Kitchen Almost Complete

Good morning, ya'll. Come on into the house and sit a spell in our new kitchen or rather re-done kitchen. I have never had such a nice kitchen before and I am enjoying using and will be glad when I get everything unpacked and in place. This will take a while for I am sorting, making new place for stuff and tossing and I am great at ignoring boxes or shutting the door to the dining room.

So this is what is completed so far. The stove is my pride and joy for it has a big oven and a warming drawer underneath. Still learning how to use all the features but have a turkey in it right now. The smooth top is great and so easy to clean. The vent and microwave is over it. This was a stove top with cabinet underneath but I like stove top and oven in one place.

This shows our lovely cabinet doors which Randy Gilbert made for us. I gave him an idea of what I wanted and he took it from there with beautiful results. The cabinets were built into the house so many are strange sizes but he took in stride and custom built each size for us. The opening on the left was where the oven used to be and Cathy suggested tiling it and making a small appliance area with electricity and here it is. It is nice to have all these corralled in one area where I can use them in the cubby and not worry about spillage with the tiled lining.

This shows the new area for the fridge. We moved it from across the room and Mike built a place for it so it will look built in. Works really well.

A closer look at the appliance cubby. The drawer pulls and knobs are brushed nickel and are plain with just a quirk, like me.

This is where the fridge used to be. It is now my desk area with the wireless router, phone and cookbooks. The laptop will also reside here when it is not in my lap. I love it.

That is about is except for the new dishwasher area but that was a mess this morning so I will show that later. We thank Kathy, Mike and Michael Hancock, Randy Gilbert, Lamar Godwin and sons, and Lowes and their sub-contractors for my lovely kitchen and soon I hope to bake a batch of cookies for all of them.

Ya'll have a good day and have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We leave for Lake Point Lodge at Lake Eufaula, AL tomorrow for our new family tradition- letting them do the cooking and we do the eating plus we love to visit there for the peace, quiet and beauty.

Nuff said,

The Geogia Peach

Back but Tired

Good evening, ya'll. I know I have been gone awhile but this remodeling gig is a pain in the back, the hips and legs. Crawling around on the floor, climbing the ladder many times cutting and placing shelf liner is hard on old folks. They have finished the work on the kitchen so now it is the unpacking and getting everything back in place.

I have to rethink where some of the stuff goes for I lost a cabinet so having to think where would be the best place to put some pots and pans. When we packed up, we didn't sort and toss so as I unpack I am tossing those things I don't need or haven't used. We have a place here called House of Grace which is a home for men who need a little help and they have a yard sale every Saturday with donated items. It is a great place to donate for the work they do is wonderful. It's amazing how much stuff I don't use but have kept.

The shelves are being lined with wallpaper for I have found this is the cheapest and easiest to put in place. I get it at the Habitat Restore store and I got 2 rolls of vinyl finished, pre-pasted paper for less than 1/2 the price of 1 roll. It is very similar to the pattern of the counter tops and looks good. I don't put it down like wallpaper but just dampen the back so that it will stick slightly but be easy to pull up when I want to replace it. If it gets dirty, just wipe with a damp cloth.

I am going to wait to post pictures until I get everything back in place for the counter tops are littered with stuff until I can put it up. Right now it looks a mess. I tried the new stove this morning for the first time and I think I need to read the instruction book for it is too fancy just to begin pushing buttons and turning knobs. I have become quite friendly with the microwave but the stove is a little more complicated. It did cook oatmeal well this morning.

The picture above is Lakepoint in Eufaula, AL where would like to be for I am tired of all this stuff and stuff and stuff. Ready to get away and chill for a few days and we will be going up the week of Thanksgiving. Lakepoint Lodge cooks a great Thanksgiving dinner and I don't have to do a thing but eat, go back to the room and take a nap. Sounds good and if it is pretty may go fishing later that afternoon.

Ya'll be careful going home and come back to see me.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Kitchen Update

Good Sunday evening to ya'll. Come on in for a cold coke and or some ice cream. I fixed us some Moose Track ice cream a little while ago and put caramel sauce over it and it was right good. Thought we could splurge a little since we just had soup for lunch. I still am not using my new stove until I get everything back in place, and honey chile, we aren't there yet.

I added a few pictures to show the progress and my new cabinet doors. Randy got part of them up Saturday but they sent him the wrong hinges so he had to order some more. These pretty doors were built especially for us by one of our dear friends. These are the first cabinet doors he has built, I think, but we kinda figured if he could build furniture he could build cabinet doors and he surely can. They are just what I wanted with a few special touches.

We are going for the simple look that will be easy to keep clean, no crevices to hold dirt and hard to clean. I hate to try to keep nooks and crannies free of dirt and dust so he designed them for that. He also suggested that we leave off the hardware and he routered out pulls for me at the bottom and tops of the doors. This is the way I open them anyway and this will make them easier to keep clean. He also was able to make doors to fit the unusual sizes we needed in some places, which was quite helpful.

