This Old House

My kitchen is the the back yard. And the side yard. And the garage. And the living room. And my office.

After a six-month wait, the handyman finally arrived with my new kitchen cabinets and:

1. I can't have the low to the floor toe-kick drawers because the support wall won't support the unit and now he's got to drill through the cabinets into the slab--no room for low to floor kick drawers.

2. I won't have two pull-out cutting boards because he missed that in the discussions. THAT I know we talked about--even Len remembered it. We will have one large one now, and possibly a smaller one right next to the range in the top of the smaller cabinet that will hold drawers there.

3. Len won't let me have a window over the sink into the living room. I gave up on my hopes to have it open under the upper cabinets into the living room and have a dining counter on the living room side where our ugly, big-but-not-big-enough dining room table sits (which we almost never use because Len's never met a surface he doesn't insist on covering with stuff.) But I did hope he would see reason and logic and let me open up the window over the sink. I HATE standing at the sink looking at a wall. It is so friggin' claustrophobic. I love having a sink that has a window looking outside, but we can't reconfigure the kitchen to do that, at least not without tens of thousands of dollars in plumbing work and a long construction period. Besides, Len would never stand for it. So, I will continue to stare at a wall. In my house in Virginia, I looked out into the front yard and the street. Where I grew up, we looked into the back yard, as did my grandmother's kitchen. This would be so much more cheerful. I guess he doesn't mind because boys look at the wall when they use a urinal. They like the comfort of boundaries. Very limiting. He won't even let us put it in with shutters, so he can close the window if it makes him feel more comfortable. You'd think he'd like to be able to watch TV while he does the dishes (the window would give a clear view through to the televisions, but no. Since Bill has to take down the sheet rock to make way for additional support and to enclose wires, this modification is a no-brainer and would definitely increase the value of the house. No woman would have bought the house we live in because of the way the kitchen is laid out.

The other problem with our kitchen is that it is very dark. It is lit by two track-lights, a small florescent over the sink, and an inefficient sconce in the corner by the old oven (it still works, and isn't that old, but I got my new range with a HUGE oven for Thanksgiving), but if you open one of the upper cabinets there, it blocks the light! So I will get to look at new kitchen lighting and a light for over the dining room area tonight after work. Bill wants to add skylights, but that doesn't add light at night, when I am most likely to be in the kitchen. I'd like a skylight over my bed, but I don't need one in the kitchen. I've heard they are prone to leak, anyway.

With the new cabinets, I'll be able to get my Kitchen-Aid mixer on the counter-top (the old upper cabinets were a tad too low for it to fit.) And I should have enough room for my glassware. If only we could get rid of more coffee cups.