Much like a faucet, attitudes towards sinks range from "a tub for my dirty crap" to a shining vessel of style. And even more like faucets, they have utility that many don't think about.
From an aesthetic perspective, there are two major classes of finish: enameled and stainless. Stainless has basically one finish, whereas enameled can come in a huge range of colors. There's a lesser known granite composite option, which I will talk more about later. If you want the stainless look, stainless it is. If not, then enameled or granite is your choice. Each has its upside and downside.
Stainless steel sinks are made from a relatively thin sheet of steel (I believe 1/16th of an inch is pretty standard). They are also a bit flexible (in extreme cases, it's possible to completely puncture them!). Combine those together in a concave form aand you've basically created a drum. Next time you're by an installed stainless sink, drum on the side with your fingers. Loud, huh? For this same reason, your pots, pans, silverware, bottles, whatever will be extra clangy in there. Also, metal on metal makes for a pretty awful sound. Stainless will also scratch up over time, and depending on the quality of the steel may even get spots of rust (though I don't think this is common). As far as I'm concerned, there is no objective positive about a stainless sink. Buy it only for looks if you can tolerate the negatives.
Enameled sinks use an enamel cover over a base, such as cast iron. They are more durable and the enamel reduces scraping sounds. You can put your hot pans into them with very little risk (though they do warn that such behavior can cause thermal shock and cracking). However, the enamel can wear down over time, leading to a scratched look.
Granite composite sinks improve on the enameled design. They are even quieter (and even help muffle garbage disposal noise!) and practically impervious to all damage. They won't chip or scratch, and are safe for placing items as hot as 500 degrees into them. Unfortunately they have a limited selection of styles, brands and colors.
Now that we got the material details out of the way, it's time to talk about utility. Sinks come in a variety of outlines; one shape isn't objectively better than another. However, the bowl configuration is key. Sinks are difficult to use if they are too shallow (think splashing water out) or if their bowls are too small. You need to have at least one bowl that can contain your largest cooking item. Don't forget that handles need to fit too, otherwise you can't really immerse said item in water. A sink that is a single large bowl is a safe bet, however, it's good to have a 2nd bowl for "dirty" tasks like peeling/washing veggies, etc. This 2nd bowl should have the garbage disposal attached as well. Also, this bowl does not need to be large. Look for a sink that uses an uneven split, even as lopsided as 80/20.
We ended up getting the Kohler Iron Tones, which features their really cool Smart Divide design. The divider between the bowls is only half as tall as the sink, thereby allowing pan handles to overlap into the 2nd bowl, but still be fully immersible. The sink decision itself was easy enough, however we had to scramble. Despite having a good 2-3 weeks to have it ready, we had a hard time finding a retailer who could promise us the sink in that timeframe. Most showrooms said they'd have to place an order with Kohler (who I assume batches production of sinks and ships them out once a month or something), so there was no guarantee on the timing. Online retailers didn't have the sink+color combo we wanted. Luckily we finally found one showroom that had one copy in stock in California, and we pounced on it. We ended up having to pay about $300 more than if we'd had time to go through an online retailer.
Moral of the story: sinks can be surprisingly difficult to get a hold of, so order in plenty of time to save yourself stress and money.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Kitchen Remodeling: The thing about backsplashes
Backsplashes serve several roles; they cover the seam between the wall and your countertops, and they serve as a pretty finish to your kitchen. The process seems simple enough: just pick the tile and stick it on the wall, right? Turns out there are ways to go wrong here as well.
There are a million options. Literally. Materials include glass, ceramic, metals, etc. You can do all one finish, mix them into a design, or buy sheets that already pre-mix coordinated colors for you. You can get the same tile in different sizes and shapes from itty bitty square inchers to footlongs. In terms of final function and appearance, the matter is entirely subjective. Go nuts with your imagination.
The key differences we found were in the consistency of the tiles themselves and the ease (or lack thereof) of installation. We went with square foot sheets of 1x2 inch arctic ice glass tiles, arranged in the classic subway configuration (horizontal, each row half offset from the one above and below it). The sheets are constructed by pre-setting the many small tiles onto a mesh backing so that they can be mortared and placed on the wall in easy-to-apply large sections (as opposed to carefully aligning each tiny tile by hand!). As such, we were surprised to come home and find that an entire wall's worth of tile had been installed and looked completely uneven: wavy with inconsistent gaps, and in some cases tiles had run into each other or were pretty far from horizontal. Upon talking with our tiler, we found out that our tile choice from Home Depot was basically as cheap as possible and presented many installation difficulties: the backing itself was wavy/flimsy so it didn't help enforce the gaps in the tiles, and it tended to detach from the tiles when wet, meaning cutting the sheets with a wet saw (standard tiling tool) wasn't really an option. We also noticed that some of the sheets of tile had a noticeably different color when compared head-to-head (probably from a different batch and control between batches seemed not to be super tight).
The tile that was already up had to be removed, and a new pain-in-the-ass installation approach was utilized: the sheets were cut into 1-inch strips that were mounted one at a time, and stiff spacers had to be cut from thin strips of wood to help align the next row of tiles. A job that should have taken 1 day is now turning into a 3-day effort. I feel bad for the tiler. In the future, we'd go and buy something with a higher assembly and consistency quality to help the tiler do a great job (or even more so if we were doing it ourselves).
There are a million options. Literally. Materials include glass, ceramic, metals, etc. You can do all one finish, mix them into a design, or buy sheets that already pre-mix coordinated colors for you. You can get the same tile in different sizes and shapes from itty bitty square inchers to footlongs. In terms of final function and appearance, the matter is entirely subjective. Go nuts with your imagination.
The key differences we found were in the consistency of the tiles themselves and the ease (or lack thereof) of installation. We went with square foot sheets of 1x2 inch arctic ice glass tiles, arranged in the classic subway configuration (horizontal, each row half offset from the one above and below it). The sheets are constructed by pre-setting the many small tiles onto a mesh backing so that they can be mortared and placed on the wall in easy-to-apply large sections (as opposed to carefully aligning each tiny tile by hand!). As such, we were surprised to come home and find that an entire wall's worth of tile had been installed and looked completely uneven: wavy with inconsistent gaps, and in some cases tiles had run into each other or were pretty far from horizontal. Upon talking with our tiler, we found out that our tile choice from Home Depot was basically as cheap as possible and presented many installation difficulties: the backing itself was wavy/flimsy so it didn't help enforce the gaps in the tiles, and it tended to detach from the tiles when wet, meaning cutting the sheets with a wet saw (standard tiling tool) wasn't really an option. We also noticed that some of the sheets of tile had a noticeably different color when compared head-to-head (probably from a different batch and control between batches seemed not to be super tight).
