Kitchen remodel means less sleep, more decisions

For once in my life, I was on time for my Tuesday cycling class. But, when I got there, no one was on a bike.

“Cycling was yesterday,” my instructor, Dawn, said. “Today is Wednesday, Michelle.”

“Ahhh, that explains it. I thought today was Tuesday. Ever since we started remodeling our kitchen, I can’t keep track of anything.”

That same morning, for instance, I couldn’t find a spoon. In desperation, I slurped my yogurt straight from the cup. I didn’t see the stain on my top until I was walking the track with my pal, Jo Dee. I know I should have been mortified. But I was way too tired to care.

“This kitchen remodeling is causing me to lose sleep,” I told her. “Most people count sheep. I count ceramic tiles.”

Did you know there are 50 million shades of off white? My husband does. He’s put up with me changing my mind 50 million times. In the Land of Second Guessing, I am the queen. And my pal, Shayna Kueker, is a princess.

“Picking out stuff is making me crazy,” admits Shayna, who is in the midst of building her dream home.

The lovely owner of The Louvre Salon in Fairview Heights, Shayna commiserates with me when she touches up my roots. Like me, she has wrenched her back lugging around quartz countertop samples. Unlike me, she has impeccable taste.

Full disclosure: I once painted several shades of yellow on my living room wall in an attempt to view them in various lighting. I stared at them in the morning. And I stared at them at night. I finally wound up going with a greenish-yellow color called “ecru.” It was not a popular choice.

My best friend Lydia Kachigian never misses an opportunity to remind me of the “The Ecru Fiasco of 2012.”

“Don’t trust your decorating instincts, Shelly,” she tells me.

My husband, Mark, takes a very different view.

“Just pick something,” he says. “Anything. Please!”

At the moment, our kitchen cabinets and drawers are emptied into cardboard boxes. I tripped over one yesterday when I was eyeing up our new backsplash. Gotta admit, I liked what I saw.

“It’s the color of vanilla ice cream,” I told Lydia, as we chatted on the phone. “And I’ve picked a quartz countertop that’s a really rich chocolatey color.”

“You’re just one maraschino cherry short of a hot fudge sundae,” she said and sighed.

I knew I should have gone with the ecru.

This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 12:09 PM with the headline "Kitchen remodel means less sleep, more decisions."