Double Ogee

We are back in our house (for the last month).  Did I mention we had moved out to have some renovations done?  We spent about five months in a borrowed house in Lakeway, and moved back about a month ago to our lovely, not-quite-yet-finished house.  The new hardwoods are in, the nasty old carpet is gone, our walls are painted, and the new biscuit-colored magic toilet has been installed. 

The one thing we seem to be missing is a kitchen.  Seems that the three-month estimate from the contractor (which apparently did NOT include the extra two months he waited before getting the correct permit - must have been somewhere in the small print), also did not include the building of the cabinets.  No cabinets, no appliances (or countertops, or sinks).

The Smith Family is a resilient clan.  We have been making do with a thirty year-old microwave, one can of sterno, a pile of styrofoam Barbie plates leftover from....well, I'm not sure why the hell we have old Barbie plates, and my grandpa's old George Foreman Grill. 

Apparently, you can buy just about any food that one would normally make fresh in a frozen, ready-to-be-microwaved form.  Last night, I microwaved the family a Ceasar's Salad, Lobster Thermadour, and Bananas Foster.  The only trade-off seems to be the extra 400g of fat and 1.25 lb. of salt in the frozen variety.  And we've had to temporarily give up on our commitment to being responsible stewards of the environment, as we have to throw away the plates and plastic ware after every meal(and the warning label on the Barbie plates mentioned a half-life of about 3,000 years).  Can one be an occasional global warming denier? 

We don't believe that human activity (including using and throwing out a large number of Barbie plates) is causing the climate to change...until we get a dishwasher again.  And then we do.

The end is in sight.  Our contractor tells us the cabinets are in fact being built, the appliances are on order, and the granite countertops are coming.  The cabinet hardware has been chosen, the tile backsplash picked, the grout has been got, the wainscotting has been....wainscotted.  We even have picked out the edges for the granite countertops (and it's NOT the double ogee, it is in fact the cascading bullnose - I fooled you with the title, didn't I?).

So, really, it's been a completely smooth and easy undertaking.