a peek inside the fishbowl

Speaking of summer fun, want to hear about the best dollar I ever spent? You can read about it over on the Canadian Family Magazine website. :)

Happy Friday!

Have I mentioned that we don’t have A/C in our new apartment? Although I’m not the kind of person who has temperature control going all day long, I do like to have it when I’m sleeping. And suffice it to say, I’m not sleeping. Last night it was 32C in our bedroom.

Today, it’s gone down to 30C. We have one 12″ table fan that blows the hot air around the living room, but that’s it. I’ve been avoiding turning on the stove, and doing my best to turn off anything that generates heat around here (lamps, computers etc.).

On hot evenings we’ve had picnic-style dinners in the shadier parts of the park and then just hung out there until it was nearly bedtime. The other night we also brought a big blanket, some snacks, water, and our books and just spread out on the grass.

Lack of air conditioning is very much a first world problem and I don’t like to make a big fuss about it. A comparatively small percentage of people around the world have access to AC. And I think that we, as a society, are addicted to climate control and that it’s costing us in many ways. Here’s an interesting article over at Salon about it that deserves a look: “Losing our Cool: the high price of staying cool.” It is U.S-based but the author brings up some interesting issues.

But the fact remains, it’s hot. Very hot here in Ottawa right now.

Normally my hot apartment strategy is to minimize movement, drink lots of water, and take cold showers, but it seems to be extra steamy in here today and my brain is fuzzy and slow. I think I might have to take my work to the library today.

How are you keeping cool this week?

Last week I had a design meeting with our architect and I picked out a material that I really liked for our kitchen counters. It’s a quartz called Zodiaq and it’s made by DuPont. The colour I liked is called Abyss Black (pictured here).

It satisfied my desire for black kitchen counters without being overly black (read: solid black). It also has a fleck of light golden brown which I think will work really well with our hardwood floors. Unfortunately, I only had a sample in hand and no idea how much it cost.

I started to research quartz as a countertop material in the kitchen, and I liked what I read.

• Quartz is a man-made product. It’s an engineered stone, a composite of materials which can include actual quartz, stones and minerals, glass, other shiny bits and flakes of colour that is all bound together in resin. Quartz is very durable – heatproof, scratch proof –  and is virtually maintenance-free.
• Granite is natural stone, and although it’s also quite durable it is also porous. This means that it needs to be resealed periodically. Abrasive cleaners are not recommended and lighter colours of granite might actually stain.

And with that, I gave my heart over to the idea of having a quartz countertop.  In my view, quartz came out to be the big winner here. (It is however worth noting that some experts see no difference in performance between a quartz countertop and a sealed granite one.)

With a goal finally in mind we set out to go shopping. As I said, I had no real idea how much this quartz countertop cost was going to cost until Mark and I started asking questions.

A salesgirl at Emerald Tile told us that their quartz counters run between $95-$110 per sq.ft. Ouch. We quickly realized that granite – a material we’d assumed would be the most expensive of the bunch – can be had for much cheaper. So even though I’m still longing for quartz I don’t think it works with our budget.

We have seen two nice dark granites that might do the trick. One is called Amazon Verde and starts at $66/sq.ft and it’s available at Home Depot. (Pricing depends on the finishing of the edges.) The other one we liked is from a place called Urban Quarry. RONA carries it (I guess they’re a dealer) and it’s called Uba Tuba, which is similar to the Amazon Verde but with less green in it. It costs $75-$80/sq.ft. and it’s pretty nice too.

Looking at their website I realize they have a truckload of more colours. I still don’t know if I want black counters with a green undertone or a blue undertone. Ack.

I want to visit a couple more places before making a final decision, and I need to do it ASAP. Picking the counters is kind of a biggie. Everything else stems from there: tiles, colours, etc. I am trying not to be overwhelmed. BABY STEPS! But the thing is, everything is coming together quickly now. The new space is getting easier to visualize. The main floor addition is framed and so we can now see where the doors and windows are going to be.

For example, this will be the back corner of our new family room, with views of the backyard:

It’s so exciting, but there is still so much left to do!