Magnifico Frigerífico

It's always about hot and cold, heating and cooling. We're taking cold showers, waiting for a new water heater to be delivered and installed, but realized that we just couldn't live with a dead freezer: no ice for our vermut! :-(

Our kitchen is a totally "built-in" [US] or "integrable" [Spain]: Death Star black cabinets hide everything, in a Euro-standard 60cm cabinet width layout. Our left-most cabinet has a separate congelador (freezer) and on a shelf above, a frigerífico (fridge).  The congelador was dead, dead, dead. Simple, right? Order a new one, "integrable", and move on. Nope. The way the cabinet door mounts to the freezer has the  cabinet door hinged as usual and connected to the freezer door by a clever/complex/stupid sliding mechanism; the new style (you see this in the US too) is to mount the door panel to the appliance, which means its hinges have to support the weight -- totally different mechanism, we might have to get a carpenter into re-cut the cabinet door to fit. 

It also meant there was precisely ONE model of congelador on the market that could even be integrated inside a 60cm (exterior width) standard European cabinet. And it cost about 700€, ouch!  I noticed we had to run our refrigerator, a separate unit with the same cabinet-mounted sliding mechanism, at about the max cooling -- clearly this was an old, tired, and inefficient unit; what would it cost to replace it too, in maybe a year?  

Next door to our apartment building -- I mean, literally next door -- is the Milar Catalá electrodomésticos shop where we ordered our water heater. Dani at the shop and Irene both persuaded me to give up on the Darth Vader integrated look and go with a free standing fridge, a stainless "combi" with freezer and refrigerator. There were hundreds of models available, in all price ranges, efficiencies, and finishes. After my usual ADHD analysis, spreadsheets, and such, we narrowed it to one unit based primarily on energy efficiency. The cost of power isn't going down any time soon; we know the price of gas/petrol in Spain is at least 2x that in the US, so expect electricity to be at least double what we paid in Arlington. 

All appliances (and our apartment!) have an energy efficiency rating, between A (excellent) and G (expensive). We focused on biggest 60cm unit that would fit, with the highest efficiency available, "B". When we compared it to another model we really liked (black crystal finish!), it cost less than half to run!  Easy to amortize this over a year or two. And with prices rising in Europe due to the Ukraine/Russia war, it's a good choice. 

It wasn't hard bruting out the old freezer and fridge, but we had to disassemble the cabinetry. It's all 60cm European standard stuff, but custom built on prem. After hacksawing pins and dowels on a similar cabinet, we came up with a plan for the fridge cabinet. We "scienced the shit out of it" and realized that if we pulled out a filler panel, we'd gain 2cm, which we hoped would be enough to remove the left panel from its internal pins, then pull the old freezer/fridge shelf, then disassemble the cabinet, leaving a princely 2cm left to slide in the new fridge. 

Dani, our dealer with Milar downstairs, verified our measurements, and around 5pm we put our money down and ordered the LG fridge, a 2.03 meter behemoth.

Only one problem: would it fit in the tiny elevator we have in our building? We are on the top floor, 9th floor, over a hundred steps up. I measured the elevator doors, and it was gonna be close, really close. There's something magical about living here that we never would have expected: Dani came over to our apartment, and measured the elevator, and sent the dimensions to the transport company, as part of the service -- can you imagine that in the US?? The inside doors were under 200cm tall, and the inside of the elevator itself was 212cm max: we were not even sure the fridge could be tilted in, as the elevator's about the size of a Clark Kent phone booth! I could not imagine the cost to pay hulks to walk this up the 9 narrow flights of stairs! 

But wouldn't you know: the delivery guys came, and ever... so... carefully... angled the naked fridge into the tiny elevator, where it had a couple millimeters of clearance to the back and ceiling. It's funny, Dani said "They usually send a small guy and a big guy", and I asked, "What's the small one do?", to which he replied, "Stay inside the elevator to push the button." And that's exactly what happened! :-) They slotted it into the space we created by removing the cabinet, with about 1cm to spare.

