Kitchen is chillin', people are illin'....

Good news---Mr. R is finally up on his feet and back to school! Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat and a cough. I'm not the only one---our GC and our crew foreman are also out sick, though they seem much sicker than I. Butch was here today working solo, but  he was coughing all day too. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Sunday I cooked the kids a frozen pizza and breadsticks in the new oven! Luckily I had read about issues with bad plasticky smells the first time a new oven is turned on, so I ran both ovens for about 40 minutes earlier in the day to burn off whatever creates that terrible odor. The house reeked! At least it was a nice day and I could open some windows. I used Pizza mode in the convection oven, and aside from taking 2 minutes longer that the box stated, it turned out wonderfully, nice and crispy on the bottom and melty on top. I chalked up the extra time to 1) I put foil on the rack under the pizza rack to catch any drips and 2) I had to open the oven 3 minutes in to add the breadsticks.

Progress today:

Towson Gantry faucet

So glad we raised the ceiling so the faucet and light don't have to fight!

Panels on the Kitchen Aid  fridge/freezer drawers

 These posed a slight conundrum today. We had intended to use the same knobs, but I realized the only place to put them so they looked good was in the middle of the thinner middle panel (in line with the door knobs). I quickly decided this was a bad idea; these drawers will be full and heavy, and also used mostly by the children. A handle would work much better. So this morning I was scouring the net for a simple bronze handle to complement the existing knobs. I found this, and think it is the best contender:

Bow handle from Van Dyke's Restorers

It's 8" long and seems good and sturdy for those boys, plus we can mount it on the thicker frame edge of each drawer.

Finally, today was chilly and rainy; I looked out the window and saw this little guy, seemingly unaware that it was autumn....so pretty I had to take a picture!