The tile that was already up had to be removed, and a new pain-in-the-ass installation approach was utilized: the sheets were cut into 1-inch strips that were mounted one at a time, and stiff spacers had to be cut from thin strips of wood to help align the next row of tiles. A job that should have taken 1 day is now turning into a 3-day effort. I feel bad for the tiler. In the future, we'd go and buy something with a higher assembly and consistency quality to help the tiler do a great job (or even more so if we were doing it ourselves).
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Kitchen Remodeling: The thing about countertops
Granite granite granite! The end.
Actually, there are a number of material options and each has some kind of upside.
Granite:
The standard for the modern high-end kitchen. It's a natural stone cut from sacred grounds and polished with children's tears, making it heat, scratch and impact resistant. Usually has a "flowy" pattern in it from when it was born as lava. Every piece is different, so you go to a granite gallery and pick out your exact slab(s) like it were a lobster dinner. Installed cost starts around $70 per square foot and rises dramatically with exoticness of slab choice. Strong enough to support undermount sinks.
Quartz:
A synthetic stone, made from crushed natural stuff. Sometimes includes fun "grit" like crushed glass. It's also non-porous, so it's naturally stain resistant (unlike granite, which must be sealed to achieve that). Otherwise functionally identical to granite, but the finish is a lot more consistent and typically only has micro-patterns in it.
Marble:
A luxurious finish typically seen in bathrooms, is visually similar granite, though extreme patterns are rarer and it tends to have more of a "wispy" appearance. However, it did not start life as molten hot lava and actually makes a poor choice for kitchens because it's reactive with acid. Therefore, lemon juice equals a dulled/damaged countertop. Similar cost to granite.
Dupont Corian (or similar):
A molded plastic top that is most notable for being completely seamless. I haven't talked about seams yet, but since the stone materials above come in slabs, any surface you can't fit on a single slab has to be joined from multiple pieces. While cheaper than the stone alternative, Corian is also far less damage-resistant. It's plastic after all, remember? We're basically talking a countertop made out of a football helmet ... so it will melt if you put a hot pot on it and scrape if you stick a knife in it. Cost is usually around half of the stone options.
Granite tile:
Well, it's granite, in tile form. It's thin, can crack more easily and is graced by the presence of grout. While it's a lot cheaper (tiles are under $10 a square foot), the grout makes it hard to clean and its thinness means you have to add a face to make it look ok. This face-to-top joint will also have visible grouting. On the flipside, it's still actual granite and if you're selling a house, you can check the "granite countertop" checkbox.
Butcher block:
Usually more of a style decision, butcher block is an attractive top made from glued-together solid planks of wood. In many ways it's similar to having a wood tabletop for your counter. Wood resists some heat, but can scorch under very hot pans. Clearly it's only somewhat durable, scuffs and cuts are likely to accumulate over time.
Veneered board:
The basic. It's cheap. You cut some plywood or mdf to fit your cabinet and put some veneer on top. The end.
A big upside of the premium tops (granite and quartz) is their ability to accomodate an undermount sink (which is actually just glued to the underside of the countertop, though additional support beams can be installed in the cabinet). Undermount sinks are nice because you can simply sweep mess from the counter into them instead of having to get it up over a sink lip. Both materials come in slabs with sharp edges and corners. Most people like to put some kind of rounded edge on them. You should ease (that's the technical term for rounding them off) them at least a little bit, otherwise they're sharp enough to be seriously uncomfortable when leaning against them and the corners could definitely puncture someone.
It seems that granite slabs are generally larger than quartz. This is potentially relevant when planning the shape of your countertop. We chose quartz and the smaller slabs forced us to put a seam through one section of our counter: we had the option to either have the last 2 feet be a separate piece or to put the seam through the sink (which is a little weird, technically speaking). We opted for the sink route and it was the right decision, however if we'd gone with granite this wouldn't have been an issue at all. Luckily the lack or marco pattern in quartz does allow it to hide seams well. Due to the complexity of the cut, however, the first try was a fail and that section of our countertop had to be redone. This pushed back our tiler by a full week while he was waiting for the entire stretch of countertop to be ready (and then due to our tile snafu, slipped almost an entire extra week!).
Work with your countertop designer to ensure that the countertops you want come from slabs that don't end up with seams in places you don't want them. My mom did a remodel; their counters have a visible lava flow in them so the exact cuts and orientations of the pieces matter (to keep the lava flow effect through the entire kitchen). They almost got burned because they bought 2 slabs of the granite and were hairs away from needing a 3rd; by that time there were no matching pieces left. Due to the uniqueness of the pattern, there was literally no way to get another matching piece. In other words, if you are going with granite, consider the pattern and the cuts very carefully.
Actually, there are a number of material options and each has some kind of upside.
Granite:
The standard for the modern high-end kitchen. It's a natural stone cut from sacred grounds and polished with children's tears, making it heat, scratch and impact resistant. Usually has a "flowy" pattern in it from when it was born as lava. Every piece is different, so you go to a granite gallery and pick out your exact slab(s) like it were a lobster dinner. Installed cost starts around $70 per square foot and rises dramatically with exoticness of slab choice. Strong enough to support undermount sinks.
Quartz:
A synthetic stone, made from crushed natural stuff. Sometimes includes fun "grit" like crushed glass. It's also non-porous, so it's naturally stain resistant (unlike granite, which must be sealed to achieve that). Otherwise functionally identical to granite, but the finish is a lot more consistent and typically only has micro-patterns in it.
Marble:
A luxurious finish typically seen in bathrooms, is visually similar granite, though extreme patterns are rarer and it tends to have more of a "wispy" appearance. However, it did not start life as molten hot lava and actually makes a poor choice for kitchens because it's reactive with acid. Therefore, lemon juice equals a dulled/damaged countertop. Similar cost to granite.
Dupont Corian (or similar):
A molded plastic top that is most notable for being completely seamless. I haven't talked about seams yet, but since the stone materials above come in slabs, any surface you can't fit on a single slab has to be joined from multiple pieces. While cheaper than the stone alternative, Corian is also far less damage-resistant. It's plastic after all, remember? We're basically talking a countertop made out of a football helmet ... so it will melt if you put a hot pot on it and scrape if you stick a knife in it. Cost is usually around half of the stone options.
Granite tile:
Well, it's granite, in tile form. It's thin, can crack more easily and is graced by the presence of grout. While it's a lot cheaper (tiles are under $10 a square foot), the grout makes it hard to clean and its thinness means you have to add a face to make it look ok. This face-to-top joint will also have visible grouting. On the flipside, it's still actual granite and if you're selling a house, you can check the "granite countertop" checkbox.
