hear from him by today, he's getting a call tonight. We need a plumber to remove the baseboard heater (whether the pipe gets relocated beneath the floor or just moved right down to floor level won't really matter) and also to redo the drain arrangement for the sink. Neither of us is great at sweating pipes, although we're both pretty good using a torch for creme brulee. The walls and floor are completely bare. My husband worked very hard yesterday with knife and mud bucket, particularly on the areas that had brick in the old kitchen. All the holes we don't need are patched, taped, and mudded. The sanding will probably come this afternoon, along with possibly more mud. We put together a normal-size base cabinet, and put it up on its legs. We also hung a length of the wall cabinet hanger on the wall, and actually hung a wall cabinet from the hanger and slid the molding on top. We'll have about half an inch gap between ceiling and molding, which is fine with us. The reason for doing this was to get a feel for how much gap we'll have between cabinets. Once we add in the floor and countertop thicknesses and account for the light valance, we'll wind up with about 16 inches. This should be enough height to allow my KA mixer to live in the corner of the counter. We also hung the hood on the wall, to make sure the height would be OK for us (it is) and that all the electrical connections are in the right places (they are). We have paint waiting for after the drywall's been completely fixed and sanded, and (we hope) the plumber's done his jobs. The ceiling will be a version of white, and the walls will be a pale yellow color the paint company calls "Cream Cake." I spent a couple of hours yesterday with a paintbrush myself. My husband's cut the pieces for the mods to the IKEA corner cabinets from a couple of sheets of veneer-core birch plywood, to add a shelf and two good turntables to each cabinet. Yesterday, he put the edge banding on the turntable Pac-Men and on the edge of the shelves that will show. So then it was my job to cover the pieces with polyurethane, to seal the plywood. I did that yesterday afternoon. (I could have done it the day before, but that was the afternoon I mowed the lawn. That's something else I've taken over for the duration of the project.) In the process of working with the power tools, my husband got the garage reorganized somewhat, and we can now walk through again! Our plan of action for the next week or so: First, finish the drywall. Once that's done we can prime and paint. (We've Xed out the spots for the ceiling cans, and we'll just be sure to paint around the Xes so we know where to put the lights.) We're hoping the plumber will get here to deal with the baseboard before we start painting, because it's in an area that will show so we'll need to take some care with the paint there. Next week, the HVAC people will be here, to take care of a drip in our boiler system (better to do that now, when we don't need the house heat on) and to figure out what they'll need to do to run the hood vent ducting up through the roof and cap it off. Even if the plumber doesn't get here as soon as we'd like, we'll still be able to paint. Once the walls are done, we'll put the floor in. Again, even if the plumber can't make it next week, we'll be able to lay most of the floor---just not in the area right up against the baseboard. We'll probably give the floor its initial coat of sealer before the cabinets go down, because that should be easier to do in an empty room. For some reason, we've had lots of offers to help with the floor. I think people are curious to see how it goes in, and how it looks afterwards. The painting and floor sealing will be the two critical times we'll need to keep the cats out of the kitchen...which means they'll be the two times the boys most want to go in and see what's happening there! When the floor and quarter-round molding are in (and maybe sealed), we'll be able to start installing cabinets. (We could probably even do the upper cabinets before the floor is down, should we get stuck waiting for the plumber. The lowers, however, will probably be better off waiting, to some extent, as it will be easier to do the drain work without the sink cabinet in place.) We have lots and lots of cardboard to lay down to protect the floor as we move stuff in, since every single cabinet piece is in its own box, and we have more huge cardboard pieces in the box that's currently over the range. If that isn't enough, our friend Bruce just put in a bathtub surround, which also came in a large box. With any luck, we'll be able to start putting cabinets in by the end of next week. We may also need to wait to do the upper cabinets next to the hood until the hood goes in. And I have no idea how long that will take to get done. My husband commented yesterday that the cabinets went together and installed much more easily than he'd imagined possible. I hope he's right. Dinners? The