Please forgive my backlog of posts. I’ve been composing posts as I go and then forgetting to add photos and actually post them. Meh. They may or may not convince you never to re-do your own kitchen – you’re welcome.
What I want this post to say is “hey look! I finished my kitchen!” Alas, what did happen was a week of insanity before family vacation, in which a person might reconsider ever vacationing again because of the crazy factor- both at home and at work. That Wednesday I picked up my nephew to have him mow the field. In theory it was a great idea, having someone doing one job while I did another. In practice, this was his first time mowing on a tractor, so I did a lot of instructing and hovering but he eventually got the hang of it. (I just had him do the field, not the dicey parts around the trees or the big hills, we’ll save that for when he’s got a bit more experience).
After he left, I managed to get the dishwasher installed (which still I need to pull out and do one last time because I forgot the insulation). But let me say this: having a dishwasher that actually washes the dishes is TOTALLY WORTH THE HYPE (and the $300 I paid for it and the evening I spent installing it).
The next day one kind brother (and a poor innocent friend who was just over for dinner) and I managed to haul the enormous china cabinet out of my kitchen and into my barn. I am giving up on it. I want to love it. In fact, I love the lines, the curves, and the fact that it belonged to a beloved grandmother who kept her fancy dishes and treasures in it. Alas, it is too big for my little house. There is not a single room it can fit in without dominating the whole room.
So I’m letting it go because try as I might, I cannot get it to work. My sister is going to adopt it when her house is built, so in the meantime it is in my barn. I offered to finish painting it (since I started it), and to help repair the back legs but I cannot keep it. I wanted it to work so badly and I gave it a good try, and it is time to let go. This cabinet is a formidable piece of furniture and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the brother that agreed to come haul it out of there with me. Once I had decided to let it go, I just needed it out of my way so I could keep going with the kitchen project without it taking over half the room and blocking cabinets that needed painting and wall that needs repair. After all that, it is kind of a relief to have it gone (or at least where I can trip over it in my barn). Next thing you know, my Jurassic Thursday crowd was arriving (while the china cabinet was still on the move) for a movie and catching up. Love those dear people.Friday was a BBQ / bonfire at my house for the graduating seniors. I am happy to have a place to host things like this and it is kind of nice to have a party when someone else does the shopping and running of it. It was another late night.
After a week like that, I had no time to do laundry or get ready to go on vacation so I had decided to go up Sunday night instead of Saturday to give me time to get things together- ish. Not to mention the kitchen sink was having issues (since I’d unhooked all the plumbing to install the new cabinet and the dishwasher). If it was just me, I could have left it till I returned, but since people were coming to watch by dogs, I figured giving them a working sink was the least I could do. I got the sink back up and running, sanded, primed and put the first coat of paint on the sink cabinet and the side of the cabinet that was previously blocked by the big china cabinet. And at the end of the day, I met up with a bunch of friends at German Park. Such a terrific way to end a long day of work at the house, and a great way to begin vacation week. Mmmm bucket o’beer.
Sunday was another flurry of Mass, some frantic cleaning, lots of laundry, softball, and then racing home to load the car and off to vacation. Mmmm vacation.
Part of me was sad to miss a single minute up north with the gang but I have no regrets for the time at home and it made it easier for me to relax on vacation without worrying over the state of things at home (worrying about leaving anyone with a geriatric dog and a puppy is bad enough without worrying about plumbing that isn’t functioning).