Butcher block:
Usually more of a style decision, butcher block is an attractive top made from glued-together solid planks of wood. In many ways it's similar to having a wood tabletop for your counter. Wood resists some heat, but can scorch under very hot pans. Clearly it's only somewhat durable, scuffs and cuts are likely to accumulate over time.
Veneered board:
The basic. It's cheap. You cut some plywood or mdf to fit your cabinet and put some veneer on top. The end.
A big upside of the premium tops (granite and quartz) is their ability to accomodate an undermount sink (which is actually just glued to the underside of the countertop, though additional support beams can be installed in the cabinet). Undermount sinks are nice because you can simply sweep mess from the counter into them instead of having to get it up over a sink lip. Both materials come in slabs with sharp edges and corners. Most people like to put some kind of rounded edge on them. You should ease (that's the technical term for rounding them off) them at least a little bit, otherwise they're sharp enough to be seriously uncomfortable when leaning against them and the corners could definitely puncture someone.
It seems that granite slabs are generally larger than quartz. This is potentially relevant when planning the shape of your countertop. We chose quartz and the smaller slabs forced us to put a seam through one section of our counter: we had the option to either have the last 2 feet be a separate piece or to put the seam through the sink (which is a little weird, technically speaking). We opted for the sink route and it was the right decision, however if we'd gone with granite this wouldn't have been an issue at all. Luckily the lack or marco pattern in quartz does allow it to hide seams well. Due to the complexity of the cut, however, the first try was a fail and that section of our countertop had to be redone. This pushed back our tiler by a full week while he was waiting for the entire stretch of countertop to be ready (and then due to our tile snafu, slipped almost an entire extra week!).
Work with your countertop designer to ensure that the countertops you want come from slabs that don't end up with seams in places you don't want them. My mom did a remodel; their counters have a visible lava flow in them so the exact cuts and orientations of the pieces matter (to keep the lava flow effect through the entire kitchen). They almost got burned because they bought 2 slabs of the granite and were hairs away from needing a 3rd; by that time there were no matching pieces left. Due to the uniqueness of the pattern, there was literally no way to get another matching piece. In other words, if you are going with granite, consider the pattern and the cuts very carefully.
Why Murray the Christian from Smalltown is a conservative
We often hear about the religious right, and while I'm aware that exceptions do exist (in a country of 300 million, there might even be a lot of exceptions), the phrase is usually redundant. There are personality traits that link being conservative with being religious as well as living in a small town. Let's put on our hats and explore!
What does it mean to be conservative? By definition, it means that you like things the way they are. Why? Listen sonny, I've been fishing with live bait since I was knee high on a grasshopper and I pulled in the biggest catfish you ever seen. The conservative personality learns that a particular way works for them, and this is justification enough for them to continue with the status quo. This is not an inherently bad thing, it's just a statement of fact about an approach to interacting with the world they know. Unless something is clearly amiss, they don't question it. Everyone is conservative about some things. You don't change the way you grip a pencil or try a new method of brushing your teeth every week.
Why would the conservative more likely be religious? Because my parents led their life based on The Bible and they were happy, so why wouldn't I? This is an extension, of course. Now we're projecting another's life experience and mapping that forwards. Personality-wise this isn't really different though, it's analogous to Murray learning to use live bait from his dad. Maybe he never tried anything else because he caught something his first time out. Why mess with success? Clearly this connection between the conservative personality and relgion isn't guaranteed, but given an otherwise equal societal or parental influence, the conservative is more likely to go along with it.
Why would the conservative religious person more likely live in a small town? Everyone's capacity to accept things on faith is limited, and influenced by life experiences that affirm or contradict what they believe. There's simply less variety in small towns, so an otherwise similar distribution of conservative and/or religious people would encounter fewer things to make them question the things they believe. Conversely, the conservative is more likely to seek out smaller towns with less variety, specifically those small towns that agree with his own notions of how things should work. Over time, small towns become magnets for conservative and religious people and large cities attract people who value diversity and surprise, which is inherently tied to being a liberal personality type.
This is not meant as a critique of either side, it's simply an evaluation of why certain demographic traits correlate.
What does it mean to be conservative? By definition, it means that you like things the way they are. Why? Listen sonny, I've been fishing with live bait since I was knee high on a grasshopper and I pulled in the biggest catfish you ever seen. The conservative personality learns that a particular way works for them, and this is justification enough for them to continue with the status quo. This is not an inherently bad thing, it's just a statement of fact about an approach to interacting with the world they know. Unless something is clearly amiss, they don't question it. Everyone is conservative about some things. You don't change the way you grip a pencil or try a new method of brushing your teeth every week.
Why would the conservative more likely be religious? Because my parents led their life based on The Bible and they were happy, so why wouldn't I? This is an extension, of course. Now we're projecting another's life experience and mapping that forwards. Personality-wise this isn't really different though, it's analogous to Murray learning to use live bait from his dad. Maybe he never tried anything else because he caught something his first time out. Why mess with success? Clearly this connection between the conservative personality and relgion isn't guaranteed, but given an otherwise equal societal or parental influence, the conservative is more likely to go along with it.
Why would the conservative religious person more likely live in a small town? Everyone's capacity to accept things on faith is limited, and influenced by life experiences that affirm or contradict what they believe. There's simply less variety in small towns, so an otherwise similar distribution of conservative and/or religious people would encounter fewer things to make them question the things they believe. Conversely, the conservative is more likely to seek out smaller towns with less variety, specifically those small towns that agree with his own notions of how things should work. Over time, small towns become magnets for conservative and religious people and large cities attract people who value diversity and surprise, which is inherently tied to being a liberal personality type.
This is not meant as a critique of either side, it's simply an evaluation of why certain demographic traits correlate.
Kitchen Remodeling: The thing about planning
Suppose you want to remodel your kitchen. It's every American's dream. It's practically synonymous with patriotism and serves as a pinnacle of personal expression. Sometimes I exaggerate ...
You own your place. Maybe you just moved in, maybe it's been something you've been dreaming about for decades and you finally have the time, energy and money. Maybe you just need to reface some cabinets, maybe you need a total teardown. Maybe you're doing a complete transformation, walls included. Just thinking about it can be overwhelming. Where do you start?
If you already have a strong sense of what you want (including, function, shape and style), make some sketches. Look at them. Draw some basic dimensions, then outline things in your existing space with blue tape to get a real live sense of what it might feel like. Live in that for a week or two to feel it out. There are many mistakes that are trivial to find once something is built, but not obvious at all in a blueprint. My kitchen fails list addresses some of these.
If you have no idea, you need to get yourself to the above state. You can look at kitchen pics on the internet and find a couple that you like for style. You can talk to your friends. You can look at what you don't like about your current kitchen. Just be careful: all kitchen spaces are different and the same layout or concept that works in one place may not work at all in another. You'll need to be creative and be willing to tear down ideas you form as their flaws emerge.
