The absolutely fabulous Kathleen O'Reilly joins us this week ...

Currently, we're in the middle of remodeling our house (circa 1905), a humongous demon with both good and bad sides, rather like Angel in Buffy Season II. Our house is not dark, and brooding, rather it is light with very little insulation. Insulation is not a commodity you think about much, until you don't have enough, and then you can either stay warm and toasty, and have electrical bills that rival the National Debt, or you may choose to stay cold and shivery, and be smug in your frugality. We've been in New York for 2.5 years, and we're smug and cold in the winter, but our friends don't visit, either.

Below is the picture of our house in all its demonesque homeliness, before
we started construction:

And our kitchen, note the avocado tile circa 1970's.

We've done most of the demolition now (an excellent way to vent frustration
with either a reciprocating saw or a sledge hammer) and our living room now looks like this (the shakiness is due to hammering, it's a Jerry Bruckheimer photo effect, so you get a sense of our reality):

And our kitchen looks like thus.

We're cooking in our study with a microwave and a toaster oven (not at the same time, it blows the circuit). The whole experience reminds me of the days in the college dorms when we used to cook waffles on an iron and cooked soup in one of those little 1-cup coffee makers. The good side to our kitchen predicament is a) it has a finite lifespan b) television dinners have gotten much better (Stouffer's Meatloaf and lasagna is especially tasty).

The worst thing is no air conditioning. We had central air, but both units were on their last coils when we bought the house, and soon after we moved in, they mysteriously died of that post-closing-disease that major appliances soon die of after new home-owners move in. We had a few days of 90+ degrees, which is about the worst it gets here. All the bedrooms now have fans, which does help at night, when you're lying in bed, sweating, (yet still not losing weight), and remembering 100+ days in Texas, and realizing that you've become a genuine Yankee whiner

Other than the air (or lack thereof), life isn't awful so far. We have the new kitchen to look forward to, and this transitional dining a la carte isn't so bad when you get used to it. I'm anticipating the month of August, when we go to my parent's house in Texas (with Central AC AND a kitchen), and then come back to another two-three weeks of kitchen-less-ness. And then we'll have a new kitchen.

Blessed are they that suffer uncomfortableness for remodeling's sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of Kitchenaid.

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Julie says: Kathleen didn't send a bio, but I feel qualified to brag on her, as her most recent release, THE DIVA'S GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR SOUL is one of my favorite books. Kathleen writes for Downtown Press and Harlequin, has a great blog, a really cool house, and a kitchen that's way better than mine even in its pre-remodel state. Visit her website at www.kathleenoreilly.com