A Breath of Fresh Air. Again

This is not our first rodeo as far as painting kitchen cabinets. For the life of me, I can't remember what our cabinets looked like in our home on Gusten Place, and you won't think any less of me when I remind you that was over 35 years ago, will you?  In any case, with a houseful of small boys, I painted our cabinets white, using oil based paint. How I did it is a mystery. I suspect I did not labor over the color either. White was white back then, or so it seemed to me.

Fast forward to September 2014 and this time Bruce and I painted the cabinets together. Mostly he did all the hard work of remaking each cabinet door, as well as making seven new drawers, while I sanded and painted. During the process I wrote many posts, but this one entitled FAQs sums it all up. Once we were finally done, Angela came over to see it, exclaiming "it is a breath of fresh air" in here. And so it was.

Perhaps you are wondering why we had someone come in to do it this time, and if so, let me explain. In a condo, you cannot work whenever your heart desires because noise can be a problem. Furthermore, space to work is also a problem. And so it was that last September I got my estimate from Troy and finally on February 1, the kitchen was completed!!! To say that this is not our style of getting things done is an understatement. That said, oh my! With a nearly bare refrigerator, Saturday morning I did some grocery shopping and when I walked back in with my bags, my heart was so happy to come home to this. Indeed, even though the day was gloomy, coming into my light and bright kitchen felt like a breath of fresh air all over again.

Finally, after months of bits and pieces, the whole plan has come together. Over time, I was beginning to doubt my vision, but seeing it finally done, I am pretty darn happy. Let me just stop a moment and get a comparison photo, shall I? I think I shall. (from September 2018)

Not exactly the same angle, but it will suffice for comparison purposes. And how exactly did last week go? Challenging for sure. When Troy brought the doors back on Thursday, or was it Friday, who knows or cares, for that matter? Anyway, Mr. Peck had a few concerns, so Troy painted the fronts in our living room.

Nothing major, just one more coat to make them perfect. He began taking all the paper down and it was then that I began falling in love with the kitchen.

While it is not crazy modern, for that we would have had to replace the cabinets, it is modern enough for the two of us. While Troy was doing his thing and Bruce was out doing his thing, I made a practice basket using some piping I'd purchased a few years ago at an estate sale for about a dollar. One day I'll be able to get a good shape but for now I am on a learning curve.

To make the sides of a basket one needs to turn the whole thing up on its side, and sew round and round. Before I've wrapped the cord with fabric, but this time I tried just changing threads using a zig zag stitch to connect the ropes. Cheap fun. :)

As I was sewing, not only were there American Robins everywhere, through my window I saw another huge flock flying on top of the water. What now? Turns out it was a huge flock of Crows or Ravens, not sure which, but unlike the ones in Vancouver, they did not attack.

Speaking of Vancouver, our weather continued to be gray most all of last week and into today until about an hour ago when the sun finally broke though the clouds. I don't know which flock was the noisier, the Crows or the Robins.

Early Saturday morning, David called to tell me he was seeing more birds than he could ever remember and I should get outside and photograph them. Which means they were here for five days in a row, making a mess of the streets and some of the cars. With a stand of 20 Camphor trees along the shoreline, they were having a heyday outside our windows. I worked hard to get those photographs of them in the trees, which sounds pretty silly doesn't it because photography is not work for me, but still. Anyway, leaving for my shopping, it was super easy to take this out my car window as they were all over the parking lots.

It seems as if they took the Sabbath off, however, for a few hours this morning, they were, once again, flying everywhere. I'm guessing they have had enough until they next find plentiful food on their journey to the North. Then again, I am probably wrong, and we will hear their calls in the morning.

Friday night, while Michelle was over seeing the kitchen, I invited her to help me with the jigsaw puzzle that I'd begun before the painting started. Her enthusiasm was minimal when we began, but four hours later she had discovered that doing a jigsaw puzzle is a lot of fun! Neither of us had done one in decades which might just as well have been forever.

I was so excited to have my kitchen back that once home from the markets, I made some fresh Tomatillo green sauce, blueberry muffins, and then as part of our dinner, fried green tomatoes. YUM!

As the sun set on Saturday, I thanked my God for his many blessings as I know how lucky I am to have both a loving husband, and good health, at least for now. Our sister Lisa has gone to California to help Hank take care of Carol who still needs your prayers. At the very least, for comfort. Maureen is still on her antibiotics; hopefully they will work and one day she will walk again.

I feel sort of silly whining about how long it took to complete this project.

yours truly,

Gail