Gordon Ramsay knows nothing of Kitchen Nightmares...

Okay, I'm on the last couple of days of break until the Fall Semester starts.  So, what do I do with my time?  I wreak havoc on my house.  My mobile home that has seen better years.  I moved in almost two years ago, but my husband lived here with his brother for almost 6 years before me.  His brother bought it used, and he moved out about 8 months ago with his wife.  Since then, Chris and I have tried our best to make a home of it.  That means everything from deep (and I mean deeeeeeeeeeep) cleaning to ripping up rotten flooring to cleaning wildlife out of forgotten crevices.  Ever seen two bachelors living carefree in an already forlorn trailer?  It ain't pretty.

Well, my biological clock is ticking and I'm hoping babies are in the near (~2 years) future.  Hubster and I are thinking of obtaining property and building our dream home while living in our current Casa de Amor.  Know what that means?  Babies will be brought into aforementioned casa.  There is significant water damage that I haven't even mustered the courage to face in the kitchen.  I can only use about half the total cabinets because of this issue.  So, I figure it's best to rip it out, right?  It can't be that bad, right?  I mean, I'm talking about the lower 2 (of 3) drawers and two shelved cabinets under the corner sink, along with the neighboring dishwasher currently housing microbial life and (ironically) cleaning supplies inside.  Just tear out the rotted shelves and drawers, and remove the nasty doors, I'm thinking.  Until we can afford new cabinets, I can use a sheet of plywood to fashion makeshift shelving after I clean up the mess and strip the dirty linoleum.  So I set out with this plan.

I gather some trusty tools to do the job... Phillips screwdriver, pliers, claw hammer, handsaw, gloves, etc.  You never know.  The bottom drawer has been caved under the other two and unused for Jesus only knows how long.  (This is shameful, and I'm questioning the sanity of the unveiling here.)  I gather my courage, and commence hammering the tracking out of the way to fish the drawer out of its hole.  Step 1 complete.  Feeling confident, I proceed to Step 2.  I remove the strip of pressboard supporting the middle drawer, careful not to disturb the support for the top (and sole functioning) drawer.  Done!  I remove the drawers, still full of old utensils from years gone by, and look beneath them.  Pretty shadowy, and really grimy, but I continue to the adjacent cabinet doors.

Alas, some gremlin has triumphed over my plan through screws with a square head.  This is not something I came prepared to tackle.  Eh, I'll ask Chris when he gets home.  In the meantime, I can at least remove the rotted and saggy pressboard shelving, eh?  WHO PUTS CABINETS IN USING VINYL STRIPPING AS SUPPORTS???  I'm talking like the old timey stuff that dry rots and crumbles.  Except this stuff is on steroids and is screwed into the cabinet boxes themselves with the pressboard wedged in the slot usually meant to house glass refrigerator shelves or something of like nature.  So, now my nice, neat plan is as not neat as the cruddy kitchen of my frustration.  Let me top it off.  Determined to not get frustrated, I decided to at least clear out all the old crud that had fallen from the drawers and shelves to the floor underneath over the years, and what is my reward?  A mouse.  Deceased and disgusting.  The way it looks, he may have perished from the shock of what he saw down there.

So, a recap of my day:
   Going to get so much done!  Let me get my tools!
     Yes! Little bit done, let me do this...
          Well, maybe this...
         Fine, I can at least do this...
           You can have it.  I shall drown my sorrows in Excedrin and blogging.



And I'll remember....