We're Cooking!

Excuse the brief blogging hiatus.  I've been too busy COOKING in my KITCHEN with my STOVE.

Yes, that is a pasta pot.  Yes, there is pasta cooking away in there.  Yes, we were totally overzealous with our first home-cooked meal after ten nights of eating raw things and takeout and forgot that we still had to wash the dishes in the bathtub.  

Whatever.  It was delicious.  Other notable things about the above photo: 

1.  The microwave is also properly installed and works like a charm.  The color of the microwave is ever so slightly less white than the cabinets, which makes me cringe, but it is what it is.  It's not worth $350 for a new over-the-range microwave right now.  Our plan is to replace the appliances as they go kaput and/or in advance of selling our house down the road.  People keep saying "don't make things nice to sell the house, make things nice for yourselves."  In general, I agree with this philosophy (as evidence, please refer to the current kitchen renovation project).  Because the appliances still work like a charm, however, they are doing what they need to do and I'm fine with them as is.  I'll get over the ugly. 

2.  We have clearly had a visit from the electrician.  The microwave and stove work, the outlets are in the wall, and the under-cabinet lighting is installed.  We decided to go with xenon lights because they have a nice natural-ish light quality to them but don't burn your brain like LEDs.  Also, XENON sounds like a superhero and we could all use more superhero stuff in our lives. 

3.  We now have drawer pulls!  My weekend to-do list includes dustbuster-ing the insides of all the cabinets and drawers, wiping them down, and putting all my kitchen stuff away.  Our guest room (which is currently full of kitchen stuff) will be a guest room again by the end of the weekend!  Our dining room which has been hosting many, many cardboard boxes for quite some time, will be mostly a dining room by the end of the weekend as well.  There are still some boxes left but not so many that we can't put the table back in it's proper home.  

More evidence that the electrician has paid us a visit -
garbage disposal switch on the right and outlet on the left.
The bottom of the dishwasher is still very ... exposed ...

There are still a few more odd things about the kitchen:

This blue bottle (with no cap on it) has been in the kitchen since the day the crew arrived.  I have no idea what it is.  Windex?  Poison?  Blue gatorade?  Could be anything.  

Someone wiped their dirty man fingers on my wall.  

And the last, most annoying thing is that all the electrical outlets and switch plates are off-white.  This wouldn't be a problem if we weren't going to tile the wall with white subway tile.   

Le sigh.  If the electrician is going to come back, I think I will have him switch the visible stuff out for white outlets and switch plates.  If not, I'll either live with it or we will put on our rubber shoes and hold our breath and switch them out ourselves.  

There are also no countertops.  And no sink.  And no backsplash tile.  And the walls need repainting.  And the floor needs major steam cleaning.  But we're trying not to think about that and just gaze lovingly at our working stove, microwave, and superhero under-cabinet lighting.  

Aahhh...