We broke the $1000 mark

We just past the point of earning $1000 from the Google Ads on this blog.


I don't actively manage the ads - I just let them run. Now that the kitchen remodel is complete, we get about 500 page reads and earn a few bucks a day.

As noted on the side bar, the money we earn is going to Compassion to help feed and educate children that live in difficult circumstances. We hope to be able to sponsor four additional kids with this money.


My hope is that people who benefit from the information on this blog will consider taking a bit of their savings and invest that in the human race, where ever they see fit.

Dimmable CFL - Disappointing Performance

We installed three Philips dimmable CFL bulbs in the kitchen about a year ago, wanting to see how the light and dimming function would work. They worked well for a while, but we had a 100% early failure rate. One burned out about 2 months ago, and the other two burned out in this past week.


The bulbs are supposed to last an average of 8000 hours. Assuming 8 hours a day use for a year (3000 hours), these should have lasted almost 3 years.

We have converted over to CFL in almost all of the fixtures our house, and I would have liked it if these were more robust. I think they provide a good solution to saving energy while allowing dimming.

I plan on taking the 3 bulbs into Home Depot tomorrow and asking for replacements and trying again. At $12 a piece, I am reluctant to just buy them, so its worth the hassle of possibly arguing with the return desk.

Resource #9 - Fine Home Building

I think Fine Home Building magazine is a "must read" for those who want to improve their construction and remodeling skills. It is oriented mainly toward professionals and serious DIY people, with a focus toward technical content.



The magazine comes out every other month, with some additional special issues. It's not cheap, but I think well worth it, since I keep these as reference materials for future use. My favorite features are those dealing with design priciples and very detailed how-to articles. The publisher, Taunton Press, has a number of other high quality books on building and design.

The magazine's forum Breaktime, is a good spot to get advice from people with a lot of know-how. It is not the place where you ask "How do I fix a leaky faucet?" (save those for DIY Network) but where you might get input on using PEX vs copper for your plumbing system.

A point of note: I am not getting paid for blogging about any of these resources. These are the ones that I personally recommend, because they have been of good help to me. I believe they were well worth the time / cost to help me with the remodel.

Resources #8 - The Hammer Zone

Hammerzone.com is a great site for detailed information on DIY projects. I refered to a number of the articles here during the kitchen remodel.



The article that came in most handy was one on installing a garbage disposal. I could have figured it out on my own, but I would have likely made a couple of errors that I would then have to fix. The article provided me with a ton of detail and pictures, which allowed a "first time" install.

Here is an example of the level of detail the author provides...


If you need more detail than this, I suggest hiring a contractor for that phase of your project.

Finally, the web link page is fairly good. I did not look them all up, but a few of ones I did had good information.

Resources #7 - This Old House Online

TOC has been a standard for me for number of years. I like the show, the magazine and the web site. They have created a very high quality site, with a number of photo galleries that can provide ideas.



For example, the photo below from the TOC site shows a lot about a kitchen island. You can see the green color, the overhang required for the stools, and how black stools go with the green. All these are basically incorporated into our design.


I don't expect the photos on the site to give the exact ideas, but help us gain ideas. You can sit down for a few hours and grab the photos you like. I use the freeware program Screenhunter to capture and gather images.

Resources #6 - The Lite House

At the beginning of our kitchen remodel, lighting was a bit of a mystery. How many lights? What spacing? What kind? I knew generally what was required from our last house, but I wanted something a little more concrete to make decisions. Unfortunately, many of the "resources" on the internet are add sites, or very general. TheLiteHouse site was a nice find...


It actually provides some ideas and technical discussion to help you make lighting decisions.

Resources #5 - PDX Street of Dreams

Online resources and books can help out immensely with design ideas, but nothing compares to actually touring a few kitchens for the hands-on experience. The PDX Street of Dreams has been a great place for my DW and I to do just that.


The homes are very high end (and often over the top), but you can get a real sense of how various designs, materials and gadgets would work. One of our guidelines was to have a few high-end features in the kitchen, and this is the place to get exposed to them.

For instance, our back splash design came from this kitchen:


Here is ours...


Not exactly the same (wouldn't want that) but definitely a spin off.

We were willing to go with both painted and stained cabinetry, because we saw it here first - now it's obviously everywhere.

Now were working on our home theater, basing our design on pictures we too while on touring a number of them at PDX.

Resource #4 - Black & Decker Books

The best reference books I have found for remodeling are published by Black and Decker.


They are very comprehensive and contain a large number of step-by-stop photos. The plumbing and wiring books were particularly helpful. I found most of the ones I needed at the library, but ended up buying them to keep as reference guides.

Resources #3 - NKBA.ORG

The National Kitchen and Bath Association web site has a number of good resources to help you plan your kitchen remodel.


They will send you a free workbook that has very good information on design guidelines. A summary of these, and additional information can be found at kitchens.com.

Resources #2 - Not So Big House

Before doing any remodeling, I suggest you read "The Not So Big House" by Sarah Susanka. Regardless of the size of the kitchen you want to remodel, understanding the concepts she outlines can really help you improve your overall design.

Almost every public library (at least the Portland ones) carries the book. I bought the Not So Big House Collection, which is comprised of two books.



Design decisions we made after reading the books:
- Putting an additional passage-way door in the dining room, so we could have a "long view" to the other end of the house (and then outside) from the kitchen
- Keeping the soffits and adding shelves to create a more "human scale" feeling and the edges of the kitchen
- Using a wider range of materials
- Taking the time to put pull-out shelves everywhere
- Keeping windows on two walls instead of adding more upper cabinets

Resources for Our Kitchen Remodel

I have purposely stayed away from a writing about other remodeling blogs. I really don't like blogs that either have minimal content or focus on repeating what others are writing about. These low content / high advertising sites are irritating.

That being said, I do think it's worth going over the online resources we used to complete our kitchen remodel. There a few that have really made the difference.

The best-of-the-best site for kitchen ideas is the Finished Kitchen Blog.


You can literally spend hours looking through all the kitchen photos posted there. My favorite feature of the site is the finished backsplashes slide show.

We were featured in the LA Times

Our blog was featured in the LA Times blog section called Pardon our Dust.

There was a nice little review of our work, which increased our visits by quite a bit.