Opportunity for Change...Help Me Choose a New Hood PLEASE HELP ME
athleticannie
4 years ago
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pittsburrito
4 years agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help me choose a landscaping block!
Comments (47)Joanne, I think you are absolutely on track by getting all of the elements together to see what looks best. I took AGES to pick the paint color in my guest bedroom. The reason I was so cautious that time was I picked the color for the back bedroom just by looking at paint chips against the wall, in natural daylight and at night with the electric lights. The color didn't end up being ANYTHING like I expected when painted all over the walls. And it didn't go with the other pieces in the room like I thought it would. Plus looked different because I had to paint the trim too, (the PO's son had painted the trim in that room hyperlink blue!). With the guest room, the wall color looked great. Then, I had the floor sanded and refinished, and the floor color ended up being totally different than it had been before, throwing the look of the walls off again, as they looked different contrasted against the different floor color. I'd get something approximating what you think the new roof color will be, and yes, try to find something approximating the mulch color. Will you be using the same type of mulch as you have now? If you're going to make a big investment in this block, don't feel guilty about really taking your time. Also don't feel guilty about looking some more. In that guest bedroom story above, I looked at paint swatches from five different companies. The brick that I hate in my backyard patio just came from the one company my landscape designer worked with. I was overwhelmed by the brick issue so I let her make all the decisions for me, something that was a mistake because she wasn't really going all out to find the best options. Mine was a small job so I'm sure it wasn't worth the trouble to her to spend time searching for the perfect patio block for me. She just basically said take it or leave it and I had already invested time and money in her so I didn't want to throw a wrench in the machine, but now I am stuck with something I don't like, that cost 4K so I am pretty much stuck with it forever. I will not be able to justify tearing that out when I have so many other big ticket items in my house that need attention. If this is a once in a lifetime do-over for your yard, you have a right to take as much time as you need!!...See MoreHelp me choose new range - gas vs induction
Comments (26)The comments about ten-power settings got me musing on the subject and about Amy's initial question about logarithmic power controls. Here's where that lead me. Nobody really has logarithmic power controls, but there can be power settings spaced to sort of approximate a logarithmic curve -- a number of settings at the low end with only a couple of additional points needed to define the steep side of the curve for really high heat. In theory, that can be done with a ten-step power curve and some folks do find 10 power settings fine for what and how they cook. Others do not. Is anybody else here old enough to remember the GE stoves and cooktops from 50's and 60's with ten mechanical pushbuttons for heat settings? Those pushbuttons were literally "digital" controls, meaning that you punched them with one of your digits. GE sold a lot of them for a couple of decades, so some people found them adequate. Some did not. For the current digital electronic ten-step controls, others here besides loonlakecamp have reported satisfaction with a ten step set-up. Others, like me, would find them inconvenient for my cooking with, say, my pressure cookers. With only ten heat level steps, I would have to be constantly switching settings to maintain the correct pressure. Power setting "1" might be too low, setting "2" might be too high. Switch to 1 for a while until the pressure drops a little too low, switch to 2 for a while until it gets a little too high, then back to 1, etc., etc. With in-between settings, I avoid that annoyance. You don't use pressure cookers? Then maybe having in-between steps won't matter to you. This is just one example of how cooking styles can differ and how more settings can matter to one cook and not to another. Much fuss is sometimes made about the supposedly infinite adjustablity of gas burners. As a practical matter, though, we mostly try to get the burner to the same relatively few settings. Searing is pretty much searing, isn't it? If you deep fat fry, how often would you care if if the oil were at 352° instead of 350°? But maybe somebody is working with sugar syrups where, say, it might matter if a syrup is at 325° and not 360° and then maybe it matters if the induction burner only has ten settings. That said, the subject of induction power settings and controls can be more complicated than just the number of settings. The need for finding "in-between" steps for induction cooking can reflect two different aspects of ways that manufacturers design induction burner controls. One consideration is the power cycling that all induction burners use for settings of less than full power. A technical term for this is "pulse width modulation. or "PWM." It is the same kind of thing a microwave does for low heat levels---momentary pulses of power that average out at a particular heat level. With most PICs as well as some brands of induction cooktops and ranges, the PWM is pretty crude. I've seen this somewhere described as firing up the burner for a second or two of omigosh hot and then switching totally off for three or four seconds. While these pulses average out at a certain heat level the timing can be problematic for, say, the srambled eggs that Amy mentioned at the outset. Combine that kind of "low frequency" PWM with the crude power controls found on many PICs, and you could have a reason that Amy would find herself wanting steps in-between power level "1" and "2" for scambling eggs. Some full size induction ranges and cooktops work this way. I noticed a lot of pulsing at the low heat settings on the Maytag induction range I saw demoed