I know my co-workers are getting tired of hearing my dailyupdates on my kitchen/dining room “redo and move,” but it’s goingwell and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Dennis and I started this project about three weeks ago, althoughit’s been in the planning for years.

We finally decided it was time, and we dove in feet first. Wehaven’t killed one another yet and quite frankly, I don’t eventhink I’ve yelled at him one time.

We decided to do all of the work ourselves, that is, all except theelectrical and the plumbing. The past three weeks have been acomedy in the making – Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor has nothing onus.

The local hardware stores, my electrician and plumber have becomemy new best friends, and some of the sales associates know me bysight. Besides buying the cabinets and all the little stuff thatgoes along with a kitchen remodel, I’ve gotten some good advicetoo, which is very helpful for novices like Dennis and me.

We started with a semi-plan and have adapted along the way. Thishappens when you own an old house.

The week we started this project my stove died.

We haven’t quite figured out what happened, but when Dennis wastrying to make biscuits one morning he came back to the kitchen tofind the electric stove sparking and flames coming out from underthe old kitchen bar. He turned the electricity off and called me atwork to come home. After we slid it out of its spot, we found theentire back element where the electrical wires go into the stovemelted together. Needless to say, I had to add a new stove to mybudget. The old one was only 2 years old. May it rest inpeace.

Another obstacle facing us was the fact that we don’t own a truck.So we had to do most of the hauling in my Honda Pilot, a sportsutility vehicle. And I have got to say – as long as it isn’t a verytall or very wide item – the Pilot can handle it. We hauled all butone kitchen cabinet in there.

We did borrow my cousin Susan’s truck one day when we went to buythe new French door for the new dining room. It just wouldn’t fitin the Pilot. So while we were at it, my husband decided we shouldbuy some lumber for this little roof project that he is going tobuild over our old deck. Some of this lumber needed to be 14 feetin length. Keep in mind that my cousin’s truck bed is maybe 8 feetlong.

So off we go to the hardware store to get my door and all ofDennis’ lumber. As we’re checking out, the cashier asks “Are yousure you can get that in one load?”

“Yes ma’am,” Dennis said.

And yes, he did get the 6 foot-wide double door and all of hislumber, along with about three 60-pound bags of concrete mix, inthe back of the truck. His idea was that he could lay those bags ofconcrete on the lumber and it would help hold those long pieces inplace on the back of the truck. Good theory, but it didn’twork.

I’ll never be able to pass through the intersection of Highway 550and Highway 51 again without bursting into laughter. Dennis hadmade me drive so he could sit in the passenger seat and “watch” theload. Well, he watched us lose part of it in theintersection.

Luckily, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged, just the stuffbounced off the back of the truck. I pulled over and Dennis jumpedout of the truck in traffic and started toting lumber and concretebags to the side of the road and then to the back of thetruck.

The whole time he walked with his cap pulled down and his face downfrom embarrassment. As he was passing the truck window on his manytrips to the back of the truck, where I was slumped down in thedriver’s seat, I leaned over and said, “You know I’m going to haveto write about this.” He just shook his head.

And how was your week?

Lifestyles Editor Tammie Brewer can be reached at The DAILY LEADERat (601) 833-6961 ext. 134, by e-mail at tbrewer@dailyleader.com oryou can write to her at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven MS 39602.