My Kitchen Counters...

Well... I planned for a week to be ready for the longly anticipated custom granite counter tops to be installed on the custom cabinets that have been functioning in my kitchen for about a year and a half now with plywood tops. It's definitely been a lengthy journey to this point, but guess what... It's not done yet! The granite comes on Wednesday and I cleared all the kitchen plywood countertops off so the installer(s) could work on putting some real countertops in. It's a lot of work to clear off the counters! Not to mention figuring out where to set up the espresso machine, microwave & toaster to be operable for a day or so during the install. It's not like I'm in a house with a garage to throw stuff in. I'm stuffed to capacity in this 2 bedroom condo! So anyway, I find out while they are bringing it in that the installer had to finish another job so he wasn't able to come today!! So now I have to wait until some time next week and set aside another couple days to watch the granite people install the granite. Well, I don't have to watch them, but I at least need to be here for them to come and work. That's not so much of a concern. What is a concern is that I will need to keep all the stuff I moved off the counter tops in it's odd locations... I'll also have to try to find a street parking again some time next week so that I can keep my parking stalls open for them to park in. That's a real challenge some times. I peer out from the lanais looking down to the streets, trying to spot that stall. If just so happens I see one, I'll run to the elevator and press the down button and wait for what seems like minutes for the elevator to come get me. Then I run into the elevator and press "1" and ride the elevator to the lobby. Then I run to the entry to the garage to get to my car, start it up and zip out to the street just to see that someone has already taken the parking spot!! Oh well that's the condo life in the city... at least there is non-metered street parking around this block! So here it is... the granite. Happily garnishing my lanai for the next week or so. It enjoys basking in the afternoon sun and gazing at the sunset views. In the morning it watches the Trump Tower Waikiki as it reaches completion. It's anticipating the brilliant Hilton Hawaiian Village's Weekly Friday Night Fireworks Display. It also greets us and says, "how was your day?", while we step into our entry way just like a pet dog. Makes me want to respond... "Move! Get away from the door!" Hahahah... Oh well... at least I didn't remove the kitchen sink, stove and refrigerator to help speed up the install. I had to move some things back onto the counters, but will not put everything back just to remove them all again next week!

Great Price on All-Clad 12 qt Multi Pot & Martha Stewart 7qt Oval Enamel Coated Cast Iron Pot

