Decisions and revisions ...

Back to the dishwasher question.

I've lived almost all my life sans dishwasher - except for three wonderful years in law school, when I rented an apartment that had a twenty-year-old 18" dishwasher that had to be primed (I kid you not) by throwing a bucket of water into it every time you turned it on. But it got the dishes clean.

I hate washing dishes. I want a dishwasher of my own again. But which?

As you know if you've been reading this far, it's a size-challenged kitchen. I have two options:

1. An 18" dishwasher next to the sink.

• Pros: it works like a regular American dishwasher (e.g. you don't have to rinse the dishes first because it has an integrated garbage disposal, it actually dries the dishes too), it fits pots and serving bowls.
• Cons: it's a tradeoff between the 18" dishwasher and an 18" set of drawers. With this dishwasher, I'd have only one stack of drawers; without it, I'd have two.

2. A single-drawer dishwasher, ideally under the sink.

• Pros: it saves space (see above). I could have the second set of drawers too. Theoretically I'd get more use out of it, because I'd run it when I had only a few dishes (I live alone).
• Cons: it doesn't give me most of what I want a dishwasher for. You have to rinse things first (by which point you may as well just finish up and wash them), only dishes and glasses fit well (it's the pots I really mind washing), and the dishes don't come out all toasty hot and dry. And (as I discovered when I went to Ikea today and measured), not only will it not fit under a farmhouse sink, it won't even fit well under a regular topmounted 7" deep sink. So I probably couldn't squeeze it into the undersink cabinet after all.

As you can see, I'm leaning hard toward the 18" dishwasher now. How many drawers do I really need?

For that matter (and this is a question I'll post on the ikeafans forum), why can't I put at least one big 24" wide drawer in the bottom of the sink cabinet, under the plumbing? (Especially if my plumber can be clever about routing the pipes.) Or maybe more than one drawer, if I use the ones designed for the 12" deep base cabinets?

The cupboard under the sink is otherwise a useless abyss to me. I don't need all that space for cleaning supplies and the watering can. And one of the compensations of a tiny NYC apartment is that I don't need anyplace to store the trash. I can just hang a plastic bag with handles on a convenient hook while I cook or clean up, and then tie it closed and toddle 50 feet to the trash compactor chute outside my unit, drop it in and be done with it. There's no garbage day to wait for, no rain or snow or dark of night to discourage me from getting the trash out as soon as I make it. (I believe recyclables go in a corner of the compactor closet in this building, and the super collects them and takes them down. Otherwise I'll line them up on the counter, in their twos and threes, until I feel like running them down to the basement.)

The other thing I started to worry about, after my visit to Ikea today, is making the doors clear each other when they open. E.g. will the oven door graze the edge of the cabinet door, and vice versa? I've got stuff squeezed in to the last inch - I have maybe 3" slack on the main wall. Eeek.

On the plus side, I discovered another countertop possibility: Caesarstone "Rosemary". And I love the clever extras in the Ikea system - especially all of those goodies that can hang from metal backsplash bars - ever more the more I see.

The kitchen is coalescing ...

I think I've found pretty much everything.

Here's a very rough mock-up of what the long wall of the kitchen might look like with cabinet doors. I've switched from the farmhouse sink to a conventional sink because it looks like there's not enough clearance under the farmhouse sink to fit the one-drawer F&P dishwasher (alas). Click on the picture to make it bigger.

















Here are my proposed cabinet pulls, for doors and drawers (from James Phillips Decor on eBay):



















Still need to find a suitable fridge pull.

The sink will be white porcelain, because I dislike stainless steel.

[I thought I wanted a touch-anywhere-and-it-goes-on faucet, but I've changed my mind - stay tuned.]

The counters will either be serpentine marble (unlike other marbles, it's impervious to acid) or a nice quiet Caesarstone (like Misty Carrera or Pebble).

And I've written to L'Esperance about the tile (see previous post). The tile colors kind of depend on the countertop, but I'm thinking some combination of blue, goldenrod, and/or claret. Subway field tiles in a herringbone pattern, with dogwoods and daylilies as accent tiles; maybe a diamond of four dogwoods over the stove.

Oh, and I picked appliances. I'm ignoring the marketing rule that you should go all with one brand - I went for features, reviews, and price on each separate piece. So the slide in gas range is an Electrolux, the fridge is Frigidaire, the microwave is GE Profile, and the dishwasher drawer is Fisher & Paykel. Fridge and dishwasher are trim-panel, stove and micro are white (did I mention already that I dislike stainless steel?).

