Home Design

After our house was "mistroyed," as 3 year old D1 called it, by Hurricane Andrew, we had to build it almost from the ground up. We learned first hand that home building/ remodeling NEVER goes well and smoothly. Recently, my sister told me she decided to use the small inheritance from our Mom to re do some of her kitchen -- a relatively small job. Sure enough, she reported to me the two workers turn out to be Dumb and Dumber, work short hours, and are taking FAR longer than they said they would. My sister and brother in law have been kitchen-less longer than they had planned. Coincidentally, one of Wifey's acquaintances came by the other night. She's a well accomplished house decorator and designer, and offered a gratuitous assessment of OUR kitchen: it's FAR too small for a house our size. She said she'd knock down a wall here and there, and expand here and there... We spend much of our family time in the breakfast knook -- which my mother in law hilariously mispronounces as breakfast "knock." It's a tight area -- you have to squeeze to sit around the standard sized granite table we brought from our last house. The designer would somehow "Fix" that area too, she said. It occurred to me that I LOVE our breakfast knock -- especially when Wifey, the Ds, and I are seated around it -- laughing and sharing with each other. There's usally simple takeout food on that table, as Wifey suffers from an inability to cook, but it doesn't matter -- what does is the warmth we all share. So in all due respect to the designer -- I ain't touching a thing. As long as the Ds and their laughter and smiles decorate our too small kitchen -- it's nicer to me than any space I could see in "Architectural Digest." I plan to leave things just as they are. The acquaintance, by the way, is divorced and rarely sees or speaks to her grown kids. Wifey has been to her place, and tells me it has views of the Bay and is "Spectacular." Somehow, I have zero desire to visit...