A Heart Beat is Detected

Can you hear it? The heartbeat of the home is almost palpable. It's there, it's back, picking up strength. Whilst still irregular, it is beating once again. I can hear it, I can feel it--the soft hum of the refrigerator, the warmth of the stove. It feels so good to have it back, even in this state.

Toys have been arriving all week. They've been coming and going, I'm afraid. Thursday, the fridge and stove were delivered. I could hardly contain myself. They rolled the almighty AGA in and then the monstrosity of a refrigerator. Of course, I had to peek in to see my stove. I took one look and noticed it didn't have the cathedral window in the larger oven that I had to special order. Joy. I almost cried when they rolled it back out onto the truck. sniff sniff. When the appliance guys called me into the kitchen, I was weary. There was a broken clip on one of the shelves in the fridge. Par for the course. pout. "Never seen that happen before," he said. Of course not. I had to giggle. The part has to be ordered. No idea how long it will take. Regardless, I turned that sucker on this morning and it's now cooling down. Lord forbid I can't use the automatic shelf adjuster. What will I do? Just smack me now.


It does look gorgeous, regardless. As I've mentioned before, we never have had a refrigerator in this kitchen. That's been, um, like four years. I thought it was rather quaint, myself. Others never did understand the charm, I'm afraid. I don't know what we're going to do with ourselves now, it being so handy and all. We've kept our other in the laundry room. It's the only southern thing to do. You have to have two refrigerators in the South, or so it seems. It will come in handy though, especially when the holidays come and we start stocking up--especially for my brother's visit.

I am starting to get soooooo excited about that visit, let me tell you. I have to admit, a lot of this kitchen is attributed to him. It brings me so much joy to watch him in his element.


The AGA is lovely, to say the least. I have a learning curve ahead of me, but I'm up for it. Now you can see where my color scheme originated. I based everything around this baby. It has so many wonderful features that I can't wait to use. Check out how the little roaster swings out with the door of the "fat" oven. Is that not ingenious? And the broiler with its handled pan, I love it! Not to mention the plate warming rack on the bottom of the "skinny" oven. sigh. I am in love with this thing, already. I haven't even used it yet. Can you see all of my fingerprints smudged all over? I don't know which I have touched more, the stove or the sink. As the kid would say, "So sexy."

Speaking of the sexy sink, here it is in all it's glory. I wet the soapstone so you can see how dark it will be once it gets oiled. Here it is in it's natural state which feels so fine to the touch. It's fun having the choice of the natural grey or the dark black. The guys put it in place so they can have a template made for the counter tops on Monday. Guess what? The sink sits up too high. The cabinet will have to be cut down so it sits flush, or just under, the counters. Late Friday, after we discovered it, we all just kind of chuckled. The [kitchen] "guys" and I have a much better raport these days, especially after a blow up on Thursday (by me). Both the "kitchen guys" and the "appliance guys" said they were not responsible for installing the stove hood, the dishwasher, the warming drawer, the microwave and the ice maker. Hmmm. They all saw a whole other side of me, let me tell you. Gee, perhaps I should have blown my stack earlier. You know what? At this point, I don't even know what got me so upset in the past. Thank goodness I have a short memory span, I suppose. Water under the bridge. Nothing but great things ahead. Now that our house is finally coming back, I can only be happy.

Here is the microwave drawer. The teenager Christened it on Thursday with some pizza. Yep, it works. Only thing, I can't find the instruction manual and I'm confused by some of the options. If you ask me, you should just have a little knob to turn to how much time you want something to cook. But no, it has all kinds of setup options and I don't know what they are. And yes, it has a LOCK on it. That was one of my biggest worries with it being so low. I don't want little kids playing with this thing. It will be definitely be locked whenever little ones are in the house. Sure glad they thought of that! You'll notice the warming drawer underneath doesn't have a front. Don't know who dropped the ball, but the appliance people thought a cabinet panel was going there. We do have an extra panel but no one can figure out what it goes to. It doesn't fit the warming drawer front. Another hmmmmm. Note: We found out this morning that you cannot put a medium-sized cup of coffee (say from Starbucks or Dunkin Doughnuts) in the drawer. It is not tall enough. Oh well. There's something to be said for pouring coffee from those awful cups into a real mug anyway. It's the only proper thing to do. At least, now it is. grin.

The ice maker didn't come with a panel kit, so that has to be ordered. I was ready to send the entire thing back with it being black. But, after the stove, microwave and sink went in, I think black on the inside is ok. Once the door panel is fitted, it will look marvey.

I can't tell you how excited I am. Probably don't have to at this point. I've already turned the ovens on to rid them of the factory smells, been playing with the burners, waiting for ice to fall into the bin for the first time and you can only imagine what song I've been singing all day. Can't guess? "I'm bringing sexy back." Uh huh. Right into my kitchen.