Tim Rhodes

I was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a house where a broken appliance was a puzzle before it was a bill. My dad's answer to most household trouble was to unplug the thing, find the manual and sit down on the kitchen floor with it. My mother's answer was to keep supper moving, usually a pot of soup beans on the stove and cornbread in a cast iron skillet, whatever was going on around her feet. Between the two of them, I grew up believing a kitchen was worth understanding.

I'm 55 now, and I have spent years as a committed do-it-yourself homeowner doing what my dad did. My dishwasher, my garbage disposal, my refrigerator and my oven have each had a turn at sending me to the floor with a flashlight. Some of those problems I sorted out myself, some went to a repair technician, and a few ended with me buying new. The question was always the same, and it was never really about the machine. It was whether this was worth fixing, worth paying someone else to fix, or ready to be retired.

Somewhere along the way, I became the person who asks why. When a brochure promises a miracle or someone on a showroom floor tells me one range is simply better, I want to know why that should be true. I like a good answer, and I'm happy to change my mind for one. I just don't accept "everybody knows" as a reason, and I never much liked paying for a feature nobody could explain.

That habit is what Kitchen Dimes grew out of. The name fits the way I think about a kitchen, because small decisions and small fixes add up over the years. I share kitchen product reviews and practical information about appliances such as refrigerators and dishwashers, along with the cookware and tools home cooks reach for every day. I'm not a licensed technician and I don't run a test lab, and my time on the kitchen floor is where my questions come from rather than proof that any product is good. What I can offer is a stubborn curiosity and a plain explanation. If you have a question about something in your own kitchen, I'd be glad to hear it.

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