Our Affordable, Luxe Kitchen Remodel

Bamboo Plyboo Cabinet Fronts

It took us nearly a year to renovate, but now I can say that our kitchen is finally done! It is now my favorite room in the house by far. I feel like sitting in my kitchen everyday when I get home from work. I enjoy cooking in the kitchen more too, and I even think the food comes out tasting better. I also kind of enjoy cleaning the kitchen, which is saying a lot coming from someone who abhors cleaning.

One of the main goals behind our renovation was to upgrade our 30-year old kitchen and appliances which came with our mid-70's condominium. The kitchen cabinet structure had deteriorated beyond salvaging and all of the appliances were no longer functioning well. We needed to do a complete over-haul, beginning with selecting new appliances, and extending to installing new cabinets, flooring and back-splash.

Carrara Marble Subway Tile Backsplash

Unfortunately, our day jobs got in the way of kitchen progress, and it took a YEAR before the kitchen finally got done. The appliances stood in our dining room for months and cramped our style before we finally admitted that we couldn't do it all ourselves. Thus began the unpleasant process of selecting a general contractor, which was unpleasant due to the sticker shock and the snooty condescension that we got from a couple of general contractors. You see, we live in the Silicon Valley, and due to the high density of Google millionaires in our neighborhood, some GC's act arrogantly and deliver unrealistic price quotes. We got 3 quotes which were orders of magnitude off from each other. The highest quote was on the high end of 5 figures for labor alone, which is ridiculous considering the size of our kitchen.

Here are some highlights of our kitchen renovation:

• We wanted a modern, luxurious kitchen. We decided to go with Bamboo plywood cabinet fronts reminiscent of Zebrawood. We also decided to go with durable Silestone countertops, porcelain tile flooring, and a Carrara marble tile backsplash.
• We selected IKEA kitchen cabinets for the price. The tipping point behind our decision, other than the unbeatable price, was the fact that my father-in-law who used to be a professional cabinet maker recommended them. He likes IKEA kitchen cabinets for their clever modularity and assembly methods. Our general contractor, whom we contacted through IKEA to assemble the kitchen cabinets, did a great job of squaring up the cabinets and making them look just as expensive as custom cabinets. Ignore the kitchen displays at IKEA which are poorly assembled and which look sloppy by comparison. 
• We decided to fabricate our own cabinet doors and drawer fronts out of Bamboo plywood to fit over our cabinets. We knew very little about wood working, but we are members at a public woodshop which offers a CNC router for cutting highly accurate shapes. I will be writing instructions on how to CNC route your own doors, so keep posted. We decided to cut our own cabinet fronts because we wanted a look similar to Zebrawood, and IKEA did not provide that look. Nor did companies which specialize in cutting custom doors, such as Scherr's, and Semihandmade, provide this high impact look, or if they did so, it was at an unreasonable ocst. Using the bamboo plywood was also very convenient because there was no veneering necessary on the sides. The cross ply on the plywood looks polished enough to stand on its own.
• We mounted powerstrips underneath our wall cabinets. This adds to the stream-lined modern look of our kitchen. 

We learned quite a few things in doing our kitchen. If we were to do it all again, here is what I would recommend:

DO

• Better to over-light the kitchen and provide a dimmer, than have too little lighting. Our galley kitchen is small and windowless, so we ended up using high wattage LED recessed can lights and LED under-cabinet lights. The lighting effect on our beautiful striped wood doors, and patterned backsplash is gorgeous.
• Do dare to customize your cabinets. There is an entire cottage industry out there designed to customize the bare IKEA box cabinets. You don't have to choose the IKEA door fronts. In our case, we ended up cutting our own doors, which was a tremendous amount of work, not including the time it took to learn the software packages, tools and skills to create the product.
• Seal the Carrera marble tile with a marble sealant, such as DuPont Bullet Proof. Marble is gorgeous, but notoriously porous and stainable. Almost a week after I sealed it with DuPont Bullet Proof, I splashed coffee all over our backsplash. Had I not sealed the marble in advance, I am sure that it would have left a stain. I was initially concerned about altering the luminescent quality of the marble with the sealant, but I can honestly say that I can barely tell the difference with the sealant on it. 
• Choose the deepest sink you can. This will make the mountain of dirty dishes less overwhelming to clean.
• Do hire contractors. If I had known that from the beginning, we could have saved 8 months out of our year where large kitchen appliances were standing around cramping our living space, because we thought we could do it all ourselves.
• If you are using a bamboo product, I highly recommend the EZ-DO polyurethane finish. We also tried the Minwax version from Home Depot, and the EZ-DO finish gave the wood pattern more character and texture.
• Do choose materials that will hide dirt well. Our gray porcelain floor tile looks great, even after a lot of foot traffic, whereas our previous white vinyl tiling did not put up with the wear at all.
• Do hire an honest, and good contractor. I highly recommend our contractor, whom we contacted through Ikea, who not only squared up our kitchen cabinets beautifully, but also threw in extras, such as the custom under-cabinet panelling.

