Renovation Blues

“Rainy day, rain all day….+ – Jimi Hendrix

Yes, it is raining! Ian did much damage and harm, yet is bringing us a greatly needed soak which we hope will finally break the drought.

The trees outside my window are showing color at their tops. Over the next couple of weeks the color will work down the trunk until each tree is a beacon of light. Todays rain and chill will help the process and it is just possible that the early cold and recent rains will allow for fine fall color.

The destruction and reconstruction of our kitchen has begun. Today is not a work day and Nori and I are greatly enjoying the quiet; we can actually hear the rain. The past two days witnessed the removal of our cabinets, stove, oven, and sink, resulting in a strangely stark kitche. Nori has stayed with me most of the time, looking to me for reassurance and blinking her support.

The kitchen is now empty, ready for the windows to be replaced; new windows will hopefully stop the wind from blowing through. It is sealed off but still holds our fridge so several times a day we have to carefully enter it. Construction is the bane of my asthma and in spite of the crew’s fine efforts to contain and remove the dust, I find myself coughing much to much.

We are told the reconstruction will likely last 6-8 weeks. In the meantime we have moved our kitchen to the studio and are trying to imagine how we might cook. Clearly the slow cooker will get a lot of use, as will the electric skillet Jennie’s mom lent us. The toaster oven and microwave now take up one art table, along with the coffee maker. At least the cooking area has something of a view.

At this point it is difficult to know which of us feels most displaced. The cat savvy people among you will know that cats generally hate to have any change to their surroundings, as change usually equates to danger in the wild. (My rock-and-roll musician step-son has raised several generations of change tolerant cats who are generally fine as long as he remains their consistent human and my dad’s cats loved little better than jumping into his car and going for a ride.) While I suspect the renovation is most challenging for Nori, I don’t do well with displacement either…..

Given that it is almost lunch time I’m going to close this post and go foraging for something I can make easily in the studio without revisiting the kitchen fridge. This should be interesting.