Don Genova's Blog

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 9 - Neat New Stuff

Dear Mike;  I've been away from the house for four days on a bit of a vacation.  Two days in Vancouver spent going to an excellent Lyle Lovett concert, and to the Monty Python-esque musical Spamalot the next evening.  Then Ramona and I darted off to Denman Island for the weekend for a splendid visit with friends at an idyllic home perched right on the ocean.

Anyway, now we are back and not too much has changed in our absence. The drywall looks like it has been taped and mudded for the first time, and the ventilation improvements to the attic continue.  Someone actually showed up at 8pm tonight to cut holes in the soffits!  He was still working well after nightfall with no lights...I hope he has now given up for the evening.  So with little else to report I thought I would show you some of the neat stuff that is going to be installed over the next few weeks.  The top picture features our ventilation hood.  It's from Futuro Futuro (a company so nice they named it twice?). The hood is made in Italy and is now making its way here from Brooklyn, New York.  It will easily suck up all the fumes and will look awesome.

Another important fixture on order is the kitchen sink.  This one is from Blanco and is the company's Silgranit Diamond Maxi. The bowl is made from 80% natural granite and bonded together with high quality acrylic, withstanding temperatures of over 500F.  I decided on a single bowl so I can put huge platters and pots and the like into it easily for scrubbing.  Everything else goes in the dishwasher!

The faucet is the Delta Allora pull-down, with soap dispenser, and a matching smaller faucet that will go with the small sink that's going in the island.  What I love about this faucet, other than the modern look, is the magnetic spray head.  When you're finished with the head, it snaps back into place with a reassuring but gentle thunk.  We've also gone with Delta fixtures for the bathroom. 

Okay, it's almost ten pm and the guy is still drilling holes in the soffits and I have to get up at 4 in the morning to go on a video shoot.  Aaarrgh!

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 8 - Time To Catch Up

Dear Mike, how's this for a before and after?  The photo on the left is our kitchen, looking straight through to the bathroom.  The photo on the right is basically the same view, after the drywallers came in today and worked their magic.

But other stuff has happened before that, and I'm going to let some video do the talking here, since I blab my way through most of them.  This first video tells you about the big, new, excellent windows and new wiring that has been put in.  A team of three electricians spent three days doing it. 

The next video shows the new French doors the guys put in (with a minor mishap they will have to fix somehow) as well as the bathtub we are soon going to be sitting in, ha ha!  People keep asking me, 'when do they say it's going to be finished?'  I don't even bother asking.  It will be finished when it's finished.  Ramona thinks Thanksgiving, but I'm a little more optimistic than that. 

All hell kind of broke loose today as the plumbers, the drywall delivery team AND the drywallers all showed up around the same time this morning.  I had to dart down to Victoria for some meetings today, but by the time I got back, the place was empty, but much work had been done, as you can see in this last video.  Caution!  I sing at the beginning of this one. 

My latest article for Air Canada's enRoute magazine is now on board, so if you are flying anywhere in Air Canada in July you will see it.  It's called "Living la vida local" and talks about my time spent at a Culinary Boot Camp in the Cowichan Valley.

But hey, if you're not flying, you can visit the new enRoute website and view the article online.  If you're interested in more info on any upcoming culinary boot camps at Fairburn Farm, visit this page on their website.  For some more photos from my experience, check out my Facebook photo album from the week. (you don't have to be a Facebook member to view the album)

Dear Mike, our kitchen and bath reno is starting to look more and more like an episode of Holmes on Holmes.  Every time another step forward is taken, there is a little discovery that adds to the time taken to do the job, and usually more time = more money.  After having the insulation sucked out of the attic to make it easier for the electrician and the carpenters to run new wiring and construct new walls, I thought they were just going to take down the ceiling in the kitchen and put a new layer of wallboard to cover the stippled ceiling in the dining area.

Imagine our surprise when we returned home from Drum Roasting and shopping to discover the entire ceiling in the kitchen and dining and bath and hallway had been 'disappeared'. (top photo)  But for good reason.  The ventilation in the attic is so poor that the plywood panels in the roof are getting moldy.  On the left is a panel that is in good shape.  That's what the wood is supposed to look like.

