New York Renovator

I must be one of the most tolerant homeowners on earth, or perhaps the stupidest, lol. You know how you get so used to something that you tend to not notice it after a while?

I went into the kitchen this afternoon, to fill the tea kettle with water for tea. I noticed a new leak spurting out of our 1970s faucet. sigh. It made me look at the sink area with new perspective. This backsplash behind the faucet is absolutely terrible. Disgusting.

Other areas of the countertop are peeling or warped. I don’t know how I can tolerate it. It’s been this way for about a decade, slowly rotting and getting worse every year. I guess I’ve blocked it out of my consciousness — probably for the retaining of my sanity– because the decay just struck me again as very repulsive. And for a fleeting moment, I wondered why I haven’t fixed it yet. What, am I crazy, letting this go on and on for years??

Then I remembered. Oh yeah.

We do want the countertop replaced, but I won’t do it. Know why? Because this crappy slab of 1972 orange laminate sits on top of crappy 1972 plywood cabinets. Almost all of the cabinets have either fallen apart or are warped. Now, why don’t I just get new cabinets, then? Well, the cabinets sit on top of a severely cracked and broken up 1972 tile floor. OK so replace the flooring, the cabinets, and the backsplash. Nope, because behind the cabinets are 1855 plaster walls, with most of their plaster behind the cabinets missing. In winter, when we open a cabinet door or drawer, the wintery outside air blasts into the room. Wild, huh? I won’t even mention the mouse problem we have here, lol…

OK that’s pretty bad, but maybe I could just replace the walls, the flooring, the cabinets, and then get the new countertops!

Um, nope. Because within the walls is 1920s knob and tube wiring, 1940s plumbing that is not properly vented, and there’s no insulation between the studs. Not to mention that the only kitchen window is broken. I’d have to entirely GUT the room before I could get new countertops. Otherwise, I’d be spending $800 on new countertops for nothing– a shaky foundation. I refuse to set a brand-new countertop on top of disgustingly broken, unlevel cabinets that rest on disgustingly broken, unlevel flooring and against disgustingly holey and broken up walls with disgusting and inadequate plumbing and electric.

So that’s why I tolerate it. Most people would have their moving boxes out already; but I do like the house and I’ve put my heart into my gardens. I just need to gut this ol’ house! Ugh!

So, how are my gardens doing this fine, sunny day!

Remember those really cool (and super-expensive) granite countertops that were ALL the fad a year ago? (Actually, they are still very popular, but concrete countertops is what is filling the wealthy homes now). A NY news story says these granite countertops have been known to emit radon and, most likely, radioactive material.

Karl Konarzik is testing this East Amherst kitchen for Radon. While the homeowner’s worry is possible Radon in the granite countertops, Karl puts his testing device in a cabinet.

While some other radon tests have been conducted on the surface of the granite counter tops, Karl told us, putting the testing machine at face level is a more accurate way of testing the radon’s effect on your health

Radon is an odorless, colorless gas that emits radiation that is found in granite, marble, and other rock formations.

Oopsie! Who came up with granite countertops, anyway?? Always seemed extravagant and inefficient to me. But then again, I’m a dish-dropper. Hehe.

Several weeks ago, I drove to my local library and saw a beat-up old minivan in the parking lot. It was very beat-up; most of the frame had been rusted through at the bottom. Paint was peeling from the doors, and all the paint was completely gone from the hood, exposing the raw ugly metal beneath. The side-view mirror was bent, and the tires were well worn. I don’t usually pay any attention to cars, but this one caught my eye because it had a bumper sticker on the back bumper. It read:

Don’t let the car fool you. My treasure is in heaven.

It made me literally laugh out loud.

I’d been moping about my kitchen remodel this week (er, rather, my lack of one). But the more I thought about it, the more I remembered a certain psalm. It’s a psalm I remember often, actually, especially when I sometimes skim news headlines. It’s Psalm 73. I’ll quote excerpts.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
My steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the boastful,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For there are no pangs in their death,
But their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride serves as their necklace;
Violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes bulge[a] with abundance;
They have more than heart could wish.

11 And they say, “How does God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the ungodly,
Who are always at ease;
They increase in riches.
13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain,
And washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all day long I have been plagued,
And chastened every morning.

15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children.
16 When I thought how to understand this,
It was too painful for me—
17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their end.

18 Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
19 Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment!
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
20 As a dream when one awakes,
So, Lord, when You awake,
You shall despise their image.

21 Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
22 I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
24 You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

27 For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish;
You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God;
I have put my trust in the Lord GOD,
That I may declare all Your works.

