Good-Bye, Old Kitchen

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​GOOD-BYE, OLD KITCHEN

      I suppose it was high time for a new kitchen. Though fourteen years ago we replaced the disreputable-looking, then thirty-five-year-old counter tops with new Formica and the ratty  and equally aged floors with new linoleum and added backsplashes where none had been, the cabinets were still the originals, just shy of fifty years old.
      Still, even though the cabinets have been screaming "1972" for years, it seemed that the longer we had them, the more accustomed we grew to them. And then there was a part of me that found it hard to reconcile replacing something that, though inarguably old-looking, was still perfectly functional. Another part of me didn't want to go through the hassle and inevitable aggravation of a major remodel. And another part of me didn't want to spend on a kitchen update the money that we might - theoretically - spend on another trip to Spain (see https://www.andlightenyourpack.com/),   

...or Hawaii (See https://www.ailantha.com/blog/the-maunawili-falls-trail-and-the-pupukea-beach-tide-pools),

...or maybe even some far away place with a strange-sounding name that might be calling to me.

      But then, of course, along came the COVID-19 pandemic and now here we are following the legions staying at home and improving their inescapable surroundings.
       In truth, however, the real driver of our decision to redo the whole kitchen was a rogue patch on our fourteen-year-old linoleum where the seam had for years been shrinking, separating, cracking, and discoloring, until we were left with this:

       The floor needed to be replaced. We decided to drag the rest of the kitchen - and ourselves - along with it.
          We took the first steps of the remodeling process last spring. In March it was finding a contractor. In April, May and June, it was meetings and conversations with the sales rep, the project manager, the design manager, and the the electrical contractor.

...and it was it was picking out new cabinets, counter tops. backsplash, sink, and ceiling lights.
       As for the decor of my new kitchen, I had only one vision: It had to go with my sea green, 1950's-era Formica-topped kitchen table.

     This table had been Tom's family's kitchen table when he was growing up,

...and was passed down to Tom and I by his parents a few years after we were married.
      Here's me feeding somebody at the table back in 1982.

     I've always loved this table. And so I chose every new kitchen accoutrement with our green table in mind.

   In July exploratory holes were cut into the soon-to-be-knocked-out soffits.

       And in August we could breath at least a partial sigh relief that all the design decisions had been made and the construction schedule communicated to us by the project manager.

      And so the weekend before our start date of Monday, September 13, we said good-bye to our old kitchen, took some photographs to remember the room by as it was, 

...and got to work clearing everything out of the kitchen,

...piling it all up elsewhere,

...then covering in  plastic what might be in dust's way.

        Monday, September 13, the demolition crew arrived as scheduled, and commenced demolishing our kitchen.

    Tuesday and Wednesday, it was the electrician's turn come and organize the wiring that had been behind the old soffits, 

...and give us recessed ceiling lights.

   Thursday and Friday the drywaller came,

...and our kitchen was a dust desert.

      During this time our household activities have, obviously been rearranged.
​       We eat lunch -  which I've been buying every noon from Subway - on the porch,

...and dinner has been microwaved left-overs from a stash of meals I  cooked up  last weekend (I'll probably spend this week-end cooking up next week's provisions) which we eat in the living room on a folding table on which we clear away a spot.

     Breakfast, which is catch-as-catch can, is also usually consumed at the folding table.

     And so has gone our first week of kitchen remodeling, replete with all the inconvenience we signed up for, but gloriously on schedule so far. One week down, three to go.