how do you say “stress eating” in german?

at 4pm today the options were to burst into tears, or eat this delicious piece of apple cake and a coke light from the bakery across the street. not wanting to be a total pansy, i chose cake.

the day started with such promise! today was THE DAY – of the long-awaited kitchen installation! after 9 weeks sans kitchen, we were over-the-top excited. a long run, no need to race through the morning routine since i was working from home, a big latte from starbucks. daydreaming about this evening when i could put all of our piles of dishes and oven mitts and salad bowls away – finally!

i had heard many horror stories about kitchen installation days – kitchens that were measured inaccurately, causing all cabinets to be incorrect and needing to be sent back, etc etc. but i was being very pollyanna about the whole thing, and convinced that all would be perfect. the crew arriving 5 hours late should have been a sign, but i was still just overcome with excitement at the prospect of a DISH WASHER (yeee!), a REAL REFRIGERATOR (woo hoo!) and an OVEN (yipppeee!).

the first thing the IKEA carpenter did was start tapping the walls in the kitchen (looking for studs? i think that’s the terminology. sorry, dad, if that was way off). after lots of wall-knocking, he looked at us with grave concern and said a long speech in german. wen and i looked at each other helplessly, and just shrugged at him. he tried again, shrugs again.

we finally ended up getting our relo consultant on the phone to translate for us. bottom line: old building + hollow wall + sandy plaster = no hanging cabinets. which also = no where to put the dishes, oven mitts and salad bowls. sad emmie. MUCH intense conversation back and forth in german took place today – hence the 4pm apple cake freakout. in hindsight i absolutely should have gone on some type of anti-anxiety medication for this move, because my coping skills are clearly being tested (and not prevailing much of the time!). but the cake helped! no regrets!

and all was not lost – we got the dishwasher, refrigerator & oven, so all is good! now i am seeing the empty walls and piles of homeless dishes as a great challenge – i’ve certainly watched enough HGTV and read enough design magazines / blogs to not let a little thing like no cabinets stand in the way of a fab kitchen. stay tuned …

in the meantime, here are a few before & after pics of the cause of today’s stress. i have to say, even without the cabinets, i’m pretty freaking excited! (certainly funny how perspective changes – when i compare this one to my kitchen back home, it doesn’t really match up. but i’m truly more excited about this one than i was the other! my, how things change!).

you can see the kitchen as “half full or half empty.” i am choosing half-full! (oh, yes – faucet is also missing from the sink. something about a boiler and wrong something or other. that was another long german conversation that i understood nothing of).

the one storage spot in the kitchen! the drawers only – the tall thing on the right is our fancy refrigerator!

hello, cold foods. i have missed you and will be buying you very soon to fill this guy up!

finally …

here’s one more shot, and a sad look at all of the IKEA materials that we’ll be taking back. cabinets, hardware, a fancy built-in microwave (which was sort of silly and impulsive anyway). the upside is that we’ll be getting a fun refund for all of this stuff, so perhaps a weekend in paris will make me feel even better than the cake! tres bien!

much love from an apartment with a half-full kitchen … xo.