DON'T

• If you're cutting your own cabinet doors, or commissioning doors to be fabricated, don't wait until the last minute to choose pull hardware. Had we planned in advance, we would have probably preferred to get edge- mount pulls, which would have required a special cut out on the CNC router. Because we did not create a special cut out, we were not able to select the edge-mount pulls that we wanted without a whole lot of extra work.
• Don't skimp on materials, particularly for high-wear surfaces such as the countertop, and floor. We got Quartz countertops and Porcelain tile floors. The Quartz countertops are nearly impregnable, and the Porcelain tile floors have borne out excellently against dropped objects and scratching while we moved appliances, and stuff around. 
• Don't neglect how opened doors affect your lighting. When opened, one of our kitchen cabinet doors block our celing lights so that it is dark inside.
• Don't be afraid to mix patterns. We mixed highly patterned “Carrara” marble subway tile which could have potentially clashed with our dramatically striped cabinet fronts. One of the store designers thought that our material choices could be too overwhelming, but I am glad that we stuck to our vision rather than kow-tow to popular taste.

Our kitchen before our remodel

Baked Egg in Yorkshire Pudding

This past Christmas, we had some leftover Yorkshire puddings. This recipe makes good use of the leftovers, and it looks and tastes great, if I say so myself. Baking the Yorkshire pudding twice makes the Yorkshire pudding crispy and stiff enough to lift by hand. Here is the recipe for the Baked Egg in Yorkshire Pudding.

Ingredients

• Yorkshire puddings
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Bacon (1 per basket)
• Egg (1 per Yorkshire Pudding)
• Optional: Chives

Instructions

This recipe is designed to be made with pre-made Yorkshire pudding. I used Gordon Ramsey's Yorkshire Pudding recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. 
2. Place the Yorkshire puddings into oven-safe containers, and place containers onto a cookie tray. I chose to put a half inch of water in the tray which steamed up the oven and prevented the eggs from drying out. 
3. Place one bacon strip into each Yorkshire pudding. I chose to loop the raw strip around inside the pudding but you can also pre-cook the bacon in the microwave if you prefer not to eat the rendered bacon fat.
4. Once the oven has reached the correct temperature, place the tray into the oven for 15 minutes or until the bacon is almost cooked. 
5. Take the tray out, and put one egg into each pudding over the bacon. Place the tray back into the oven and cook for 10 minutes for soft-boiled yolks. I cooked mine for 12 minutes, and the yolks were almost fully done when they came out. 
6. Take the Yorkshire puddings out, and sprinkle salt, pepper and chives over top. Let cool. The Yorkshire puddings should be crispy enough to hold by hand.

Open Your Eyes (Levi's Gran Fondo 2014)

At the starting line -- Levi's Gran Fondo

After coming back from Chicago last week, Mark and I made our way up north to Santa Rosa, California to ride in Levi's Gran Fondo, which is one of the largest charity bike rides in America, numbering at 6500+ people strong.  Mark rode the "Gran" route which is 100+ miles, and I rode the "Piccolo" route which is only 34 miles long.  The race is full of cycling luminaries, such as Levi Leipheimer, as well as Hollywood types, like Patrick Dempsey.  Even former San Francisco Giant, Barry Bonds rode this year.

Last year, I managed to ride the "Medio" bike race, which is 60 miles long and featured some epic hill climbs such as Coleman road.  This is made even more impressive given that I had not trained hardly at all, but was powered by only anger (regarding work related issues).  This year, I was feeling more sad and drained, than angry, and since my hamstrings were still a little sore from my Reformer Pilates class in Chicago, I decided to take it easy by going on the 34 mile ride.

I am by no means a bicycling enthusiast. The only time you will ever see my on my bicycle is for our annual Gran Fondo ride. Also, as mentioned earlier, I was feeling sad and drained from my trip to Chicago, so I was not looking forward to going on this trip. But I was really glad that I did. 

At Willi's Wine Bar - Delicious Goat Cheese Fritters with Lavender Honey 

During the bike ride itself, I had a nice conversation with some cyclists at the rest stop. I must have stood out a little. I was wearing my old-school white sneakers and cotton t-shirt amongst all the clip-on shoes and neon cycling jerseys. At the same time, I was bragging to all my fellow "Piccolo" riders that going up the more advanced Coleman Rd, as I had the previous year, was not all that bad.  After the race was over, a couple of the cyclists recognized me and said hello. 