Many components of a kitchen are interchangeable. You don't need to decide exactly which stove you want while designing, just how big it should be (standard sizes are 30 and 36 inches, and some specialty pro stoves are 48" or 60" wide). You don't need to decide which sink you want, just doodle in a rectangle that's about 33" You don't need to decide which fridge you want, just make an opening that's 72" tall and 36" wide (unless you are considering a professional model which are usually 84" tall and come in widths from 36 to 72"; these you need to specifically plan around). You don't need to decide what microwave you want, just if you want it above the stove or not. Simplify your decision matrix, abstract some of these pieces and defer the decision until later.
We were in the first category. I'd planned out kitchens in fine detail several times, but never made it to breaking ground on any of the projects, so we still had lots to learn. We started at Home Depot; we sat down with a designer for an hour. We showed her our sketches and our measurements of the kitchen. Since we're random amateurs, she signed us up to get professional measurements of the space. This makes a lot of sense because if somoene's going to design and build cabinets for you, they'd better fit exactly as expected. Once the measurements were in, the real design work can start.
We had already window-shopped for finishes and found a color and door style we liked in one of the cheaper lines. Once a cabinet maker and line are selected, the process is quite a bit like playing with Legos. You sit with the designer and drop pieces into a CAD program, adding bits of spacer next to appliances for whatever reason I can't remember. Once the design is done, an estimator from their partner contractor (Home Depot does not do the work, they have a local sub install everything) shows up and gives you the bad news.
Bad news? Huh? Yes, it's a lot of money. We knew going in that it's not cheap to redo a kitchen and we'd been given some guidelines that a typical kitchen remodel runs something like 10-15% of the value of the home. However, given the quoted cost of the cabinets ($10k), approximate cost to install them ("30-70 percent of the cabinet cost, usually") and adding in counter tops, appliances, some hardwood refinishing, and other accessories, we thought we might come out to $35k, maybe $40k tops. When we went back to Home Depot to find out our estimate, it came in over $50k.
Turns out there are serious other costs that are not included in that list: electrical, plumbing (especially if you are moving any appliances that use water), drywall repair after said chores, demolition and haul-away of the old cabinets, backsplash install ... it goes on and adds up. We told our designer that we weren't ready to move forward and needed to think about it (and get other quotes).
Additionally, the process was slow and imperfect.
Marisa had signed up for Angie's List, so we looked up remodelers. We picked two highly rated ones at semi-random. We first visited Keystone Kitchens. Their store was staffed by the owner, Chris, and his wife, both of whom were super attentive, assured us that they would have a competitive bid, and offered to come out Wednesday night at 7pm to take measurements. We got such a good vibe from them we didn't even check out the other place.
Chris took our design and suggested some tweaks to it, which we completely agreed with (and now that the kitchen is coming together were clearly great calls): moving the stove so there's ample space on both sides of it, aligning upper and lower cabinets in one section, moving the dishwasher to a better spot. He looked at it as though it were his own, even using the phrase "I'm not entirely happy with this here", as though our design needed to satisfy him too. Clearly he wouldn't override our wishes, but the passion to try and better our design was greatly appreciated. He also told us we'd get custom cabinets made from top-of-the-line materials (yeah yeah, it's plywood, but that's as good as cabinets get), great hardware, etc.
In conclusion, I'd highly recommend working with a smaller company. We ended up paying a little bit more, but the final product is so much better (both in materials and functionally). Involve them in the planning, especially if you aren't sure what you want. Even if you do, you may learn from someone more experienced than you ... so give yourself every chance to make the design better. This absolutely includes working with someone who has the time to devote to your job.
You own your place. Maybe you just moved in, maybe it's been something you've been dreaming about for decades and you finally have the time, energy and money. Maybe you just need to reface some cabinets, maybe you need a total teardown. Maybe you're doing a complete transformation, walls included. Just thinking about it can be overwhelming. Where do you start?
If you already have a strong sense of what you want (including, function, shape and style), make some sketches. Look at them. Draw some basic dimensions, then outline things in your existing space with blue tape to get a real live sense of what it might feel like. Live in that for a week or two to feel it out. There are many mistakes that are trivial to find once something is built, but not obvious at all in a blueprint. My kitchen fails list addresses some of these.
If you have no idea, you need to get yourself to the above state. You can look at kitchen pics on the internet and find a couple that you like for style. You can talk to your friends. You can look at what you don't like about your current kitchen. Just be careful: all kitchen spaces are different and the same layout or concept that works in one place may not work at all in another. You'll need to be creative and be willing to tear down ideas you form as their flaws emerge.
Many components of a kitchen are interchangeable. You don't need to decide exactly which stove you want while designing, just how big it should be (standard sizes are 30 and 36 inches, and some specialty pro stoves are 48" or 60" wide). You don't need to decide which sink you want, just doodle in a rectangle that's about 33" You don't need to decide which fridge you want, just make an opening that's 72" tall and 36" wide (unless you are considering a professional model which are usually 84" tall and come in widths from 36 to 72"; these you need to specifically plan around). You don't need to decide what microwave you want, just if you want it above the stove or not. Simplify your decision matrix, abstract some of these pieces and defer the decision until later.
We were in the first category. I'd planned out kitchens in fine detail several times, but never made it to breaking ground on any of the projects, so we still had lots to learn. We started at Home Depot; we sat down with a designer for an hour. We showed her our sketches and our measurements of the kitchen. Since we're random amateurs, she signed us up to get professional measurements of the space. This makes a lot of sense because if somoene's going to design and build cabinets for you, they'd better fit exactly as expected. Once the measurements were in, the real design work can start.
We had already window-shopped for finishes and found a color and door style we liked in one of the cheaper lines. Once a cabinet maker and line are selected, the process is quite a bit like playing with Legos. You sit with the designer and drop pieces into a CAD program, adding bits of spacer next to appliances for whatever reason I can't remember. Once the design is done, an estimator from their partner contractor (Home Depot does not do the work, they have a local sub install everything) shows up and gives you the bad news.
Bad news? Huh? Yes, it's a lot of money. We knew going in that it's not cheap to redo a kitchen and we'd been given some guidelines that a typical kitchen remodel runs something like 10-15% of the value of the home. However, given the quoted cost of the cabinets ($10k), approximate cost to install them ("30-70 percent of the cabinet cost, usually") and adding in counter tops, appliances, some hardwood refinishing, and other accessories, we thought we might come out to $35k, maybe $40k tops. When we went back to Home Depot to find out our estimate, it came in over $50k.