It spoke to me not to be envious for new kitchen remodels or covet fancy Wilmington real estate. I do what I can do, and belly-aching about my current plight is not going to help anything. I trust in God, and He’ll take care of things. I’m certainly not saying that new kitchen remodels are bad, or that people are evil who get them! But if my happiness hinges on the amount of stuff I can get, then I am very very poor indeed.

I really want to own a new kitchen and a renovated house. But I do not want those things to own me. I will continue working for and toward those goals, but just like that bumper sticker, “my treasure is in heaven.” LOL, I should get a sticker like that for my back door for all to read who enter!

Don’t let the house fool you. My treasure is in heaven.

I’m having “one of those days.” I’ve been doing the math, and I’m feeling devastated now! It looks like I probably won’t be getting my kitchen done this year. For six months, I’d been building a small savings as a down payment for a home equity loan. I’ve been blogging for various pay-to-blog companies, saving every bit I could for my renovating project. But in December my husband’s hours at his job were drastically slashed, and he was out of work for three months. I am so grateful I had the money to help with the household expenses, but at the same time the disappointment was bitter indeed. This is my kitchen and I’ve been tolerating it for almost eleven years now.

I’m still blogging and earning money, but now that taxes and the cost of living have spiked, my income is necessary to keep the household going.

I shouldn’t feel so low– last year about this time, I had no money for renovating my living room (the chimney was leaking and we had a severe mildew problem in the room), but managed to scrape up money to gut and restore it. I had to do everything myself (including the electrical wiring), but the room did get done (well, almost– we still have the old windows and there is no baseboard trim/moulding yet). So, what looked hopeless did right itself. I can take comfort in that.

Nonetheless, right now I’m feeling pretty down in the dumps. I had so very much wanted to gut and renovate the kitchen this year. Unless Google gives me my Page Rank back and I start reaping in the dough, I just don’t see how I can do it.

I entered the Renuzit Triscents Kitchen Makeover Contest. Lord knows, I need a new kitchen. The existing one, built in 1972, is falling apart. The orange laminate countertops are busted up, warped, and melting. I guess leaky water got inside and the particleboard is all mush now. Plaster is falling from the ceiling, the kitchen cabinet doors won’t close (they’ve sunk in), and there are holes in the walls from previous owners’ “plumbing” jobs (that leak like crazy). The hard vinyl tile squares are cracked and broken from the house shifting. I made a video at it’s here at the gallery. It’s called The Saturday Matinee Horror Kitchen Show.

Right now, the submissions are in the judge review stage. Sometime in May, they will open up the submissions to public voting. Oh I hope I win!

I visited my local Lowe’s the other day, leaving behind my trail of saliva as I ogled the kitchen displays and appliances. Someday I’d like to get a dishwasher. A non-human dishwasher. I haven’t run a real, electric dishwasher in… almost three decades…. OMG!!!!!

I was astonished at the all the fancy doo-dads and buttons and bells these modern dishwashers have. I haven’t had a dishwasher in a long time– do we really need hot/medium hot/low hot/medium/fair/average/cool/chilly/freezing temperature settings? Look at this one. This model has eleven different cycles.

OK, we all know that I am very old-fashioned and rather stringent about efficiency. But who needs eleven cycles?? Does anyone out there actually use all those? The dishwashers are $1,000! I did see one I liked– it was the least expensive, of course (but still a reliable name brand). It had two cycles (hot and cool) and a simple dial for three settings. The place-setting size and decibel level was right up there with the big dogs, too. Cost: $200. That’s probably what I pay to wash my dishes by hand every month. Washing dishes by hand is more expensive than by machine, as it generally uses more water.

You know what’s funny, though? What’s old is becoming new again. have you ever seen those 100-year old advertisements, of women bending over their fancy new cookstoves? These cookstoves could boil water AND cook the goose at the same time! lol.

Then “modern” appliances became popular, evolving into the oven/stove top we all have in our homes. Individual appliances were “in” for so long. But look what I saw today at Off Grid Living! It’s called the “Amish Cookstove” and it’s so efficient!

Enjoying the luxury of hot water can cost a family as much as $500 a year. Not so if you own a Kitchen Queen. This stove completely eliminates the need to run a conventional hot water heater, And the real beauty is your water is heated with energy that would otherwise be lost to the environment. You actually get free hot water while your food is being cooked and your house is being warmed.

I think is where we are headed– more efficient appliances that do more with less. It’s about time, IMHO. Enough with the endless gadgets and let’s get practical and functional! Love it!