Behind the Lens

During one of my trips this summer, I took a photo I really liked and it made me want to round up my favorite photos from some of my travels. Plus, I haven't posted in a while and was feeling long overdue.

I took all but one with one of my Motorola smartphones (Moto X, DROID 2, and Moto Z). A lot were taken during trips for work, and no matter how many times I go, I have yet to get a photo out of Barcelona that I am in love with. I considered one photo of Las Vegas I like a good bit and one of Shanghai, but didn't feel those were of the same caliber as the set below.

So without further delay...

Tokyo - January 2016

I was walking from my hotel towards the Shinjuku district just sight-seeing by myself, and walked across this incredible street. It was the perfect combination of a sea of people, neon lights everywhere, and a building for every five steps you took. With no oncoming traffic, I stood in the middle of the street and snapped away.

Singapore - October 2014

A bit of an older photo for me, and it shows. I was running around the Marina Bay and saw this incredible, modern skyline in the background with this stunning Louis Vuitton shop in the foreground. A more patient Khaner would have waited for the people to leave the frame, but a good lesson I would later incorporate...below!

Beijing - June 2017

I just finished a Saturday morning presentation to my CEO and a room full of executives. I could either let jet lag and stress take over, or get on the local clock. I chose the latter and actually got to exploring Beijing. For a city I've been to...8 times (???), I actually haven't gone on foot much other than to the Forbidden City. The above photo was a reflection of patience, a lot of varied angles, and a lot of varied viewpoints. I think in the end, I got this one right.

Raleigh - April 2014

I had just been promoted, and at the time of this photo, feeling very nervous the day before my biggest work event of the year -- one (thanks to said promotion) I was in 100% in charge of. After running a quick errand, I took this on my way back in for script read thru with my production staff and late evening rehearsals. A personal memento.

Breckenridge - March 2017

I just received my new Moto Z, and while loving the phone, was very much missing the standard "Google Photo Gallery" app. In toying with the cloud-based app that was storing my photos, the service actually did me a solid. It took an otherwise average photo I took, and jazzed it up with some color definition - heightening the rays from the setting sun, and the colors of the trees and storefronts.

Alnwick Castle - August 2015

This is the only one taken from an actual camera, you know, it ONLY took photos. My favorite part of England was definitely the northern part in a county called Northumberland. My father in law literally grew up a few miles from Alnwick Castle, and we immediately understood what he had been telling us when he said the other castles we had been seeing "were crap!" To be fair, I really liked Blenheim Palace, Windsor Castle and the rest, but this view is one for the ages. Looking back, I wish I had a better camera as I would have done a bit better with the zoom control. Probably would have framed the Darlings a bit more off right with the castle zoomed in on. But, still a good one nonetheless.

Lago Como - April 2017

I actually took a lot of photos I really liked of Northern Italy, Lago Maggiore, Milano, and Lago Como. But the one I thought best encapsulated this trip was cold white wine, olive oil, a light Italian lunch, and the mountains surrounding Lake Como in the background. I will always remember this trip with two things firmly in mind: 1) the view from our hotel room of Lago Maggiore 2) the wine and FOOD!

Lisboa - February 2016

Wrapping up this post is a somewhat rare selfie (I delete most after sending them to Caroline). I had a few hours to explore Lisbon, and literally started at the top. There is this giant main street that starts at the top of this hill (the tip of which is a park). From there it leads you all the way downhill to the waterfront. Thought it was only fitting to end with a photo with the camera focused on me instead of others.

ESPN Layoffs, Trump, Twitter, and Us

The link between broadcast networks and newspapers? Disappearing journalists.

Earlier this week ESPN announced it was laying off 100 employees, which ESPN President John Skipper outlined who was on the receiving end in a letter to employees:

Dynamic change demands an increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent – anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play – necessary to meet those demands.

The outcry was swift, and along the lines of "how does veteran reporter XYZ get canned, but talking blowhole ABC keep their job?!" The answer? You, us....we want to watch talking mouthpiece, and we're no longer tuning into the facts fueling these 'hot takes' (albeit, carefully thought through and normally well articulated). The ratings show this and advertisers know this, so follow the money folks.

The takeaway: Viewers do not want to be bothered with regular reporting anymore, we want opinions only please.

Are we surprised?

We just had an election outcome (painfully for some, gleefully for others) that illustrated this point on the grandest of stages. Say what you will about left vs. right, our society as a whole is simply not tuning in like we used to. We consume media that supports our interests, and attack outlets counter to those views.