Turns out there are serious other costs that are not included in that list: electrical, plumbing (especially if you are moving any appliances that use water), drywall repair after said chores, demolition and haul-away of the old cabinets, backsplash install ... it goes on and adds up. We told our designer that we weren't ready to move forward and needed to think about it (and get other quotes).
Additionally, the process was slow and imperfect.
Marisa had signed up for Angie's List, so we looked up remodelers. We picked two highly rated ones at semi-random. We first visited Keystone Kitchens. Their store was staffed by the owner, Chris, and his wife, both of whom were super attentive, assured us that they would have a competitive bid, and offered to come out Wednesday night at 7pm to take measurements. We got such a good vibe from them we didn't even check out the other place.
Chris took our design and suggested some tweaks to it, which we completely agreed with (and now that the kitchen is coming together were clearly great calls): moving the stove so there's ample space on both sides of it, aligning upper and lower cabinets in one section, moving the dishwasher to a better spot. He looked at it as though it were his own, even using the phrase "I'm not entirely happy with this here", as though our design needed to satisfy him too. Clearly he wouldn't override our wishes, but the passion to try and better our design was greatly appreciated. He also told us we'd get custom cabinets made from top-of-the-line materials (yeah yeah, it's plywood, but that's as good as cabinets get), great hardware, etc.
In conclusion, I'd highly recommend working with a smaller company. We ended up paying a little bit more, but the final product is so much better (both in materials and functionally). Involve them in the planning, especially if you aren't sure what you want. Even if you do, you may learn from someone more experienced than you ... so give yourself every chance to make the design better. This absolutely includes working with someone who has the time to devote to your job.
Kitchen Remodeling: The thing about Home Depot
We started our kitchen remodel at Home Depot because we didn't know where else to go. We walked in with plans and sketches in hand; these would be transferred to CAD by our designer. Our designer was nice enough, capable enough, offered some helpful suggestions, etc. However, she was also clearly overwhelmed. I shudder to think how many projects she was handling at once and while I have no doubt that we would have ended up with a satisfactory kitchen going through them, that overwhelming creates an environment where there's a clear "good enough" point. Our design would have been less functional and had inferior cabinets, and taken longer. It was difficult to get a hold of our designer (she has a shared extension with all the other designers). Getting from initial contact to a quote took over a month. The job estimate was around 2 months.
Keystone Kitchens was able to move from initial contact to work within 2-3 weeks, and deliver a complete kitchen about 5-6 weeks later with only minor hiccups that were completely taken care of. If I have a problem, I call or email the owner of the company and it's addressed immediately. We paid marginally more to go with Keystone, but got plywood cabinets instead of mdf, custom stain, matched grain pattern on all the cabinet doors, superior hardware and drawer construction and attention to every little detail, including insightful modifications to our design (both aesthetic and functional).
Keystone Kitchens was able to move from initial contact to work within 2-3 weeks, and deliver a complete kitchen about 5-6 weeks later with only minor hiccups that were completely taken care of. If I have a problem, I call or email the owner of the company and it's addressed immediately. We paid marginally more to go with Keystone, but got plywood cabinets instead of mdf, custom stain, matched grain pattern on all the cabinet doors, superior hardware and drawer construction and attention to every little detail, including insightful modifications to our design (both aesthetic and functional).
Kitchen Remodeling: The thing about faucets
For some, faucets are merely a hose from which water comes. For others, they are metal masterpieces whose lines define the space. I'm somewhere in between; I definitely cared about looks when weighing in on the faucet decision.
We wanted something modern in stainless steel, and ended up with the Kohler Purist 7505 VS. This particular model uses a single-hole installation, meaning there is a total of 1 hole that all of it goes through. Faucets can use anywhere from 1 to 4 holes, depending on the combination of handles going through the countertop vs being on the faucet, whether the sprayer is integrated into the faucet itself ("pull-down" or "pull-out") or is a standalone item, and if there's a matching soap dispenser. Knowing which faucet you want factors into the overall planning because not all styles are available in all holenesses. If you are mounting the faucet to the sink, the sink will need to match in available holes.
Assuming you went with the integrated sprayer, there are the above-mentioned two options. As the names suggest, a pull-down faucet lets you grab the tip and pull it down, while the pull-out option detaches a larger upper section which acts as a handle and also typically has a bend in it. In either case the pieces are attached to the base via a flexible hose, allowing you to spray to your delight in every conceivable direction.
While it the difference between the two styles seems minor, there's a rather tangible difference between them. The flexible inside hose is not THAT flexible, thus it's hard to bend it significantly. As a result, the pull-down variety of faucets are essentially limited to spraying along a radius starting at the faucet tip. In practice, this means that you can easily get closer to things (for concentrated spraying), however, it's hard to maneuver it around to spray something from a different angle, or to extend your faucet to the edge of the sink and spray down. The pull-out model, in contrast, excels tat these maneuvers.
There's likely a reason that most faucets have a nice rounded shape: the sprayer return mechanism (which is actually just a large weight attached to the hose under the base of the faucet) doesn't work as well when sharp corners are involved. For example, our faucet's end is harder to pull out than others I've worked with in the past.
And that's the thing about faucets: there are a bunch of options and they all have an impact.
We wanted something modern in stainless steel, and ended up with the Kohler Purist 7505 VS. This particular model uses a single-hole installation, meaning there is a total of 1 hole that all of it goes through. Faucets can use anywhere from 1 to 4 holes, depending on the combination of handles going through the countertop vs being on the faucet, whether the sprayer is integrated into the faucet itself ("pull-down" or "pull-out") or is a standalone item, and if there's a matching soap dispenser. Knowing which faucet you want factors into the overall planning because not all styles are available in all holenesses. If you are mounting the faucet to the sink, the sink will need to match in available holes.
Assuming you went with the integrated sprayer, there are the above-mentioned two options. As the names suggest, a pull-down faucet lets you grab the tip and pull it down, while the pull-out option detaches a larger upper section which acts as a handle and also typically has a bend in it. In either case the pieces are attached to the base via a flexible hose, allowing you to spray to your delight in every conceivable direction.
While it the difference between the two styles seems minor, there's a rather tangible difference between them. The flexible inside hose is not THAT flexible, thus it's hard to bend it significantly. As a result, the pull-down variety of faucets are essentially limited to spraying along a radius starting at the faucet tip. In practice, this means that you can easily get closer to things (for concentrated spraying), however, it's hard to maneuver it around to spray something from a different angle, or to extend your faucet to the edge of the sink and spray down. The pull-out model, in contrast, excels tat these maneuvers.
There's likely a reason that most faucets have a nice rounded shape: the sprayer return mechanism (which is actually just a large weight attached to the hose under the base of the faucet) doesn't work as well when sharp corners are involved. For example, our faucet's end is harder to pull out than others I've worked with in the past.
