Kitchen Magic: Slow Slide to Home Plate

Our builder did not quite believe all this white was going to work.  His own kitchen reflects great effort to disguise the sticky finger prints of three sons.  I have only one sticky-fingered individual to worry over, so the white is manageable here.  I think the brown kitchen that was here when we bought the house reflects a man's horror of anything too clean-looking.

When the quartz counter tops came in and the double enamel sink was replaced with this huge stainless one, I began to have visions of using the big pots again— the ones that are difficult to clean because they don't lie flat in a double sink or they bump against the sides of most sinks.  Family spaghetti dinners, stir frys, maybe a great chilli night!

And the great new doors on the wall cabinets, a mixture of white panel and glass-panel, are like a neat series of frames around the walls.

Pix come at the end, after surgery.  Imagine what a nice thing it will be to come home to a completed kitchen!  I have threatened Charles with bodily harm if he puts one tiny item in a drawer before I come home!

I am, however, sensible enough to thank him for his semi-patience through all of this.

Kitchen Magic: Continuing Saga

Oh, my gosh!!!  What a mess.  A naked kitchen!  And we were going to have only this tiny little bit of change made so we wouldn't have to crawl around on the floor to use the base cabinet area . . .

This morning, Charles was not to be done out of his coffee and bagel.  He is not a man to let a little thing like no available kitchen stand between him and his breakfast.  Ever the clever one, he brought the electric kettle and toaster into the hall bath and set up his make-shift kitchen on the vanity there.  When I stumbled down the hallway and saw it, I couldn't stop laughing.  In fact, we both laughed until we had tears on our faces.  I took my seat at the oak table and was presently served my morning cup of tea and bagel.  To the more important point:  CHARLES had his morning cup of coffee and bagel.  As we have suffered a number of hesitations, hiccups and a major pause in the forward motion of the kitchen, his only comment was, "Those suckers better show up today!"  That was a reference to our 10:30 appointment to have the countertops installed.

Our builder, Dennis, was here, Johnny-on-the-spot, with his help, and they immediately set to ripping out the last of the trim on the old cabinet bases, full of assurances that the cabinet people would be here shortly.  A very skeptical Charles watched with a slight rise of one eyebrow.

I decided to be far, far away if there should be fireworks, so I went to the downstairs office and burrowed in to download photos from the camera.  A little ahead of schedule, I heard voices, the signal that the countertop had arrived!  From there, it was a series of bumps and groans and tramping feet overhead that let me know the progress was unimpeded.  I waited downstairs in an excess of patience while the work went on.  An hour into it, I couldn't wait any longer, and I crept upstairs (I don't even want to tell you how long THAT took!).  My first impression was to be stunned at how clean everything looked!  My kitchen had moved from cream and dark brown to white and bright, and life suddenly kicked up a notch.  In my pleased amazement I happened to glance down.  Oh, dear, but the floor, in a lovely pale beige tile, looks in need of replacing. . . God, cut out my tongue, please.  Don't let me even MENTION that to Charles!  Especially since the drawers and doors haven't arrived yet!

Earlier this morning I was feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't make the trip to Knoxville for the Freestyle Meeting today (at Carol's house, and all dressed up for Halloween!).  I think the excitement here was a gift, to help me through what might otherwise have been a really long-faced grumpy span of hours.

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.