In general, there was a feeling of kindness and love among the cyclists and all the event volunteers. When the whole group slowed down at the sight of a crawling baby, it nearly brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me that humankind is generally kind. 

There were also some pretty impressive musical acts at the festival sponsored by the race. During the "100 days" headlining act, I danced with a couple of pink-haired, tattooed girls at the front of the 0stage while all the tired cyclists looked on.  Noone joined us, even though the music was really great, and even after the singer implored the crowed to dance. Maybe everyone was too tired, or feeling too self-conscious.

I found out that the two gals were bonafide rock artists. They were part of the previous performing group, "Vela Girls", which I had missed. We conversed and they gave me a free record and t-shirt. Now I can add "rock groupie" to the list of things I have been. It goes to show, if you open yourself up opportunities and open your eyes, it can lead to interesting encounters.

Mark showcases his viticulture skills at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Guerneville

For dinner, we headed to Willi's Wine Bar, which was rated as one of the top restaurants in Santa Rosa by TripAdvisor. Touted as a tapas bar, Willi's Wine Bar features some of the most creative dishes I have ever tasted. You could tell the chef had a genuine interest in Chinese food. Many of the dishes really captured the flavors of authentic Chinese food. The Scallop dumplings with Sherry vinegar butter were sublime, as were the Pork belly crepes with Hoisin sauce.

The following day, we visited the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, which we had never visited before in all our years in the Bay Area. It is really beautiful, and featured an Old Hollywood style pool, down to the plush lounge chairs and private changing rooms. The pool is open to all visitors for a fee. I'll be sure to visit next time, it looked extremely glamorous.

Matching Gran Fondo t-shirts at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery 

The moral of this blog post is that life is full of wonder and people are generally good. Even when some days are sad and disappointing, keep your eyes open and life can really sparkle. 

Tried Reformer Pilates for the first time

I love traveling by myself because I get to try new things I wouldn't necessarily try at home. When I am at home, I'm too cheap to try new things. Travelling tends to free up my wallet some.

Flex Pilates Studio in Chicago

I've been travelling to Chicago a lot recently to deal with family issues, and I have been having a great time discovering workouts that are popular there.  Unlike Mountain View, the Gold Coast area in Chicago has Cross-fit gyms, Yoga studios and Pilates studio on every corner.  The classes are more expensive but there are a greater variety on offer. Many of these studios require logging in and paying for a spot before even stepping foot inside. This seems like a rather high barrier for trying a new class, but somehow this scheme works in Chicago.

One of my favorite studios in Chicago, which I first discovered in June, is Indigo Studio (http://theindigostudio.com). They offer a lot of dance classes with creative names like "Boot Camp Ballerina", and "Thrill from Brazil".  You can read my Yelp review of Indigo Studio here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/indigo-studio-chicago-2.

This week, I decided to branch out and tried Reformer Pilates for the first time. For those of you who are not familiar with Pilates, it's an exercise that emphasizes toning the "core" or abdominal, back and hip muscles. It's popular with dancers, and Hollywood actresses because it purports to give you long, lean muscles. There are two major types of Pilates, (1) Mat Pilates - performed on a yoga mat on the floor, and (2) Pilates requiring Intimidating Equipment that look like torture devices.  One of the most popular types of equipment used is the Reformer, which looks like a Medieval rack. 

I used to do Mat Pilates because it was offered free at my company.  Mat Pilates is also offered at a lot of gyms like 24 Hour Fitness. Even if you have to pay for a Mat Pilates class, it is usually fairly affordable starting for as low as $12-$20 for a class. Reformer Pilates, on the other hand, starts at $40 per session for small group classes  and as much as $75 for a private session.  Class prices are more expensive to adjust for the smaller class sizes and to recoup the cost of the $2000+ equipment. I think the expensive price is why I never bothered to try Reformer Pilates.

I decided that since I was travelling, I would try Reformer Pilates, even though it would lighten up my wallet.  Flex Pilates in Chicago (http://www.flexpilateschicago.com) has rave reviews on Yelp with reviewers reporting that the workouts were very intense and made them sore. Anyways, I tried it, and every muscle in my body was trembling. Not only did my core become sore, but also my back, my butt, my hamstrings, and my arms. I loved it. I think that Reformer Pilates can be a better all over workout than Mat Pilates because your body rests on a frictionless platform and thus you have to work harder to stabilize your body. In addition, whereas in Mat Pilates, you rely on your body weight to create resistance, Reformer Pilates relies on body weight AND springs, so you get more resistance.  

