Terri, I've only used the toaster once, LOL, but it toasted both sides of the bread, so that's a good start! It has some special settings for bagels so it only toasts the cut side and some other settings I haven't played with yet. Gotta read the instructions to use the toaster, go figure! Monique, I will definitely be recreating that jam. It's much like RobinKate's Tomato Marmalade, sans oranges, and it was very, very yummy. Ann T, how could I go wrong? Food, food and more food. (grin) And a good cup of coffee after. Duane, Nancy and I agreed a couple of years ago that we wouldn't tell people that Michigan was actually only about 4 miles south of heaven itself, that we have world class beaches, complete with tides and breakers (and nothing in there wants to sting me, bite me or eat me either). We won't tell them that our wineries are winning medals around the world, that our fresh fruit is second to none, that we're 40 minutes from The Lake and an hour from the symphony and Broadway type plays and musicals, or that even Eddie VanHalen is going to be at the VanAndel this summer. Nope, we're telling them that the humidity is about 100% all the time, that we get 20 feet of snow every winter and that the mosquitos are so big they'll carry off small children. I don't want Michigan to get to crowded, you know. (grin) Annie

Count me in the "temporary kitchen is so easy to live with, we're going on 18 months of the DIY reno" crowd. Make your temporary situation inconvenient enough to motivate finishing the actual kitchen. We bought our 1911 Craftsman in part because it had been divided into a duplex -- one of the four upstairs bedrooms was turned into a kitchenette in the 1970s. It has an OLD refrigerator (no freezer, just an icebox that ices up so is unusable), a 21-inch-wide sink, but no range. (There used to be an apartment-sized electric range, but we had to decommission that outlet to take our water bills down to single-family dwelling). Not much counter or storage space, so we built some and have a large Metro shelving unit for a pantry. We've now done two Thanksgivings and two Christmases with a two-burner electric hot plate (started out with induction, but it sucked) and the wonderful Breville Smartoven toaster oven, our favorite appliance ever. We use the crockpot weekly, if not more. Including not having enough outlets in the right places and inconvenient layout, this kitchen is pretty much like our first few young-and-poor apartments. The least convenient thing is having to hike downstairs and out back to take out the compost; I'm thinking we need some kind of compost catapult from the second floor kitchen to the chicken coop. The old fridge in the upstairs kitchen is for everyday things like leftovers, condiments, juice, half-and-half, etc. We also have a full-sized new fridge/freezer in the first-floor diningroom (affectionately known as the "beer, cheese and veggies" fridge), and an upright freezer in the basement (mostly home-grown frozen veg, backup pizzas, frozen soups for work meals, etc.). I highly recommend the Breville toaster oven. It fits a 13x9 casserole dish and bakes/roasts so evenly that we hardly miss the big oven. I wouldn't do a one-burner gas cooktop unless you have good ventilation and a very safe set-up. Using propane or other gas sources indoors is a big carbon monoxide risk, as Mayo notes. People die every year when the power goes out and they bring their camp stoves or bbq indoors. Good luck, and have fun!

Just tell him, whatever he does, not to buy a Bodum. It is the worst coffee grinder I have ever used. The only way I can get evenly ground coffee is by shaking it up and down and all around as it grinds, and then stopping every so often to stir the coffee with a chopstick so that the bottom doesn't get ground to coffee while the top has chunks in it. I have had a Mr. Coffee, and a Krups, both of which were excellent (and are still working, having been delegated to spices and such when we bought the Bodum because they'd gotten pretty worn and beaten up in one way or another and didn't look nice on the counter anymore) and both of which sell for under $25 unless you get into really fancy schmancy models which is really unnecessary.

I have never heard of these and cant find a photo of one. What flips on the board? I had to put my moms old 50s board into the metal recycle as I had nothing to do with it. It sat in the attic for decades. I bought a board at a yard sale that is nicely and easily adjustable height, has a littel shelf under it and nice place to set the iron. The woman was selling it because she could not find a cover for it. No problem , I have always sewn my own covers. WHAT is a flip board? I do have my moms non steam iron from the past. I have thought about trying to use it. I love the weight and the feel of it! It is heavy and compact and just feels like such a nice tool! But, I dont know if it is at all safe even if the cord gets changed. Otherwise, I have a big box store steam iron. Have you ever tried to iron without the steam? The heat from the iron is pretty lame and the iron has no weight to it. My mom used to keep a big vinegar bottle with a shaker on it to add moisture. She ironed a lot of my dads military fatigues. Otherwise people used to dampen the clothes and let the moisture wick through before ironing. I had some friends who were three sisters and their mother used to dampen the clothes and put them in the chest freezer that sat in the middle of the living room . They had to do the ironing when they got home from school. They were responsible for it.