Friday 19 August 2011

Kitchen progress

The day the cabinets were installed we felt we were really making progress. At the same time, the old upper cabinets got a coat of paint to match the new ones, and the right-hand wall was prepared for the range hood.



Across the room by the chimney with its newly-exposed bricks, the lower cabinet was installed, but the shelving above had to wait for another day.


During the delay, other tradesmen arrived to install the granite counter tops.


Once they were done, the walls could be tiled. We chose off-white matte-finish subway tiles to keep a little of the old character in what was starting to look like a modern kitchen.



Next a hanging rack to go over the island arrived. I'd been unable to find a Vancouver supplier for what I wanted and so had ordered this through an eBay source, a new experience for me. Fortunately it was exactly what I wanted, and at a very reasonable price.


By this time the new dishwasher (on the left, still in its blue protective wrap) and stove had been installed. We loved the dishwasher, which was both efficient and very, very quiet. The stove on the other hand had a great gas cooktop, but the oven was very, very noisy on both the convection setting and the regular electric baking setting. Both the convection and a second fan came on immediately the oven was turned on. The convection fan went off when the oven reached the set temperature, but the other fan stayed on, not only through the cooking time but for a whole hour after the oven was turned off. We were told its function was to keep the digital control panel cool, and that this was a necessary feature of these state-of-the-art slide-in ranges.
As our dining table is in the same room as the kitchen the noise of this fan was a serious problem. Fortunately we had bought from Sears and received the great service that they are known for. Although it was a stressful experience, we were able to return the stove and replace it with another all-gas, free-standing model that required no fans at all. I was slightly sorry to lose the convection feature, but having never had one, I doubt we'll miss it.

During all this activity by others, I was slowly painting the kitchen walls in a rich yellow, a colour I hope will seem like sunshine even in the depths of a grey Vancouver winter.







2 comments:

emma said...

Love your kitchen! Do you mind sharing what the lovely golden door and trim colour you have in the last photo?

Christine Allen said...

The trim was painted in probably the late '50s - early 60's. It's a faux woodgrain with a very glossy varnish over. Although it looks good in the small photo, a lot of it is quite chipped and stained, so we won't be keeping it.

I don't know if there are still tradesmen around who can do this kind of finish; the owner at that time was Italian so you might enquire in that community.