A Nice Surprise

One of the things we love about our house is the big window in the kitchen.   

The original owners had installed a "garden window" with shelves suitable for growing plants in the bright light provided by the southern exposure. 

We weren't interested in growing plants inside the house so after a while we removed the shelves. 

The window was old and very drafty.  We added an energy efficient shade which we'd pull down at night to keep the cold air out but we'd often find ice covering the interior window panes when we opened up the shade on winter mornings.   

The window needed to be replaced but with what?   One thing we knew was that the replacement had to have a shelf for Spikey, since he loved to sunbathe there.

And we also had to consider how a new window would relate to the outside, especially the deck railing and the roof line.  

 With the help of our interior designer friend, Susan, we decided on a bay window and found carpenters to install it.   The plan was to get this work done before doing the rest of the kitchen remodeling work which we hoped would begin around mid August.  We were given an expected start date of July 18th for the window so we were delighted to get a call yesterday saying that the new window would be delivered today and installed on Thursday and Friday!

In a wonderful display of family cooperation last night we did all the prep work needed so the job could begin.  We took down the plates hanging around the window, took apart a junky desk in Paul's room and got it ready for recycling, emptied out a cabinet in the dining room and found new homes for those items, and moved the cabinet down to Paul's room to replace the desk.  Removing the cabinet meant we had a place to put the coffee cart and coffee/espresso machine until the kitchen rehab is completed the end of August.    

Because you know there is no way that we're getting through the next six weeks without a great cup of coffee every morning.  

Hello, new window!