Finally, a New Range

This past Wednesday⏤more than 11 months after we initially ordered it from BASCO⏤we finally got our new induction range. I meant to blog about it sooner, but I've been busy trying to get the basement finished.

I was tempted very many times to cancel our order and go elsewhere to buy the appliance, but I wasn't sure we would get it any faster if we had to go back to the end of the line. I freely admit that I would have preferred the green Ilve range, but Jeff is loving the features of the Fisher & Paykel. It has a warming drawer and has a low-heat setting for rising bread dough.

It's been a very long time since we had a glass cooktop. I forgot what a pain they are to clean. On the bright side, though, we can actually cook on top of silicone mats so hopefully, there will be less scratching from the bottom of pots.

I've ordered a couple of round silicone mats that are specifically designed for the purpose.

Loaner Range

BASCO finally brought us a loaner range today after I had a good rant at them last week. Yeah, Thanksgiving sucked with no oven. This is on loan until our Fisher & Paykel comes in. 

BASCO did not order the new range until this week so it is likely it will be more likely the end of January before we get it. I very much regret ordering the Ilve back in May; I never would have if I'd had any idea of the headache it would turn into.

For Jeff's birthday in November, I bought him an Oculus Quest 2. He immediately signed up for the Supernatural exercise app at the recommendation of a friend. We've really been enjoying exercising to music. We actually had to empty out the front parlor area to make space for us to stand there and swing around our arms. It's the only space on the main floor that has enough clearance below the light fixtures.

Our main floor is going to be quite cramped with the addition of the TV and gaming computer. We're planning to take most of the furniture to storage to make room during the basement project.

More News About Our Range

Our Ilve Range finally arrived in Portland, and it's the wrong f-ing color! It is gray, not green. I am not kidding. It is the worst possible color. Needless to say, I am not taking delivery. So, it looks like there won't be a thanksgiving dinner this year.

BASCO is therefore trying to fix it for us. Obviously, it is not really an option to wait for another range to come from Italy. I didn't get the final word yet, but I think we actually ended up ordering the Fisher & Paykel in black because it comes from Mexico and supposedly it will be here by mid-December. They say December, but I don't know if that's a wishful thinking due date. I hope not. I guess we shall see.

I am so tired of this. Though, possibly not as tired as Jeff, who does the cooking.

Range Rant

Do you guys remember this drama from last May? Our BlueStar range started on fire and we called out the fire department to put it out. (Jeff thought the gas line was burning and couldn't reach to get it turned off.)

We went back to BASCO in May and ordered a new range but we decided to try an induction range from Ilve that came in emerald green. Boy, was that ever a mistake. It was originally scheduled to come in mid-August, but it didn't. Then they gave us a revised date of the end of October. Well, I spoke to BASCO again yesterday, and now they're saying we won't get our range yet and they don't want to give any delivery date. 

I am so frustrated. First, BASCO sucks at communication. They basically ignore the situation until I call in looking for my range and then they have to figure out what's happening. And two, what was I thinking ordering a semi-custom range during a pandemic? Sigh.

Anyway, it's not actually clear whether we'll have a range by Thanksgiving. Finally, now BASCO will let me cancel the order (I put down a 50% non-refundable deposit) but do I really want to get in the back of the line for a new appliance?

So, I may start looking around and see if there is anything else that can be found. The space is 36" and most hardware store ranges are only 30" so I doubt we can walk into Lowes or Home Depot and just buy something off the floor.

On the bright side, Jeff has gotten quite good at cooking with the Instant Pot and toaster oven. He's been amazing dealing with our kitchen situation, but I am past ready for it to end, so I need to get on the phone and start calling around and see if I can find a different option.

Electrical Fire

Yesterday evening, we had a bit of excitement. Jeff put on a pot to boil for dinner and the range started on fire. He didn't notice immediately because he had left the room. After a few minutes, the kitchen filled with smoke and all the smoke alarms started going off. 

Jeff thought it was perhaps a leak in the gas line that was burning, but we couldn't find the shutoff to the range and when we couldn't figure out how to turn off the gas to the house, I called the Fire Dept. They came within five minutes of the call and finally extinguished the last of the fire in the range and turned off our gas for us. Our Blue Star Range is kaput, poor thing.

This is likely where the fire started. Apparently, it was an electrical fire.

I am so thankful we only lost the range. While it was happening, I had visions of our whole house bursting into flames. Beyond the range, the only "damage" is a fine layer of soot on everything the smoke touched. Jeff and I have spent a couple hours cleaning up the soot, but there is still plenty left to clean.

