Kitchen Updating Continues

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you are likely wondering what the heck has been up.  Posting has been considerably less than it usually is.  There is a reason for that...kitchen renovations!  We bought this house in August of 2011, moving in just before heading down to our vacation home in Florida for the fall.  Upon our return, just after the holidays I started on the kitchen.  January of 2012 saw a fresh coat of paint that lead to a massive snowball effect.  Our friend who does custom woodworking made a couple of suggestions and the kitchen has been in an uproar since.  The snowball effect did not stop at the kitchen though as he had done custom work for the upper bathroom, custom wall unit for the games room and other finish work.  He will be doing the crown molding and trim on the main level as well.

Our kitchen is small so we are adding custom features to increase the functionality while giving it the custom look.  The marble tile floor and ceramic tile counter and backsplash were installed by the previous owner.  Aside of those two features and the layout, the kitchen bears little resemblance to what it was when we bought the house.

We arrived home from our vacation home just in time to celebrate Christmas with our kids.  We had a few days to settle in then on January 3 our friend was out to take my cabinet doors for refinishing.  When he installed the custom bulkhead, the stains did not match.  We liked the darker cooler tone so opted to have the cabinets refinished to get rid of the yellow tones.  Once again the kitchen was being pulled apart.

Pictured is the kitchen as it was the morning he came out to take the upper cabinet doors for refinishing.  Aside of the cabinets, we still have the microwave oven, sink and faucet to replace.  The under cabinet lighting on the custom built shelf was added in 2012.  We have decided to update that to LED lighting along with LED lights in the ceiling as well as adding a solar tube.

Little did I know when he took the doors on January 3 that the work would be dragged out until March!  Honestly, by that time my frustration was definitely showing.  I have refinished the cabinets in three of the homes we have owned so know the work that goes into it.  Yet, those kitchen cabinets were completely refinished in under two weeks.  I was quite surprised that he was taking so long.  In hindsight, I should have done them myself but my husband felt this was the easier route to go.  And so the kitchen sat, and sat!

We hosted our monthly games night in January and February with the kitchen looking like this.  I had to keep the patio panels closed in the morning to prevent the strong sunlight damaging the contents of the spice cabinet.  We tried to minimize any cooking that would create a lot of steam or grease being released into the air.  The worst part though was as things dragged on, my mood sunk deeper and deeper. 

Finally, in March he came out to take the base cabinet doors for refinishing.  He sanded down the cabinet trim the same day.  Talk about a mess!  Even with taping a plastic sheet over the kitchen entrance and opening the patio door, there was still a fine layer of dust on many surfaces.   The stain went on the cabinet trim the same day.  A couple of days later, our friend installed the custom built drawers in the short end of the base cabinets.  We lost a bit of space but gained in usable space.  The drawers are on soft close runners.  My husband took one look at the drawers and said we needed to do the same with the other smaller cabinet.

That night, I heard a dripping noise in the utility room.  The refrigerator was leaking!  My husband shut off the water supply then did some troubleshooting.  It was the dual valve intake so we ordered the part and he fixed it the following Monday.  This was the second water leak we had dealt with that week!  In the meantime, that Saturday night we hosted our monthly games night with fifteen in attendance and a kitchen with minimal functionality.

I told our friend that I would put the urethane on the cabinet trim.  I wanted three coats for good protection which would be faster if I did it than wait for him to come out three times.  Finally, he was able to get the refinished cabinet doors installed.  The kitchen was starting to come back together, once again.  He measured up the cabinet next to the sink for drawers before he left.  I set about putting things back into the cabinets knowing full well that I would have to pull everything out of the one cabinet for the new drawers.  He wasn't planning on coming out for a couple of weeks to install the drawers so it was better to have the items in the cabinet rather than in boxes on the floor.