several years ago when I was stove shopping. From past threads on PWM, I gather than Whirlpool's induction ranges and cooktops (which include Maytag and Kitchenaid brands) have used crude PWM. For searching out past threads here on this subject try a search strings like "induction + pulsing + gardenweb" and "induction + cycling + gardenweb." A few of the expensive PICs (Cooktek, Garland, Vollrath) and many full size ranges and cooktops use much higher frequency PWM. Instead switching on and off for a second or more at time, the power switches on and off many times per second. The higher frequency of switching yields much finer power control that more closely approximates a steady heat level. The other design aspect that can lead to wanting "in-between" settings is in how the engineers program the electronic controllers to space the power settings on the appliance you are using --- that's the kind of logarithmic curve I thnk Amy may been thinking about when she posed her question in the original post. . For manufacturers, the least costly controls use simple linear spacing. Setting "1" would use the PWM to average 10% power, setting "2" would be 20%, etc. Even with a high quality PWM, though, 9 or 10 linear settings may be too crude, A thing most induction users discover pretty quickly is that they do most of their cooking in the low to medium range settings. The highest setting can be used for boiling. One or two medium high settings takes care of high heat applications like searing. There seem to be three strategies for induction manufacturers to address the crudeness. One is to add half-steps between the numbered power settings. The other is to program the stove's controllers to put more steps in the low to medium range and fewer in the high ranges. The third strategey combines the first two. Without using the particular induction stove or cooktop, it can be hard to find out whether the particular unit was designed to use one or the other or some combination of them. In my own somewhat limited experience, it seems that the GE induction appliances and Electrolux's Frigidaire/Kenmore ranges seemed to use a modified-half step approach with some concentration of steps but also using half steps for finer control. The Electrolux-branded models use a slightly different approach with quarter-steps at the lower power ends and fewer steps at the high end. Miele cooktops seem to use a similar kind of mix with the option of switching on more steps. I'm not sure how BSH (which includes Bosch) handles this except that their induction appliances manuals show that half-steps are available. The Samsung freeestanding induction ranges seemed to follow the GE model (19 half steps). The reports about Samsung's ten-step "Chef Collection" model seem to conflict, some seeming to say that stepping is linear, some hinting that the settings may be skewed to the lower end. There is a yet another strategy which is the near infinite stepping of of potentiometer-like controls. These control systems seem to be very expensive so, AFAIK, they are used only for the commercial Garland/Manitowiac PICS and maybe the new Miele induction range have this. I say "maybe" for the Miele because there is nothing about it in the product literature and the display shows only whole-number settings, but a couple of posters here -- livinginseattle is the name I recall -- have reported finding that the knobs can be turned to provide fine gradations of "in-between" settings. Some folks would find that ideal. Then the question becomes: how much are you willing to spend for the "ideal" (and are there other design compromises that have to accept in order to get that ideal function for the burners?)...See MorePLEASE help me choose countertop color asap!
Comments (43)What a gorgeous kitchen! I'm jealous of all that beautiful wood. The character of the wooden beams and wooden base cabinets bring such warmth and personality, it almost feels like the outdoors are coming in. I had looked under your name in the finished kitchens blog to see if you were there, really appreciate you sharing the photo. Your backsplash is so pretty, just the right amount of bling and lightness. Where did you find it? I'd like to do he same thing, with subway glass tile everywhere except right behind the stove, do arabesque there. If I had a kitchen like this, I'd want to cook a lot too. =) Love hearing that cleanup is easy with a stain resistant grout, that's a great tip, I'll be sure to ask for that too, Was it an epoxy grout?...See MoreHelp me choose porch posts, please!
Comments (6)Definitely keeping shutters! I'll be coming back for suggestions on color. As the siding is going up, it seems to be a stronger green than the sample I had (the sample was more of a subtle greenish gray) but I still like it; just making me rethink the color scheme. Now that the siding is off of the porch area, I can see that there is a solid 8" tall run of (plain) trim along the top that was covered by the aluminum. We will be reproducing that. There was also trim around the garage door that was covered. We are going to actually make that a bit wider than the original; and the contractor has talked me into replacing the garage door -- so I'll have to choose a style for that, too. But I still need help with this decision on the posts!!! I am sure that I don't want round. I can choose square fluted, plain or recessed panel; and a variety of bases and capitals. I think fluted are too ornate for this house; recessed panel might add some interest. The basic decision I need help with though is whether to go with one 8" or 10" post at the corner, or two 6" or 8" posts (either one on each side of the corner or side by side in front). Perhaps I should start a new thread: Help! I need help with choosing posts, shutters and garage door! Maybe even a new front door!...See MoreUser
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoDesign Interior South
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4 years agoAnna (6B/7A in MD)
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4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoathleticannie
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