Spring Garden!

My new composter and expanded veggie garden got me all excited for the gardening season! Feeling that it was too early for planting, I was always told to wait until after the threat of the last frost has passed (end of May in Nova Scotia), I headed to the bookstore to pick up a book on backyard composting.

We had a composter in our backyard that previous tenants left behind years ago but we were really never successful at it so what better way to learn then to read about it before getting your hands dirty. One thing I have a really hard time with is resisting books. I LOVE books and I do eventually read them all! Sitting on the shelf beside the composting book was this book...

I sat in the bookstore looking at my books thinking about all of the issues we currently have with food. My thoughts turned back to the Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both books my Michael Pollan and both AMAZING. Mainly I was thinking about where it comes from and how it is grown and the environmental impacts of it all. Even though I try to buy everything local and organic, it can be difficult in the dead of winter to get local greens...so I bought Niki's book (she is from Nova Scotia!) and vowed to give some of her ideas a try. So I quickly read the relevant sections on designing a garden, crop rotation and most importantly the section about plants themselves. To my surprise, she recommended planting some crops before the last frost! There are so many cold hardy plants, like broccoli, kholrabi, lettuce, spinach, kale, leeks, carrots and the list goes on that I made a garden plan and planted it on April 27th!

With a little care, like row covers, I am hoping to successfully grow all of these veggies! The strawberries and chives have been there for a couple of years but everything else is new, much of them new to me as a gardener! The poppies come from seeds from my grandmother's garden that my mom has kept growing since her passing in the 90's. They will give the garden some wonderful colour and bring me back to my youth at the cottage by the lake at the same time. I am planning to start a fall crop indoors in July (need to get a grow light set up...) and build a mini hoop tunnel to protect them into the winter. So far I have planted 4 rows of salad greens and this weekend will be planting the rest with some broadcast seeds in between many of the seedlings that are popping up! I also have a plant for a small A-frame to get some pole beans climbing and plant some more greens underneath to keep them going through the heat of the summer. Who knows if it will all work out but I will keep you posted. Here are some promising first signs...

 

What I did for the Earth on Earth Day

I know Earth Day was just over a week ago...but it did take me a couple of weekends to finish up the project. It all started on April 20th, when the Halifax Regional Municipality was selling HUGE, AWESOME compost bins for $25 to try to encourage more backyard composting. I was so in! So I stood in line for an hour and 40 mins in the freezing cold wind and fog with my hands stuffed in my pockets and my hood drawn around my face. I so wished I had another sweater on. Did I mention I was alone? I am sure if Diego had come with me we would have bailed after 15 mins and we would have never got this awesome composter!

The weather on the 21st took a turn for the better so I cleaned up the yard and installed the composter in the sunniest spot in our backyard, without taking precious recreational space. It is easy to access and I am so looking forward to the results!

 We also finally installed the rain barrel we had sitting in the backyard since last year. It will feed the side garden (see the hose?) that is always so dry and it looks nice at the front of the house. Here's hoping that it doesn't get pushed over by the drunk students that roam our streets. Speaking of side garden....you might not have noticed but we extended it another 3 ft giving us a total of 25 ft x 2 ft of full sun garden!

Here you can see the addition and the weeping hose (or whatever it is actually called) I put in to the whole garden and attached to the rain barrel. I put it in to encourage deeper roots and make my watering job easier with a lower impact on our drinking water resources. We have a backyard rain barrel in the works too... However, now that we have the rain barrel connected to the downspout... we just need it to rain!

What did you do for Earth Day?

Winter skin blues...or more precisely reds...

Ever since I stopped using chemical laden products (in 2008) I have been struggling with keeping my skin blemish free and looking healthy. It is easy in the summer when the sun (even though I hide in the shade or under a hat/clothes) keeps those pimples at bay and the humidity keeps my skin from drying out but the winter is always troublesome. This winter has been especially bad with breakouts on my face, chest and neck and dry skin everywhere! I know that I am getting older and my skin is definitely changing BUT this is out of control! I always thought getting older meant getting dryer skin and wrinkles, not getting huge breakouts!