This photo shows board that has been growing mold.  It has turned black with the stuff.  This weekend the wood is getting a chance to dry out, but when the guys arrive on Monday we are going to ask about whether the wood needs to be treated at all to get rid of the stuff or whether proper ventilation will take care of it.  The crew will be cutting new vents into the soffits, installing baffles that will help air move from the soffits to the roof vents, and eventually new insulation will be blown in.  Monday is shaping up to be a big day, with the electrician scheduled to rough in all the new wiring and the gas fitter arriving to rough in the pipes from our new propane tank and the barbecue.

In the meantime here is a shot of the new bathtub, and our reward when all of this is over will be to sit in the tub, lounging away in hot water with a view of our backyard forest out of our new, enlarged window.  Here's a minute-long video of the latest destruction...enjoy!

Check out my latest posting to FoodTV.ca, especially if you are heading to Quebec City this summer!  It's a capsule review of a restaurant I ate at in April, Le Clocher Penche Bistrot.  Highly recommended!

Dear Mike...I like it how on your show you diagnose the problem, bring in your crew, gut, renovate and finish, all in one hour.  I should realize, having done some television production myself, that an hour-long reno on TV can stretch over weeks or even months, and that the construction site isn't a beehive of activity 24/7.

The demolition is just about to morph into the renovation.  But today seems to be a day off for our project.  One guy showed up early this morning just to clean up a bit of the mess left by the insulation guys yesterday.  Nothing else has been happening so far and it's 2pm.

Apparently there are just four companies on all of Vancouver Island that will come to your house and suck out all the old insulation that has been blown into your attic.  Here they are getting ready with their machine, they ran the hose through the now non-existent living room window and then up to an opening Gerry and Jesse cut through in the indoor gable end of our vaulted extension.  Apparently they were in there for 4 hours sucking out the stuff.  I wouldn't know.  I had work to do and I knew it was going to be noisy so I went to my favourite little cafe down the road.

When I returned later in the afternoon the vacuum guys had left behind some of what wouldn't fit in their van, three bags full of insulation.  They were supposed to come and pick it up today, but no sign of them yet.  Oh, and the plumbers were also here in my absence, and roughed in the water supply, drains and venting for the kitchen and bathroom.  The new bathtub has arrived and is in the bathroom, but there is cutting to be done to fit it in and we have a slight controversy on the go regarding the placement of the new window of the bathroom.  More on that later...once it gets resolved.
Wishful thinking?  Who knows...but in the midst of all the demolition I take comfort in the fact that our Romnyea, or 'fried egg flower plant' has blossomed.  Here's a close-up of one of the blooms, which is about 6 inches across.  Tell me again how I need to be patient, Mike?

Hey, I finally did a new podcast!  Volume 52 is all about cocktails, beginning with a demonstration of different kinds of drinks made with Mott's Clamato juice, the mixer most preferred by me and thousands of others in Canada when making Bloody Caesar's.  Did you know the Caesar was created in Calgary???  Listen to my interview with Len Fragomeni, the Dean of the Mott's Clamato Caesar School.

Len is a veritable fount of Clamato trivia, not to mention an excellent teacher of how to make a basic Caesar as well as some of the new recipes developed in a contest sponsored by Mott's. You can find the recipes he talked about here.  A really new twist puts cranberry juice, lemon juice, horseradish and sambaloelek (an Asian chili paste) together with vodka and Clamato.

Also in this edition, an interview with my old friends Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller, who are cocktail educators and the curators of the Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiriteux,an entire museum housed on a small island on the south coast of France devoted to wines and spirits.  A great new feature of the museum's website is the archiving of several old cocktail books and restaurant menus, which you can click on to view in .pdf format and see (and try) the classic cocktails of the past.

To listen to the podcast, either go to my website and click on the podcast page for free subscription info, or listen to it right now by clicking here.

Dear Mike;  I don't want to say that this kitchen and bath reno is going to proceed at a snail's pace, but the term 'Slow Food' does come to mind when I think about when the project will be completed.

That's not to say that there hasn't been progress.  On Saturday morning, while we were out shopping, a crew came by and finished ripping out the walls of both the kitchen and the bathroom, leaving behind the toilet, the stove, and quite ironically I think, the kitchen sink!  They also taped up the doors to the two bedrooms upstairs with plastic so dust will not infiltrate those rooms as drywall is being taped and sanded.

