I have a hint for all the homeowners out there: if you really need to finish some of those nagging, incomplete projects around the house, all you really need to do is try to write a dissertation. Better yet, try to write a dissertation proposal, which is even more nebulous.
This is just to say…that after four years of being unhappy with the situation next to my stove, I made a series of impulsive decisions: (a) drive to the Bolingbrook Ikea with Ricky on Valentine’s day (b) purchase a tall cabinet that I’d never seen or thought of or measured before (c) build said cabinet, buy wood and trim at Home Depot, buy chalkboard paint at Walmart (d) create a divider for my kitchen. I’ll have to show you the front of the cabinet later (it has glass doors and a drawer on the bottom), but here’s the interesting part:
(1) kitchen before I moved in (for those of you who have been to my house in real life, note the linoleum floor that I ripped out, the tiny stove where my dishwasher now sits, and that damn persistent peach and blue tile)

(2) the decision that haunts me: ripping out the wall between the kitchen and the living room. I had wood floors installed to unify the spaces, and everything is, of course, now a pale aqua rather than shiny burgundy and dark brown enamel. Taking out the wall vastly improved the quality of the light in the living room, but created all sorts of spatial issues with the stove (which now sits in that blank spot on the left) basically ending up next to the couch.

(3) things as they are now: the new stove (electric glass top, a decision that I had to make when it died during the summer I took the MA exam and have made peace with despite my preferences, as one who cooks all the time, for gas ranges), the chalkboard divider, and an Ikea rail system that I bought a year ago. After I finished the divider, I took the plunge and drilled some more huge holes in my wall to hang the rail. I really love it, and it’s surprisingly secure even in my annoyingly brittle plaster walls. I drilled in three two-inch metal anchors.

So, there you go. And here I go, blogging about the kitchen things I’ve finished when there are still many left to finish: I’m keeping the fifties cabinets that you can see in the first picture, but the tile is going, and I need a new countertop to extend over the new-ish diswasher and a new sink. Oh, and I need to finish my proposal. Like, now.
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