Kitchen Magic: The Slow Version

Monday morning, a week and a half past, the work in the kitchen began.  Short of carrying the laptop to the kitchen and holding it up and taking photos (are you getting a mental picture of this?) and looking like an ancient goddess presenting sacrifices to the kitchen god, I don't know how to get photos on this computer.  So reading this will require a great deal of imagination.

Out with the old base cabinet experience of hanging upside down and peering into pure darkness, or down on all fours and wearing a miner's hat to search out anything stored there.  Old-fashioned cabinets these were, with mullions dividing the space, so anything going in or out had to be turned on its side . . .

I will spare you the gorey details.  Drawers will be replacing all of this!  Even in the island-- extremely wide, and very deep drawers.  Having all the flatware and cutlery spread out in one wide space will be heavenly.  In the pre-drawer era, the silverware resided in a divider tray on the counter top, covered with a linen towel to protect from kitchen grease and dust.  At present, with things moved out of the kitchen to accommodate construction, it would take a long prayer session to uncover it.  We have been eating a lot of take-out, and because the weather is nice, we eat on the patio.

Since the kitchen would be semi-new with the addition of under counter drawers, we decided to add a new dishwasher (the present elderly machine can be very tempremental).  And a vent over the stove that will actually take the cooking smells out of the house (yes, this house is so old that nobody did that in the 1970s).  While we were re-configuring, we asked the builder to hang the microwave over the stove.   That freed the counter in the pantry for the food processor, crock pot and hand mixer to be instantly at hand.  And to be honest, the pantry needed an overhaul, too.  After that, how could we neglect the overhead cabinet doors?  That said, we were left with only a few "old" areas in the kitchen.  The refrigerator is fine.  And the gas range is a wonderful war-horse with many campaigns left in it.  But the countertop?  And the sink?  Faucet?  Dear, me!  Bring on the samples!

Yes, it got out of hand.  And no, I'm not sorry.  I only wish I was relaxing at a beach resort near Savannah while all of this was going on.  I'm afraid this will be one of those long sagas.  I pray to be proven wrong.