Everything but the kitchen sink... Part B

We ain't done yet!!  We're still on the gravy train from yesterday and you can't get off!  I'm not sure I know what a gravy train actually is but it sounds delicious and I will absolutely make gravy in my new kitchen as soon as I have, you know, power and water and stuff.

So here's some more design decisions I've been forced to make lately...

Appliance-y thingies:

I'm not updating any of my major appliances because as much as I'd like to think I shit glitter and money it doesn't happen.  My stove and fridge aren't even stainless steel *GASP* but since they work I don't see a need to replace them.  It's the ultimate in "green" design.  However, I want a counter depth fridge so bad I will most likely resort to shameful behavior to get some bank in order to buy one this summer.  Or fall depending on how much my "morals" get in the way of me getting the stuff I want.  


But I do have to get a new microwave.  

So help me gawd if you don't fit...

This has become the bane of my existence.  It will mount into the cabinets like you see in the earlier renderings and will look all sleek and fancy with a trim kit.  Too bad no one in the tri-state area sells microwaves with trim kits and finding a model online with decent reviews and easily understood specs has regretably become my new hobby.  Hey Madame, wanna go out for Mexican tonight?  Thanks but I've got to spend countless hours this Friday night pouring over microwave installation manuals and decoding model numbers to stupid appliances that I will most likely only use to soften cream cheese and melt butter but maybe next year!  I've already bought and returned one microwave and its "coordinating" trim kit because it most certainly did not "coordinate" with the size it stated online.  This time I found another option and because Nick knows his cabinets better than me I asked him to confirm with the manufacturer that it would work.  Threats were made and a customer service may have cried but the appropriate microwave and trim kit were ordered.  Thanks Nick!

I also had to buy a range hood. 

The Arietta Toscana.  I got mine on ebay for $100 off.  Suck it Home Depot.

I would have been begrudgingly okay with the microwave-over-the-stove combo because that's what everyone in my neighborhood has and it's pretty standard for this type of remodel.  Until I saw the fancy plans!  This one's all sleek and rectangularly sexy and rectangularly sexy is EXACTLY the theme of my kitchen.  I don't know anything about buying range hoods but you have to calculate the sucking action (CFM) against the noise action (sones) - this helped because I have no fucking clue - a week of math, comparing prices, math, math... oh look!  This one's on sale!  SOLD!!

And I couldn't forget this!

Whoa, Madame.  Try not to overwhelm me with the glamtastic rainbow of awesomeness going in your kitchen.  I know, try to contain your jubilation.  Even though I compost I really REALLY miss having a garbage disposal.  Normally I like to compare up to three models of something for reviews and features but I sooo could not give a flying rat's ass right now.  I just bought the one Nick said.  Done.  

At this point all the little things are starting to add up to a mountain of epic minutiae that I don't care about even though I'm a bit neurotic and DO care about it immensely if they are wrong.  Things like what I want my baseboards to look like, the shape of my outlets, omigawd my outlet covers...???!!  Good gawd I didn't research slick and cutting edge outlet covers!!!!  What am I going to do????!!!  Awww fuck it.  THIS is why I'm not a real Interior Designer because I hated specifying things like this.  People who do that for a living are saints who deserve tons and tons of money.  Money that I don't have to give them but OTHER people that have money should definitely give it to them.  I want to draw and color and compose mood boards and look at cabinets and tile all day tra-li-la-li-la because those are the things that dreams are made of.  That and unicorn rides through a waterfall.

Color-y things:

So here's the thing that really interests me - PAINT!!

Your subtlety is pure sex.  Unassuming, white sex.  It's not even vanilla sex because vanilla has too much color.

No it's NOT just white!!!!  It's Benjamin Moore's Soft Chamois.  I wanted something that would read like a non-color.  Other than shiny, non-color is my favorite color.  I tried up to but not exceeding twelve color samples because more than that would be crazy.  You might think this is a Guinness record of some kind but it's about usual for around here at the Ranch.  I have terrible commitment issues with paint because the wrong color will mean I will die a little each day when I look at it.  Yes it's just. that. dramatic.  White is hard and I'm not the only one who feels that way - too grey and I'm cooking pizza rolls in a tomb, too yellow and it's like a gawddamned "Tuscan" kitchen, too blue and it's icy like the Fortress of Solitude (although... ), too red and I'm living in a whorehouse.  Paint can be such a slut.  Soft chamois is perfect - grey enough that it feels crisp enough to match all the stainless steel but with an undertone of green warmth to compliment the wood counters. 

That's the kind of stuff that gets me off.  Under cabinet lighting and garbage disposals need to keep on walkin because I'm not interested in what they have to offer.  

Unless maybe it's a ticket on the gravy train to the Fortress of Solitude because I'd be down for that.