What else do I need, other than an architect and contractor?

Over-the-top tile

Back to the bathroom. When my mother and I went to the A&D Building on Wednesday, we were both overwhelmingly smitten by some marble tile we saw at Artistic Tile. The collection is called "Musee".

This one's called Eden - the first picture is a 12"x12" sample, the second is a 12" wide strip that I tiled together with a paint program on my computer:























This one's called Terme - the first picture is 3"x12", the second is a 12" wide strip I put together (rather crookedly, I'm afraid):






















They both come in other colorways too.

The problem with all these tiles is that they're really overwhelmingly insanely expensive. (Matthew was with me when we asked about the price of something I liked at Mosaic House, another impossible-dream-of-a-store; I'll just say that these are comparable.)

But another concept I picked up at the A&D Building is that you can use just a little bit of a knockout tile creatively, and complement it with much cheaper stuff, like plain matching cream and white marble tiles. One designer pointed out that you can even use large white glass tiles to complement marble - it's more practical in the shower.

The accent tile doesn't have to be the traditional border running around the room at chest level (I can't do that, I've got way too much perimeter for such a tiny bathroom). I might, for example, run a narrow scarf of stunning tile down a strategically chosen wall (even better if it happens to be opposite a mirror ... ) It's not so frightening if I only need eight square feet of it.

Kitchen plan in 3D

Here's a very rough 3D sketch of my kitchen design. The Ikea Kitchen Planner is quirky - I couldn't get all of the wall cabinets to sit at the right height, and I couldn't explain to it that I want only a 15" backsplash so that I can reach things better (I'm 5'0"). For colors and finishes, I used the Ikea defaults. The fridge will really have trim panels, and the stove and microwave will be white, not stainless, if at all possible. (I'm not sold on the microwave-over-the-range idea - I'll have to reach up to use it, and I'm afraid I'll drop hot soup on my head.)


















I've read that you should think about where you'll store things early on in the kitchen-planning process, to make sure you've got the right-shaped cabinets for your stuff. Here's how I'm hoping to use the kitchen (click on the picture to make it bigger). Fortunately, I have several other closets in the apartment as well, including a sort of pantry on the dining balcony.


















Comments? Ideas? Will it work? What do you think?

Kitchen tile

I love tile. Love, love, love it. I've been picking up tile - azulejos and Iznik and Delft - since long before I had anywhere to put it.

Now I have a kitchen! What to do, what to do? There will be tile on the backsplash, of course, and also tile all the way up the facing wall, starting above the pop-up counters and wainscoting (see previous post) and continuing to the ceiling molding.

One idea - in keeping with the Mission cabinet style - is relief tile. L'Esperance tile, which is designed and handmade in Saratoga Springs, NY, has some lovely things:




















They're 6x6, and they're not so unreasonable as accent tiles. She'll do them in a range of glaze colors (more decisions!).

I lust after the hand-glazed field tiles to match:















Though I could also use stock ceramic field tile, of course.

Almost by accident, I'm buying (mostly) American: cabinet doors made in Pittsburgh, tile made in upstate New York, a bathtub made in Texas (that's where Sanijet's only factory is). That makes me happy.

If I go for stone countertops (a whole 'nother post) maybe they'll be serpentine from Vermont Danby

or New England granite from Rock of Ages (and not just because I love the name!)

By the way, while I was looking for tile online, I found an odd relic of global capitalism: apparently the best place in the world to get antique European tile is Uruguay. Yes, Uruguay. As the seller (who rejoices in the name Weinstijl, in Uruguay!) explains, back when Uruguay was riding high, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the wealthy imported "large quantities of rich material" profligately from Europe. Now Fortune's wheel has turned, and the mansions of Montevideo stand empty. Enter Weinstijl, who salvages their beautiful tiles to resell online. Some of the stuff he has is really stunning - whole sets of tiles like these and these - but imagine the shipping!

Kitchen cabinets

I've looked at a zillion cabinet doors, in person and online. Most of them are ugly to me. I considered stark modern slab doors, made from some exotic wood. But the kitchen's not configured to show them off, and they don't go with the prewar look. Nor do I like raised panels, or cream painted cabinets, and shaker styles are too boring.

Finally I saw Mission-style cabinet doors - knockoff Stickley and Wright designs - and something clicked. I'm thinking of these:





















... in quarter-sawn oak, with glass set into some of them. I'll have trim panels on the fridge and dishwasher to match.