Last week, our friend came out to install the new kick plate and drawers in the smaller base cabinet.  Surprisingly, this installation was quite disruptive.  We emptied the cabinet and cleared the counter the night before.  He had to build a spacer the width of the divider in the cabinet.  This holds the runners on one side of the drawers.  He also had to reinforce the inside of the cabinet sides to hold the runners on the other side of the drawers.  This actually took longer than I expected.  Once the divider and sides were installed, it was time for him to install the drawers.  He went for lunch while I mused about how I would organize the new drawers.

Finally the new drawers were installed and the cleanup finished.  We had discussed turning the original drawer to the left above the new drawers into a knife drawer with a custom built knife rack.  Unfortunately, there was only room for eight or nine of my chefs knives which wouldn't really free up that much space on the counter or other drawer so we decided against it.   We aren't sure what we are doing next although I did buy LED strip lighting to test out.  At least the cabinets are one step closer to being finished.  The planned lighting should only take a day for installation but it will once again disrupt the kitchen.  Still, the disruptions should be getting shorter.  I'm at least back to having a functional kitchen for the time being.

We really love our new kitchen drawers!  We knew we would lose the space behind the dividers but the drawers really add a lot of extra storage by making what was once unusable space usable.  We have a total of ten drawers.  The four drawers in the base cabinet on the short arm of the counter are home to pots, pans and miscellaneous kitchen equipment.  They hold everything that was in the original base cabinet as well as a few items from the upper cabinet, freeing up a bit of space there.  The six smaller drawers are home to various food items all neatly organized.  The upper right drawer has coffee supplies which is rather nice and I'm using the middle left drawer as a snack drawer.  Gone are the days of being able to open the cabinet and toss something in quickly.  Instead, everything is neat and tidy. 

While our cabinet drawers were custom made to fit our cabinets, there are stock drawers available.  If you are looking for ways to make your small kitchen more functional, definitely consider putting drawers in your cabinets.  Honestly, it is one of those little additions that makes a huge difference!

Our Vacation Home Kitchen

We are incredibly blessed to own a vacation home in sunny Florida where we try to spend three months a year over three trips.  This past year we also bought a co-op in Aruba, so in essence we have three fully equipped kitchens.  We are very much firm believers of eating healthy, home cooked meals even when on vacation.  The only difference in our eating style on vacation is we tend to eat out more.  While discovering new restaurants and revisiting our favourites is a wonderful culinary experience that we truly enjoy, we also enjoy home cooked meals.
 

Our vacation home is a two bedroom with den, two bathroom manufactured home (2007).  We bought it in 2010 after it had sat a year and a half empty.    The house is in a 55+ retirement community with a lot of nice amenities.  The club house is very nice, a place to meet up with other members of our community, enjoy a bit of entertainment or a meal.

Our vacation home kitchen is fairly similar in size to our home kitchen with a similar layout except the vacation home kitchen is open to the small family room.  It is an eat-in kitchen.  The patio doors lead to the lanai where we often enjoy morning coffee and meals.  The cabinets are standard white, nothing fancy.  The counter tops are basic formica but the backsplash is ceramic tile.  There is a bit less actual counter workspace  than our home kitchen, not significantly less but enough to be noticeable.  The appliances are Whirlpool with the stove being electric and the next step down from the natural gas Whirlpool Gold range at home.   The sink is a heavy plastic double sink with food disposal.  We replaced the original taps with the set pictured last spring.  The floor is a textured sheet flooring in a tile pattern.

The refrigerator wall of the kitchen has a narrow but deep pantry.  A door leading to the small utility/laundry room separates the refrigerator wall from the sink wall.  The refrigerator has an ice maker but other than that is fairly basic especially compared to our home refrigerators.

Our vacation home kitchen is light, bright, quite functional and easy to maintain.  It has the distinct disadvantage of being what you see is what you get.  That is the entire storage available for food, kitchen appliances and kitchenware.  There is no extra storage space in the rest of the home to store extra kitchen equipment or food although larger pots and pans could be stored in the golf cart shed.  In all honesty, longer stays require being a bit more creative but we will never be living there full time and we will likely continue to rent our vacation home out from time to time so the kitchen more than meets both needs.

