Ah, summer, my least favorite season of all- at least down south.  It used to be my favorite time of the year, growing up in Washington, where you waited all year for the rain to stop and the glory of summer in the Norwest to begin.  But moving here, I’ve had to learn to deal with a whole new kind of summer- the hot, humid, noisy bug-filled kind.  Throw into the equation a windowless house with very limited AC and I knew we were in for a rough season.

But as we prepared to continue working on the house and sweating more than is usually desirable, life suddenly threw one of those unexpected hardships at us. Or as our pastor quoted on Sunday morning from P.G. Wodehouse- 

“and there, unseen in the background, Fate was quietly slipping some lead into the boxing glove.” 

I won’t bore you with all the details here. Suffice it to say, this summer has put us through the ringer several times and everything has been more than a a little topsy turvy.  I can’t say we are quite out of the woods yet, but I can very thankfully say that in the midst of much upheaval, several very bright things happened. 

God finally gave to my long suffering sister and her husband a beautiful baby girl. I got to be there for the birth and welcome little Jubilee into the world.  To help celebrate her birth, a good measure of my family came for a visit- even my mother. We got to celebrate her sixtieth birthday while she was here and it was good.  The hubby and I also celebrated fifteen years of wedded bliss with an epic evening out and dinner spread out in courses across three fabulous restaurants. Pretty great.

And since most clouds have silver linings, this particular cloud brought with it a burst of progress on the house that I didn’t expect to see for a long time.  Doors, trim work, back stairs, the beginnings of HVAC and a much more permanent kitchen set up, just to name a few.

 If you recall, a few posts back, I showed some pics of the temporary kitchen I had put together. Did this kitchen work? Yes. But was it built out of a hodgepodge of wobbly shelves and random furniture propped up by bricks and then covered with fabric? Absolutely.

We had purchased some beautiful ikea countertops several months back, but were saving up for the cabinetry to put them on, which meant I couldnt use the kitchen sink we had purchased as well. I was making do with the utility sink in my laundry room which was definitely a step up from the bathtub I had been using before.

  Realizing, however, that it would probably be a while before cabinets would make an appearance, we decided to think outside the box and see what the piles of lumber under our house could provide. Within a few short days, we had some rudimentary supports built and the counters and sink installed.  What can I say? My hubby is a wiz with 2×4’s.

Next came a bit of shelving.

Of course, the raw wood was a little, well, raw looking so I pulled out a brush and a bucket of stain. Much better, no?

Since we had decided on this course for ‘cabinets’ we knew we would have to figure out a way to enclose them so we settled on curtains as the easiest and cheapest method.  I chose green fabrics since that was what I had in a box from a rummage sale a few years back.  I also found these super fun little clip rings that made installation waaaay easier.

I’m pretty pleased with how everything turned out.  Sure, its unconventional, but since when have we ever been conventional- hah! Besides, those are the sturdiest shelves I have ever seen and there is so much storage space that I won’t even need upper cabinets. 

 To add to my storage and to help fill the enormous space in the middle of the room, the hubby managed to salvage this old Ikea island from a job site.  And wouldn’t ya know, the counter on top matched the rest of mine exactly. It was in pretty rough shape, as you can see- some broken shelves and missing screws.

So it was 2×4’s to the rescue again, to reinforce the bottom, hold the whole thing together and put it back into service.

And voila! I have a kitchen! A genuine, beautiful, fully-functioning kitchen!

  I’m a little overwhelmed at the sheer size of the space but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. And I’m just overwhelmed to have it at all.  I guess I really never thought we would get here. 

So I’m taking this moment to push from my mind the other hurdles still to be overcome in our lives and just enjoying it. We made a batch of cookies today, in spite of the sweltering heat and just seeing all my baking stuff in action again makes me wonder- do any of you locals need a cake? ‘Cause I’ve finally got a place to bake ’em.