The nook in the first picture is the empty spot where the fridge lived. Mike is building me a shelf at desk level and the cabinets up top will be for my cookbooks. An additional shelf underneath will be for phone books, pencils, and notepads. This area will be for my laptop, recipe planning, and phone but probably will be the catch-all area since it is right by the door. I do promise to try to keep it clean.

This is the new dishwasher and I tried to match the drawer pulls to the dishwasher handle but decided I wanted a little quirk to it so it wouldn't be boring. I am sort of a quirky person and we needed to reflect my personality just a little.

This is the new fridge nook with the space for my small appliances next to it. Looking forward to having a place for my crock pot, blender and toaster oven. I may get rid of the toaster oven for we don't use it very often and it just takes up space so if you need one, let me know.

I will be quite glad to get everything back in place but not rushing it for I want it done right and when it is all back, I'll have to begin cooking again. Oh well, you can't have everything and actually I am looking forward to using my new stove. It will be fun and I can begin posting some new recipes for you know I don't post any I have not cooked.

Haven't watched the world series in several years for I didn't really care who won but this year is different. I am pulling for the Texas Rangers since my brother and his family live in Arlington, TX and he carried me a game there several years ago. The Ranger stadium is beautiful and I sure would like to see the Rangers win since it is their first time to play in the series. Sam and his family are there tonight - lucky dogs. If I can't be there I can't imagine anyone else I had rather see there. Keep watching and hoping they will show them but the cameras may not can pan that high up. He said they were in the nose bleed section but they do have a great view.

Well, tomorrow I have to go down to Lowndes High and talk Southern for my friend. He is doing a research project for a grad school class on language and it seems that South Alabama, my home growing up, has a particularly strange accent. Now I hate to tell him that it's not strange just deep South and we don't know why they put an "r" in words, so we just drop them or pronounce them as "ah." I have lost some of my childhood accent but not all of it but I got him covered.

A friend of ours from back home has made some videos of some of our friends from back home telling some of their tales. Now they have had a few beverages so they are really telling some good ones but he can hear what I used to sound like when I talked and hear some good tales also. I hope he appreciates that I will get up before 8 in the morning to go talk for him. Maybe he will bring me some deer sausage as payment.

That's about it for tonight for I am going to finish watching this ballgame and get a little knitting done. Ya'll be careful going home and talk to you tomorrow.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Finally, A Stove

Good morning, and ya'll come on the house but you may have trouble finding a place to sit for it is a MESS. Our kitchen is scattered throughout the house in boxes, tubs, and sitting on any flat surface and most of it is covered with dust. It is bothering even me and that can be hard to do. We are getting there and progress is being made.

It is being quite an experience and I will share some of the "fun" times later. Lowes has been wonderful with just a few bobbles and some "men" who can be a pain. Thank goodness for women who sell appliances.

Now, I am not bragging but just thankful. Our appliances were from the 50s - almond in color and basic in design. Believe it or not, they all worked! Don't tell me they didn't make good appliances in the "olden days" and I hope our new ones will last as long. Of course if they last that long, it won't be me using them for I really doubt I will last that long.

You can see from the first picture that we went with stainless steel appliances. We had already had to replace our fridge and chose stainless in anticipation of adding others. I like having the microwave over the stove with a vent for I can do all my cooking without moving from that spot.

Wow, microwaves now have metal shelves. Not sure how they do that but will probably not use it for it limits the height of the container on the turntable. I had a fairly new microwave but am looking forward to freeing that space on the counter.

This area is where our fridge used to live. When we bought our new one it fit into this space but we could not open the doors all the way and Mike and Kathy suggested we move it- which we did. This will be a home office area. Mike is going to build me a shelf desk, shelf above for cookbooks and the cabinets up high will hold cookbooks also. We are going to relocate the phone to the area and I will use it as my laptop desk also. Thinking it will be a most useful area.

Wow, a dishwasher that doesn't sound like a semi racing through the house. It is so quiet you can't here it washing the dishes unless you hold your head next to the door. Wonderful!

This is the nook which Mike built to place the fridge. We walled up the door into the office and put door from the dining room into the office. The empty place on the right of the fridge is where the oven used to be and we are going to tile that area and put the crock pot and other small appliances in it. We have it wired for these and it will make a great place to put them and clear counter space. I will be able to knead bread without having to move blender, etc.

We are so excited and looking forward to the completion. Cabinet doors will be here Saturday, counter top on the way and tiler waiting to install back splash. Painting it all and then I can COOK again.

I have never had new appliances and am really looking forward to using them.

Got to go and do some dusting - wonder why don't you?

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Seagulls in Flight by frances robson

Good evening, ya'll. Come on in but watch out for the mess for the kitchen is under construction and I am not having fun. I wish I was with the seagulls and could fly, fly away across the ocean for this is hard and I don't like "hard." Making decisions is not my forte.

Picking paint, tile, counter tops and other decisions is not easy for me. Mama could look at a room and see in her mind what needed to be done, what was needed and what would match and look good together. On the other hand, I pour over magazines, books about kitchens, paint samples, tile samples and all that other stuff and still can't see it in my mind. I have to go on instinct and hope I'm right. Thank goodness I have our builder and his wife who have excellent taste and know what will look good and are willing to make suggestions. I am looking forward to having a new kitchen but wish I could go to the beach and fly with the seagulls until it is done.