Our vacation home while considerably smaller than our home still requires interior maintenance, repairs and updating.  This is fairly consistent with any vacation home or cottage.  As mentioned we have already replaced the faucet set as the old one sprung a leak that continued to get worse despite repairs.  We are planning a few upgrades to increase the value of our vacation home while adding more durable, lower maintenance materials that will withstand the intended purpose of our vacation home.  We are planning on replacing existing carpeting with laminate flooring or ceramic tile next spring.   Ceramic tile is likely our best choice so we would end up tiling the entire house at that time.

Now when I note we are at our vacation home or show a meal prepared there, you will have an idea of what the kitchen there looks like.  Our vacation home kitchen is equipped with the basics - blender, slow cooker, toaster, coffee maker (mainly for tenants), Keurig (our use only), can opener and hot air popcorn maker.  I took the stainless steel Lagostina pot and pan set we recently replaced from home to the vacation home so we are set that way.  So, it is fairly well equipped suitable for any of the cooking and baking we will be doing there.  We also have an outdoor grill that just as at home gets a lot of use.  Tenants at most will be there a total of 3 months but that is very rare.  So far, we have had tenants stay a month or two, most commonly one month.  Next week I will share some of our foodie highlights during this portion of our fall vacation.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Thrift Stores

I have been a thrift store shopper ever since my childhood days.  It's like a treasure hunt, never knowing when you are going to find that perfect whatever you need at a fraction of the cost of new.  Thrift stores aka  resale shops aka Sally Ann aka Goodwill or simply the name of the shop itself are a mecca for those wanting to equip their kitchens (and rest of the home) frugally.  There are three types of thrift stores.  The first is privately owned with the proceeds going to the owner.  The second type is owned and operated by a charitable organization with the proceeds going to charity and helping those in need in the community.  We did have a third type in town  that was privately owned but all the proceeds went to charity.  It has since changed hands and I haven't stopped in to see if that is still the case.  Of the three types of thrift stores, I tend to support those with proceeds going to charity.

Thrift stores are the ultimate in recycling.  Items no longer wanted or needed are donated to the thrift store where they are cleaned up and sold well under their original value even if the item is brand new.  You end up with something you need for next to nothing.  At the same time proceeds from your purchase goes back into the community.  It's a win:win all the way a round.  This is the time of year to be checking out the thrift shops.  Folks are starting to do their spring cleaning so there is an influx of lots of different items.  Those unwanted small kitchen appliances gifted at Christmas are also making their way to the thrift stores this time of year.  Of note, even if the thrift store is for profit and not charity the prices tend to be about the same.  Here's a few items to look out for:

