Day 176: Before and After.

Before ...

After:

Transformation. It's my all-time favorite theme, one I return to again and again in my writing. I suppose that's because I find personal transformation to be as noble as it is difficult. Sticking with the status quo might nibble away at your soul little by little (yep - been there, done that), but transformation requires a seachange of pain.

Luckily, transforming a kitchen offers many of the pros and none of the cons (well, unless you count the expense).

My redesigned kitchen was this year's birthday present from my mother and stepfather, and I guess it proves something once and for all: I'm old (youngsters don't dream about remodeled kitchens). It also proves I'm spoiled. And lucky.

Initially, it looked like the whole thing wasn't going to happen. Randy had begun the work (he's ridiculously handy and knows how to do everything), and after he knocked the initial hole in the wall (to create the space where the refrigerator would move), he discovered several huge beams that he worried might be "load bearing." All work stopped. The future of the project did not look good.

I had only one thought: "Screw that." I could already see my refrigerator in its new home, and I wasn't about to let a few sticks of wood get in my way. It was time to call in the big guns.

You might remember "Mack" - he's the guy who organized the NCAA college basketball pool that I won a while back. Well, when he's not trying to give me money, Mack is a contractor, and a very good one at that. He's one of those guys who backs up his formidable skills with honesty and a good eye. Mack came over, looked at the hole in the wall, stuck his hand inside, tapped a few spots ...

And proclaimed us good to go. I was thrilled.

Now, just five days later, it's all done. I still need to find a cool shelving unit to stick over the new butcher block table next to the stove (the one the plants used to sit on proved too big), but other than that, Phase I of Kitchen Redesign 2006 is over. (Yes, there is a Phase II, but there's no need to get into it right now. All I'll say is that it involves a dishwasher.)

I love it when I see something in my head and then, when it becomes a reality, it either matches my vision or exceeds it. It's truly one of the most satisfying feelings a person can have (well, if you're me). I guess that's why I like this whole blog experiment so much - if I can come even close to my vision of the person I can be, it might be even more exciting than the refrigerator move.

And that's saying something.


Randy rips my wall a new one. Load-bearing beams were meant to be broken! The picture is 'soft' because the room is filled with plaster dust.