Holiday Spirit

I've not had a lot of holiday spirit this year.....the above photo of my dining room might tell you why. People talk about their holiday decorations and my only comment to the conversation is: There is no point in decorating my house this year. See above photo. Do you want to decorate that? Put lights in a window that has boxes stacked in front of it? Half of my driveway is piled with construction debris. Every room has a layer of drywall dust on it. Let's accent that! A girlfriend came over a few weeks ago and just said "Wow. Your house looks like Beiruit."(and yes it does)
Just a few days later, this is outside of my bedroom. It begins to look like a hallway. The door at the end is our new bathroom.
And this. This is the piece de la resistance. I came home one night last week and this was what had transpired. The most beautiful thing I had seen in so long. My eyes literally filled with tears of happiness. Our bamboo cabinets were beginning to be installed. They are stunning. I have a hierarchy of spending in the home. Things you use all the time you spend dough on. Sofa - spend some cash. A bar stool that you sit on for 20 minutes at a crack - inexpensive. I have Target lamps that are cheap yet lovely. Cabinets - these things are the foundation of your kitchen. Good ones will last forever. Crappy ones will not. (was at a friends house a few weeks ago and slid a perhaps 7 year old cabinet drawer to have it semi collapse in my hand....) The slide on ours is like buttah. I have lived in places with crappy kitchens where you struggle to shut a drawer. Not these. They have a "soft close" so about 3 inches from shutting they will shut themselves silently. No slamming will ever happen. As I stood in the kitchen oohing and ahhing the husband yelled - "slide a drawer!!" Oh, yeah. That's what I'm talkin' about. And they just look soooooooo pretty. (sustainable, too!)

Oh, but look how I go on and on about my cabinets.....

Although my Christmas spirit is low, a few things happened to me lately that make me feel the spirit of sharing and kindness. I was walking the dog and admiring neighbors gardens a few weeks back. My garden is in serious need of help. I tore ours out last year (hideous. weedy.) and it's just a bit barren now. My dog walk thought was "I wish someone would share some of their plants with me." I turned the corner and literally there was a pile of uprooted plants with a sign "FREE PLANTS". Needless to say I got my car, drove back and took them home. They look so lovely filling in the empty spaces. I plan to leave a thank you note on the doorway of the house that gave them to me. It honestly was just what I needed that day.

The second thing is knowing we have such good friends. Thanksgiving weekend, the huz took a sudden trip back home to be with his family. His mother is not well, she suffered kidney failure a few weeks ago, had surgery, was in the hospital for a week and was put on dialysis. It was important that he be with her - of course. We thought it was the exact time we needed to paint the kitchen and I would be left alone to primer and paint in 2 days. I hate asking for help. It's just how I am. I sheepishly emailed friends for help and had so much help offered in return. It felt so good to know our community was there for us. At the last minute the schedule changed and we couldn't paint that weekend. I was touched by all the support regardless. My mother in law is doing okay, slowly but surely. She had her family there to comfort her, which is more important than anything you can put a price on.

In our last weeks of remodeling, and the negative budget left to cover it, we look for anything we can do ourselves. (there will be action shots of us wallpapering in a few weeks....) Peter has a good friend who is not only a neighbor but an electrical engineer. He can install an oven in his sleep. They have kids, they are busy - we understand they have more obligations than we do. Although, we do have neighborly exchanges. I went to consult on a paint color recently, Peter helped install a banister. We do these things. We're friends. We have wine. They're great people. We told him and his wife that in exchange for appliance installation help we'd pay for a babysitter for an entire day for them. She can go do whatever her heart desires while the boys install a range hood, oven, dishwasher.....They said fine - saving us a ton on paying someone for it. Another good friend to the rescue.

There might be a Santa Claus after all.