I suppose you might be wondering about what’s going on in our kitchen — whether we’ve painted our cabinets, finished the floors, or are, at the very least, enjoying cooking on our new gas range. And the short answer is:

Absolutely nothing. This is pretty much what it’s looked like since Sunday.

I have a whole smorgasbord of excuses:

• Careful demolition — the kind where you’re really trying not to damage your cabinets — is much slower (and decidedly less fun) than a flat-out, mallet-wielding gut job.
• We still have a working sink and refrigerator, which are like the two most important things to have in a semi-functional kitchen. Knowing this feeds the procrastination. And the procrastination is hungry.
• Our floor guy decided he was going to sound less-than-optimistic about the job after we tore out the floors, so now I’m getting a second opinion.
• Indian takeout from our favorite, favorite Newport News restaurant, Nawab, is all we really need to survive in this world.
• Unlike much of today’s new construction, this house was built to last.

See, we thought that pulling out the soffits would be a bantamweight cosmetic job (in fact, we thought they’d been added when the kitchen was last updated in the late 70’s or early 80’s), but we quickly up-classed it to welterweight when we saw that what we’d originally assumed was drywall was actually a thick plaster sandwich with a heavy wire mesh filling.

It was up-classed again to heavyweight when realized the plaster, mesh, and thick wood supports were actually built into the walls and ceiling.

(Side note: If you’re curious about where I earned my Ultimate Fighting Championship prowess, read this post.)

And, like, I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t want to cry a little when I realized we’d be needing to hire a drywaller or plaster guy for what was supposed to be a relatively simple cosmetic update. Because the only thing simple about this update so far has been consuming a giant plate of Swedish meatballs after driving 2 1/2 hours to IKEA to pick up a drawer base.

And even that decision left me smothered in guilt-riddled lingonberry sauce.

So now we’re kind of in limbo, waiting for flooring and also the weekend, when we can deal with this soffit situation as much as possible before calling in the big guns. Until then, the only sandwiches getting made in this kitchen are apparently of the plaster and mesh variety.

I’ve spent some time in the interim working on a “mood board” to really capture the look and feel Justin and I would like to emulate in this kitchen:

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–wait for it–

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BAM!

While I’m not normally this organized when it comes to planning decor, it really was worth the time it took for me to put this together. Now, when I gaze upon the dangling wires, naked insulation, and exposed studs, it’s much easier for me to visualize the cheesecakes and dancing bacon that will, one day, emerge from this very room.

And it’s going to be beautiful.