FauxPas

Stunning! Are you willing to share any of your pruning/deadheading/fertilizing etc tips?

You are Ronnie worked very hard and will have so much lovely produce to show for your efforts. I hope you'll keep us updated with photos! I love seeing your garden pickings!

Remind me to store my excess wooster sauce in zipped baggies with bubble wrap surround. 🤔 😀 Edited to add: Maybe my hot sauces also. 😄

yes!

I love reading these travelogues! It's so much fun to feel the flavour of the locale through photos and descriptions. Thank you!! 🙂

Hahahaha. That is one thing I am always obsessing over - trying to keep the countertops clear so that when I do want to make a proper old mess, I have the space to do it and don't have to waste any time moving stuff around! I like having a fairly big prep area and since this kitchen is not that big to begin with, I like to try and keep it fairly clear. 🙂 For any one else doing kitchen or home renos now (or in the past couple of years), have you had issues with supply chains and seen prices on some things rise exponentially? We were thinking of getting all new baseboards throughout the house until we saw the crazy price increases. It's less to pay a finishing carpenter to fill in the gaps around the house (due to removal of electric baseboard heaters, etc) with the baseboards from our small bedroom and then use a similar baseboard in that bedroom. We weren't able to match the baseboards exactly, so had to think creatively. And same with the trim around the pantries and the window - it's almost the same, but not exact. Though close enough in both cases that I doubt anyone will notice as long as they aren't immediately side by side. And once our painter is done, they should look great. I shopped around a bit for fridges that I liked and most have a delivery date of 3 to 6 months. Wowza. I can't remember if I said that we sold our old cabinets (which weren't really all that old, 15 years) and now I kinda wish we had kept some for our garage. But our friends are making good use of them. See their kitchen renovations just getting underway (photo below). The original cabinetry on the left and one of the pantry units they bought from us is between the two door openings (they moved the door to their garage, as it really limited their kitchen layout). Their house is 25 or 30 years older than ours, with very limited updates, so they have some work ahead of them. (I'm just really happy that our old cabinets didn't have to go to the dump! We knew someone could make use of them and they think they can use almost all of them.)

Pretty sure they won't stay empty for long! There are still a few things in the garage that need to be brought in. And some extra stocking-up to be done, now that we have a kitchen to store it in again, ha. 🙂

It's all drawers or pull-outs on the bottom now, except under the kitchen sink. And the corner 'lazy susans' have a wider opening than the old ones and are therefore more accessible. The new kitchen definitely functions better than the old one. Oh, there is one cabinet under the countertop overhang on the peninsula which is a bit of a pain to get in and out of, but it's better than having dead space. It's going to be used to store rarely used items, I suspect. And/or back-up supplies of things like paper towels, baggies and wraps. Stuff I don't need to access all the time, anyway. You can see the cabinet door under the right side of the peninsula, though it's not too noticeable. Some pull-outs: Recycling centre and/or garbage. I usually keep garbage under the sink, so use this for recycling and returnables (as we have more R&R than garbage). I could always swap this out for more drawers at some point, if so inclined.

I've been remiss, our kitchen was basically finished last week (except for trim). We're pretty happy. We have far better storage and no more lower cabinets that require archaeological digs to find their contents. We used a simple flat IKEA door but I like the ease of cleaning them. The biggest change we made as we went along was to use vinyl flooring in the kitchen instead of the laminate used in most of the house. Two floor installers/estimators encouraged us to go that way and they had no vested interest (sales are separate). Also, our previous contractor gave us a bit of advice and suggested the same thing. So we went with a simple neutral vinyl in white and greys which matches the laminate pretty well. And we decided to redo the flooring in the bathrooms and the laundry room at the same time with the same vinyl. So, all the flooring in the house is new. We still have to replace some baseboards and replace the trim around the window and the three pantry units, after which the painter will finish up, but things are mostly done. The whole house is painted, the heat pump and irrigation are done and the landscaping has a good start. Our finishing guy was supposed to be here yesterday but he had to reschedule to Friday. We'll still have things done before the end of the month, so we're good with that. Here are a few photos. For some reason, the vinyl flooring doesn't look quite true to colour in the photos. We still have to make a decision on the fridge. I'm happy with the quartz backsplash at 6" high and the larger area behind the range. It would have been nice to make that even bigger but I didn't want to pay for another slab of quartz and I'm ok with it as it is. We used a 12" overhang on the peninsula to accommodate a couple of stools. And we have to buy some new furniture and hang our art! It looks a bit bland right now, but we will add some real colour soon. 🙂

@cdhgot me hooked on Humble Book Bundles. 🙂 I just bought a new one, called Grilling & Gardening 2022. It includes 32 books of which 15 are about gardening, 14 are about grilling/smoking/BBQ and then there a few cocktail books as well. You can pay as little as $23.17 Canadian (approx $18 US) for all of the books. If you do buy, note that I had a problem downloading the ePub version of Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening. I was doing a bulk download and it stalled when it got to that book. So I had to choose the PDF version and then restart the download of the remaining books. It wasn't a huge hassle, but I did let them know and hope they correct it for others. For the price, I will be perfectly happy browsing these. Smoke & Spice, Updated and Expanded Grow Your Own Spices Apothecary Cocktails 25 Essentials: Techniques for Gas Grilling Fish & Shellfish, Grilled & Smoked Food by Fire Camp Cocktails Sustainable Gardening 25 Essentials: Techniques for Smoking Urban Garden Gardening Complete Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables 25 Essentials: Techniques for Planking Starting & Saving Seeds Kebabs Indoor Kitchen Gardening Handbook Practical Organic Gardening 25 Essentials: Techniques for Wood-Fired Ovens Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening 25 Essentials: Techniques for Grilling Fish Paleo Grilling Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: Prohibition Centennial Edition BBQ Revolution Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening Mushroom Cultivation Complete Book of Ferns Mastering the Art of Vegetable Gardening Barbecue Lover's Big Book of BBQ Sauces Complete Container Herb Gardening First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers

Absolutely you can! And I think you'll enjoy it. You might even watch a couple of episodes a night and leave yourself time to browse some other shows, ha. Do the trial subscription to either service and check it out.

Hope you had a nice meal @Anna N!

We are installing sheet vinyl and a floating floor in our house right now, ha. But you're talking about an RV right? And a smaller one? A floating floor seems like a lot of work for a small area. I'd go with sheet vinyl. We have some pieces left over from our flooring job that would probably suit you, were you in the area. 🙂 I like the floating floors in a house but they might not be the best choice in an RV where the temps might fluctuate more throughout the year. They are floating partly to allow them to expand and contract. And they need to be cut to size individually, etc. Quality varies a lot - some mimic a choice hardwood but others can be cheap and may not be really abrasion-resistant. Some are quite susceptible to water damage. What about vinyl planks? I think they are usually glued in place and they can mimic the look of wood planks but are less prone to scuffs, etc. Like this. https://thediymommy.com/installing-vinyl-plank-in-an-rv-with-a-pull-out-our-diy-camper-2-0/

Next to the kitchen peninsula today. We are busy moving furniture from room to room (and some to the garage) to accommodate the new flooring installation. We are going to have a REALLY big cocktail when this is all over. 🙂

@JAZ, forgot to ask you this. Does the right door open as widely as you would like, given that the fixed wall is fairly close? Looking at the photo, it does look like you have several inches there, so it's probably fine. 🙂

I agree. Your fridge looks great there! The gable end on the left frames it nicely and you have that partial wall on the right so it's very balanced looking. And I like your idea of a matching shelf above the fridge, too. 🙂 Our fridge is positioned near the kitchen entrance and though there is lots of room to get by, it does protrude a bit more than I would like. It wouldn't have been practical to extend gables on either side. The pantry on the left side is embedded into a finished wall and an extension on the right would have looked odd. The new opening will fit a 36" wide fridge, but don't you think it would look nicer if it was more flush with the cabinetry around it? This is not the most recent stage of the kitchen, but you'll get the idea. (All the flooring has been replaced.) I'll take more pics once I can get in there. I should make sure that the fridge has been pushed back all the way, etc.

What is MIL, is that a mother-in-law suite, by any chance? Your kitchen and your house both look gorgeous! It's funny that you find the kitchen smaller than you wanted but my first thought was that it was quite spacious, ha. 🙂

A deeper fridge suits that spot in your place, partly because of that partial wall on the left side which really balances the look. We had a similar situation in our last house and an extra-deep fridge worked well there. But this house is different, the fridge is in the middle of the wall. I'll have to take another photo once some stuff gets cleared out. I agree with you about side-by-side models, I think the narrowness can be an annoyance at times.

