21 July: Tuesday

La Quinta, California: What would normally be my "stay home" day, aka my "ironing" day, and my "change the sheets" day, was none of the above. We are living in a different dimension these days.

Again, having to meet a contractor at the house, we were up and at it early. Today, we met with Jose, Arnold's cabinet guy. Jose will add a few book shelves above my kitchen desk and touch-up the sad-looking parts of the cherry cabinetry on the kitchen island continent.

As I wrote yesterday, I have tackled the kitchen over the past several days. Yes, the kitchen is massive - and it is not unlike my beautiful kitchen in Portland in size. However, we have discovered the pretty cherry cabinets - though solid - are poorly designed.

We now know these gorgeous-on-the-outside cabinets are some-sort of discount-pre-fab and are in every house we looked through in this country club. 15 years old. A few observations about these cabinets: 1) why is there a bar of wood down the center of the opening? It blocks entrance to the cabinet. The depth of the cabinet is barely enough to hold a dinner plate. 2) The pre-fab shenanigans does not end at the design. The shelves are clipped into the height "adjustable" holes on the bottom AND THE TOP! Not only on the bottom and top, but also on the inside of that stoopid center bar! Why? I realize we are in earthquake territory, but DT needed an actual tool to remove the clips, and lower the shelves for me. Apparently Kareem Abdul-Jabbar lived here previously, because the second shelf could only be reached by a giant. I have ordered "normal" shelf pins, and we will slowly replace the insane clips in the kitchen cabinets at a later date.

The other issue with the cabinets are the three banks of drawers. Twelve drawers in total. Twelve seems like a very generous amount in a kitchen, except not one of them is even wide enough for a place mat. Really narrow. A cutlery tray will barely fit. Top two drawers are 3 inches deep; bottom two drawers are 5 inches deep.

I had to re-shuffle quite a few things.

The cabinet above the double oven is useless. Useless. Even Kareem could not reach much above the ovens. Jose is going to take out the horizontal shelves, flip them on their sides to create four vertical openings, so I can slide-in my baking sheets, etc.

I'm so smart. (No, I am not. This is how the cabinet above the double ovens was situated in our last house. Super convenient - and reachable, even for short people.)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: One room is completely unpacked, organized, situated, and ready for business:

The dining room! We were waiting for a sleeve to hold/store a table leaf. It arrived today, so we arranged the table for eight. (The two arm chairs are currently in a hallway alcove, looking quite elegant with a set of rosewood nesting tables between them.)

Dave and I kept plugging along, organizing this, situating that. Dave patched a few more holes left from the previous owner's art, and emptied the last few boxes of garage things: tools, earthquake kit. After emptying every box, there are only two things missing (knock-on-wood). First is my little folding two-step kitchen stool. Obviously, this item will need to be replaced, because I can't reach anything beyond shelf two. The other missing item/s are the pins for the adjustable shelves in the media room TV cabinet. (This problem will be solved with the pins I have on-order for the kitchen cabinets.) The shelf pins from the TV cabinet could have easily been lost, even accidentally tossed-away in the mass of packing paper. The kitchen stool is a mystery. Did we leave it behind? I would have needed it until the very last moment. Was it sold in the estate sale? Can't recall. The kitchen stool is not included on our very detailed itemized packing list. Mystery.

Back at the trailer park - at nearly 6p! - I made a quick appetizer plate, then whipped-up a salad with tuna for our evening repast. Track and Field re-runs (DOHA 2019) on the DVR, so that was fun. We know who is going to win (place, and show) every race, but still enjoyable, especially since there is zero happening in the athletics world presently. Desperate times.

Tomorrow we return to the castle to continue organizing. Every box - except my cookbooks - has been emptied. A bookcase has been ordered to hold my precious volumes. When my desk is organized and I have a step stool, I will finally feel at home.

Oh... and when the mattress pad arrives and I can make the bed. That will be nice as well.

Until my next update, I remain, your pending correspondent.