We are in week three of no kitchen. The room that once housed the kitchen is down to studs. The electrician has done what he can. The plumber’s job is mostly finished.
So the room sits empty, waiting for someone to put the skin on the bones. This will be followed by that dusty period of taping and mudding and sanding and more. Then the floors go in.
While all of this happens, the rest of the house looks like a bomb went off, except that in my privileged life I have never really seen what that looks like, so I can only guess. We have gone through a whole tank of propane and all the pellets for the smoker are now gone. Tonight’s dinner sits in the crock pot on the table in the sunroom, teasing all of us with the smell of garlic and onions.
The children are wondering when the house will go back to normal and when the tape and plastic will come down and the dumpster will be out of the driveway. So do the parents.
Still, it has been an adventure. It has been a reminder of how blessed we are to be able to refinance, to stay employed, to afford the first-world luxuries of choosing cabinets and hardware and tile and backsplash – in a country where many cannot do any of those things. It has allowed us to get creative with meals, to eat things we don’t remember buying, and to eat outside around the campfire, or on the floor near the coffee table, or really anywhere you can find a seat.
Maureen and I are trying hard not to let this project become like the story, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…” where we find that when one room looks great, another one doesn’t so maybe we should do something there too. That temptation is real, let me tell you.
With the kids home three days a week and in school only two, it can be hard to find a quiet place to do our respective assignments. There is some yelling and some tears, but I stop after a while. (Insert smiley face).
If we were on social media more, you could follow along, but that seems like a poor excuse to join that melee. For now, we will focus on today’s readings from Ephesians: “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…”
Good advice in times of upheaval and change and dust and renovations.
I suppose it’s good advice for every day.