Island Living

No man is an island.

No woman is either.

But just about every woman wants an island.  A kitchen island.  Preferably granite-topped, and about a mile long--long enough to roll out a pie crust or cool a few pans of cookies fresh from the oven.  Or to chop up the veggies for the salad, without running out of space on the counter.  (I had to add the part about veggies, lest you think all I do is bake things that are very bad for you.  You know, very NOT Whole 30-type fare.)

I've already regaled (or bored) you with the details of our recent kitchen makeover, which was a huge thrill for this happy homemaker.  After more than two decades of living with dated 80's laminate, we had the folks at Home Depot reface our cabinets, install new drawers and doors, and basically bring our kitchen into the 21st century.  It's now got this lovely farmhouse/cottage feel to it, which is right up my alley.

After my husband and I decided to push our long trestle table up against the wall across from the counter area (now that there aren't routinely seven bodies--five of them pretty large--sitting around it at meal times, just us two little ol' empty-nesters), we have all this wonderful floor space in the middle of the kitchen.  We can both be working in there at once without bumping into each other constantly.  It's the best.  We could swing dance in the middle of the floor, if we were so inclined.

Well, you know what they say: nature abhors a vacuum.  Indeed, every void needs to be filled.  And I found myself wishing for just a wee bit more counter space in the middle of my spacious new kitchen.  You guessed it: I found myself wishing for an island.

Well...the good folks at Home Depot just sent us a $500 gift card, for the privilege of letting them do our kitchen makeover for us.  I was all excited when it arrived, thinking, "Woo hoo!  Free money!"  Then my husband reminded me that this magical "freebie" had actually cost us about $12,000.  Details, shmetails--it was like we had someone else's money to spend!  It was like Christmas.

So we headed over to Home Depot, gift card in hand, to get a new chandelier for our dining room.  When we moved into this house about 24 years ago, one of the first things my mother-in-law said was, "You'll want to get a bigger chandelier.  That one is too small for this room."  We have a HUGE dining room, and our chandelier is rather undersized; but somehow "buy a new chandelier" always got moved down to the bottom of the "things we need to do for the house" list.  But hey--free money, remember?  Cha-ching!  (Mom, I wish you could see the new one we're going to be installing in the next few days.  I know you would approve.)

Next, we inquired about rolling kitchen carts/small moveable islands, and we found out that we could only get them at Home Depot's online store.  So I went shopping on my laptop when we got back home, and within no time I found what appeared to be the perfect piece.  It's been ordered and it's been shipped.

Isn't it adorable?

This next shot is what really sold me on it (well, that and the fact that we had just about the right amount left, after the chandelier purchase, to put it on the gift card).

Those cabinets look sort of like mine, as does the floor.  This sweet little
island on wheels should be a perfect fit for my newly renovated kitchen!



Okay, now I should cook something, I think.  Or at least eat something.  (But not pears.  I don't care how good they look staged on that island; to me, they are yuck-ee.)

But before I go: "No man is an island"--name that poet!  First one to tell me in the combox gets a free signed copy of Finding Grace!  (I'm feeling as generous as our gift-giving friends over at Home Depot right now!)