To some extent the affordable alternative to the "microwave culture" is to surround yourself with good quality artifacts from earlier versions of it. I cherish

To some extent the affordable alternative to the "microwave culture" is to surround yourself with good quality artifacts from earlier versions of it. I cherish a nesting set of Pyrex bowls in avocado green that I got from an elderly lady at a garage sale. Or a couple of "Flint Stainless" brand kitchen utensils that give me more satisfaction to use than any other alternatives. Or the cast iron pans in multiple sizes that are our primary cookware. Or the mismatched knives, some of which came from the thrift store. Or the framed art posters, some of which were curb picks. All those items were once generic, but having been removed from their era, are now interesting and distinctive. Even the house. I like the style of it, but it was built in 1970 in what was then a cookie cutter exurb out in farmland. But it has a 60x100 foot lot and mature trees in the front and backyards. Sure, it has the "paper thin doors" derided in the article, but it also has long-strip oak hardwood floor in most of it, again, high-end generic at the time, practically unobtainium now. You can have even more character by moving further into town, of course. But I don't want to move outward to the land of engineered floor joists and PEX plumbing, even if both actually work better and aren't just cheaper to make and install. None of the principal rooms' furniture contains any particleboard. But here I was lucky to have had an artisan father who made over half of it. Still, junk can be affordably avoided for the rest as long as everything doesn't have to be a matching set. Paint - after once painting a room in what ended up pretty close to "builder beige" I resolved never to do that again. The latest bathroom repaint is in a kind of orangey peach. A bit of WTF on the part of the spouse (who tolerates, and even appreciates, most of the above) initially, but even she likes the splash of colour in our lives now. As for the microwave: We have that of course and boy is it handy for reheating leftovers. But there is a toaster oven next to it that is used more. Did you even know how good toaster ovens can be? The thermostat in mine is spot on accurate (I checked with a thermocouple probe). I've baked cakes and pastries in a succession of toaster ovens, sometimes outside on the deck on hot days.