Shoryuken to my Cholesterol!

Last year I blogged about my 2007 resolution of getting back in shape. This was a resolution that I miserably failed to accomplish last year. However, 2008 is a whole different story. Thanks to a regimen of pilates, capoeira, and a 5 week fitness bootcamp, I have regained my cardio and overall physical fitness.

For the last 6 years I have been dealing with super high cholesterol, which at my age (32) has really put me at risk for heart disease. I dread going to the doctor and getting my cholesterol checked, because I always know it will be high. But now, I can't wait to get it checked.

Big props to my wife, for pushing me to really make the time to take care of myself.

I want to also attribute, my new kitchen for my renewed enthusiasm for cooking tasty healthy food. No more Krispy Creme bacon cheeseburgers for me, jk.

Also, in case you didn't get the Street Fighter II reference in the title, here you go.

Starting a Wine Collection

As part of renovating our kitchen, I've set a goal of starting a wine collection. No, not just a bunch of 2 buck Chuck. Actually, over the last year I've learned a lot about wine and have developed a taste for it. In the process, I've even picked up some favorite years and vineyards that I prefer. Some of my favorites are Vines on the Marycrest and Ferrari-Carano. So as I begin to stock up on these amazing wines, I think a nice wine cabinet would complete the new kitchen.

Now, I'm not going to pretend I'm some kind of wine snob....I wouldn't even call myself a wine enthusiast. But lets face it, there is something about having a wine collection that makes you feel kind of grown-up. Besides, it will reflect the wine theme from the art in the kitchen and also encourage me to continue learning more about wine.

Target has a small cabinet that I like and will go nicely with the new kitchen cabinets. The cabinet holds 20 bottles and quite a few glasses. The best part is that its fairly inexpensive, coming in at an affordable $189. Check it out below:

Pictures Worth a Million Words

Ok, everyone....tada, our new kitchen!



Some before and after photos:


Version 1:
This is what our kitchen looked like when we bought our condo in October 2006.


Version 1.5:
Upon moving in, we made some minor upgrades,


Version 2.0:
This is our kitchen today, completed July 2, 2008

Now that the kitchen is ready, ALLEZ CUISINE!!!

Aftermath of Day 2 and 3

Sorry for not posting since Day 1, but I have been dealing with a major case of the remodeler's blues. Both Day 2 and 3 went without any problems. The cabinets were assembled and installed last Thursday. Then on Friday, the cabinet molding was done and the granite counters were installed. The sprint pace of this project was pretty intense, and as promised the cabinets were completely swapped out in 3 days. Bottom line, the cabinets and granite counters look awesome...not bad for only $7k.

The company we chose to do our cabinets was Jing Cabinets in Culver City. They promised an unbelievable 3 day turnaround on our kitchen, which they made happen. Now you're probably wondering, if everything was done in 3 days why am I so blue. Well, mainly its because of the amount of touch-ups and fixes that result from upgrading a 30+ year old kitchen. Jing Cabinets, basically guts your cabinets and unplugs everything (plumbing, appliances, electrical connections), and installs the new cabinets without connecting anything back up...including the free sink they gave us.

It wasn't a big deal to me when they told us about not doing the plumbing, upon signing the contract. But when I actually saw the number of fixes that we needed to do post installation, it really bummed me out. Here are some of the things that we've had to fix after installation.

1) They took off my range hood to install cabinets, but didn't reinstall it (which is fine), but then refused to even cut the whole in the cabinets to install it. Status: Done

2) They disconnected all plumbing and removed dishwasher, which we were alerted to when buying cabinets. The bad news was they lost some screws to our dishwasher and cut some of the plumbing parts under the sink. So we've had to replace the entire plumbing under sink, again. Status: Done

3) Also related to plumbing is the sink installation, reconnecting our garbage disposal and installing our new faucet. Status: Done

4) As result of removing the old cabinets, we had some damage to the walls. We will have to patch up and repaint the kitchen. Status: Done

5) Our electrical outlets were too low, and some of them got in the way of the 6 inch granite back splash. We've had to move them a bit and added 2 new ones.
Status: Done

6) Our phone wall plug, had the same issue as our electrical outlets. So we updated it and finally covered the existing whole (thats been there since we moved in) beneath it. Status: Done

7) The granite counters were installed and look great, but the cabinet folks don't put the sealer to protect it. So I had to go to Home Depot and put it on myself. Status: Done (but I don't think I did it right, will try again)

8) Various pieces of our crown molding were also damaged as part of the installation. Also, our new pantry door is at different height as our old door, so we have to get a slightly shorter molding. Status: Done

9) And the big whammy that I need to get Jing Cabinets (who haven't been as helpful after the work was done) to fix, there is a 2 inch gap under one of the cabinets, between the flooring and cabinet. I totally missed this when I did my inspection of the work. I guess I was so excited to get new cabinets that I just overlooked it. I actually caught a smaller thing with the granite counter and the dishwasher, which should be easy to fix. Status: Still Pending

Overall the experience wasn't so bad, I mean aside from the fact that none of the workers that did our cabinets spoke any English(only Chinese) they did pretty good work. And I do love my new kitchen very much. I guess its just the lingering effects that prevent us from moving our stuff back into the kitchen that has me down.

I will post photos of the results soon.

Day 1 Complete

First day of our kitchen cabinet makeover is now complete. It was fairly anti-climactic and it went pretty quickly. Some how I envisioned the demolition process like they do it in HGTV, where they take a sledge hammer and just crush all the cabinets to pieces, not the case.

Around 10 a.m. I had a really quiet young Chinese man named Tom, in a white van, meet me at the security gate. He didn't speak any English, and I only know 3 things in Chinese...but only two words that I can actually use, "hello and thank you." The third is "I love you," which I don't think I will get me any where with him. By lunch (1:30PM) he had already taken apart all the cabinets and cleared everything from the kitchen. The guy was working nonstop, so I went out and bought him a Subway sandwich. When I returned, the kitchen designer also had just arrived and she made sure that all the measurements were correct and that all the materials were delivered.

So far, so good. Before Tom left, he had already assembled 3 of the cabinets. I wasn't sure about the 3 day turnaround, but I think they may just pull it off.

Check out some of the pics:

I'm Dreaming of a New Kitchen

I'm dreaming of a new kitchen....ok, more like daydreaming. I'm so distracted because tomorrow we begin the 3 day task (I hope) of changing our kitchen cabinets, which has me a bit nervous/anxious.

A few weeks ago I blogged about our plans to change out our cabinets, and that little cabinet store I found on my way home. Well, we decided to go with them and our new cabinets are finally going to happen. The cabinets were ordered last week, we chose our granite counter on Saturday, and tomorrow is day 1: DEMOLITION (shivers run up my spine).

Check out the plans for our new kitchen: