Our kitchen remodel today reached the “done enough” stage. I like our updated kitchen and want to start using it. I am glad to see the newly-uncovered oak floors go well with the fresh paint and granite counter and backspash. Lots of little stuff still to do (fixing many paint errors-and-omissions, installing under-cabinet lights, replacing shelves, replacing a sliced window screen, replacing the cabinet muntins…). All the little blue bits of tape in the pictures are where the paint is messed up. However, at this point, we would rather finish that work ourselves. We ran all of the plumbing and appliances last night and found two leaks, but those were fixed today. Some of the work was very well done, especially the cabinet upgrades, and the stone work. I love how the granite pattern behind the stove looks like sand dunes, and how the book matched granite patterns flow into each other. I also like having shelves under the windows. Still, I am happy to have the contractors out of the house. I am also happy to be able to use my new super-fancy laundry folding counter. I figure I spend so much time standing there, I should enjoy how it looks. Our house is almost 100 years old and I expect this kitchen to serve it well into its next century.
Images Copyright (c) 2023 Katy Dickinson. If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home).
Temporary Kitchenette in John Plocher’s Office, 8 September 2023
After 26 years in our home, we are updating our kitchen. Our Spanish Mission style house was built around 1931 in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood (Silicon Valley, California). We think the kitchen was last remodeled after the big Loma Prieta 1989 earthquake. The kitchen is large but the layout is fixed by four doors (to John’s office, the laundry room, the basement, and the dining room).
We are keeping the original cabinets because they are solid oak and, while after so many years the finish is trashed, they are good quality, fit well, and are in the right places. We are replacing the pulls, hinges, and drawer slides, so that means rebuilding the drawer boxes. We are also changing two under-cabinet doors to be drawers. The update is limited to those cabinet changes, granite counters to replace the nasty cheap tile, a new sink and faucet, cabinet and wall paint, electrical plug upgrades, and three new appliances: induction range / stove, microwave, and sink disposal. The induction stove meant we also had to buy all new pans. There has been much discussion over microwave placement. John (the fancy cook) says he prefers it over the stove, so we bought a new microwave unit with a built-in hood.
It feels like camping out in our own home. John is patient with the temporary kitchenette we created in his office. (This is overseen by the Moltres Pokemon mural my mother Eleanor Dickinson and son Paul painted when that was his bedroom.) We are doing dishes in the bathroom. My birds are confused by their extended field trip to the dining room, where their cage is surrounded by boxes of china and kitchen stuff. The contractor came by this morning to say that the countertops will be installed tomorrow, and the cabinets and paint will be finished next week. Here’s hoping for that to happen as scheduled!
Nov 2022 John Plocher in old kitchennew kitchen stove, 31 July 2023kitchen backsplash granite slab, 17 Aug 2023kitchen granite shopping, 17 Aug 2023old kitchen 20 August 2023kitchen demolition 21 Aug 2023kitchen after counter removal, 21 Aug 2023kitchen electrical work, 22 Aug 2023kitchen with new backer boards, 24 Aug 2023John Plocher and curious dogs in kitchen 29 Aug 2023bathroom dishes 8 Sep 2023
Images Copyright (c) 2023 Katy Dickinson. If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home).
John Plocher and I are in the process of fixing up our 90-year-old Spanish Mission style home in Willow Glen (San Jose, California). One of the duties of homeownership is maintenance, particularly fixing what does not show. We just completed Phase One of a maintenance project, including adding new French drains to redirect water away from the house, repairing some rocky tiles on the side porch, replacing a front porch post, adding better support for the ground floor so that the front door opens all the way, and replacing a walkway-with-a-step with a ramp. This work will not meet the realtors’ goal of “increasing the value of your home” for resale, but since this is our family’s forever home, it is enough that the work increases its comfort and value to us. We got virtual tours of the ongoing work under the house using FaceTime.
Some of maintenance challenges come from ours being an old (if well-built) house, and others from the land being part of the original Willow Glen swamp of the Guadalupe River. The ground shifts annually with seasonal moisture changes, causing stucco cracks and sometimes making doors stick. The most unhappy person with the construction has been Princess, our porch cat, who resented the disruption of her royal domain. Phase Two is being planned now!
Porch post with gap, July 2022Original side walkway, July 2022John Plocher raking weeds, July 2022Resetting porch tiles, July 2022Repaired side porch tiles, July 2022Cat judging front porch construction, July 2022Digging french drain trenches, July 2022French drain trench complete, July 2022French drain lining and rock, July 2022Completed french drains, July 2022Painting new porch post, July 2022Pouring new side ramp, July 2022Smoothing new ramp, July 2022New ramp walkway, July 2022FaceTime of work under house, July 2022End of walkway drying, July 2022Fixing front door, July 2022Princess the cat hiding, July 2022
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We have four old family clocks, two of which work and one of which chimes. The sound of the two ticks and the chimes fills our downstairs with small comforting noises, even when everyone is silently interacting with their computing devices. The clocks keep time but not with each other. It is somewhat like how Terry Pratchett describes the clocks in his fictional city of Ankh-Morpork on the Discworld,
“Noon in Ankh-Morpork took some time, since twelve o’clock was established by consensus. Generally, the first bell to start was that one in the Teachers’ Guild, in response to the universal prayers of its members. Then the water clock on the Temple of Small Gods would trigger the big bronze gong. The black bell in the Temple of Fate struck once, unexpectedly, but by then the silver pedal-driven carillon in the Fools’ Guild would be tinkling, the gongs, bells and chimes of all the Guilds and temples would be in full swing, and it was impossible to tell them apart, except for the tongueless and magical octiron bell of Old Tom in the Unseen University clock tower, whose twelve measured silences temporarily overruled the din. And finally, several strokes behind all the others, was the bell of the Assassin’s Guild, which was always last.” (Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms, 1993).
