Archives from 2002-2006

Aug

21

Under construction

August 21, 2007

I am experiencing seasonal disconnect lately. The calendar says it’s August, but surely it must lie—how else to explain the absence of sunshine, the wet stuff falling from the sky, the horrifying expanse outside my house where the torn-up yard and dirt from the remodel have combined with the crappy weather to create a massive muddy Bog capable of swallowing household pets, sports-utility vehicles, and at least five or six species of plant-eating dinosaurs?

At first I made a valiant attempt to keep the mud-tracking to a minimum in our house, but I guess it doesn’t really matter how many filth trails we create right now, because we have officially entered the most chaotic stage of the remodel. The kitchen is completely torn out—the fridge is in the living room (where its annoying little mechanical blurps and “errrrr” sounds, probably its drawn-out death moans, are disturbingly loud when we’re sitting on the nearby couches, and in fact nearly caused me to fearfully whizz my Old Navy sweats during a particularly harrowing scene in The Blair Witch Project the other night), the stove and dishwasher are stashed in the garage to be dealt with at a later date, and the sink is gone. The floor is being ripped up this week, revealing That Which Lurks Below Linoleum (my . . . my god, people), and every single surface in our house is covered with a fine layer of construction-related schmutz.

On the plus side, our inability to cook anything outside of the microwave has given me lots of excuses to insist on various craving-related takeout meals. Last night it was Carl’s Jr. chicken strips and curly fries. Sure, they say you should only gain 25-35 pounds in pregnancy, but I figure those numbers are for low performers.

I do have a remodel-related design challenge that maybe you guys can help me with: we’re going to have a small breakfast nook area just off the kitchen, and we’re going back and forth on whether to put in a built-in booth or not. I’ve been scouring the web trying to find a really great-looking booth (either to purchase readymade or to instruct our builders to copy) that will go with the modern-style kitchen we’re theoretically eventually maybe someday in the distant future going to have, but most of what I’ve seen has either a traditional/country feel, or it’s a puffy vinyl restaurant type thing. Any ideas are more than welcome, we can always just put in a small table and chairs but the booth seems like a better use of space.

Well, a better use of space once I’m no longer pregnant, that is. I guess booths aren’t a great option during those last several weeks, otherwise known as the Whale Shark Stage.

Lastly, a heartwarming family image (unless you don’t like dogs) (um, or children) (in which case I’m sorry I couldn’t lure Cat into the photo, but it would have been Extremely Problematic and also possibly Quite Painful for the parties involved):