Breakfast Nook

Soon after my divorce I realized my ex-wife had taken the kitchen table with her.  I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to install a breakfast nook between the living room and kitchen.

I immediately got to work by removing the decorative wooden dowels that separated the rooms.  I used a sledgehammer, a six-pack of PBR and a chain saw for the finer details.

Once I was finished, the real process of home improvement began.  I ignored it for a little over a year, eating over the sink or in the living room in front of the TV.

My son brought it to my attention, after a year or so, by asking “Mom has a kitchen table, why don’t you have one?”  Which gave me kind of a complex.  So I decided to get to work.

I had a chunk of plywood in the garage.  I wrestled it into the house and then let it sit in the kitchen for a few weeks, to settle.

Then I took inventory of my tools.  I had a sledgehammer, a chainsaw and a few screwdrivers.  After I ran out of vodka, I had no more screwdrivers.

I laid the plywood on the partition and realized I had no clue what I was doing.  So I called a friend to come over to help.  He confirmed that I had no idea what I was doing. 

After a few weeks I went to Menards and looked at countertops, I picked out a color that would match the rest of the counters.  Then they asked me for measurements.  Seems I hadn’t planned that far in advance. 

So a few more weeks passed and I ran into a contractor friend of mine.  We discussed my breakfast nook idea and he followed me back to my house to take some measurements.  Then he gave me a quote.  It seemed fair and I expected him to show up in a few weeks.

He showed up the next day with a counter that matched perfectly.  He had actual tools and it was installed in a half an hour.  Of course, I felt inadequate that he was able to install it so quickly and effortlessly.  But writing a check on my new counter made that feeling quickly fade.

I have had it in for several weeks now and it looks great!  I will be considering the purchase of some stools in the next month or two.  But I don’t want to rush things.