Whiplash is an injury to the neck that occurs from rapid, abnormal change in direction of motion. I am suffering from it. It's what happens when you are trucking right along on your kitchen remodel, everything is hunky dory (a word of Dutch origin, btw) and then bam, you come to a screeching halt and your head bounces back and forth a hundred and seventy-two times.

It's when you have a beautiful schedule all set up on Excel, and you highlight each item as it is completed in a timely manner. Then, the Italians send you a rangetop that was meant for a German household, ie, the wiring is incompatible with U.S. wiring. And the drywallers show up, tape everything off, and disappear, never to return. And you don't get to highlight anything on your Excel spreadsheet for weeks. And it makes your neck hurt. And it makes you a little grumpy, too.

So, we've had a little slowdown in the remodel.

But here are the good things:

I love the new layout. It feels bigger even though it is actually about 16 sf smaller, simply because it is well planned.

My husband is smart. He figured out how to put a second pantry into the space for me. It will be ... wait for it... The School Pantry!

I really love my single bowl, 10" deep, 30" wide apron front sink. I can't wait to make cookies just so I can wash the cookie sheets. Well, sure, I won't have a problem with eating the cookies either.

Things that could be good or bad, depending on your perspective:

It makes me want to cook. Which is good, except I don't want to cook plain old food, I want to cook fancy food. Fancy expensive food. But we spent all our money on the kitchen. So I have to learn how to cook fancy cheap food. That's good, right?

The kitchen remodel is beginning to bleed into the other rooms of the house. Right now it's the baseboards. We want taller ones. And we want to paint all the trim. It'll look great, but it's a lot. of. work. painting trim. Then there's the new windows in the living room. But that's a remodel for another time. And another income.

The trash pullout is cool. But the trashcans are small. Which means we, er, the kids, will have to take the trash out more often. And because it's inside a pullout, we'll no longer be able to play the Teetering Pile of Refuse Game to see who will cave and take out the trash first. You always have to give up something in a remodel.

Pictures? Well we are further along than these right now, but I want to have a grand reveal when it's done, so these are just teasers.

Here's our granite, Delicatus:



And see this doorway?



It moved to the left where the framing is exposed, to make room for this:



Our refrigerator. It got the fridge out of a silly spot in the kitchen and gave us some valuable real estate to use as a baking center. And by using the old doorway, we were able to recess the fridge six inches into the wall, making it appear counterdepth, without spending extra money or giving up cubic footage for an actual counterdepth fridge. I love it!


Here's the big view of things (and also the GRP!):



This is from the living room looking into the kitchen. The end where the cabinets are installed is the baking center. The back wall will be home to the rangetop. The two posts are supporting most of the second floor and roof, so as much as I wanted them to go, they are staying. They will have a big 9'x4' island attached to them. To the left of this picture is the second pantry.

Romy says hi!