Today, obviously, I was compelled to do some shopping for a replacement range. We've been talking about getting an induction range for "the next house." This obviously, gives us the chance. If I was not picky, I could have bought a Wolf 36" Transitional Induction Range and it would be installed by the end of the week. But, alas, I am picky. Very picky. I just don't want a stainless steel range in this kitchen.

When I discovered the Ilve Majestic II 36" Range had an option for induction burners and came in Emerald Green, we had to track one down to take a look. 

Unfortunately, it will take up to 14 WEEKS to arrive. Despite the horrific wait time, Jeff and I decided to order this range so there is a good chance we will not have an operating range in our kitchen until the end of August. I guess there will be no canning this summer.

Luckily, Jeff does a lot of cooking with the Instant Pot. And perhaps we'll finally get some use out of our new-last-year BBQ.

Merry Christmas

Our decorated tree from last year

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate. Jeff and I pulled out all the Christmas decorations this year, but never managed to get them set up. I'm vaguely disappointed because this will probably be our last year in this beautiful house, but our energy level is pretty low for optional projects.

And for a progress report, we continue to sift never unpacked boxes from our basement. We've been selling stuff on eBay, Facebook marketplace and craigslist. And stuff that isn't worth selling, we've just been donating. There hasn't been much to take pictures of, which is a large part of why I haven't been posting. We have fewer boxes in our basement, but we are probably accomplishing too little for our timeline.

I've finished scanning all of the photos packed away in our storage. I pulled apart old photo albums and scanned all the loose stacks of photos. We only kept one plastic filebox of photos and the rest were discarded. I'm still holding a couple boxes to give to other family members who wish to keep them.  Hopefully, we'll make it down to California next year for a visit and to deliver all these things we need to give to family members.

Oh, and we sort of changed the moving plan again.... 
Yes, we are still planning to move to Prineville. And we are still planning to sell our Laurelhurst house. But the declining economy scared us and we decided not to spend the bulk of our savings right now remodeling the new house with the risk that we wouldn't be able to sell the big house in a timely manner. So, we postponed the remodel on Prineville and decided to rent it out short-term while we continue to make progress on the Portland end. Once we are in escrow in Portland, we'll revisit the project plan.

We also changed the washer and dryer delivery to Portland. I have a huge rant about Home Depot, but I'll spare you all. It's Christmas and who wants to hear me whining about my frustration with Home Depot? No one. I'll just say, I remember now why I stopped buying big stuff from Home Depot. After Jeff hooked the machines up, I spent about three days washing most everything in the house. It was great to have working machines again.

Refrigerator Panel Broke

Looking at this thing, it's actually surprising it held on so long because it was attached with staples!! And the door handle was just screwed into the wood, and not into the metal frame, so every time we pulled the refrigerator door open, it was slowly pulling out the staples. Not cool. It will be interesting to see if Craftsman Design & Renovation is going to fix this for us.

Barrett (our tile guy) still sucks. He originally said he'd be here at 2PM, but then he wrote later asking if he could start work today after 5PM. I said No. I'm tired of him taking advantage of us.

Kitchen is Done!!

Except for one vent cover in the toe kick and swapping out a couple of chrome hinges, the kitchen is done!! Well, OK, we still have to make the leaded glass panels for this one cabinet. We have a plan, we have the glass, we're just waiting for the leaded glass class in September.We LOVE the soapstone counters!
For those who don't recall, here is how it looked before the remodel.

If you want to know about products/materials we used, there is a post about them here.

Kitchen Resources

For those who are interested, we are sharing information about where we obtained the materials used in our kitchen remodel. Much of this information is found in individual posts, but we include it here in one post for convenience.

The cabinets were made by WoodWorks Inc. in Oregon City. They were made from FSC-certified flat-sawn douglas fir from a fallen tree obtained from the Mountain Dale West girl scout camp in North Plains.

The schoolhouse lights and cup pulls were purchased from Rejuvenation. The turn latches were purchased from House of Antique Hardware.

The soapstone slabs were obtained from Teresina Soapstone in Roseville, California who shipped them up to Portland for us. The folks at Teresina were really great to work with. They sent us large samples at no charge and were awesome at communication. The local soapstone fabricator was Portland MarbleWorks. They built the sink and installed the countertops.

The range was made by Blue Star. It is a 36" RNB Residential Nova Series. You can choose from 190 colors! We purchased it, along with the other appliances, from BASCO in Portland.

The copper hood was made by Art of Rain. It was built to fit over the Vent-a-Hood liner.

The bridge faucet was made by Newport Brass.

