Deja Vu All Over Again

As Bob and I struggled to lift tons of kitchen cabinets off of our pickup truck and onto the frozen tundra that is our current New England state of affairs, it occurred to us that we had done this before. Like seven years ago when we moved in: history does repeat itself.*

This is how we came to this particular episode in our lives. We have been bemoaning the state of our kitchen, especially the sink area. The particle board around the sink is soaked and exploding, the plastic sink is stained and nasty beyond description. Here, you see for yourself.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH! Awful! And that's after a good cleaning. (Those stains just don't come out anymore and the faucet is all chipped and it's beyond redeemable!) So when friends- who thankfully live close by (in another modern house)- offered their old(er) cabinets because they're in the midst of a kitchen re-do, we said "yes".

Let's just mention that poor Bob had to make three trips to pick up all those cabinets and it got colder and darker as we offloaded. Then we had to maneuver them all into the house. By default, they all wound up in the living room as it was the only available "free space". It's a good thing we celebrated Xmas last week!

These cabinets are in much better shape than ours but it will be a bit of a Chinese puzzle trying to fit them into our kitchen and its configuration. But hey! We're always up for a challenge.
In all honesty, if the only area we redo is the sink (and maybe replace some of our obnoxious cabinet doors which fold out in this wonky and deadly way), I'll be happy.

This area. That stupid dishwasher is going as we haven't even used it once and we just store dishes in it. And under that sink... I'm not even posting a picture of that! It's been leaking through the back of the sink for a while and there's some sort of leak from the pipes underneath. So tackling this area will solve several dilemmas.
Bob did take all the cabinets and counters and drawers, not only as a favor to the friends (thanks Joanne and Eric!) for thinking of us, but because he wasn't sure what part went with which piece.

These are the ones we're pretty sure we can't use: triangular corner cabinets and odd floating islands. But this is a small price to pay for things we were considering purchasing from Ikea or Home Depot. It may take a while, but I can't wait for our new kitchen! Oh, and warmer weather...

*No kidding! I just realized that January 3rd IS the anniversary of our closing! And it is going on our seventh year here; time does fly and history does repeat itself.

Entering Our 6th Year!

Hooray! Today, the 3rd of January (in the year of our lord 2016) is the beginning of our 6th year at The Bauhaus Chicken Coop! That would be the "Iron" anniversary if we were talking weddings but it's appropriate as Bob works in iron. Here's some iron to celebrate:

(The now famous Birthday Fence that Bob made for me.) It's been a tumultuous and often crazy five years... including that initial day of our closing on this date in 2011 when it was like 6 degrees outside and there was three feet of snow on the ground- and much more to come! Moving our belongings on the "tableboggan" (an upside down folding table that slid well over all that snow) and other adventures too many to recall.Thank goodness for friends with large vans and strong backs!

Our house feels like home and while we have plans and projects in mind for 2016, it's simply nice to have a home that we like- just the way it is. Both Bob and I have studios, we've made great gardens and planted trees; we're standing upright and looking forward to this year in art and politics. (OOps! Don't go there!) Jules the Dog and Maggie the Mexican Pony have nothing to complain about (but they still do) and we're all looking forward to anther tumultuous and crazy year. Why do I think that's exactly what is coming?