The Big Empty

I came home after work last night to find the dining room had become a staging area. The table was folded up against the wall, the chairs folded in the front room. Miscellaneous kitchen goods stacked along the dining room wall. A portion of the family room has become a temporary pantry.

Yesterday morning, a couple of brethren from the church came over to look at the kitchen. They expressed surprise that it had not been emptied out! My daughter-in-law was surprised that they were surprised and told them that we had no idea of a time-line. She spent the rest of the day working on the Big Empty. As soon as the kitchen is empty, we call Brother De La Cruz and he starts tearing out the floor!

We plan to move the stove around the corner from the kitchen to the dining room on the opposite side of the wall. David is trying to figure out where we can plug in the freezer and the fridge without overloading the circuits – probably one in the front room next to the fireplace where the bird/aquarium used to be and one in the dining room. We think we are going to be using disposable plates, eating more sandwiches, foil dinners (fewer dirty pots!), BBQ (yum) and cold cereal for awhile. We will likely set up our dish washing station for the unavoidables on a folding table on the patio.

I am so glad that David and Teresa are here to help. Help?! Teresa and Benjamin are basically doing all the getting ready. David helps me figure out stuff and will help with the actual work.

It is going to be ‘interesting’ for a while. But, oh, not to have a rotten floor and rotten cabinets!

It isn’t easy picking flooring, counter tops, etc. I am not a natural designer. I am not really good at imaging the possibilities. And I certainly have not had not much practice!

Even the sink - I think I want a double size sink. What you see on display is mostly double sinks making me think that they are more popular. I think if I have one big sink, but I want two smaller sinks, I use dishpans. What do you do if you have two sinks, but want one big one? Like when I am doing a turkey?

I want flooring, etc that looks and ‘feels’ clean when it is clean. Too many things that supposedly hide dirt, never seem clean. There is no joy in cleaning them.

I want light, bright and airy. I had thought I would like to have the look/feel of being by a stream, but I don’t have any idea how I would do that. I am probably going with light tan/cream color floor – similar in color to the bathroom. In fact, I am quite pleased with the bathroom and may also use the same blue or in the kitchen. What color the cabinets? No idea yet. Medium/light wood? White? Cream?

What is available and not very expensive and what my benefactors want will be big factors, but I am paying for probably most of the materials and they do want me to like it. I need to go out shopping with them soon.

I am so excited at the idea of having a decent kitchen!