“A pair of shoes can change your life. Just ask Cinderella.”

 

So while most everything about the Portland house was perfect (exceptions: was going to have to steal a bedroom for my closet, no bidet and the problematic kitchen island)  I knew we could redo parts of the kitchen with minimal mess and bother. I began by purchasing the appliances I wanted before we moved in. We had to have a refrigerator  and the existing cabinets on the side of the K with water for an icemaker would not fit any  modern refrig so I had many options… even a subzero if I felt insane.  And I knew I wanted a baking center with a fisher and paykel oven and luckily there was s low desk area with  space underneath it for the oven. The island was the real issue as it was a 36 inch dacor cooktop on a 45 inch island, no space on either side for plating or to hold even a bowl of batter. And I had rejected dacor  once before… why live with one now? So I decided on a wolf rangetop with griddle and I would place it along the wall and get a proper overhead fan w the CFU’s required for the monster of a cooktop. Then the island could become my major prep area. I contacted three kitchen contractors and the bids were between 15,000 and 30,000  which was impossible as we had just spent almost 10,000 on appliances. Sooooooooo I decided with all this time to kill I would be  the contractor  for the kitchen and interview people to do pieces of the job.  What a trip and what a major money saver. I started with a great demo guy named Dell. He worked with his son Josh and they tore out part of one side of the kitchen so my french door kitchenaid fridge could be put in place, they saved every scrap of gorgeous old oak so that jim- or someone could reconstruct the cabinets that had been built in place in the 80’s. Next I found a fantastic carpenter named Neill who liked to do funky projects and he started the process of changing the existing bas cabinets to fit my new range top oven and island concept. His aura was amazing, he was quiet and neat and thinks outside the box and was an precise and careful with my kitchen as he would be with his own. And his prices were amazing. The only other person I have seen work so carefully is my husband Jim, so that is high praise for Neill.  Next my realtor put me in touch with a great electrician named Mark who installed the electricity where I needed it and entertained me with great stories about a crazy doctor in Lake Oswego who was making last minute changed  continually to a house he was remodeling… lets raise the ceiling a few feet was one morning’s announcement.  Then it was time to configure the cabinets that would go over the new cooktop and include my hood. I decided that no one could match 25  year old custom oak cabinets so why even try. I went with a great blue glaze with oak trim and the designer is a lovely young woman who will come over for tea when the kitchen is done.  The final thing, well final so far. Was the countertop for the now two level island and the bake center. I wanted something totally heat resistant  so stainless would have worked but it was too cold for the heart of the house kind of space… so I settled on soapstone as long as I could find a slab with no green at all. I got a bid from a stone place here in Portland to do the two areas for 2550… gulp, there went my idea of soapstone and I was almost determined to use ceramic tile instead when I just spent an entire morning checking out all soapstone dealers west of the rockies…. When I fell upon M Teixiera. A great guy named Philip Drysdale had two slabs of perfect size called Brazilian Nights with no green and said each slab would cost  approx 300. So he sent me jpegs of them and I sent him a check express mail and within a week I had two fantastic soapstone slabs in my kitchen for one third the price of the local contactor. They are exactly what I wanted and when oiled burnish to a deep charcoal which now informed the tiling and finishing such as new hardware for the kitchen. By the end of this month the cabinets and exhaust fan will be installed and then I can do the wall tiling myself, Neill will come back and tweak a few cabinet doors and  my kitchen wilol be finished for under 10,000. a tad better than the contractors prices.

 

As far  as the master bidet went,  When I learned from two plumbers that to install a bidet with new plumbing/ stack etc would be a minimum of 5,000… I went with a brondell washlet seat for $136- thank you ebay--- and now we have a commode bidet combo whuich is actually better than a bidet as you don’t have to get up and move to another seat. Plus it has a heated seat for winter. Way cool.   So that is it for kitchen renovations. Tomorrow I will discuss the construction site which has become my street as the surrounding properties which were once part of this houses extensive yard were sold off and development of them was contingent upon the sale of this house. SO while I spend part of the afternoon hiding  in my meditation  room wearing headphones I must remember that this is why we got the house for under half a million rather than the 800,000 it would have cost if the land had not been subdivided. This chaos is the short term price of paradise and it will end before winter I think.