basement; wet bar

The basement is coming together. We have the cabinets painted - Craig did an amazing job on this - and the wet bar is in place with functioning plumbing. We're pretty excited and proud to say that the basement budget has stayed quite small due to some recylcing, some freebies and of course our own labor.

porcelain tile floor

Back to the kitchen - the floor is tiled, finally! It was a mess of plywood for way too long. We went with a neutral porcelain 12"x12" in a running bond pattern. I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed when I first realized that the floor I wanted was going to cost way more than necessary; I suppose the tile we ended up with is "safer" as far as general appeal. Now that it's in, I'm really happy with the decision. The lighter color helped the room feel even bigger and the fact that the pattern pulls your eye from side to side of the house, rather than front to back makes the kitchen feel fat and happy. An added bonus is that the end result seems to lend itself well to a house in Little Italy with a Tuscan'y feel.

A few items of note:
-When you're working with grout [and not wearing gloves] strange things will happen to the skin on your hands. It dried me out in a fantastic way. I was nothing short of reptilian for at least a week.
-People will tell you to invest in knee pads, but you won't because they're pricey and you think you can handle it. You can't.
-We rented a wet saw from the HD. I'm not sure of the other options out there, but this thing worked great.
-Cutting tile becomes annoying. Because we installed the cabinets first, we had to make more cuts than necessary. Most of the information I've read suggests installing the flooring material in a kitchen first. It's probably a good idea, but there are pluses to installing it last as well (e.g. less tile material). Our schedule dictated this decision.

A few in progress pictures before the final - to prove to Dan that Project Rowhouse is not some covert operation involving loads of contractors and designers.









No, I don't ask Jaxxon to be in every picture. This boy loves the camera - can you blame him?

Help Gaurav

Help Gaurav...

Why are medical treatments so expensive? Did you know it costs as much as 1.5 crore (US$ 333,000) to cure AML or Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a type of blood cancer? That, my friends, is the minimum projected cost! I just received this link from my brother-in-law. His colleague Gaurav, is suffering from AML, and time is running out. (The photos are of Gaurav with his family in healthier days, and the recent one in December)

Please visit this link http://www.helpgaurav.com/index.asp and help if you can... no amount is too small! His flat in Mumbai is up for sale as well.

If you are reading this, please help, and spread the word around. My Food Bloggers friends, we have a great many visitors ... it will be great if all of us can help spread the word through our blogs. Post the link above at your site. Let us pray for Gaurav's speedy recovery, and wish his family all the strength that they need now.