Redeeming lost space

Some of you asked about the space between the cabinets that could be seen on some of our earlier photos. The planned cabinet could not be installed there in the normal fashion, because a header, which supports the house, is in the way. So they cut a corner out of the cabinet and mounted it into the space. It actually looks better than we expected; we anticipate using it for storing cookbooks and maybe some decorative items.

The new dishwasher

Not much to say - but this is what it looks like, installed and ready to go.

Energy Star

We got the new stove and dishwasher installed today. Actually the stove is not energy star - EPA does not rank stoves, I think because their is not much variation in their energy use. The dishwasher, however, is a very energy efficient model from Bosch (not the Anonymous one . . ). I think the black looks pretty good too.

Forestry Stewardship Council

At least some of the wood used in our addition came is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. I was reminded of this when we removed the new baseboards from the addition walls in order to paint yesterday. Home Depot, among other suppliers, sells wood certified by FSC. What does this mean? Wood certified by FSC comes from sustainably-managed and harvested forests, where management seeks to reduce erosion and maintain wildlife habitat (which is often sub-optimal in plantation-style monoculture forests). You can read about it at http://www.fscus.org/.

A blurb from their website: "FSC promotes responsible forest management . . . encouraging the development of national and regional forest management standards, and by providing public education and information about independent, third-party certification as a tool for ensuring that the world's forests are protected for future generations. There are currently more than 23 million acres of FSC-certified forestland in the U.S. and more than 225 million acres globally."

Paint on the walls

We painted most of the addition today. Covered the walls with 2 coats of the gray/blue, and the ceiling in white. Started on one of the walls in the original living room too. We will need to do the kitchen and the ceiling and entry way in the old part of the house as well, but the contractors need to finish some drywall work first.

Painted into a corner

OK, we are not really having too much trouble with the painting so far. I put a coat of white on the ceiling in the addition and on some of the walls. We hope to start on the wall paint ("silver skates") tomorrow. Check out the fabulous taping job done by Tatiana . . . we are hoping we won't need to use the back door for a couple of days. The cat was not happy that she can't see out as well with the plastic obscuring the view - she was pawing at it and giving us a sad look.

The kitchen returns

We stopped by the Milazzo's today to get some of our kitchen stuff, and began unpacking boxes in the kitchen. It's been fun to figure out where everything should go - and great to have lots of space!