Bookman and I are slowly taking on big home improvement projects. Last year we had the sliding glass door from our kitchen to our deck replaced. The year before that we had wood floors installed throughout the house. This year we decided a new kitchen countertop, sink and faucet were in order.
new countertop
So we went from a stained, cheap white laminate, the photo does not really tell you how dingy it was looking, to a lovely
ready for the closeup
Of course, now we are talking about the cabinets. They are actually in really good shape but we might paint them or put different doors on them or no doors at all. Then we would get colorful cups and plates and all that. And we are trying to figure out how to put a bookshelf in the kitchen somewhere for the cookbooks. That’s the problem with home improvements, isn’t it? Once you start you want to change all kinds of things.
So as to not make this a completely non-bookish post, I have a few links for you. One is to an awesome pair of shoes that the owner decoupaged with her favorite romance book covers. I don’t wear high heels but I’m thinking this could be done with flats too. Maybe something in NYRB covers or classic Penguins?
Then there is Book Riot’s reader chosen list of the 23 Most-Hated Books. I am so sad that Pride and Prejudice is number 15. How can anyone hate that book? There are actually quite a lot of books on the list that I love so it kind of hurt to read through it. Moby-Dick, hated? But how can you hate Starbuck and Queequeg? Lord of the Flies? How can your heart not be broken by Piggy? Heart of Darkness? The Horror! The Horror!
I know we don’t all like the same books, I wouldn’t want us to, but hate is such a strong word. Twilight is number one but I haven’t read it so I can’t have an opinion about it. I wonder if some of the hate is by people who haven’t even read the book but are disgusted by all the publicity it and the movies get? Likewise I wonder how many books are on there because they were read in high school and poorly taught? Or, like Ulysses at number 25, simply not understood? What do you think of the hate list? I would feel better if it weren’t hated books but books that aren’t among the favorites. Or maybe disliked books. Does the word choice really matter?
Ok, that’s all for now.
I love that wood flooring. It looks great.
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Thanks!
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I picked out that same color I think. …not that we ended up getting it (because it didn’t happen to be on sale) but still! Very nice! :–)
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rhapsody, too bad you didn’t get it. We went through Sears and they had soem decent discounts. Still was expensive though. I think the next home improvement might end up being more of a do-it-ourselves one.
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We have two side by side doors in our kitchen, one to the cellar and one to the dining room. My husband built a shelf for cookbooks across the tops of the doors. You might consider that if you have the room. I do need to keep a chair handy to get to the books, but they’re all there and they’re out of the way until we need them.
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Joan, An excellent place for a bookshelf! Sadly our kitchen is rather open and we don’t have any doorways to put a shelf over. We’ll find a place though!
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Too funny — that booklist reads like a list of “Daphne’s Favorite Re-Reads”. How can you hate Life of Pi? Catcher in the Rye? Gatsby?! I think you’re right — a lot of it is backlash. For instance, I enjoyed Eat Pray Love… until the hype around it poisoned me and pretty soon I couldn’t stand any mention of it, and the more I thought about it, the more parts of it bothered me, etc. However, the first time around, I didn’t take it too seriously and I just enjoyed the story.
Your new counters are great! I have to say that my counters are a speckled black quartz/granite (not sure which) and while they are beautiful, they are also impossible to keep clean because truly, I can’t see if coffee has spilled or if there’s a sticky spot of jam, and, alternately, crumbs and such show up terribly. So you’re probably better off with your lovely sand-colored counters. Now, I will say that my floors are brown tile, and I will NEVER have anything other than brown tile on the kitchen floor, because you CANNOT see the dirt. It’s awesome!!
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wherethereisjoy, I know, right? How can you not like Great Expectations?
Glad you like the counters. We are liking them very much so far. I suppose Bookman was right to go for something light and plain in order to keep it clean easier.
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Counter top looking very very good! And I love the pumpkin walls. That looks like a happy kitchen. Hated books: Twilight wasn’t too bad, but the second one in the series…ugh. I didn’t read Fifty Shades of Grey, but heard it was pretty awful. But some of the others…I mean Great Expectations? The Pearl? Jane Eyre? Really? Sheeesh. I liked The DaVinci Code a lot, but The Lovely Bones…not so much.
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Grad, thanks! The color of the walls is actually marmalade according to Home Depot but it looks more pumpkin. We have a dark orange trim up top you can’t see in the photo. AS far as books, in the library world there is a saying, a book for every reader. So no matter how bad one person thinks a book, it will be the favorite of someone else. I think it is a saying that stands up pretty well.
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Oh we should be doing so refurbishments! Love what you are doing.
I’m uncomfortable with the word “hate” for literature or the arts in general, or for life really. Does that make me wishy-washy? Perhaps so, but I feel it is such a negative, destructive emotion. I can’t think of one book I hate, though I can think of many books I don’t really care to read!
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whisperinggums, thanks! I think after the kitchen, the bathroom is next.
