59. Road Trip for Soapstone

April 1, 2013January 20, 2016 / Apple Hill Cottage / 8 Comments

We spent weeks, months, selecting a kitchen counter top.

I looked online at Countertops 101; I looked at the big box stores; I read articles about all the different materials we could use for our countertop — the pros and cons of each. While I was considering this, Consumer Reports came out with a timely article on what was the best, and I read the article five times. I even took a quiz — what kind of countertop should YOU have in your kitchen?

I’m not sure that this is normal…

Soapstone was my pick early on — I just needed to convince Mr. H. C. of its amazing and beautiful qualities. There’s nothing like a firsthand look at the gorgeous stuff, so last fall we visited Bucks County Soapstone in Perkasie, PA.

Bucks County Soapstone

Everything in their showroom highlights soapstone — even the floor at the entrance is soapstone tile.

Perhaps you would like one of these cute little basin sinks?

Or a wonderful soapstone laundry tub?

Mr. H. C. fell in love. And once we saw their hand crafted sinks we knew we were going to give away our already purchased $30 ivory porcelain sink and buy one of these:

Well, maybe not quite that fancy…but I suggest that a visit here — and a short talk with the owner, Scott Seuren — will convince you of the beauty of a soapstone countertop and sink. Just sayin’…

Road Trip

From the time they received our plans to when it was ready for pickup was three weeks. I had this week off from work, so we planned a road trip across Pennsylvania.

We left Henry looking out the window — six hours in the truck was almost too much for us, let alone Henry, whose vehicular limit seems to be about 60 minutes.

Truthfully, it was a long boring ride across the PA turnpike. The landscape is still brown and ugly from winter and the road went on and on…

We perked up when we landed at our B&B — The Fox and Hound. The innkeepers were perky, the room was nice, and the breakfast was good — all for a hundred bucks — which is about what you would pay for an impersonal, adequate hotel room. We try to stay in B&Bs whenever we can.

Bucks County is beautiful and certainly deserves another trip — or a vacation even — in warmer weather. The little town of New Hope is charming, but by the time we got out on the town on a Tuesday evening, all the little touristy shoppes were closed (which was a good thing for the budget). So we made do with $3 stouts, and burgers and pork tacos at the local brew pub, the Triumph Brewery. Just what truck-weary travelers needed.

The next morning we were at Bucks County Soapstone by 10:15. I wandered around the showroom, snapping photos, and talking to Scott, while Mr. H. C. hung around with the guys in the shop finding out tips for installation and loading the truck.

The guys in the shop built this handy dandy A-frame so we could safely haul our precious cargo.

No road trip is complete without lunch at the local diner, and we found a great one!

The owner made Mr. H. C. a double chocolate milk shake and he was in Milkshake Heaven! With a Delicious Reuben sandwich, he was so full, he left his pickle uneaten. I was astonished. He NEVER leaves a pickle! “There are priorities,” he said. (Long ago when Mr. H. C. was called Mikey, he was also known as the fastest milkshake drinker in the East…)

Aren’t you excited to see photos of the finished product? So are we, but that will have to wait. In the meantime, here are the top ten reasons you would want to buy a soapstone countertop:

Top Ten Reasons to Buy Soapstone

10. It is a naturally occurring material with minimal processing and as little or as much upkeep as you want.

9. Do you want natural gray? Do you want polished black? You can have either. And you can even change your mind.

8. It is very DIY friendly — unlike every other countertop material out there (with the possible exception of tile–but Mr. H.C. said absolutely no tile countertops.)

7. It scratches easily, yes; BUT the scratches can just be sanded out using regular 150 grit sandpaper and a circular motion.

6. It lasts for years and years and years.

5. Most soapstone dealers are smaller, family or individually run places, so you aren’t supporting the Big Box stores. Given this factor, you get personal attention.

4. The stone is heat absorbent — you can set your hot pans right on it; as well as rolling out pastries and kneading bread and generally being a substitute for marble…

3. It is naturally anti-bacterial.

2. There is NO chance of radiation or radon entering your home with soapstone.

1. It is so beautiful!

I promise pictures in the next post…

52. Now that we’ve seen the worst…*

February 25, 2013January 20, 2016 / Apple Hill Cottage / 15 Comments

We’ve been working on this little cottage every weekend for almost a year now.

We are no longer under any illusions. We know that the wiring is haphazard, the upkeep has been minimal, and it was built in fits and starts without much planning. (This is not to cast aspersions on previous owners and builders — they were our grandfathers and great uncles; they were our fathers and mothers, and we loved them.)

Checking to see how easy it will be to disconnect the sink faucets and drain…

We thought we were prepared for what we were going to see when we took out the cabinets.

We were wrong. WAY wrong. We were not prepared.