Sure newspapers slimmed down because the Internet took a hatchet to the classifieds, but how many of us want to read rows upon rows of tiny words anymore? Give it to us in the headline in my Facebook feed please and thank you.

What's left? Either nodding our heads in vigorous agreement or disagreement with the day's latest outrage. Indeed, the only thing that we can all agree on nowadays is that it's cool to be outraged.

While I don't support him, I honestly can't fault our president for speaking to us in the medium we prefer and use on the hour. We're there...furiously scrolling as we walk across the street, while we push our kids on the swing, etc. etc. etc.

Context is dead. And if you really want to find it, the remnants can be seen on the highly-curated walls of our Facebook feed.

Inserted here would be some closing opinion on how to change the world...my 'hot take.' But that's kind of the point of today's entry, so.... _________________________.

Finished! Kitchen Renovation is DONE

A lot has happened since my last blog post on the kitchen remodel. We had a baby, we sold my townhouse, and not to be left out...we finished the kitchen renovation!

The first half of the entire project relied on me doing a lot of heavy lifting to get the kitchen ready for contractors. Once that was done, the contractors moved fairly quickly and smoothly. The last elements were the upper cabinets being installed, the island being installed, the marble for said island, and some final electric work.

Cabinets Installed

We could not have been more happier with our cabinet contractor and how it all turned out! We added three glass cabinets and more or less a much-needed broom closet to the kitchen.

Cabinet install

Island Install

He also built and installed our new kitchen island, which has totally changed the way we use our kitchen. By taking up a massive amount of space, it's actually made our kitchen feel much bigger. It's a lot easier and quicker to prep food and cook now as well with the extra space. 

Island is here!

And the marble to go with it!

Backsplash

Our backsplash guy was easily able to get everything in once the electric work was done, and the cabinets were set. Very quick and immediate results, for maybe $150 worth of tile, grout, etc. from Lowe's.

Backsplash and cabinet lighting in! (Bar chairs from Ikea!)

Lighting

And finally, our electricians came in, added the under cabinet lights, drilled in two electrical outlets for the island, and hung Caroline's "pendants" (I'm told they are NOT chandeliers...), which are probably Caroline's favorite part of the kitchen.

From A, to B!

So we're all done! While our adventures in house remodeling are over, adventures in house landscaping are fully underway. In the meantime, we're looking forward to settling in with our new bundle of joy and enjoying a beautiful Carolina fall!

Charlotte enjoying tulips and an Sbux - JUST like her momma... :)

Finally...Professionals!!!

We're finally at the point in the kitchen remodel, where the pros can get in there -- marking the end of my serious sweat equity in the project.

New lights & Painting
We had some electricians come out, remove the old fluorescent lights in our kitchen, install recessed lighting, install a light for our pantry, move some outlets up by 4-5 ft., and prepare the cabinets for cabinet lights.

Once that was done, painters came in patched where the electricians did their work, painted the ceiling, and painted the rest of the walls in the room.

Painted walls, painted ceiling, and new recessed lighting!

I'll miss using my phone's flashlight in my pantry to find food, but onwards and upwards I suppose...

New* Cabinet Install
When we were first talking to vendors about this project, I noticed one day that the floating island we had, looked like it could be a natural extension of our existing counter tops. The guy building the rest of our cabinets agreed, and came out last week to fix that sucker in place saving us some decent coin.

Our old kitchen island being reused

Getting Ready for Backsplash
Removing the backsplash last week was key in a) getting the electrician in and working (we couldn't have raised the outlets that needed raising nor prep for the under cabinet lights without it being gone), which b) got the painters in and working and also c) allowed the cabinet to be affixed with the outlets moved to their proper place.

It also allowed our tile guy to come during a time it would be easiest (and cheapest) for him to do prep work for the eventual backsplash install. He removed the old (emphasis on ooooolddddd) plaster, and installed new backer board that our backsplash will eventually be tiled on to.

Backer board installed!

Next?
This week's "big" task will simply be picking out the sections of marble we want to use for the cabinets and our new island!

So much better than sweaty Khaner...

Kitchen Update

Short update today. We finally have the kitchen ready for cabinet install, which feels great. A few things had to be done to get it there:

1) We had a window taken out and boarded up where it once was. A siding company came in and did it in one day, removing the window, dry walling, and replanking the exterior with cedar planks that match the rest of our house.