I agree with you regarding the word “hate” so I don’t think you are wishy-washy at all. 🙂
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I like your thinking …
As for bathroom. Are you talking big changes?
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whisperinggums, the tub needs to be re-enameled, we want to replace the plastic shower/tub surround with ceramic tile and the floor too. We’d like a new toilet and we want to replace the towel fixtures, etc. So big but not so very big that we can’t do most if not all of it ourselves this time. No plumbers or contractors required which makes a big difference.
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Yes, that’s what I wondered … the plumbing. Still, tiling is a pretty demanding job so good on you.
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I like Bookman’s countertop choice and LOVE the wall color. I hope you can fashion a bookshelf in or near your kitchen for your cookery books. A few months ago my hubby nestled a ramshackle shelf in our dining room for our cooking and gardening books. It’s great to have them near the kitchen and outside door but we’ve outgrown the shelves already! I found myself doing more cooking with easier access to the cookbooks.
I don’t know what to say about Book Riot’s reader list. Jane Eyre? That’s one of my all-time favorite books. Ulysses? I’ve tried it and put it down and will try it again but to hate it? The word hate is a challenge on me because I’ve expressed hate in the past for all the hype the 50 Shades and Twilight books received. Now that I see them paired with my own personal favorites, I realize I need to evolve. Dislike may be a more appropriate term for me to adopt.
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Vanessa, thanks on both fronts. We are liking the countertop very much. The wall color is marmalade from Home Depot. There is a dark orange accent color on a wall not in the photo and on some trim also not in the photo. We like warm colors. Yay for having found a great place for your cooking and gardening books!
The word “hate” is a bit strong, isn’t it? Especially when there are so many more people who loved the books on the list. I agree, dislike is much better.
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Great countertop choice! I love your idea of going with cabinets with glass or no doors. I think that would look great and especially if you had colorful cups. I think I read somewhere that Pablo Neruda only served drinks to friends in colorful cups/glasses?
Love the links. Those shoes are the best!
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Iliana, thanks! I’d love to have colorful cups. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always found the look and idea of them really appealing. And if Neruda only served drinks in colored cups/glasses, even more reason to have them! 🙂
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What more can you ask for? Bookman sounds like an ideal man, not only loves to cook, but to keep clean and tidy, and, can do renos and gardening. As for that hate-list, don’t think I’ll hop over there to see what’s on. I know guys avoid Jane Austen for some reasons. But I can come up with a positive view: any publicity is good publicity. And a slogan: ‘Real men read Jane Austen’.
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Arti, heh, clean and tidy does not extend far past the kitchen in Bookman’s case! 🙂 All those men who don’t like Jane Austen are missing out. Maybe they are just jealous of Mr. Darcy!
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Your kitchen counter, sink and faucet are lovely! Not too long ago, I replaced my kitchen’s fluorescent light with a ceiling fan with regular light bulbs. What a difference! When I looked at your photos, I could see that we have the same exact dishwasher. Ours is 17 years old, but works great. Your hard wood floors must have been a huge project. I admire your (and your husband’s) energy and determination.
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Karenne, thanks! Small changes can make a big different especially with lights I think. How funny that you have the same dishwasher! Ours has been chugging along for 13 years. We didn’t install the countertop or the floors ourselves. We considered doing the floors but we decided we wanted them done sometime this decade so we had someone else install them. Moving all our books out and finding a place to store the furniture for a week was not easy though! Nor was ripping out the carpet and the extra layers of linoleum in the kitchen.
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Love your hardwoods and quartz. And I’m also happy to see you stayed with a two-basin sink instead of going with a single–the single’s are supposed to be all the rage right now, but I decided I’d never be able to adapt to doing everything in one when we started our remodel in 2011.
I wanted a bookcase, too, but we flat out didn’t have the room.
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Susan, thanks! We briefly considered the one basin sink but Bookman thought it through fast and decided that no way would it work. We definitely don’t have room for a bookcase but we might be able to squeeze in a shelf somewhere.
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I know what you mean by one project leading to another and another. I have a whole list of repairs and renovations that I need to do. Top of my list is to replace the kitchen flooring. It has carpeting–yuck–who puts carpet in their kitchen? I very seriously want to replace it with tile or something but I also need a new sink and cabinets. I am not sure I can do both things at once. So if I do the floor, how do I work around those other fixtures if they will eventually be replaced? It’s dizzying to think about as I can’t afford to do both at once! So, you know what happens then…nothing gets done at all! But I am in the process of refinancing my house, so maybe with the money I hope to save I can finally do a few hime improvements, too. Anyway, the contertops look great and your kitchen is so neat and tidy–I wish mine was as sleek and spacious with everything put tidily away!
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Danielle, carpet in the kitchen? Interesting choice on the part of whoever decided to do that. Even just replacing old stuff can get really expensive, that’s why we only manage one big project a year. It takes a long time but we don’t have to go into debt to do it. Hope you can manage some improvements once your refi goes through!
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