More Spring Cleaning... (Or How Poop Can Affect Your Life)

What I want to know is how in the world did the spring cleaning turn into a mini renovation! In the process of switching around the food pantry and dishes pantry, we decided to install the new counter tops which have been sitting in the shed since our big renovation two years ago, fix the doors on the cabinets which will contain the food from here on in, make a new island, and prepare the dishes pantry for the new doors....  Two years ago, at the time of our big renovation, the kitchen repairs/renovation got put on hold because of flooring issues. (We couldn't decide which flooring to put down through the house.  We still can't and since the sunroom is far from finished we don't have to make that decision for a while yet.) Meanwhile, the kitchen was workable for "the time being".... but of course, "the time being" stretched into two years. Yesterday, I had a mini crack-up... (that's where you go slightly nuts) and decided that life was too short to live in a crap heap. (Of course the poop all over the yard helped me to come to the point of my mini crack- up and also with the living circumstances descriptive of "crap heap".) The dog was trotting across the kitchen with muddy, poopy feet.... Teapot was tramping through my kitchen with his poopy boots and the last straw was after Daughter #1 walked into the house with horse doo doo attached to her shoes. I looked around and saw the recycling overflowing, and potatoes rolling across the floor... and every surface littered with dirty dishes... that's when I snapped! In very short order I had the food pantry gutted (and low and behold in the back, on the floor, were some mouse turds from the damn rodent we caught just before Christmas which I thought I had gotten rid of.... which just added to the poop analogy... hopefully we don't have another rodent issue)! At eleven last night, I was not finished but there were some serious improvements. This morning, I got up and the kitchen was still in a ree raw... (Newfy term for a serious mess)!  So I had at it again... at some point, Teapot took pity on me and began helping me remove a shelf which we had been using "for the time being" as a counter and replace it with the new counter top... which turned into an all-day-effort.

The shelf with the toaster will be lowered to the light switch level and then a new shelf will be added above it. All the recycling bins underneath will be covered with a brown checkered set of curtains. Eventually this counter will be where the sink is placed.

Meanwhile, the shelves are waiting tomorrow's efforts since they will be raised and put into place fairly speedily. Then we just have to rebuild the island with a more permanent completion effort.... (that means that I have to paint the top and Teapot has to level it so that the boiled eggs don't fall on the floor every time we use it).

...but in the meantime here it stands leaning against the wall with the log which will hold it up... (but not level apparently)... standing next to it. The chair will be set under it so that we can eat there two. The old trolly (lower left corner) will be making a one way trip to the dump.

Later in the summer, we will move the plumbing to the new counter and install the new sink, and replace the counter on the other side of the kitchen where the sink is now. And the window (to the left) that overlooks the sunroom will be removed to make way for a pass through for the dining room.

Ugly counter top in the old part of the kitchen... this will have a new counter and the sink won't be there. Meanwhile the cabinets in the background are getting adjustments made to the doors to improve them and is the place where the food is now stored.

(We are doing this so that dirty dishes cannot be viewed from the living room and the new counter will act as a pass through for the dining room.) All that I have left to do is make the curtain to cover the recycling which is under the new counter.... (yes I want a curtain instead of cabinets... because it is more country style) and make a bread box since I lost mine to wool since it is not air tight.

I have come to the conclusion that I have too much stuff in a small kitchen and so there are plenty of boxes to go to the Thrift store and the dump. Junk that has been sitting on shelves and not in use in far too long, belongs somewhere other than in my very nice clean kitchen. And let me tell you, that proper counters after years of wood laminate counters that have splits in them, (where crumbs and grunge gathers for a bacteria infested mess), is like night and day. There are a few bags of bulk grains that need to be placed in containers but otherwise that is it.... oh yeah and the pantry doors need to be cut and installed... but all in good time.

This is the old food pantry which now holds all my dishes... it just needs another shelf below and one above (which Teapot will cut for me today) and the two doors.

I need to finish level 4 so that I can take a week to do the wood burning on the front of the doors before they will be installed... but in the meantime it is starting to shape up.

Teapot seems to think that by the end of today we will have it finished... for now (that doesn't include the plumbing changes which hopefully will be done this summer). Meanwhile I still have to chase everyone around with a mop and bucket... and that won't change till the ground dries out a little more. In maybe a week? I sure hope so cause I'm just plain sick of poop... and crap heaps!!!