The waiting game comes with problems in the attic. (entrance pictured at left)  There is blown insulation in the attic, which needs to come out because we are having so many new lights put into the ceiling and they can't work around the insulation.   There also wasn't enough of the stuff to begin with to do any good at preventing heat loss, and there also isn't enough ventilation, which allows moist air to be trapped and eventually cause mold. So...some guys are coming next week(Wed. or Thursday we hope) with some sort of giant vacuum cleaner to suck out the insulation.
I get the feeling not much else is going to get down until that next step. Patience, patience.  Here's a video walk-through of the latest destruction:

Dear Mike:  Take a good look at this.  It's the last existing photo of the kitchen in its 'before' stage.   The demolition started in earnest yesterday....with Gerry and Jesse knocking down the wall, electricians Rod and Cal removing all the light fixtures, heaters and outlets and shutting down various circuits.  I haven't mentioned how our cats, Mugsy and Nebbia, are handling this.  I'm keeping them inside, downstairs, while the workers are here.  They've been spending time sleeping. Mugsy hiding when someone comes down here, Nebbia trying to make friends as usual.

When I drove down to Victoria yesterday for a dentist appointment, I also purchased a new toy...a little video camera called a Flip Video Ultra. This is a very simple camera that is basically a point-and-shoot, with built-in editing software and an easy way to share the video online through YouTube, email, or even a greeting card.  The photo you see on the left is actually a snapshot from the first video I shot with the Flip. Not bad, eh? Very easy to use...you don't even need a cable to connect to your computer, a USB connector 'flips' out of the camera and you just stick it in a free port.

No Cappuccino? When I returned home from Victoria, the guys had left for the day and I discovered that all the power to the outlets and lighting in our makeshift kitchen and the guest bedroom where we have taken up residence had been cut off.  That includes power to the espresso machine!!!  I made tea for this morning, but when Gerry arrived I told him what was going on and he dialed Rod who came over and was able to restore most of the power I need.  Thank you Rod!  I will be running an extension cord into the bedroom so we can power our bedside lamps.  Oh, and here is the Flip Video of Kitchen Demolition Day One, a less-than-one-minute snap of the work so far.

Dear Mike;  Kitchen Reno lesson number 1.  Be patient.  I thought our kitchen was going to get demolished today.  Wrong.  The contractor and his lead 'demolisher' turned up today to get the lay of the land and do some more measurements.  The reassuring news is that the guys will be here tomorrow to 'protect' the rest of the upper floor.  The hardwood will be cleaned, plastic and plywood put on top, our bedroom (which we have vacated) will be taped off, as will the bottom of the stairs. Even the aging vinyl on the deck will be covered up to prevent it from getting scarier then it already is.  All the furniture remaining in the living area will be covered up, as will the fridge and dishwasher when they get disconnected and unplugged.

The photo above shows the elegant floor of our master bathroom, ha ha!
This is vintage 1970's vinyl!  Makes me throw up in my mouth, just a little bit.  The rest of the bathroom is just as ugly, as you can see on the left.  It is all getting demolished, new tub, new toilet, new pedestal sink....and an additional window at the end of the new tub so we can lie in the tub and look out the window into the forest.  I have posted two short videos, one of the kitchen, one of the bathroom, to Facebook(you don't have to be a member to watch them) so you can tour the existing 'facilities', and plan to post a lot more photos and videos, leading right up to 'the reveal'.  When will that be?  Lesson Number 1.  Be patient.  (the videos aren't posted just yet, will update this post with the links when they are.)  At this point Facebook is refusing to encode my videos for some reason.  I have now uploaded them twice, with no results.  Now I'm trying youtube...here is the kitchen video, I think:

And now here is the bathroom video:

enRoute magazine article now on line...

My latest article for Air Canada's enRoute magazine is now on board, so if you are flying anywhere in Air Canada in July you will see it.  It's called "Living la vida local" and talks about my time spent at a Culinary Boot Camp in the Cowichan Valley.

But hey, if you're not flying, you can visit the new enRoute website and view the article online.  If you're interested in more info on any upcoming culinary boot camps at Fairburn Farm, visit this page on their website.  For some more photos from my experience, check out my Facebook photo album from the week. (you don't have to be a Facebook member to view the album)

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 7 - The Sky is Falling!

Dear Mike, our kitchen and bath reno is starting to look more and more like an episode of Holmes on Holmes.  Every time another step forward is taken, there is a little discovery that adds to the time taken to do the job, and usually more time = more money.  After having the insulation sucked out of the attic to make it easier for the electrician and the carpenters to run new wiring and construct new walls, I thought they were just going to take down the ceiling in the kitchen and put a new layer of wallboard to cover the stippled ceiling in the dining area.

