Yesterday things were chaotic around here. We had taken down some cabinets and emptied them of everything in them, but hadn’t yet put up new ones to replace them. Every kitchen surface was covered, the dining room table was full, the living room was filled with cabinets and appliances not yet installed. After breakfast, no one ate until dinner because there was literally no way to prepare any food. Dirty dishes couldn’t be washed, because clean dishes couldn’t be put away, so there was no place to put the freshly washed dishes to dry.
But today is a different story! Though there’s still lots to be done, it already is looking good. All of the wall and base cabinets are in place on one side of the kitchen, leaving the other side to work on tomorrow afternoon. We were able to put away most of the stuff that was out into the cabinets that are up now. When we finish putting all the new cabinets in, we’re really going to feel like we have lots of storage space. Two base cabinets and three wall cabinets aren’t yet in (still in the living room, along with a washing machine, double oven, and two cooktops ), and what we have in so far is comparable to what we’ve had until now with the old setup. Meaning squishy but manageable.
One of the top cabinets was a microwave cabinet – it has a closed shelf above and an open shelf where the microwave is supposed to go. It probably won’t surprise you that I don’t use microwaves, because of the health concerns regarding what it does to food. Since it was deeper than a typical wall cabinet (because it needed to accomodate the microwave), I asked dh to cut it down to match the others. Now I’m using the open shelf for all my jars of fermented veggies, and the closed shelf above for the empty jars that aren’t in use. It looks so nice!
Two weeks ago when I asked dh about buying this set of cabinets, he told me he didn’t want to start a project like this. Today, he thanked me for taking it on since it’s so rewarding and empowering to do something like this. I’m very appreciative to my husband for taking this on with such a great attitude. He commented that especially since we’re doing it as a family project, it builds a nice sense of comaraderie and accomplishment. The kids are just as excited, if not more excited, as I am to watch it all coming together! They’re also looking forward to seeing the reaction of their grandparents on Saturday night, when they usually stop in, who were here a week and a half ago and have no idea we’re doing this. We’re anticipating that they’ll be more than a little surprised when they pop by. 🙂
Avivah