I anticipated all last week for Saturday morning to come. It was the annual 25% off everything at The Executive Chef store in Ward Center. The sale is only from 9a-12p, 3 hours. You must be standing in line with your purchases by noon to receive the 25% discounts. Kelli and I bought a whole bunch of stuff to simplify MY tasks in the kitchen. Today I'll blog about the All-Clad #59912 12 quart Multi Cooker seen above in brushed stainless steel. We also headed to the Macy's One Day Sale right after we made our purchases at The Executive Chef sale. We purchased that Martha Stewart 7 quart Oval Enamel Coated Casserole Pot there. Our morning got off to a slow start because the night before Kelli & I went to a late showing of "The Time Traveler's Wife" with our friends Tara & Shad. Ok ok, it was a 915pm show, but it's late for us since we usually only go to matinees due to the cost!! Anyway, the movie is fine to me, but Kelli & Tara obviously read the book and didn't feel it was all that great. (I didn't read the book.) I don't understand why people insist on reading the book then watching a movie knowing that the movie will never be as good as the book. Oh well, I'm sure Tara will explain in a comment. Anyway, on with the subject... at The Executive Chef, I found the All-Clad 12 quart Multi Cooker that I was hoping to receive as a gift some day (hahaha)! Knowing that it costs so much normally, I decided to buy it because it was an awesome bargain! I put some on my on-line shopping lists that were different models well over $300. I am not that particular, but those were the only ones I was seeing. This 59912 model appears to be around on the web for around $150 plus shipping and we are in Hawaii so shipping will either be another $50 or we won't be included as part of the United States! (Although, last Friday, Hawaii just celebrated its 50 years of Statehood... perhaps another 50 years and on-line retailers will consider us part of the United States and Google Voice will not charge long distance charges as high as calling international countries to call to/from Hawaii!!!) The regular price of this multi cooker at The Executive Chef is $105 + tax, which is already lower than on-line. With the 25% off and including tax it came out to $82.46! What a deal! If anyone finds it cheaper in Honolulu, Hawaii, don't tell me about it... just let me be happy with this great deal! They didn't seem to have the Le Creuset Oval Dutch Oven that I wanted so I didn't get that. We then went off to the Macy's sale. It was already 1230p or so. By the time we got to the housewares department, we had missed the "door buster" specials that ended at 1pm!! =) Why the =)?? Because I decided to save several hundreds of $$ and not get a Le Creuset and replace it with a much cheaper but functional Martha Stewart Collection version. It was a door buster at Macy's. $79.99 for the 7 quart oval that I would like. Yeah, we missed the door buster time, but it also said in fine print, "May not be combined with coupons." The after door buster price was $89.99, just $10 more and still a great price. We asked the sales person if the 20% off 1 day pass would apply and it did!! The result is the same pot for $71.99 + tax, $8 less than the "door buster special". Yay! That box was heavy! I think it must be around 20 pounds because I weighed the pot alone and it seems to be somewhere just under 20 pounds using the high tech bathroom scale technique. I had to carry that thing all through Macy's then all through Ala Moana Shopping Center and by the end of my work out at Ala Moana, I think it seemed like it weighed 50 pounds! We stopped at Neiman Marcus' Mermaid Bar for some much needed sustenance. Had had a custom salad in accordance to my special diet restrictions and Kelli had a Greek Sandwich. It was delicious. Kelli also bought this ultra-cute ceramic coffee mug from Starbucks. It has all these animals around it and even a few birds inside! You would think we went home and rested after all that. Nope. I busted out the brand new pots and cooked a Beef Short Rib Curry to add another 5 hours of my work out for the day. That curry will be in the next blog post...

Silly Silicone Cup Coasters from Target...

These silicone coasters come in a set with other colors. Kelli and all her friends always comment that they are "so cute". I'm certain they are very popular and Target must be selling tons of them. Why am I posting this photo?? As you can see, they aren't very functional. They may be cute, but the moisture either on the coaster of from the condensate of the cold drink on the coaster is not retained on the top surface of these coasters. The result is moisture dripping off the coaster and leeching under the silicone coaster. This results in moisture being retained between the coaster and the counter or table top surface. If you are using these on wood finishes, it will leave marks such as these where the coaster was. It's quite disturbing and makes the coaster non-functional. Of course if it was on a glass, Corian, granite, formica, stainless steel or some other solid surface material that is easy to wipe away water stains, just wipe it off. If it's used on a more delicate surface like this wood dining table, you can only hope it will wipe away and not leave a permanent mark. Luckily there are no permanent markings left... yet! Since these are soooo cute, perhaps they should remain on our table tops for decorative purposes only!

Chopstick Holder

Finally, I found a chopstick holder!! I can't believe how difficult it was to find this simple plastic chopstick holder that is covered. I can find bamboo types or any cups to hold chopsticks, but those all aren't covered so dust falls onto them and into the holder. I've been searching for one for a couple of years now. I even asked my friend who is Japanese and lives in Japan to find me one. He had no idea what I was talking about. I told him I know we used to have one about 30 years ago so there must be such a thing. He still had no idea. So I thought maybe in recent years they may have phased out. He is a bit younger than I am. Anyway, the Marukai 99 Cents Store had this chopstick holder for about $8. I didn't see it right away and just happed to see it when we were about to leave. I was so excited and immediately grabbed it. At last, my chopsticks are protected...

Stimulating the Economy...

A few weeks ago, we decided to help do our share in "stimulating the economy". Everyone knows how badly the auto industry is affected by this situation. So what did we decide to do?? No, we didn't go out and buy a new car. I would think that is a foolish thing to do. We did decide to help support the home furnishing industry. We took advantage of "Red Tag Clearance Sale" that was going on at the Honolulu Design Center next to the Moana Pacific condominiums. Actually, a couple weeks before that we tried to find stuff at their warehouse sale in Kapolei. That was an experience we'd probably never try again. It was hectic and not really organized. They probably plan it out that way so that people can't really get more than one "deal" during the sale. To make a long story short, we didn't find anything we wanted there. This dark brown wooden cabinet that I am using for a t.v. stand with extra storage (much needed in a condo) is actually a buffet. It was a clearance item and when I saw it, I immediately pictured it working out for our living room entertainment center. It has three doors that enclose several cubic feet of storage and an open area above it with a built in light which I am using for the components of the entertainment center (dvd player, Nintendo Wii, etc.). What I haven't done yet is make some holes in the back of that area to run the wiring and cables out the back. That's why they are all hanging forward in this photo. The UPS Battery Back Up and my HP Printer will also call the cabinet space home soon. Another modification that I have already done to this buffet is remove the legs. This allows it to sit flush on the floor and also lowers it by about 6 inches creating a perfect height for the t.v. Another reason why we chose this buffet is that it matches the color of our recently purchased coffee table and side table. Believe it or not, we found the coffee table and side table at Marukai 99 Cent Store. Unfortunately, it wasn't 99 cents, but the pair was just a little over a hundred bucks on sale. We couldn't find anything we really liked at the Honolulu Design Center and we were so excited when we saw these at Marukai. You can't see the side table in this photo, but it's under the lamp to the left, which we purchased from Target in the mix-and-match section of lamps. Don't pay attention to the curtain (temporary), the white filing cabinet and black refrigerator. Those are only there until we figure out where to arrange them. The white leather sofa and chaise lounge sectional was actually our first furniture purchase a couple months ago. This is what led to the other purchases. These are the new bedroom furnitures that we just bought. It's a high chest and a wide dresser. The old furnitures we had were too low and narrow so we didn't have enough drawers for all of Kelli's... um our clothes and stuff. With these 2 pieces, we actually still have extra drawers with nothing in them... yet. What have you done to help support the struggling industries?

Kitchen Update

Current Photo... :] Finally, an update to my blog. It's been a while. I just really haven't been able to sit down and post anything to my blog. Lots of it had to do with the big mess of construction junk taking up most of the place. Anyway, it's not complete, but at least it's a fully operational kitchen. We're still waiting on countertops and a few cabinet pieces, but other than that it works as well as the Death Star did for Vader... Mid-Demolition (Almost 2 years ago...) :|

Home Made White Bread Bake...

I've been missing from the blogging world for about a month. Things were getting a bit hectic and I have not been having time to blog. :( I've been wanting to bake some bread at home for a few months now. My kitchen is still not completely finished with the renovations, but at least I have installed my range/oven and have some plywood counter tops. Here is my 1st loaf of "Basic White Bread". I kind of used the recipe from the KitchenAid Mixer book with a bit of variation. Eventually after practicing, I hope to finalize my favorite recipe and use it from then. Oh, I forgot to mention that I found a temporary hire job as a "Baker Assitant" for a Japanese bakery. The ad looked very tempting requiring no experience and only 1030pm-5am for $16/hour. I figured why not get paid to learn?? So that's what I've been up to about 3 nights a week. It's at Kimuraya, on Koko Head Ave., for those of you familiar with Honolulu. By the way, they are planning to close down February 15th or so that's why they have the temporary hire baker assistant. That's sad news because I remeber this bakery being there since I was a child. Here is my 1st loaf of white bread. It smells so good I just want to eat it! At the same time it looks so good I don't want to cut it! What will I do? I'll let you know how it tastes and what I do with it... Ok I couldn't resist so I sliced off a piece. Tastes like bread. The crust is very tasty and soft. I think I will increase the sugar and milk quantities in my next dough and see how that goes.

