100 Years of Inflation

As part of our home’s 100 year birthday celebration, we learned that the original cost to build the structure in 1911 was $8,000. Starting with that data point, I tried to do some figurin’ to see how much that is in today’s dollars. Doing the calculation in my head was a very bad idea. Without actually thinking about it very much, I jumped to the conclusion that the $8,000 was “like a million bucks” in

Maple Tree Cabinetmakers: The Josh Winkley Experience

Josh Winkley, of Maple Tree Cabinetmakers, likes the challenge of designing for a space. And as previously noted, we are design challenged. So working with Josh was critical to the kitchen turning out as well as it did. From our point of view, the basic process was pretty painless. We told Josh the kinds of things we liked and disliked, and talked about some of our priorities and ideas for the space. He asked a

Design Help Needed

I am something of a design disaster. It’s not a stretch to say that I have poor interior decorating skills. So when it came to picking out the peripheral items for the kitchen remodel, it was something of a challenge. Knobs. Paint color. Tile. Lighting. I’ve made bad picks before and was going to need guidance, that was for sure. Tile was the first choice that needed to be made, as that had the longest

It's Like Magic

Every once in a while renovation projects take a giant leap forward, completely transforming in a single day. The kitchen project made a leap last week, and then made another one yesterday. They’re exciting – really exciting – because they are obvious progress, and because they look so good. But let me back up a little bit. The team had been methodically working to get the space put back together for a while. Plumbing, electrical,

Beefy Moldings

“We are running about a week ahead of schedule.” How many times have you heard that during a renovation project? I’m guessing not very many. Yet that’s how Christian Winkley of Oxford Builders began the (unsolicited) update email he sent us on Sunday morning. The kitchen project is now squarely in the putting-it-all-back-together phase and it appears that we’ll be getting back into the space sooner than anticipated. Yippee! Today’s activity was door frames and