day before yesterday, we did burgers on the grill with all the fixings, macaroni salad from the grocery store deli, salt potatoes, and coleslaw from a bag but with homemade dressing (a takeoff from The Gift of Southern Cooking's recipe with boiled dressing: since I didn't have heavy cream, I just used a bunch more sour cream). The salt potatoes and boiled dressing were done on the propane 3-burner stove outside. Yesterday we had the two leftover burgers with more leftovers. Yesterday we also filled the grill's propane tank, which ran out while my husband had the cast-iron skillet on the grill cooking the bacon. (I would have put the bacon directly on the cold grill grates and started from there, but what do I know about that?) Tonight's plan for dinner: we've defrosted some chicken thighs and turkey hot Italian sausage. We'll grill those up tonight. We also have celery, onion, and bell pepper (both red and green), as well as oil and flour. Cans of tomatoes. Rice cooker. Some spices including cayenne. I don't know exactly what the proper name for a concoction of these would be, but it should be yummy. And it's Thursday, our Farmer's Market night. We didn't go last week because it was pretty dreary here. The week before, the only thing worth buying was asparagus. I'm hoping that this week we might start to see something else, maybe peas or strawberries? Or maybe I'll just make a point of going to the strawberry farm and pick some of my own...except that I have no oven to make biscuits to go with. Anyone ever tried doing biscuits on the grill? MelissaH

We love friends with kitchens. Yesterday we were invited to a summer picnic, which wound up being an indoor party because it was about 60 degrees and damp out at the appointed hour. So we ate well: Elena is Russian, and her salads are truly something to behold. Yesterday's menu also included a soup made with foraged greens, which nobody knew the name for. (They're long and skinny, with a forked end, and a sour taste. The soup was wonderful.) The day before, we went to our local Thai restaurant and had pineapple curry and spicy eggplant and jasmine rice. That day, it was actually raining. Yuk. We still have a few leftovers, ready to either put into an omelet, or wrap in a tortilla, or maybe to cook more rice as an accompaniment. As far as cooking: downstairs in the family room, we have our temporary kitchen set up. On the table that used to be in the kitchen, we have the microwave, the toaster oven, and a tiny little prep area. The cereal boxes and the bread live on top of the microwave. On the cart, we have a bit more prep area, as well as the single electric burner hot plate. The coffeemaker and water boiler are on the ledge just over the cart. The rice cooker is also available, as are the electric frying pan and the crock pot, but we haven't used any of these yet. For light in that part of the family room, we've put one of our halogen lamps there. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. Use of these electrical appliances is strictly limited to one at a time, as even that makes the lights in the family room (halogen lamp and the normal lights that have always been there, on the ceiling fan) all get frighteningly dim. I say frighteningly, because of something we learned from our Ohio electrician: As circuit breakers age, they get harder and harder to pop. I'm wondering if we should be considering replacing at least the family room breakers with something that will trip if they get overloaded, as long as we're dealing with other electrical work in the house anyway. We kept the pasta pot with lid and strainer, the 3-quart saucepan with lid, and a couple of frying pans easily available. Much of the other stuff is packed away and inaccessible at the moment, but some of the utensils that used to live in cabinets are available. The drawers from the old kitchen, with their contents, are stacked in the middle of the family room floor. I couldn't find the box grater on Monday, so I borrowed Anne's when I went to her house to bake stuff. She's back now, and appreciated that I'd washed it and left it out to dry rather than putting it back damp to rust. We actually have pretty good cooking facilities at home, all things considered, when you include the gas grill and the three-burner propane stove outside. (About the only things that are out of the question here are things that require an oven. Like the spinach souffle I've been craving, for some reason.) But even though we're well equipped, I don't really like cooking outside when it's 60 degrees and raining, even if I'm under a deck with a roof. The sink is a miserable little barsink, about which I will refrain from detailing any further in this post. And the fridge is still upstairs. I'm hoping that we have the circuits untangled enough so that we don't get any more surprises of the "Hey, I just opened the refrigerator door and the light didn't go on. Did you mean to turn