Top 10 reasons I love my new kitchen

My kitchen is mostly done. There are a few items yet to be completed -- a pantry on order, a gazillion miles of trim to paint (how can such a small kitchen have so much trim?), some shelves to install -- but the dishes are out of the living room and in the new cabinets; the countertop looks absolutely expansive, relatively speaking; the dishwasher, sink and faucet are in and water is running.

Of course, the bank account is now emptied, and I can't help but consider the irony of our timing. This work has needed doing for the full 27 years we've lived here, including when credit was easy and the economy was humming. So it figures we'd finally get around to it just as the financial system collapses.

Oh well, if the cabinets are soon to be bare, at least they'll look good.

Meanwhile, it's fun to be present in my fresh new kitchen, and here are the top 10 reasons why:

10 - When we turn on the lights, we can actually see. Although it must be said, suitable illumination in the vintage version would not necessarily have been a good thing.

9 - Ice cubes that appear without having to think about it in advance. We couldn't improve the kitchen and leave the quarter-century-old refrigerator in place, and with a current model comes all sorts of newfangled features, including ice that does not require re-filling plastic trays, which mostly never got done in a timely way.

8 - Cold filtered water at the push of a button. This is related to item #9. I didn't care one way or another about this feature until I experienced it. Cool.

7 - A deep double sink. D-e-e-p.

6 - In addition to being deep, the sink is stainless steel, therefore gray-ish on purpose, compared to the gray that had been white, once upon a time.

5 - Abounding electrical outlets. Everywhere we might want to plug something in, we can. Now let's hope we can continue to afford the electricity they deliver....

4 - A groutless countertop. Glory hallelujia.

3 - Insulation in the walls, where before there was none. Of course, I can't see it now, but I know it's there, and come January, I'm pretty sure I'll notice the difference.

2- Walls without bumps and cracks. I've done a lot of wall-painting in my day, but we've always lived in houses built before 1930. So I've never painted a wall that wasn't plaster, and that in itself was a new and exciting experience.

1- Washing the dishes entails pushing a button and walking away. Another glass of wine, anyone?