• platters - If you do a lot of entertaining, platters usually go for 50¢ to $1.  With a bit of looking you can find some fairly nice vintage platters as well for the same price.
• serving bowls - Serving bowls usually go for 25¢ to $1 depending on the size.  I tend to look for vintage rather than plastic but some nice plastic ones show up in the thrift stores as well.
• wicker baskets - Wicker baskets can be had for as low as 10¢.  Wicker can be washed and dried thoroughly then dyed with fabric dye or painted.  These are ideal for home made gift baskets!
• metal tins -  Decorative metal tins with lids in all shapes and sizes can usually be found for under $1.  They can be used to store just about anything and are perfect for gifting cookies and sweets. [watch for an up coming post on metal tins]
• glassware - Glassware is usually priced at 25¢ each but may be sold in sets.  Commemorative glassware may go as high as $2
• mugs - Mugs are generally priced about the same as glassware.
• specialty beverage - Cappuccino, espresso and wine glasses are often sold in sets for $2 to $4.  Punch bowl sets are usually $5 to $7.
• vintage glass bakeware -  Older glass bakeware is wonderful.  It doesn't have the problem of shattering when heated as some newer glass bakeware has done.  If you are lucky, the glass lid is still with the piece so there is no concern over leaching from plastic lids.  I use my vintage pieces for storing foods in the refrigerator as well as baking in the oven or warming in the microwave oven.  Vintage pieces with no chips, top and bottom are usually priced at $5 to $7 but are worth every penny.
• mason jars -  Mason jars are often over priced at 50¢ to $1 and they have no lid or ring.  New 500 ml (pint) jars cost 55¢ and 1 L (quart) jars cost 66¢ new, on sale and they come with the lid and ring.  Unless you can get a box of mason jars for $2 to $3 or jars at less than the new price, they are not a bargain.
• miscellaneous items -  Items like table cloths, placemats, cloth napkins, aprons, gadgets and decorative kitchen items can all be found at thrift stores for a fraction of the price of new.  It's even possible to find homemade and custom made items. 
• small kitchen appliances - Pricing of small kitchen appliances depends on what it is.  I've seen new bread machines as low as $5.  The gimmicky type small appliances tend to be rather inexpensive too yet basics like an electric can opener are over priced.  Unless you know how to repair broken small kitchen appliances, never buy a damaged one or one with any problems with the cord.  
• cookbooks -  My gosh, you can create quite the cooking library for a pittance just by buying cookbooks at the thrift stores.  It doesn't matter if the cookbook is by a celebrity chef or not, all are priced at under a dollar.  Sometimes they put all books including cookbooks on 5/$1.  Thrift stores are a great place to find older and vintage cookbooks.  One of my favourite cookbooks is Kate Aitken's Canadian Cook Book (1965) bought for 10¢ several years ago.  Older and vintage cookbooks are one of the most valuable resources in a frugal kitchen.
• large kitchen appliances - Some thrift stores do not carry refrigerators, ranges or microwave ovens but others do.  It is possible to get a refrigerator or range in good condition for under $100 which can be a real help if your's can't be repaired and you don't have the funds for a replacement.  It's great for those setting up their first apartment on limited funds and if you like vintage, with any luck you may be able to find vintage large appliances.  New microwave ovens can be found for as low as $50 but thrift stores seldom get microwave ovens and when they do, the price is close to new.  
• furniture - Thrift stores that have furniture are often great places to find kitchen tables and chairs that are rather inexpensive.  Folding tv tables, shelf units and bakers stands are sometimes available. 

Getting Closer to Finishing Our Kitchen

When we first looked at this house in 2011, I did not notice the taupe ceramic tile in the kitchen so I had visions of a black, white and grey kitchen with accents of red.  I have a few of the chefs kitchen collectables so I thought is would make for a festive kitchen.  How could I not notice the colour of the kitchen?  This is our sixth purchased permanent residence, seventh if you count our vacation home.  The rule of thumb has always been anything decorative can be changed.  The more important features of the house like location,  structure, layout, size, and design become the focus over paint, wall paper and tile. 

This kitchen has really changed since we bought the house.  We painted the walls a deep burgundy (colour matched to our dinnerware), closed in the bulkhead, added a custom made bookshelf with accessory lighting,  added custom made trim around the ceiling,  replaced the dishwasher,installed a natural gas range and hung panel drapes.   There's still a few more things to do!

The kitchen was originally painted a cool taupe with deep taupe/almost black tones marble floor, warm oak cabinets and a warm taupe ceramic tile back splash and counter top.  There was the absolutely most disgusting white range hood.  By disgusting I mean so coated with grease there was no way it could be cleaned and copious amounts of cold air came in whenever the wind picked up.  I actually placed a piece of tin foil on the filter to block the cold air from coming in!  Not only that, it didn't match the kitchen and I like things to match not just in one room but throughout the entire house so there are no jarring eye moments.  The colours I picked for this house are white, black, deep burgundy, taupe, olive green, navy blue and lots of wood.  Each room flows into the next with elements of each colour in every room or there will be when I'm finished decorating.  Back to the range hood.

