Dear Amy

(Amy asked for THE Kitchen pictures, so for those of you who are tired of seeing THE Kitchen, skip this post and check in next time. Amy is one of those people. We first met 24 years ago when she became My Girl’s speech therapist. Amy walked along side us for years with therapy, advice and friendship. We’ll never adequately repay her for all the ways she has helped My Girl have a better life, so if she wants pictures…good golly, she gets pictures.)

Dear Amy,

So great to hear from you and as you know, nothing ever goes perfectly. So you get all the pictures…the greats and ‘whoops’ how are you going to deal with that!

So the mud room… you ride horses, you understand about boots and jackets and stuff. This picture is the real deal…not cleaned up at all for you.

The cabinet on the bottom is a re-use from the old kitchen and the cabinet on the top is the one I measured wrong. The sink is so that My Loving Spouse can wash the weird stuff he brings inside (along with his greasy hands) here instead of our nice new farm house sink. The ‘stuff’ on the counter is usually stuff that needs to go back to the workshop…this is a never ending process.

Yes, all these coats belong to us and as it is spring, we still use them…boot trays and baskets for hats and gloves. Real life in action.

The laundry and the broom closet did not go as planned. The ‘plan’ was for a large broom closet..(no room)…and for plenty of baskets for folded laundry. I don’t mind doing laundry, but once I fold it, I need a place for it to ‘go’. We adapted to the situation and the shelf over the washer/dryer holds our baskets of clean laundry. As you can see, someone’s Laundry Blessings are overflowing.

Gunner, our beloved yellow lab, will someday have this as his dog den. A lovely long closet complete with dog door to the yard. We’ve yet to cross this off of the list. I think we’ll know when the remodel is really done, it will be the day we no longer have a shop vac in the house.

The broom closet conundrum has been solved! After all, who needs a shower in a powder room? The shower curtain is still coming in handy.

When people walk in the house now, they say, “Oh, I love your nice kitchen…wow, I love that butcher block”.

The butcher block is very old and has its origins from an old ship. This thing is heavy and how we got it in the house and upright is another story. My Loving Spouse, the chef, built a knife rack for it and if you’re wondering if we need all these knives, well the answer is obviously, ‘yes’.

We’re not the kind of people who manage to hang up kitchen towels nicely, so we wanted to get hooks. We found this wrought iron fireplace tool hanger in a hardware store in England and knew it would be perfect, plus it was only 10 pounds…(in money).

From the kitchen sink, a quick look to the right and this is what I see….oh, be still my heart.

My favorite pantry items are these hooks for the frying pans. Don’t you just hate storing and putting frying pans away? Not any longer…I think I should patent this idea….

My Loving Spouse’s favorite pantry item is the light switch he installed. When the door is open the switch turns the light on, door shut = light off…pretty sweet.

Because of the space confines, we ended up with two pull out spice drawers. One for The Chef….

The other was next to the sink and has ended up being an unusual space for kitchen wash clothes and towels. They need to be folded just right, but as we know who THE Folder is, this is not a problem. We love having our clean towels at hand, because, well…we’re messy people.

Okay, dear friend…hope you are well, imagine stepping in off of the porch and coming in for a long over due visit….this is what you’d see.

Come and see us soon, because with friends like you…

We are blessed.