Catholic Sensibility

The people at the bank want to see what my new kitchen looks like. Working on it this week brought back memories. After I quit my telemarketing gig in 1983, I worked a summer for a friend who was rehabbing his house. We tore out old stuff. We put in drywall, repaired floors and doors, rebuilt a bathroom and installed a second, tiled, refinished, and did a bit of plumbing. I didn't have to do that this week, but the plumbing stuff we did do was vaguely familiar. I wouldn't mind doing more work on my house. The problem, as I see it: if you only work on your own house, you never get experienced or comfortable enough with the tasks. I changed the plugs on my car once. About ten years ago with my brother coaching me. If I had a book, I could do it again. Probably. But it's just more convenient to have the mechanic do it. My contractor, a friend from the parish, is getting married in six weeks. So his life is busy. Then he's got his other jobs. We were supposed to begin work on Monday, but the last job ran over, so I told him Tuesday was fine. Here was our timetable: Tuesday: finish ripping out the old sink cabinet, install new base cabinets, set up the plumbing, build the dishwasher cabinet (since this appliance was being raised off the floor, this involved some nifty carpentry work on some really cool and powerful saws. Wednesday: finish up the dishwasher cabinet, finish some rewiring, and haul several hundred pounds of granite (two pieces) to start cutting out the countertops. Thursday afternoon: cut the last two pieces, cut out the sink hole, round and polish the edges--I got to do some of that: nice! We saved some scraps for the backsplashes. Friday afternoon: put in the sink, hook up the new dishwasher and fridge. Everything works and nothing leaks! One problem: we didn't leave enough room between the bottom of the dish cabinet and the top of the dishwasher for our third granite piece. Since my friend left his belt sander at another job site, he'll come back Monday to trim it and put in the last big piece of granite. Plus the backsplashes. Raising the dishwasher gives us a nice storage drawer underneath, but that piece will need to be custom built. My take on this: carpentry would be a nice skill to maintain. I've already had to rebuild part of the deck railing this year, and doing another section would be a good idea. I also need to finish off the kitchen-garage doorway I switched around a few months ago: some moulding, paint and weatherstripping before winter would be nice. Working with nice, fast, and expensive electric tools all week has spoiled me. But it also has me thinking about the next project.