that breaker off?" sort. (Insulation. Maybe that's what electricians smoke? Does fiberglass addle the brain?) I'm also hoping that after tomorrow I'll be able to finally get back to my own summer projects on the computer, without needing to stop for a power shutdown or to help pull wires. I don't mind helping, especially if it makes things go faster, but I have stuff I need to get done this summer that have nothing to do with the kitchen. Speaking of faster: we've decided that we'll ask our HVAC company for an estimate on putting in the vent hood ductwork. If it's less than or close to the cost of the new ladder we'd need to buy, it's going to be worth it. They do this sort of thing more often than we do, and I like the idea of being able to call someone outside the family if we have problems. I also like the idea of someone other than my husband climbing on our roof, 18+ feet off the ground. As far as what and how we've been eating: My standard morning ritual these days is to start with breakfast. (I swim at lunch during the week if it's not nice out, and I go for a bike ride if it is nice. No sense in showering in the morning for either of us: me because I'll be getting either sweaty or chlorinated, and my husband because he's been crawling in the attic and the utility room, making drywall dust, and otherwise doing things that will require a shower before bedtime anyway.) Whoever's up first feeds the cats. They still get to eat off of their normal dishes, because we wanted to disrupt their lives as little as possible. Their current feeding location is downstairs, just underneath the table. If my husband's up first, he makes himself coffee. He's switched to pre-ground coffee for the duration of the project, and he's also not using the insulated coffee holder because it's a pain to wash in the tiny little barsink. The pre-ground stuff doesn't smell as nice as when he grinds his own beans. He's been using one of our insulated mugs for the coffee; two mugfuls is one potful. My breakfast is still generally a bowl of cereal. These days, the bowl is styrofoam and the spoon plastic. I pour the cereal into the bowl downstairs, stick in the spoon, and carry it upstairs to get milk from the fridge. On the way up, I pick up yesterday's Wall Street Journal (it only comes by mail around here, and the mail comes in the late afternoon) to peruse while I eat. I generally eat on the living room floor, amidst the boxes, with the paper spread out in front of me. But since the range arrived, I haven't had the room to do that upstairs, so I've been eating downstairs. Right before we went to Belgium, I used up eggs and milk by making a double batch of waffles, which I froze. We haven't needed to dip into them yet, but it's comforting to know they're there if I want them. I suspect they could even be "toasted" on the grill, should the power get cranky. Lunch is often whatever leftovers we have, collected upstairs and heated and eaten downstairs. Or sandwiches, with the refrigerated stuff brought down for construction and then brought back up after lunch. Those waffles might be useful for lunches also, one of these days. We still have some of last summer's blueberries in the freezer. For dinners, we've been eating lots of stuff from the freezer that just really needs to be heated. (The deep freeze is just down the hall from the family room, in the garage.) And pasta with <gasp> jarred sauce and garlic bread. And whatever friends invite us over for. Salad is also good, because it's easy to open a bag of triple-washed greens that can be transferred by the handful directly into a styrofoam bowl or paper plate. Pre-shredded cheese is also a godsend these days. I'm debating finding the blender. We got some cubed frozen mango when it was on sale a couple of weeks ago at our local Aldi. We're thinking that, along with some yogurt, would whip up into a reasonable lassi. Of course, 60 degrees and rain is hardly lassi weather. I've also been daydreaming about a mango upside-down skillet cake, which is of course impossible without an oven. And blueberry crumble. Muffins. Biscuits to eat with whipped cream and strawberries. All kinds of other things that just aren't do-able for another month or more. I may need to make do with mango salsa, because it's easy to just cut stuff up and throw it together in a bowl. Or tapioca pudding, which has an advantage over some other things because I love it and my husband doesn't (to state it mildly), so I get to eat the whole batch. I particularly love it still warm, with a handful of chocolate chips stirred in till they just melt. I'm already making plans for our next trip to Syracuse, which will include a trip to the Asian food store. We need more ramen, because it's yummy, filling, easy to cook in the microwave, and can be eaten from the container it's cooked in. Have I mentioned how much I love other people's kitchens, no matter how inadequate they think they are? MelissaH