today just gets better

...or the cabinet pull stories!

So, today after work, I went to the Home Depot to buy new cabinet pulls (more about that later!) and the cashier was so excited because I "look just like a dark-haired--what's her name? she was on Letterman last night--she's so adorable and funny--you could go to Hollywood and be her double..." Um, come to find out, do you know who was on Letterman last night that I supposedly look just like? Renee Zellweger. Or, as the Home Depot lady kept calling her, "Renee Zinswinger." (I think the entire North Shore is on heavy duty hallucinogens today. If any of you all is responsible for the LSD in the water supply, shame on you. That was naughty!) Anyway, as you all know, I look nothing like Renee "Zinswinger", but as soon as she said it, I knew why. Ms Z and I both do that unfortunate squinchy thing with our eyes when we smile, so it's not so much that I look like her, it's that we sometimes make the same facial expression. Which, I dunno, probably isn't quite enough to guarantee me fame and fortune, unfortunately.

So, Andrea, what about those cabinet pulls? Okay. Well, while I was at Mr Barma's house recently, he had to go out to play some soccer, and as I was making myself at home in his absense, waiting for the Sox to start, I was putting some things away in his kitchen. And I had a brilliant idea. Like lightbulb over the head inspiration. So, anyway, Mr Barma came back, we ate, and then we went out for some music and drinks. And somewhere in the middle of my third Magners (which is to say, the point at which I am just buzzed enough to cheerfully start dispensing unwanted and unsolicited advice to my friends) I said, "Hey! While you were out, I figured out what you need to do to your condo!" Mr Barma, who was somewhere in the middle of his third beer (which is to say, not nearly drunk enough to take any advice from me without a huge grain of salt), looked at me very dubiously and said, "But, Andrea, I don't want any sparkly furniture." "Nononono. No sparkly furniture. What you need to do is replace all your cabinet pulls. Because those ones you have are, no offense, heinous."

Mr Barma started listing all the *other* things he dislikes about his kitchen and saying "someday..." Implying, you know, something like one of those $25,000 "budget" redos and I was advocating for the "...but in the meantime you can replace those ugly pulls for like $40 and it's a cheap fix..." option. Explaining, of course, that I'm going to do mine, and that if it really really helps, I might not even have to paint my cabinets! (Which led to a side discussion on my side about how women like painting cabinets/trim/woodwork/molding/doors while men Like Wood and find that a crime against nature.) But anyway, all my advocating for how cheap and easy this is motivated me to get working on it. Plus, this weekend is 6.25% off, (i.e. faux tax-free weekend) at Home Depot, so I figured I'd save some money if I bought now.

In *my* kitchen, it cost more than my predicted forty bucks, I gotta say. The pulls I went with were $4 each and I needed twenty five of them. Honestly, I'd never have guessed I had that many cabinets and kitchen drawers if I hadn't counted.

But I bought these: http://www.decorglamour.com/amerock-bp1590-wid.html which, as you can see, are cheaper online, haha. But if I had to wait for them to be shipped, I couldn't try attaching them tonight, could I? Huh? Huh?

xoxo,
Renee Zinswinger