I took a hammer to some kitchen cabinets last night, which was quite therapeutic. When I ordered a new fridge, I carefully measured the height and knew I was gonna have to take some of the trim off of the cabinets above. Did not realize I was actually going to have to remove the whole cabinet to get the right width.

The cabinets are due to come down later this summer so it was a victimless crime. And they took the old crappy fridge away, even though I didn’t actually pay for them to do that.

I’m doing a kind of half ass kitchen reno in entirely the wrong order to what you’re supposed to do. Basically the gas stove started acting unpredictably, and it all snowballed from there. So now I have new appliances, but have not yet torn down and replaced the cabinets or painted or replaced the flooring.

But it’s at the cabin so it’s low stakes and any changes are good changes.

I’m a Celexa girl myself. Prozac was awful for me in some very weird ways. I hope Matilda lands on the right one for her quickly! I’m glad she has a doctor (and Dad!) who are working with her on it.

I’m doing a kind of half ass kitchen reno

Oh my god, our bathroom is so tiny and poorly laid out that quotes for renovating it are making my eyes water. ISTG it's going to end up costing like double what the house is worth (not really) just to put in a fucking shower. The heating duct is in a weird spot, and the plumbing for the tub is in a weird spot, and the window is in a weird spot -- there's no way one of those companies that puts in the pre-made walk-in shower inserts can do that because everything is in the wrong spot. No matter what contractor we end up picking, it's going to basically be gutted and entirely redone. And then it will be way too fancy for the rest of the house.

Trudy, glad you like the poem--it turned out all right but one day, I'd like to post something because I'm happy and satisfied, and, obviously? That was not the one.

There is the sense that a work of art isn't so much complete as you just stop futzing with it.

I did that two years ago with my bathroom. Down to the studs. Holy mama, is this kind of thing expensive. So we’re taking a more minimalist approach this time. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I freaking love my bathroom though.

The stupid guy from the stupid company that installed sprinkler lines 20 years ago directly in front of the stupid downstairs HVAC unit, which led to a delay in getting that fixed, which probably led to us having to completely replace the HVAC before we could close on the goddamn sale of our Dallas house, tried to bill us a week ago. We pushed back, and he was like, "I never agreed to work for free!" Then you shouldn't have put a pipe in front of the fucking HVAC. We sicced our realtor on him.

Buying houses, selling houses, maintaining houses, and renovating houses, all so much work. The first dozen years of married life, I rented, and it was easy peasy light and breezy. Granted, the homes I bought increased in value considerably, so that part was worthwhile. Still, I understand the arguments on both sides.

Happy birthday, askye!

I had the "oh damn, this cheap-ass flooring isn't going to last five years" realization over the weekend when I spotted some cracked panels. We'll see how adept I can get at only stepping on the load bearing planks. I want blinds and a front porch banister before I have to re-floor the whole house.

Rugs, Matt. Just throw down rugs.