Kitchen bitchin’

There is a lot to love about our new old house–but the kitchen isn’t one of my favorites. The previous owners turned a former bedroom at the front of the house into a kitchen, because the existing kitchen was a tiny space at the back of the house. So the window placement is a little wonky. And it opens directly into the dining room, which I don’t love because we’re messy cooks around here, and we entertain a lot. And the previous owners were in the restaurant business, so I don’t think they did a lot of home cooking. All of which means–remodel. But not a big remodel. No. More like a retrofit. I must have been doing something right when we moved into the house, because I found Bob the Builder. Bob is heaven-sent. He works alone. He does everything–carpentry, plumbing, wiring, tiling. He’s sweet and neat, and reliable. Totally husband material, except he’s already married, and so am I. Anyway, here’s the deal. We’ve removed the existing upper cabinets, which did not go all the way to the ceiling–meaning I had a serious storage situation. Bob has built lovely sturdy, roomy new upper cabinets, and Roz the painter–also amazing–she and Bob work together all the time, is painting the new cabinets, and the old lower cabinets, a shade called Timid White, and they will have an umber glaze. Then, next week, if the Gods are with us, the new stove will arrive. Mr. Mary Kay demanded a stove with bigger burners, and who was I to keep him from stove destiny? So the new Dacor should be in next week. And if I’m still living right, Mark the Marble Guy will come back and install black granite countertops. And then Bob the Builder will return to install a tile backsplash. And hopefully build us a cabinet around the huge shelving unit which exposes my sloppy cookbooks, glassware, ect. We’re hoping for a cupboard which looks antique and slightly Welsh cupboard-ish. In the meantime, we’ll be living on rotisserie chicken and bag-o’salad off paper plates. But it will all be worth it–right? I’ll keep you posted with pics of our progress.