Lazy Sunday Morning - Toaster Oven French Toast Casserole

The end of a 4 day Thanksgiving weekend is always tough... Trying to fight the rush to the Walmart Black Friday sale left me in absolute disappointment! (They decided to change their proceedures and thousands of people were waiting in a dark line exposed to the elements while last year we were killing time inside the store for hours just waiting for 5am! Tricky buggers!) Anyway after all that exhaustion I woke up on Sunday and had some energy to cook breakfast. But wait... my kitchen still looks like this! The cabinets (2nd try) are expected in this week by the way. In all that Safeway excitement, they lewered us to purchase $25 of groceries to receive a dozen eggs for FREE! Yay! Free Eggs! Then I bring them home last week and start to think, "how will I cook these 12 eggs without a normal kitchen?". Finally I decided I'll whip up a batch of french toast baked in the toaster oven. These are the very basic ingredients that I used. Eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, wheat bread and sugar. In fact I didn't even use fresh milk, I used Milkman powdered milk. This method of making french toast in the oven was very interesting to me several years ago. I can't remember where I came across it, but I think it was on Martha Stewart's show. Anyway after I thought of it, it's pretty much the same as bread pudding. Ingredients: 6 slices wheat bread (mine was from the loaf in my freezer) 4 large grade A eggs **FREE from Safeway!** 4 teaspoons sugar several drops of vanilla 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup Milkman milk (prepared) or regular milk is better Your favorite Butter, fruits and Syrup to serve with french toast. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl (except bread!) and mix well. Put slices of bread into a baking dish that can hold the bread and liquid just at the right angle. If it's too big your bread won't stay standing and you'll need more bread and mixture. Pour mixture over bread and make sure all the bread is moist from soaking the mixture. All the liquid should be absorbed by the bread. Preheat (toaster) oven to 350F and bake french toast for about 30-35 minutes. There should be a golden brown top and the insides should still be a little moist. Slice into portions, server with your favorite fruit, butter syrup and breakfast meats. A hot cup of home roasted coffee goes really well with this also! I've been reading a lot of bread baking recipes and blog posts recently. I really want to bake some bread!! All I have is this toaster oven. Has anyone tried to bake a loaf or bun of fresh yeast bread in a toaster oven? I'm anxious to bake bread and I think I'm going to have to try to bake some before my kitchen oven is back in action!!

Hydroponic Salad Mix Seedlings...

It's been about a week since I revamped my condominium vegetable garden. This is a picture from today. I added on a homemade water diffuser sponsored partially by Starbucks Coffee's recognizable green straw the labor and engineering was provided by me. The mixed greens and other seedlings seem to be sprouting very well. Most are about 2 inches in length or more. A few have began showing their 1st true leaf sprouts. This water sprinkling design I made is not the most effecient for several reasons. 1st of all it allows the water to evaporate faster and there is more splashing, another reason is that it wets the above ground part of the plant and if you have a plant that prefers to only have moist roots (like some flowers) this will not be good. I set this system up like this because it just looks neat when the water is pumping. It's the "Garden Water Feature" of my condo. PS- In the larger picture above, you can see a part of Kelli's 2nd bonsai tree in the foreground. The original look of that ficus tree is in my previous hyrdoponics post from last week. We're loving the "Art of Bonsai" classes!

Home Coffee Roast - Disaster!

Home Coffee Roast - Disaster! It's been pouring rain for the past few days here and we've been having winds from the south. Here, in Honolulu, it means humidity! Today it's not raining, but it's very hot and humid. According to weather.com Waikiki's humidity is 69%. I checked this after the disaster. Normally, I chill the pan and have it ready to put the roasted beans on and get it over to the fan to cool as quickly as possible. I also put one of those freezer ice bags under a cooling rack and rest the pan on it as the fan blows. This usually draws the heat from the pan pretty quickly and makes sure the beans don't sit and bake. I noticed something unusual today. It was so humid, the pan formed condensation while the beans were cooling!! This was bad! Moisture is not something that should be going into your fresh roasted Sumatra Classic Mandheling beans!! I better work on my mesh colander & vacuum cooling set-up. There's just no space while my kitchen renovation is in progress. I roasted this small batch to a "city" roast just after the 1st cracks were heard. I wanted to try a lighter roast because I read another foodie blog about lighter roasts (Lisabeeen Homeroasted Coffee)<-click. I usually roast to a darker Full City+ or Vienna roast. Because of my concern about the moisture ruining the fresh roast, I decided to test a cup right away even though you are supposed to let the bean rest a few days. It tasted ok. Looked really light after grinding and even the coffee looked light. I could taste the difference from the darker roasts. I don't know for sure how it will taste after the bean rests though, but due to the moisture contamination I'll have to re-do this roast. Related Links: Guatemala Fraijanes- Finca Aqua Tibia to Vienna, Sulawesi Grade One Toraja & Rwanda Butare Bourbon, Mexico FTO Oaxaca Pluma - "At City+" & Sumatra Classic Mandheling - "Full City+", Guatemala Fraijanes, Brasil FTO Poco Fundo, 1st Home Roasting Post, Zimbabwe AA -Dandoni Estate Full City + Roast, CoffeeGeek.com, Sweet Maria's Coffee, Sweet Maria's Roasting Guide.