They're from Maplecraft USA, a custom cabinet shop outside Pittsburgh.

The kitchen cabinets themselves may well be Ikea - Ikea's kitchen cabinetry is much better than the rest of their stuff, it gets great reviews from Consumer Reports (it outranks Thomasville, for example), and the interior fittings and gewgaws rival designer European lines at four times the price. A colleague of mine did Ikea cabinets recently and loves them.

But the cabinet doors on offer are uninspiring. Fortunately you buy the doors separately - and even more fortunately, a cottage industry has sprung up to make custom doors to the Ikea dimensions. Maplecraft is one of them, and they get good reviews on the renovation blogs.

Now to pick countertops, and tile ...

On further reflection ...

It looks like the wall-oven concept may not work after all, because all three available 30" gas wall ovens say that they can't be installed under counters (not enough clearance, I guess).

Maybe layout # 1 isn't so bad. Here's a variation: I could put one of those single-drawer dishwashers underneath the sink, and have an extra set of drawers (where the dishwasher is now) for silverware. I was resisting a drawer dishwasher because they're so expensive and you can't fit much in them - but then again apartment-sized 18" dishwashers aren't spacious or cheap either (why do smaller things cost more?) , and I don't mind giving up my undersink cabinet space. If any of you have either an 18" dishwasher or a drawer dishwasher, please chime in on how you like it.

The side panel of the refrigerator, facing the sink, can be faced with wood, maybe tiled. I can put one of those metal bar and hook systems (which I was planning for the backsplash too) on the side of the fridge and hang all kinds of useful things - cutting boards, frying pans, strainers, a paper towel dispenser, etc.

And now for my secret weapon: pop-up counters! I'm not putting cabinets on the left-hand wall of the kitchen, because I don't want to feel like a stewardess when I cook. But there are times when I'll need or want a little more counter space, for staging and cooling cookies and resting hot pots.

I saw this idea in a French design magazine online (which I can't find again, alas) and then I found suitable brackets at Rockler. (I know they're suitable because one of the product reviewers on the Rockler site used them exactly as I want to.)

Imagine two or three panels - about 14" wide and long - sitting almost-flat against the wall opposite the stove and sink. The top edge of the panels would be countertop height. The surface would be granite or ceramic tile, mounted on wood. (Not just plain wood, because I want to be able to use them as hot plates.) When you need a bit of extra counter space, you just slip your fingers under the bottom edge of the panel (they'd be routered, like cabinet doors without handles) and pull up. The panel comes out horizontally like a narrow counter. The brackets lock into place - and can hold 750 lbs, or so the ad copy says. The shelf stays up - to hold whatever you need - until you squeeze the catch on the brackets and fold it back down.

Does that make sense? And the beauty of it is that the extra countertop goes away again. There's no temptation to accumulate clutter on it - the kitchen gets wide again when you're done.

I'll probably put wainscoting below them, to match the cabinets and tie things together visually.

About the kitchen

The kitchen has possibilities. In a perfect world it would be a tiny bit wider - wide enough to fit cabinets on both sides comfortably - but I've been thinking a lot about how to make it work.

Here's the layout:

You'll notice, on the apartment floorplan, that there's a bite taken out of the right-side wall in front. That's the back of an adjoining closet. Another unit in my line knocked that wall out, making the kitchen bigger and the closet a little smaller. I hope to do the same.

I'll probably take the kitchen door off completely, so that the kitchen flows better into the dining balcony.

The kitchen window begins a couple inches lower than standard counter height. But remember I'm replacing the windows - and though the street-side ones (e.g. the bedroom) have to conform to the building facade, I'm hoping that I have a little more leeway on the alley side. I'll ask the window contractor if he can just put a few inches of blind panel in the bottom - or make the window open from the top - or something, so that I can run counters across under the window.

Layout parameters: I like to cook, and I want full-sized appliances. The fridge will have to be a counter-depth model - they're all at least 35" wide, the gorilla in the room. Probably the dishwasher will be a compact 18", not the standard 24". I'll talk about style and materials in another post - right now I'm focused on making things fit.

I'm glad I played so much Tetris in my youth - it's good practice for the Ikea Kitchen Planner. (Which is great free software, btw, and useful for thinking about space even if you don't want to buy Ikea products.)

Here are two possible layouts - (oh, and I've got a clever plan for the left-hand wall, which I'll reveal in another post) -

1. The cheaper and less convenient version:

(The "pullout", here and below, is a very clever kidney-shaped thingie that swings all the way out of the cabinet, so that you can get at everything without crawling with a flashlight.)

