August 3: Big Monday and La Cucina

It has arrived, La Cucina (the kitchen)! Over the past week we have had a parade of folks in our house, none of whom spoke any English, taking out our old kitchen and installing the new one. (If you are lost on the kitchen, read the June 26 blog). The old kitchen was to be donated to the Italian version of Goodwill, and starting Thursday 2 older men in one very, very, very tiny truck began the removal. I felt bad watching them work without much equipment, expertise or joint mobility so I joined in the removal process.

Once the kitchen was out we were left without running water, which upset the oldest, older gentleman. He explained to me (all in Italian) that he felt bad leaving the bambino with no water and drew me a map to the hardware store, left his phone number and offered tools to ensure I could get the sink lines capped and restore water to the rest of the house…this took awhile, and several thousand hand motions and 2 trips to bablefish.com for some translations. Luckily I already knew the hardware store, but I let him draw the map anyway.
Friday morning, after round 2 of removal the cleaning crew arrived to remove the 400 years of dirt, mold and grease left under and behind the old kitchen. You could actually see a raised edge where the grease began on the backsplash!

Friday afternoon the install guys showed up, along with the plumber…but he would have to wait until Saturday for the installation to be completed to hook up water and gas. Finally Saturday afternoon, after a reappearance from the installation guys to correct some flaws in their work (the dishwasher would not open) the electrician showed up to complete the ordeal. Sunday evening we had dinner in our own house prepared by the beautiful hands of my wife, including chocolate chip cookies…can you believe that.

This afternoon we made the last push to rid our house of boxes, hang some pictures and the shower curtain…the end is in sight.