We are also discovering that you can eat pretty well if you have a microwave. There seem to be several good frozen meals you can just steam in the microwave and they taste fairly good but I will be glad to be able to cook on a stove again and having and oven will be great. Isn't it interesting that you don't miss things until you don't have them.

Have ya'll noticed how many cleaning and personal items are now available you can toss when used? I bought some cleaning items today and I mop and toss, dust and toss, use a salad bowl - toss, eat off a plate- toss and I got spoons and forks to use and toss. Now we don't usually eat off of disposable plates and silverware but these are the times which try my soul so throw-away is necessary now. I can just hear daddy telling me now that is wasting money for he would wash plastic plate, spoons and forks if I didn't get them in the trash can first.

When we were growing up we didn't ever use paper plates and stuff and mama and daddy used everything at least twice. I can remember when aluminum foil first became available and it was rather expensive so you know what mama did - you used it, washed and dried it and used again and again until it was slap worn out. It seemed to have been thicker way back then for it didn't tear easily and you could use it several times before tossing.

There was also no plastic bags to store food in and you used glass bowls or jars and washed them and reused them again. You covered everything in waxed paper for saran wrap had not been invented and she did toss that after using it. I wonder now how we cooked, and stored without aluminum foil, saran wrap and plastic bags. It's amazing what we take for granted now.

Now my daughter and niece make fun of me for saving my plastic bags, washing them and drying them and reusing them. Like mama, I just don't see any reason not to use them more than once for that is wasting money. I do toss them if they had raw meat in them so I am not totally stupid- just stingy.

We also use cloth napkins, not paper for now you can get the ones you don't have to iron and that saves a chunk of money and using dishcloths not sponges are healthier for you. Do you know how many germs set up housekeeping in a sponge? I do pop it in the dishwasher but still feel like the little rascals are living in those nooks and crannies of the sponges. I really like using dish clothes for they seem to clean better anyway and you can toss it in the washing machine.

I am finding that more and more younger women are turned off by throwing away everything. Many of them are becoming more conscious of how much we throw away and are beginning to use less of these items. In fact, in looking at the shops on Etsy it amazes me of what you can buy to save money and resources.

You can purchase reusable sandwich bags, lunch bags, cloth diapers, crocheted and knitted dishcloths. Some of the most unusual are the swifter sweeper cloths which are made to use, wash, dry and reuse. Why bother buying a swifter if you are going to keep on having to wash the cloths, why not use a regular mop.

Then there are the washable intimate pads that women have to have. I can't imagine washing and reusing those things. You can take this too far and that is just too far. There are just some things that need to be thrown away.

Saving money is good and I am glad that many of the younger people are beginning to realize that you don't have to throw away everything. It's interesting to observe the younger generation wake up and smell the money they can save.

Well, I have rambled enough for tonight and I am tired and tomorrow is another day of decisions. Have to try to get those paint people to get the shade of paint I want and try to figure out how to trim my back splash tile on the edges. There seems to be something called a bull nosed tile that you put on the edges and there are none to match my tile so I am going to have to be inventive. Ya'll pray for me, OK?

Be careful going home and ya'll come back to see me and maybe I can locate a tea pitcher and make some iced tea.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Kitchen Updo

My Kitchen on 10/9/10


Good morning on a beautiful Saturday morning from here in South Georgia. Come on in and have a cup of coffee but I don't know if I can find a cup for we are in demolition mode in our kitchen. I do know where the coffee pot is for if I have to put that in our bedroom, I will know where it is for that is the juice of life.

As you can tell we are giving our kitchen an update and not before it was needed. This home we bought 17 years ago was built in the 60's and the kitchen was still very much like it was then. We had repainted the cabinets and put hardwood laminate on the floor but the almond appliances were still the originals. Now if you don't think they made things to last back in that day, think again for all of them still work. I hope the new ones we bought will be as good.

We are going to put in new appliances, cabinet doors, and paint it all a pretty creamy color. I will also have a stove with oven altogether so I don't have to walk myself to death when cooking. Will show those later.


We also had to tear out a door into the office and cut a new one so we can house our new fridge. These are our good electricians trying to hide from the camera.



The gaping hole is where my new stove will be and I am so excited to have a new one - smooth top, warming oven and all.

These are pictures of where my kitchen is now located - entrance hall and dining room and various other places in the house. Needless to say we are eating what the microwave can cook and sandwiches but it's not too bad. It is amazing what good frozen-microwave food you can buy now- even complete entrees. We will not go hungry I can guarantee you but we don't like to eat out a lot so we will have to make do. I kept the crock pot out and we have a grill outside and so we have it made in the shade.

Will keep you up on what's happening and now I have go buy ceiling fans, paint and back splash tile. This is hard for me for I find it difficult to envision what things look like so some of mine is winging it but it usually turns out pretty well.

Ya'll have a good day today, enjoy the football games - SEC of course and Florida State. Come back to see us.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach