We learned that I don't sleep well when Willem is gone. I was up until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, and could not sleep anymore after 8:00. Which is just sad, really, on a childless Sunday with no plans.
We learned that it's impossible to buy a spice rack or a mug rack anywhere in the county, but it's possible to buy shelves and make them work.
We learned that shopping and detail work in the kitchen is necessary and even fun, but far less satisfying than the intense and in-your-face changes that happen when four people are simultaneously stripping the walls and repainting.
We learned that the devil is in the details... the precise lengths of fabric, the placement of mug hooks, the width of the mixer. But, apparently without realizing it, I must have sold my soul, because all of the details worked in my favor. This never happens. I can't count the number of times that I was mostly done with a task and realized, "Oh, hey, that could have gone horribly wrong. Lucky for me..."
We learned, again, that I don't sleep well when Willem is gone. As evidenced by the fact that I took a break from about 10:30 to midnight, and then started in again. I was scrubbing the cabinets with the pad from a Wet Swiffer (very successfully, I might add) at 3:00. It's now 3:50 and I'm still revved up. And I quite deliberately avoided caffeine after noon today.
Ah, well. All this unsettledness is to your benefit, if you're interested in seeing photos. Grainy, slightly unfocused photos, but photos nonetheless. I tried to match up camera angles somewhat, but this entire project has been an exercise in two key abilities: abandoning pointless pride and learning to accept help graciously when it's offered, and accepting minor imperfections in service of getting to the bigger picture.
So, without further ado... my kitchen, before and after.
The shadow boxes on the table will be mounted to the rear wall tomorrow morning. And the other stuff will get put away, but when I'm tired I get jumpy, so I refuse to go into our unlit breezeway until morning.
The fridge is the last big thing on my to-do list; a new one is being delivered on Wednesday and a plumber is coming to make the ice maker make ice on Thursday. Until then, I have my old and suddenly rusty dinosaur... the moisture seal called an unannounced labor strike last week, so even if I wasn't graced with an empty house for a week in order to make it all pretty, we'd have been fridge-shopping. This way I'll have a kitchen worthy of the newcomer.
I think it looks pretty darn good for three days' work. I really hope Willem likes it. And for the sake of his own structural integrity, he'd better at least notice.