Why inconvenient? Because there's no counter space to the right of the sink, and only a little bit - shared with the stove - to the left of it. There's nowhere sensible to put dirty dishes while you're cooking, or vegetables while you're washing them, etc. Why cheap? Because freestanding stoves are considerably less expensive than built-in ovens and cooktops; see below ...

2. The more expensive and quirkier version, with two variations:




















The cooktop could also be angled in the corner, I suppose.

Why is this better? Look at all that counterspace! Both sides of the sink and both sides of the cooktop - and behind the cooktop too! (Note that the "wall oven" will be under the counter.)

Why is it more expensive? Well, I want and need the oven to be gas. ("Want" because I love gas broilers; "need" because it's a prewar building and I doubt I've got enough wattage to support an electric oven along with all my other appliances.) Who makes 30" gas built-in ovens? Viking, BlueStar, and American Range. $$$$! They're gorgeous, though.

If I were willing to downsize to a 24" oven, there are more choices, and somewhat less shocking prices. My mother's oven is effectively 24" (even though her range is 36"), and it's certainly livable, though it only fits the smaller size cooky sheets, two at a time.

But I may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb ... this, I think, is one of the dangers in planning a renovation. The more I look, the more I see that the most expensive choice would really work best, and I covet it. And it's only a little bit more, after all, in the grand scheme of things, and I'll save money somewhere else (though I'm not sure where yet), and it's good for resale value, isn't it, and thus my budget drifts upward like an untethered balloon ...

Tile of the day - Ming green marble

One possibility for the bathroom is ming green marble mosaic, with white for contrast. I love that pale zen green tea shade, and the luminous variations in the stone. (My cousin Michelle did her bathroom in honey onyx, and it's unspeakably fabulous, but I can't be a copycat.)

Here are some samples. What do you think? Will it look dated in five years, or is it timeless? (Someone on a renovation blog said that they did their office's bathroom in ming green, which makes me worry.)

About the bathroom

The bathroom has some limitations. As you can see, it's small. 4'6" x 7'7", to be exact, with a bite taken out for pipes. I can't make it bigger. I can't move any of the fixtures, but I can replace them where they are (e.g. the toilet has to stay cramped in the corner, but at least it can stop being green).

I'm ripping everything out - tile, tub, toilet, vanity, floor. I plan to tile up to the ceiling (because I love that look, with different zones of coordinating tiles) - and tile (or otherwise prettify) the ceiling too.

The toilet's pretty straightforward - it will have to be the narrowest, most compact model available, as unobtrusive as possible in style. The sink will be either a pedestal or a narrow (maybe corner) vanity - shaving those inches wherever I can, to make room for:

My dearest renovation dream - before I even found this apartment - is to have a Sanijet pipeless spa bath. (I'm a bath person.) It's different from a Jacuzzi or air tub - there's no pump or pipes, the water never leaves the tub. It's swirled and bubbled by silent magnetic jets that pop out and go in the dishwasher for cleaning.

The narrowest Sanijet tubs are 31" - 32". (I'm not sure if I want the deeper rectangular Japanese-style tub, or the more contoured ergonomic tub.) The current hideous tub is 28" - but it looks as if one side of it is somehow buried in the back wall. I'm praying that my contractor or architect will somehow find the extra couple of inches I need for total bliss.

It's mine!

I closed on my new apartment this morning. Afterward I went to the A&D Building (which is open to the public, and tremendous fun - more on that later) and got ideas.

But first the basics: it's a prewar co-op (to be precise, it was built in 1941: pre-Pearl-Harbor, post-invasion-of-Poland), one bedroom, with a sunken living room, five closets, and many original details (oak parquet floors with inlay, decorative iron railings, plaster moldings, arched doorways, etc). There are plenty of windows, but only the bedroom has a view; the others face a shadowy alley. Here's the floorplan:



I bought it in "estate condition", and it needs lots of work: new kitchen (it's already gutted), new bathroom, new windows, floors sanded and polyed.

Here's a video (which I made for my friend Becca, who lives in France) of the apartment in its "before" condition. (Actually it looked even worse when I first saw it - there was a gaping hole in the hallway ceiling, a weird rusty trough in the kitchen, and electric blue paint on the living room walls. )



I'm hoping it will be adorable and fabulous when I'm done with it. That's what this blog is about.