Imagine our surprise when we returned home from Drum Roasting and shopping to discover the entire ceiling in the kitchen and dining and bath and hallway had been 'disappeared'. (top photo)  But for good reason.  The ventilation in the attic is so poor that the plywood panels in the roof are getting moldy.  On the left is a panel that is in good shape.  That's what the wood is supposed to look like.

This photo shows board that has been growing mold.  It has turned black with the stuff.  This weekend the wood is getting a chance to dry out, but when the guys arrive on Monday we are going to ask about whether the wood needs to be treated at all to get rid of the stuff or whether proper ventilation will take care of it.  The crew will be cutting new vents into the soffits, installing baffles that will help air move from the soffits to the roof vents, and eventually new insulation will be blown in.  Monday is shaping up to be a big day, with the electrician scheduled to rough in all the new wiring and the gas fitter arriving to rough in the pipes from our new propane tank and the barbecue.

In the meantime here is a shot of the new bathtub, and our reward when all of this is over will be to sit in the tub, lounging away in hot water with a view of our backyard forest out of our new, enlarged window.  Here's a minute-long video of the latest destruction...enjoy!

New Food.tv.ca Posting! Le Clocher Penche Bistrot

Check out my latest posting to FoodTV.ca, especially if you are heading to Quebec City this summer!  It's a capsule review of a restaurant I ate at in April, Le Clocher Penche Bistrot.  Highly recommended!

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 6 - A Lull in the Action

Dear Mike...I like it how on your show you diagnose the problem, bring in your crew, gut, renovate and finish, all in one hour.  I should realize, having done some television production myself, that an hour-long reno on TV can stretch over weeks or even months, and that the construction site isn't a beehive of activity 24/7.

The demolition is just about to morph into the renovation.  But today seems to be a day off for our project.  One guy showed up early this morning just to clean up a bit of the mess left by the insulation guys yesterday.  Nothing else has been happening so far and it's 2pm.

Apparently there are just four companies on all of Vancouver Island that will come to your house and suck out all the old insulation that has been blown into your attic.  Here they are getting ready with their machine, they ran the hose through the now non-existent living room window and then up to an opening Gerry and Jesse cut through in the indoor gable end of our vaulted extension.  Apparently they were in there for 4 hours sucking out the stuff.  I wouldn't know.  I had work to do and I knew it was going to be noisy so I went to my favourite little cafe down the road.

When I returned later in the afternoon the vacuum guys had left behind some of what wouldn't fit in their van, three bags full of insulation.  They were supposed to come and pick it up today, but no sign of them yet.  Oh, and the plumbers were also here in my absence, and roughed in the water supply, drains and venting for the kitchen and bathroom.  The new bathtub has arrived and is in the bathroom, but there is cutting to be done to fit it in and we have a slight controversy on the go regarding the placement of the new window of the bathroom.  More on that later...once it gets resolved.
Wishful thinking?  Who knows...but in the midst of all the demolition I take comfort in the fact that our Romnyea, or 'fried egg flower plant' has blossomed.  Here's a close-up of one of the blooms, which is about 6 inches across.  Tell me again how I need to be patient, Mike?

All You Can Eat - I Need A Cocktail! (vol. 52)

Hey, I finally did a new podcast!  Volume 52 is all about cocktails, beginning with a demonstration of different kinds of drinks made with Mott's Clamato juice, the mixer most preferred by me and thousands of others in Canada when making Bloody Caesar's.  Did you know the Caesar was created in Calgary???  Listen to my interview with Len Fragomeni, the Dean of the Mott's Clamato Caesar School.

Len is a veritable fount of Clamato trivia, not to mention an excellent teacher of how to make a basic Caesar as well as some of the new recipes developed in a contest sponsored by Mott's. You can find the recipes he talked about here.  A really new twist puts cranberry juice, lemon juice, horseradish and sambaloelek (an Asian chili paste) together with vodka and Clamato.

Also in this edition, an interview with my old friends Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller, who are cocktail educators and the curators of the Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiriteux,an entire museum housed on a small island on the south coast of France devoted to wines and spirits.  A great new feature of the museum's website is the archiving of several old cocktail books and restaurant menus, which you can click on to view in .pdf format and see (and try) the classic cocktails of the past.

To listen to the podcast, either go to my website and click on the podcast page for free subscription info, or listen to it right now by clicking here.

