We scheduled countertop measurements for Tuesday, which means the new kitchen is very close to real. Thresholds are weird, supercharged, a little uncomfortable. Sometimes really uncomfortable. I have been feeling that whiny agitation in my bones this week, preparing to release this old battered workhorse of a kitchen and move into the shiny new one downstairs.

As I prepare today to feed a small throng of teenaged boys for Huck’s belated birthday celebration, it seems right to take a moment to appreciate the thousands of meals this old kitchen has served. And that’s just us! This house was built in 1924, how many families have fed themselves from these cupboards?

There are many things in this kitchen that I won’t miss, it is very much worse for the wear. It suffers from a syndrome wherein one doesn’t bother to fix the busted things because one is building a replacement soon, even though “soon” is maybe 5-10 years from when it started to fail. But as I took these photos today to document the busted drawer, the cabinets that won’t close, the scratches and dings, the permanent grime and the rot, I found myself appreciating what those things meant. Constant use for almost 100 years.

Thank you, kitchen, for your service. You have been a literal lifeline for us, and we honor you. Soon (like in the next 5 years sometime?) you will transform into a bathroom and that toilet will make more sense. ❤️

This week I harvested pears from our two trees. This always stresses me out a little because pears want to be refrigerated for a couple of weeks after harvest before you ripen them at room temperature and where am I supposed to do that? This year my problem was solved by a timely development in the building of our new kitchen. Behold, the brand new fridge!!!!

Today we are going shopping for countertops. Things are getting real!

Speaking of bills, we have had two crazy expensive incidents with water this summer- 1. We returned from a weekend away to find that our toilet had been running the entire time, and 2. We had an earthquake that shook a fitting loose in our irrigation system while we were again away from home for several days. We returned to find a small stream running through the yard 😢.

We were grateful for a week of rainy weather that gave us a bit of time to fix that (Morgan had to psyche himself up to dig that hole), but I dread the upcoming water bill. The first one was bad enough!!!

Anyway, that’s just homeowner blues. Paying that down as I can and trudging onward.

UPDATE: It continues! Our toilet tank is now emptying itself and filling itself constantly which we know is just a simple repair, but still. We have had to resort to turning off the valve every time until we can get to it. AND, the hot tub started leaking significantly. This is most likely from the original leak it came with and an insufficient repair, at least that is what we hope. Again, not super mysterious or unusual except that all of this is water water water water…

From http://www.alunamichaels.com/sacred-messages/

Since water represents the flow of emotions, plumbing issues in a home or a leaky radiator in a car reflect emotional matters. Specifically, the bathroom in a house shows a need for cleansing, release and forgiveness.

Fair enough. Also of general interest: https://www.ancient-symbols.com/water_symbols.html

I am not necessarily a superstitious person, but sometimes (like when the same thing keeps happening over and over and over and OVER) it’s useful to look for whatever else needs attention and throw some work at that too. Noted, universe, noted.

We had things going at a good clip there but then we ran out of money again. This is a reality we knew we were signing up for- build until broke, earn, repeat. We are SO CLOSE to a brand new kitchen, and yet- there are bills to pay.

Morgan is currently trying to juggle paying jobs with assembling our IKEA cabinets. This creates a slow and steady progress that is way better than zero progress. He put together the last base cabinet box tonight:

Progress is progress, my friends, no matter how slow!