The internet has opposing opinions on whether a beginner should start with Reformer Pilates or Mat Pilates.  Pilates is one of those exercises where if you are not performing it correctly, it won't be as hard, nor give you the same benefits. For example, one of the core principles of Pilates is to suck your belly in and to keep the small of your back imprinting down at all times. This is more challenging because it forces you to engage the deeper Transverse Abdominus muscles rather than the superficial Rectus Abdomens muscles, or "6-pack" muscles.  This encourages a leaner, less bulky look. So, If you do a crunch without using the correct form, I.e. Without sucking your belly in, you would bulk up instead of lean out. I think it might be easier as a beginner to learn correct form on the Reformer than with Mat Pilates due to the greater resistance offered. The greater resistance allows you to better feel the correct muscle engagement.  Also the smaller group sizes or Reformer classes translates into more one on one time with an instructor, which would help the beginner.

All in all, I'm not sure I would shell out $40 on a regular basis to do Reformer Pilates.  I suppose if I were a billionaire, or if I made my living off of my appearance, my opinion might change.  However, I really enjoyed it, and if I ever come across discounted Reformer Pilates on Groupon or whatever, I would definitely jump on the opportunity.

How to Destress

When I start to get an involuntary twitch in my face, I know that I am overly stressed, and I need to separate myself as far from the human race as possible.  In the past couple of weeks, my facial tic has started to recur, even though I haven't had it in a couple of years.  I can't quite place what is happening in my life to cause this.  Sure, I am dealing with difficult people at work; there is someone very angry and toxic that I am currently dealing with. Just having my cube sit kitty-corner from his has been stressful. All day, I listen to him complain, hit his keyboard in frustration, and deride everything and everyone.  I honestly don't know how some of the other people around me can stand him.  What's worse, he's in charge of fixturing one of my mechanical designs and can't seem to make it work properly.  Therefore, he blames my design instead of looking at his own work to fix the issue.  Even the most senior people make suggestions, and he refuses to follow through on those suggestions.  Whenever I try and make a suggestion, he rolls his eyes at me and looks at me like I'm the dumbest person on earth.

I also have a small elderly parent issue that is contributing to my anxiety. Sure, I don't have to be financially responsible over my parent or be a care-taker.  But I do have to be emotionally supportive as she goes through double hip-replacement surgery. And then, there's an underlying financial problem that my parent is having in her semi-retirement, which shouldn't ever happen when you are about to retire. It's a lot for my delicate nerves to handle. And I actually got into a public screaming match during this time that I should never have undergone had I been more mentally stable.  

We are also working on a bathroom and kitchen renovation at the same time. Yesterday, I spent a good 3-4 hours trying to cut kitchen cabinet doors on a very intimidating CNC router on a very expensive $300 piece of hardwood.  Unfortunately, this very dangerous and scary piece of equipment broke, and had to be taken down for a few days for repairs.  Thank goodness the wood is still intact. But it was enough to ruin a few hours of my day.  Bless Mark, my husband, for sitting very patiently next to me this entire time.

Anyways, I am dedicating my day off to relax as much as possible.  I am on the look out for ideas for how to de-stress beyond the normal: "get a pedicure" solutions.  Here are some ideas I might want to try to help me recover from eye-twitch inducing stress.

1. Eat lots of ice cream, buffalo wings, whatever comfort food you can think of.

2. Watch a fashion documentary in bed, preferably with the lights off -- Yesterday, I rented "Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's" and watched it in bed in the dark on my iPad.  I felt sort of like in a womb while watching it.

3. Read self-help books and articles.  If you haven't heard of Martha Beck, you should totally look her up. She's a Harvard trained life-coach and is also a regular columnist in Oprah magazine. Not only is she sharp, but she is super insightful, and funny to boot. Also, I enjoy her spiritual almost "magical" beliefs about how life works.  I am such a sucker for her form of new age spirituality!  

4. Get away from the TV-blaring husband.  I have found out that I really need silence sometimes to get any inner calm.  Even if daily meditation practice is beyond my reach at times, just being able to sit and read in silence can really do my frazzled brain some good. Reminder to self: must get some Bluetooth enabled noise-cancelling head phones.

5. Eat lots of kale and spinach. This is in direct conflict with item #1 above, but apparently these veggies contains folate, which is good for cognitive repair.  

6. Roll on a foam roller, or invert.  Unlike yoga, these are almost effort free ways to work out knots and stretch. To passively invert, I like to sit on our sofa with my feet up, and my head and arms hanging over the edge of the seat. This backwards bend is pretty intense, the subsequent neck cracking that I get from this inversion is delicious.  

Anyways, I'm still thinking of more creative ways to decompress.  Surely writing this blog post has been one great way to de-stress.