After a week or so of complete inactivity on the kitchen, due to waiting on things to arrive, they’re back at work. This week they’ve been doing more painting, finishing up the lights and the switches and electric sockets, and working on the floor. There was some crack-filing and leveling that had to be done, and they finished that up today.

Because they were finally hooking up the light switches, including the one over the stairs that also hooks to a switch downstairs, Richard had to take down the cat-proof barrier at the base of the stairs. We talked about whether we wanted to try to put it back up again, but then we decided that now that all the cabinets are in, and there are no exposed beams or nails or other things where cats could hurt themselves or find ways to escape into the big scary outdoors, we could try letting the cats back upstairs. So once the work crew was done for the day on Wednesday (the day they finally hooked up the aforementioned light switches), when I got home from work, I went downstairs and opened the door and released the hounds…er…cats. And then I promptly dragged out a broom and the vacuum cleaner and went to work on the stairs, because there was all manner of construction debris lurking in the shag carpet covering them.

Sebastian was the first one up the stairs, followed closely thereafter by Tangerine. Azzie wasn’t too sure about the whole idea, nor was Rosie, but eventually they all made it back upstairs. There was a lot of exploring and sniffing out new smells, and quite a bit of whining (mostly from Azzie), but it didn’t take long before the couch was once again covered in cats, or before my lap was full of cat the second I sat down at the computer. Rosie even brought one of her little stuffed dragons halfway up the stairs, and it’s been sitting there ever since. The cats get locked back into the master bedroom during the day when the work crew is at the house, but since that’s during prime nap time, they don’t really seem to care.  But at night, they get to roam free – something which has made Checkers extremely happy, since once again, she now gets the master bedroom mostly to herself (she refuses to step one dainty toe outside the master bedroom door – we have no idea why, but she seems quite happy in there, and it’s a huge room, so…whatever works for that wacky little tortie works for us).

We’re slowly moving things into the kitchen, now that the bulk of the work is done and I can be assured that once I dust out the cabinets or the drawers, they won’t immediately be re-dusted due to construction activity. It’s been kind of fun, wandering around, unpacking boxes, trying to figure out where to put everything. At one point this weekend I had sticky notes on all the cupboards and drawers indicating what was inside each, mainly so Richard could find where I was stashing things.

We’ve been doing a little preemptive shopping for the kitchen (it was inevitable, of course). We now have a brand new set of dishes – cobalt blue glass – that I have been coveting for years and years. We stocked up on our favorite glass coffee mugs. We bought some drawer organizers and took measurements for others, although I am realizing that, due to the depth and the length of the shallow drawer under the range, I am going to have to cobble together my own spice drawer organizer, because all the ones I’ve found for sale are either too high, or too long. I’ve got some ideas, though, mainly involving various lengths of dowels, so I see a trip to the hardware store in my future. Plus, we still need to work out the issue of shelving in the pantry, so I also see a lot of hanging things and sanding wood in my future too. Fun times, people. Fun times.