Year: 2013

My kitchen has always needed some work. The green and white formica counters, the dripping faucet, the stained and cracked cast iron sink, the pink wallpaper, etc. I didn’t want to do a total renovation, but I figured I could update some parts. I went to Home Depot and talked to a kitchen designer and we charted out a makeover that would replace the counter, sink, faucet, flooring, and add a tile backsplash for about $2700. For the counter, the basic level is laminate or formica. Then there is a big jump in price to about 3 times that price where you can get granite, quartz, or Corian. I figured formica would be okay and less maintenance than granite. I picked out a Delta faucet that got good reviews and a thicker than average stainless steel sink from Kohler. One problem with the cast iron sink was that if I dropped a glass or dish in the sink, it was pretty much a gonner, but stainless is a little bouncier and hopefully will save some glassware. The same thinking was behind getting a vinyl floor instead of ceramic tile.

A few weeks ago, a guy came and measured for the counter and praised my choice of laminate over granite. He said the counter should be read “week after next” which would have been the week before last. The official estimate was 2-3 weeks. 3 weeks was last week. I was hoping they would install it on Columbus Day since I would be off anyway, but they sent me a notice saying it would be last Tuesday, the day after Columbus Day.

Continue reading “New Counter and Sink”

Lately I have been wanting to get a new suit and a blue blazer. They were old anyway, but I got attacked by moths and a lot of my nice clothes got eaten up. I think I have gotten rid of the moths now (for the most part), but now I really need a suit and jacket. The last suit I got was when I first went to work 23 years ago and got a suit from Kuppenheimer, who were eventually bought out by Mens Wearhouse. Kuppenheimer sold pretty reasonably priced suits and that suit lasted a long time. It was a dark charcoal gray which is good for pretty much anything. It saw a lot of weddings and funerals.

So I’m looking around for someplace to get a suit and Joseph A Bank seems to fill a good niche. On the internet people say “JAB” sells cheap suits that are very blocky (closer fitting clothes seem to be in right now, blocky is probably never good). Internet guys think everyone should get MTM suits (made to measure) instead of OTR (off the rack). MTM isn’t 100% custom, but it is close. But they’re spending $1,000 on a suit and I want to spend about $300. So Brooks Brothers is out along with most tailors. Jeb said he was happy with a suit he got at JAB, though lately his experiences were not as good there. I also could try Macy’s who have suits and blazers by Ralph Lauren that seem like they might be a little less blocky than some of the JAB stuff.
Continue reading “Shopping for a Suit”

At work I sometimes wear button down oxford cloth shirts. Usually white, but some light blue. I’ve found that LL Bean makes a great oxford shirt, 100% cotton with a nice substantial weight to it (I like the looks and the quality much better than Lands’ End, which I gave up on as they got worse and worse in an effort to keep the price at some point). They used to have regular and non-wrinkle, but now everything is non-wrinkle (or wrinkle resistant). I have the shirts done at a cleaner so I don’t have to iron them either way. I ironed my own shirts for maybe a year or two before giving up and paying the dollar or so per shirt to have someone else take care of them. Another really nice shirt from LL Bean is their pinpoint oxford shirt which has much finer threads that give the fabric a slight sheen, almost like silk. In white, it isn’t that noticeable, but it is really nice with light blue. But LL Bean now charges $50 for that shirt (looks like now they are charging $40 for the regular oxford; I think I last paid $34.50).

Continue reading “Shirts”

I’ve had internet domains with GoDaddy for years now. They were cheap and they usually had pretty good discounts available for renewing so that I could keep a domain for a year for less than $10. But lately the discounts aren’t as good and I’ve never liked their marketing or web interface, so last year I transferred igirder.com to NameCheap, which I had used before their prices went up, but a transfer there was cheaper than GoDaddy’s renewal. I had flashlightwiki.com and flashlight-wiki.com (the old domain which forwards to the newer hyphenless domain) still at GoDaddy but about to expire. GoDaddy is infuriating because of the games with prices and then they try to upsell you with all kinds of things. I heard that NameSilo was cheap, didn’t play all of those games, and had a pretty clean control panel. So today I transferred the two flashlight domains to NameSilo. I’ll probably transfer igirder next. The only thing I didn’t realize was that I had renewed flashlightwiki for 2 years last time, so it didn’t actually expire until November 2014 instead of November of this year. But NameSilo said they would renew for 1 year past the current expiration date, so now flashlightwiki is good until November 2015.
Continue reading “GoDaddy Gone!”

As part of my kitchen update I am getting rid of the old formica countertop and backsplash and replacing it with a new formica countertop. And tile seems like a good choice for the backsplash instead of matching formica. Tile looks good and is very durable. I also have a bunch of tile left over from when the bathrooms were done. I couldn’t believe how much tile was left over from that project, so I have been looking for a way to use it. It is just plain white tile, 4.25″ x 4.25″, but some of the tile has a matte finish for using in the floor of the shower while the rest is regular glossy. There are edge pieces too. Then there are tiles left from the main bathroom which look kind of like marble.
Continue reading “Backsplash Math”