Where the window was removed

I had to paint the new planks (luckily, we had paint left at our house for the exterior), but the thing that I'm horrible at was resealing the end of the planks to the corner beams. I'm horrible with a caulk gun. I wished the company took an extra 30 minutes to do this for us and tacked on $5 for a tube of caulk, because it now looks like a three-year-old got a hold of several tubes of toothpaste.

2) Removing the backsplash. No tricks here, just a ton of sweat -- well I did use my hand saw to make a starter cut which got me going. I bought a chisel which was a solid investment, and basically drove that sucker under the backsplash for about 5 hours.

Was not aware my loving wife took this photo...

Make sure your Shop-Vac doesn't need to be emptied/cleaned out before sucking everything up. It reached a turning point and started kicking all the dust it was sucking up, out and into the kitchen/dining room. Boss lady was not pleased about this. But because I was covered in sweat, and my hands were kind of bleeding, I got a pass.

Werkin

Lights are being installed today, old counters ripped off this week, new counters installed, and the new back board (going with hardie board I think) installed where the old backsplash was, all this week. So finally moving quickly!

Installing hardware with two holes: Drilling & Prayin

Stuff just kind of shows up at our house. Via a sturdy combo of Amazon Prime and something called Mic It...correction MICIT Raleigh, I normally have a steady wave of stuff to install or assemble.

Several boxes showed up a week ago containing hardware for our kitchen cabinets. Hardware is one of the smaller kitchen fixes you can do, while also going a long way in refreshing a room's look and feel.

Kitchen pre hardware

Large cabinet doors are easy to do. Measure out one consistent spot on each door (say an inch in and an inch down), drill one hole, screw hardware on, and enjoy! But if your lead kitchen designer is like my lead kitchen designer, momma likes handles for her drawers, and handles have two holes to drill for.

And therein, as the bard would tell us, lies the rub.

Tools for this job: drill, drill bits, pencil (we didn't have one, so pen), and just a general screwdriver

I installed my first set of this type of hardware at our old house, which you can read about at my better half's blog here. The second go round was a lot easier, and here are my tips:

1) Mark the middle point of your drawers, and center the handle around this spot. Stencil/trace around the handle directly on the cabinet. You don't have to do the whole handle, but definitely get VERY detailed with where the two posts will go.

Getting the location of the two posts right is critical. It can result in not connecting the handle correctly (it being super loose), or you needing to get a totally new cabinet drawer....we want to avoid this.

Outline where the posts go!

2) Drill a hole at the center of the outline for each post. My hardware used 8-32 screws (of two lengths: 3/4 and 1-1/4), so a 1/8 drill bit can work here, but it'll be a bit snug. I Googled it and the "proper size" would be a #29 drill bit or a 9/64 (and if you're doing the math, is a bit larger than 1/8). But my beginners drill bit set doesn't get that nuanced.

Going one size up will not kill you. If you measured properly, and drilled the holes in the right spot, the screws will keep the handle nice and snug once they connect, regardless if the hole is a bit larger than it "should" be.

Also, I drilled from the outside in, so no huge need to cover the drill holes with masking tape (to prevent wood and paint splintering). Going this extra step is fine and probably does help preserve some appearance.

3) If you're doing this the first time, it's not a bad idea to stop when one hole is drilled, screw it in, and remeasure where the outline for the second post goes. If it's off a bit, restencil that sucker!!! If you go off and drill the second hole and it's not fully aligned, you're going to have this extra hole in your drawer / the hardware will kind of just be hanging there sad it doesn't have a second screw holding it in.

This would be bad.

4) Drill out your second hole, say a little prayer or do a little dance, and screw in the other post.

5) Congratulate yourself!

Yay! Hardware installed!

I really lucked out this go round (as compared to my first try linked above) in that the posts for my hardware were actual posts, two little prongs that jutted out from the rest of the handle. This meant I could get super accurate with where the two holes should go.

The first time I did this, we just bought the ones we liked the most from Lowe's and the two holes for the two screws were flush with the handle. This sucked. Bad.

Try and avoid this if you can. Doing so will result in you being much more confident about the whole process, it going much quicker, and you feeling much like DJ Khaled...

