08/30/10 Things change

On one point, however, you need not fear. The chances of me blogging again on a regular basis are slim and fleeting. So for the many among us who fear change, feel free to rest easy in the protected harbor of my own laziness.

Unfortunately, it would seem that we're a tad outnumbered at the moment, so give me a little while to address some of the changes that have been happening around here lately. Forgive me, I would prefer the silence just as much as you would, were it not for the small, reoccurring thought that so frequently enters my mind. Not everyone fears change– And they would be a little upset if I failed to even acknowledge some of the events of late.

To put it simply... I don't want to die. So here goes.

If you are even reading this, you are probably already familiar with this blog, and likely as not, you're a relative. That being said, you already know the rules. If you expect this to make any sense whatsoever, don't blame me if you find yourself dismally disappointed. It's your own fault for reading it.

Since I've let this go for so long, it is practically impossible for me to even consider fitting all that has happened into a single post. So... I won't. I might make more posts later, but to be fair to my fellow change-fearing readers, I commit to nothing. For now, though, I'll hit the big topic around here: Our kitchen no longer exists.

A little back story for this. Our house is not exactly what one would call well kept. It's been in desperate straits for decades, and it has only been in the recent years that it has made any progress at all. There are, however, still many things needing to be fixed. The terror of all terrors was, of course, the kitchen. Mom was often fond of saying that "If any man in a uniform ever saw our kitchen, it would be condemned." Not too far off the mark, really.

Well, some weeks back, a member of the Bishopric told her that the Bishop had offered to help fix it up. Needless to say, this took a little while to sink in, but when it did, the gratitude we all felt was incredible. It's not often you expect to be the recipient of service, especially of something this large. There are blessings to living in the Gospel that I don't think I fully understand. Seeing how willing people are to help really expresses to me how close a ward family can be. I mean, I've always enjoyed giving service, but being on the other end and seeing the selflessness of the people serving really helps me understand better what the love of Christ really is. In a way, I almost appreciate this new understanding as much or more than the service itself. Don't get me wrong, the idea of a kitchen without a floor that's falling apart is amazing, but that's only temporal. If I'm not stupid and forget, I can keep this new found feeling forever.

It's awesome, I'll just say that.

But this isn't really what people wanted to know. Or at least, not what the people swarming facebook wanted to know. So, here's the update.

Demo started Thursday. Bro. Brown, Bro. De la Cruz, and Bishop came over and with a little help from David and I, they pretty much ripped the kitchen to shreds– and it was AWESOME. The counters were gone, a section of the wall was removed, and the floor was pulled up down to the sub-floor. Along the way, we met a few surprises. Some good, some bad. The good news was that the floor itself was actually pretty good, minus the gaping hole in it. It's actually fairly sturdy. It was just the top part that was going bad. And even the hole would be fairly easy to fix. On the flip side, removing the section of the wall between the dining room and the kitchen would be a little harder than we thought. You see, it had wires in it, and the people who put them there didn't seem to know what they were doing. From what we can tell, they ripped out part of the wall, but didn't properly handle the wiring that was already in it, so that would mean a little extra work. But again, luckily the floor was good, meaning that we wouldn't need to do nearly as many repairs as we thought, so it kind of evens out. So anyway, that pretty much concludes that day. All that happened after that was clean up, although Bro. Altop did come by in the evening and replaced some of the plumbing to the sink. That was fun to see.

On Friday, most of the big repairs were made. The frame surrounding the hole was improved, making the wood that rested on top of it much less... interesting. In addition, the wires in the walls were moved around, and Bishop did an awesome job of figuring out how they all got connected and where they went. Plus, with the wall gone, some of the framing around the doorway changed, so they put in some new supports to make it less likely to collapse. Now granted, it probably wouldn't have collapsed the way it used to be, but this is much better. Also, since we were going ahead of schedule, Mom and Bro. De la Cruz were also able to go out and get the materials we would be needing to put together the kitchen.

On Saturday, we got to spend the day scrubbing and sanding cabinets, cleaning up debris, and doing a little cleaning on the ceiling and stove cover. It was nice to see the improvements, but it kind of took a little while. And needless to say, we were very happy to be finished for the day.

Today, the kitchen really started coming together. We put down Hardie Board (Or whatever you call it), finished up most of the electrical, and put in some of the dry wall. But the day isn't over yet, so I've got to go. I'll add some more updates and probably put up some pictures later. But for now, I'll leave you to wonder why you ever missed reading this in the first place.

See ya!