And that's the thing about faucets: there are a bunch of options and they all have an impact.
America's Privates
America is pretty prudish by white-people standards. We're not big on taking our shirts off in public or seeing boobs on the beach. Entire squadrons of moms panic at the idea that their innocent little one might see a penis. We love our privacy.
America is also great at providing public restrooms. Hooray!
These are largely standardized, in fact some ridiculous percent contain piping from Sloan Valve Co, and units from American Standard. They also contain the same door system with the quarter-to-half inch gap on either side. Want to know if a stall is taken? Just peek. For us boys, facing a urinal backed by glossy tiles affords an opportunity to accidentally get a near-mirror-like reflection of our neighbor's junk because the urinal dividers use the same gap-mounted approach.
I suppose we've all become desensitized to this, but I still wonder why the disconnect between our national personality and our national bathroom implementation.
America is also great at providing public restrooms. Hooray!
These are largely standardized, in fact some ridiculous percent contain piping from Sloan Valve Co, and units from American Standard. They also contain the same door system with the quarter-to-half inch gap on either side. Want to know if a stall is taken? Just peek. For us boys, facing a urinal backed by glossy tiles affords an opportunity to accidentally get a near-mirror-like reflection of our neighbor's junk because the urinal dividers use the same gap-mounted approach.
I suppose we've all become desensitized to this, but I still wonder why the disconnect between our national personality and our national bathroom implementation.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Finding time
Know all those things you want to find time to do? Where did you ever find time for them?
I've never been able to find time under a pillow or in the pocket of my jeans. There isn't some magic bucket of time out there. What you get done are the things you prioritize, and by extension, the things your actions say are most valuable to you. This doesn't mean that all time needs to be "productive" or that there isn't value in watching reruns of Finding Bigfoot. It just means that you can look back at a period in your life and identify what was really important to you by what you actually allotted time for.
If you find you're unhappy with your choices, change them. Don't hope that you'll get a visit from the magical time genie. Do what you actually want to do, or admit that you don't actually care about those things you think you want to do.
I've never been able to find time under a pillow or in the pocket of my jeans. There isn't some magic bucket of time out there. What you get done are the things you prioritize, and by extension, the things your actions say are most valuable to you. This doesn't mean that all time needs to be "productive" or that there isn't value in watching reruns of Finding Bigfoot. It just means that you can look back at a period in your life and identify what was really important to you by what you actually allotted time for.
If you find you're unhappy with your choices, change them. Don't hope that you'll get a visit from the magical time genie. Do what you actually want to do, or admit that you don't actually care about those things you think you want to do.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Searching for a house
Marisa and I got engaged in December 2010. We were renting a great townhouse in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood which we both enjoyed greatly. Traffic to work on the east side was a little cumbersome (or awful if you ask her), but it was just accepted as part of where and how we lived.
A few months down the road we started looking at buying a house. Our wishlist included staying in the neighborhood, a single-family house with 3 bedrooms, an office, open floorplan, modern look, 2-car garage and some other stuff I can't remember anymore. We searched on Redfin and started going to some open houses and quickly came to the realization that almost every such home in Queen Anne is either over 100 years old and smells funny, or it has been renovated but still smells funny, or it has been renovated to a style we hated, or is well over 1 million dollars, or is on the very north slope that we weren't as enthused about anymore since its walking proximity to downtown is pretty much not applicable. Thus we had to expand our search.
We considered a lot of neighborhoods, but most had some drawback:
Magnolia - despite an agent's insistence that "it's 5 more minutes to everything", it's clearly not. It's accessible via 2 streets, and gets all kinds of backed up during rush hour.
Fremont - Similar issues to Queen Anne, also not quite our style of neighborhood
Ballard - Cool neighborhood, but definitely 'far' considering we commute to Microsoft every day
Greenlake - Has some upsides, highway-adjacent. A lot of newer homes were skinny townhomes.
Montlake - Most houses are quite old and it's somewhat in a limbo zone
Bellevue - Generally quite expensive. Only reason to go there is Bell Square and there's plenty of parking
Kirkland - A little less expensive, has its own character, but far from downtown
We officially started looking in November of 2011, meaning we actually signed up with Redfin and took our first field-agent guided tours. By now we'd settled on Kirkland being the likely location of our future house and we basically evaluated every house that came on the market anywhere close to our budget. Things were slow in the winter and we quickly exhausted all options. Houses trickled by, but we didn't see one we'd even consider making an offer on for months.
Our first serious candidate was a semi-renovated house in Bellevue's Cherry Creek neighborhood, listed for $700,000, but had a fair market value in the $600,000 range. It had unique touches like aggregate concrete floors and an interior courtyard. It also had a number of renovation fails, like brand new calcutta marble countertops on top of the original cabinets (from 1971) in the kitchen. We liked a lot of things about the house, but the kitchen needed a full remodel. We started looking into the cost of a remodel only to find that a) it's almost as much to salvage an installed top as it is to buy a new one and b) marble is a poor choice in a kitchen anyways because it reacts with acid (ex: lemon juice). We did some estimating with a Home Depot designer to get an idea of what new cabinets and counters and all that would run and came in somewhere around $30,000, which seemed reasonable, especially when paired with the FMV of the house. There was a ton of interest during open houses but no market activity, so we figured people were either turned off by the unique touches, or were too shy to offer $100,000 below asking. Either way, we decided to feel out their agent. They re-iterated that they were willing to negotiate, but that we should consider that it's a great neighborhood and that a brand new elementary school was being built down the street.
Side note: the 2 other houses on the block that sold within the previous 6 months also were in a great neighborhood and had a brand new elementary school being built down the street. $600k was derived using those as comps. You can't double-count positive features. Want me to tell you I don't like the floors in this corner of the room, or that corner?
Short version: their agent told us not to even bother making an offer in the range we were thinking, so we shrugged and moved on. Sure it would have been great if we could have talked them down, but it just wasn't going to happen. A couple months later, we found our house. Lest this just be a story about us, I'll add some things to think about:
1. Know what you want, and be ready to buy when you see it
1a. Know what doesn't work for you and walk away from it
2. Be realistic about what you can buy. Don't hold out for something that just won't be on the market.
3. Look above your price range too. You may be able to negotiate, and it will help you get a clearer picture of what the next level up looks like, so to speak. If you're consistently seeing houses you like starting 20% above your budget and none within, you need to re-evaluate your search parameters.
4. If you've spent a couple months looking without seeing anything you like, re-evaluate. Are your expectations realistic? Should you look in another neighborhood? Will you need to do some renovation to save costs or morph a house to what you want?
