Home Improvement - dish drawers

It is hard to believe that my kitchen remodel was in 2001. Eighteen years ago! It involved stripping to the studs where possible and all new cabinets and appliances.

Two primary reasons for the remodel were to position the refrigerator so it could actually be used and to install a dishwasher. Due to very limited and restricted space, the dishwasher solution was resolved with dish drawers from Fisher-Paykel. Turned out to be a brilliant solution because each drawer can be run independently which saves energy but also means, as a single  person, there isn't guilt for using a dishwasher frequently.

Dish drawers need about 22" to open. Regular dishwashers need at least 24" to open. I don't have 24" to spare.

After 18 years and nearly daily use, the electronics of the top unit were starting to act up. Rather than wait for failure, I bought myself an early Christmas present. A new double dish drawer unit.

Having installed the first one with my brother, I figured I could install this one. It first required uninstalling the first one. Way easier said than done. Since Warners' Stellian was going to take the old one for free with delivery of the new one, I had to get the old one out Friday night. It took a few hours to figure it out but did succeed finally by myself.

The new one was delivered right on time early Saturday afternoon and took several hours to install. But it is fully installed, operational and the kitchen completely back in original condition.

With this model, the top drawer is deeper than the bottom drawer. I'm hoping this works out. I can still get my regular dinner plates and fry pan in the bottom so its good.

Cozumel vacation

Here are some more photos from this year's Cozumel vacation.

Amy and I had a great time not doing very much. It was hot and humid with lots of mosquitos and rain sometimes. But nothing ever prevented us from enjoying the beautiful water, food, drink and people.

We had to trade hats

A type of hydrangea perhaps

Not a trick of the camera lens. This rainbow just appeared.

Shimmering pool tiles

One of many amazing sunrises

A mural off the beaten path

Sailing away

Cozumel snorkeling

Here are the snorkeling photos for this year. My old Olympus Tough was working this year. Yay! It takes much better photos than the Sony underwater camera that I bought at Costco last year.

The new Olympus Toughs are expensive but I am sure better than the cheap Sony camera.

Most of these are right off from the Coral Princess where I stay. Some of the fish photos are from The Westin up the road. The Westin is a beautiful new property. It has a walk in beach area and long pier that you can jump in from.

Annual ginko tree leaf drop

The annual ginko tree leaf drop. The first drop was late last week. Today was the big day.

In 2018 it was October 21.
In 2017, it was  November 1st.
Looks like the latest has been November 7th.
This year looks the to be the earliest.

Saved some money

I am not an auto repair guy but I figured replacing a broken side mirror couldn't be too bad. The Ford dealer was going to charge $310.00 just for the part plus I don't know how much for the labor. But the worst part was I couldn't get it fixed for almost a month.

I backed into a column in the parking ramp at work. Tore off the driver side mirror unit. It is heated and motorized.

Thanks to the internet I found an auto parts shop in St. Paul and multiple YouTube videos on the steps to replace the unit.

The used part was $110.00 and it took less than 1/2 hour to complete!

It isn't perfect. There are some scratches on the black cover and turns out the motor doesn't adjust up and down. But it adjusts in and out and the mirror moves manually up and down. Best of all it isn't going to fall off or flop around.

Before - mirror cracked up

Before - bungees holding it in place

After - it isn't in primo condition with some scratches

After - nice mirror

Gray Jays

When we came back to the cabin after our BWCA adventure, a Gray Jay family was waiting for us. Gray Jay's are very sociable birds that with no prompting ate right from our hands!

Annual BWCA Trip - part 1

This past week was what has become a near annual camping trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) Wilderness.

The usual foursome of Jenny, Julie, Brian and me drove up north on Tuesday. We spent the night in Jenny and Andrew's cabin on Gust Lake off the Grade (road). We paddled in on Sawbill Lake from Sawbill Outfitters.

There is a very long and, looking back, funny story on how we ended up where we did but I'll make the text of this post short and post the photos that I took. There will hopefully be more photos when the others get theirs off their cameras and phones.

Paddling in on Sawbll

Around the campfire grate

Fire grate and some of our cooking gear

A Jack Pine pinecone. The Nut Hatches really like these.

Dramatic sky while paddling. We did have storms during this trip.

A double water lily. We saw lots of these on our river paddle.

We love to swim in the lakes. We always where our life jackets.

A dramatic sunset. The reflection off the lake is always a winner.

One of our campsite sitting rocks.

We all happened to wear our Gust Lake t-shirts!

Annual peony post

One of the interesting things with keeping the blog is tracking the posts from year to year. For example, last year the peony post was 2 weeks earlier than this year. A demonstration of the difference in each year's weather.

This year Spring has been cool and wet so the blooming flowers are later than last year's hot and dry Spring.

There is a new peony in the garden this year. I don't know where it came from and there are only two stems and each has a pink-toned blossom of the single type peony. Pretty crazy.

Miss America

One of the old fashioned red peony that came with the house

Miss America

A pink sngle type variety. This one just showed up this year

One of the red peonies that came with the house.

Burr Oak at 10 years

The Burr Oak has grown so much that I had to prune off several very large branches. It is exciting to see the backyard changing because the oak tree is getting so tall and broad.

The oak tree is now 10 years old which means the backyard patio project was done 10 years ago.

Ten years ago I was working for IBM and travelling nearly every week. Peonies were blooming this week in June 2019. This year the peonies are close but at least another week before full on.

Check out the Burr Oak from 2011 and from 2013 and when first planted in 2009.

Window project

A project I've been wanting to do for a long time (actually, I didn't really do anything except order and pay for it): Replace the upstairs windows - the bathroom window and the window above the steps.

The windows were vinyl double-hung casements with exterior storms. To get air I had to open the inside window then open the outer widow then pull down the screen. The widow above the steps was too precarious to do all that.

They are both now replaced with awning windows. They crank to open. The screen is fixed on the inside. These are Renewal By Andersen windows. The screen is virtually invisible.

Sergei, my installer, was very patient, courteous, diligent and industrious. Like everything in My Old House, there were challenges. The awning windows are actually substitutes for the original idea to have casements. The window openings were too small for casements so we switched to awning style.

Back to the install... The windows had to be set deeper in the frame than normal. Sergei devised a way to make it work and look good. And he asked me for my input.

The photos are in reverse order.

Finished

The frank (bottom center). Locking mechanism (left and right). Locking mecha (left and right)

The old window is gone

The old vinyl window

I can highly recommend Renewal By Andersen. They handled everything including the permit, lead testing and abatement, removal and install, clean up, scheduling the inspector, and even carbon monoxide and smoke detectors for code.

Winter to Spring

The time of year when it is usually warm enough during the day to enjoy the sun but still cold enough that the ice is still on the lakes.

It was chilly today but sunny. Some trees are definitely showing signs of Spring.

ice on the shore edge

stark beauty (Sony camera)

stark beauty (Windows phone camera)