I used to be the girl who always wore makeup and never left the house if my blemishes weren't covered. Ridding myself of all makeup (except special occasions a couple of times a year) and other products was a huge step but in the end I felt free. I no longer had to spend 30-60 mins in the morning getting ready or 30 mins at night getting ready for bed. However, I think that letting go has also gotten me to neglect my skin. So now I think I need to get back into some sort of routine, that maybe isn't makeup oriented but rather with the goal of healthy skin.

I had started a new beauty regime in the summer of 2009 (see my post here) and I am not sure why but I fell out of it. Of course 2 years later, I don't even remember if it was working! So I have come up with a new regime that I think will promote healthier skin. I have decided on a rather aggressive assault on my unwanted guests in hopes that I can get the breakouts under control and have healthy glowing skin. It is a combination of what I posted in 2009 and some new ideas for smoothing and nourishing the skin. I personally don't mind wrinkles, I am not the type of person that obsesses over them. I think they are natural and beautiful but smooth skin and slowing the appearance of wrinkles is a product of healthy skin and a healthy diet and lifestyle which is something that I am striving for. All of the information and recipes below come from various internet sources that I found in my research.

Routine and Benefits of the Ingredients

1. Use a mixture (2:1) plain yogurt and lemon juice as a night cream. I mixed one cup of my homemade yogurt (see recipe here) with 1/2 cup of lemon juice. This makes a lot of cream and I would recommend making 1/2 to 1/3 of the batch and make it more often. I rinse my face, neck and chest with water then rub the cream on and let it dry before hopping into bed. The lactic acid in the yogurt is a gentle exfoliant. The yogurt also contains vitamins A and D which help to nourish the skin and help to sooth dry and itchy skin. The lemon juice contains citric acid which helps to slough off dead skin enabling new skin cell growth, flushes out pores and improves the skin's elasticity.
2. Use a 1:1 mixture of rosewater and lemon juice as a cleanser/toner. Rosewater stimulates blood flow to the skin, balances sebum (oil/wax produced by the skin) production and pH, tightens pores and has antibacterial properties. It is reported to be effective against acne, blemishes, scars, wrinkles and both dry and oily skin. Not to mention that it smells wonderful and has been used to treat many ailments for centuries and is extensively used in aromatherapy. I apply this using a fleece wipe after rinsing off the yogurt/lemon cream from the night before. I let is absorb and wait 30 mins before rinsing it off.
   
3. Use EcoYogini's sugar scrub in the shower. I made this recipe using peppermint oil to stimulate and revitalize, which is GREAT in the morning! The scrub contains honey which is touted as the oldest moisturizer in the world! It has antioxidants and anti-microbial properties helping to protect the skin from the sun but also fighting the bacteria and microbes that can cause acne. It also has a great ability to retain moisture. The scrub also has sugar which when rub gently on the skin helps to remove the flakes. I usually rinse off my rosewater/lemon toner in the shower, then apply this scrub to my face, neck and chest. I leave it on until the end and rinse it off with the suds of my shampoo.
4. Use a damp washcloth with a few drops of tea tree oil to wipe over my face, neck and chest. Tea tee oil has antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. However, it is toxic if taken internally so keep out of reach of children.
5. Massage a very thin coat of Sweet Almond Oil to my face, neck and chest. Almond oil balances moisture in your skin and is a good moisturizer for all skin types. It is also said to have anti-aging properties and it is used to fight wrinkles and dark circles under your eyes. I also eat almonds almost every day in my yogurt.
6. Drink 2-3 cups of nettle tea per day. Stinging nettle has a long history of medicinal uses and as a food source. It is a diuretic which help the body excrete toxins from your blood stream which can cause acne, among other health issues. This is touted as a tonic for general health because it has lots of vitamins such as calcium, iron, folic acid and zing among others. So I am on board for giving it a try. Stinging nettle grows here locally, so if I like it I may try to harvest my own!
7. Drink 3-10 cups of green tea per day. Green tea has lots of antioxidants that have protective effects against free radicals cardiovascular damage, some cancers, infections, toxins and much more. See my post about foods that fight cancer. Green tea has been shown to inhibit enzymes whose excessive activity contributes to the age related deterioration of the skin.
   

