Do you ever get delightful, welcoming, calming diversions unexpectedly? In the house renovation, we are installing new cupboards in the new kitchen. Bill is not going to miss my noisy parade of doors in the kitchen: all of the doors slammed shut regardless of how delicately I tried to close them. (I must admit “delicate” is stretching it a bit… particularly in the Morning Kitchen while flying through to make breakfast and lunches.) Even the felt I attached to every seam hardly deafened the sharpness of the closings. The doors under my sink had other issues. Not only did they slam, they also fell downward over the course of the week. I kept a Philips screwdriver under the sink and taught Liam how to tighten the hinges. That would last only a few days before the doors would bang out, “Hey, would ya tighten me up here??” They had a strong Bostonian accent.
Before we went to England at the end of May, I needed to run to the kitchen design store to finalize our cupboard layout. I squeezed the trip in between packing and picking up the boys from school. I was haphazardly packing suitcases for England, packing boxes to take with us for the summer, and packing the contents of the entire house into four rooms.
Haphazard = putting four pairs and 15 single socks in the boys' suitcase for England; sending bookcases for the summer rental house with the movers, minus a few book shelves, minus ALL pegs that they sit on; throwing ski pants on the floor next to the basement door prone to leaking water. (Yes, it did...) I must have looked like a wild woman when I walked into the kitchen store.
My designer was wrapping up with another customer, so I went to my favorite spot in the very non-haphazard showroom: next to a drawer and a cupboard door that self-close. I opened the cupboard door and gave it a push shut. The door caught about three inches from the cabinet; then silently, smoothly the hinge pulled the door shut. I opened a drawer and gave it a little push. It caught about three inches from the cabinet and closed itself too. I got in at least 10 good opens and closes on each before the designer appeared at my side -- a little mystified by my cupboard meditation.
That episode still makes me smile. Cupboards whispering, “Let me help you with that.” “I’ll finish this for you.” “Go ahead do something else. I've got this covered.”
Wishing you simple diversions… Happy Hump Day.
(During construction, this was a summer of numbers.)