Winter Project

So, its winter in Michigan. I do a lot of going to work in the snow, coming home in the snow, changing into PJs immediately, eating dinner with potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, etc., watching TV (Hubby and I are doing Six Feet Under from start to finish), going to bed, gaining weight. Hibernating.

We have some winter activities planned, like going to the ice sculpture competition in St. Joseph in a few weeks, and plans for dinner and a movie for Valentine’s Day, but for the most part we’re happy to curl up in the living room with blankets where conversation goes something like, “Wanna watch another episode?” “Yeah.” “Is there any dessert?” “Of course there’s dessert. Did you marry an incompetent?”

But we do have a winter project afoot. We’re going to refinish the kitchen cupboards. We would have started earlier but one of the core tools – a super-dooper German-made sander for edges and such – wasn’t available at Christmas and we had to order it.

I suggested that we paint the cupboards cranberry and the background royal blue. This was met by silence. Fifteen minutes later a volley suggestion was floated of going to lunch at Burger King (my blogging had left me waxing aloud about Whoppers). We’ll be maintaining the solid-birch without paint, courtesy of a $15 marital negotiation over Whoppers, fries and pies.

I might point out that each of the three layers of lacquer (perhaps polyurethane instead?) takes 45 minutes to dry before the next coat can be applied. Might I further point out that each episode of Six Feet Under (or The Tudors or Battlestar Gallactica or Star Trek for that matter) lasts between 40 and 50 minutes. Now, is this is the hand of a benevolent God at work or what?

Here is a shot of our tester cabinets (this is the built-in pantry and at some point someone painted it white [poor Hubby can only grit his teeth and declare, something like John Wayne, “I’ll fix ‘er, (hand gently caresses the doors) better than before even.”]).

Here’s the hardware, we’ll be replacing it throughout the house as well – it is not only in the kitchen but in the built-in china cupboard and linen closet as well.

For those of you with that hint of voyeurism, here’s a few shelves inside my pantry. You might note that vegetables are not with vegetables, sauces are not with sauces, and nothing is in alphabetical order. It is roughly in the order in which it cames home from the grocery store. When I had considered this I decided to re-organize and found I had 5 cans of refried beans and that three of those were “family-sized.”