Thursday, November 13, 2008

Judith Martin would be frowning in my direction.

I blink and the months are gone, and I can't believe I haven't said this yet - THANK YOU.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, to all the wonderful readers/clients/family/friends/friends-of-friends who took the time to vote for me in the Bay Area Best contest this fall. Your efforts paid off, and I'm officially the Bay Area's Best for wedding cakes this year. An extra-special thank you to Pam, who put up with a lot of b.s. that she didn't need or deserve. One really neat outcome has been hearing from other bakers in the area - I even got a congratulations from the UNBELIEVABLY talented and nationally-recognized Susan Morgan of Elegant Cheesecakes, and we're supposed to meet for coffee at some point - that's almost better than winning the contest.

Next thing I've been remiss about - the remodel. Let's see - last time we checked in, I told you upper cabinets and counters were coming. So. First the upper cabinets:

Here are those cool old windows from Urban Ore (that I thought I wrote about awhile ago but now I can't find the entry...) that we found for the cabinet doors, and the beadboard on the hood which we rescued from the original kitchen when it was removed.

And here they are, all spruced up and painted. It would have been great to leave everything stained, but the windows were in terrible shape and there was too much wood putty and filler to have them come out looking pretty. So I painted the interior of the cabinets a super-dark grey/green to really let the Craftsman detailing on the windows shine.

Then the counters. Here's the slab before it was cut (doesn't it look like a painting?):

And here's the finished countertop:

The disposal button sort of detracts from that authentic, "built in the 20s" thing we were going for, but there wasn't really a good spot for a switch once the new window took over the entire wall, so we sucked it up.

And this is still a disposal, and not a food grinder, and it would behoove everyone to understand the difference. Especially those people who might be inclined (say, when preparing a sit-down dinner for 12, and peeling many, many bunches of asparagus(es? i?)) to shove the peelings of said bunches down the disposal. WHICH IS NOT A FOOD GRINDER.

Imagine doing this. Now imagine, just before your guests arrive, that the sink mysteriously backs up, and it's pouring rain, and the plumber can't come until Monday, and you have to wash all of your dinnerware, flatware, and stemware (because remember, you don't have a dishwasher), service for 12, in your bathtub.

That was a good lesson to learn.