Amazing! It had been under 16 hours since we placed our order and had it -- very carefully -- installed. Finally, we'd have ice for our Vermut and Gin Tonics! :-)

We let it cool down and walked to the grocery store to stock up, then Irene cooked a nice dinner of pork chops, potatoes, and asparagus on the grill on the terrace while the sun set. A rather pleasant 5€ bottle of wine and a finish with an even cheaper Cava for dessert after dark.

Only one problem: the door came hinged on the right, and we need it to swing from the left. But an LG technician is arriving Monday to swap the door; dunno why they have to send someone out, for 59€, but if we do it ourselves we void the warrantee. Fine.

Time for a cold breakfast beer from Montseny, a local craft brewery.

Life is feeling pretty good, now that we're back to our old rhythm of cooking and eating. We're loving the quality of service we're getting from shops around here, it's really refreshing.

Now we just need some hot water for a shower... just a few days to wait, we're told, so close...

Kitchen is Finalized: Floorplan, Materials, Appliances

Just before the end of 2015, our designers at mimouca barcelona worked with us to finalize the plans for the house. Naturally, the kitchen floorplan was the most intense: we wrote about their evolution based on mimouca's proposal and our changes in November. Here's the final layout.

The figure-8 shaped things in the corners are ingenious lazy-suzan-like things that pull completely out of their cabinets, and support a surprising weight: they make the corner storage accessible, a necessity when we have three corners.

Above the diagram is the dining room and above that on the left is the front door; below is the hallway to the bedrooms and guest bathroom: there's a clean traffic flow from front door through kitchen to bathroom without interfering with cooks. The right side of the kitchen is the cooking side, the left is the drinks side: guests can get their own vermouth, beer, cocktails, wine and have their own sink.

Last month, mimouca presented us with materials and appliances selections -- actually, three different sets at three price points. Seeing such specifics allowed us visualize the space and helped us to hone our vision for the look-n-feel.

When we first set out to think about materials, the feel of the kitchen, I suggested blonde wood cabinets to provide a natural warmth. Irene immediately retorted, "I'm done with wood."  OK, then!  In the end, we've picked an overall theme that I keep thinking of as "space ship". In a good sense, I hope: very stark, very clean, very open. I think we need this feeling of openness in a compact kitchen. This kitchen is in the center of the apartment, so not going to get bathed by all the natural light we're used to -- but in the diagram, there are windows looking into light shafts above the drinks sink, and to the right of the cooking sink. The stark white appearance should help amplify that light throughout the kitchen.

When we were living in Barcelona in August, we visited the giant store El Corte Ingles for inspiration and saw a look that really struck us: cabinets with glass doors back-painted with white. They had a visual depth somewhere between frosted glass and the high gloss of typical European lacquer, and it worked beautifully with stainless appliances. While we're not fixated on stainless (a bit trendy and over-hyped) the combination was really appealing. This isn't a great photo, but notice the soft reflections in the glass, especially on the cabinet on the far left; it looks a lot more appealing, and even warm, in person.

We don't know what cabinet mimouca will source but we believe they know our tastes in this regard; they provided us this sample:

This aesthetic -- watery glass with silvery metal -- drives the aesthetic of the kitchen.

While I like the depth and natural beauty of granite, we felt it was too busy and more organic than we were looking for in this kitchen.  We saw at El Cort Ingles a Silestone countertop material in "Steel" pattern that we liked, an almost concrete gray with tiny flecks of metal, a very fine texture. More heat resistant and less porous than granite. Hard and cool, rather industrial.  And made in Spain.

While it combined beautifully with stainless, like the sinks, we were concerned that over the large expanse of the counter that it would become a bit uniform, boring. Then we saw their "Chrome" pattern which had a more interesting texture of the metallic flakes in the matrix -- also dynamite with the stainless sinks -- and we were hooked:

Mimouca suggested a sink we really like, very square, the Barco Claron. We'll get the big one for the food side, and a smaller, square one for the drinks side: 

The faucet in the picture above with the lemons is attractive too, very simple, and again a bit industrial. Mimouca suggested one with a right-side control (below) -- which seems to be the preferred style in Europe. We recently had the chance to use a similar one at a friend's but I found it unintuitive, and impossible to use with my left hand. When I've got a hot pot in my right hand, I want to be able to quickly get the water going with my left.