I know that acne can also be caused by changes/imbalances in hormones. Rosewater and stinging nettle are also thought to help in balancing hormones.

I know it sounds like a lot of effort but really it is WAY less (~10 mins per day) than my old make-up routine! You can also opt to use only parts of my routine rather than all of it. Either way, you should see a reduction in acne in about 2-3 weeks but can see and feel the benefits in your skin almost immediately. After 2 days, my skin is smoother and the flakiness is starting to go away. I will definitely report back in a few weeks on my progress.

EYCC: Decreasing Tree Products Part II

After 2 weeks of regular use I am still as enamored with cloth TP as I was the first day. My only issue with it so far is the name Family Wipes that seems to have taken a hold on the web. I prefer Toilet Cloth (TC) or just Cloth Wipes. Whatever you call it, it is definitely not for everyone. I have read lots about it and those who actually try it LOVE it and those opposed are VERY opposed. What I will do here is summarize two of the main issues with TC and how I have gotten around it. I will also share some of what I have learned along the way.

Our collection in a cute basket.

A lot of comments from those opposed that get posted are about:

1. Smell and
   
2. Diseases
   

One thing I am definitely not interested in is a smelly bathroom. Many people put their used wipes into a garbage can with a lid for later washing. Assuring everyone that there is no smell or only a smell when you open the lid. Others use a vinegar and tea tree oil solution in their can to "kill" the diseases and quash the smell but leaving a vinegary solution mixed with...in a can for a couple of days...definitely not up my alley. So I have come up with what I think is a good solution for this issue. I have decided to wash my wipes with my hands after every use! You are supposed to wash your hands anyways after you go just in case you got any on you, so why not wash your wipe(s) too! Did you know that 92% of Americans say they wash their hands after going to the bathroom but only 78% of women and 66% of men actually do (ew!)! If everyone used my TC method, they would all wash their hands!

With the exception of Hepatitis A and E, all of the diseases transmitted via the fecal-oral route can be prevented with proper sanitation (keeping food and fecal matter separate and drinking treated water) and hand washing. So if the simple act of washing your hands with soap kills the diseases transmitted via bowel movements, why would this be any different for TC? The simple fact is washing your TC with soap and water whether it is boiling or not will kill everything on them the same way it kills the bacteria and viruses on your hands when you wash them. Except Hep A and E which can be killed by using bleach. So unless you have Hep A or E, washing your wipes with your hands also addresses disease transmission. Since you are washing your own wipe(s) you won't be exposed to anything that is not already in your body!

TP Line for drying after washing.

This is also helps to protect the people who actually do our laundry. Since we don't actually have a washing machine, pre-washing our wipes keeps them from encountering anything they weren't expecting. It also keeps them from being exposed any bacteria whether they are harmful or not. Humans naturally have bacteria, fungi and protozoa in our digestive tract that help us digest our food but they also suppress the growth of pathogenic microbes, boost our gut's immune system, play a key role in gut metabolism, mediate the synthesis of vitamins and are known to play a role in preventing allergies and inflammatory bowel syndrome. But not everyone's gut flora is the same and although it may not be harmful, it is best to keep them to yourself. However, if you do find yourself with Hepatitis A or E, you should take every precaution necessary to not spread it to anyone, including family members, so it might be best to discontinue the use of cloth wipes until you are no longer contagious and talk to your Dr. about it.

Diagram from: http://www.customprobiotics.com/about_probiotics.htm

We settled on washing our wipes with soap and warm water under the bathtub tap (not on full blast!) after every use and hanging them on our makeshift line in front of the window to dry. We opted for the tub to keep them away from things like toothbrushes. We also toss them in the laundry once a week to get that extra dryer fluffiness. This system works really well! We always have a clean and fluffy supply of soft TC!
I had the stomach flu (or Gasteroenteritis...which is not actually related to influenza, so calling it a flu is a misnomer) last week so I really put the wipes to the test! We all know the SF can make things a little messier than normal...in this case you may just want to jump right in the shower and skip the wipe altogether! This works on a normal day but when you have the SF, 20 showers a day isn't great for your skin or the water supply! Alternatively, a quick rinse of your wipe before a thorough soaping goes a long way. I also have to add...there is nothing like a fleece wipe to keep your behind happy in a heavy use situation! No more irritation or stuck on paper bits.

