Why Another Blog?

From mid-'03 to early '04, I spent about 8 months researching, dreaming, planning, drawing, etc., etc. our dream house, and my dream kitchen. We had decided to purchase a lot and have a house built. So equipped with my architectural software and research skills, I went to work. Every day, every night, and almost every waking hour in between was spent on this "project".

In February '04 the bubble burst. We had narrowed down our choices to 3 lots. Showed them to our realtor and he didn't think two of them were in a good enough area. So the last one was our only hope. We finally got an appointment with the builder to come out and look at the lot, but in late February the ground was still covered with snow. He said it looked alright to him, but that he needed to see the lot after the snow was gone so he can make a more informed judgment (there was a slope at the end of the lot and he wanted to take exact measurements to make sure the house that we wanted would fit and be built safely). We could have bought the lot then, but we're not exactly a couple of risk-takers and wanted to be prudent. Two days later someone else bought the lot. I was heartbroken, but couldn't really do anything about it. There were other lots available, but double the price of the one we were hoping to buy, and had we opted for the more expensive lots we would have had to change our house plans drastically... something we weren't willing to do because of our specific needs as homeschoolers and a family of 6.

So we ended up buying a house. And while I'm happy with this house and my kitchen here, I still have small frustrations and keep dreaming about "the kitchen". In 3 or 6 years we'll move back to Cincinnati, and maybe I'll finally have the kitchen I want. But I didn't want all that research to go to waste, and I really can't keep all this junk sitting on my desk and in my hard drive either, so I thought I'd post all of it here. Hopefully in 3 or 6 years my final post here will be to a new link: my photoblog documenting our new house and my dream kitchen.

For now, this blog will contain all my "finds": appliances, lighting, equipment, cabinetry, tile, stone, wood, whatever tickles my fancy....

I do need to say thank you to everyone at the appliance forum on gardenweb -- some of those folks really gave me an education, and a few became cyber-friends. They opened up a whole new world to me and I have them to thank for all the knowledge and information they have unselfishly given.

To everyone visiting this blog, may you find something here that you can use, whether it's in your present kitchen or a kitchen in your own future.