We’ve been winging it with a lot of the kitchen design.  We just kind of go into the store, find something we like and make it work; that got us a nice countertop but lots of hassle installing it.  For the kitchen addition, it’s been decided to spend more time and energy on the design phase.  This has been WAY more fun!

By a series of serendipities, I ended up at Home Depot on Sunday morning.  Someone goofed up dates and so I couldn’t do the thing I came into town to do and it was suggested that I go do some shopping.  Gladly.  There was a display of kitchen cabinets at the front of the store and some workbooks on design with invitations to make appointments with designers on staff.  Good that it was at the front because I don’t think I would’ve gone looking for them.  They looked better made than the cabinets we had at the house, which we were already seeing were probably not the right size if we wanted space for a dishwasher.  I got excited, took pics, and grabbed a workbook.  I spent the night measuring and plotting and drawing and googling….geez, there’s a lot of cool stuff out there!  Seems like the whole kitchen idea is really elevated past just a place to store, cook, and eat food.   A place that someone wants to be, feels good being, inspired that they can tackle this new recipe and they want to do dishes.  “I want a sexy kitchen,”  I declared at my New Year’s Eve party.  A place where a woman would wear a silk teddy, hold a glass of wine and exclaim that she would LOVE to cook for you people!

Well, that all crashed and burned the next day when the sale ended, there was no staff available, and the dept. head couldn’t care less about any of it.  I remembered that the district manager, Lou, a lovely Italian guy with a thick accent from New York, had been a customer of mine when I was still bartending shortly after I bought the house.  He gave me his card and said if I ever needed anything to just call.  I talked to the store manager first and he was lovely and said he would honor the sale price.  I got a great store employee, Amy, who sat at a desk and played on the computer with me even though it wasn’t her department, she felt my pain and my passion and was willing to give good customer service.  She was like my sister from another mister.  I think you just gotta find your people in this place.  They’re here.  and you’ll find them.  If you’re not busy being annoyed by the ones you don’t click with.

The next day we go in and meet with Cary, a guy who clearly knows his way around designing a kitchen.  He takes my sketches and our ideas and puts them into a program and out comes a virtual design of how it’ll all look.  I knew there must be a way to see it before you build it!  I have a great time with him.  I feel like an artist, imagining, visualizing, sculpting.  I feel uplifted by the whole experience.  And that’s what I want this house to be; my life to be.  I don’t want to spend anymore time scraping in the dirt for crumbs or reacting to things that don’t match my verve.  I want to rise above and move on to what I know in my heart and see in my mind.  If I can see it, then it has been given me to do it.  Let me follow it and glide by the obstacles with grace.