What do you do when you and your husband have moved into your new home and COVID, the pandemic of the century, strikes? You sweetly, somewhat subtly, suggest projects that he could do to improve your ability to unpack specific items. Thus changing his plans for the day hourly... This is the predicament that my sweetie has found himself in.... He's been begging for more time with me over the past two years, and now he finds himself quietly wishing he or I might go back to work soon...
My first not too subtle nudge to move a "to do" up to the top of his list was our coffee/wine bar. The original concept was to have him build a cabinet to hold what we needed. Then one day as I was flipping through Facebook Marketplace and drooling over a Hoosier cabinet an idea came to me.Me: "Um, honey what do you think about Hoosier cabinets?"
Bill: "They're cool, why?"
Me: "Do you think we could take one and cut a hole in the base for the wine fridge... For the wine/coffee bar?"
Bill: "That could work"....
I began my search for a Hoosier cabinet that isn't in perfect condition so we won't feel bad for cutting it up... and found one with an enamel top in near perfect condition... that's in the price range we want to pay. We buy it, put it in the spot it'll stay in... and daily I ask if he's figured out how to fix it up. He's looking at it, scratching his head and walking quickly away muttering something about being busy with another project... I sweetly point out that there's at least 3 boxes that could be unpacked if this beast project was done... and the next day it's outside, up on his workspace... and he's figuring it out like he always does.... It looks AMAZING!!! Even Bill is happy with how it turned out. I might have even ordered wine to fill the fridge. Cause something that pretty can't be empty right?
While I was looking for the Hoosier, I also came up with the next honey do project for Bill that entailed retrofitting yet another piece of antique furniture. Really, it sounds like I'm working his butt off but I'm trying to make the projects easier for him. Instead of designing from scratch, I'm finding him pieces with good bones... That's my story and I'm sticking to it... Anyway, we don't have a garage and the only place that really made sense to place our tankless water heater was in the end of the hallway where the addition will start. Places the water heater dead center of the house for all our water needs - the addition will have another bathroom and laundry room. You can imagine how it's not something I'd want to look at daily though. Bill had planned to build a cabinet around it. I suggested getting a cool old armoire and cutting out the back to slide over the water heater.Bill loved the idea. Technically it's a quick fix right? While he worked on the Hoosier, I looked online trying to find something not too expensive and, like the Hoosier, not in perfect shape so we wouldn't feel bad cutting it. The day after the Hoosier project was finished, we were sitting in our living room discussing the final run we had to do to empty our old house. Bill was worried about us not having enough space in our shed and fretted about how he was going to store his tools that were still in our old house's garage. It was then that the proverbial light bulb went off in my head.
When we purchased the farm, the previous owners had left an old armoire with a broken leg in the shed. We decided to keep it because we knew we could fix it up one day. I thought about that piece and how much room it was taking and asked Bill if it would work for the water heater project. Out of sight out of mind right? Neither of us could understand why we hadn't even thought to use it. Bill took it out of storage, placed it into his work area and began the plans to retrofit it. It needed to be raised 25" and he wasn't sure how he could blend that large of a skirt into the piece. I asked if he could build a fake drawer front so it wouldn't look like it was sitting on a box. He thought that would totally work, and when we got to the old house later the next day we found an old drawer front he'd saved in his workshop from our old booth projects. Both the cabinet and that drawer are walnut! PERFECTION! 
Bill spent about three days building the base and shoring up the cabinet interior so he could cut off the back. While doing so we discussed what parts would be painted and which would remain stained wood. Ashlyn changed up the dimensions of our MoonCrest logo to fit in the oval and Bill made a stencil to paint it. 
The cabinet had small white porcelain knobs on the doors when we got it. We happened to have a handful of similar knobs that we'd gotten junking sometime in the past six years. The paint was left over from projects we've done over the last two years. The only cost for this project truly, was Bill's time. Once again he knocked it out of the park! When all was said and done an ugly appliance was covered up with a fun piece of furniture that no one knows is solely decorative. I love it. Sooo much better isn't it?
You'd think I'd be happy and let him rest then right??? He made the mistake of putting the drawers that were in the cabinet into the house for a minute to stow them away for some other use. I took one look at the thick oak with the tongue and groove notches and said "Honey!!!!...." He hates that... he knows what it means... more work for him!!! It was quick... really... Bought some small casters, he put those on the bottom, added the porcelain knobs and we now have pull out drawers at the bottom of our pantry! SCORE!
Now I'm done... Not really... being Coronatined together just gives me more time to come up with another honey do... daily... maybe hourly... He's getting ready for me to go back to work but he's got at least two months before he gets that reprieve. Pray for him... and if I go missing, go look in the 'cut' in our backyard... 😆😆😆
Actually I've made up for it somewhat. Going back to a comment I made in the beginning of this blog, his exact words were "when this is over, I want to be with my wife, somewhere, with a drink with an umbrella in it"... I had planned to take him to Mexico when our old house sold. Then when COVID was heading to America I'd changed my plans to take him to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail... and then that was dashed as all travel basically stopped and people were sheltering in place across the country. So when I signed the sales papers last Friday, I went to the local liquor store. Bought 7 bottles of bourbon that neither one of us had heard about... and surprised him with them in an Easter Egg-esque hunt... AND made sure there was an umbrella in his rocks glass.
If that wasn't enough... for our anniversary yesterday... I made sure we had toilet paper... Today y'all understand how important that is... 10 years from now someone is going to read this and think that's a really shitty present.... It's ok... when they do, I ask they google toilet paper anomaly of the Corona pandemic... 30 rolls baby... Pure Charmin Gold....
Happy 4th anniversary baby... We've got a roof over our heads, two pots to pee in and TP to wipe with... Life IS good.