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 5 - Everything But the Kitchen Sink

Dear Mike;  I don't want to say that this kitchen and bath reno is going to proceed at a snail's pace, but the term 'Slow Food' does come to mind when I think about when the project will be completed.

That's not to say that there hasn't been progress.  On Saturday morning, while we were out shopping, a crew came by and finished ripping out the walls of both the kitchen and the bathroom, leaving behind the toilet, the stove, and quite ironically I think, the kitchen sink!  They also taped up the doors to the two bedrooms upstairs with plastic so dust will not infiltrate those rooms as drywall is being taped and sanded.

The waiting game comes with problems in the attic. (entrance pictured at left)  There is blown insulation in the attic, which needs to come out because we are having so many new lights put into the ceiling and they can't work around the insulation.   There also wasn't enough of the stuff to begin with to do any good at preventing heat loss, and there also isn't enough ventilation, which allows moist air to be trapped and eventually cause mold. So...some guys are coming next week(Wed. or Thursday we hope) with some sort of giant vacuum cleaner to suck out the insulation.
I get the feeling not much else is going to get down until that next step. Patience, patience.  Here's a video walk-through of the latest destruction:

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 4 - What, no cappuccino?

Dear Mike:  Take a good look at this.  It's the last existing photo of the kitchen in its 'before' stage.   The demolition started in earnest yesterday....with Gerry and Jesse knocking down the wall, electricians Rod and Cal removing all the light fixtures, heaters and outlets and shutting down various circuits.  I haven't mentioned how our cats, Mugsy and Nebbia, are handling this.  I'm keeping them inside, downstairs, while the workers are here.  They've been spending time sleeping. Mugsy hiding when someone comes down here, Nebbia trying to make friends as usual.

When I drove down to Victoria yesterday for a dentist appointment, I also purchased a new toy...a little video camera called a Flip Video Ultra. This is a very simple camera that is basically a point-and-shoot, with built-in editing software and an easy way to share the video online through YouTube, email, or even a greeting card.  The photo you see on the left is actually a snapshot from the first video I shot with the Flip. Not bad, eh? Very easy to use...you don't even need a cable to connect to your computer, a USB connector 'flips' out of the camera and you just stick it in a free port.

No Cappuccino? When I returned home from Victoria, the guys had left for the day and I discovered that all the power to the outlets and lighting in our makeshift kitchen and the guest bedroom where we have taken up residence had been cut off.  That includes power to the espresso machine!!!  I made tea for this morning, but when Gerry arrived I told him what was going on and he dialed Rod who came over and was able to restore most of the power I need.  Thank you Rod!  I will be running an extension cord into the bedroom so we can power our bedside lamps.  Oh, and here is the Flip Video of Kitchen Demolition Day One, a less-than-one-minute snap of the work so far.

The Kitchen Diaries, pt. 3

Dear Mike;  Kitchen Reno lesson number 1.  Be patient.  I thought our kitchen was going to get demolished today.  Wrong.  The contractor and his lead 'demolisher' turned up today to get the lay of the land and do some more measurements.  The reassuring news is that the guys will be here tomorrow to 'protect' the rest of the upper floor.  The hardwood will be cleaned, plastic and plywood put on top, our bedroom (which we have vacated) will be taped off, as will the bottom of the stairs. Even the aging vinyl on the deck will be covered up to prevent it from getting scarier then it already is.  All the furniture remaining in the living area will be covered up, as will the fridge and dishwasher when they get disconnected and unplugged.

The photo above shows the elegant floor of our master bathroom, ha ha!
This is vintage 1970's vinyl!  Makes me throw up in my mouth, just a little bit.  The rest of the bathroom is just as ugly, as you can see on the left.  It is all getting demolished, new tub, new toilet, new pedestal sink....and an additional window at the end of the new tub so we can lie in the tub and look out the window into the forest.  I have posted two short videos, one of the kitchen, one of the bathroom, to Facebook(you don't have to be a member to watch them) so you can tour the existing 'facilities', and plan to post a lot more photos and videos, leading right up to 'the reveal'.  When will that be?  Lesson Number 1.  Be patient.  (the videos aren't posted just yet, will update this post with the links when they are.)  At this point Facebook is refusing to encode my videos for some reason.  I have now uploaded them twice, with no results.  Now I'm trying youtube...here is the kitchen video, I think:

And now here is the bathroom video: