Kitchen Reno – Final Stretch

For Nat April Fools’ day was certainly no joke. He was back in the garage finalizing the second last of the cabinets with drawers. Thinking he was on the last one, I had to be the bearer of bad news and tell him he had one more.

There are 5 cabinets with drawers – one with 4 drawers, one with 3 drawers, 3 with 2 drawers (including 2 of the 3 with a hidden drawer inside). Poor Nat. He was so beside himself trying to figure our each little cartoon in the Ikea assembly booklets. At one point he failed to realize that the “hidden” drawers had to have their rails pushed back by one hole so as to be covered by the main face of the cabinet. You can get confused very easily unless you look very closely at the drawings. A tiny, tiny little detail that made him frustrated by the minute.

After so many struggles with the first drawer cabinet, I thought he was on his way with the second one. Apparently not. It was a struggle to figure our the “hidden” drawer but once I saw the railing setting back a hole, it became apparent and things finally started to click in. This continued throughout Saturday. This morning he was back at it.

Taking Sunday morning off, he wanted to get the very last drawer cabinet completed in the afternoon. Only one or two hiccups and he had lift-off. Despite his frustration he managed to finish by mid-afternoon and it was kind of obvious we would head down the road to Green Acres for a fish ‘n chip supper. I had completed my chores – laundry and baking cookies – and he was so relieved to be finished, too. No brainer – eat out and save the aggravation of making anything.

During the last couple of days, we’ve also been on the lookout for one of my most expensive and favourite pinky rings. It was a 10mm sized ring I had specially ordered on a shopping trip with Bonnie at Ashley Jewellers at Limeridge Mall shortly after I was married. I never discovered it was gone until sitting down Wednesday evening. Naturally, we tore the place apart and looked everywhere, even including the recycle bins and to no avail. We have since concluded that it may have slipped off in the garage while I was helping to sort through Ikea boxes. Nat has been keeping an eye out, but we may not have a good search until we start to shift and sort the base and wall cabinets from each other, along with sorting through the balance of sink, hinge, leg, countertop, door boxes, etc. I’m absolutely devastated. With losing weight my fingers have somehow shrunk and I have to be very careful with the rings I wear. I’ll have to bite the bullet and get them re-sized one of these days.

Again, with my weight loss, I’ve been feeling so great about myself and am so proud of how far I’ve come. My wardrobe has had to be up-dated to some degree and I’ve been able to find a more up-to-date look than my previous one. I found some fabulous Ralph Lauren shorts at The Hudsons Bay online store, along with some classier looking blouses. It’s certainly been a real ego booster buying some new duds and having more energy than before. I still get tired rather quickly but I manage to fight through it sometimes making me even more proud of how far I’ve come. Hope the Doc’s visit in a week or so will be full of coodos!!

With everything done, Nat and I are going to organize the cabinets according to where they go and call our contractor for a date for installation. I’m getting excited now and naturally, am looking forward to shopping for new decorative items. Every good woman knows you can’t re-use what was in the your old kitchen, as you’re getting a whole new look. Only stands to reason that the decorative items will need to be replaced to compliment the new look!!