One perk of doing work for a friend: getting to go back to
the...
One perk of doing work for a friend: getting to go back to
the kitchen we helped create. At the end of most jobs, we pack up the tools and
leave the place looking pristine and ready for life to start taking place
around it. We’re left to imagine what the place will look like once the tea
kettle is back on the stove, once the bananas spoon the grapefruits in a
fruitbowl in the corner, once the smell of fresh paint and new wood gives way
to the homey smells of an active kitchen.
This fall, we re-did the kitchen of my great friend
and her husband. I was back this weekend after some months of life accumulating
around it. Light poured in from the large window we’d wrestled with on ladders.
It smelled like coffee and a whisper of spring from the tulips on the counter.
It’s improved every time I’ve seen it, becoming less the collected objects of
our work, the black walnut cabs, the cork floor, the concrete countertops, and
more a cohesive, comfortable, functional, and lovely place to spend a morning.