Gilbert, oak case pendulum wall clock, Western Pacific glass
Gilbert, oak case pendulum wall clock, inside
The Junghans chiming mantle clock was a wedding present in 2000 from John’s parents. It was purchased by John’s great-grandfather Johannes Plocher in Holzhauzen, Germany. Joannes and his wife Anna gave it to their son (John’s grandfather), Karl on his wedding Adelia, in 1930. I love the art deco design on the clockworks inside the case.
I bought the Gilbert wall clock in 2008 as a birthday present for John. The clock itself is from about 1915. The Western Pacific glass is not original but is one of the reasons we like it, since we own WP668, a Western Pacific caboose. John winds up his Junghans and Gilbert clocks every week.
Gilt metal Rococo clock
Ornate horseman clock
The two clocks which have stopped working are from my family. One is a gilt metal Rococo style clock that my father’s mother, Gladys Grace Oakes Dickinson, loved. The other is an ornate horseman clock that my mother, Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, had since I was young. Surprisingly, even though they are from different parts of my family, both were made by the New Haven Clock Company, probably over a hundred years ago.
Web search results showing many horse-only New Haven Clocks
Update: I have been looking for more information about the New Haven Clock with the ornate warrior horseman figure. I found that a version of this clock with the exact same horse but no rider is relatively common. All of the versions I have found on the web have a top piece above the clock that is missing on ours. Sometimes the horse is on the right and sometimes on the left of the clock on the pedestal. I still have not found an exact match. My Aunt Louise Creekmore Senatore read my blog and wrote that her father (my grandfather), Robert Elmond Creekmore, was once its owner in Knoxville, Tennessee, “the Ornate Horseman clock was on my Dad’s bureau for years when I was a child. It traveled with us to Windgate (1964), stayed on his bureau, and Eleanor asked Mom for it when Dad passed away (1976).”
I found this tiny, blurry thumbnail photo on the web of a gilded variant of our clock but it is on a dead website. Still hunting for more information!
(None of these clocks is for sale – please do not ask.)
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My Willow Glen micro farm is thriving. I usually grow cactus, and herbs like fennel, rosemary, and sage. Since we are mostly staying home because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I am taking the opportunity to grow vegetables. I started this project in April by converting a section of our little orchard. The first fruits of my farming efforts are cherry tomatoes and delicata squash. Both indicate their readiness by a color change. The tomatoes shift from green to yellow to red. The delicata squash start white and develop green lines as they mature. The tallest plants are sunflowers, which are currently competing with the apple tree for head room. I am expecting beans, peas, corn, and watermelon over time.
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In 2012, we had a mouse infestation in our home, one of the potential downsides of pet birds. I was thinking of this when our book club read The Plague by Albert Camus (in which the bubonic plague starts with rats). Plague and pestilence books have been popular during the Coronavirus pandemic, with book recommendations lists being widely published. We read sections of Camus’ 1947 book in last semester’s “God and Suffering” class at GTU‘s Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (DSPT). Ironically, The Plague was part of the reading list for the class before Covid-19 came upon us. It seems to me that in the months since the pandemic started, we have slowly become like the people of Camus’ town of Oran in Algeria who, “in the very heart of the epidemic… maintained a saving indifference, which one was tempted to take for composure.”
The Plague‘s narrator ends with qualified optimism,
He “…resolved to compile this chronicle, so that he should not be one of those who hold their peace but should bear witness in favor of those plague-stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.
None the less, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of a final victory. It could be only the record of what had had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.”
While our community has become less focused on the pandemic and has turned to other matters, I pray that we continue to honor and support the heroic doctors and health workers who are still fighting Covid-19.
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Since it seems that Covid-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future, I bought a new sewing machine. Every time I wanted to make a face mask, or hem some pants, my old one would jam – even after having it repaired. So, John and I did some research and bought a Singer CG590 Commercial Grade Sewing Machine.
I used it yesterday to make four more face masks and hem two pairs of pants. It works very well – even sewing through several layers of denim. I decided I did not need any fancy stitches because in twenty years I never used those features on my old machine. (How many times do you really need to embroider ducks?) Straight, zigzag, and button hole are enough for me. Other than wanting the person who created the threading instructions to go to remedial art school, I am happy with my purchase! It is very similar to the machines I used in my high school sewing class – sturdy, simple, and heavy.
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