Etsy-licious

My house is looking a little bare these days. Since we moved in, we haven't hung up any art or displayed many objects as all the rooms need to be painted and are generally under some sort of renovation. So I sit and shop etsy.com to get my artsy-crafty-pretty things-fix. Do you have a favourite etsy vendor? I'm always on the hunt for something new.

L to R, from etsy vendors: badbird, joom, AliciaBock, phoebec, CowBird, presentandcorrect, ashleyg, chetanddot, johnwgolden, ellynelly

Wedding Inspired

I'm a newlywed. I'm also a new homeowner undergoing renovations. What that means is I spend my time surfing on the wedding chatboards and home blogs in equal measure. It's so hard to get the "wedding bug" out of your system... having planned my own wedding for over a year, I'm still drawn to the beauty and the creativity of weddings today. Leave it to this fabulous wedding to serve as inspiration for another home reno project, the back porch.

Held at the Viceroy Palm Springs, with an up-to-the-moment palette of yellow, black and white, this wedding was chic, modern, and playful. Now my back porch is none of those things - but it will be! I'm looking to make it modern yet casual, relaxed yet design forward, charming and sexy. I want a Palm Springs - belle of the South - Havana - British Colonial kind of feel.


I want this:

from this:


Come this spring, we'll be tearing out all the old lattice work, beefing up the columns, and trimming down the width of the stairs. I'll be painting the walls in white and the floor in a dove grey. We'll put some beadboard up under the roof and drop some pendant lights. And finally, we'll build an L-shaped banquette, covered in a yellow and white striped fabric, and drape the columns with some sheer white curtains. Right now, it looks and feels like a cottage deck as opposed to the stylish spot I want.


I've already done a bit of shopping and picked up these fab pieces from Designer Depot:
The ceramic garden stools were a steal at $16 -- that's right, $16!! I've seen them online for as much as $132. The lanterns are a good copy of more expensive versions you'd find at Restoration Hardware or the like. It'll be great to light those at night, sitting on the banquette, enjoying a glass of wine.

So that's the ambitious plan. I really should stop surfing those wedding sites. They give me more ideas than I know what to do with.

Pretty Little Things

The day is cold and wintry so I think I'll just sit inside and admire these pretty little things.







From l to r: porcelain acorns www.coeandwaito.com , large cloche www.wistera.com , piola bookcase www.nobodyandco.it , Montmartre vanity http://www.wshome.com/ , chandelier www.brocadehome.com , egg birdfeeder www.jschatz.com

Appliances? Check!

And we’re off! The kitchen renovation planning is full steam ahead. HandyMan and I have spent the last two weeks checking out appliances. We received great quotes from Tasco and Appliance Canada. Both places were willing to price match and offered the same appliances so I did a bit more comparison, checked out online reviews, and ultimately we decided to buy from Appliance Canada. Appliance Canada was a bit more direct, no sales BS to go through while Tasco offered great product knowledge. If you’re in the market to buy, I recommend both these retailers as we had friendly service from each.

So what did we get???

KitchenAid KDSS907SSS - Dual Fuel Range, Architect Series II
This baby boasts gas burners and an electric convection oven. We had considered a model with a gas convection oven, but Home Depot guy Chris told us that electric convection ovens are better for baking and slowly cooking foods at a lower temperature. Since the idea of an inconsistent gas flame in my oven bothers me and I've been known to make a batch or two of molten chocolate cakes in my time, we went with electric. This is a slide in model so the vent is at the side of the oven door as opposed to the back. It also features child safety locks as the controls are at the front (not that we'll be needing those just yet ;) ). One great little feature is the reversible grate on the front burner. It has little prongs which are perfect for holding a wok in place.

