This Old House, Part 5

Our carpenter finally returned to work on Saturday. His idea of "first thing in the morning" is a lot later than mine. Ditto on Sunday, when I drove to Malibu for a swap meet of horse tack and such, and got back two hours later (at almost noon) after which he showed up. He's a very nice man, but clearly, time challenged.

I now have my window between the kitchen and the living room. I took advantage of it last night to work on part of our meal while everyone else was watching television--and I could watch while I worked. Hooray. Everyone who came by last night loves the way it looks. I think that's stressing Len even more. I wanted the window to be a few inches bigger by making the bottom lower. Len didn't want the top of the faucet to be visible from the other side. I could have gotten at least another inch or two, because the frame closes the space, but I'll live.

Problems right now include the fact that there is no water pressure for the cold water and the spray nozzle must have an air bubble or something because it isn't working with the cold water although it will with the hot.

The carpenter has suggested we could gain a lot more space by purchasing a stacking washer and dryer and tucking them into the spot where we now have a utility sink, which I've never found particularly useful. Our current units are almost 15 years old (when Len and I were first married, we took the laundry out to be done every week and then he reluctantly moved on to the pay laundry when we were up to about $60/week for the wash), so replacing them wouldn't be out of line. I went to look at stacking units and it will set us back something along the same order as our refrigerator did. We can probably afford it.

If we do that, the next thing will be moving the refrigerator and redoing the wall that's on the north end of the kitchen with cabinets and possibly counter space. It would be nice to have enough storage and work-space in that room. The new lighting has been enough to make me quite cheerful even if the rest of the place isn't done yet.