Progress Made–The Kitchen Cabinets Are In!

I said last week that every Monday was going to be a Progress Post. Well, today, Wednesday, is the first post I’ve written this week. Monday our peerless contractor and his son worked most of the day on installing our very small number of cabinet units, and I kept thinking that I should run and take a picture, but I wasn’t sure where my camera was. They were actually supposed to be on a much bigger job but they made time for us. I wanted a before and after set of pictures for today, from all the boxes on the kitchen floor to everything being put away, but all I have is this one shot that was taken partway through the process. (Pretty bad shot!)

It’s still not quite done, but I’m definitely getting there. The huge pantry that’s shoehorned into the corner isn’t even full, and yet I think all the perishables are loaded up. I’m going to try to come up with some kind of system so that I know when I’m on the last jar of, say, spaghetti sauce, and therefore put the item on the shopping list. One thing that happens if you don’t rigorously monitor your supplies is that you tend to either run out of an item or overbuy. So I have a huge bottle of Prego that has an expiration date of this month, although I’m sure it’ll still be okay if we don’t consume it until July. Not a big deal for us, but I’m reminded of how important it is to keep track, in whatever area of life may be applicable. If I were running a professional kitchen, whether in a restaurant or a church or a camp, I’d need to know at all times what I had on hand, what was coming up, and what I needed to use before it went bad. My mother-in-law is a holy terror about using up leftovers; she’s a good example to me. Not much gets thrown away in her kitchen, and any vegetable scraps are faithfully collected for the compost bin. I’ve had spurts of compost attempts but have never been at all successful, mainly because I’m too lazy. She’s an excellent example for me to follow!

Last night I spent a considerable amount of time picking out samples for our countertop, brought them home, and Jim and I pondered. In the end we (or at least I) decided that none of them were quite right, so the search continues. We don’t want to spend the money it would take to go to a specialized kitchen and bath store, although perhaps I’m not as informed as I should be on the matter. I’m assuming that a Lowe’s or a Home Depot would have the best prices, but maybe I’m wrong. There’s a brand of solid countertop material called “Mystera” that has beautiful colors, beautifully organized on their website. But I don’t see that their stuff is carried by any local suppliers. I might make a few phone calls tomorrow. As I’ve asked before, Is the time and trouble I’m taking with this really worth it? I think so. I was perfectly willing to use laminate, but Jim decided it looked cheesy. Well, I’m not going to argue! And we’re having lots of fun looking at samples. I mean, we do need to have something. I’m reminded once again of Brother Andrew, the dear Christian man who spent his ministry smuggling Bibles into Russia. I mentioned before the rebuke that a supporter gave him, basically telling him that he didn’t need to look like, as my mother used to say, “the ragpicker’s child.” He and his wife finally spent the money to make a small improvement in their house, taking out a wall or something like that. He says in his autobiography that it made such a difference in the livability of the house he was sad he hadn’t been willing to do it many years before.

The day is coming when all of the mess will be cleaned up, the project done. I remember reading in a gardening book once about a woman whose family worked for months on a big yard project, with walls and paving and water features. Her teenage sons helped out. It was messy and dirty and tiring, and when it was all done she was almost sorry. Now they had thing they’d worked so hard to achieve, but much of the fun was in the project itself. It’s easy to lose sight of that fact!

So we beat on. Every day sees some progress, which is what matters.