Welcome back to "As the Cottage Turns." 
On this week's episode, we find Lorenzo  - frustrated cottage owner - having to face another long vista of discouragement and despair with no one to talk to except the frogs. Will he manage to get the kitchen finished? Will Lee the plumber show up? Stay tuned....


So we had to go to Ikea on Saturday morning to pick up the rest of the counter top which was on back order. Knowing that Lorenzo intended to finish the kitchen, I suggested that he take our dishwasher with him. It is seven years old, it's seen better days, so it made sense to take it to the cottage. He didn't see what the "mad rush" was and that's when I began to feel a snapping twitching feeling in my brain. I am at the point where if I hear, "I can bring it over on the next trip," or "what's the hurry?" I will seriously blow a brain fuse. So Lorenzo crawled under the kitchen sink to investigate the situation. I held the flash light. When he cut the hose, gunky water sprayed him in the face and I knew that he was angry with me. But lickety-split it was taken out, he and our son loaded it into the truck, and then Lorenzo said, "This was the right thing to do."  And off he went.

Sunday he spent doing all of the small jobs, such as the baseboard heaters...

Here is the bathroom baseboard heater. I can't believe how much things have improved in just seven years. The windows at our cottage are nicer than my windows here, so are the baseboard heaters. Go figure.


Here are the lovely black door knobs... 

Hey! If you have brass doorknobs from the 80's in your home, seriously consider switching them over. Make sure you change the hinges & catches while you're at it. 

Then again, where will all those sad brass door knobs end up? In a landfill? So try this: Buy a can of metallic black spray paint.... 

...and transform them in seconds!

Incredible. Got brass lever handles?

Here's the thing: If you have something that has a nice overall shape but the colour is outdated, either paint it white or black. You can't go wrong. Think of all the things we chuck out because they're brass: cabinet hardware, lamps, mirrors, light switches, fireplace tools... If you're sick of them, paint them black!


Lorenzo also installed the cupboard doors onto the built-in shelves in the bathroom...

I was hoping that the doors would sit flush inside the frames he built, but they are slightly proud. Oh well. It's a cottage. I need to keep reminding myself....

Today was kitchen day. Here's the progression:

The porcelain sink is called "Domsjo." Lorenzo thought I had purchased the wrong sink cabinet, but I didn't. There's just a different way of assembling it which I didn't know. You're supposed to read the instructions for the sink  before you assemble the sink cabinet. These are little Ikea rules that no one tells you about.

It's a pretty tight squeeze with the tall pantry cabinet. I really agonized over this, as we liked having that space where the hot water tank is to store the recycling.  But having such a small kitchen required that I have this tall cabinet: it will hold everything from cereal to dog food. 

Lorenzo wrapped the cabinets in sturdy plywood, upon which he will install wainscoting. I'm toying with the idea of painting it in an accent colour, but we'll see...

You'll notice that the fan cabinet sits below the ceiling beam. I really like this - I think it adds a quirky element to the space....

Then came the oak counter tops... When Lorenzo sent me this picture, I emailed him back asking if the counter where the dishwasher is going to go is level; it seemed like it was slightly dipping southward. He said, "Good eye. Yes, it's not level. Because of the floors." So he will shorten the gable to make the counter flush. Tomorrow. 

It's amazing how much counter space you achieve with a corner cabinet: 37 inches by 37 inches. Although this kitchen is very small, I'm confident that it will function well and I'll be able to cook anything there that I can here. I have never liked big kitchens anyway - too much wasted space.


*     *     *     *

Recently, on "Canada's Handyman Challenge" the winner was a woman! Her name is Maria Nestoras...

Lorenzo and I watched this series and I was really rooting for her. Watching a woman design and build an entire outdoor structure, do plumbing, electrical, window install, roofing, etc. was really inspiring. It makes you realize that gender has nothing to do with any of this. Maybe this is how black people have felt seeing other black people achieve things that were previously thought to be impossible, or outside the realm of intellectual ability. You think, "Maybe I could do this too." 

On the night she won, a commercial for Tide detergent came on. For the first time in my life, a man was talking about how he uses Tide to wash his daughter's blanket. And then it showed him playing with her. No Mom in the picture; just the two of them.

I thought, "Wow. This is different." Because usually, whether it's a commercial for Swiffer, or oven cleaner, or what to do with frozen chicken - it's always a woman. And it bugs me because the vast majority of women are holding down full-time jobs. They are making the bacon and bringing it home and without their salaries the mortgage wouldn't get paid. But somehow this reality has eluded the advertising executives. Even if women are the ones doing the majority of the housework (while working full-time) it isn't something to just accept as being a given;  it isn't something to celebrate. It reflects a serious imbalance which is the cause of a great deal of marital stress.

Advertising shapes the way we think about things - it holds real cultural importance whether we like it or not. Think back to the 1950's and those infuriating advertisements that depicted women as being absolute idiots, salivating over their appliances, waiting for their masters to come home, submissive and servile and always wearing an apron with a string of pearls. This had a profound affect on society and gender relations...

It only took...sixty years to see this:

If we see men caring about the laundry or stressing over what to make for dinner, it sends a very clear message that men are expected to care about these things; about what gets eaten and whether or not the sheets are clean. And why shouldn't he - he lives there too. I want my sons to see commercials like this.  Likewise, if my daughter grows up seeing women using power tools and not waiting for a guy to fix things, it will reinforce the idea that she is capable of figuring these things out. I don't want her growing up believing that housework is her domain, and I certainly don't want my sons assuming that one day their wives or girlfriends will be their personal maids. I do notice that my kids have very few gender biases - they see things very differently than I did which makes me grateful. As bad as things may be in 2013, I wouldn't want to go back to any other time.

And all of this makes me realize that I am ready to do something else with my life now. I've been helping a friend design her kitchen and I was toying with the idea of doing this as a career. Took some books out of the library and tried to imagine myself dealing with paint samples and on-line design tools; lining up the trades and waiting for plumbers to show up. I enjoy this, but it lacks intellectual depth and ultimately it's all rather shallow in the big grand scheme of things. It wouldn't give me a sense of really contributing anything meaningful to society. I gave up teaching to raise my kids and now I'd like to go back. This blog has had a lot to do with this - although this is a "cottage blog" I discovered that I'd rather be writing about politics or literature.  
Anyway, the big question is, will anyone hire me? I guess we'll see... I wonder if someone would pay me to read books all day. That would be a dream job.

Anyway, a HUGE congratulations to Maria Nestoras. She's a trail blazer, for sure.


Ciao for now. 

                                English Cottage Garden