last of the appliances

Our dishwasher finally lingered its last a couple of weeks ago. It was the last appliance left in the kitchen from when we moved in - the last appliance to die. We have been replacing appliances as they die with the high end appliances that will eventually look snazzy in our new, updated kitchen. Right now, surrounded by ancient cabinets and filthy linoleum, the sparkling stainless steel looks a little out of place.


But appliances are one of the huge, huge costs of renovating a kitchen, and by replacing them ahead of time as they've died, at the approximate rate of one a year, we've managed to spread out that cost so that it won't actually impact the payment we'll have to make when we finally get around to renovating the kitchen. They'll get used in the old kitchen for now, and when the kitchen is gutted and replaced they'll be moved into their new places of honor, and we'll be spared an even bigger bill.

The new dishwasher is a delight. We elected to go high-end but not super-super high-end -- we decided we didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars more just so that the buttons would be hidden, for instance. It's the same philosophy we went with on the other appliances, so everything matches nicely. And best of all, I only have to wash things once now, because it actually works, and we can have a conversation while it's running and actually hear each other, which is a new and different thing.

As for the rest of the kitchen, we're tentatively planning on next year, but as usual it depends on finances. If anybody has a large chunk of money they want to give us, I'll totally cook you dinner in the new kitchen.

i'm back and my clothes are clean

Count Don among the multitudes offended that I haven't been posting here. "Why haven't you AP'ed?" he asked me in an aggrieved tone a few days ago. He knows the answer very well, of course: this happened, sending me winging off to Washington for two weeks, and then this was released, causing much household excitement, and of course this is coming up, meaning I've got a lot of stuff to do. "You could do it yourself, you know," I said. "You know the passwords."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't want to blog," he said. "I want to be blogged about."

Well then. In the interest of maintaining his Internet celebrity status, allow me to give you the big, huge, incredibly exciting update:


We have a washer and dryer. And they work! When I got back from Washington, Don met me at the airport with flowers, took me out to dinner, and then whisked me out the next morning for a full day of shopping with no complaining on his part (I know, he's awesome). In addition to ogling jewelry and watches we would never buy, trying on strange clothing items, and buying some long-awaited new shoes for him, we also managed to (finally!) agree on and purchase a washer and dryer. Don and his dad had actually finished with all of the necessary plumbing before I left, although I didn't expect him to be willing to buy anything yet. But lo, Sears was having a sale, and they had the models I wanted, and there we were. So, rather than spending three hundred dollars each (!) on platforms to raise the machines up to the level we liked, Don spent the week before the delivery building a serviceable platform that cost nothing, as we had all the appropriate lumber around from working on the floors. We will eventually replace it with something sleek and fabulous (and maybe with storage) when we re-do the mudroom, but for now it -- and the temporary plywood floor, and the bare walls -- will do.

We've decided to open the mudroom up and make it part of the kitchen, giving us better flow and a little more space. This means that mudroom renovations, for now, went just to the point of getting the laundry facilities in place and functional, and all the rest will wait until we undertake the big kitchen renovation. The machines were delivered last weekend, and I've spent the last week washing anything and everything made of fabric in the house, up to and including the cat.

Okay, maybe not the cat.

plumbing accomplished

I was, for the most part, too buried in work to even take a breath this weekend, but Don and his dad managed to install the water line for the laundry room while I was glued to the computer. I took a break for five minutes this morning to risk life and limb holding things out of the way while Don completed the last few solders, and lo! It's ready. Don spent most of today on his back in the crawlspace wrapping the new pipes with heat tape so we won't have a repeat of last year's pipe-bursting disaster. Or... uh.. the one the year before that. See, progress! We learn from our mistakes! Or rather, other people's mistakes.

In any case, I am officially allowed to start shopping for a washer and dryer now, although we're waiting until at least the second paycheck from Don's new job to come in to actually buy anything. Not that it matters -- I've got five proposals due in four days next week, so washers and dryers will take a second-place to work for a while. Good thing I work from home in my pajamas -- don't have to do laundry nearly so often as I used to!

looks like a real kitchen

It doesn't, really. Look like a real kitchen, I mean. But it does look like a usable kitchen, which is way more important. While we were at Home Depot picking up yet more metal blades for the radiator-cutting project, I finally nagged -- I mean, convinced Don to pick up a set of plastic metal shelves for the kitchen so that we can finally put away some of the things that we've had sitting in the bathroom for storage (hush, it's not like we've been USING that bathroom). The little bookshelf has been inhabiting the kitchen in various places for a while now; it started out under the temporary countertop and then moved to where the big shelves are now. Now it's along the far wall, which seems to work pretty well.

Someday, when the kitchen is done, the refrigerator will go where the plastic shelves are, and then this whole corner will become our pantry area, with some of those big pantry cabinets and a wine refrigerator and some glass-fronted upper cabinets to store serveware. But for now, at least it's giving us some storage space.


And here's a shot from the bathroom hallway of the entire kitchen, finally put together with countertops and shelves and a microwave that's not on the floor. Very exciting. This is how the kitchen will stay for the duration of the renovation; it will be the very last thing we do, because kitchens are damned expensive. Someday, the wall that the stove is against will become a breakfast bar that's open to the dining room; the windows behind the temporary countertop will turn into french doors leading out to a hypothetically lovely backyard and deck.


For now, though, at least it's functional again. Just another step in the right direction.

freezeriffic

On an entirely different note, I can't wait until we can get a spare standing freezer. I saw this fantastic-looking recipe on the Food Network over the weekend, and it and a few others I have in mind are perfect for freezing. I plan to either go to the restaurant supply store (there's one down the street!) or look online and get some disposable aluminum baking dishes of various sizes with sealable lids so that I can prepare dishes and then freeze them pre-baked. Plus, I'll be able to freeze things like fresh strawberries and cubes of pesto (that may be going a little overboard, considering my general lack of aptitude for productivity). Right now, we have just a regular above-the-fridge freezer, which is crammed full all the time, so there's no room for big containers full of pre-made meals and the like.

I did try my plan out in miniature the other day, though: I was grilling chicken breasts for fajitas, and instead of the usual two, I went ahead and grilled four and stuck the extra pair in a tupperware container in the freezer (crammed it in under the ice cream, barely had room for the bagels!). Then, several days later, I came home on a busy, stressful weeknight, pulled the grilled breasts out of the freezer and defrosted them in the microwave while I boiled some pasta, then chopped them up and threw them into a baking dish with the pasta, a jar of alfredo sauce, and some shredded cheese (I keep shredded mozzarella and cheddar in giant ziploc bags in the freezer at all times, we heart cheese). Threw it in the oven for ten minutes at 400 and dinner was ready. So easy! And almost no extra dishes! I love it. I can't wait to do it on a larger scale. A couple of extra minutes on the weekend or a free day, and I'll have practically instant food for those nights (read: all of them) when we are busy, stressed out, and exhausted. And so much cheaper than going to Let's Dish (although I still think it would be fun).

Don says that once the downstairs subfloors are in and we stop throwing things through the floor into the basement, I can get my big freezer. Yay!

Got any good freezing recipes? I've found that most of what I've been coming up with are pasta dishes, although YNL's pre-marinated chicken variations are awesome.