Foodie Blogroll!!

My "anything" blog is now part of Foodie Blogroll! I came across the Foodie Blogroll while reading through another foodie blog that I always read. It's Kat n Satoshi's blog located: here. Anyway, up at the top of my blog you will see a scrolling list of all the other Foodie Blogroll members' "foodie" blogs. There are some really delicious looking blogs in that list! Check it out! Kat n Satoshi's blog has been one of my favorites to read because of the Hawaii/Japan connections! They also have a forum you could join. Here is my introduction to the forum of Foodie Bloggers. "Hi! Thanks Jenn for this great Foodie Blogroll concept! I'm Rick from Honolulu, Hawaii. Some facts about me: -grew up in "local drive-in restaurant" family business... Megs Drive In. -A.S. Degree in Automotive Mechanics Technology (nothing to do w/ food besides eating it). -Food related work include "decades" of Megs and a while at Izakaya Nonbei, a Japanese tavern. -I obviously think I am a "Foodie", I like to critique the places I eat and do a lot of cooking and coffee related things at home. -Interests/Topics found on my blog: home cooking, home coffee roasting, espresso, Waikiki lifestyle (I live in a Waikiki Condo), entertainment & restaurant reviews, aquaponics, hyrdoponics, bonsai, my kitchen renovations (at the time of joining Foodie Blogroll, my kitchen is undergoing complete renovation), cooking w/out a kitchen & links to my separate blogs of my car stuff and work stuff. -Career: Honolulu Real Estate (Rick Nakama REALTOR-ASSOCIATE GRI, EAST OAHU REALTY, INC.<-Required disclosure) and on-call position at Outrigger Reef Hotel Guest Services (restaurant/entertainment recommendations, etc.). My blog is http://RickNakama.com/anythingblog.php. Most of the posts are about restaurants or cooking of some sort, but it is a blog that I post about almost "anything" except my car racing stuff and my work stuff (I keep those separate because they are just entire categories of their own). I also refuse to buy or carry an independent digital camera so I try to take the best photos possible with my mobile camera phone. The mobile phone photos is what got me started with this blog so I've decided to keep it as much as possible related to photos taken with my phone. I try to post at least 3 times a week. I'm hoping to pick up more readers and your comments... Thanks for letting my blog be a part of Foodie Blogroll! I'm enjoying reading everyone's foodie blogs... " You can find food information on the forum: http://www.leftoverqueen.com/forum/index.php.

Strawberry-Honey Glazed SPAM Green Tea Musubi...

