Banana Blog

Having gone to school midway down the eastern seaboard, springtime meant that ice storms that made you shudder at the thought of walking outside were a thing of the past and that heavy humidity that made you shudder at the thought of walking outside were a thing of the future.  Exam anxiety was in the air and summer adventures were greatly anticipated.  In the midst of all of this, there was always much talk of cherry blossoms.  They look as though they’re about to come out!  I was a couple of hours south this weekend and they’re in full bloom!  Would it be wrong to cut some for my dorm room?  And do they really smell as good as people say they do?  (To answer the last two questions, Yes, but… and Yes!)  

Today I live further north along the eastern seaboard.  When I remember to look up from the concrete, evergreens are as likely a sight as flowering deciduous trees.  Yet as of today, cherry blossoms in the kitchen.  No, I didn’t leave out a verb. The cherry that is in our kitchen is decidedly cut.  It now consists of pre-finished four inch tongue and groove planks.  Or something like that.  It is a pale rose with blond ribbons in it.  Before we know it it will be a deep, rich red.  We hope that it will be hard enough to support a family that plans to eat many meals at a table above it.  We hope that it will be soft enough to give our feet and legs a break as we prepare those meals at counters above it.  By tomorrow night it will cover our new subfloor and will have officially made our empty addition space into a space that deserves to be called our new kitchen.  Can you smell the sweet excitement?

Yes, we’re working toward a new kitchen.  It’s been about a year and a half project so far, mostly weekends, mostly unpaid labor and mostly learn as we/they go at that (more on the we/they later).  Along the way there has been a baby, 2 new jobs and a bunch of other…activity.  There have been very few mishaps, hammered fingers or arguments.  It’s going to be very exciting to have a new kitchen.  I’m especially looking forward to having the kitchen sink be in the kitchen, to having a dishwasher, better light, cabinets that don’t flake into our dishes and floors that get cleaner after mopping and sweeping.  Lots of decisions and countless hours of planning, working and accommodating the work still await us but we’re starting to turn the corner that divides rough from finish.  My lessons learned thus far vary depending on what kind of day I’m having, but some consistent themes are beginning to emerge.  I’ll write about these soon.  As for this blog, my best guess is that it will follow a similar path that our house has.  If so, it will be a work in progress with fits and starts.  It will be a labor of love and loathing with its coauthors pushing and pulling, grumbling and grinning and ultimately molding it into something that’s strong, that works and that’s actually pretty in its own way.