We were both so appalled that I only took one small picture, and that was AFTER we cleaned up the floor of insulation, mouse nests, hickory nuts, dead bugs, a mummified mouse, and an inch of mouse droppings. There was no photo of that, because, quite frankly, I don’t want to remember it.

But that wasn’t the worst.

Yes, in the picture above those ARE holes in the walls. See how the wall doesn’t appear to meet the floor? It doesn’t!

Yes, in the picture above, you can see mouse-chewed wire through the holes in the wall.

And yes, in the picture above, that IS a hole in the floor. Under the cabinet were three pieces of plywood about 8×12″ just sitting on the joists. Not nailed down. Of course, those boards moved when the cabinet was pulled out and dropped into the crawl space below. Basically, there was not a nailed down floor under the cabinets. We spent seven minutes staring aghast at the ground; we spent three minutes wondering if Gus the groundhog (see post 21. Apple Picking Time. ) would poke his nose into the kitchen; and we spent eighteen minutes scurrying around fixing it temporarily, so we could sleep at night. While I guarded the kitchen from Gus, raccoons, snakes, bears, or any other critter that could possibly make their way up that hole, Mr. H.C. found enough boards to cover the floor for now while we try to figure out what’s next. We are not wimps here; we’ve seen holes in the floor before…

Just one more polite rant: These cabinets were installed by a Professional Cabinet Company. What kind of professional would leave holes in the floors and walls and shrug and say, “Oh just leave it, the cabinets are going there anyway!”???

Right. A cabinet company that is still in business! Admittedly these cabinets were installed 35+years ago; but thirty-five years ago, did they still leave holes in floors? Now, we’ve all seen or heard horror stories of Professional Remodelers who have done irreparable damage to houses. Any stories out there? C’mon, the worst remodel saga you’ve ever seen — in 100 words or less. Let’s hear those stories!

Plans seem to change daily around here… And it’s not usually boring (unless you’re sanding windows…) So we’re off to buy metal lath, plaster, and some floor boards.

Let’s hear those stories…

*Mr. H. C. reminds me that this, very likely, is NOT YET the worst…

38. Fighting the Lesser Gods

December 11, 2012July 9, 2014 / Apple Hill Cottage / 6 Comments

We spent too much on a kitchen faucet two weeks ago. I am suffering from Buyer’s Remorse.

Our beautiful new brushed stainless steel kitchen faucet

I’ve been trying to excuse it. I’ve been rationalizing it by telling myself that we have saved $$ on so much else for the kitchen by buying at restores, redoing old stuff, and repurposing other stuff. Hmm, the key words here are much and stuff…

I’ve been telling myself that it is a quality faucet, and it will last forever. After all, it has a ceramic cartridge, it is made of stainless steel, and it won’t rust. Hmm, the key words here are quality and forever.

It’s difficult to be rehabbing a kitchen and trying to fight that impulse of materialism. The two just don’t go together. I can get caught up in the look I want; the colors I want; the type of flooring I want. The key words here are pretty obvious…I want.

I want much quality stuff forever…

We’ve been trying to be thrifty and balanced — nothing outlandishly pricey or ostentatious. Simple even. After all, there are people living in tents in Haiti; in huts in Malawi; in tenements in this very city. (Remember those starving people in China who would have eaten those peas I wouldn’t eat as a kid?)

Last week I was cleaning out my home library and found this:

I don’t know where it came from, but I saved it. And I found it again at a time when I needed to be reminded.

In this time of gross materialism (I mean Christmas, but it could just as well be any time here in 21st century America) we all need to be reminded. It is not about stuff, even quality stuff, even quality stuff that lasts forever. Because as Jesus reminds us, the earthly treasures rust and get moth-eaten — yes, even stainless steel faucets. The forever treasures are what we need to want; those are what last.

I was ~~reminded~~ convicted again yesterday when I read my morning devotions. Sarah Young writes in Jesus Calling:

I carefully crafted your longings and feelings of incompleteness, to point you to Me. Therefore, do not try to bury or deny these feelings. Beware also of trying to pacify these longings with lesser gods: people, possessions, power.

God carefully created us to long for Him. There is a hole in our human hearts that can only be filled by Him. And instead we fill it with stuff, work, family, lovers and mates, hobbies, eating, shopping, sports, even church — you pick one (or two or three…)

These things are not necessarily bad unless they become replacements for God — Lesser Gods. I don’t know about you, but I fight those lesser gods all the time.

When I win, I can feel Jesus smiling on the person who struggles to be like him and sometimes manages a shadow of His presence.

When I lose, He gently reminds me how imperfect I am. And His gift of grace that covers me is the softest blanket on a cold night.

Yes, it is a beautiful faucet. We own it. I will be happy with it. I will touch it every day, and it will shine as a reminder of my imperfection. And in return, it will remind me to give graciously and joyfully to someone in need. I can’t make up for my greed; I can’t be vindicated for my materialistic sin, but every time I look at that faucet, I can remember.