Picnic Potluck Over the weekend, we had a picnic potluck to go to at Ala Moana Beach Park. Kelli wanted to make musubi (japanese "rice ball" <-click for Google) for us to bring. I thought it was simple enough, but a bit too simple so I tried to think of a way to make it a little more than just a musubi. This was not easy to do because I don't have a kitchen right now since it's still being renovated. That's why I just thought I'd make the musubi a little more fancy. I had a can of SPAM, Hawaii's favorite meat product, and not much else. I had honey and strawberry jam in the refrigerator. Put it all together and got something a little more fancy than just a plain musubi. I washed 3 cups of white calrose rice. I wanted the rice to have more flavor so I thought of getting an ochazuke <--click flavor into the musubi. Ochazuke is ocha or green tea poured onto steamed rice with some other toppings of your choice. Japanese sometimes have it for breakfast or in the evening... actually anytime. Anyway, having ochazuke at a picnic is not convenient because you don't have boiling water and bowls etc. so I thought I can get some green tea flavor into the musubi by steaming the rice with the ocha (green tea). I steeped 1 pot of ocha and added it to the washed rice in place of water then started the rice cooker. For the SPAM, I made a mixture of honey, strawberry jam and apple cider vinegar. It was about 1 part honey, 1 part jam and 1/2 part vinegar. I stuck it in the mircowave to fuse them together (since I have no stove) and mixed it up. I sliced the SPAM into small slices resembling the slice of sashimi that may be seen on sushi. Then I used the panini grill thing I have to grill the SPAM while basting it in the sauce. After the rice steamed, it was formed into the musubi shapes. I chose to just make them in rounded rectangles like some sushi. Use some salted water to keep your hands moist and rice from sticking to your hands. These are hand shaped. You could also use a plastic form that they sell to make musubi or sushi if you prefer. The salted water also adds flavor to the musubi. Then place 1 SPAM on top of the formed rice ball and cover over the top with a piece of nori, Japanese dried seaweed. Use a dab of water on the ends of the nori to get it moist so it sticks to the rice. Try not to make the whole piece of nori wet and soggy. It tastes and looks best when the nori is crisp. These came out tasting good. If I were to do it again, I would make the ocha flavor a lot stronger. Probably at least double or triple strength of the normal that I made. Of course, if I had more ingredients available or actually went shopping for this, I would have added some other flavors that I love like shiso or ume to it. I'm sure I'm not the first to steam rice using green tea. I am sure there are several Chinese dishes that use tea in their rice. Does anyone have the ratio or method of getting the good ocha flavor into the rice?

Briax soaps from New Zealand...

Briax Soaps... I met a nice and interesting couple from New Zealand at the Outrigger Reef Hotel the other night. They gave me a couple of bars of this Briax soap. 1 bar is labeled with the green sticker as a "work soap" and the 2nd is wrapped in the black labeled "bath soap". They both smell very good and contain special natural items that condition your skin as well as help cleanse it. The Work Soap is pumice based and also has honey, goat's milk and sunflower. It worked really well when I used it to clean up the thin-set from my hands after I worked on my kitchen floor tiles. The Seaweed Bathsoap is a "secret recipe" of seaweed and other natural ingredients. You can see and feel the small particles of seaweed in the bar. Of course, it smells great and it says it also promotes blood circulation and improves skin texture. Briax Industries can be found on the web here <-click. He also races classic cars which is why we got even more involved in conversation. His car racing website is here <-click.

Boots & Kimo, Kailua, Hawaii

Boots & Kimo, Saturday Morning Breakfast... In preparation to watch the Blue Angels air show, Kelli and I woke up pretty early on Saturday morning. It wasn't planned, but I think some noisy garbage trucks woke us and kept us up from about 5am! One of the issues to deal with living in Waikiki. Although I don't believe they are allowed to do the trash pick up so early in the morning. Anyway, since we were awake, hungry and planning on being at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base early enough for the air show, I suggested we just head out to Kailua and try Boots & Kimo. We left Waikiki about 645am, early enough to have a nice breakfast and be at the show before 10am like I planned. When we arrived at Boots & Kimo at about 720am. There were already 4 people (2 parties of 2) waiting outside. I went in and registered my name for a party of 2. Immediately after, I noticed the other 2 parties of 2 coming in to register. They didn't read the sign that said to register. Of course, I was called 1st so we asked the other parties if they wanted to go ahead, but they declined since they had "all day" and didn't read the proceedures. They were all very nice people! =) So were we I suppose. Anyway, don't forget to sign in at the cashier! We ordered the "specialty", Macadamia Nut Sauce Hotcakes and a "Maui Wowee Omelet" with 2 mugs of hot coffee. Our food came out in about 10 minutes or so. Quite quickly for a packed restaurant that seats about 20-30 at max(??). The special Macadamia Nut Sauce on the hotcakes was very delicious! It wasn't too sweet, had a nice buttery creamy consistency and a well balanced Macadamia Nut flavor. The hotcakes were pretty much standard (good) hotcakes. The sauce makes it all worth the trip. I might try to make a macadamia nut sauce of my own some day after my kitchen renovation is completed. The "Maui Wowee" omelet is a vegetarian omelet. All their omelets are made with 3.5 eggs! They have options for egg whites only, etc at an extra cost. I chose the standard with the fried rice option for $1+. This omelet had "charcoal roasted mild jalepenos" in it with some mushrooms, tomatoes and swiss cheese. The jalapenos is what caught my appetite. As you can see, the omelet is very nicely folded and almost resembles a burrito. The fried rice and omelet were tasty and neatly presented, but pretty much tastes like the things in it. Of course it tasted great, but nothing that can't be whipped up on your own stove as long as you have some charcoal roasted jalapenos ready. Again, the main selling point for me. Boots & Kimo is located at 131 Hekili Street in Kailua <-Google Map. Related Links: Boots & Kimo Googled, 131 Hekili Street in Kailua <-Google Map.

