My Sweet Things

Years ago I framed a bathroom mirror in our master bathroom. By plain I mean the standard glass mirror the builder installs. Nothing special. After I framed it I loved the result. I moved from that home and have lived in my current home for 9 years. In that time I have painted and changed out fixtures, upgraded appliances and installed granite counter tops. The last few months I have gotten into house re-do mode. I guess it’s my 9 year itch! I repainted the downstairs bathroom, added a few decorative touches and gave the mirror  a makeover.

Here is the bathroom with the standard mirror.

I purchased crown molding at Home Depot. The cost of the molding was $16 dollars to frame the entire mirror. I started out using a miter box to cut the 45 degree angles necessary to make the frame.

I thought this would be quick and easy but I did not nail down the miter box thinking I could make the cuts but the miter box kept sliding around and of course that made it difficult to cut smooth edges.  I could have nailed the miter box to a table we have down in the basement but instead I did this…

I took the crown molding pieces over to our friend Les’s house and he made the cuts with his fancy miter saw. I love this machine! Angles are set and it cuts in seconds.

All ready to stain.

My husband helped with the painting on the stain. We used Minwax in Red Mahogany 225 and applied two coats of the stain. The first coat was heavy  and after the stain was applied we gently wiped off some of the stain with a dry cloth. We then applied a second coat of  the stain but did not wipe the stain off the second coat, we just let it dry overnight. When you are staining you want to make sure to do the front and back of the crown molding. You will be able to see the reflection of the back in the mirror once you mount it.

When the stain was completely dry I applied Liquid Nails Small Projects to the back of the molding to hold the molding in place. I used liquid nails on the last mirror I framed and it held up for years with no problems.

I ran a line of the liquid nails on the back of the molding. I made sure to place it towards the outer edge of the frame so you would not be able to see the reflection of the glue  in the glass. I couldn’t remember if it dried clear or not and I did not want to chance it.

Here it is all framed! I had a wide angle lens on my camera so I couldn’t take a photo while standing in the bathroom to get the whole frame in. I took this photo standing outside the bathroom.

I love it! Very inexpensive and it makes a big difference in the whole look of the bathroom. I will be working on the two bathroom mirrors upstairs sometime soon. Let me know if you are considering this project and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Try it!  You can do it!

It’s all good. ~Donna

First you stand and stare in disbelief that you just created  a GIANT hole in the heating element. Then you think to yourself that you will NEVER place a lid on the side of the pan which in turn will slide off the pan onto the heating element next to it. Explosion is what you get and a huge popping sound is what you will hear. Danger Will Robinson. Danger!

You may call around to find out that the replacement for the top is upwards of $500 dollars. At that point you decide that what the heck, you will work with one element for the time. Our time = a few months.

In the meantime you might place a wooden cutting board on top of the hole so it’s not so unsightly. That in turn may be a BIG mistake.

One night your child might request Macaroni and Cheese so you turn on the one heating element that works and it turns out you turned on the WRONG broken element and your beautiful cutting board catches fire. At this point your house fills with smoke and you wait outside for the smoke to clear. You remember your dog is inside and you rush back in to get him to fresh air. Your child pulls up in their car and asks why you are outside. You say to him, “YOU WANTED MACARONI AND CHEESE!!”

At this point you decide you really need to do something about the cooktop. You research some more and find a whole new stovetop sells for $100 more than the replacement glass so you go out and buy this…

A brand new GE JP346 Cooktop! You replace it yourself since the charge to have it installed was $150.  You stand back and admire how shiny it is, then you think, WOW cooktops are expensive. No oven. Just cooktop. $666.74. Yup. The .74 cents is going to make it lucky! Never mind those sixes!

Hello Shiny Knobs!

Hello 12″ heating element with quick-response ribbons that heat straight up to the pan for efficient cooking.  You are three times faster than a radiant element’s initial response (3 to 4 seconds for ribbon elements versus 12 to 14 seconds for radiant elements). Glad to meet you!

Hello Power Boil with your 8″ heating element. You boiled 4 quarts of water in 5 minutes. I am impressed!

So this is my story of what happened to us and our cooktop. I did read the entire owners manual on this. I read all of the warnings and there are a lot of them. 3 pages! Some highlights include: use proper pan size with flat bottoms large enough to cover the heating element, foods for frying should be as dry as possible, avoid heating an empty pan and my suggestion, do NOT place wooden cutting board on top!

I did read where cast iron skillets are not recommended. BOO! Anyone use a cast iron on their glass cooktop?

Anyhoo, I have a new cooktop and it’s all good.

~Donna