Finally, there is the issue of guests. We definitely don't want to impose our ways on anyone, so we have kept a role of paper in the bathroom for our guests. I still have to think about how to deal with guests who would like to try using TC. Perhaps a separate "guest" pile and line? It will definitely need more thought. I would love any comments in the whole TC issue and any suggestions on methods and guests would be much appreciated!

This initiative has been a great success. We have eliminated the use of toilet paper, which was our #1 use of paper products, and we are loving it! :)

EYCC: Decreasing Tree Products

About 2 weeks ago I joined EcoYogini's Earth Yoga Challenge for Change (EYCC) challenging us to truly connect with our environment, with ourselves and to make a change rather than just think about it. It is a truly inspiring initiative that I signed up wholeheartedly for...thinking this might just be the sort of thing I need to take my eco-game to the next level.

Typical Nova Scotia Forest

First item on the Challenge: Decrease our dependence on unnecessary tree products. So I went over the things we already do to decrease tree products in our household.

1. Cancel all deliveries of flyers or junk mail
2. Reuse both sides of every envelope (great for lists!) or other scrap paper
3. Don't buy processed foods
4. Don't buy paper towels or tissue paper
5. Reuse all gift wrapping
6. Print on both sides of my paper at work or re-use it as scrap
7. Buy only post-consumer recycled paper and toilet paper
8. Encourage my students to print double sided or re-use paper already printed on one side
9. Read all my references for my PhD as a .pdf on my computer

These are all great and have reduced our paper consumption to one recycling bag a month! I realized that our biggest consumption of paper was toilet paper used for its intended purpose and as tissue paper. Ever since I heard about family wipes or cloth toilet paper I had been seriously thinking about it. Well here it was something I had been thinking about doing but never actually did it...

As most of you know I was pretty sick over the weekend and I was appalled at the amount of paper I was using to blow my nose! All of the garbage cans in my house were filling up with used tissue! That was the straw (or tissue) that broke the camel's back. So on Sunday I set out not only to make cloth TP but also some handkerchiefs.
I read a few websites to get sizes and materials for my two items and settled on ~4-5" for the cloth TP and ~8" for the handkerchiefs. You can make your TP and handkerchiefs out of anything you want but the thickness of the material, especially for the TP, can be an issue. Most sites I read also re-purposed old clothing for this new function. T-shirt material being the thinnest usually needs 3-4 layers to be absorbent enough. You also want to consider the softness of your wipes, whether for your nose or other you definitely want it to be soft...so I opted for fleece. I had the remnants of the sweater I used to make my tea cozy to be used up... so out came my machine and I was determined to stop using paper that very day.
I only had the top half of the sweater left but managed to make 16 cloth TP wipes (small grey and blue squares) and 6 handkerchiefs. Of course I had to decorate my handkerchiefs. The Calgary logo is where the sweater came from, Diego drew the two sharks for me and I made them out of bits of blue fleece leftover from the sleeves, the sea stars are bits of t-shirts that were kicking around and the flowers are from the same t-shirt my fish on my tea cozy came from! The only new material in all of this was the thread! :) It took 5 hours to make because of the detailing on the hankies but also because I stitched the edges of each of the cloth wipes and hankies to keep them intact even though fleece is not supposed to fray...plus it looks nice to have a border!
The seastars are my favorite. They are anatomically correct (leave it to a marine biologist!) albeit a little crooked...they were quite fiddly to sew! They were made in the image of a sea star found here in Nova Scotia, Asterias vulgaris or the Northern Sea Star.

Photo from:http://www.coastalsafari.com/SEASHORE.htm

As you can see they have many different colour variations but they all have one thing in common...the white dot. This is called a madreporite and is where they take in seawater for their muscles to work against in their tube feet so they can move. It is also part of their circulatory system and they extract oxygen from the water they take in and release wastes. It is called a water vascular system.