The dishwasher was made by Miele; it is a Diamond G 5975 SCVi. We chose this model because it would accept a wood panel and the controls are on the top edge and not visible when the door is shut.

The refrigerator is a Sub-Zero; a 36" wide counter-depth BI-36UO. We really would have liked to get a bigger frig, but there just wasn't room in our small kitchen. The custom panel was made by our cabinet maker.

The pot rack was made by Yardley Forge. Steve made custom attachment hangers for us, because his standard length didn't work for our situation. He was really nice to work with.

The reproduction subway tile was made by Subway Ceramics. It was installed by Hawthorne Tile. The tile is grouted with dark gray grout.

All of the interior paint colors were chosen from the Sherwin Williams Arts & Crafts paint palettes.

The wood was finished with two coats of stain. The first coat of stain was Mohawk Wiping Wood Stain in Red Mahogany. The second coat was Wood Kote Jel'd Stain in Cherry color. Then the woodwork downstairs was finished with Zinsser Shellac.

We believe the windows were made by Marvin. They are clad with douglas fir on the interior, evergreen aluminum on the exterior.

The hardwood floors were finished first with low-VOC Bona DTS (Deep Tone Sealer) then with two coats of Bona Traffic. Our flooring contractor was Kip's Hardwood Floors.

Sharon believes most of the fir mouldings were purchased from Rejuvenation, but they were purchased and installed by our contractor, Craftsman Design & Renovation.

Latest Kitchen Photos

We're getting there! We believe it's time to oil our counters.
We're looking forward to the appliance panels being installed.

Appliances are Here!

Tomorrow, they get installed. We couldn't resist opening the range to check out the color. That green we chose we're hoping will match the oiled soapstone.

Choosing Exterior Colors

We're getting down to the wire and we're having to make our final selections for our remodel. Jeff is pretty insistent about wanting a yellow color scheme, so we're planning to finish the exterior house along these lines.We've got our stain color (the yellow on the right in this set) and roofing lined up...













...but we're still not quite sure which third color (for the gables) to choose yet. It's going to depend on what would look good on our specific house shape. This house has a lot of gables on the front.
Our kitchen designer also reminded us that we have to get Jeff's range ordered; production time is 10 weeks for custom colors. So, off we went the other day to try and match the soapstone slab. Jeff and Sharon don't exactly agree on the color, but it's Jeff's stove so he gets first choice. This is the color Jeff wants to go with.

Sharon is trying to delay the decision a few days while we continue to wait for our tile sample order from New England Art Tile. She's hoping the tile will resolve the impasse.

Latest Kitchen Plan

We got the latest kitchen design from Craftsman Design and Renovation last week. Most of the hardware and small details have been fixed in the drawings, though we're still working on the tile design. All of the cabinets will be made out of stained FSC-certified douglas fir and the base cabinets will have a piece of trim, a shoe molding, that reaches down to the floor and will make them look more period. The countertop and sink are going to be made of Minas Verde soapstone (which we've already had shipped from California).

Here are drawings, in clockwise order. This first diagram is the overall floor plan of the kitchen and adjacent ½ bath and pantry closet.This is the "pantry wall" facing away from the sink towards the back wall. This wall will be most visible and we're doing our best to make this look as period as possible. The cabinet on the left will be built in a period style with glass and beadboard backing.This is the side wall, with the exterior window. We're getting a copper hood made and we're pretty excited. We're also still trying to work out the details of the tile behind the range; we may buy some custom arts & crafts-style tiles to go along with our reproduction subway tiles. We are using a fairly modern looking range; a Blue Star that Jeff really wants.This is facing the sink, which will overlook the backyard after the remodel. (The current sink looks out the side and we get to stare at the side of our neighbor's house while doing dishes.) We decided to go with a farmhouse-style sink because we're having one made out of matching soapstone. Farmhouse sinks are not actually period for the 1910's era, they were earlier, but this is another one of those compromises we're making because we like it. =) We're getting an antique-style bridge faucet. Also, the integrated Miele dishwasher is to the right of the sink and will have a panel to hopefully help disguise it.This is facing the refrigerator. We're getting a Sub-Zero refrigerator which will be fitted with wood panels to help disguise the fact that it's a great big appliance. The microwave is to the left of the refrigerator, and is going to be below the counter. Presumably guests will only see the microwave if they come all the way into the kitchen.

For the cabinet hardware, we are going with House of Antique Hardware's bin cup pull and cupboard latch.


The light fixtures in the kitchen are from Rejuvenation—the Jefferson and the Rose City. We're getting closed-shade lights because we're likely to use funky-looking light bulbs—either CFLs or LEDs, when they become available.