Update to Kitchen Renovation Project, Counter Measurments and Electrician's Rough-in.

The electrician did his rough-in, or most of it. Things are coming along. I am still coming up with a solution to the lighting issues. As I posted in a past blog, $2500 for the dual circuit flexible rail system with 2 spots and 3 pendants is just way too ridiculous and it doesn't necessarily look the best either. I'm leaning towards making a small drop ceiling to take care of this situation within budget. Below are the drawings and measurements for the counter surfaces. **update** Apparently, I didn't post up my feelings about the $2500 cost of the dual circuit flex rail system. Anyway, That's ridiculous. I'm not buying that because it doesn't look the nicest and it's the most expensive. Related posts: Kitchen Renovation.

Update to Kitchen Renovation Project

Here is the floor plan for the renovated kitchen. All appliances are being relocated to create what I hope to be a more efficient lay out. Related posts: Kitchen Renovation.

Update to my kitchen renovation project...

Yesterday I purchased the flooring tiles and got some lumber, etc. for the new partial height wall. This morning, I made the frame of the wall. The higher part will be hiding the range top and counters of the kitchen from the living room. It will also double as a high bar counter that you can stand or sit at and see out to the ocean and Hilton Hawaiian Village (and their weekly Friday night fireworks. The "kitchen renovation" label below should bring up all my past posts about my kitchen renovation.

My Kitchen Renovation...

***!!! A Licensed Contractor should always be used to perform renovations!!!*** 9/13-9/14 I live in a Waikiki 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo. It is in a great location, that offers channel views of the oceans and iconic buildings in Waikiki. (Hilton Hawaiian Village, Outrigger Reef and soon, Trump Tower, etc.) The original kitchen design practically blocks all nice views from the actual living area of the living room while displaying the not so nice views of the neighboring buildings. My renovations should alter this and make the nice views highlighted while blocking the "ugly" views instead. Big job! These are the new cabinets, boxed, unassembled. They are custom designed and imported. They took about 2 months to arrive. 9/18... This morning, the cabinet manufacturer came to assemble the cabinets that are in the boxes pictured above. Upon inspection, we realize that the colors of certain base boards and other places of the cabinet do not match the doors. This photo shows the 2 colors and materials. The exposed areas are supposed to the the lighter colored, thermofoil finish (doors, baseboards, etc.) and the insides are supposed to be a cheaper laminate finish that doesn't quite match the thermofoil coloring (back of cabinets, shelves, bottom, etc.), but "close". Now, if this is as close as it gets for the inside to match the outside, it might be okay to pass off because nobody would normally be seeing the insides. The problem is there are glass doors therefore allowing the inside to show out and the exposed baseboards are also done in the inexpensive finish so it's very visible!! It seems the supplier is going to try a 2nd attempt at this custom order and bring it in again. Now the kitchen will be looking as shown in this picture for another month and a half! Of course, we'll work on the flooring and the mid-height wall in the time being, but that would probably be done in a week or less. At least there is no rush for that now. **Note: Made in China...** To be continued... Related Links: My Kitchen Renovations, Google "Dorm Room Cooking".