The Un-Remodel

I have been hatching a plan in my head for a few months now for improving my kitchen and dining rooms. While much of this 1920's house has been modernized or re-modeled, the kitchen has remained a cobbled together mess. Stove, tiny; oven, no temperature gauge, requiring a great deal of guesswork in baking; frig, over-sized, inefficient, and falling to pieces. First the frig's pan for catching defrost water fell off, and we would hear it peeing on the floor in the middle of dinner. Next, the interior light shorted out, and recently, the door stopped closing automatically, meaning that it was often left slightly ajar, making it even more of an energy guzzler.

While thinking about a replacement frig which would not dwarf the small kitchen, I got the idea of using some somewhat useless space in the dining room to house the frig, thus opening up a spot for a kitchen cart to provide much-needed storage and counter space next to the stove. By moving the dining table to the opposite corner of the room (and eventually adding a bench for more seating), and relocating my small secretary desk to the living room, I opened up a corner for the new, smaller frig. Amazingly, a frig ordered at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday was delivered at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday. The delivery people were wonderful (thank you, Lowe's) and there was no charge to haul away the old frig despite the fact that it was at least an hour's work for them to maneuver it through the narrow doorways, out the door and down the steps. Given that the new frig cost not little more than I might have had to pay someone to remove and dispose of the old one, I was extremely pleased with this service.

As I was unable to budge the frig on my own, and it had possibly never been moved for cleaning, I was expecting to see a very disgusting floor underneath. It was more nasty than I could have dreamed of, and apparently the most recent paint job occurred after the frig installation and without any movement of said frig.It was quite a workout washing the walls, behind the stove and of course peeling up the layers of nastiness on the floor. The kitchen cart is due to arrive in January but so far the new frig location is working out and the smaller size is forcing me to be more discerning when it comes to my jars and bottles. Anyone with a PCC across the street does not need a very large frig.