The New Kitchen

The Old Layout
Well, at long last, after a few false starts, some meddling from the NYC Department of Buildings, about four weeks of actual work, and slightly more money than was allocated, the kitchen is done. DONE. And all I could say... was nothing. Speechless. I was absolutely speechless (something quite rare, I assure you).

Let me share with you what I see now every morning, the culmination of a dream 14 years in the making:

The New Layout
Words can not do justice to how I feel when I see this sight every morning. To say it is firing up the cooking juices is an understatement. I just want to stand there and never leave, soaking in the sight of a real kitchen in a New York apartment. "Happiness" seems like a quaint way to describe it.


Every detail has been painstakingly paid attention to by my contractor, who ended up being a complete pleasure to work with. I never felt like he was up-selling me on anything, and I rarely had cause to question his pricing. And the quality of the work can be seen, he used some great guys who were really proud of their work.

The sink, Bosch dishwasher and Bosch range

The peninsula workspace with two hanging halogen lights

Close-up of the sink, faucet and glass backsplash (from Costco online, no less!)

View of the range and the Broan ductless hood

The track light

Close-ups of the Bosch appliances

The decanter cabinet (how cool is that? My contractor came up with that idea)

Close-ups of the backsplash and under-cabinet lighting

The wall workspace, lit up
As I said, this has been a long time in the making and planning, and now I can't wait to start cooking. I've had some test runs, soft openings if you will, especially Sunday French-style omelettes (runny, baby, runny!), and so far so good. The real test comes in a few days when I plan on making a full dinner for some friends over the Memorial Day weekend.

But every morning when I wake up I can't help just stopping and staring, this is absolutely unbelievable. There are a few little details left to finish up (the dry bar really) but for the most part everything's done. Unbelievable.
Cheers!

Holy Cow!

After ten weekdays of hard work, the kitchen has been transformed from a narrow galley to an open plan with an airy feel. I can't believe this is happening, and happening so fast! I really should mention that every day there are 4-5 guys here working their butts off, however.


But what got me was yesterday, when I got home after the crew had left: the peninsula's base had been set down, the fridge was in its home, the dishwasher in place and the base cabinets next to them. I finally started realizing what this would look like, and it got me a bit emotional. This renovation is something I've been dreaming about for over 10 years, but couldn't afford for so long. I skrimped and saved and finally managed to get everything together to turn my cramped kitchen into a professional one.


Now I'm impatient and can't wait to start cooking and having friends and business associates over.


Another bottle of Champagne was popped to celebrate the progress, a lovely pairing with a sausage and mushroom pizza.
Cheers!

Birth Pangs of a Kitchen

Wednesday, the oven and some of the base cabinets were put in place, though not really installed. That panel in the picture above goes alongside the fridge, to make it look like it's a built-in. Things are advancing...


I have to say, I didn't realize how much I'd miss cooking. And paying for coffee, even at the small independent roasters (you couldn't pay me to step foot in a Charbucks), is killing me. $2.00 for an espresso, $3.25 for a latte???? I used to make those at home! Worse, I hate ordering in or going out every night, as someone who loves the kitchen it's almost like torture. All my wine glasses are covered in a layer of dust, and it's a pain in the neck not only cleaning them but reaching them. Yes, I am lazy...

Oh, man, apparently only about a week and a half left... I can't wait!
Cheers!

Day Five (1st Signs of Progress?)

The entrance
Day Five ended with a shocker: visible signs of progress throughout the kitchen. Granted, going from the utter destruction and devastation that had been present to something slightly better wasn't difficult.

Filled in electrical trenches
How awesome, rough corners had been plastered over, and holes in walls had been filled in. Electrical boxes were in place and wires were capped, awaiting the appliances and lights I had bought.

Sketches of the once and future kitchen
Best yet, the guys had laid out in pencil where everything was going, and this allowed me to get an idea of what the kitchen would look like when finished. Grantd, I do have an active imagination, so that helped with the process: the sink would go there, the range here, and the dishwasher right there.

The dry bar begins to take shape
And look at that, the dry bar's drop-ceiling is almost done, the walls smoothed out. How cool!

I was so happy at the progress that I didn't mind finding out that my case of Champagne was on back-order...
Cheers!

Day Four

Trenches for electricity
Day Four of the Great Kitchen Renovation of 2008.

Despite the crew's best efforts, a thin veil of dust covers everything in the living room and bathroom, though our bedroom is thankfully unaffected (seemingly). Dust quickly clings to every inch of exposed skin the moment one ventures from the haven of the bedroom, and seems to slip stealthily into the mouth and eyes.

There was a lot of sawing and hammering and banging, and by the end of the day it seemed like several more trenches for electricity and electric boxes had been dug. In addition, the first tangible sign of progress on something that will be visible after all is said and done was apparent: the drop ceiling for our closet dry bar.

The drop ceiling in the dry bar
Is this a sign? Are things heading in the right direction? Could the dust storm be over soon?

God, I need a glass of Champagne! Where the f*!k is that damned case??!!!
Cheers!

Day Three (the Dust Storm)

Day Three and now things got messy. The crew showed up around 10:15am (a bit late, grrrr...) but nonetheless they quickly erected big plastic sheets, opened the windows and installed fans to suck out all the mess they were making. Today, they'd be digging channels in the concrete for electrical wires as well as enlarging the entrance to the kitchen. There had been a doorway and French doors there, but these were quickly torn down, making the entire apartment look HUGE.

The Kitchen Entrance, 5pm
Amazing how a little tweaking can affect the visual effects...