We tend to be very frugal even when it comes to interior decorating so are avid DIYers who are quite willing to wait for a sale.  There are times though that I will change something just because it gets to the point of being an eyesore.  The range hood was that and beyond that.   It wasn't that the range hood didn't match it was the thing was so disgusting not to mention cold air poured down through it so costing us heating dollars, I finally had enough.  So, I took the measurements and as you can see we were restricted in width and depth thanks to the way they installed the tile.  Honestly, we found out really early after moving here the previous owners never thought about anything in the kitchen ever having to replace anything!  I went online to find a range hood, settling on a Broan-NuTone HDN64 series.  It isn't a fancy range hood but it vents outside and matches the kitchen decor and we were restricted as to the size of range hood we could use.  It has a high and low setting for both the fan and light.  I would have liked a slim line range hood but we would have been left with a awkward gap between the tile and range hood. 

It took my husband about 10 minutes to replace the range hood at a total cost of $79.99 CDN.  The installation went smoothly.  The total install will be on my homemaking blog shortly.  We discovered that the baffle was missing on the old range hood.  That's something that should not break so we figure they took the range hood off when installing the ceramic tile and accidentally broke the baffle.  That's why the cold air poured in not to mention allowing heated indoor air to escape. 

Next up on our kitchen upgrades:  We need to fill in the gap left on the floor with replacing the dishwasher.  We found tile in the garage to match so our friend who is doing the custom woodworking in the house is going to cut it for us when he is out finishing the cabinets.  We are going to tone done the yellow in the cabinets to match the new bulkhead.  The stainless steel sink and rip off faucet (rip off because the previous owner took the one we actually saw with the house with them) are being replaced.  The sink will be black but I'm not sure what yet.  The microwave oven is a quandary.  It has all the bells and whistles on it for 1100 W power (bought for $69 at a liquidation centre) and is used at most a couple of times a month.  I'd love to go to an over the range model like we have in our vacation home but my large canner won't fit under it.  My husband wants to replace the ceramic counter top with granite.  At some point in the very near future our kitchen may be finally finished!

A Sneak Peak at My New Kitchen

We have been essentially living between two houses for the past fourteen days.  Today is the last day of ownership of our old house so basically the only thing left to do there is remove the last of the boxes and vacuum.  We signed all the papers yesterday and gave our lawyer the key so tomorrow we officially own our new house!  Here's a sneak peak at my new kitchen. 

There is a large raised deck off the kitchen.  Out of sight to the left is a spacious area for our outdoor dining area.  There is a gate at the top of the stairs that will be quite helpful in keeping the grandkids safe and sound.  We have a second, smaller deck on one side of the pool that we don't intend on putting an eating area on.  The new dual fuel (charcoal/propane) grill sat in the box in the intended spot for the first week.  We could not get it put together due to daily rain, rather heavy at times.  Then we finally had a break in the weather so my husband started putting it together but about half-way through it rained again.  Thankfully the next day was clear enough he was able to finish the assembly.  We grill pork loin chops on it that night (more on that later). 

We decided on a stand alone breakfast bar.  Originally it came with the two bar stools.  I ordered two more that currently at the furniture shop waiting for us to pick up.  I hung one of the paintings from our collection of original paintings from a local artist.  His work is amazing!  The beautiful, realistic, mesmerizing landscapes draw you into them.  We have four of them at home each bought when we moved into a new house.  We never bought one or even hung the ones we had at our last house, perhaps an premonition neither of us bonded to the house.

The stainless steel kitchen cart is temporarily in the kitchen.  I really like it as the cart holds a lot of stuff but both of us agree the cart does not really suit the kitchen so we will likely move it down into the games room.  We are debating adding a base cabinet to match our cabinets tiled on top to use as a side server but may just buy a server.  That's up in the air.

The long branch of the counter has double sinks, dishwasher, stove and microwave.  It will see the most changes in the kitchen.  I'm not sure whether or not I will be putting anything above the cabinets so that is just temporary.  We are putting in a garburator on one of the sinks.  The existing dilapidated White-Westinghouse dishwasher has already been replaced with an energy efficient Whirlpool Gold Quiet Partner (model# GU2475XTVB1).  The new Whirlpool Gold free-standing gas range (model# GFG461LVB) blocked part of the patio doors to the deck since Sep. 2 but was fully installed this morning.  The dishwasher was a royal pain to replace and the range was a very tight fit but things look rather good now.  Obviously the previous owners did not consider that appliance need to be changed out from time to time!  The floor is marble tiled.

