We recently moved to a new house. To our dismay, we found that the windows were so rusty they didn’t open, the kitchen dishwasher blocked the silverware drawer, and the roof drainage system was falling down. This kicked off months of planning, tens of kitchen drafts, and a search for a good handyman. With a good plan in hand and solid workmen, we were certain the project was going to go as smooth as silk. However, we discovered the renovation was akin to antarctic exploration in the middle of a storm, you know where you start, but there is no telling where you will end up, and how long it will take to get there.
Dismantling the kitchen was behind her. It left the house dusty, without a dishwasher, a cooking stove, and a countertop. “Things can only improve from here, it can’t get any worse” Susan thought. Since the kitchen was being redone it was a good time to replace the non-functioning air-conditioning system. In summer, when cooking, the kitchen space would get as hot as the inside of an oven. Jacob, the airconditioning guy, came in, sized up the kitchen, and immediately decided that the nonfunctioning unit could not be fixed and had to be replaced. “I’ve got a much better box for you, it is 18,000 BTU and will cool down your kitchen right quick.”
“I thought the original machine was fixable, that it was just something minor. That’s what the previous owner told us,” Susan said.
“It is old and there are no parts for it any longer. It hasn’t worked in the last five years.”
“I guess there is no avoiding it,” Susan sighed. “How much is it going to cost?”
“About 1000$, you won’t regret it. It is the same size, just better.”
Jacob got to work. It was a split system with the air condenser on the outside of the house, on the roof of the pantry. Taking down and lowering the old system was heavy work. Then, he drilled holes in the wall to hold the newer and heavier air-handler. The work was done by the early afternoon. Satisfied with a good day’s work, Jacob sat down to have his 5th cup of dark Turkish coffee.
Two hours later Kevin the carpenter dropped by to recheck his cabinet measurements.
“What are you doing?” Kevin cried and threw his hands up in the air. “This air-handler unit is taking up way too much space and will make it impossible to install the new kitchen cabinets!”
“But I just spent the whole day installing it,” Jacob protested.
“No way, these are custom made cabinets, they don’t bend or change, you are not allowed to install anything that obstructs them. That air-conditioner has to move. That’s the end of it,” Kevin said.
…
Jacob was sitting on a lawn chair, he hadn’t moved in a good ten minutes. Susan knew she needed to do something. “What’s up Jacob?” Susan dragged a chair over and tried to strike a conversation. She had to say it twice to get a response.
“Just thinking about the live oak tree we had in the yard when I was a kid. My favorite dog Conan was buried under its enormous canopy. It was so big you needed three kids to hug it, we hung swings from it and built a treehouse. One day the gardener came, he was supposed to trim the tree a little bit, because it was getting so big,” Jacob said.
“And?” Susan prompted after several seconds of uncomfortable silence.
“He took the whole tree down.”
“That is really sad,” Susan said.
“My grandma raised chickens in the yard, I used to feed them leftover bread from lunch. We had two roosters that would wake us up at four in the morning. Did you know that chickens can see the sunrise forty-five minutes before we do?”
“No, that’s interesting. What happened to them?”
One day, a fox got into the chicken coop and ate them,” Jacob said.
Susan realized she had to change the subject. “Hey, I’m going to make some iced coffee, do you want some?”
“Sure. You know, my grandfather, who passed away last spring, liked iced coffee.”
A quarter of an hour later, iced coffee in hand, Jacob was in a good mood. “So, where do you think we can place the air-conditioner?” Susan asked.
He sighed, “Oh, I think we can move it to the adjacent wall. I’ll do it tomorrow. I am going to need Larry for this, and it isn’t going to be cheap.”
Susan didn’t know who this Larry person was but figured there was no helping it. “Alright, whatever it takes.”
“Say, do you have any more iced coffee?” Jacob asked.
…
“Yo Larry, what’s up?” Jacob greeted.
“It’s all good, what are we doing today?” Larry asked.
“Have you had coffee yet?” They sat outside and had their second cup of Turkish coffee, and lighted a cigarette. “So who do you think is going to take the championship this year? Barcelona or Liverpool?”
“It depends on Messi …”
“Ma’am, do you think you can make us some of your iced coffee? Larry has got to try it.”
In the afternoon, the house was filled with half-full coffee cups, the air smelled like the inside of a Las Vegas Casino. Between them, Larry and Jacob did manage to move the air-handler unit, so Susan considered it a good day.
A few days later, the cabinets were in place, the air-conditioner had been moved, and Susan was waiting for Travis, the countertop guy. Dust permeated the house, the dishwasher was disconnected, the fridge was outside, and the stove wasn’t operating. If you wanted to make an omelet you had to step outside and use the electric stovetop that worked only when it wanted to, and even then, it would take 10 minutes to heat up.
Travis was supposed to come Monday. It was windy and rainy, and the coffee tasted like sand.
On Tuesday, he said he lost his catalog, it fell down an elevator shaft.
On Wednesday he had the flu.
On Thursday he arrived with the catalog. He had an overwhelming list of countertop designs, colorful, plain, expensive, and inexpensive. It was hard to choose the one she wanted, one she could live with for the next couple of decades. “Twenty years is a long time, bordering on forever, how do you even decide something like that? How do you carry the weight of the decision?” she thought.
“What do you suggest? What could work well in this kitchen?” She was really trying to ask what would be not too expensive, but also beautiful, not necessarily in fashion, but fashionable, a timeless piece.
“I suggest this design, white with natural-looking black veins running through it, made from Caesarstone. I would choose it myself if I was about to redo my kitchen,” Travis said.
She liked the design, it was elegant. It looked like it was just excavated from Carrera in Italy, and brought to her doorstep in a wooden carriage pulled by oxen. She could just hear the creaking of the wooden wheels and the Greek-Roman trader sandals walking up to her doorstep.
“Well, missus, what do you choose?” she was awoken from her reverie.
“I will take the expensive one, from Caesarstone”
“Great choice Ma’am.”
…
A week later the installation was complete. Susan was ecstatic until she found that there were no electricity sockets in the kitchen. “Where did they go? I used to have so many,” she thought. Looking carefully at the walls she found that the countertop was covering the sockets that the electricity guy had laboriously fixed the week before.
“Oh boy,” Susan thought and imagined another week of dust in her coffee, and no dishwasher. Then she sat down, propped her feet up, and thought “I will leave it, imperfect but livable.”
THE END
