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42 Comments

  1. Lisa D.
    December 23, 2018 @ 6:13 pm

    Wow. I thought I was obsessive and a perfectionist about everything to do with kitchens, interiors and design, but Victoria, you have me beat by miles. You must know some secret source of research that the rest of us know nothing about.

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  2. Carisa
    December 28, 2018 @ 11:52 am

    Noise is the WORST! I live on a lovely hillside in the woods on 5 acres and the damn road noise nearly ruins the place. But I must ask, how can you stand all the noise the cats make? I always swear the house is haunted because of how much noise my cat and my new kitten make just walking around. They sound like grown people. Like grown elephants. Pitter patter my patootie. šŸ˜‰ Would be nice not be be kept awake when the kitten decides it is time to go to war with the entire house at 2am. My older girls is very dignified and goes to bed when I do. So polite. New kitten of doom doesn’t give a damn about my sleep.

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  3. Mem
    January 1, 2019 @ 11:00 am

    Unclear on what happens the third time you boil over a pot of buttery oyster stew. . .and then spend a week poulticing your stone countertop. Granite is most impervious to staining but an honest granite supplier will tell you that you canā€™t put a hot pot on granite because the variable mineral structures could react to heat at differently and crack. Not common but possible. Soapstone must be sealed to mask oil spots and the oil/wax sealer would make a mess under a hot iron skillet, wouldnā€™t it? Slate will show oil stains. Re: engineered surfacing ā€” lots of people in renovation forums complain that they arenā€™t as stain/cut proof as youā€™d think, and surely cooking on a surface is the harshest test possible?? Maybe there are other options. Glass or ceramic? (Iā€™m not dropping a hot Dutch oven on a glass countertop, no way no how). Donā€™t mean to sound cranky but Iā€™d like to know how the manafucaturers address this problem. Commercial kitchens donā€™t much care about stains. I canā€™t imagine VEB staring at oil stains and not hallucinating sheep or Mother Mary or nuclear silos. Paul would have to hire a stain-whisperer. When the whisperer fails they would move to the basement, cook on a hot plate, fall in love with their Instapot, and end up living on microwaved burritos. Paul would come home to find Victoria drawing on her arms with a glitter pen. Save them!

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  4. Cynthia
    January 26, 2019 @ 10:57 pm

    I had no idea what a headphone amp was, so I looked it up. And this is what I found. https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/what-is-a-headphone-amp/

    Now I doubt you are interested in this since you were saying how sound waves / science are boring – but maybe some of your readers might be.

    BTW, thanks a lot for getting me stuck on the induction in the countertop thing. I was just looking for some I could retract or fold up or something. But, anyway, now that you have me hooked, please pursue and report on this!

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  5. Jennie
    January 29, 2019 @ 8:46 pm

    You can more inexpensively (not inexpensive, but less so than soundproofing and awesome speakers) audiophile music by using an exact audio copy loss-less system (EAC and Foobar are free) and running it through a lossless player (like a Hifiman) and very good headphones (AKG are good). It’s not cheap by any means, but it’s also somewhat affordable to have extremely good sound quality. I’ve had my Hifiman 801 for 8 years, and my AKG K271 MKii headphones for 10 years and they are still going strong and deliver excellent sound quality and get used every single day.

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  6. Mary Henry
    February 4, 2019 @ 4:04 pm

    Where are you? You are missed. When will you return?

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  7. Michelle
    March 30, 2019 @ 1:49 pm

    I know this may seem sad, but I have not laughed in months. No, no, not because I’m depressed. Simply nothing to laugh about, everyone is uptight and ‘beachy’. forgot to allow humor in their lives. That includes me. Your blog, your personality (and Paul’s), your humor, is very welcome. So welcome in fact that I’ve been spending my Saturday in a dark, ugly 1970’s ‘lower level’ of the dumbest (but most popular style for 30 years) house design reading about your adventures. I inherited this house. I’m truly grateful. Otherwise I suppose I’d be living in a cardboard box (or something). But dang, the 1970’s design in anything is atrocious. Thankfully, we have its music which was trippy and cool.

    In my quest to get my home out of the 1970’s, I chose to go timeless and classic. Because, avocado, gold, orange and dark, DARK-nearly black ‘rustic’ wood panelling will never be timeless unless we live in Prussia in late 17th century.

    I started with the kitchen. Gutted it all. Same thing re: appliances came up as you. You want beauty, and functionality. I refused to bow down to the truly ridiculous prices of a cooling box with adornments that was a fourth of my yearly salary.