I really didn't like the gold knobs on the cabinets so have replaced them with smoked mirror finished knobs.  The range hood needs to be replaced.  The microwave oven doesn't match so one of our kids offered to trade their black one for our white one.  The walk-in 10' x 11' pantry holding freezers, small appliances, food and other culinary equipment is downstairs so I'm getting my exercise!  A friend of ours is custom making a shelf with lighting to run just above where the tile ends in the centre of the cabinets.  It will be used for cookbooks, something I will very much appreciate.

The short side of the cabinets ends at the refrigerator (Maytag 26 cu. ft, model# MZD2666KEB).  There is the entrance from the dining and living room to the kitchen to the left of the fridge.  The refrigerator was left with the house as part of the real estate deal.  It is only a couple of years old and still had the protective plastic on the controls.

Originally we wanted to take out part of this wall to create an open concept dining/living room with kitchen and breakfast bar but it is a load bearing wall and it would involve a massive amount of work.  Besides I love the marble tiled floor so don't want to damage it.  We are considering turning part of the deck into a three season room but haven't made any definite plans.

In total there are three dining areas in the house - the dining room that is open to the living room, the breakfast bar and the deck for a total seating for 15.  We have further seating for 30 in the games room on the lower level as well as our full sized, white Whirlpool side-by-side from the old house.  So it will be a wonderful home for entertaining with the first larger event this weekend.  I have a lot to do to get ready for that!  I hope you like my new kitchen and enjoy the foods I prepare in it.

Exciting News!

If you have been following this blog for awhile you will know we bought a vacation home in the sunny south last March.  Within days of buying it we put our primary residence here in Canada on the market.  The primary goal of selling our home and moving to another home was two fold with being closer to family and friends that will watch our home while we are away.  Our goal is to spend three to four months of the year at our vacation home, something that is not practical in our current rural location.  I am please to announce after sixteen long months our home is officially SOLD and today we signed the final paper for the purchase of our new home.  The new house is actually larger than our current house AND the kitchen is larger as well.  I will have a full and I do mean large bedroom sized room for my pantry.  We have made arrangements with the sellers to move in three weeks before the official closing date so have plenty of time for cleaning, painting and moving the smaller personal possessions.  The larger furniture and appliance will be moved closer to but not on the closing date.  Now let me tell you a bit about my new kitchen and a few goodies on the property.

There are three peach (? apricot) trees, a pear tree and grape vines!  There are a few perennial herbs as well as an established garden area that I will be turning into my traditional square foot raised beds.  The kitchen has a marble floor that I thought was black from our first walk though but turns out to be a dark brown so that changes me colour scheme of black, grey and white with burgundy accents.  The countertop and back splash is tile.  The painted areas are taupe.  The cabinets are oak and their three year old fridge stays so we will have two full sized refrigerators, both Whirlpool.  The built-in dishwasher stays as well.  Unfortunately it is not a Bosch so will be replaced as soon as we move in.  There is a gorgeous deck off the patio doors perfect for dining in the nicer weather.  My husband has talked of turning this deck into a solarium open year round to the kitchen.  There is also a deck off the pool that is suitable for dining pool-side.  We have already purchased a new dual fuel grill still in the crate for the new house since we are not taking our old and quickly aging gas grill.  The new grill is charcoal on one side and propane on the other so watch for more discussion on that after our move.  I am currently shopping for a dual fuel kitchen range even though we are bringing our Jenn-Air slide-in range with us.  I want a gas cooktop with electric convection oven.  There is an outdoor fire pit that we are a bit iffy on but plenty of room for my coveted smoker and with a bit of luck wood fired oven. 

