Kitchen 2.0

Since December, my spare time has been filled with planning for and working on the remodeling of our kitchen. I haven't written about it on the blog before now because I didn't want to hijack our conversation about all things fashionable. It appears, however, that I can't have any conversation these days that doesn't eventually involve the new kitchen, or Kitchen 2.0 as we have come to call it. So I thought I would introduce the topic here, starting at the beginning and documenting the transformation of the heart of our home.

Our home is a modest 1957 single-level ranch style house located on a quiet street with eleven similar dwellings. Before we moved in we thought of this type of house as a "Ranchburger," a sort of 1950s mass-produced equivalent of the modern-day suburban McMansion. In the past twelve years we have come to appreciate the individual personality of our home with its original red oak floors, its bright family room addition, and its solid construction. It has been a comfortable, pleasant, and affordable home for us from the very start.

That's not to say the house was (or is) in perfect shape -- we have undertaken many repairs including the addition of a bathroom fan, the replacement of the deck, and the installation of a new roof. We have a long list of work yet to be done. We knew even as we were moving into the house that we would want to make some major changes in the kitchen and the bathroom(s). We jokingly told each other that we would remodel the main bathroom in five years and the kitchen in ten. And we grew increasingly frustrated as we came to recognize the limitations of our kitchen, an awkward 1980s remodel job with wasted space and peeling paint.

So we have been thinking about this project for years. At first I had a plan that would allow us to spruce up the existing kitchen with a fresh two-tone paint job on the cabinets, new counters, and no more tacky wallpaper. We could have done that on the cheap -- less than $2000 plus our own labor -- but we realized that we would just end up with a prettier version of the same old poorly functioning kitchen. It would still have limited storage space (four drawers!), and the lights would still flicker when the refrigerator turned on.

Since we were planning on living with the kitchen in the long term, we didn't want to give it a non-functional face lift. That was only one of the many things we didn't want: we also didn't want to build a kitchen that was too fancy for the house. We didn't want to go deep into debt to fund a remodeling project. We didn't want to build a trendy kitchen with granite counters and travertine tile that would look dated in ten years. We didn't want to pay a contractor anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 to remodel our kitchen for us -- but we didn't think it would be a good idea to do it all ourselves, either!

With few ideas about what we did want for our new kitchen, and other plans taking priority, it wasn't until last year that we decided to tackle the renovation head-on. Even then it was a happy coincidence of our trip to Holland and another successful remodeling project that gave us the impetus we needed. More on that in my next post.  

Dank U, Sinterklaasje!

There are a lot of perqs to being married to a Dutch man. One of them is traveling to the Netherlands to visit family and friends. One of them is eating a lot of black licorice. And one of them is ushering in the holiday season by celebrating St. Nicholas' Day in early December. Yesterday we had a houseful of family and close friends enjoying tasty food and surprises from Sinterklaas.

In Holland, Sinterklaas is a children's holiday. Parents write poems and prepare specially-wrapped surprises (pronounced the Dutch way, sur-PREE-suhs) for the good little children, who have spent weeks anticipating St. Nicholas's arrival. One of J's favorite childhood surprises was a large facsimile of an American half-dollar coin made out of cardboard, given to him on the last Sinterklaas before his family moved to the United States. He still has it, more than 30 years later.

Eleven Eleven

I am not going to go into the reasons why, but 11/11 is a special day for J and me and so 11/11/11 could not be allowed to pass without something special to mark the day. We decided to go up to Portland to visit with friends and family members and take care of some errands as well.

It was such a fun day, filled with so many different experiences that it would be impossible to pick a favorite. We had lunch with my brother's family (minus my brother) and found it difficult to leave the cozy and welcoming atmosphere of their home. We visited both Rejuvenation and Hippo Hardware in search of a doorbell. I know Rejuvenation does lovely work and gets a ton of national press, but a visit to Hippo Hardware is an adventure in itself. By late afternoon we found our chilled and slightly damp selves ensconced at the bar of Huber's, warming up with the help of their Spanish coffee. This is something we never, ever do -- hang out at a bar, chatting and bothering the bartender -- but it was just the right thing that afternoon. If you like Spanish coffee (or any combination of coffee and booze) and you haven't been to Huber's, you are missing out.

Speaking of Distractions...

This may be the best apple pie I have made in my life. And I have made a lot of pie.



Why was it so good, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

I'm Ba-ack!

So the first thing that distracted me from the interwebs was our two-week trip to the Netherlands, 'way back in June. We (J, his mother, and I) were invited to celebrate an aunt's milestone birthday so we seized the opportunity to spend time with family members and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen since our last trip to NL. Which was... last century.

Here's J with just a few of his beautiful cousins. See the family resemblance?

And here's J's mom (second from right) with her sisters:

















We also visited with J's "second mom," a close family friend who aided and abetted their move to the USA in 1979. Thanks, Jolien!

















We walked around a number of fortified cities, including Gorinchem, Middelburgh, Heusden, and Zaltbommel. We crossed big rivers on little ferries.

















We ate. A lot. Including my first herring (gross!).







































It was cold and rainy almost the whole time, but it cleared up enough one day for a leisurely bike ride through the countryside.


















We spent the last three days in Haarlem, where we attended an organ concert at the cathedral and discovered the Teyler Museum. Most wonderful.







































And did I mention? There were a lot of lovely shoes.