There is a light

... that never comes on. The light on the refrigerator side of the alarmingly expensive Sub-Zero 690 that is - the freezer is lit so I can check the vodka is ok and I know the fridge is cold but I have no idea how cold because THE LIGHT SWITCH IS NOT WORKING. I had the condenser replaced in the summer, the water dispenser re-fitted, twice, when we first got it in 2004; I am not a happy bunny.
A gem from their website "Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances are built to exacting standards..." Yep, that's exactly the adjective I would have chosen! Oh, and have I mentioned that every summer when it gets hot (like EVERY summer in New York) the ice maker stops working and you have to reset the system? Every summer. It's become something of a joke, except that it's not funny.
A guy is coming today to fix it. He's been before, doubtless he will come again. As they say on their website: Your relationship with Sub-Zero and Wolf doesn’t end the second your appliances are installed. In fact, we hope that’s just the beginning of a long relationship.
To keep my sanity (and my temper) I'm singing this song with slightly altered lyrics. Enjoy!

Next to no-cost maintenance

A quick round up of the week's chores. In addition to fixing the pool skimmer covers so we can lift them up without breaking nails, fingers or bits off the brick we:


Restore(d)-A-Finish(ed) six doors - and they look excellent - cat and dog scratches disguised, walnut colour revived. Love this product, I've invigorated tired furniture, trim and now doors.


Fixed the elephant in the room Sub-Zero just as it was exiting its warranty, thus saving me $529+labor. Tell me: How can a condenser last less than 5 years? I've known fridges go decades without needing to do anything but defrost the ice box.


Fixed the exterior light outside the front door by banging my fist on the underside of the housing. If you remember banging my head on it was how the lights went out in the first place. (The Awesome Designer says she'll help when the house burns down because our wiring is loose).

The total fix for the pool skimmer handles was just under $40, and that was the most we spent on repairs all week. We did splurge and buy two new hosepipes 150' and 75' at $34.99 and $24.99 - not cheap but not prohibitive either. The other repairs were cost free.

Setting a New Budget

It's going to be the end of the week before the plumber can do the rough work and move the shower drain so in the meantime I thought I'd frighten myself by ignoring the bath remodels and looking at the budget for the 2008 kitchen remodel.
I started this spreadsheet back in July 2004 when we purchased the Sub-Zero with a view to building the kitchen around it and completing it within two years.
It seems we were a little optimistic in our timeline.
Over the past two and a half years I have researched options for replacement cabinets and countertops, chosen 16x16" and then 20x20"floor tiles, and picked out stainless steel appliances. The spreadsheet is a thing of beauty with internet links, retail and discount prices, lead times and possible alternatives. As we changed our minds about products, new versions came on the market, or prices rose, I updated the spreadsheet but the basic price of the remodel never fluctuated by more than a few hundred dollars.
Walking around Soho one Saturday last October we wandered into Henrybuilt and fell in love with the hardwood cabinets, they seemed to have been designed with our house in mind. Suddenly the perfectly acceptable Ikea boxes didn't seem to cut it anymore, even if we used our own custom doors. The budget got a huge makeover, upwards.
Then I starting reading the Brooklyn townhouse renovation blog Here is the House. Big mistake. And I showed the post on appliances to Steven. Even bigger mistake. He fell completely in love with the Hansacanyon LED faucet and wouldn't be dissuaded even when I showed him the price.


Of course you just cannot have a beautiful, expensive faucet pouring red or blue water into a bog standard kitchen sink, even if it is the BlancoPrecision 10: Super Single Bowl Undermount, sink of choice for Varenna and other German and Italian kitchen cabinet manufacturers. Never fear, Here is the House gave us an idea for a solution. We only have to add an extra $3000 to the budget and we can be professionally washing up, chopping vegetables and cooking with the Kohler PRO CookCenter sink. Actually, this will also solve a design dilemma too. We hate seams on countertops but the quartz we have chosen only comes in 10' slabs. Our sink area is 10' 8". If we go with the mega sink it is countertop width so we can have two separate pieces of quartz on either side. Smart but not priceless.
The new kitchen budget? Even though we will save on extra plumbing by not having a prep sink on the island and we save the cost of an extra sink and faucet, it's increased by 50% since we started and that's without adding the built in coffee maker I have lusted over. I wonder what we can cut back on so we can afford this remodel before we get too old to enjoy it. Food maybe?

Progress is good

We are mid-way through October and some things have happened. We were in London for a week at the end of last month and we picked up some gorgeous curtains and cushions for our bedroom. The following week Pete worked really hard to get the landing finished and now it looks really solid and classy. It was definitely worth all the aggro and the increased budget. He also finished the master dressing room and my office.

He is coming back next week to floor the balcony overhang in the great room and maybe to put bamboo flooring in the rear hall. I am still debating whether this is a good idea as this area is heavy traffic; there the door to the garage to consider as well as the one to the back yard. Sometimes we do tramp in sand from the beach, which doesn't matter so much now as we have heavy-duty carpet down but it would ruin hardwood flooring. Obviously I would lay rugs by the door but even so I am concerned. The reasons for laying bamboo is that it is very light and that hallway is quite dark and we have six boxes leftover from upstairs and would only need a couple of extra boxes to finish that whole area.

Another good thing happened last week: Vineyard Rd was resurfaced and sometime this week we will get our berm. Then, hopefully, we will not have any more flooding on the property. The bad news is that it is scheduled to rain all week so they may not be able to start the work until later. More good news - we have new gutters installed. The old ones were in terrible shape; a lot of the leaders were missing and there were a couple of places were we felt that there should be gutters to stop soil erosion and potential water penetration in the basement. So far it seems to be doing exactly that. The third piece of good news was that after ten long weeks we finally had the water dispenser replaced on the Sub-Zero and we can have ice in our drinks. Yippee.