Don't settle for something you don't really want. Sometimes that means putting your house search on hold and waiting until you have more money. Renting isn't the worst thing in the world: it lets someone else take all the risk. While buying a house is an investment, it's also a lifestyle decision... and you don't want to spend years of home ownership and work and money on something you don't really want to live in.
A few months down the road we started looking at buying a house. Our wishlist included staying in the neighborhood, a single-family house with 3 bedrooms, an office, open floorplan, modern look, 2-car garage and some other stuff I can't remember anymore. We searched on Redfin and started going to some open houses and quickly came to the realization that almost every such home in Queen Anne is either over 100 years old and smells funny, or it has been renovated but still smells funny, or it has been renovated to a style we hated, or is well over 1 million dollars, or is on the very north slope that we weren't as enthused about anymore since its walking proximity to downtown is pretty much not applicable. Thus we had to expand our search.
We considered a lot of neighborhoods, but most had some drawback:
Magnolia - despite an agent's insistence that "it's 5 more minutes to everything", it's clearly not. It's accessible via 2 streets, and gets all kinds of backed up during rush hour.
Fremont - Similar issues to Queen Anne, also not quite our style of neighborhood
Ballard - Cool neighborhood, but definitely 'far' considering we commute to Microsoft every day
Greenlake - Has some upsides, highway-adjacent. A lot of newer homes were skinny townhomes.
Montlake - Most houses are quite old and it's somewhat in a limbo zone
Bellevue - Generally quite expensive. Only reason to go there is Bell Square and there's plenty of parking
Kirkland - A little less expensive, has its own character, but far from downtown
We officially started looking in November of 2011, meaning we actually signed up with Redfin and took our first field-agent guided tours. By now we'd settled on Kirkland being the likely location of our future house and we basically evaluated every house that came on the market anywhere close to our budget. Things were slow in the winter and we quickly exhausted all options. Houses trickled by, but we didn't see one we'd even consider making an offer on for months.
Our first serious candidate was a semi-renovated house in Bellevue's Cherry Creek neighborhood, listed for $700,000, but had a fair market value in the $600,000 range. It had unique touches like aggregate concrete floors and an interior courtyard. It also had a number of renovation fails, like brand new calcutta marble countertops on top of the original cabinets (from 1971) in the kitchen. We liked a lot of things about the house, but the kitchen needed a full remodel. We started looking into the cost of a remodel only to find that a) it's almost as much to salvage an installed top as it is to buy a new one and b) marble is a poor choice in a kitchen anyways because it reacts with acid (ex: lemon juice). We did some estimating with a Home Depot designer to get an idea of what new cabinets and counters and all that would run and came in somewhere around $30,000, which seemed reasonable, especially when paired with the FMV of the house. There was a ton of interest during open houses but no market activity, so we figured people were either turned off by the unique touches, or were too shy to offer $100,000 below asking. Either way, we decided to feel out their agent. They re-iterated that they were willing to negotiate, but that we should consider that it's a great neighborhood and that a brand new elementary school was being built down the street.
Side note: the 2 other houses on the block that sold within the previous 6 months also were in a great neighborhood and had a brand new elementary school being built down the street. $600k was derived using those as comps. You can't double-count positive features. Want me to tell you I don't like the floors in this corner of the room, or that corner?
Short version: their agent told us not to even bother making an offer in the range we were thinking, so we shrugged and moved on. Sure it would have been great if we could have talked them down, but it just wasn't going to happen. A couple months later, we found our house. Lest this just be a story about us, I'll add some things to think about:
1. Know what you want, and be ready to buy when you see it
1a. Know what doesn't work for you and walk away from it
2. Be realistic about what you can buy. Don't hold out for something that just won't be on the market.
3. Look above your price range too. You may be able to negotiate, and it will help you get a clearer picture of what the next level up looks like, so to speak. If you're consistently seeing houses you like starting 20% above your budget and none within, you need to re-evaluate your search parameters.
4. If you've spent a couple months looking without seeing anything you like, re-evaluate. Are your expectations realistic? Should you look in another neighborhood? Will you need to do some renovation to save costs or morph a house to what you want?
Don't settle for something you don't really want. Sometimes that means putting your house search on hold and waiting until you have more money. Renting isn't the worst thing in the world: it lets someone else take all the risk. While buying a house is an investment, it's also a lifestyle decision... and you don't want to spend years of home ownership and work and money on something you don't really want to live in.
Kitchen fails
The range:
Most houses will have a 4- (or maybe 5-) burner, 30"-wide range. This is perfectly fine, however typical consumer units tend to feature just one burner capable of boiling a gallon of water or putting a good sear on meat. If you ever want to make pasta and steak at the same time, you'll need to get something more potent, probably from a pro or semi-pro line.
The island:
There's this romantic notion of mom or dad cooking breakfast using the cooktop on the kitchen island while all the kiddies sit around, or perhaps facing the living room and being engaged in the rest of family time. In practice, most islands are a cooktop with about a 12-inch countertop surrounding 3 of their sides. There's nowhere to put cooking utensils, a cutting board, or even the kids without some part of them being dangerously close to popping grease or an open flame. Just don't do this. Ranges are better next to the wall.
The vent:
Victorinox (Swiss Army as most know them) has taught us that cramming N functions into a single item has great utility. Too bad none of those functions work as well as a dedicated tool. Most kitchens will mount a microwave with a recirculating vent above the range. The vents have a charcoal scrubber built in, theoretically cleaning all the gunk that will set off your smoke alarm out. In practice the blower fans are weak and incredibly noisy, and the scrubbers don't really work; outcome: beep beep beep beep. If possible, get a dedicated vent hood and vent all the crud to the outside world.
The chef's kitchen:
How many home listings claim a chef's kitchen? What does this even mean? Our house-hunting experience says that the inclusion of a single appliance from a pro line (ex: Wolf, Viking, .. ) gives an agent the green light to make this claim. Suppose I put one such appliance in a 6'x6' room with a mobile island as the entire counter surface. Chef's kitchen? They say yes. I'll let you decide, but will suggest that a real chef would like to also prep ingredients, have space for tools and maybe even invite another human being into their bubble.
The knife set:
There are few things in a kitchen the average consumer knows less about than their knives. How do I know this? Most kitchens feature an enormous collection of individually crappy knives. The problem is that people go for more choices, in this case the 17-piece set with everything from a chef's to filet to serrated utility to specialized boning knife. To offset having 17 of these, each knife is of lower quality so the set can be priced between $100-300. And when's the last time you used that boning knife?
So what's so bad about these knives, anyways?
1. They are frequently not sharp from the factory, nor do they hold an edge well (cheaper steel, cheaper manufacturing process).
2. They are poorly balanced. The blade tends to be too heavy, meaning you have to actively put energy into keeping the knife's tip up. Your hand gets tired faster, you can't maneuver it as well and coupled with the dull blade you are left struggling to do anything in the kitchen with them.