    With timelessness in mind, and my pocketbook, I went out and bought the coolest fridge I could find (there are so many!). I purchased two. A Philco V handle for refrigerator, from the 1950’s and a Coldspot Freezer. They sit side by side. For the stove, I bought a O’Keefe & Merritt’s Aristocrat. It has 6 burners, 2 ovens, 2 broilers, a warming oven and an extra space for where I put spices (probably a no-no). Total spent from restoration to install for all 3 was $5000.

    People who come into my home, immediately gravitate to these appliances. It is a true conversation starter. It is universally loved, to such a point that when I do tours of my house (both the beautiful and ugly), they go back to the kitchen to ohh and ahh.

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  8. Kirsten
    May 25, 2019 @ 11:44 am

    Hi! Just found your site, and apparently a stunt double…
    Iā€™m a retired chef, so I entertain a lot, and do a lot of canning for fun.
    Would induction be able to handle a big water bath pot? Can I put it underneath a blue agate counter, that Iā€™m getting ready to put in my all white, mid cen mod kitchen? Also, are you available to come over and do the penny/resin floor thing with me?

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  9. Cynthia
    June 21, 2019 @ 8:43 pm

    I was so in love with the possibility of getting an extremely beautiful countertop that I could slip an induction disc or whatever under and cook without spending the milliards of dollars for the ones shown (which I peered at while thinking of my fake thrift store pearls tucked away somewhere in the midst of construction debris) that I have been waiting with baited breath for you to report back. Yes, the internet has thus far hid from me, anyway, any way to DIY these amazing countertops. Which may explain why aforementioned droolworthy real and faux (or, dare we say, imaginary) pearls were clutched – because cheap knockoffs are unobtinium…

    So, have you had any success – or has your new feline friend been sucking away all your attention?

    Reply

  10. Rachel DeMaere
    July 18, 2019 @ 4:59 pm

    Hello! Is there an update to this post on the comparisons and what you decided on? Am very interested in doing something similar in our reno project and am honestly a little lost in where to start. Thanks!

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  11. Nikki
    August 6, 2019 @ 9:13 pm

    My designer just recommended that I get invisible induction for my NYC kitchen and your blog is one of the first things that comes up in Google images. I have no idea what youā€™re talking about in half this post that I scrolled. But I already love you. Noise is a capitol offense on my home planet too; the Netherlands; and the overture to Figaro is one of my happiest early mental places. Once I can clean out the junk demanding my attention, Iā€™m gonna reread all of this and prob lots of your other posts!

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  12. Natalie
    November 14, 2019 @ 9:33 pm

    Could you please email me any additional information you have on under counter induction cooktop. I love it! It’s amazing! I love your website and projects!

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  13. Melissa
    November 20, 2019 @ 2:29 pm

    Did you end up getting the under-counter induction cook top? I am looking at this for our remodel and would love to know how it worked for you!

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  14. Amy
    December 12, 2019 @ 2:45 pm

    Great post! I discovered TPB Tech through your earlier post on this. Can you please tell us how it all turned out?? Did you go with the Binova counter with integrated induction? Thanks!

    Reply

  15. JeanFB
    January 24, 2021 @ 8:32 pm

    Thank you thank you thank you for doing this research!!! Iā€™ve seen the first model you spoke of (requiring silicone) but didnā€™t know about the others where you pick any stone you want. YAY! Glad you found out these things and are sharing w us. I know youā€™ll pick something fantastic!

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  16. Hannah Grau
    May 28, 2021 @ 9:20 am

    Did you ever find an induction cooktop and install it? Are you still planning to?

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  17. Lisa
    July 17, 2021 @ 5:08 pm

    Why do feel like reading this post just changed my life? Because Iā€™ve been agonizing over how it will look. And that edge thing.

    Reply

  18. Peter Holtan
    July 28, 2022 @ 11:38 pm

    The illustration with the thermal cameras comparing the heat lost between induction cooking and gas cooking is very very very misleading. The thermal cameras are only showing the HEAT energy lost. As 1 cubic feet of gas combusts, it produces about 1037 BTU’s or 1.1 million joules. And yes, there is a loss in heat energy…”energy is wasted as it floats away into the room.” But the thermal cameras don’t show the ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY that misses the pan and thus is wasted by the induction cooktop as it floats away into the room. It’s only showing the electromagnetic energy that’s being absorbed by the pan and thus being converted into heat energy. It also doesn’t account for the energy consumed in converting electricity into that electromagnetic field.

    Now I’m not saying that induction is either more or less efficient than gas. I’m just saying that I take objection to incomplete and misleading information.

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  19. Johny Anderson
    October 3, 2022 @ 1:00 am

    I was searching burners for my home when I Came Across on your post, Awesome youā€™ve reviewed all the Burners in details and your post helped me a lot. Thanks keep it up.

    Reply

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