At Christmas, last year, we had a blizzard that dropped a record snowfall. They called it Goliath and I shared several posts about it back then. After 20 days, we were still fighting the snow, but DH fought his way to the pavement and brought home a new hot water heater.
And before long we were back in business:
I'm very thankful that DH is so handy and I'm very thankful that the hot water heater didn't go out when I had a house full of company!
While DH was in town, I moved the fridge and cleaned. It wasn't too bad, but it sure felt good to get that floor really good and clean. Our hot water heater sits in the corner of our kitchen which is already tiny. I haven't a clue as to why it was ever even installed there in the first place, but I'm thankful I have one so I won't fuss about it. This is an old ranch house and I'm sure that back in the day, a hot water heater was quite the deal. Maybe they wanted it in the kitchen so that everyone could marvel at it. I've been without hot water enough to not take it for granted. However, I don't particularly like looking at it all the time. It's squished into a corner and I've been on the lookout for a way to camouflage it for years. DH said we could build a box around it, but it would be kind of a pain if we needed quick access to it. I had a screen in mind, but the space is narrow and a regular sized screen wouldn't fit. I've got a huge fridge on one side and a cabinet a local woodworker built for me on the other.
Fast forward 10 months. As fast as this year has zipped by, that's not much of an exaggeration. But the other day, when I was in town I stopped by the antique-junk-treasure store that I like to pop into every now and then and spotted some shutters that I was pretty sure would fit that space nicely. They are actually 2 sets. one shorter than the other, but stacked on top of each other, they are just the right height. I didn't want anything taller because that would only make my already tiny kitchen feel even smaller. There are 3 panels and each panel is just 9" wide and that makes for a perfect fit.
I still need to paw through a box of odds and ends and come up with a couple of braces in order to stabilize the top and bottom together, but I'm happy with the end result. I just started pulling out Christmas decorations 2 days after I brought home the screen:
My kitchen may be little, but I like it and I've managed to cook a lot of meals in it. Sure a 6-burner stove and double ovens would be nice, but this tiny space has kept my family well fed and happy for many years. I did have my eye on one of those wrought iron pot racks that hangs from the ceiling at one point since cabinet space is at a premium here and I love...and use...my cast iron all the time, but I'm fairly certain the entire ceiling would come crashing down if I did that and as handy as DH is, I'm betting that replacing the ceiling isn't something he'd be too keen on tackling. :)
I'm a simple girl and hiding the hot water heater this way keeps me from singing the hot water heater blues and it only took 11 years to find a solution. :)