A top-mount control is much better for us: we picked the Blanco Alta, below:

The white squares at the bottom of the floor plan diagram are identical mirror-image fridge/freezers, or "combis" as they say in Spain. We had planned to have a full-height fridge on the food side and a combi on the drinks side (for drinks, duh, and also for an frozen bits from our cooking adventures) but couldn't find a line of appliances that had the same appearance for both functions. We decided to get two identical units for visual symmetry, and also utility. We'll hinge the doors so they open into their respective spaces. I think it's gonna looks quite stunning: stainless columns framing the hallway to the back of the apartment. We were really looking for one with no visible hardware (handles, grab bar) and Bosch had a sister model that fit those needs, but this one's more energy efficient and a bit quieter, so Siemens 2-meter combi with its bolshy grab handle it is:

(It's crazy: we recently had to replace our behemoth 48-inch counter-depth fridge and it cost a lot of money; we just figured that's what it cost and had to suck it up. But a pair of these 60cm fridges with a combined identical capacity costs 1/5th what our fridge in the States costs. I don't get it: maybe it's just that Europe has standardized on the 60cm size for everything, so there's more competition. I'm delighted to get so much fridge for, relatively speaking, such a good price.)

We love our current gas Blue Star (domesticated Garland) cooktop, a 6-burner monster that's all about brutish heat: heavy cast iron and star burners. But we can't get gas in Spain.  It's been a long time since I cooked on electric, and I am not looking to go back to it. But we've been hearing a lot about chefs and serious cooks who are all going induction since it heats the pan (only) so there's no waste heat and it's a more efficient use of electricity.  It also is reacts like gas: you turn off the "burner" and the heat stops -- unlike electric elements. So that decision was easy: induction. In the 60cm width, the most common configuration is a 3-burner layout, but we frequently find ourselves cooking on 4 or more burners at home with our 6-burner cooktop, so I found a slightly up-charge model with 4 elements, and the left side is "flexinduccion" so actually there are 4 zones that can be used in various combinations, e.g., large pan (think cast iron 2-burner griddle), or 2 pans front and back, or maybe even three small pans. 

We'll have an oven mounted directly below the cooktop. Mimouca recommended one that's got a feature we've never seen before: it's hinged on the side rather than on the bottom. That sounds really useful to me, since when I'm trying to set in place a big battard of bread dough or a heavy casserole, the bottom-hinge door makes it difficult to maneuver into a hot oven. So we're getting the Siemens convection oven, this one hinged on the left. I expect the door is "light" enough to bump close with a knee, something I can't do with a bottom hinge without a terribly harsh clang/bang closure.

Mimouca seems to understand our aesthetics and picked an interesting exhaust hood. This one has a pull-out frosted glass flap to help capture the smoke and steam. Most importantly, it exhausts out of the apartment, through the roof. It's Frecan's Vetro Klin, made in Spain, very minimalistic.

For the floors, we wanted tile, and as much as I respect the traditional Catalan hydraulic tiles with their bold patterns, we needed something impervious to liquids. Mimouca suggested a tan-colored tile with flecks of black, I think because it would transition well to the wood floors in the adjacent dining room. We felt the color was wrong for the white glass, stainless, gray, and black monochromatic theme of the kitchen, so we suggested an alternate by the same brand. Also, the countertop is  strikingly patterned so we wanted something more neutral for the floors, that wouldn't conflict. We chose Inalco's Damasco series in Gris: the soft cloudy-pattern shouldn't conflict with the counter and should harmonize with the white-glass cabinets.

That's about it for the exciting visible stuff. We're spec'd under-cabinets lights, plenty of 'em, using LEDs to avoid the heat of halogens, but with a 3000K color spectrum that's food-friendly.

It's beginning to feel very real now....