Photo from: http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/

Ok...enough of a tangent...back to the issue at hand cloth TP and handkerchiefs. You might be asking yourself...how has it been working so far? Well, I fell in love from the first wipe! They are so soft!! The handkercheifs are great, I can use the up to eight times before I need to wash them and I love the TP too...up to 3 wipes per square if you are adept at folding! I will continue to use them for at least a week and report back on my methods, techniques and the outcome in Part II of the cloth TP and hankie saga!

Sewing Project on the Fly

Yesterday I woke up to find a dead car battery so while I was waiting for CAA to show up to boost me I decided to start a sewing project I have had in my mind for a LONG time. I decided to make a tea cozy!

Requirements:

1. To fit over my tea pot and new french press!
2. Made out of material I had at home.
3. My own simple creation...no pattern involved!

Since this was my SECOND sewing project since home ec. class in grade 7 and my first one was little pouches for some homemade lotion 2 years ago, I was prepared to make mistakes so that I could learn along the way but promised to love my cozy no matter what!

Here it is over my french press.

I used an old grey fleece sweater that Diego no longer wore. I doubled it up for extra warmth. I also found an old t-shirt that a friend gave me that was no longer wearable but had a cool fish on it. Cut out the fish and some strips for trim, added some funky stitching and VOILA! Two hours later, a slightly deformed but functional tea cozy!
I am definitely proud of my cozy. It satisfied all of my criteria, works great, has great character and doesn't look half bad for a free hand job! Best of all, it was reused material and the fish reminds me of my Irish friend Corinne! What better item to make with her fish, she drinks a lot of tea and keeps me stocked with an Irish supply!!

Next project: Handkerchiefs with the leftover fleece. I hear it is the best material for noses and will reduce my paper consumption even more!

My new relationship with...FISH!

Life has been absolutely INSANE since September started! I introduced some new teaching material that has been a great learning experience for me but has kept me off of blogging among other things. This is a post I have been working on for a while that I finally had the chance to finish!

This is the latest chapter in my adventure into liking all food. I am on a journey to be a less picky eater and enjoy all food that is presented to me. I think that with some amazing recipes and the slow but consistent approach to eating something you dislike, you will start to actually enjoy those recipes and even want to eat those dreaded items.

Foods on my dislikes list include onions, mushrooms, fish, seafood and lamb. So far I have been incredibly successful with onions and mushrooms. Onions were fairly easy because I could tolerate them cooked but what really sold me on onions were the small grilled onions (cebollitas) in Mexico...oh so sweet and delicious in a taco!
Mushrooms took a little longer. It took a year of eating mushroom risotto with the mushroom chunks getting bigger with every time we made it to finally be ok with eating them in other dishes. I am now even eating them raw in spinach salad!!!!

Image from: manjamakan.tumblr.com

I have tried scallops...twice...once in 2008 (see the delicious Mexican recipe posted here) and again this past Spring when my parents visited for Easter. I guess I have been slacking on my slow and consistent method here...

In comes the fish. Fish has been on my I really DON'T like at all list for a long time...well except when beer battered, deep fried and covered in tartar sauce...but then is it still really fish at this point? Knowing this, imagine Diego's surprise when I came to him and suggested we buy a half share in the new Community Supported Fishery (CSF - for more info on it see EcoYogini's great post and interview here) called Off the Hook. The idea of paying in to the fishery at the start of the season to share in the bounty and in the hard times with the fisherman was very appealing. Not to mention getting to know the fisherman and supporting a sustainable hook and line fishery rather than the destructive dragging of the ocean floor. Bottom trawling, which is how bottom dwelling fish like haddock, cod, hake, etc. are caught and is THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE way to fish.

Image from: http://shrimpsuck.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html
Image from: http://www.leicesterfoe.org.uk/marine.html

The giant net drags across the bottom catching everything in its path (including deep sea corals, sponges, crabs, and the list goes on) and wreaking havoc on the bottom. Destroying the habitat that these fisheries actually depend on (talk about shoot yourself in the foot)...

...and throwing away anything not in the quota. This deep sea coral grows in the dark cold waters of the Atlantic and took HUNDREDS of years to grow that size and it is just being tossed over the side of a deep sea dragger.

Image from:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_bottom_trawled0_bottom_cleared/html/5.stm

The critters below are also bycatch and are what most of the fish we are catching eat, so we are at the same time decimating the food source of any remaining fish...any wonder why our fisheries are collapsing...we are taking out too much, destroying their habitat and food supply with destructive fishing methods and near the coasts we are also assaulting their nurseries with our pollution and coastal development...

Image from: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/tags/bottom-trawling?page=1

Knowing all of this, I bit the bullet and decided that we would try one season and if I hated it...at least I gave it a fair go and helped the program get off the ground. We had 5.5 lbs of fresh whole but gutted fish almost every week for 18 weeks this Summer and Fall! This translates into fish for at least 3 meals a week!!

Haddock about to be filleted.

I got to fillet my first ever fish and did a decent job of it! Although this ended up being Diego's job most of the time.
We always cooked all of the fish right away since freezing them or leaving them whole for a couple of days added to the fishy flavour that I don't enjoy. The fish were always less than 15 hours out of the water before they hit our pan. The taste was amazing! No fishy flavour whatsoever and once cooked they kept their fresh taste for the three meals!
To ease me into eating fish we started with an old favorite....Fish Tacos! These are essentially battered and fried little pieces of fish that you can put into a fresh corn tortilla with some Mexican Tartar sauce and Guacamole. Delicious! We used a typical beer batter (with Corona of course) and the Mexican Tartar sauce is just mayo, pickles and grated carrots! I will post my AMAZING guacamole recipe soon. :) It is a party pleaser.
After a couple of weeks of fish tacos we ventured to try another Mexican Favorite that I and all of the guests we made it for enjoyed very much and it is very simple...however, I don't remember what it is called! It is fresh haddock fillets layered (in this order) with juliened onions, diced tomatoes, secret sauce (see below) and topped with some dabs of butter. You wrap this all up in a large amount of tin foil and bake it in the oven or BBQ. You want enough foil to be able to flip it often to cook evenly and not have any juices come out. We ate this several times because it is SO GOOD!

Secret Sauce:
75% mayo, 25% mustard

I would make enough to have 2-3 tablespoons of sauce per layer of fish.

Once it is cooked (this will depend on how much fish you have) just slice open the top of the foil layer stick some spoons in and place it in the middle of the table. Spoon contents into a corn (or flour) tortilla, add some guacamole and ENJOY!
Closer to the end, I started to feel a little more adventurous and we made an amazing baked lemon rosemary haddock with a dill cream sauce. I used fresh rosemary from my garden and dill from the farmer's market. I lay the fillets on a bed of lemons then topped them with a few lemons and sprigs of rosemary and baked them in the oven at 350F until the fish was cooked (30-40 mins). In the mean time I made a creamy dill sauce using this recipe. We ate it with a side of Greek style baked sweet and red potatoes with onions (essentially olive oil with a very small amount of dill, and salt and pepper to taste, baked in my cast iron dutch oven in the oven beside the fish). The combination was AMAZING! Neither the dill or the rosemary were too strong. They were subtle and the combination was perfect. I scarfed this plate down pretty fast!
One of the last recipes we tried was the Moist Baked Haddock recipe found here. I did substitute the Pepperidge farm stuffing with Italian style bread crumbs.
We did enjoy this recipe but we really liked the bread crumbs so we would often just bread and bake the fish (no mayo, etc) to eat in tacos (of course with some salsa or guacamole!) or just straight up with some veggies on the side.

We both loved joining the CSF and will join again in the Spring. It is an amazing opportunity to support a truly sustainable fishery and get all the benefits of eating fish while feeling good rather than guilty about it! We also, really got to know the organizers and the fisherman. We met their families and know our money is going to support them directly and not some faceless corporation. If you are in Halifax, the Valley or Digby and you eat fish, you should definitely check them out!

To learn more about fisheries you can watch the documentary The End of the Line or take a look at Seachoice.org.

Don't have a CSF near you...here are some things that you can do:

1. There are some fisheries that are being sustainably managed, buy these fish. To know which ones check out the Canadian Seafood Guide and the Canadian Sushi Guide at Seachoice.org.
2. When in a restaurant, ask questions about where the fish comes from and how it was caught! The restaurant owners will become more informed and buy what the customer wants but they won't know unless you ask!
3. Not all fisheries are equally destructive so you will need to arm yourself with information to be able to make the right choices and ask the right questions.
   

