And she's self taught!

I had hoped to write about
my awesome new boots. 
Note: in the background of this photo
 there is a drawer missing . . . 
part of the charm of
my unfinished kitchen and
still no backsplash.  There
are other incomplete areas,
 but hey - aren't these
boots the bomb?

I had a few other things I wanted to write about, but I thought I'd share this breaking news . . .  our kitchen job has officially reached nightmare status.

No one showed up to work on ANYTHING for over 3 weeks.  Let me clarify that.  There has been very minimal progress made SINCE Christmas - so snail's pace for 5 weeks but NOTHING FOR 3 WEEKS.  A man hung some shelves in my pantry about a week after Christmas.  He started to construct a custom hood that was horrible.  I asked him to stop.

I can't believe it, but I neglected
 to take a photo of the early
construction of the horrible hood. 
They just finally removed it
 the other day.  I am so sorry
 I can't show it to you.  Take my
word for it:  low, twice as deep as the
 other cabinets, hazardous.  In the
weeks that it was left unfinished
there, I banged my noggin on it
countless times. 
Eddie and Coach, too.

This little mini-island is like a
snack bar between the kitchen and
 family room.  The fridge drawers have
 been sitting in a box since mid December. 
They finally have the cabinet fronts on them
 and I've been told an electrician
is coming in the morning to
install them inside the cabinet.

It was huge and boxy and was going to look like another cabinet - in a kitchen chock full of cabinets.  It promised to protrude into the space where my head would naturally glide each time I walked in front of the stove top, or perhaps when I cooked something.  In other words, this custom hood was threatening to knock me and the other tall members of our household unconscious each and every time one of us walked by it.

Oddly enough when the kitchen designer (aka the owner's daughter) asked me what kind of hood I wanted, my only specifications were:  not boxy, not resembling another cabinet, still shaped like a hood with an angled front.  Translation:  what he was building was all wrong.

This is one of the times - and there have been others - when the owner's words haunt me.  'And she's self taught.'  That is what the owner shared with me when he told me that his 20-something year old daughter was working as his kitchen designer.  The statement made me cringe.  Not a positive selling point.  I had already hired him.  I hoped for the best.  This is not where the story ends . . .

Full disclosure:  My kitchen is actually a mess.  I visited both the grocery store AND Costco today.  That sucked.  I didn't babysit today, so I would've preferred to accomplish something other than collecting provisions for the fam.  I finally sat down to post something even though all of this non-perishable food was heaped all over the table.  Priorities.  I felt guilty showing the first picture and not admitting to what was lingering just beyond.