Oh, bliss!
Last night, I cooked some rice on our new cooktop, set into our new kitchen island. After eating, I rinsed my plate in our new sink, set into our new kitchen cabinets. Finally, and this was the best part, I put that dish into our dishwasher, newly repositioned in the new cabinets and reconnected to plumbing after three and a half months' absence.
I haven't blogged about it (to some degree, because of it), but Kathleen and I have been undergoing a kitchen and master bathroom remodel since Labor Day. The kitchen is nearing completion now, just in time for our annual New Year's Eve games party. The new cherry and bamboo cabinets are all installed, the Cambrian Black granite countertops are all set in place and sealed, and the original red oak floors have been sanded and refinished beautifully. Yesterday, the plumbers and electricians put in most of their final touches, installing some new fixtures and re-hooking up some existing ones.
Not everything will be done for the party. We'll be missing some cabinet doors, the walls won't be painted, the new window trim and crown moldings are still bare wood, and (sigh) we're still using folded-over blue painter's tape for cabinet and drawer handles. Still, enough is done now that we can get pretty much the full effect of the remodel, and we're loving it.
We still don't have a master bathroom; that'll come over the next few weeks, though. We prioritized the kitchen over the bathroom because of the impending party, but it was the bathroom that triggered this whole affair in the first place. Over a year ago, we discovered that the shower pan was cracked and leaking water into the walls and floors. We've been going to the guest bathroom downstairs to shower for so long now that the idea of an en suite bathing area seems an impossible luxury. Mind you, I'm willing to give that luxury a try...
I'm not sure how much of our current enjoyment comes from the kitchen's new look and how much from our relief at seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but the joy is palpable either way.