Yes, I have been thinking that I can use the space better. And I do hate throwing those hidden (and forgotten and past due-date) items out, ha. 🙂 I do think a counter-depth might work for us, if I find the right one. Unfortunately, it can't be more than 36" wide.

Fine Cooking has an appetizer styled after Hot Browns.

Yeah, I'm really back and forth on the counter-depth thing. And I'm certainly not in the market for a SubZero, ha. I do think the current fridge does stick out a bit much and I hate it anyway due to its crappy storage configuration but I'll keep an open mind when it comes to shopping for a new one. I may delay that decision for awhile, unless I run across something that seems perfect and is on sale, to boot. 🙂

I know! We did quite a bit of planning and juggling and cajoling but we were also a bit lucky! And it helps to have a good relationship with a few tradespeople. There are still some pieces missing, but I hope to have all the various renos completed by the end of May. (Secretly, I'm hoping mid-May but allowing a bit extra, just in case.) We have flooring being put in this week - kitchen and laundry and the baths were done yesterday. The plumber will be here this afternoon to reconnect the water lines to the fridge and dishwasher. Electrician tomorrow morning to finish off kitchen outlets and install the OTR microwave. He already installed the under-cabinet lighting and updated all the pot lights to nicer LED fixtures. Tomorrow afternoon, the flooring installer is back to start work on the rest of the house. That will take at least a couple of days. Then we have to focus on baseboards, as we have gaps where the electric baseboard heaters were removed. We're having trouble matching the existing baseboards exactly so we may have to remove the ones from the small bedroom and use them for patching the gaps and then replace with a similar trim in that bedroom. We can match close enough that it won't be noticed in another room. We have a finishing guy to do that. And then the painter will come back and fill and paint the baseboards and do any other touch-up needed. For sure, I set up a tight schedule but as usual the planning starts a long time beforehand, as I'm sure you and others here know. 🙂 The single factor that expedited things the most was the turnaround time by the countertop folks. I can't believe how quickly they completed fabrication and installation of the quartz after the final measure. They aim for about 1 week between final measure and installation, which is amazing. In our case, it was about 10 days, but there was a holiday weekend in there, ha. And yet, they were very thorough and made sure the measure was right and the installers took their time to make sure everything was level and seams were minimized. I never felt anything was rushed with them. No wonder several people raved about them. I'll certainly recommend them! When we redid the kitchen in the last house, the countertops were a huge hold-up. They were done by one of the large specialist countertop companies, with multiple locations in BC. We had to wait several weeks between final measure and installation. Initially we were told it would be about 2 weeks and then they said it would be closer to 5 weeks. It was only a laminate countertop, so not a tricky install. They were disorganized and it was very frustrating. We're still going to be very happy when this is over and we can just relax. Especially the cat, poor little thing. He keeps getting shuffled off to Cozy Cat Cottage for short-term stays. He's there now, as we have to do a bunch of furniture moving tonight to make room for the flooring install tomorrow and there's no way he would want to be in the house with all the commotion that will happen over the next few days. He's in very good hands there though and he'll be back home with us for the weekend. 😺

Thanks, Elsie! I'm still thinking about the fridge. If I can find the right cabinet-depth one (ie one with enough storage capacity), I might go for that, as it would probably look nicer without a fridge sticking out. But I'm holding off on a decision until the floors are all done and I have a chance to sit back and ponder things, ha. 🙂

I think the big question is type of potato and whether you pre-cook the potatoes before baking the casserole? I think I would pre-cook. Maybe like this recipe, for Fully-Loaded Twice-Baked Potato Casserole Though I have not tried it, it does sounds like what you are trying to achieve. What is the mouth feel of the dish you had? What texture did the potatoes have?

Jo, I do feel fortunate. I've been a tenant and it's not always easy. It's really too bad that your agent didn't just do things properly. It would have taken pretty much the same amount of time/energy and only cost a bit more in materials and would have lasted longer. It's great that you at least got decent flooring though! How old is the building you live in? It really is nice to be able to make one's own choices in these things. However, after working through all the various expenses of this house, I had to scale back some of my original kitchen ideas. But I'll still be happy because I'll have better storage and nicer surfaces and colours I like. And the appliances that I want. I would hate for someone else to be making those decisions for me and stick me with things I disliked or that didn't function properly or were just really poor quality. Do you have the same rental agent now? Is there any chance that they might actually redo the cabinets and countertops and do them properly?