Merry Christmas to Me!

The kitchen is done! Actually, there are a few more things to do, and some more permanent counters need to be built along with a pie safe, but they finished enough of the shelves and counters that I could fit all of my stuff in there, and moved my appliances from my dark closet of a kitchen in the house into this light, airy, and spacious kitchen.



It was a hard push to get the last few things done. It seemed like we were almost there, but every time I contemplated actually making the move, I realized a few more things needed to be done. The walls were done, the door was done, and the kitchen part of the building was lockable, but I didn’t think the one table they had completed would offer enough space to both store all my stuff and give me room to work. So, they built another table with shelves and hung some wire racks over the stove site and the center table. The second table still doesn’t have a top, but the shelves underneath give me plenty of space for storage, and I have more than adequate counter space, especially compared to the old kitchen – which had virtually none.

Just yesterday, Julio came to help and we did the big move. Tom and Julio moved all the big stuff, which involved disconnecting the gas and the plumbing in the old kitchen and connecting it in the new. I went out to transfer our guests to the border, and when I returned home not only were all the appliances out of the old kitchen, but they’d put them in the yard and thoroughly cleaned them – even the inside of the oven! Then we all just carried stuff out to the new kitchen. None of us could believe how much stuff I had crammed into my tiny kitchen, and how quickly it filled the new kitchen. I finally left the carrying to the men and I started stowing stuff, and it was just about dark by the time I had the kitchen in a condition where I could make dinner in it last night.

So far so good on how it works, although our first guests to eat out of the new kitchen are just about to arrive, so we’ll see how it works when put to the test. In the meantime, I’m enjoying sharing it with a hooded warbler and a great-tailed grackle (which I prefer to call crazy tailed grackles since their tails never seem to following them quite straight), although I might be less taken with the birds in the kitchen if I find they’ve decided to try the lemon squares I have cooling on the counter. We’re still debating about whether or not we want to screen it. The bugs aren’t really a factor here, and screen tends to get dirty and obstruct the view, especially of the many birds we have around here, so we’re going to try it unscreened for a while. But, if the bugs are too bad, or the birds sample my baked goods, we might have to screen it. We’ll see.