Happy Fishing!

Finally a DISHWASHER!

Installing a dishwasher was our first large home renovation project... I say large project because we never had a dishwasher in our flat and it took 8 full days from start to finish!!!. If I have never mentioned this before, you need to know this now for you to understand...our house is 109 years old and was divided into two flats likely in the 1940's or perhaps even earlier. Our kitchen was likely the master bedroom since it is the largest room on the second floor and our sink and counter space is located in what was probably a dressing room and is quite small (as you will see in the series of photos).
Being an old house and having been converted into flats means that there are many oddities that adds the character that we absolutely love...but can also cause some headaches with home renos because what is standard in new houses...is not in our house!

The first thing we needed to do was determine where we could put a dishwasher. We figured out that the only place we could put it and be able to open the door fully was about 4 feet from the sink. We also found out that the depth of our counters was definitely NOT standard...to accommodate the back door (exit is right across from the sink in the above photo) they had to make the counters narrower (19" rather than the typical 25" in North America). So herein lies two problems:

1. We could not put in a North American made full size dishwasher (they are 24" wide and deep)
2. To accommodate a 19" wide (20" deep) dishwasher, we would have to not only cut out the cupboard...but also the lathe and plaster wall behind it!

Pilot holes to see what is behind the wall. The cupboard you see to the right (with the tupperware) is the one under the drawer in the first photo and that is the back door immediately to the left. This is avery small kitchen!

Diego had a good time using a reciprocating saw to cut out the wall and cupboard that we lovingly referred to as the "Schwarzenegger" because he had to hold it like a big gun and made a lot of noise!

Cupboard and the wall taken out...notice no insulation on the outside wall...not even paper!

We decided that since the dishwasher was going to be on the outside wall that we would insulate behind it using some pink insulation that we bought and some foam board we had in the basement. We then closed it in with wood that we had in the garage, basement and from the cupboard we removed and plastered the cracks to seal it.

Our first try.

Sadly when we tried the dishwasher, it was sticking out too far to be able to fully open the cupboard beside it...so we decided to carve out 1/2" of the studs you see in the photo...so we had to undo everything we had just done, setting us back one day. Time spent on this part so far...3 days. However, when we were done it was all painted and the dishwasher slid in nicely, we were glad we did it.

The eletrical and the plumbing took another whole day on their own! The plumbing under the sink was installed before dishwashers even existed, so we had to redo the whole thing!

Cast iron and copper plumbing under the kitchen sink.
Diego cutting the cast iron pipe with the "Schwarzenegger".

Our beautiful new plumbing!!!

We had a minor set back with the electrical when Diego wired the dishwasher to the light switch...which of course induced panic when we tested the connection by turning on the dishwasher and it didn't turn on!
When we flicked on the switch to see what the problem was the dishwasher came to life and we had a good laugh!!! It took 1/2 a day to re-wire it and get it right! Time spent so far...4.5 days. The next part is what took us the longest...rebuilding the cupboard in the small space beside the dishwasher. Since our kitchen is so small we had to do something to make this space useable and we of course couldn't make it simple...like shelves...no we decided to make a small larder (aka: a drawer with shelves). We also wanted to reclaim as much wood as we possible could, not just to save $$ but to save TREES!!! This of course made it more difficult because the pieces were sometime bowed but also because this old house is a little crooked!!
This was such a technical job. So much finicky cutting and adjustments to get it "straight" in a crooked opening!
It took 3.5 days just to get this built, stained and layer of clear coat!
But now I have space for our cooking utensils and my teas (yes they take up 3 shelves) and we have a DISHWASHER!! This will save on water and headaches figuring out who will do the dishes!!! :)
Even though it feels like we should have lost space, we actually gained some in the main part of the kitchen! With a little re-arranging and purging of items not used in years, we now also have a potato and onion drawer!!!

It was well worth the 8 days! Now we just need to sand and stain all the cupboards the same colour...