I sold my soul to Home Depot today. It took all afternoon and wasn't nearly as much fun as you'd think - after a while the nit-picky details of kitchen design blur into whogivesashitI'mtiredandhungry - but I'm very satisfied with the results. I think. I think I must rethink the sink - after I came home and looked at my sink space, I think the sink I picked is toodamnbig. I have plenty of time to rethink the sink, because from this point it's six weeks until cabinets are born, and then after that the countertop gods come make a template of my kitchen to shape my countertop from actual granite. By the time the countertop gods show up, I need a sink, so they can craft yon stone (which was on sale, hooray!) to fit the sink. So there is time to rethink the sink. I think the really cool and surprisingly cheap black sink will be the sink, instead of the stainless steel battleship currently in the plan. It will fit better and look better.

I last remodeled a kitchen before Boy was born. The first house my husband and I bought (when I was preggers with Boy) had a 60s nightmare kitchen, which we duly turned into an 80s nightmare kitchen (the kind I'm getting rid of now). But I don't remember the choices being this vast or complicated - probably because we were very young and on a much slimmer budget and the choices came down to this color or that color, not 50 styles of cabinet x 20 kinds of wood x 100 finishes, and that's just one manufacturer, and I haven't thought of hardware or countertop or any of the nifty doodads to put into the cabinets. The options are staggering - I opted only for a dual roll out trash can arrangement in the cabinet next to the fridge, because that will save space. The rest of the cabinets are standard. I was too damn tired to talk about spice racks for another hour.

This was freaking exhausting, and I'm a very decisive person and this was my THIRD meeting with the designer. I wasn't waffling about my choices. I have bought houses in less time, and I'm not kidding. I definitely have bought cars in far less time. A kitchen is a bitch. I had looked at price, narrowed it to the price range, looked at the wood finish I wanted and quickly selected a cabinet style in my price range, and after that it got really hard - fitting things into the small kitchen space was bad enough, but the countertop has been WORSE than buying a car. I can buy a car in an hour - I know what I want, I do a little online research, I walk in, I walk out with a car. A countertop is like building a house from scratch in comparison. I thought I knew what countertop I wanted then found out I didn't like it when I saw it in my real kitchen, then I thought I had MY countertop in a second choice, then found out that another choice was on sale at a price too good to turn down, and came in the color scheme Boy had proposed as an alternative to my choice, and when I held it to the cabinet, damn, he was right. He has his father's eye for color and design, so I'm using him as a second opinion. So finally the choices are done, the money is spent (God, I'm weak-kneed thinking about it) and I'm worn out.

Shopping Alert - Jo-Ann's Etc. carries handbag handles in plastic, wood, and bamboo. I bought two pair of straight bamboo handles. I have some natural cotton in the stash from hell and I envision crocheting a big retro-popcorn-stitch sort of bag, and lining it in something funky.

I'd take pictures but we're having an early monsoon season here - thunderstorms and no electricity last night, oh, the joy.