My hope of receiving the new kitchen that had been promised to me for years had all but vanished. The old kitchen had cabinets that were brown in color that I had painted white. Although it appeared that they couldn’t enter, mice were a regular visitor. Cockroaches had started to appear suddenly, and spiders were frequently hunted down. The tops of the cabinets were constantly dirty, and everything was just too old-fashioned for me.
To take measurements for the new kitchen, a man arrived one day. As he noted his figures and talked about color schemes, among other things, I thought, “Hooray.” he gave me a time of about six weeks for the job to start. I actually forgot about it after that period of time passed.
A few months later, a doctor used an injection of the stem cells he had extracted from my blood to treat my foot, which was incredibly painful. In an effort to alleviate the pain, he gave me strict instructions to rest the foot for at least 24 hours before going home.
Just as I was sitting down after stumbling into the house, the phone rang. The man was in charge of the kitchen. He told me they would start working the following Friday and it was a Wednesday. The kitchen needed to be packed up as a whole, so I pleaded for more time.
He claimed that they had no choice but to act now because the kitchen was already in transit from Sydney to the United States on a truck. It had to get going this Friday.
From that point on and for the following day and a half, I hurried around on my feet packing things into boxes, moving furniture and other items into the spare bedroom, and eventually emptying the refrigerator and packing its contents into an esky. When they arrived at 7.30 a.m. on Friday, I was nearly a cot case.
They began by removing the cabinets and sink. The major shock arrived at that point. There was no wall located behind the cabinets. Obviously, this is where the vermin were entering the house because a huge gaping hole went straight into what would have been the wall cavity.
The substantial pantry that had been set up a short while earlier was to be kept and moved to the opposite side of the dining room where it could be used as a sewing cupboard. Although the men moved it into place, it wasn’t fixed. Later that evening, I was immediately topped by it as I walked past it. I was trapped between the cupboard and some boxes of kitchen equipment.
I was finally able to pull myself out of the door by slowly grabbing a chair, but there was a problem. Both the front and side gates, as well as everything else, were locked. Both the phone and the keys were on the opposite side. I had to carefully crawl across the large pantry cabinet to get to the other side while still being trapped by my situation.
When everything was finished, I looked at the new kitchen. All of the holes in the wall have been sealed or repaired, and the new cupboards reach to the ceiling so that their tops never need to be cleaned. There are no longer any pest problems. The additional space the gorgeous new kitchen has given me is wonderful, and it is a pleasure to work in.
The effort was definitely worthwhile, even with the pain and the cupboard falling on me. The installation of a new microwave and dishwasher completely changed the way I felt about myself.