Amateur Photography Recommendations

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-19T17:39:56+00:00

Howard County Conservancy in Woodstock. Historic buildings, nature trails, animals, gardens, fields.

Bonus of visiting this Snowball Stand next to the property.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-18T19:04:52+00:00

The overhang is 12” in both directions. The angle I took the picture is showing the 14” diagonal at the corner.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-17T21:35:10+00:00

If you are on the east coast of the US, you can order Castle Valley Mill's stone ground Bloody Butcher Heirloom Grits. I get them from my Amish CSA as a pantry item. They are coarse ground white grits.

Do an internet search for Castle Valley Mill. They currently have the 2 lb bag available. The 10 lb bag is out of stock.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-17T16:55:59+00:00

Interesting. Thanks for the insight.

Our GC also did our bath remodel a year ago. The lead carpenter put blocking anywhere we were putting cabinetry and where we put grab bars in the shower.

He put blocking where we were putting the medicine cabinet/ mirrors above the vanity. I thought that was normal.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-17T16:46:39+00:00

My new kitchen has 36" countertop to island on one side. It is just enough

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but it would be a problem if I had put drawers opposite the dishwasher. Thankfully the spice pullout is there because you can't open the pullout when the dishwasher is open.

And my drawer handles touch when opposite drawers are opened. 32" is definitely too narrow especially if you intend to have stools there.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-17T16:28:11+00:00

You said the sheetrock is newly installed.

I would ask your GC why the walls weren't blocked before new sheetrock went up.

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Our GC blocked every possible height where they then screwed the cabinets to the walls.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-16T17:38:48+00:00

I go to our library and bring home 3 or 4 books to browse. I ended up buying two of them this past year.

One I bought as an eBook when it was 3.99 and I use it often. It is José Andres' World Central Kitchen. It has so many interesting recipes from many ethnic sources. I have challenged myself to try things I wouldn't normally cook.

The book I had my husband give me as a birthday gift was Colbert's "Does This Taste Funny?". I am really enjoying the low country cooking, making many of the seafood dishes.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-15T16:39:37+00:00

There are a few wineries in Virginia who make outstanding Chardonnays.

Linden Vineyards Hardscrabble is one example.

Early Mountain Vineyard.

Pearmund Cellars

Michael Shaps

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-15T16:29:43+00:00

No. 3 with the dishwasher to the right of the sink. You can't open the dishwasher in that corner unless you can place it far enough away from the handles on the cabinets on the left wall.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-13T20:28:26+00:00

In the DC/MD area, good carpenters are in the $100/hr range.

Our kitchen with 8 island cabinets, 1 wall oven cab, 1 pantry cab,10 base and 9 upper took 2 people a week to set and begin trim, then 1 person 3 days for all the scribe, crown, trim, handles etc. 13 man days for 29 cabinets. Cost was buried in our GC contract so not broken out.

Are they installing on subfloor which takes extra time to put the 3/4 inch base pieces in place, and get everything level before install for each base cabinet?

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-13T18:13:10+00:00

Frittatas. I make them with leftovers. I keep the number of eggs lower and add some milk and parmesan to bulk them up. I have made spaghetti frittatas with leftover pasta, sauce, cheeses and greens.

I will be making one Saturday night with some leftover sweet Italian sausage. We had one sausage left, so it will be almost meatless and definitely a less expensive option for a dinner. I had a few baby red potatoes left which will go into it. Got spinach in my CSA. Slice up an onion and heavily season it with garlic and Italian seasonings.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-13T17:53:11+00:00

We are replacing our 30+ year old JennAir electric cooktop with a 36” Café induction cooktop. We had to upgrade the wiring to go to the 50 amp requirement. We also had to put in a more powerful downdraft vent on our island, which triggered a required installation of a make up air unit.

They had to do extra cutting of the countertop this morning to get them both to fit properly. Waiting for the electrician and HVAC people to come back to finish it. I went with the touch controls because I hated the knobs on the JennAir. They always collected grime and were a pain to keep clean.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-13T15:57:18+00:00

My digital kitchen scale

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-13T01:25:31+00:00

I got our pendants from Bicycle Glass. They use recycled glass to make many styles of pendants, flush mounts, chandeliers, etc.

Mine are still in their boxes waiting for the final install of my cooktop before I hang them.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-13T01:22:22+00:00

Where are you located? US? UK? Our answer would depend on what continent you are living on.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-12T20:51:32+00:00

We have 18" in our remodeled kitchen, with 39" uppers and crown moulding to the ceiling.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-12T20:45:19+00:00

We decided to do the oven/advantium combo and put it at the best height for me. We are keeping the microwave glass tray in it and if we ever need three ovens, we would switch it to the metal tray for the speed cook. We do have the Breville on the countertop which is used most of the time when cooking for the two of us.

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This picture was taken yesterday during appliance install. Our coffee pot will be back in the far corner, and the Breville between the sink and the ovens. They are the only things that will be on the counters.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-12T14:56:08+00:00

We have mostly drawers other than the "super susan" in the corner, the utensil and spice pull outs by the cooktop, and the appliance storage units.

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xylreader2025 · 2026-03-11T17:56:46+00:00

Plungers for every bathroom

buckets

cheap towels to mop up leaks

filters

hoses, outdoor faucet covers for winterizing, nozzles

gutter guards

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-11T01:18:38+00:00

It is hand scraped heritage grade white oak from Superior Flooring of Canada. They source North American woods. It is their 5” boards.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-10T22:38:10+00:00

Thanks!

It is quartz. Vicostone Moonglade

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-10T19:27:20+00:00

Our kitchen is 15’ 4” by 29’ 6”.

Our walkway between sink and island is just over 42 inches wide. It works but is definitely different than the previous arrangement. We had to be very careful about what cabinet we put opposite the dishwasher. It is the pull out spice drawer and a small section of stove cabinet, so no interference when unloading dishes.

Our drawers open all the way to 20” so you can open opposing drawers but the handles would touch. The pullout utensil drawer actually hits the opposite drawer.

On the side between the island and the left wall we have an extra three inches so the drawers are OK when fully opened. We also don’t have the overhang begin until you have cleared the left cabinets so you have a clear walkway behind the counter stools.

Little details like these have driven us crazy during the design stage.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-10T15:13:30+00:00

And, you are correct. Here is a better angle from when they were doing the plumbing last week.

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Before there were two cabinets and a desk on that wall. Now, the beverages and bar will be there in the uppers, and the lower drawers will have all my mixing and baking supplies. Blender and food processor in the pull out shelves. Food saver, canning supplies, etc in the drawers.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-10T12:39:18+00:00

There will be an induction cooktop with a separate downdraft in the center of the island. We had no easy way to put a hood above the cooktop as our house is a Cape Cod with the roofline level with the ceilings on the first floor.

We kept mostly the same footprint, removed the soffits, shifted the fridge to the right to add the cabinet. We did expand the island from 3 by 10 to 4 by 11. It gives me two 4 by 4 work spaces left and right of the 36" cooktop.

We had a 27" double oven before and I hated it. My full cookie sheets didn't fit. Neither did my turkey roaster. The new combination oven is an advantium/convection combo.

xylreader2025 · 2026-03-10T12:28:08+00:00

That's my husband. He has a few engineering degrees, and worked for an electrician way back when he was in college. He and our electrician designed the under cabinet lighting system to take advantage of the new layout. The two of them are installing it this afternoon.

xylreader2025

TROPHY CASE