Ok fine, how do I pick a good knife then?
Numerous brands (Henckels, Wusthof and Shun are 3 common ones) make good knives, but they all have some things in common:
1. The knife is a single piece of stainless steel from the tip through the end of the handle (though decorative/comfortable wood or plastic handles can be molded around the steel)
2. The center of mass (balance point) is right around the transition from handle to blade.
3. They are forged (rolled/formed from a single piece of steel)
4. Sharp enough to slice your finger off in one stroke (don't try this at home. Or anywhere)
5. Will cost about $100 and up. Each.
But that's gonna cost like, $1700 and up!
Nope. You never use that boning or filet knife, remember? All you need to cover almost all applications are an 8" chef's knife, a bread knife (if you eat bread) and a paring knife. A sharp knife will slice cleanly through a tomato so the serrated tomato knife is out. An 8" chef's knife will cut through stuff just as well as the 6" one, making the latter redundant, and so on.
To help keep the blades sharp, don't throw your knives in the sink with all your pots and pans (just wash them after each use, I put a bit of soap on the blade and wipe them clean with my fingers under the faucet), use wooden cutting boards (preferably end-grain) and keep them in a knife block. Various retailers periodically discount high-quality knife sets with the basics, plus a block and a honing steel for $300 or less. Keep an eye out, buy them, and enjoy them for a decade or more.
The pots and pans set:
After reading my knife rant, you should be familiar with the idea that a single well-chosen item can perform many duties. Most people go out and buy the 10 or 12-piece pots and pans set. Why would you need a 3- and a 4-qt saucepan? Anything the 3qt can do, the 4qt can as well. Same with the 8" and 10" omelette pans. A good pot or pan should be heavy enough to ensure good heat distribution from your heat source (they should probably be at least 2lbs each). I recommend an 8qt multipot (with strainer and steamer insert), a 12" non-stick omelette pan and a 3-4qt stainless sauce pan to cover most of your needs. If you frequently sear meats, a good enameled cast iron pan is worth getting.
Another upshot of spending your money on fewer good items is that they take up less space. Enjoy!
Most houses will have a 4- (or maybe 5-) burner, 30"-wide range. This is perfectly fine, however typical consumer units tend to feature just one burner capable of boiling a gallon of water or putting a good sear on meat. If you ever want to make pasta and steak at the same time, you'll need to get something more potent, probably from a pro or semi-pro line.
The island:
There's this romantic notion of mom or dad cooking breakfast using the cooktop on the kitchen island while all the kiddies sit around, or perhaps facing the living room and being engaged in the rest of family time. In practice, most islands are a cooktop with about a 12-inch countertop surrounding 3 of their sides. There's nowhere to put cooking utensils, a cutting board, or even the kids without some part of them being dangerously close to popping grease or an open flame. Just don't do this. Ranges are better next to the wall.
The vent:
Victorinox (Swiss Army as most know them) has taught us that cramming N functions into a single item has great utility. Too bad none of those functions work as well as a dedicated tool. Most kitchens will mount a microwave with a recirculating vent above the range. The vents have a charcoal scrubber built in, theoretically cleaning all the gunk that will set off your smoke alarm out. In practice the blower fans are weak and incredibly noisy, and the scrubbers don't really work; outcome: beep beep beep beep. If possible, get a dedicated vent hood and vent all the crud to the outside world.
The chef's kitchen:
How many home listings claim a chef's kitchen? What does this even mean? Our house-hunting experience says that the inclusion of a single appliance from a pro line (ex: Wolf, Viking, .. ) gives an agent the green light to make this claim. Suppose I put one such appliance in a 6'x6' room with a mobile island as the entire counter surface. Chef's kitchen? They say yes. I'll let you decide, but will suggest that a real chef would like to also prep ingredients, have space for tools and maybe even invite another human being into their bubble.
The knife set:
There are few things in a kitchen the average consumer knows less about than their knives. How do I know this? Most kitchens feature an enormous collection of individually crappy knives. The problem is that people go for more choices, in this case the 17-piece set with everything from a chef's to filet to serrated utility to specialized boning knife. To offset having 17 of these, each knife is of lower quality so the set can be priced between $100-300. And when's the last time you used that boning knife?
So what's so bad about these knives, anyways?
1. They are frequently not sharp from the factory, nor do they hold an edge well (cheaper steel, cheaper manufacturing process).
2. They are poorly balanced. The blade tends to be too heavy, meaning you have to actively put energy into keeping the knife's tip up. Your hand gets tired faster, you can't maneuver it as well and coupled with the dull blade you are left struggling to do anything in the kitchen with them.
Ok fine, how do I pick a good knife then?
Numerous brands (Henckels, Wusthof and Shun are 3 common ones) make good knives, but they all have some things in common:
1. The knife is a single piece of stainless steel from the tip through the end of the handle (though decorative/comfortable wood or plastic handles can be molded around the steel)
2. The center of mass (balance point) is right around the transition from handle to blade.
3. They are forged (rolled/formed from a single piece of steel)
4. Sharp enough to slice your finger off in one stroke (don't try this at home. Or anywhere)
5. Will cost about $100 and up. Each.
But that's gonna cost like, $1700 and up!
Nope. You never use that boning or filet knife, remember? All you need to cover almost all applications are an 8" chef's knife, a bread knife (if you eat bread) and a paring knife. A sharp knife will slice cleanly through a tomato so the serrated tomato knife is out. An 8" chef's knife will cut through stuff just as well as the 6" one, making the latter redundant, and so on.
To help keep the blades sharp, don't throw your knives in the sink with all your pots and pans (just wash them after each use, I put a bit of soap on the blade and wipe them clean with my fingers under the faucet), use wooden cutting boards (preferably end-grain) and keep them in a knife block. Various retailers periodically discount high-quality knife sets with the basics, plus a block and a honing steel for $300 or less. Keep an eye out, buy them, and enjoy them for a decade or more.
The pots and pans set:
After reading my knife rant, you should be familiar with the idea that a single well-chosen item can perform many duties. Most people go out and buy the 10 or 12-piece pots and pans set. Why would you need a 3- and a 4-qt saucepan? Anything the 3qt can do, the 4qt can as well. Same with the 8" and 10" omelette pans. A good pot or pan should be heavy enough to ensure good heat distribution from your heat source (they should probably be at least 2lbs each). I recommend an 8qt multipot (with strainer and steamer insert), a 12" non-stick omelette pan and a 3-4qt stainless sauce pan to cover most of your needs. If you frequently sear meats, a good enameled cast iron pan is worth getting.
Another upshot of spending your money on fewer good items is that they take up less space. Enjoy!
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