Removing a kitchen hood and installing a microwave

If you'd like to know what God felt on the seventh day, buy a Dremel. I swear, these things make you feel like you can fashion/create anything. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

We're doing a fairly substantial kitchen renovation and one of the downfalls of being somewhat handy, is your wife knows this. So we've decided to do several parts of the remodel on our own, and for this post we'll chat about what all was involved in removing the kitchen hood over our oven and installing a microwave.

Kitchen before painting and with the original hood

Step 1: Removing the hood & assessing the situation
Once you remove the hood, take a look at the exhaust vent that the hood used to connect to. If you're lucky, it's rectangular. Skip the rest of this and Step 2.

Round exhausts do not match microwave exhausts :(

If you're not lucky, it's a round 7 in. circle exhaust (be sure to measure here and know if it's 6" or 7"!). You'll need to buy a converter from Lowe's or Home Depot. The one I got from Lowe's was less than $20 (maybe $14 or $17), and since my exhaust was 7", it was found behind the appliance section / near the microwaves. If yours is a 6", go to the venting section and you can find the same thing, just the size you need.

You may need to cut off a piece of the existing duct to make room for the added height of the converter. Duct tape / electrical tape will hold it together once you affix the two (it is called "duct" tape for a reason).

Step 2: Bracing / Affixing the exhaust vent
Our house was built in the 40's, so no telling when the last time the kitchen had any work done to it. The exhaust vent had a LOT of sway to it, and several times came crashing down on me. I reconnected it, and to keep it from moving again braced it to the wall.

New best friend

Hanger tape is awesome. Buy this and some clippers to cut it with (about $25 total), and after cutting a good sized piece, use wood screws to affix one end, wrap the other around it fairly snug, and use another wood screw to finish the job.

No more movement = thumbs up

Step 3: Electrical, you'll need a new circuit!
I don't do much wiring. My limits are installing a dimmer or a ceiling fan. With an old kitchen hood there, chances are it was just wired directly into the wall (no outlet was used for it). My hood didn't have a plug, so chances are yours is the same.

Microwaves require a good amount of power, so you'll need to install a three-pronged outlet for one, and you'll likely want to drop a separate line / circuit to your panel for it. If you have an extra nearby line that is used just for an outlet that's being used by an coffee maker, lamp, or something low power, you should be ok. But odds are since you're near the cooking area, the line(s) near there will be powering fridges, ovens, etc.

Each of these appliances draw a similar amount of power to the microwave, and if you use both at the same time (ex: your fridge is always on, you turn on microwave, pop, power's out!) it'll cause the circuit to flip.

We got our trusted electrician to come and drop a new line and route that to a new circuit in our panel box.

Step 4: Removing the back splash
Again, old house from the 40's, so we have some pretty fugly laminate back splash everywhere. I bought a Dremel for $80, measured how much I'd need to cut for the microwave (and went an inch lower), and went to work.

I cut out a large rectangle at first, then cut that into separate smaller rectangles. Then just used a sturdy puddy knife to get behind the cuts and pry it off.

No mas back splash!

Since the old laminate was glued on, it took the top layers of the drywall off here and there, but my goal was to affix the bracket for the microwave to studs, not laminate...so it had to go. (Plus, we're going to remove all of the old back splash to add new tile back splash, so doesn't hurt to get that started).

Step 5: Installing the microwave!!!
Man, a lot of steps to get here. I mean each one of the above took at least a solid night's worth of work to do.

The most critical part of your microwave install is affixing the bracket for it. This is a measure twice cut once sort of deal. Really, really map out what you're doing here. The instructions are very helpful so read those thoroughly.

Devil paper bracket diagram...

I found the paper bracket diagram they want you to tape up to the bottom of the cabinet to not be that helpful. More or less scrapped that and measured it out myself.

Once I did so, things went far smoother than when I was using the paper bracket diagram. (there might be four drill holes instead of where there should be three...).

Step 6: Beer drinking time!
Once the bracket is installed, and the holes drilled for the top of the microwave, you're good to go! Put microwave on bracket, drill the bolts into the holes, and plug that sucker in!

Microwave installed, and cabinets painted!!! (wifey VERY happy)

(EDIT) Step 7: Habitat Restore
Drop off the hood (and should you have one, the old microwave) at Habitat Restore. They'll take it, and it'll be a nice tax deduction come April.

If you're removing a kitchen hood, and a do-it-yourselfer like me, I hope you find this helpful! Stay tuned as I cut out the rest of the laminate, install hardware, and really go for my DIY badge.

kw out