Lemonade from Lemons

So we live in this beautiful home built in the 1830's. I say beautiful. My husband seems to be more inclined to draw parallels to the Tom Hanks movie The Money Pit. We live in sunny Massachusetts where the weather is as fickle as a woman in a shoe store. And then there's the snow. Ugh!! 2 years ago it snowed 4,286 feet over the course of, I believe, 2 weeks. While I thought the sight of pristine snow falling on the woods behind us was becoming a little monotonous, I soon came to understand that rain falling in my kitchen was a far less pleasing site.
But hey, we had always talked about doing the kitchen someday. I was thinking in the way far away future. Like when I could reasonably expect my cyborg houseboy Q4HN to take care of it. But now that the good people of the disaster company had already removed the wall boards and such, I, uh, suppose this is as good a time as any. Right?

I work nights. What that translates to for the rest of the world is "since you're home all day..." The general consensus is that this leaves me available to do the lion's share of the work. But really, my middle of the day is everyone else's middle of the night. No matter. Still I did a lot of work on the kitchen, as did my husband and my father-in-law. We now have beautiful new ceilings. A new floor. Well, mostly. Except for under the dishwasher and fridge. And along the edges. But mostly, a beautiful new floor. New sink, big enough to wash a tiny 4 pound kitten in. I suppose you can really do a lot of dishes in there too. It just seems so blase to use a sink for dishes. The real feature, though, is the new cabinets.

In an effort to save money, we purchased the cabinets from Ikea. Boy you should have seen me the day they came! I was excited! I was ready! I was going to get this project started baby! I was seriously stupid! Over 100 boxes were delivered. My living room became a staging area. Really, I kind of needed a warehouse. I was not deterred. I began sorting the boxes into groups. That was sheer folly. They barely fit in the living room in the manner that the delivery men stacked them. Also, there were two, relatively fit gentlemen who moved the boxes in together. Then there was me. On more than one occasion I began to lift a box, only to realize that it would be staying right where it was. Never fear! I was still ridiculously optimistic. After all, it was only day 1.

I'm sure right about now you're thinking about all of those tests to see if you and your significant other have what it takes to make it work. The most important test is the teamwork required to build Ikea furniture, right? I found a work around. Yep. Do it yourself. I know, I know. All of the directions clearly show TWO happy Ikea bubble people building their furniture together. I decided I was way more advanced than the clowns in their pictures. And I would have been okay, too, if I had simply used an electric screwdriver. I did not. I built 16 cabinets with a regular old phillips head screwdriver. If it wasn't the dumbest move of my life, it certainly has to be featured in the top 10. So far, I've had 1 cortisone shot in the elbow that lasted a few months. I really need another one, but I'm a big fat baby. But at the end of the day, the cabinets are gorgeous!

 So, at least the kitchen's done though, right? Well, not quite. As I mentioned, there are still areas of the floor that need to be done. And the edging around the counter tops. And the tile back splash. But for the most part, the end is in sight. Because my husband is right: there's always a fun new home improvement project waiting just around the corner for us!