Kitchen Chaos, Almost in Order

Here's just a sneak view of how my kitchen has been progressing. I am not finished setting it up and cleaning up the mess. And there are still a few things for the "kitchen guy" to complete or tweak.

But the great thing is that it already functions. Yes, I have a stove with four burners, including one large one with a double flame. And I have two large, by Israeli standards, ovens. Actually, the outer size is considered standard, needing a 60 centimeter cabinet, but I got Electrolux, because the actual oven capacity is a bit larger than the other lower priced ones. My previous ovens were tiny, like the size of a large microwave. I had always had a small, about 57 centimeter "one piece" stove that had double-ovens.

When we moved into our Jerusalem apartment in 1971 that was standard and considered very modern. Unfortunately, our "old kitchen" was planned around those stove measurements and there was no way to upgrade to a larger stove/oven without redoing the entire kitchen. It took quite a few years of misery on my part until enough of the old kitchen deteriorated to warrant these major renovations.

The sinks are also a teeny bit larger than I had before and much prettier and better quality. I have almost no upper cabinets compared to our previous kitchen, and the lower ones have drawers, except for those in the "island" for Passover.

Before the new kitchen had actually been built and until I started putting things away, I kept vacillating between confidence that there would be plenty of room for everything and fear that there wouldn't be enough room. As a consequence I had decided that if there isn't enough room I'd just give things away or throw them out. In the end, I've discovered that I have tons of extra space, especially the high shelves, which we didn't need to build at all.

Gd willing, next week I'll blog more about the kitchen with pictures and explanations.

PS I must say that thank Gd we survived the two weeks sans kitchen pretty well. It was easier than I had thought it would be. The first week I was in shock and had trouble functioning, but after a few days I did better. My neighbors were very helpful and generous. We also spent an entire Shabbat with our daughter and her family in Ofra.