Now you know why I've been a bit slack in posting the last couple of days.  My gosh things have been a whirlwind of activity here with the sale since the buyer wanted a home inspection (3 hours) and then was here later the same day for another hour before waiving all conditions.  The following day we went through the house we are buying again, my husband had to pick up the boat to bring it back to our slip and we had company.  Last night I drifted off to sleep organizing my new kitchen and pantry in my mind :)

Winter Vacation Highlights (2)

I mentioned in the first winter vacation highlights post that we stayed at the exclusive Cypress Lakes outside of Lakeland, Florida. The beautiful grounds feature two spectacular golf courses surrounded by beautifully kept manufactured homes. I'm telling you one look at these houses both inside and out with dispel any myth you have about manufactured homes. They are stunning!

Orange Tree

The main mode of transportation around the ground is via golf cart. This gave me ample opportunities to capture the flavour of the park using my digital camera. Citrus fruit means Florida so I would have been disappointed to not see any citrus trees.

Many of the well manicured lawns had orange trees. Orange trees are not particularly large trees but they are rather pretty. The bright orange fruit set against the green foliage is enough to get those taste buds in action! These trees were heavily laden with fruit and we did enjoy a couple of fresh picked oranges while we were there. We also enjoyed fresh, in season strawberries! Oh how I would have loved to bring both fresh strawberries and oranges home. Unfortunately those pesky customs restrictions prevented me from doing so.

Guest House Kitchen

As Canadians we tend to have a rather snobbish attitude towards trailers aka manufactured homes. If someone says they live in a double wide visions of Cops and similar shows flash through our minds. If that isn't enough we also get a good dose of American news so really trailer parks have a negative connotation. However this negativity doesn't not apply to this type of gated, high security resort.

We stayed in the guest house for about half of our stay. More pictures will be My Journey later this week. I love checking out kitchens! I'm always looking for what I can incorporate into our kitchen, what I like and what I don't like. Pictured is the guest house kitchen that is about the same square footage as our home kitchen. The fridge and stove were lower end GE and if there was an EnergyStar® sticker on the fridge it had been removed. There was no dishwasher something we discovered many of the homes did not have. There was a garburator. The countertops were laminate with a painted edge. All in all it was a nice kitchen aesthetically and functionally. If it were mine I would be making a few upgrades.

New York Strip Steak

We ate the majority of our meals at Big Cypress Grill. This quality on site restaurant caters exclusively to the residents and guests [of residents] of Cypress Lakes. They do not offer a breakfast menu. The kitchen closes at 4 PM on Mondays and 6 PM on Wednesdays. The lunch menu is available daily except Sundays. The Big Cypress Grill has daily dinner specials on the days they serve dinner. You can tune to their private television channel to view the specials prior to going down to the clubhouse. This is a rather nice feature allowing you to check the specials before heading to the clubhouse as the specials do change from time to time. Saturday's dinner specials were New York Strip Steak ($12.49), Chicken Tortellini with Gorgonzola cream ($10.99) and Grilled Salmon ($11.99).

My husband had the New York Strip Steak cooked medium rare. The lovely sized steak came cooked to perfection and topped with a fresh tomato salsa. Sides were tossed salad, sautéed zucchini wedges and mashed potatoes. He gave the meal his sign of approval!

Grilled Salmon

I ordered the grilled salmon. The large piece of nicely grilled salmon came on a bed of mashed potatoes or rice. I chose the mashed potatoes. The salmon was topped with a rather sweetish but spicy fruit chutney with walnuts that complimented the salmon nicely. Sides were tossed salad and sautéed zucchini wedges. This really was a lovely dish that could easily be duplicated at home.

Salmon is a very easy to prepare fish whether steamed, broiled, baked or grilled. For best results choose wild salmon rather than farmed salmon. Farmed salmon is fattier (up to 52% more fat) than wild and it contains higher levels of PCB and artificial colourants. While farmed salmon is cheaper in price, wild salmon is higher in quality. Salmon being a stronger flavoured fish melds nicely with sweet and spicy chutneys and particularly any sauce maple syrup based.