KitchenAid KUDS03CTSS - 4 Cycle Dishwasher with Fully Visible Console

We briefly considered buying a Miele dishwasher. The Tasco salesman made some great points: Miele invented the dishwasher, the model we looked at had a food catcher and no visible element (if you've ever melted a piece of tupperware like I have, you know that's a good thing!), and it used signficantly less water than the KitchenAid. Upon inspection though, a very simple but important item pushed us to KitchenAid -- some of my dishes are curved and only the KitchenAid offered a layout that would fit them! TIP: if you're at all concerned, bring a piece of your dishware to the showroom. Its easy to get swayed by the shiny stainless interior and fancy buttons and forget about functionality! The controls on this model are on the front though newer models have the controls hidden. Again, there are child safety locks so not a concern for us to get the more expensive hidden controls.

KitchenAid KSCS25FTMS - Counter depth side-by-side refrigerator
Oohwhee, this is such a pretty fridge. We decided to get the 25 cubic foot model as opposed to the 23 cubic foot model as we're always running out of space (Note: maybe this is more a result of our current fridge only having 14.9 cubic feet of capacity, lol!). It has a nice monochromatic look with stainless steel door, matching grey water dispenser, and painted grey cabinet. We decided to foot the extra $100 to get the model with the electronic dispenser, as opposed to the paddle dispenser. Electronic parts are less apt to break down -- plus, I like the shiny blue light which matches the shiny blue lights on the other appliances. I'm such a girl &:o)









Panasonic NNSD297S - Genius® Prestige® Inverter® Over-the-Range Stainless Steel Microwave

Panasonic's "inverter" technology is apparently the best on the market. Old-style microwaves use 'linear delivery' - they are either putting out microwaves or they're not. So, if you want to heat something up at 60% power, this means that the microwaves are put out only 60% of the time the machine is on. That's why you will often hear your microwave "pulsing". With inverter technology, the microwave is able to put out a consistent level of microwave energy. What does all this techno-speak really mean? Well, it means that food can simmer and won't overcook. Yay, no more chicken pot pies that are burnt on the crust and ice cold inside!

So now that we've got the appliances, we just have to settle on a cabinet manufacturer. We've got a few appointments lined up this week so will blog about those results soon.

Google Notebook, Where Have You Been All My Life!

Have you heard of Google Notebook? No? Well, let me be the first to tell you -- this tool will change your life.

So what is Notebook? As its name suggests, it functions like an online notebook. You use it to save ideas, images, text, videos - basically, anything that you find interesting on the Internet can be saved in your notebook. On the surface, this may sound a bit "been there, done that" (doesn't Explorer Favourites do the same thing?) so let me make it clear... Notebook is a far superior and versatile tool.

Let's say you're planning your kitchen renovation. You search the internet for inspiring images, you research cabinet manufacturers, you find a few articles that talk about how to layout a kitchen. All useful stuff that you want to refer to again and again. If you were "oldschool", what you would do is either (a) bookmark these links in your Favourites, or (b) cut and paste the images/text into a Word document so you can have 'everything in one place'. With Notebook, you can do the same thing in a much simpler way.

You can create a Notebook for say "Kitchen Renovation" and within it have sub-sections for Cabinets, Appliances, Faucets, Tiles, Lighting etc. Now when you find a website you would like to save, you simply click the Notebook icon and both the image/text and link to the original source site are saved! Now you'll never have to say "So where did I see that again..." - again. The Notebook is like a photoalbum - you open it up and you can see everything at once. Unlike Favourites, you don't have to click on the link to see what it was you wanted to save... the picture or article you wanted to save is already visible in the Notebook. Even better, you can access your Google Notebook from whatever computer you are on.

You heard it here first. Make your surfing easier and more pleasurable. Now go download that tool :)

Hot Stuff

When HandyMan and I were looking for a new house, one of our "must haves" was a fireplace. HandyMan had a wood-burning fireplace in his condo and I learned to appreciate the luxury it truly was... crackling logs, bright flames that glittered off the sparkly tile surround, cozy warmth in the wintertime. Okay, maybe it wasn't that warm (did you know wood-burning fireplaces are the least heat efficient?), but it sure was pretty. And therein lies the problem... I wanted a fireplace that was both functional and pretty.

Like everything in our new old house, the fireplace was - well, not so pretty. I knew it would only be a matter of time before we would tear it out and having decided to refinish the floors before we moved in, that time came sooner than expected. So now it is 4 months later and I sit with a hole in my ceiling, ruined plaster, and torn wallpaper where my fireplace once stood. What to replace it with? Here's a few looks I like:






Sources: www.ecosmartfire.com, www.conmoto.com

Yes, I do realize that an open fire is impractical, and that I only have 40" of wall to work with - but a girl can dream, can't she? We'll be making use of the existing chimney and don't want to use up any more floor space than we have to, so a narrow, zero clearance, gas fireplace is what we're looking for. The folks at Easyfire have some interesting fire ribbon units which fit our criteria perfectly. But with many other things on the list and a relatively mild winter, there's not much pushing us to get this project off the ground. The toasted marshmellows will have to wait.

Couples Conundrum

I'm a newlywed. I found this funny but maybe that's just me ;P (Found via weddingbee.com)

The Condo Reno

Feeling sort of sentimental today so thought I'd share a little slideshow of HandyMan and my first reno together. Here's the transformation of HandyMan's 1980's condo into a modern masculine space.

How To Pick Appliances

If you're anything like HandyMan and I, you probably know very little about how to pick appliances. Apart from aesthetic appeal, we don't know much about what makes one brand better than another. Well, thanks to a trip to our local Home Depot tonight, we've got a little more knowledge in our pocket.

It must have been a slow night because Chris, appliance guy at the Leaside branch, spent a good hour teaching us everything we wanted to know about stoves, dishwashers, microwaves and refrigerators. If you look for Chris, he's the guy wearing the "I'm In Training" button -- but don't believe it! He's full of good advice and I know our new kitchen will be better designed because of some of the great tips he passed on.

Refrigerators:

I've been enamoured with the French Door, Bottom Mount styles but according to Chris, these are the "Cadillac of refrigerators" with a price tag to match. These types of models have only been offered over the last five years and have gone through a few iterations:
- Generation 1 had no ice/water dispenser on the exterior. Rather, there would be an internal water dispenser in the fridge, sort of like those filtered water systems you may have at the office. A very impractical design.
- Generation 2 had the ice/water dispenser on the exterior, but the large ice making mechanism was required to hang in the fridge. Keeping ice cold in a fridge was a problem so this design too was flawed.
- Generation 3, the ice contraption moved to sit in a separate compartment on the inside of the fridge door. While this solved the problem of the ice melting, the large compartment ate up valuable fridge space
- Generation 4 and finally the manufacturers may have got it right. These models offer only water dispensers on the exterior. The ice maker is where it should be - in the bottom mount freezer.

While I love the look of the French Door, Bottom Mounts, I am realizing they are impractical for our needs. You will get more capacity out of a side-by-side fridge and you will spend $300-$500 less. We already know we have to spend a little extra for a counter-depth fridge (so it can fit in our small 8x13 kitchen), so a few dollars saved by not going for the trendiest style is probably a wise choice.

Dishwashers:

With this appliance, there are two major trends appearing.

First is the hidden control panel. Instead of having the buttons on the front of the dishwasher, they are on the top of the door, not visable when the dishwasher is closed. Because there is no push button to open the dishwasher, these styles will require a handle on the door front so you can get the dishwasher open. The bad thing is, you will more than likely use that handle to hang a tea towel. So what, right? Well, after years of hanging a tea towel there, wiping your wet or greasy hands, getting water spots on the dishwasher... your nice shiny dishwasher will get pitted from water stains and start too look like you've had a leak running down the front of the machine. Bet you didn't know that!

Second trend in dishwashers is a stainless steel interior as opposed to a white plastic interior. Chris said both styles will perform the same though the white interior over time will tend to look more worn or unclean. Bacteria is not an issue - bacteria won't survive long on either surface due to the high heat of the cleaning water. The only consideration here is how the interior fits with your cabinetry and kitchen colours. Those with darker cabinets and fixtures may prefer a stainless interior as it is less 'jarring' than the white interiors.

Ranges:

HandyMan and I had a few "must have" features for this appliance: gas cooktop, convection oven, warming drawer. Easy right? Leave it to Chris to complicate matters and bring out other options we didn't even know existed.

Gas or electric was fine, but we also have the option of dual fuel cooking models with gas burners and electric convection ovens, or gas burners and gas convection ovens. If that wasn't mind-boggling enough, we could also choose between free-standing or slide-in ranges. We'd never considered a slide-in range but they were appealing -- they had the built-in look of a cooktop with the convenience of an oven.

One great tip: for gas ranges, make sure that the burner grates are matte and not polished. Polished grates will chip over time as the paint wears off.

Microwaves & Range Hoods:

In the past, we've used microwaves that either sat on the counter or above the range and now we were on the hunt for something different. I liked the look of under-the-counter microwaves and - being only 5'0" - thought they would be more easily accessible. If we did put it under the counter, that would mean we would have to get a range hood over the stove. Little did we know that most range hoods, especially the modern triangular styles with the chimney, were way way way too much power for our tiny kitchen. Not only that, but since the hood would be mounted on an interior wall, it would be extra noisy. (Another great tip: if you do get a range hood, do not get one with a rounded glass hood. Grease will just collect on the glass and drip down the sides of the hood)

Instead, putting the microwave over the range would bring some benefits I hadn't considered:
- gain extra cabinet space over the microwave
- less cost as you wouldn't have to buy the microwave and a range hood
- over the range models are safer to have if there are kids around
- keep extra cabinet space under the counter

When all was said and done, we'd learned a great deal on our trip to Home Depot. We've now got a shopping list started and will look for the following:
1. side-by-side refrigerator in counter depth
2. slide-in dual fuel range with convection oven and warming drawer. Burner grates will have a matte finish.
3. dishwasher with front control panel and no handle
4. over the range microwave

Let the shopping begin!

Kitchen Adventures

HandyMan and I continued our search for the perfect kitchen this weekend with a visit to Canac Kitchens. We're familiar with Canac - HandyMan has used them in previous renovations, other friends have recommended their products - so we were hopeful we'd find something to fit our needs.

We made a trip to their showroom (the first roadtrip for the new car!) and were happily surprised. They had various kitchen and bath models in both modern and traditional styles. I was looking for something similar to this style which I'd seen on their website:

Alas, I found the door style but it did not come in white...and I couldn't picture anything but a white kitchen :( There was a simple shaker door style offered, but I'm still not convinced its "the one". Since the door is thermafoil (basically a plastic coating over an MDF door), the edges and lines of it are not as sharp and clean as I was hoping for. Its like those ice cream popsicles you used to eat as a kid, vanilla inside with a thin chocolate coating outside... everything just looks softer and smoother with the coating.

The trip was a good learning experience though. We talked with a kitchen designer, who, funnily enough, is married to one of HandyMan's old University professors. I love when those moments happen -- unexpected connections with other people appear and make you think "Hmm, what a coincidence!". We quickly sketched some ideas out and gained some great tips. I think I'll pass them on for any of you out there in blogland looking to renovate your own kitchens:

• when visiting a kitchen showroom, even for the first time, come with dimensions in hand. Its much easier to show a designer a simple sketch of your space than trying to explain where all the doors, windows, and existing ugly cabinets are
• have an idea of what you're looking for. Know the general style of cabinet and colour palette. This will help you see if the manufacturer offers the look you're going for right off the bat
• think about what are your must haves & what are your current pain points. High on our list - a slide-out pantry, pot drawers, more counterspace, and a TV/laptop workstation
• be aware of what you see of your kitchen from other parts of the house. Part of our dining room looks into the kitchen so maybe a glassfront cabinet with pretty dishware is something we want to incorporate
• have a general idea of timeline and budget. If all you can afford is Ikea and you want the kitchen in a month, there's no point wasting your time visiting a custom cabinetmaker who will take a minimum of six weeks to even craft the cabinets.

Most importantly, ask questions. A kitchen design is only as good as the kitchen designer. Recently, I saw a friend's kitchen that was obviously was put up with little forethought. There was inefficient use of space, the whole look was overwhelming with wall to wall of cabinets with little variation, and there were simple questions like "where do we put the recycling bin" still left unanswered by the new design. I don't want to feel that way right after I spend $20K on my kitchen!! So HandyMan and I will spend the time, too much maybe, bouncing ideas off one another, making sketches on scrap pieces of paper, and hopefully we'll find a kitchen designer that can put all those pieces together into something that really cooks ;)

But Can It Fit a 4x8?

We've had quite the financial workout over the last few months. Wedding, honeymoon, house bought and condo sold, renovations, Christmas. I guess its all part and parcel of starting a new life together, building our house into a home, just living, actually. And looks like 2008 will be more of the same (financial workout, that is).

HandyMan and I have gone and done it - done something we weren't quite planning on but had to nonetheless. We bought our first new car. Up to now, we've been happy to traipse around town in HandyMan's trusty (but used and somewhat wornout) 1996 Honda Accord. But the demands of a combined lifestyle and house in renovation have proven our little auto will no longer do the job. The last straw came last month. HandyMan and I made our regular weekend trip to Home Depot in search of materials to finish off the new garage. A few weeks previously, we'd bought new roof racks and envisioned carrying sheets of plywood, lumber, whatever we needed, on the roof of the Accord. Alas, even our brand new roof racks would not, could not, make the car fit our needs. The flimsy sheets of pegboard we'd bought were too flimsy. Light as a feather they threatened to blow off of the roof by even the slightest breeze. In the end, I drove the car home and HandyMan walked, massive sheets of pegboard in hand.

That image still fresh in our minds, we decided to bite the bullet and picked up one of these:
Don't worry - we've checked - there's more than enough room to carry a few sheets of plywood, a couple of cans of paint, strips of quarter-round, and MDF panels. And HandyMan won't even have to walk home.


P.S. Anyone wanna buy some roof racks?

Merry Christmas Part II

As any designer will tell you, its not only the things you have in a room, but how you put those things together which make a room memorable. The same can be said of a good meal. On Sunday, HandyMan and I hosted Family HandyMan for Ukrainian Christmas. We've never had the whole family over before so this was a big deal for us. Luckily, with 3 other holiday parties under our belts in the last two weeks, we were once again excited to flex our new-found culinary muscles.

We decided to host a holiday brunch. Eager to make use of our new wedding china, we set a formal table and enjoyed the meal of potato leek soup, fresh brioches with strawberry honey butter, oeufs en coquette, mushroom puff pastry rosti, and of course perogies and schvarki. The last of the Christmas presents were opened as we stuffed ourselves further with nutella crepes with homemade blueberry compote. I'm sure everyone had a splendid time but I'm also sure it wasn't just the food that made our meal enjoyable. We had all the right ingredients - a comfortable setting, beautiful accessories, a thoughtful menu, interesting conversation, and most of all, great guests. How could we miss!!

Strawberry Honey Butter Recipe

Ingredients
3⁄4 c butter, softened
1⁄2 c minced, hulled strawberries
2Tbsp honey
1Tbsp lemon juice
1⁄4 tsp orange zest

Instructions
Combine butter, strawberries, honey, lemon juice and orange zest, and beat together until very smooth but not soft or oily.
The butter is ready to transfer to a pastry bag to pipe into rosettes and serve as a topping or spread now, or cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Let the butter soften to room temperature before serving.

Pics to follow!

Visions of White

With the kitchen renovation now on the radar, I've started to go through my old magazines, others blogs, and online forums for inspiration. And inspired I am. Defining the look hasn't been too difficult. I'm not attracted to traditional or country kitchens, heavy on the details, the corbeils, the filagree, the washed wood. Nor do I fancy Euro-style minimalism, all flat panel doors, stainless steel, and lacking upper cabinets (where do these people store all their kitchen stuff??). My favoured "look" instead stems from one source... the movie Something's Gotta Give.

Have you seen that film? It's a hoot, and Diane Keaton's kitchen in her Hamptons house is simply to die for. This isn't the kitchen, but it is one similar in style:

Who wouldn't want to bake in a kitchen like that? Can't you just picture it -- hazy afternoon summer sun streaming through the window, the sound of the neighbourhood kids running through the sprinklers outside, you - sitting on a stool at the island, enjoying a cup of tea while you read the weekend paper, Michael Buble playing softly in the background, waiting for the banana chocolate chip muffins to finish baking in the oven, the smell filling the air.... heaven!

This style can be described as Transitional, a mix of the traditional and contemporary. I love the plain white shaker cabinets and the modern polished stone countertops. The opaque glass of the schoolhouse lights contrasted against the shiny faucet and stainless steel appliances. The creamy subway tile backsplash, the black drawer pulls and hinges, the beadboard, the pale blue walls... I could go on and on. But most of all I love the white -- the whiteness of the white. Nothing says clean and fresh and bright in a kitchen like "white".

L to R: Martha Stewart home for kbhomes.com; Flickr image from Nancy Hugo CKD; Flickr image from Nancy Hugo CKD; Martha Stewart home for kbhomes.com

The Future's So Bright...

It's been 7 weeks since we ordered our light fixture for the dining room and I'm waiting anxiously for it to arrive. I've been told the light frame is in the city but the two shades weren't shipped along with it - that's like ice cream without the chocolate fudge, a new outfit without fab shoes to match, me without HandyMan - in other words, no damn good at all.

So I sit. And wait. And amuse myself with these other luminous lovelies.


L to R: Capiz hanging pendant from West Elm; Paige Double Sconce from Restoration Hardware; Abaca pendant from West Elm; Polished Flushmount from Union Lighting; Double Dip Floor Lamp from CB2; Bon Marche pendant from Urban Archaeology.

I love how lighting can change a space, change the mood. Rooms feel cozier, safer, warmer, with just the flick of a switch. I dream of crystal chandeliers in the bedroom and polished nickel sconces adorning the bathroom. Pendants and pots will highlight the shiny kitchen, while old schoolhouse lights do the job over the garage workbench. Sometimes, a lightbulb is more than just a lightbulb.

First Impressions

In life, first impressions count. So too in a house. A classic 1968 psychology study by A. Mehrabian indicated that 38% of a first impression is based on the style of speech, 55% body language, and only 7% based on what is said. That's a whopping 93% based on "looks" alone.

Our front entry was in desperate need of a better first impression. As I posted here, with its pink carpet and flowered wallpaper, our house looked like it was occupied by a little old lady with cats... which it was, until we bought it! So now, the task was to transform the entry into something that reflected us - young, design-savvy, contemporary yet traditional. We're off to a good start. The peach and white sponge paint (remember that flashback to the 80's?) has been banished with a coat of Benjamin Moore paint in HC-105 Rockport Gray for the walls and OC-68 Distant Gray for the trim. The pink carpet was discarded and original hardwood floors, now stained in a mid-tone brown, were revealed. Keeping with the traditional feel of the house, we stained the stair treads (single plank oak - yay!) a dark ebony and will eventually partially cover them with a sisal runner.

What kind of impression does our entry leave now? You'll have to decide for yourself.

Happy New Year

2007 has come to an end and HandyMan and I capped it off in a perfect way, surrounded by friends for an impromptu celebration. Yes, it did temporarily put our plans for a romantic French dinner of Moules a la Creme on hold, but who wouldn't rather spend the night laughing, reminiscing, and falling in love with your friends all over again. It warmed our hearts to host everyone in our "home"... it feels good to say that :)

I hope 2008 brings you and yours the culmination of dreams, the overcoming of challenges, and bountiful joy, health, and happiness.