Trenches in the walls

More trenches in the walls
What I hadn't anticipated was the amount of dust and the mind-bending smell of plaster that permeated the place. Well, at least I slept well and had very, very, very interesting dreams...

At least I am seeing major progress. Only 2-3 more weeks, I've been assured...
Cheers!

Day Two (or dude, where's my kitchen?!)

The Work in Progress, 9am
Day Two of the Great Kitchen Renovation of 2008 dawned cold and windy. Thirsty for my espresso, I stumbled blindly into the kitchen, or where the kitchen had been. Damn, forgot, I'm in the midst of a reconstruction. Luckily, my beloved Francis Francis X5 espresso machine was plugged in, but in the living room.

After a few shots, the General Contractor and his crew returned, and their first question took me by surprise. "You're tearing down the wall today?!" I had been told this wouldn't happen until Tuesday, so I'd have the weekend to evacuate the tiny space I call an office.

So, another round of moving, shoving and dissassembly ensued. The phone, the Wifi modem, the answering machine, the desk, the computer, pretty much anything that has to do with an office was shoved into the living room in the space of a few minutes. I'm not even sure why we call it a "living" room, there's so much stuff in it that one would be hard-pressed to actually "live" in it.


The crew sealed off the space with plastic and supports, to keep the dust out of the rest of the apartment. Supposedly.


There followed a rapid-fire exercise in rewiring, as I struggled to get the Internet and my phones back up and running. As I sat down to work, the hammering started. Rather, the sledgehammering. And the sawing. And the cracking. And breaking. And smashing.

OK, I need some peace and quiet, so I left the house. When I returned, the kitchen and office had merged into one huge space. The fridge and the oven were in the space once occupied by the office.

Kitchen, Day Two, 5pm
Where the wall stood
No more office
So now, as I wend my way through the maze of stuff that my "living" room has become, I wonder, sometimes aloud, "What the Hell did I get myself into????"

And more importantly, where the Hell is my case of Champagne?!
Cheers!

And so it begins (again)... Day One

The Old Kitchen, 2pm
Well, after four months of delays and and false starts and waiting for permits, we finally got the go-ahead to start the Great Kitchen Renovation of 2008. It had begun four months earlier, when the first new appliance was installed, a Bosch Evolution 700 Series Range (which I have come to love). I was so happy that if I'd had some Champagne in the fridge, I'd have popped it (or better yet, sabered it). I know, I know, it must be a sign of the Apocalypse that I've run out of Champagne. But fear not, a delivery of life-saving bubbles is on its way.

Anyway, the OK was a sudden avalanche of permits and licenses and exhiliration, so we began a rushed evacuation of the cabinets and drawers. Wow, I've got more wine glasses than God! Hey, that's where those things went... Within an hour 14 years of accumulated stuff was in the living room, and soon after our General Contractor appeared. His crew arrived moments later and began ripping out the old cabinets and countertop.

As I worked on my laptop, I could hear banging, crashing, sawing and all sorts of horrendous sounds. The floor vibrated, the walls shook, wait a second, were they digging their way through to my next door neighbor's place? Not such a bad proposition, he's got a really nice terrace after all... My downstairs neighbors must have thought the Cloverfield monster was stomping its way through my apartment. What a whirlwind of activity!

The Not-Quite-New Kitchen, 5pm
Before I knew it, the kitchen was nearly empty. This tiny New York kitchen, which had taught me how to cook, which had seen countless cooking experiments, which had seen me discover my love of Burgundy, and which my suburban friends had constantly mocked (yet had enjoyed on their rare visits to the city), was almost completely empty.

Goodbye, old friend.
Cheers!

And so it begins...

The Old Range
...The kitchen renovation, that is.

Yes, after many years of putting up with a kitchen the size of most Americans' shoe closets, I've decided to throw down the gauntlet. Time for a kitchen renovation... God help us.

One of the first steps was to replace the old range, a GE model from 1995, with a brand new Bosch 700 Series Evolution Gas Range. The old model's oven died in May and so I've been pan-searing/sauteeing/boiling/steaming since then. No roasting. As someone who loves cooking, this situation was completely unacceptable. Luckily, we had a toaster oven, but man did I have to jam that roast chicken in there. When it came out, it certainly didn't look like chicken anymore...


The New Range
Well, after procrastinating a long time and researching a lot, I decided on the range shown above. Whereas the old one had a hard time getting water to boil, this one can basically send the Space Shuttle into orbit with 16K BTU of power. When I first turned this on, the paint on my ceiling peeled. The next time my upstairs neighbor gets noisy, I'm turning this sucker on and letting his floor melt.

I made our first meal on it tonight, a quick saute of chicken, vegetables, garlic and pasta. Easy right? Well, apparently there's a learning curve with this new-fangled thing. The chicken was over-cooked, the pasta slightly mushy, the pan handles got very hot, so I've got some adapting to do. I am worried about my next omelette.


The Old Kitchen with the New Range
In any case, the next step(s) will be taking down the wall shown on the right-hand side of the picture, replacing it with a peninsula with storage cabinets underneath. All the cabinets in the kitchen will be replaced by custom-made ones, and a new granite countertop is being cut as I write these words. Yay!

I'll keep updating this blog with the work as it progresses (or doesn't), and I estimate we should be done in, say, 2012.

To celebrate, we opened a bottle of 2002 Jacques Frederic Mugnier Chambolle Musigny, a lovely, elegant and almost subtly poetic wine. Very light-bodied, it was just full of that lovely Burgundian funk, with cherries and light raspberries filling the palate on an elegant frame, its acidity just washing out the mouth and prepping you for the next glass. Beautiful, finesse defined. God, I love Burgundy!
Cheers!